Big Trouble In Little China's Fred Van Lente and Joe Eisma Talk Bringing Jack Burton To 2015

BOOM! Studios' Big Trouble In Little China will have a new creative team and a new direction [...]

By Russ Burlingame - April 23, 2015 05:56 pm EDT

BOOM! Studios' Big Trouble In Little China will have a new creative team and a new direction starting with #13 in June, taking the iconic '80s action hero into the far-flung future of...umm...2015.

That's right, Jack Burton is coming to the here and now, with Fred Van Lente and Joe Eisma along to make it happen.

With the deadline for initial orders today, writer artist Joe Eisma joined us to share some exclusive line art from the issue and talk about the experience. Check it out below, with solicitation text for #13 at the bottom in case you want to place an order with your retailer.

Did you guys come in with the pitch of taking Jack Burton to the modern day, or was that premise something you were recruited to do?

Joe Eisma: I was brought into this by Bryce Carlson and Ian Brill—so when they told me what Fred's pitch was, I knew I had to do it. I've been a fan of Fred's for a long time, and I knew there would be lots of opportunities for off the wall humor and action.

Fred Van Lente: I too am a proud member of the Joe Eisma Appreciation Society, and it's great working with him, the pages Joe's turning in are just hilarious.

I can't claim credit for bringing Jack to 2015, though, that was how Eric Powell and Brian Churilla were wrapping up their run, and I was happy to use that as my jumping-off point. It allows us to use a lot of characters from the movie, like Gracie Law and Eddie Lee, that Eric and Brian didn't use at all, and save a few, like Lo Pan and Egg Shen, for later -- or never, maybe!

The Carpenter books at BOOM! Tend to attract hardcore fans of his work. Was this a dream job for you guys, too?

Eisma: Absolutely. I remember when I first started in comics back in 2008, I would put it out there on social media that whoever got the Big Trouble in Little China license, to look me up! I love the film, and this is definitely a bucket list book for me.

Van Lente: Big Trouble is, believe it or not, my dad's favorite movie, so accepting this assignment was a no-brainer. I had a tickets for John's Q&A here at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during his retrospective here a couple months ago, but he got sick and couldn't make it -- I was crushed! I wanted to meet him in person and sell him on my Prince of Darkness series -- that's my favorite film of his.

Particularly for Joe, do you think it gives you a leg up that you're coming in fresh and can establish the new look for the title fairly "fresh," or would you rather have had some time working in the series' '80s milieu before changing the game a bit?

Eisma: I'm very excited about the time frame we have in the book. We have lots of callbacks to the '80s, so I don't feel like I'm really missing a whole lot by not having it set during that period. It's fun to draw Jack in these modern situations and seeing how he reacts.

Van Lente: The name of the first arc, in fact, is "I Hate the 80s," so Joe may have to draw even more in that milieu than the previous run!

This is a character and a story that's iconic, but it hasn't been added to as much as many of the other franchises you see in licensed comics. Does that open up the world in a way that a lot of these kinds of properties is closed off, do you think?

Eisma: That's a good point, and I agree. For years, there was only ever the film, and now with the comics, that universe can be expanded. And if you look at the film, you can see there's so much there — there's so many possibilities to take Jack's journey.

Van Lente: In "I Hate the 80s, or Big Trouble in Little Tokyo," the first arc of the new run, Jack wakes up in 2015 to find his friends haven't only moved on, they've sold his beloved truck, the Pork Chop Express, to an 80s-obessessed reclusive billionaire ensconced in Negimaki Tower in LA's Little Tokyo. Gracie Law, who's still around and still making trouble in the name of social justice, enlists Jack to get incriminating evidence on Shido's illegal activities and steal his beloved rig back, magical and mundane insanity ensues.

Obviously, up to now, the character and the book have been very strongly identified with the era of the original film. What challenges does it present to take it out of that comfort zone?

Eisma: For me, the challenge is taking the cast that fans of the film know and aging them—seeing where they are now. I want the readers to be able to know who they are, but enough time has passed that in addition to being older, their lives are quite different.

Van Lente: We're adding a whole slew of characters just in the first arc, including Buddy Shido, Wang's daughter Winona -- don't forget all the non-magically-frozen characters have aged 29 years since we last saw them in '86 -- and who could forget Joystick the Sexbot? And that's only like half of the characters who get introduced in our first issue!

What do you think is the single biggest thing you have to nail to feel like you really "got" this book?

Eisma: Everything rests on Jack. If we can't nail the storytelling in regards to Jack and this new status quo, then it doesn't work! I think we're on the right path.

Van Lente: When re-watching the film before starting my run, I realized the key to Jack is that he is the sidekick to his Chinese-American pals -- not the other way around. As long as he is almost completely incompetent at almost everything except shooting his mouth off, you are doing justice to the franchise. And still makes him such a fun character.

If you could cross this world over with any other licensed book at BOOM!, which would it be?

Eisma: Just for pure zaniness, I would love to draw a Big Trouble/Regular Show team up. Regular Show has so much love for '80s culture, that I think this would be a match made in heaven.

Van Lente: Jack Burton and Snake Plissken versus The Thing from Another World! The KurtRussellJohnCarpetnerVerse crossover we've all been clamoring for!

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #13
Retail Price: $3.99
Author: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Joe Eisma
Cover Artists:
Main: Jay Shaw
Incentive: Rob Guillory
Diamond Item Code: APR151186

The new creative team of writer Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong), artist Joe Eisma (Morning Glories), and Mondo cover artist Jay Shaw (Evil Empire) brings Jack Burton into 2015! Jack is a man out of time. His friends and the world around him have changed. He's now on a hunt for the Pork-Chop Express, and the eccentric billionaire who has it!

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