BFFs and comic geniuses Charles Forsman (Revenger, TEOTFW) @charlesforsman and Michel Fiffe (Copra) @zegas pal it up at HeroesCon 2016!
Michel Fiffe @zegas is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist who’s made a name for himself over the past few years with his rigorously produced self-published comic Copra, as well as for his work for Marvel (All-New Ultimates, Secret Wars: Secret Love), Dynamite (Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers), Image (Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies) and Valiant (Bloodshot Reborn Annual 2016).
This week, he launches a new self-published title, Copra Versus, and I got the chance to chat with him about it…
CX: Greetings, Michel. Care to introduce yourself and your work to our readers?
MF: Michel Fiffe is my name and Copra is the comic book series that I write, draw, color, letter, publish & distribute. It’s a violent team book that’s about 26 issues in.
CX: Tell us a bit about your latest book, Copra Versus.
MF: It’s an all-villains limited series featuring the roster of enemies that the Copra team has built. Since the regular book is already pretty jam packed, I wanted more elbow room to spotlight some of these creeps one issue at a time.
CX: One creator we’ve talked about a lot, who we both love and who I know is a big influence/inspiration on Copra, is original Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander. What do you think it is about Ostrander’s writing that attracts you?
MF: Ostrander is technically brilliant and in complete control of the 22 page comic book structure. More importantly, he’s excellent about making you give a shit about the characters he’s writing. A difficult and rare task in comics.
CX: Favorite Ostrander comic?
MF: Suicide Squad #10, “Up Against the Wall”, the quintessential Squad story. Deadshot #1 is a close second, but just barely.
CX: Have you ever gotten to meet Ostrander?
MF: I haven’t! I’ve interviewed him before and e-mailed him a few times but never in person. I would love to.
CX: You’re part of a group of creators, along with Chuck Forsman (Revenger), Ben Marra (Terror Assaulter) and Rich Tommaso (Dark Corridor), whose work is both influenced by and feels, in some ways, like a response to, action movies and comics from the 1980’s. What is it about that particular moment in popular culture that is currently resonating so much?
MF: It all stems from a desire to build and maintain a visceral momentum in our work, I think. Marra was ahead of the game on that one and he’s certainly an influence on me, at least in terms of approaching genre in a personalized way. Whereas before, I was resisting my instincts in the name of some nebulous ideal. It’s something I still wrestle with, but that’s what makes Copra fun and challenging to work on.
CX: Follow up question, are you, Forsman, Marra and Tommaso in a gang? What is your gang called? Can I join your gang?
MF: To tell you the truth we’re not even friends. We despise one another. On a strictly professional level, we had a summit in Vegas years ago and field-tested tons of ideas. We came to the conclusion that, to further our careers, we should all talk about [filmmaker Abel Ferrara’s ultimate anti-catcalling/urban revenge movie) Ms. 45 as often as possible.
(edtior’s note- since Michel didn’t answer, everybody please contact these guys and tell them to let me join their gang).
CX: Finally, can you give us any hints of what Copra Versus has in store for us, and what you plan on doing next?
MF: On top of the regular Copra issues, which are still coming out, the Versus mini will feature Klaus and his gang of cyborg mercenaries, last seen in Copra #4… the Latin-American death squad known as Los Asesinos… the Vitas crew who ambushed Copra in the very first issue… and the four individuals (see Copra #s 11 & 12) who were sacrificed/transformed by a government cult trying to bring forth the Age of Ochizon. Don’t miss an issue!
Read Copra and Copra Versus on comiXology!
GET REVENGERED
Charles Forsman’s Revenger ( @charlesforsman ), the vigilante who makes the Punisher look like a little wussy baby, is on sale now! Pinups by Benjamin Marra @traditionalcomics, Michel Fiffe @zegas, Josh Bayer @joshbayer and Alex Schubert
A comiXologist Recommends (something special)
Ok, let me just take a minute to compose myself. Reading Copra, thinking about Copra, talking about Copra gets me kind of riled up. Copra is exciting. Copra is a happening. Copra is happening. Copra is something new. Copra straddles the line between conceptual and commercial. Copra is…Copra.
Let’s get one thing out the way- yes, Copra does bear a superficial resemblance to Suicide Squad. It’s not an accident, and it’s not something creator Michel Fiffe shies away from. Michel, like all good people, is a devout fan of the original John Ostrander Suicide Squad series, and to some degree the original intent of Copra was for Fiffe to create something like a continuation of that series on his own terms. But Copra isn’t fan ficition, it isn’t an imitation and it isn’t an infringement. If Fiffe is borrowing familiar elements, it’s in the service of crafting something that feels unlike any comic you’ve read before. Yes, it has superheroes and dazzling action sequences, but there is an element to it that’s elusive and ethereal, a bit strange but ultimately inviting and invigorating.
Michel Fiffe could be the future of superhero comics (he’s done some books for Marvel and Dynamite based on the strength of Copra). He’s certainly a key voice in the future of comics in general. His blending of the familiar with the inscrutable taps into the very essence of what a comic is, of our shared consciousness of the medium‘s collective history, of what a comic feels like, the world it inhabits, both concrete and intangible, almost like a dream. Copra is everything a comic should be, everything a comic needs to be, and it expands the cosmic edges of what a comic can be…See, I told you Copra got me riled up.
Harris Smith is senior production coordinator and comiXology’s Tumblr editor. He is currently riled up.
A comiXologist Recommends (their favorites from 2015)
by Harris Smith
There were too many comics this year to pick one favorite, so here’s just a bunch of my favorite things that happened in 2015:
1. Stories from a comic I published, Felony Comics #1, were featured in Best American Comics 2015, so that was pretty cool.
2. Ben Marra, cover artist for Felony Comics #1, published his first graphic novel, Terror Assaulter: One Man War on Terror, from Fantagraphics. That was also cool.
3. Chuck Forsman’s self-published Revenger continued to channel the spirit of 80′s action movies like Death Wish 3, combined with the stark, deadpan sensibility that made his previous comics, like TEOTFW and Luv Sucker so powerful.
4. Future Shock Zero- If you want to get an overview of the best of today’s indie/art comics scene, Josh Burggraf’s sci-fi anthology is the perfect place to start, with comics by some of my favorite artists, including Lala Albert, Alex Degen, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Victor Kerlow, Jasoph Murphy, Aleks Sendwald, Pete Toms and Ben Urkowitz.
5. Every moment of Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe
6. Antisocial gorilla bikers in The Humans
7. Upping the indie quotient on comiXology like wow with the digital debut of MOME from Fanagraphics
8. We got my favorite book by my favorite cartoonist, The Freddie Stories by Lynda Barry, on comiXology, thanks to the digital launch of Drawn & Quarterly
9. Another one of my favorite indie cartoonists, Michel Fiffe, took on Ann Nocenti-era Daredevil (possibly the best creative run on a superhero comic of all time) in Marvel’s Secret Wars: Secret Love #1
10. Good superhero shows on TV- Jessica Jones, for its emotional complexity; Gotham, for being a noir-ish soap opera with Batman characters; and Supergirl, for being smart and fun.
11. DC Comics in general, for giving us a Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League book, teaming up Gilbert Hernandez and Darwyn Cook on the Twilight Children, the new PREZ book, launching the old Joe Simon PREZ on comiXology, launching Jack Kirby’s OMAC on comiXology, and I know it isn’t out yet, but a new Swamp Thing book by Len Wein and Kelly Jones? Too good to be true.
Harris Smith is a senior production coordinator and the editor of comiXology’s Tumblr, as well as the publisher of Felony Comics and a film programmer at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn. His New Year’s Resolution is to read and make more comics in 2016.