Geoff Johns and Gary Frank Talk Junkyard Joe #1, Supporting Homeless Veterans

This October, Image Comics will publish Junkyard Joe, an all-new series from bestselling Geiger creative team Geoff John, Gary Frank, and Brad Anderson. The series, set in the same universe as Geiger, will tell the story of a mysterious robot soldier — the titular Junkyard Joe — who believes himself to be the creation of cartoonist Muddy Davis, himself a veteran. However, the story is set to do more than simply expand Mad Ghost’s historical universe of heroes known as The Unnamed. Not only does the story bring to light real issues and experiences of veterans, the first issue of Junkyard Joe will feature a special black and white edition benefitting veterans. The proceeds from Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition will be donated to two charities, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Veterans Aid in honor of Johns’ grandfather and Frank’s grandparents, all three of whom served in World War II.

ComicBook.com recently sat down with Johns and Frank to talk about Junkyard Joe and its charitable efforts. According to Johns, while the idea of inserting a robot into the emotional story of a soldier’s journey is both strange and different, it also offered a way to tell a story of connection and included a lot of different elements of the experience.

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“It’s really creating some characters that are both different and strange in this world of The Unnamed. Like Gary and I are starting with characters that embody and have these emotional stories that Gary and I can really tap into because everything we do, we want to be emotional and intriguing and different,” Johns said. “And with this, Junkyard Joe is this solder that was built for war and the stories about him connecting with another soldier, a human soldier in that war and then trying to find a place in the world after it, we thought it was a really compelling and emotional story and an interesting story. And a fun story, too. It’s got elements of everything but really it came from the journey of a soldier coming home and trying to find their place in the world.”

In a sense, Junkyard Joe becomes something of a neutral vehicle for the reader, allowing them to understand the veteran experience. For Frank, that was exactly the goal — to create the visual story through art that allows the reader to put their own feelings into the story and experience.

“If you’re not fixing it too firmly to an actual person, which I don’t think we could necessarily have done given our limited experience, but by taking a blank slate almost, people can put their own emotional response onto it,” Frank said. “His face obviously never changes. So, everything is kind of, with the angle of the head or the position of something, maybe on the eyes I can use the shape of a reflection or something, but because he’s such a blank slate people are bringing their own thing to it. So, in that sense, you don’t necessarily need to convey everything. We don’t need necessarily convey everything ourselves. People can kind of find it. And the fact that he never speaks as well is another what seems like it would be a limitation actually turns out to be something which works. People are bringing so much to it themselves as they’re reading it.”

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Johns added that because Junkyard Joe is such a “blank slate”, the reader will also get to learn alongside the character — which allows for a greater understanding of the things the character and real-life veterans experience.

“So, in that first issue, when he starts to bond with these soldiers in the platoon, we see why,” Johns said. “We understand why. And when he reacts the way he does emotionally, we react with him.”

Johns also said that the story is very much about trauma, specifically the trauma experienced by the people directly impacted by the decisions of others to fight wars.

“I would just say it is about trauma. It’s about grief. It’s about loss and struggle, and that’s what the story’s about,” Johns said. “It’s not about the people who choose to fight the wars or people that are making the decisions. It’s about the people who are caught in them and then what that experience is. And so, yeah, it’s more of a singular personal story more than a global one.”

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But even though the story is a singular personal story, the first issue is poised to do good work on a global level. A portion of the proceeds from Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition will be donated to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Veterans Aid. Additionally, Mad Ghost Productions is donating $2 for every issue purchased so that essentially the entire cover price for the issue will go to helping veterans.

“We wanted to tell this story and I think it’s great that we could tell this human story and comic book story, but then also raise awareness and shine a light on the fact that there are these organizations out there, these charities that actually help, specifically, homeless veterans. And not just homeless vets, but also helping veterans who are struggling so they don’t end up homeless,” Johns said. “And we did some research and found these two great charities, one in the U.S. and one in the U.K. where Gary is originally from and we worked with them and partnered with them on this and found a great way, with Images’ support, to raise money and support these organizations.”

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For both Johns and Frank, the effort to help veterans is personal. As was noted above, Johns and Frank had grandparents who served in World War II and the issue pays tribute to them.

“There’s kind of two levels of it for me, because there’s a very kind of personal, emotional level on that side. I never got to meet my grandfather,” Johns said. “He died before I was born. I wish I had. I hear stories about him, and my mom would talk about him, and that’s why I had her write his dedication, because she knew him. And just to be able to do something like that for her and for my family meant the world.”

He added, “I don’t think my mom ever thought her dad would be remembered and so to be able to do something small like this, it’s pretty meaningful for us.”

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For Frank, both his grandfather and grandmother served. The dedication to them was something that was important to his mother as well.

“I’ve never heard my mother so excited by something that I’ve been working on,” Frank said. “When I told her about it and when I was asking her for information, she wanted to know everything that we were doing. She really, really took an interest in a way which, when you’re just drawing superheroes, maybe it’s not quite so interesting for people from the outside world.”

Frank said his mother ended up going on a “treasure hunt” to put together an understanding of the things that his grandmother in particular did during the war and that, after putting it all together, the dedication complete with a photo of both of her parents in uniform was incredibly important.

“I think for her, that was possible the most important page of a comic book that I’ve ever been involved with. It was really nice,” Frank said.

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Both Frank and Johns want Junkyard Joe to be special for other veterans and their loved ones as well. The issue also includes an address for readers to send in their own dedications that will be included in future issues.

“Those are special pages for us,” Johns said. “And we have a note in the back of issue one, we want other readers to send in their dedications and we’ll put them in our book. We’d like to thank everybody and allow people to thank everybody in their own way.”

Thanking people like this is just part of what both Johns and Frank hope people come away from Junkyard Joe with. They also hope that it helps people understand that soldiers and veterans just need to be welcomed home, listened to, and understood.

“We’re not saying anything about a specific war, we’re just kind of talking about how people can go and how they can experience trauma then and then really, just when they come home, that’s when people need to be there for them,” Frank said. “We need to understand that people go through terrible things. And then when they come back, they don’t need to necessarily be judged on the political merits of whatever the war was about at the time. They just need to be kind of welcomed, and then just have people listen to them and understand them.”

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You can find more information about Junkyard Joe below. You can find out more information about Veterans Aid here and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans here. Junkyard Joe #1 will be released on October 5th.

•  Junkyard Joe #1 Cover A by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220009

•  Junkyard Joe #1 Cover B by Robert Love & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220010

•  Junkyard Joe #1 Cover C by Andrea Mutti – Diamond Code AUG220011

•  Junkyard Joe #1 Cover D by Jerry Ordway & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220012

•  Junkyard Joe #1 Cover E by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220013

•  Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition Cover A by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220014

•  Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition Cover B by Robert Love & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220015

•  Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition Cover C by Andrea Mutti – Diamond Code AUG220016

•  Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition Cover D by Jerry Ordway & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220017

•  Junkyard Joe #1: Special Black & White Veterans Edition Cover E by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson – Diamond Code AUG220018

Junkyard Joe #1 will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.