ECCC 2015: Chris Roberson Talks Legendary’s ‘Black Bag’!

Just before Emerald City Comicon brought thousands upon thousands of geeks upon Seattle’s Washington State Convention Centre, Legendary Comics announced three new series, including a book in the Pacific Rim universe (read my interview with writer Joshua Fialkov here), and two new IP’s.

One of the new books, Black Bag, is written by iZombie and Cinderella alum Chris Roberson. I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Chris at Legendary’s Emerald City booth this past weekend.

Derek: Black Bag, of course, was just announced. Why don’t you start by telling me a little big about it?

Chris: Black Bag is about a bored, I hate the word housewife, but she’s a housewife. A suburb wife, who’s subordinated her own ambitions to her husband’s since college. She becomes dissatisfied and realizes that it’s not enough for her, and gets the opportunity to go and be a super-spy for the government. Which she does, but of course doesn’t tell her husband about it, so she ends up leading a bit of a double life as a wife of the partner of a law firm, while at the same time heading to other countries to kill bad people.

D: So it holds kind of a Mr. and Mrs. Smith feeling? Without the Mr. of course?

Kind of, yeah. Or a True Lies vibe and other stuff like that.

D: How did Black Bag come to exist?

C: Bob Schreck from Legendary called me up. It was a Thomas Tull idea, so one that originated within the company. They were looking for somebody to flesh it out, and female super-spies is in my wheelhouse. I did Cinderella for Vertigo in the Fables universe, so I was happy to come on board and help out.

D: So how will Black Bag compare to your work on Cinderella?

C: It’ll have a similar vibe. Again as much as I hate housewife as a term, I also hate strong female protagonist as a term, but that’s kind of what she is. She’s a kick-ass lady, and my entire life I’ve been surrounded by kick-ass ladies, so I kind of know what they’re like.

D: How has working with Legendary Comics as opposed to your traditional publishers?

C: For me it’s all about the personal direct relationships, and I’ve known Bob Schreck for years and he’s one of the smartest people in comics, and he was my editor, so I have zero complaints. It was great.

D: In terms of the great art for the book, did you have a hand in choosing your artist? Or how did J.B. come on board?

C: I definitely had a voice. In every stage of the process, they would send me samples from artists that they were considering, and it was like I had a vote. I wasn’t selecting the candidates, but I had an up or down vote as to whether I thought they would be a good fit or not.

D: Black Bag is your first work with Legendary Comics, do you plan to continue with the company, or with Black Bag, in the future?

C: As long as their checks continue to clear, I’m definitely interested!

D: Awesome. The book looks great, and I can’t wait to read it! Thanks for your time!

Black Bag is set to launch its first issue this Fall, and it sounds really cool. You can take a look at a preview page from the book below, and be sure to let us know if you plan to pick it up!