Ryan Stegman Discusses His Magical Superhero Tale Vanish With Donny Cates
The Venom team of Ryan Stegman and Donny Cates are delivering a different type of superhero story in Vanish. Originally published digitally through their KLC Press Substack newsletter, Vanish #1 from Cates, Stegman, JP Mayer, Sonia Oback, and John J. Hill is available now from Image Comics, featuring a story that mixes magical worlds with superheroes. There's been a lot of interest in the series, especially when you look back at the success Stegman and Cates found with Venom, Absolute Carnage, and King in Black. They've brought their loyal following to their creator-owned efforts, with Vanish the first of what will hopefully be many projects.
"Sick and tired of all these 'young adult' stories about magic, and wizards, and destiny and love and bla bla bla? Well, good news! We are too!" Cates said when Vanish was announced earlier this year. "So we made VANISH to answer the one question we've all been asking; What if magic was....metal? This is a project that Ryan and I have been secretly building and working on quietly in the background for years now, and we cannot wait to unleash it on you. And the fun part for us is, well, pay attention closely....like the reveal of any great magic trick, you'll never see this one coming..."
"Vanish is the most exciting thing I've drawn. Doing an Image comic has always been my ultimate goal as a creator and we've pulled out all the stops to make this special," Stegman added. "Donny's and my goal with this project is to create something that we could never do at Marvel and, well...We've succeeded at that I assure you."
ComicBook.com spoke with Ryan Stegman to learn about the creation of Vanish, how superheroes play into the story, the magical world of Everkeep, spinoffs, and more. Vanish #1 is available now from Image Comics in print, and can be purchased digitally from KLC Press and digital storefronts such as Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
Creating Vanish
ComicBook.com: What are some aspects of creating a universe from scratch like Vanish that goes unnoticed by fans?
Ryan Stegman: It's probably about as hard as they'd imagine, to be honest! To create a world from nothing is challenging, but in a really good way. It took quite a while at the start of our work on this book, for sure, but it was extremely rewarding.
I'll speak to the writing aspect of it as well (even though Donny is the writer) because I was involved in the creation of everything. The hardest part, for me, is not getting too caught in the weeds. You tend to want to create all these crazy things and they start to connect and you feel a sense of fulfillment. But then you go to work on it and you realize...All that stuff isn't a story! So it's good to know some of that stuff but as you start putting it into the context of story, your precious world that you had in your head starts to fall apart a bit and everything changes.
This is one of the reasons Donny is so great at what he does. He kept me grounded in those terms. He focuses on story and moments and lets everything build around that. It's a really cool process and one I'll forever cherish having been involved in.
prevnextSuperhero Villains
I was pleased to see how the creative team has integrated a superhero element into Vanish. What went into the decision of making superheroes the bad guys in disguise?
Simply put, I demanded it! I love all the things I get to draw in Vanish. But I am a superhero artist through and through. I've spent most of my 41 years on this planet OBSESSING about superheroes. If I would have eschewed all that for this creator-owned series it wouldn't have felt right. I love superheroes, so they had to be in here. Fortunately, as we created the story it made perfect sense to have them in there and it all came together beautifully.
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Everkeep
We spend a little time in Everkeep, which appears to be a fantasyland where young magic users are sent to hone their craft. Visually it looks amazing because you have these technological skyscrapers resting alongside flying dragons. Will we see more of Everkeep in flashbacks, and what research went into its design?
I'd love to say that Everkeep required some insane research on my part but... It all just came out of me. We had a couple of prompts in place. We knew about the big ominous centerpiece. And we knew about the clouds and the dragons. But all the rest was just me having fun, getting into the headspace of this place and just going for it. Donny never saw any preliminaries as I worked on this spread. We had just talked about these things for so long that when I got to this page I could basically see it in my mind's eye.
Will we see more Everkeep? Yes. A book like this requires flashbacks to tell the story fully. And if the book is ultra-successful, well... spinoffs will be happening.
prevnextBig Plans for Elynor
There appears to be a lot of untapped potential with Elynor. Her father was part of The Hollow and loyal to Vanish, but she doesn't seem to see it that way. Could Elynor's father possibly be one of The Hollow that escaped Everkeep after Vanish's death? And what can you tell us about her relationship to the Chosen One?
Oh boy. You are in spoiler-city! I can't answer a lot of this, but I will say we have BIG plans for Elynor. We love that character. She is the backbone of the story and will get plenty of shine going forward.
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Spinoffs?
How far out do you have Vanish's story mapped, and what have you enjoyed most out of this creator-owned collaboration?
When Donny and I sat down in my office at the beginning of this journey we mapped out 8 issues. That's where we are at still because we didn't want to put the cart before the horse beyond that. But we know where this part of the story ends and we know exactly where it WOULD go if the people demand it. We also have a fully mapped out spinoff series conceived by Kenny Porter (DC Mech) that we'd love to go forward with if the world can handle it. Can they, though? WE SHALL SEE.
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