Geekscape Interviews: ‘A Town Called Dragon’ Author Judd Winick

Renowned comic book writer Judd Winick and Legendary Comics have teamed up for A Town Called Dragon, a new comic book series about a small, good ol’ American town hiding one hell of a fire-breathing secret: It has kept hidden the world’s last dragon egg. And it has finally hatched.

I spoke to Judd Winick awhile back to ask why on Earth he unleashed a dragon in the middle of Colorado.

Off the bat I want to say I’m hooked. I love dragons, and who doesn’t? But what inspired you to put a dragon to terrorize a small Colorado town? What inspired the A Town Called Dragon?

Judd: Well, it’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for awhile. I always loved dragons, and I’ve always wanted to do a contemporary story about dragons. And fortunately or unfortunately, I did not have time to write and draw the story myself. I didn’t have a creator-owned outlet that I could jump into. So the story has been sitting in my head for awhile. Which allowed me to work out some of the kinks! You know, so I could come around to the idea that I wanted a story that finally wound up between being somewhere between dragon slayer and Northern Exposure meets Jaws. [laughs] Yeah. I like the idea of a small town taking on a dragon. That’s what it finally came down to. And then things started to fall into place as far as the last dragon egg and having a town that is a tourist-trap devoted to dragon stuff.

About the small town. I get a Roswell or Salem type of vibe from the city. Were they models for Dragon, Colorado? Did you do any traveling to those tourist towns? 

Judd: No, I mean, I’ve been to a lot of tourist towns. I’m an old dude, I’ve been all over the country for various reasons. And I’ve stayed in tourist-trap towns. And I like that as a motif, I do! [laughs] I like the idea of a small town that is giving up everything to just make a buck off whatever it is. I know for Salem, I’ve been there too, and you can’t throw a rock without hitting something that has a witch on it. It’s hilarious! And it’s barely shameless, but at the same time I find it to be kind of fun. Like, yeah, let’s go for it! These are people’s bread and butter! Witches, man. And that somebody’s bread and butter might be dragons, in the middle of ski country, kinda cracked me up.

I was incredibly amused that in the story, it was dragons that made Leif Erikson explore the Americas. Which is now one of my favorite historical facts.

Judd: Thank you so much! I am very proud of that one myself. [laughs]

It’s kind of a trend now to bring the fantastic into the real world — like Fables, Once Upon A Time — and to simultaneously explain history with the more mysterious. How do you intend to stay different from other stories?

Judd: Well, for one I hope it’s funny. I hope to do it with a lot of comedy. And I actually think a lot of the stuff is still pretty fertile ground. Looking at the most fantastical stuff and taking it to the most down-to-Earth story, I think we’re still ready to go there on a regular basis. Whether it’s Sleepy Hollow or this. I’m taking it from the point of view of the most regular bunch of people and now thrust with dealing with a dragon. And we’re not spending too much time hemming and awwing about figuring out if the dragon is real, or this guy is crazy, or “All your crackpot ideas, there are no dragons!” We kind of get right to it. Where everyone sees it. We move from, “What’s going on?” to “Oh my God, it’s a real dragon!” And I like that part of it.

We’re not going to have a lot of hand-wringing. That is the non-Jaws aspect of it. We move along at a fast-clip. We don’t have a sheriff trying to convince the town the threat is real. When it shows up in the middle of town and it’s twenty-five feet tall and breathing fire, everyone believes him.

About the characters in the town. Particularly Cooper. He’s got a lot of poorly pent-up rage. The first panel we see him, he’s ready to do battle against the dragon. He’s yelling. He’s enraged. And then when we’re properly introduced to him in the diner, he lashes out at the mayor. What’s his deal?

Judd: You’re an excellent reader sir. Can I tell you that? [laughs] You’re picking up on every cue!

[laughs] Thank you!

Judd: This is all quite intentional and this will all be laid down. Cooper is at the center of our story, and what I liked about the way I got to tell the story is that [although] he’s at the center, but at first a little bit off the center. We don’t get to see that he’s going to be our protagonist right away. We’re told that right away he’s the guy, and when we’re told he’s not the guy, we wonder how does he get in the middle of it all. Yeah, Cooper has had a lot of disappointment. Things that have led him to be still in this small town running a diner and he’s resigned himself to what his fate is. And now his fate will change again, as we’ll see.

He’s had a couple shots at the big show. And things have not turned out well at all. It’s sort of brought him back to where he started. So now here he is with an entirely different show in front of him. You’re right, he is definitely pissed, [laughs] and he definitely has a lot of questions and he’s going to find answers in an odd way: facing the dragon.

I’ve been looking over some of your other work. You’ve done The Life & Times of Juniper Lee, you’ve written Batman, you’ve written Green Lantern, you’re writing The Awesomes on Hulu, and of course you had the seminal graphic novel Pedro & Me. What are some of your influences? Particularly this book, but what influences you overall? 

Judd: From lots of places. I’m first and foremost a cartoonist. So I come to all of this from a place of growing up reading Bloom County. And on the flip side I was reading superhero comics, which I never thought I’d get into. My love of superhero comics kind of gave way to me becoming a superhero writer which also gave way to other forms of storytelling.

I pretty much thought my whole life was going to be sitting at a drafting table drawing cartoons. And, now I’ve come full circle again doing that. But, as far as influences, a lot of this stuff has always come from comedy and comedic-drama, more than anything else. I often talk about how some of the best drama are really funny, and how the best action-adventure are really, really funny. Everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Buffy to The Avengers. I think one of the great success Marvel is having is turning their comics into motion pictures is they understand that you’ve gotta have jokes. And you just need to know how to deliver it too.

Like the shawarma.

Judd: Yeah! Oh my God. You know, it’s the greatest capper to the movie. He’s doing this shawarma joke when he’s down on his back, and then they did the callback. The silent callback, “let’s not milk it.” It’s great. It’s hysterical, and it just makes you love the movie. And I’m as dark and as dreary and grim as anybody, I was the bringer of the grim storytelling to DC Comics in the late ’90s/early ’00s, I’m that guy. But also, I tried to make it funny. So my influences are in that way. Like Jaws. Jaws is funny. I think it’s one thing that taught me early on that you could do something pretty horrific but also managed to find the humor in it.

So, yes, this story is totally rife with H.P. Lovecraft and old school, medieval sword and sorcery type of stuff. But it also is very much like an episode of Northern Exposure .

My reading of the book so far is the dragon as a metaphor for dark secrets that we hide from neighbors, or ugly lies underneath modern society. But that’s just me. What is it ultimately that you want to say with A Town Called Dragon?

Judd: I guess the big theme is that we are all here for a reason. That will be more obvious as the story goes on. There’s a reason why — this is not going to be a mystery or a spoiler — this is the basic storytelling trope of a ragtag group of misfits who band together to fight a monster. [laughs] I wanted to take that trop and work it in a way that was kind of funny, interesting, and exciting. But the underlying message is everyone is brought here together for a reason and they’re going to see it will spelled out to them quite clearly.

A Town Called Dragon is now available from Legendary Comics. Check out our review here.