Directly before the Energon Universe panel at New York Comic Con 2024, a few reporters were allowed to sit down with Skybound founder and Void Rivals writer Robert Kirkman, G.I. Joe writer Joshua Williamson, G.I. Joe artist Tom Reilly, Transformers artist Jorge Corona, and Skybound Senior Vice President and Publisher Sean Mackiewicz for conversations about what we’ve seen so far from the Energon Universe and what’s to come.
My first question to Sean was who was going to take over writing Transformers after Daniel Warren Johnson leaves the book. There was a rumor floating around that it would be Sean. But Sean was quick to deny that, saying “That sounds like a joke. No, definitely not. I am too busy to write, and there are far more talented people than me who can write Transformers.” Though Jorge did joke that he did kill people to get the Transformers writing job. Though he was seriously worried about following DWJ on art. “I was the victim that had to come after him and try my best to not disappoint. I’m glad it’s working out.”
As excited as I was to hear more about the Energon Universe, I was most interested in hearing about the treatment of Larry Hama and the transition of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero from IDW to Skybound.
The question that was really on my mind coming into this concerned Larry Hama. If any one person is associated with the G.I. Joe franchise, it’s Mr. Hama. Larry has been vocal on social media recently about not being able to retire. Skybound recently broke Kickstarter records with its reprints of Marvel’s 1980s and 90s series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, most of which was written by Mr. Hama. I asked Sean if Larry got a cut of that Kickstarter money. “Yeah,” Sean responded. “He was public about that. I know he made some statements on how he’s been treated. I don’t like to talk about anyone’s financial situation, but I feel like we’ve always taken care of Larry, and Larry’s said that publicly. We always wanted to work with Larry. G.I Joe: A Real American Hero was one of my first comics I loved. That Mike Zeck Snake Eyes around issue 52. The fan base has really responded. Even more than Energon Universe, the reaction to #301 and the sales on that and the support around Larry. It’s good to put him in the spotlight. Making sure he’s financially compensated is important to us.” Sean added, “I went down to NYU because Larry donated his archives there, so we were doing some research for some potential stuff down the line. Just to go through and see his process from all over his career. Alex Antone manages those books and does a fantastic job with it, and the Kickstarter.
Will there be a Transformers Marvel years Kickstarter similar to the G.I. Joe one? Sean answered, “With Kickstarter, we never want to go to the same well too frequently. We want to make sure there’s some surprises. Transformers fandom is different than A Real American Hero. But stay tuned, there’s a pretty good chance that’s coming.” What about the IDW years of A Real American Hero? Sean answered, “That’s all under discussion. We have another project that we think would work in the crowdfunding space that we want to tackle. It takes time to track down the right files, to remaster, to restore them. We do about three crowdfunding campaigns every year, so expect one of them to be Hasbro related. The fulfillment of A Real American Hero will happen in December. We have copies in the office. They look astounding. Even the standard edition of the trade paperback. It looks heavy, but newsprint is the same one we used on the (ARAH) #1 reprint and the Transfomers reprint. We love it. Robert is like “This is the best fucking book we’ve ever printed!” The Kickstarter is slightly different paper, due to using different printers. Sean explained, “It’s similar. The trade paperback is printed domestically, so we’re not able to get that newsprint overseas. But it’s pretty comparable. We picked up reprint collections from other companies. They use glossy paper. The colors don’t sit right. Right from the beginning, we thought the newprint would allow those older colors to feel like the original experience.”
Robert Kirkman was excited to talk about the long term plans of the Energon Universe, without spoiling any specifics. He said, “Everything we’re doing with the Energon Universe has been met with a really positive response from the die hard fans. It’s put us in a place where we’re exploding with ideas and can make far reaching plans. We’ve already put far reaching plans in motion, just to make sure we had places to go in case of success. Now that we’re in year two, I know what’s going to be happening way down the line in Void Rivals. We’re already making far reaching plans with Transformers. I’ve already seen some very long, far reaching documents from Josh Williamson for G.I. Joe that has a ton of different, exciting stuff. This is a massively expansive world that we’re building here. If you just look at a list of G.I. Joe and Transformers characters, and then we’re adding new stuff with Void Rivals, it definitely rivals what Marvel and DC have in regards to character breadth. The goal is to have a robust shared universe that is the ideal that you’ve always wanted from Marvel and DC, but they’ve gotten so large and unwieldy, there’s certain things that “Well, this isn’t in continuity anymore and this is this, and this is that.” We’re trying to do something more cohesive.
I asked Robert, in the of the large success G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero has had with sales since Skybound began publishing it, what is Skybound doing right with G.I. Joe that IDW did wrong? Robert laughed before answering, “Hahaha, you’re really putting me on the spot. To be honest, it’s really taken us by surprise as well. I think that’s a tough question to answer. I think there’s an invisible art to the making of comics. I’m just going to answer honestly. I may get in trouble for this. I’m sorry. Very talented people were working on A Real American Hero at IDW. I think that lettering and coloring is something that is of utmost importance in the final asthetic of what you see in comics. I think that to a certain extent there were really good artists doing A Real American Hero. Netho Diaz. He was great. I just think the style of coloring and the style of lettering IDW tried to incorporate just has an effect that makes a book look not necessarily as good as it could. It’s all a matter of taste. I could be completely wrong. You asked me a question. I didn’t want to just vamp. I feel like I was backed in a corner. But I feel like those tiny elements add a level of quality that make a book look different. And now I have very talented letterers and colorists that are very angry at me. Hopefully no one sees this answer. I don’t want to be critical of IDW though. They had the characters for I think 16 years and did some absolutely historic, absolutely monumental things with these characters. We wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing if they hadn’t been able do what they were doing. They reestablished the numbering. They brought Larry Hama back. They started with 150 something and ran it all the way to 300. They did almost as many issues of A Real American Hero as Marvel did originally. They should be commended for everything that they did. I don’t want to seem like I’m negative on that stuff.” I then said, “It’s not just the nostalgia bump of 301. We’re at 310, 311,” to which Robert quickly jumped in to respond, saying “That definitely helps. I think that you can see when Spawn hit issue 300, sales skyrocketed. I think that’s a huge element to it as well. I wish I had thought of that and I would have said that was the answer. Can I go back and say that’s my answer? Hahaha. Oh God.”
I asked Josh Williamson, writer of G.I. Joe, if he reads the Skybound G.I Joe: A Real American Hero. “No. I looked through it, but I don’t want to be too heavily influenced. Early on, when we were talking about this, like really early on, Mackiewicz and I were talking about everything that had com before. I said “I’m going to do a reread. I’m going to read it all.” Then I said, “I don’t know if I read a lot of the IDW stuff.” He said, “No, don’t read it. Don’t be too influenced.” And I said, “Well, I’m going to do it anyway.” And I had read all the Larry Hama stuff. I went back and started rereading everything else. I thought I was reading it for the first time, but then I realized, “Oh, I did read this.” I try not to be too heavily influenced by it, so I keep it over there. Look, he’s the master. He knows it better than anybody on the planet. That is his lane. That is one of things, actually. When they offered it to me, that was the first question I asked. “What about Larry Hama? That book can’t end.” And they were like “No, no, no, no, no. We’re going to keep it going with 301.” And I was like phew! Because there’s no way that story can end. I’m very respectful what he built. Even now, whenever we’re going to bring a Joe or a Cobra person in, I go and read the file card. He wrote those file cards. To me, that’s the core of each character, those file cards. I think that’s probably the heaviest influence he still has on me. I try not to look at too much of what he’s doing, because also, he’s in the 300s. The story he is telling is very different than the one we are telling.
Tom Reilly, artist of G.I. Joe added, “The same visually. I looked at it. I know what all the characters look like, but for any sort of creative endeavor where someone has gone before you, it’s kind of counter intuitive into too much of what they’ve done, because then you’ll be a little more derivative when you’re trying to make something new.” Josh ascented, with a quick “Yeah.” Tom continued, “I love the book. I love Larry. He’s the master. And all the artists. I love those Mike Zeck covers. Those are insane.” Josh interjected, “Yeah, he really did a great job.” Tom continued, “I don’t look at those as much as I would like to, because I want to do my own thing.”
Skybound’s success with G.I Joe and Transformers have pleasantly surprised everyone, including from the sounds of things above, the creators themselves. Here’s to many more years of exciting stories from Energon Universe and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
Stay tuned for more NYCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
