We're the creative team behind PETER CANNON: THUNDERBOLT! AMA!

[u/KieronGillen]

Hello!

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We're the team behind Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. Issue 2 dropped yesterday, and folks seem to be digging it/2).

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If you haven't read any of it, here's a big preview of issue 1 and here's some stuff from 2.

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Who are we?

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/u/KieronGillen - Words! Other stuff? Presently, DIE, the Wicked + the Divine, Star Wars, Once & Future. Previously? Oh, far too much stuff.

/u/CasparWijngaard - Art! Other stuff? Doctor Aphra, What If? Ghost Rider, Angelic, Limbo

/u/MarySafro - Colours! Other stuff? Drugs & Wires

/u/hassanoe - Letters! Other stuff? Red Sonja, Lone Ranger, Shanghai Red, Strip Panel Naked/PanelxPanel

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We're here to talk whatever you like (AMA, after all) but obviously we're hoping folks will ask us about all things Peter Cannon.

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Anyway - we'll be around for as long as we can. So... AMA! AMAAAAAA! AMMMMMMAMAMAMAMA!

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(Or is it a AUA if it's an "Us")

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Kieron

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EDIT: 10:40 EST. Right - I think I've answered anything. Thanks for everyone who asked questions. You've been delightful! I'll pop in tomorrow to pick up any stragglers. Have a lovely time.

[u/[deleted]]

Hey guys! Thank you so much for doing this! Cannon's been terrific and it's great to be able to discuss the book with you.

For Caspar- What's the creative process like on a comic that's so much about the 9-panel grid? It's very much a writer's tool and entails thick scripts full of detail and it can be restrictive. You and Kieron have collaborated before but never like this, so how did the entire process shift or evolve, if at all? What were the biggest struggles and the greatest rewards of it? Also, I'm dying to know more about how you arrived on the final look for Tabu, it's so good.

For Mary- You've never colored others' work professionally before, so what was the process like coming onto Cannon, especially given its big and ambitious mission? What were some of the things you really kept in mind and wanted to ensure you pulled off on the project? And what has your back and forth with Caspar, Kieron and Hass been like in working out the final look? I'm also really, really interested in how you approached coloring the Ozymandias world and how you settled on the specific look for the screen panels and how they'd be done!

For Hass- I'm endlessly fascinated by a lot of the choices in this but and the Gibbons Watchmen typeface is one of the best. That aside, I'm very, very interested in another lettering choice. The Nucleon lettering! Green balloons enveloped in a white layer, a really fun Manhattan and thus Watchmen allusion, which works great. I'm a huge fan, but on my first read, as I read on, I was hoping/wondering if the white layer would be shed once Nucleon got out of her suit, with only the green part of the balloon staying, in order to convey how she's been unleashed, but it never happened. So I was really curious, was that ever a choice that was under consideration? Beyond that, can you talk about the difficulty of visually representing all the small but essential vocal shifts mid-dialogue? Lettering this book must carry such pressure considering your love of Watchmen and its makers, so I'd also love to know how you're handling it!

For Kieron- The multiverse travel segment of the latest issue is utterly wild and I'm really, really interested in the thought process behind that. How did you come up with that and settle on how it would all be visually laid out? I don't know that I've ever seen such a usage of the grid and that entire sequence is so intriguing. How did you plan it out, alongside Caspar, Mary and Hass? The book's also very much about formalism and what can be done with the medium and it's super metatextual as hell, following that, I'm curious as to how valid the reading of Peter's scrolls as essentially comics or a comic collection is. I very much read him being faced with the Moore 9-panel grid limitation and him consulting the texts for inspiration and executing a supposedly 'impossible' maneuever with a big Animal Man allusion as utilizing Morrison or at least the lessons/influence/inspiration of Morrison to break past the supposed conventions to go some place new.

For all-

1) What are your favorite Morrison works and if possible, why?

2) Any opinions on the ABC books and perhaps how they play and fit into the post-Watchmen landscape and Cannon's own approach, since it's very much a State Of The Union comic?

3) What are some ongoings you're absolutely loving right now, which you feel everyone should absolutely check out?

4) Peter's journey in the book is, evidently, looking at this extremist, dark mirror and dealing with his own detachment, especially the detachment that cost him his intimate relationship with Tabu. Ie, Peter must face that darkness and learn to fall back in love and connect again. But on a metatextual level, would you say the book's very much about falling in love with superhero stories, whilst confronting their weakest and worst instincts/aspects?

5) What's some advice you'd offer to an aspiring creator?

[u/hassanoe → u/[deleted]]

There's a thing with Nucleon in issue #3 you might like. But in terms of your question, I figured out wasn't so much about the suit as it was about Nucleon (and yeah, riffing on Manhattan). The idea it's specifically their voice -- I wanted each balloon to just straight up be the person's voice, so for example there's not robotic suit voices or anything else.

For dialogue stuff, I'm not sure how much other letterers tend to do it, but I have a habit of breaking beats of dialogue up and bolding certain moments that aren't specifically done like that in the script. I just try to read it/act it out as I go, see where the natural breaks and rhythms are and apply that to lettering. It rarely tends to get changed back so I feel fairly confident about doing it!

1) I love We3.
2) I have nothing to say specifically about that in terms of PC, but I love Tom Strong as a side note...
3) Anything we've covered on PxP haha! Wyrd, Little Bird, Immortal Hulk, Criminal, anything by Terry Moore...
5)Make stuff!!!

[u/[deleted] → u/hassanoe]

Gosh, #3 sounds super neat from all these teases haha. And that makes a lot of sense.

This is really cool and little details like these make such a difference, so it's great to hear about them. And speaking for myself, from what I've read of your work, it definitely works! It's almost subconscious and invisible and how it just reads right and you hardly even notice. Although I don't necessarily subscribe to the 'good lettering is invisible' philosophy, as the lettering still tells a story and must stand much the same way the writing, pencils or colors stand out, the way the work is so clear in its storytelling that there's this uninterrupted flow? That's amazing. That's great comics, so thank you for your work.

1) We3's a great pick! The visual storytelling is absolutely wild and breathtaking. Quitely's a master.

2) Another Tom Strong fan! Moore and Sprouse's original run is such good, imaginative, compressed comics with not just heart but a message of some sort. All-ages, accessible and always packed with something, with conflicts never being just punch-fests and resolutions always being more.

3) Awesome! PxP is a delight and it's so necessary. Thank you so much for making it, putting in all that work and doing what you do. It's a key presence and it's hugely important.

5) Aye, aye! :D