Space Ghost’s David Pepose Talks the Hanna-Barbera Hero’s Epic New Era

Space Ghost has had a one-of-a-kind journey in our pop culture landscape, becoming an action-packed cosmic superhero, an irreverent talk show host, and an all-around beloved part of the Hanna-Barbera world. This week, that decades-long history gets a new chapter in the form of a new Space Ghost comic series, which is launching from Dynamite Entertainment as part of their collaboration with Warner Bros. Entertainment. Written by David Pepose (Punisher, Moon Knight: City of the Dead) with art by Jonathan Lau (Red Sonja, Green Hornet), Space Ghost #1 shows fans a previously-unseen part of the franchise — how Jan, Jace, and their monkey sidekick Blip became Space Ghost’s wards.

In celebration of Space Ghost #1 making its debut, ComicBook.com spoke with Pepose via email about this new showcase for the titular hero, threading the needle of Space Ghost’s previous eras, and so much more.

ComicBook.com: Prior to working on this series, what was your connection and familiarity to Space Ghost?

David Pepose: Growing up, my first introduction to Space Ghost was with Space Ghost: Coast to Coast — it wasn’t until my first internship in the comics industry that I learned who Alex Toth was, along with Space Ghost’s original superheroic roots. It was during that internship that I read Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti’s Space Ghost miniseries, and all that left me thinking that Space Ghost really did have all the ingredients of an A-list superhero. He’s got the killer design, the awesome arsenal of weaponry like his Power Bands and Inviso-Belt, his immediately engaging sidekicks, and his absolutely top-shelf collection of villains. In a lot of ways, though, those elements have been locked in a time capsule for a whole generation of fans — and that’s why I’m so excited to reclaim that legacy for readers in our run on Space Ghost. He’s a character that’s long deserved a long, epic run harkening back to his superheroic roots — and our entire creative team is looking to deliver on it.

I saw you mention in another interview that, to prepare, you read every Space Ghost comic you could find. Were there any that particularly stood out to you — for good or bizarre reasons — from that experiment?

Mark Evanier and Steve Rude’s Space Ghost one-shot for Comico was a brilliant adventure, one that really distilled everything great about Space Ghost and his villains into one jam-packed issue. Rereading Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti’s Space Ghost miniseries was also really useful for me — their origin had a real Batman Begins vibe, but I think that series’ focus on Space Ghost was particularly instructive for me, in that it pushed me to take a different angle, one that explores how expansive Space Ghost’s cast is.

Obviously, the cultural impact of Space Ghost has taken multiple shapes, thanks to things like Coast to Coast. How do you thread the needle of all of those different tones in this new run?

To me, Space Ghost’s various incarnations have always been a product of their time — from the 1966 cartoon echoing the Silver Age energy of Adam West’s Batman, to the 1981 revival being in the pantheon of Super-Friends and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, to Coast to Coast embodying the irony of the MTV generation, to Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti feeling like a spiritual companion to Batman Begins. So I’m very excited to be reintroducing Space Ghost in this exact same way, this time using the storytelling techniques of today to delve into the various concepts of his universe.

What made you want to reintroduce Jan, Jace, and Blip, and give them an origin story that wasn’t necessarily in the original source material?

It was a combination of what interested me the most, and it was also the road not taken. It didn’t make sense to me to try to compete with Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti’s run, especially since we were doing brand-new continuity — so exploring Space Ghost’s adventures through the eyes of two point-of-view characters instead made sense to me, and felt like a way to honor the vision of the original cartoon, which was particularly savvy in having both a young boy and a young girl for viewers to emotionally invest in. But tackling Jan, Jace, and Blip’s story also felt like something I needed to wrap my head around for our run to make any sense — like many elements in Space Ghost’s continuity, there was no backstory as to how Jan and Jace wound up in Space Ghost’s care. That felt like a really compelling story for me — how does this found family come into each other’s orbit, and how do they learn and grow from each other? 

Brak is one of my favorite characters, and you nailed his characterization while making him even more terrifying. How did you approach that?

When I was rewatching all the original episodes of Space Ghost, the thing that stood out to me about Brak is that he’s not a world-beater, he’s not out there looking to conquer the galaxy — Brak is almost blue-collar in his aspirations. Similar to somebody like Taskmaster over at Marvel, Brak is a guy just looking for a paycheck, looking to knock over the nearest gold freighter with his brother. For every villain that we’re tackling in Space Ghost, I made it a point to really pay attention to the villains in their original cartoon appearances, and figure out what qualities and personality traits stood out most to me, and to figure out new ways to play that up. For Brak and his brother Sisto, it was that opportunistic streak — and I’m really happy with the ways that we’ve been able to incorporate that into their characterization.

What has the collaborative process been like with Jonathan Lau?  

Jonathan Lau is a truly sensational artist who has been outdoing himself with each and every issue. I looped him in on my general plans for the series the moment he came aboard, and with each script, I tend to preface it with whatever influences or goals I have for each issue. I’ve been a fan of Jonathan’s since his work on Green Hornet with Kevin Smith years ago, and he’s delivering the work of his career on Space Ghost. He’s able to really masterfully switch gears between this big, bombastic action moments and these incredibly heartfelt character beats — between the characters you’ll fall in love with and the villains whose redesigns will leave you on the edge of your seats, Jonathan is the perfect fit for this book. Combine him with Andrew Dalhouse’s energetic colors and Taylor Esposito’s beautifully economical lettering, and Space Ghost really does come with a stacked creative team.

What has surprised you the most about the experience of working on this series?

Beyond just the overwhelming response we’ve received so far since our series was announced? I didn’t realize how much I was going to love writing Jan and Jace — at this point, they’re honestly two of my favorite characters I’ve ever written. There’s something really bittersweet about these two orphans and how they each try to preserve this unorthodox found family situation they’ve found with Space Ghost — Jan being the feisty, responsible one, because she feels like if she doesn’t think things through, she’ll lose what she has left; while Jace is the impulsive one always rattling off jokes, because he feels like if he doesn’t keep the others laughing, they’ll go their separate ways. They’re good kids, and wonderful point-of-view characters — and they play off Space Ghost as the straight man magnificently.

What are you most excited for fans to discover about this series, once it launches?

I’m excited for readers to discover why Space Ghost is the greatest superhero that many of them have never heard of. He’s a character with amazing powers, an even more incredible supporting cast, and a deep bench of iconic villains that will lead him on adventures across the galaxy. Space Ghost is a hero who can organically incorporate such a wide variety of genres, tones, and influences, a character who feels like equal parts Batman and Star Wars — he’s a cultural touchstone whose time has finally come, and I couldn’t be more excited or honored to be spearheading his relaunch.

Space Ghost #1 is now available wherever comics are sold.