SDCC 2014: Becky Cloonan Talks The Fabulous Killjoys

Best known as the artist on books like Demo and Batman, Cloonan recently concluded the six-issue miniseries The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which saw her work with writers Gerard Way and Shaun Simon on one of DC’s most-anticipated projects in years.

Cloonan joined ComicBook.com from the floor of Comic Con International: San Diego to discuss the series, her current plans and the future — both for her, and whether or not Killjoys might have one.

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is on sale now.

It seems like you’re working quite a lot right at the moment. What was it that made this series work so well?

This book was crazy because it was like three years in the making — or maybe longer than that, I can’t remember at this point. I think we’ve been talking about it since like 2008 and then the comic kind of turned into an album and then that got turned into the videos and that informed what eventually became the comic. But it started out as a comic; it’s very cyclical, which I like. But it had so many different incarnations that it really went through a lot of changes and it came out something very different than we started — but I feel like it had the same spirit. That was really cool to see. The whole process was really bizarre.

…Maybe bizarre is the wrong word but it’s different than any book I’ve ever worked on.

You’ve worked on some sleeper hits…

…like DEMO. That was crazy. And actually Dark Horse is putting out the collection — the “Absolute Demo,” can I say that? They’re doing the first 12 and then the other 6.

Exactly — stuff that started out with no real expecttions and blew people away. Was that different from coming into a book like Killjoys that had a lot of expectations from the word go?

Well, it’s of course a little bit stressful but I was always conscious that this had such a massive fan base. I was trying to incorporate as much as I could from the music and from the music videos to really honor how many people have been invested in this from the beginning.

It seems like for an artist, it’s always harder to juggle time. How are you managing all the writing you’ve taken on?

Oh, I’m working on a graphic novel that hasn’t been announced yet, so that’s kind of what’s happening, that’s my main chunk. And then I’ve been really lucky this year in that I’ve been talking to Andy Belanger for a while about working with him and then we just got [Southern Cross] announced. That’s something that we’ve been working on — he’s been working on for almost a year it seems. Then Gotham Academy with DC, that just happened in January and I’m lucky that I was able to ask my close friend Brenden Fletcher to help me co-write it. So a lot of it’s like we’re able to create a great story and work with friends…and writing, it really takes a lot less time than drawing [laughs].

So it seems like I’m all over the place. But taking a back seat…I doni’t want to say that as a writer you’re in the back seat, actually.

Shifting down to a lower gear?

It actually feels like that because a lot of times if I’m going to draw a comic, I’m a page a day. And I can’t do seven days a week so five pages a week, if that. But with writing it’s like I can dedicate my morning to it then kind of finish up the day with art — or vice versa: sit down with art in the morning and then switch gears to writing a little later. It’s nice because it gets a different part of your brain working. I can put out more stories and tell more stories and put out more books and work with friends, and that’s great. Sometimes it’s a different side of the fence that I’m working on but it’s nice to have these opportunities.

So is Killjoys over, or is this going to be a Hellboy-style series of miniseries?

The trade came out in May and that collects all six issues, so that’s the story. I’ll never say never but for right now, it’s wrapped up.