SuperPatriot  

Interview with Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen, and Dave Johnson

interview conducted by Josh Eichorn  

INSIDE IMAGE: Keith, how did you get involved in the SuperPatriot project?

KEITH GIFFEN: Good timing and dumb luck, I suppose. I was plugging away at Trencher stuff, which was absorbing a lot of my time, but not quite enough. I like to have a whole bunch of different projects percolating at the same time. I guess I'm kind of compulsive that way. Now, at that time I didn't figure that the Image guys would have enough open assignments to keep me as busy as I like to be. So I gave Erik a courtesy call, just to let him (and through him, the rest of the Image guys) know that I was gonna sniff around a bit, see if I couldn't land a few assignments to see me through the next coupl'a months, at least until the Bloodstrike and Shadowhawk projects kicked in. As it turned out, Erik was sitting on enough stuff to keep a small army busy. By the time I got off the phone, I was booked solid. SuperPatriot being the first to hit. I'll also be plotting the up-coming Freak Forceseries. If it seems like I'm doing quite a bit of work with Erik, well tough! I've wanted to get some kind of project going with him for some time now and when the opportunity presented itself, I dug in like a tick!

IMAGE:What is your role in the mini-series?

GIFFEN: I provide the plot and the breakdowns. I call Erik and run through the basic storyline for each issue, then Erik and I bounce around a few specifics (i.e. he takes out all the fart jokes) and I whip out a plot.

IMAGE:Do you have a 'vision' for SuperPatriot?

GIFFEN:  Yeah, but right now it's still pretty embryonic. I'm picking up the character at an awkward time. Sort of mid-way between what he was and what he will eventually become. I mean, the half-man, half-machine riff has been done before, so the trick is to bring something new and unique into the mix. I think that the elaborate history that Erik has established for the character is what really sets SuperPatriot apart from the other cyborg types. Right now I'm just combining elements of of that past history with current traumas and seeing what evolves.

IMAGE:What is your working method?

GIFFEN: I plot the issues on 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheets, sketching it out like a mini-comic and dropping in copy in a real slap-dash manner. I prefer to work this way because I tend to think almost exclusively in visual terms. Erik and I work out the major story points in each story beforehand, but once I settle down and start to crank it out, Erik lets me run with it. Once the plot is done, it's shot off to Dave [Johnson] for him to work his magic. All in all, a comfortable working arrangement.