Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride On Amelia Cole Vs. The End of Everything Part 2

It's just a couple more weeks before Amelia Cole #27 and the midpoint of the Amelia Cole vs. the End of Everything arc.

It took us a while to do it, but we sat down with series writers Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride for the previous installment in our ongoing conversation about the Monkeybrain series.

Spoilers on for anybody who hasn't read Amelia Cole #26 yet. And if you haven't -- go buy it and read along with us!

This story so far has been very action-driven. Will we get a chance to settle down and see what some of the characters are up to who aren't mid-combat?

APK: This is war. We do see non-combatants, yes, and how they are surviving (or not) but really this arc is the culmination of a fight that started before issue 1.

DJK: We try to pepper quiet moments throughout, to check in with our characters and catch our collective breath, but the characters are on high alert from here on out. It's exhausting for them in a bad way -- but for readers in a good way!

If that Council guy had managed to follow them through the teleport, could have have functioned without the others? We've only ever seen them operate as a kind of hive-mind.

DJK: Oh yeah, he would've caused a lot of havoc. We had the normally silent sixth Council member speak up for the first time in issue 24, and he broke their normal repeat a word scheme. They have been acting as one for longer than humans have been around, but they all have their individual thoughts buried deep within their evil brains.

APK: They are certainly MORE dangerous as a group, but alone they certainly can do a lot of damage…

Amelia has been thrust into this role where she's no longer a hero, but a leader of a revolution. She doesn't seem completely ready for that. Did you guys intentionally kind of set out to comment on stories like Star Wars and the like, where that transition happens fairly naturally for the hero?

APK: Not intentionally, no. We just set out to show the growth of a character, and how that doesn't always happen in a smooth line. She wanted to be a hero, in the first arc, but didn't think just acted and got herself in trouble a whole lot. She didn't know how to be the person she thought she was. Slowly she's learned but it isn't a smooth ride. And now - well now everyone is looking to her to be This Person and is she? Does even she know?

DJK: It all comes from Amelia, the character we've established and written for the past four story arcs, and letting her react to this insane situation we've put her in as naturally as possible. It's not all intellectualized, but after going with our instincts, we can look back and see intellectually how she's gotten to where she is, and how she'd react. It's not as easy as smuggling scoundrel Han Solo suddenly waking up from carbonite to being General Solo. Amelia does the job, but it's not always easy. The fact that she doesn't shy away from the struggle is what makes her such a great hero.

We knew that this setting would come back into play sooner or later. How much thought did you guys put into what's inside the bunker?

DJK: It was one of our earlier big reveals, so we always saw it as an important location. I don't know that we'd planned on returning to it after volume 1 initially, but as the story's developed, it just seemed to fit really well. It's nice to circle back to the beginning now that we're reaching the end.

APK: Yeah the bunker specifically might not have been planned but there were seeds in the first few issues that pay off in this story, you're just seeing the tip of the spear so far.

We see a splash page in this issue — which is fairly rare for Nick, I feel. Has the importance of the print editions started to play a bigger role in page layouts, or am I just overthinking it?

DJK: Print or digital, we have a tight page count for each issue/chapter, so we need to make every page count; however, this being the final storyline, and the epic-ness getting even epic-er, we all find the occasional splash to be more than appropriate. Nick always makes them special, and this one is particularly magnificent-- and a rare Amelia-free splash! Things are gettin' crazy!

APK: As DJ says we try to only use them we they're earned and this one certainly felt like it was to us.

We've obviously gotten a lot more acquainted with the supporting cast and the people in Amelia's world than is common in a lot of superhero-ism comics these days. Will they have a role to play coming up, or was that just world-building for Amelia and Hector?

APK: Everyone has a role to play. Some might not seem as big as others but even their actions ripple out and affect the whole.

DJK: If we had more pages, everyone would get even more to do. At a certain point, at this level of battle, it's very dangerous for all of them, but especially for non-mage / non-fighters like Malone, Mike, and George. They're always around, though, helping however they can.

What can you tease us about the midpoint coming up in this storyline?

DJK: Even when we slow down, we're not really slowing down. The actions ebbs and flows, but we've reached this nearly unbearable pitch for our heroes, and so expect some tense issues. This is an all-ages book, but we've been around for a few years and assume readers are able to keep up with the story even when it gets scary. The Council don't know they're in an all-ages book, basically.

APK: Should we have told them? Can we FedEx a memo? Naw, too late. Ut oh!