Jimmy Palmiotti Talks Sex, Violence and Kickstarter: We Care About the Reader

One of the most prolific and beloved creators in mainstream comics, Jimmy Palmiotti splits his time between best-selling Big Two fare like Harley Quinn, outside-the-box DC work like Star-Spangled War Stories Featuring G.I. Zombie and true indie work through his, Amanda Conner and Jusitn Gray's Paperfilms studio.

While they occasionally work with Image, Icon or some other publisher who handles the heavy lifting on behalf of creators, mostly their recent creator-owned work has been funded through Kickstarter, with Palmiotti and company overseeing it.

One such effort, Sex & Violence, has a second volume currently in the funding stage (you can see the video below or visit the Kickstarter page here to pledge).

Speaking as somebody who backed the first one, loved the first one, but who has small children and couldn't put up my prints in my office...out of the 64 pages in this book, how many of them are actually safe for work?!

Depends where you work. If it's in an office of adults, the entire book should be safe compared to what goes on there. If you are a schoolteacher, then leave the book at home. Better yet, keep it at home in that drawer that locks at your desk or with your other comics on that highest of shelves. Its just not the visuals, the subject matter is all adult. I think the back cover and credits page are safe.

Is it tough, explaining this series to people? I mean, it's easy enough to dismiss it as a bit like the little boy who swears just to upset his parents, right?

This is really one of the easiest books to explain. It is as simple as saying it's A collection of self contained short stories that cover the themes of Sex and Violence. It's a lot easier than explaining Star Spangled War stories featuring G.I.Zombie, that's for sure. I think dismissing it on any level is not understand what it is.

Do you think that the goodwill you guys have generated by being so prolific across such a wide range of comics has helped fight that fight for you a little?

People come back for more and try the new things we do because we deliver a quality product worth their money. We have generated goodwill because we care about the reader and kill ourselves on the actual finished product. Working on a lot of books across the board opens us up to different people, but I find you have to win each and every person over with the quality.

Did you approach the other creators for this volume or did they approach you on the strength of Vol. 1?

We approached them all, matching the right artist to the right story. We have a lot of people offer, but since we write these ourselves, we have a look and a storytelling ability that we match up. Vol. 1 was a nice way to launch, but our hope is that this second one is even better, otherwise we wouldn't have bothered. This isn't a money grab; it's a work of passion.

You guys have Kickstarted a lot of graphic novels. Is there potential for more sequels/follow-ups down the line for other books?

Yes, we have talked about another Denver book and for me a follow-up of Queen Crab. I think with the success of this second edition of Sex and Violence, we might plan a third pretty soon.

It strikes me as interesting that you guys never have any problem blowing away your funding goals but the terrific Creator-Owned Heroes didn't last very long at all. Is that just a matter of having to pay for an overprint or is it something more?

The retailers didn't get behind the idea and the book, so there was about 40% of the comic stores that didn't even order a one single copy, and that was the death of us. We made a mistake and learned from it. Each book, good or bad, we come away with an understanding that we try to apply to the next project. We will be collecting it into one nice trade through Image comics in 2015.

How do you guys put something like this project together? Do you have some short stories and you look through and go, "These would fit," or do you start knowing what the anthology is and create material to match?

For this one we both created material that we thought would be different and work within the theme. I had two stories because I felt the "Daddy Issues" story could be told in less than 12 pages.

Obviously the levels of notoriety enjoyed by the artists in this volume vary from person to person. How did you assemble this particular team of artists?

We went after them. We found their work at some point and waited till we had the right story for the right artist. When I am at comic cons I always look at artists' work and at times, like this book and Denver, I give new talent a chance to shine on a project. We have been very lucky to meet such talented people.

Do you think it's fair to say this is a book that just couldn't be profitable in today's comics market if you had to rely on the direct market to break even?

It is very fair, because if we released this through anyone, it would have only sold a few thousand and we wouldn't have been able to pay our crew. The price set for the Kickstarter goal is a real number, a number that includes everything from the talent, to the shipping, printing and especially the delivery. Sometimes it is high, other times lower. We are happy to break even, but in the end, Justin and I have not taken a dime. We have rolled each dollar into the next project.

What made you guys go for the $40,000 stretch goal you picked?

We thought of an idea where we can get the fans involved , but this would cost us another 10 pages of book, so with the stretch goal, we can make sure its possible for the additional work, pages and production to cover it

Do you guys already have your next Kickstarter project in the works or does working on so many projects at a time give you a bit of tunnel vision?

We are halfway though our next project, a western about a town and a killer. It will be a 64 page graphic novel and features some pretty amazing artwork. We will be announcing it when it is ready to go live, probably around the time of the NYCC. It may seem we are working on a lot of things, but that's mainly because we do things way in advance. The best part about SEX AND VIOLENCE VOL. 2 is that it is ready to go to the printers once the Kickstarter is over.