Geekscape Interview With Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Publishing
Benaroya Publishing is the latest imprint to join Image Comics. Founded Michael Benaroya, the company currently has three titles released so far, Marksmen, Red Spike, and Samurai’s Blood. We got to sit down with Mike and talk comics, how the line formed, and where he sees it going.
Walton: You’ve got Benaroya publishing, It’s your company. Your name on the imprint. Your deal is with Image, how’d that come about?
Benaroya: Our deal is with Image and they were kind enough to do a deal for six comic series with us. Each of them have five or six issues. We’re really excited to be working with them because they are the artist centric brand and they really support the creators. They don’t sacrifice the creative integrity of their product.
W: When you knew you wanted to for, did you have books in mind?
B: Yes, we did. We had all six of the books laid out by the time we went to Image and we brought them complete plans.The way I like to think of our company is we finance our own development, produce all the art and all that, but we like to think of ourselves as just a place where ideas happen. A place where people can come up with cool stuff and bring it all the way from the spark of an idea to fruition.
W: You’re line doesn’t have anything that would be considered a traditional comic book. Was that the genesis of the line? Did you look around and see that people weren’t making these books?
B: I think that’s part of it. We definitely want to do things that are a little bit cutting edge and a little different than what everyone else is doing. But I think we also approached it from a different angle, instead of thinking within the box of the normal comic book style stories, what are some other very cool stories and would be presented well in the form of a comic and that was how we cam up with the stuff.
w: In your line, from Marksmen, Samurai’s Blood, Red Spike, do you have a babie in there? Which one do you love?
B: I’m probably not supposed to say, I really do love them all. If I had to pick one it’s probably Samurai’s Blood. Because it’s been in the works for a while. Owen and I have been talking about this story and this world for a few years now.He first started writing it I think 3 years ago, seeing this one through to it’s current form and actually getting this one published has been the most fun.
w: How far do you see the line growing?
B: The most important thing to us is to keep producing high quality maerial. That’s how we’ll define our limit. As we grow and keep increasing the amount of comics that we’re doing, whenever we feel we can’t add another one without losing some of our integrity and without putting our best effort into every comic, that’s when we’ll know that we have enough. I think we can definitely handle more than six, but probably not more than 15.
w: What other projects are gestating? Is there anything not being done you want to see?
B: That’s a good question. What I like the most and what I relate to the most in the world of comics is grounded superheroes. There’s one specific talent or skill, but everything else is pretty much the same. So that’s, to me, it makes it feel so much more real, because once you buy into the one change everything else remains the same and it’s nice to know what the limitations are of these superhero characters. What I don’t like is feeling like it’s arbitrary and down the road the writers decide this is the limitation, when it wasn’t presented that way at the beginning.
w: As people come in, what are you looking for in the people you want to work with?
B: I think the most important thing is someone who is collaborative. We have a really team [based] philosophy that has served us really well. I think that we love the team we’re working with and we always like working with new people and there is an attraction to working with some of the more established names. If we’re lucky enough down the road to be given an opportunity to work with really great comic people, I’m sure we’d jump at it.
w: What can people look forward to from Benaroya?
B: We have three more books that are coming out, Blood Merchant, The Fires of Avalon, and the Redeemer. One I want to highlight is Blood Merchant. Rob Pryor is hand painting every single panel. It’s six issues, he’s hand painting the entire thing and it’s taken him over a year already. He said he’s never done it before and he guarantees he’ll never do it again. But he’s finishing it and I think it’s going to be a real cult classic.
Benaroy Publishing books are available at your local comic shop. Red Spike, Marksmen, and Samurai’s Blood are currently on shelves. For more information go to http://www.benaroyapublishing.com/.
