How Managing DC Prepared Geoff Johns To Launch Ghost Machine

Creator-owned comics are in a creative renaissance, with the industry’s biggest names often choosing to write and draw their own characters and storylines. This has led to the resurgence of independent studios and labels setting up shop at comics’ most popular indie publishers. Amongst those labels is Ghost Machine, a new creative cooperative owned and operated by nearly a dozen creators including Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Bryan Hitch, and Jason Fabok amongst others.

With plenty of Big Two experience under their belts, Johns told us at MegaCon the entire Ghost Machine team is building off their previous experiences with bigger publishers and studios across mediums as they grow their brand.

“I mean, all of us have so much experience outside of comic books, and I think we’re taking all of our experiences and that’s helping us decide what we want and manage it the way we want to and we’ve really built a serious business plan. We didn’t just sit here and throw it in, ‘Hey, let’s go do this,’” Johns said at the FanExpo-run convention. “We spent a year and a half probably talking about it and working with people and using all the experience we’ve had across the board from show running to being part of a studio, to working with toy companies or designing films and working in movies like Ivan’s done in Brazil. Taking all that experience and kind of used everything and put it into this thing to say, ‘How do we build a better company for us? How do we build a better company that can deliver the best comic books and stories to the readers?’”

Johns went on to compare the development of Ghost Machine to attending summer camp, filling him with excitement anytime the entire team gets together to discuss its next steps.

“We get to see all the people we love, all the people we work with and have a great time and no one tells us what to do. No one tells us we have to be anywhere,” the writer added. “We choose to be where we want to be and work with who we want to work with and work on what we want to work on and that’s kind of everything in life. That is everything. We get everything right now and we’re really lucky and fortunate to get that and I’m grateful for all the years of everything because it got us here.”

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