How far would you go to be beautiful? That is what writers Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley explore in The Beauty, the Ignition Press title illustrated by Ema Lupacchino, colored by Leonardo Paciarotti, and lettered by Andworld Design.
I sat down with Hurley at the Ignition Press Pavilion during San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to learn more.
DEANNA DESTITO: Do you come to SDCC every year? How does this compare to previous years?
JASON A. HURLEY: It’s crazy. So I came once before 2007, before it became Comic-Con. Then I’ve been the last couple of years, and last year Ignition had a pretty good setup. It was really cool, but it wasn’t nearly this close to the convention. This year, this is crazy compared to last year. We’ve had so much traffic. It’s great. They’ve got a nice setup for all the creators upstairs. We’ve all got our own tables, and they’re bringing us snacks. I love free snacks.
DESTITO: I mean, same. Can’t beat it. So let’s talk about what you’re working on with Ignition.
HURLEY: My friend Jeremy Haun and I, who is also the creative director here at Ignition, created The Beauty, which is a book about a sexually transmitted disease that makes you beautiful. We originally did 30 issues kind of on our own and through Image. And then when Ignition started, we brought it over here. We’ve got a new series going. We’re up to seven issues so far here.
DESTITO: How does it feel going from bigger companies to a smaller company like Ignition, especially one that gives you so much creative freedom?
HURLEY: That’s what it is–the creative freedom. And also the knowledge of the entire cycle of the book, up and down. A lot of those bigger companies, you’re working with people that you’re never going to meet face to face. We were there for a decade, and there were people in the company I never met. Whereas I am on a first-name basis with every single person that works at Ignition. It’s a really, really good, healthy environment.
DESTITO: That probably affects you in a positive way creatively.
HURLEY: Yeah, you’re doing what you want, how you want, and you know that you can get direct, real feedback quickly.
DESTITO: Do you have any other projects going on now besides what you have with Ignition?
HURLEY: No, no, I’m all Ignition all the way.
DESTITO: Anything you want to tease as far as new books coming out?
HURLEY: We’re working on The Beauty. We’ve got new issues of that coming out all the time. We have seven so far. We’re an ongoing book, so we don’t have a definitive ending at the moment.
DESTITO: Do you like working on ongoing series, or do you prefer limited series?
HURLEY: I kind of like a limited series better. It’s nice to know that you’re working toward an endpoint. And even with ours, we do it somewhat of an anthology style. We’ll follow one story through to a 5- to 12-issue run, then end it and start a new one. Because like I said, we’ve got this kind of world that we’ve built. We’ve got several different stories going on in that world, though.
DESTITO: Is there a property— doesn’t have to be superhero-sized, just anything— that you have always wanted to work on?
HURLEY: Man, yeah, but it’s nothing anybody’s ever heard of. I know the main thing I would really like to work on— my favorite movie is Predator. I want to work on an aspect of that franchise that nobody really cares about because I want to know what happened to all those military guys before they went to the jungle and met the Predator. So I want to do a Predator story, but I don’t want to do the Predator. I want to do the other guys.
DESTITO: Sometimes those are really interesting stories.
HURLEY: I think there’s promise there.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from SDCC ’26.
