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!
khaldiogo “Tarantino movies, Vampire Weekend, games with clever puzzles, things with dragons as allies (not enemies).”
…And for something with more of a Tarantino feel, check out Rich Tommaso’s AMAZING Dark Corridor, from Image.
Check it out on comiXology Unlimited!
lostinastainedglassdaydream “Memento, Joy Division or The Killers or M83, Winter Soldier :)”
Rich Tommaso’s Dark Corridor is gonna blow your mind!
A comiXologist Recommends (a crime comic)
Dark Corridor #6 by Rich Tommaso (Image Comics)
I love crime. Not actual crime, that would be horrible, but the crime genre, which has long provided a fertile ground for artists, both as an exploration for the act of crime itself, and as a jumping off point to explore themes and ideas that tie in with criminality and its opponents. This has resulted in a rich field of varied works, from the shadowy film noir of Nicholas Ray and Jacques Tourner in the 40s and 50s to the neon tinged, ultra-slick procedurals of William Friedkin and Michael Mann in the 1980s, from the intricate con games of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley to tough-as-nails Harlem detectives in the books of Chester Himes, and beyond, to the true crime stories in the films of Errol Morris and in books like Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, the fictionalized accounts of real life crime in the books of Joyce Carol Oates, hyperreal tales of crime fighting and investigation in comics like Batman and Judge Dredd, and noir influenced comics like The Fade Out and Stray Bullets.
As a connoisseur of crime, I’m also a critic. It’s not enough to ape the aesthetic of other successful crime stories, a creator has to bring something new into the mix, something of their own. One of the most individualistic creators working in crime comics today is Rich Tommaso, a brilliant artist and writer who has a firm grasp on both the tradition of the crime genre and how to infuse it with his own unique, creative voice.
His most recent work is Dark Corridor, published by Image Comics. In Dark Corridor, Tommaso weaves together several intricate and connected storylines involving numerous colorful characters, not entirely unlike the aforementioned Stray Bullets, or the novels of Elmore Leonard, but the whole of the book far exceeds the sum of its influences. Tommaso moves smartly from stark, stylized violence to deep, involving character development to near hallucinatory setpieces (such as the haunted house ride sequence in the most recently issue) with assuredness. Never do these variations in tone betray the totality of the work as a whole. Dark Corridor is the work of an artist with a vision, and deserves a place among the pantheon of great crime comics.
Harris Smith is a senior production coordinator and the editor of comiXology’s Tumblr. He’s never been caught.
Felony Comics (published, edited and co-written by your humble comiXology tumblrina, Harris Smith) was featured by Jonathan Lethem in Best American Comics 2015 and features mind-bending crime stories by some of today’s top indie talents.