Over the course of his illustrious career, comic writer and Skybound Entertainment co-founder Robert Kirkman has never limited himself to one particular genre whether it’s horror like The Walking Dead and Outcast or traditional superhero adventures such as Capes and Invincible. Kirkman has even showcased his talent for the science fiction genre with projects like Oblivion Song and Void Rivals. With Blood & Thunder, his latest comic project nearly two decades in the making, Kirkman continues to play in the sci-fi realm combining penchant for action and humor.
Set in the far future, the series follows bounty hunter Akeldama “Blood” Bledsoe and her cantankerous AI talking gun, Thunder, as they track down the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. Understandably, given his insanely busy schedule not just in comics but other media, most notably his work on the acclaimed Invincible animated series, Kirkman is taking a creative consulting role for Blood & Thunder. Luckily, he’s enlisted two trusted colleagues and friends to be part of the book’s creative team: writer Benito Cereno and artist E.J. Su.
Ahead of the release of the first issue of Blood & Thunder this week, The Beat had the pleasure of chatting with the Kirkman, Cereno, and Su about their newest collaboration. During our discussion, the creative team revealed just how long the idea for the book has been brewing and how much it changed from the original concept. Additionally, the creators offered their thoughts and opinions on the current state of the comics industry.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Taimur Dar: What I heard the title Blood &Thunder my mind immediately went to Thor which seems somewhat fitting since the title was inspired by a Jack Kirby quote and both characters have strong connections to their weapons. Did Thor factor into the concept in any way?
Robert Kirkman: Not really. If Mjolnir talked, how much cooler would Thor be? It’s funny, we’ve been working on Blood & Thunder behind the scenes for a long time. So when they announced Thor: Love and Thunder, I was like, “Dang it! Ah, it’s different enough. Who cares?” Also, how much cooler is blood than love?
Benito Cereno: Can’t argue with that.
Robert Kirkman: No Thor influence which if you look at the book, I think it’s as far from Thor as you can get. Aside from some elements of Walt Simonson’s Thor.
Taimur Dar: This comic project has been almost two decades in the making. In fact, in an essay in the back of the first issue you mention the idea began as a space police book with a character named “Oola Lah.”
Robert Kirkman: Also a good title!
Taimur Dar: How did it go from that original concept to what it eventually became?
Robert Kirkman: I think it just got better. I’m going to blame it on The Walking Dead show or just generally me being a jerk. The project just kind of fizzled because of me and was sitting on a shelf. But it was always something that was in the back of my mind that would be something that would be cool to see the light of day. When the notion of changing the title to Blood & Thunder came about, I got a little bit more excited about it. It seemed to have more of a commercial hook. It was a simpler title and punchier. It’s the kind of title where you say, “Hey, did you pick up the new Blood & Thunder?” I always try to find something that has questions to it. When that happened and things with The Walking Dead Show had quieted and I had a little bit of free time, it became a matter of wrangling Benito and E.J. and putting this whole thing together. That was exciting for me.
I go way back with these guys. I believe we’ve established in a previous interview that we’ve known each other for twenty-five years which frankly is depressing. But also sweet. I love both these guys. E.J. and I brought Tech Jacket into being. We also did a little known book called Cloudfall that came out around that time. We worked on some Battle Pope together. Anyone who worked on Battle Pope with me, I’m always going to want to work with them. It’s great to be able to do something new with these guys. It was a fun process to be able to spitball and throw ideas out. But then have these guys with their genius creative minds spin whatever straw I had given them into gold.
Taimur Dar: I’m curious Benito, what brought you to the project and what elements you brought to Blood & Thunder?
Benito Cereno: Robert and I have worked together on a number of different things. In a lot of ways, I’m only where I am because of Robert and his support and help.
Robert Kirkman: Not true!
Benito Cereno: It is true! My earliest published comics were in the back of Invincible. In a lot of ways, he and I have different approaches to writing. You end up with something unique when you use Robert’s ideas as a starting point and then filter through my own personal lens. In this case, the original version of the book was a little more light and fun and the main character’s name was Oola Lah. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I had to make sure that name got used. There might be a character with that name somewhere. It was a little bit lighter and sillier in terms of the technological satire I was doing.
Over the years, the change of the title to Blood & Thunder and the idea of it as a darker cyberpunk sci-fi satire brought about some changes besides the names. Oola was the main character and she was a human. We changed her to an alien and now she has the blood plasma hair. Thunder was originally named Smith. Thunder, better [name] obviously. The original plotline of the central character chasing a dangerous alien escaped prisoner across the planet stayed. But a lot of the tone changed. Also, the idea of doing it as an extended story. I don’t know how long we were planning to do the Space Police series for. Probably a pretty short miniseries. So the idea of doing this as a longer story did inform a lot of the creative changes that got made. I was able to be a little grander in scale and picaresque in the formatting of it.
Taimur Dar: There’s no shortage of iconic guns in pop culture. E.J., what went into the design process for Blood’s gun Thunder?
E.J. Su: When we first talked about Thunder [and] I heard the concept, we went through a lot of ideas and how Thunder attaches to Blood and how she carries something so big. We went from something that wraps around her to something as big as a cannon. Eventually we came up with the idea that there’s an attachment to her shoulder that she could hang onto when she’s not using Thunder and have easy access to. In the story, this is the first AI gun so it’s bulky and huge. We needed to have some way for her to carry it without looking awkward. It’s fun to come up with different ideas for how she can carry this gun without looking too weird. That part is very exciting to me. I come from an industrial design background and I love to come up with different ideas on how to do something.
Benito Cereno: One thing I particularly like about the shoulder mount for Thunder as a design element, if you look and think about it for one second, you go, “That doesn’t make any sense.” But if you’re asking how she carries that enormous gun with such a small shoulder mount, then you are not on the same level of science fiction that we are. We are operating on a different frequency because we do not worry about how she carries the gun like that. If that bothers you, it’s going to get a whole lot worse.
[Laughter]
Taimur Dar: There’s a scene in the first issue that stood out where Thunder prevents Blood from firing because it would kill the criminal. Is Thunder’s refusal to kill something that will be explored as the series progresses?
Benito Cereno: Yes, absolutely. The way that Blood’s pragmatism, wanting to get the job done by any means necessary, and Thunder’s idealism, the way that those two clash, is one of the overall thematic threads over the course of the story.
Taimur Dar: I noticed that the police chief character bears a strong resemblance to actor Leslie David Baker, best known for his role as Stanley from The Office. So I have to ask it’s an intentional reference?
Robert Kirkman: Completely coincidence!
Benito Cereno: I don’t know what The Office is! How many lawyers read your website?
[Laughter]
Taimur Dar: Let me put this another way, if there’s an adaptation, would you cast Leslie David Baker in the role?
Benito Cereno: If he wants to play that character in the movie, that’s fine.
Robert Kirkman: That would be great.
Taimur Dar: Lettering is an important but often underappreciated aspect of the comic making process. Rus Wooton is one of the best in the business and continually impresses me. It looks like he’s brought a new lettering style to Blood & Thunder. Can you talk about Rus’s involvement and lettering in the book?
Robert Kirkman: Rus letters every book that I do. As well as Rick Remender’s books. Joe Casey’s books. He does all the Energon Universe books. It’s insane the way that he’s doing so much work but he brings a very unique flavor to every project. It’s funny, I was looking at Rick Remender and Paul Azaceta’s new book Seasons and I was like, “Man, this letterer is giving Rus a run for his money. Maybe I need to look into this guy for something. This guy is really great.” And then I was like, “Oh yeah, it’s Rus!” I’m constantly impressed.
For this book, he’s done it again. Another unique flavor. I’ve got him doing android dialogue in Void Rivals. There’s some computer AI in Battle Beast, which will be out soon. And then he’s lettering this with another talking AI that he’s got to figure out how to make it distinct. It’s really impressive the way that he’s able to do it. I couldn’t gush about that guy enough. He’s just absolutely fantastic. There’s a real art to what it is that he does. There’s a real craft to what he’s been able to put together. I’m so excited for every project that he does because he brings that completely fresh vibe to every single book that he does.
Benito Cereno: For sure. I think the extent of any input or direction I had was, “I prefer irregularly shaped dialogue balloons.” And then Rus did everything else.
Taimur Dar: E.J., for the last few years you’ve been mainly drawing covers. I believe this is your first interior project in quite a while.
Robert Kirkman: Somebody didn’t buy Last Bot Standing!
[Laughter]
Taimur Dar: Do you prefer drawing interior comics or comic covers?
E.J. Su: Personally, I prefer interior. I like to tell stories. For me, drawing covers feels directionless. I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t want to always draw something that’s a character posing in a cool pose. That would get boring really quickly. I’m fortunate enough that a lot of people come to me for covers. But I definitely prefer interiors. I just love to tell stories from different camera angles and try to push for different perspectives. To answer your question, I definitely prefer interiors.
Taimur Dar: Finally, it’s no exaggeration to say that the comics industry is in an unusual place. Between the Diamond bankruptcy situation and tariffs, there are definitely concerns about the future. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions about the current state of the industry?
Robert Kirkman: I think to a certain extent, the comics industry is always in some period of transition. That’s just kind of the nature of the business. Some pretty smart people in all areas of the business are trying to navigate these waters. I know that at Image, Eric Stephenson is up on the latest tariff news. And navigating the Diamond of it all was a huge focus for that company as a whole a couple of years ago when we finally made the switch to Lunar. It’s definitely interesting times. I’m not a doom and gloom guy. I think you’re seeing some books hit some tremendous sales levels. I think it needs to be acknowledged that Batman #158, “Hush 2,” outsold the first chapter of [the original] “Hush” by a significant amount. Those kinds of things are happening and we should recognize when they do happen and congratulate all involved. Like I say, it could be a rough period but I’m very optimistic for how things are going to continue moving forward.
Benito Cereno: Just like Robert is saying, throughout its entire history, the comics industry has been in flux. You’ve had its ups and downs with senate hearings, booms and busts, distribution crashes, and bankruptcies. That’s kind of baked into the comics experience. The people who make and love and read comics have always managed to find a new way to read and make and spread comics. I don’t think the art form is ever going to go away in any appreciable way even as the industry is forced to evolve around it.
Blood & Thunder #1 is available now.
