Walking the floor at any con can be taxing so I try to find the quite spots to take a breather and regroup. Occasionally when while i’m trying to catch my breath I come across something that I wouldn’t of seen otherwise, BlackBox comics is one of those things.
BlackBox Comics is a small independent publisher out of New York, right in my own back yard, and one of the featured creators behind their output is Scott McDaniel. I took the opportunity of during New York Comic Con to get to know about the publisher and what they have coming down the pipe line.
KB (Kaos Blac): Tell us about Blackbox Comics.
SM (Scott McDaniel): Blackbox comics is brand new independent publisher, our first title is IT the secret world of modern banking. It’s an insightful real world look at the internal corrupt environment the exist within the banking industry. Our hero in the book I.T. is an I.T. guy who works in a bank and he begins to uncover evidence of corruption and crime and when he takes that evidence and reports it to his superiors as he is legally required to do, and morally required to do, he begins to experience push back from those who should be taking action against that activity and then as he discovers more and more evidence of this activity the push back and retaliate becomes more and more servers. The book is a story of this man who is just trying to to do the right thing and what happens to him when he discovers evidence very serious fraud and corruption that’s happening inside the bank.
KB: So you are known from your work on Nightwing, Green Arrow, and other superhero stuff what drew you to to Blackbox comics and this comic in particular?
SM: You know it’s interesting, the founder, my partner Demitri is an executive in banking, he is an I.T. executive, this project is born out of his direct experience. The things that have happened to him in his life became source material for this particular project. We became friends because of my work on Daredevil and over the years we became really good friends and as he really wanted to create this it just seemed like a perfect match that he had the direct high level experience and high level knowledge of the industry itself and I have twenty years knowledge of making comics. So we put the two together and I think what we’ve come up with is really unique. It’s sort of like Jerry McGuire meets Wall Street. There’s no mutants, no monsters, there’s no magic, but there is still excitement and drama because it’s all interpersonal excitement and drama.
KB: So what other books are you working on with Blackbox Comics?
SM: Well Blackbox comics has a lot of exiting titles in the works the second that’s in the pipeline is called Militia it is a story of the challenges, obstacles, opportunities for women in today’s combat military. It’s written by the incredible Chuck Dixon. We got the story mapped out he’s written two scripts, they are amazing, we’ve begun to get artwork in from Harvey Tolibao and I think this book will be another title that really gives you penetrating insight into contemporary society and culture and it makes a beautiful companion piece to IT because they both exist really nicely side by side. We have more titles we are developing, they are more in a conceptual development stage right now but again it’s about filling out this universe with really piercing insightful views of today’s culture and aspirations of the challenges that are present today.
KB: So your building up this universe, is this like a shared universe or would they just be independent stories with a thematic real world feel.
SM: We want to build a universe that could if we desire to. The book I.T. is in the banking industry what happened without finance in this world nothing. Finance is one of the most powerful forces that exist in modern civilization so it could very easily tie into a military book because how does the military operate well when they have to be financed well? Where does that finance come from – it comes through the financial system. These two books could very easily cross over, they’re not yet but they could and that’s the same theory with these other titles that are coming up. I don’t want to say too much but they are really different but yet they all have this ability to tie in and cross over if we so choose. It should do so naturally there wouldn’t be anything forced and it would be natural evolution of the books. Its exciting I hope these things really come together as we envision it. Demetri has great ideas and it’s really exciting to put them into the right characters and stories to bring them to life and match them with artist so that we fall right into their wheelhouse to really bring this thing to life. So we’ve been looking to make high quality top knot material that’s nothing like it in the industry. We’re in a lane and we’re driving by ourselves. If you’re tired of the superheroes and all that stuff, if your looking for something different this is it.
KB: So when do these books come out?
SM: We have the first five issues of I.T. out, we have the trade collection of those first issues ready and the first issue of the second volume next five issue story arch, and it’s underway nearly all completed with this artwork . Militia will come out in the early part of next year so it’ll fall right in line. (Referring to I.T.) It’s neat, it’s a complex story its got. It’s got a lot of layers but it’s not incomprehensible it’s not all about accounting and fractal reserve banking. It’s about people and how they treat each other and I think in that process of seeing how people treat each other we can see a bit of ourselves and our own experiences.
It was great running into Scott and the team of Blackbox Comics. For more on their books head to the following links on their hompage, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages!
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