By Jarred A. Luján — One thing about writer Michael Moreci is that’s he’s ridiculously consistent. Everything from his licensed work to his creator-owned, Moreci has managed to hold down a level of consistently great output for several years. When he teamed up with Vault Comics, he really got to let loose, writing one of Vault’s most popular titles (and it’s first-ever ongoing) with his Hayden Sherman collaboration, Wasted Space, as well as leading the charge with Vault’s horror books by co-writing Mall with Gary Dauberman. In the last year, however, Moreci’s true breakout hit was with one of the best horror comics many of us have ever read: The Plot (co-written with Tim Daniel and illustrated by Joshua Hixson).

All of this is to say that Michael Moreci is one of the top rising writers in comics right now, and I wanted to talk to him about his process, his style, and ultimately how he maintains such consistently great output. Here’s our recent interview…

JARRED: So, first and foremost, you had an insane 2019. From The Plot, Mall, Wasted Space, Star Wars: Adventures, your first Marvel work in Beta Ray Bill: Annihilation Scourge, you ALSO had your novel We Are Mayhem (a sequel to 2018’s Black Star Renegades). You had all of those projects, and all of them really received some pretty solid critical acclaim, especially your Vault books. Could you give us an idea of how you manage that production output as well as quality level?

MORECI: Well, thank you, first of all, for the kind words and recognition. I appreciate it. Second, it was some year, I can’t lie. Busy. Very busy and full. But, the good thing is the work behind all those projects dates back to months and years leading up to them. I mean, look—I’m a pretty prolific writer. I’m dedicated, to the craft and putting in the time. I’m at my desk M-F, 8 to 4. I’m there, I’m doing the work. That said, there was a bit of a bottleneck in 2019 that resulted in even more work than usual. The thing is, though—and this speaks to the aforementioned craft commitment—I won’t release anything that I don’t think is great. I won’t work on anything that I don’t see as a story I can tell really well. I’ve walked from projects that I didn’t think I could execute in a way that meets my standards. And I have very rigid standards for myself. So, no matter how many books I’m putting out, I’ll never sacrifice quality for quantity.

JARRED: Wasted Space has been such a big breakout story, one I’ve particularly really enjoyed, but you really manage to balance this philosophical edge on top of this big space opera in a unique way. What is your inspiration for managing both of those sides so well simultaneously?

MORECI: You know, I just wanted to write a comic that no one else was writing anymore. Big, messy, exuberant, and full of ideas. It doesn’t hurt that I was once a philosophy major, and I still read philosophy texts to this day, but that’s only part of it. Really, it’s just about embracing the medium in a way I don’t feel is happening that often anymore. I wanted to do what comics do best—create a big, technicolor, visually stimulating thrill ride and couple that with worlds and ideas and characters we’ve never seen before. The superhero books did that in the 60s and again, somewhat, in the 80s. But we’re still doing that same. old. thing. I wanted to break things open and make a comic that couldn’t comic any harder.

With issue #15 due out on March 18, Wasted Space is Vault Comics longest-running series. — With issue #15 due out on March 18, **Wasted Space** is **Vault Comics** longest-running series.

JARRED: With respect to Billy Bane, he’s kind of an asshole. There’s this redeeming quality about him, though—where you really set it up for that to be Bane’s defense mechanism. Throughout Wasted Space we really see that get chipped away or built back up, while Billy does terrible things/acts differently. There’s been times while reading Wasted Space where I felt disappointed by his decisions. I’m kind of just curious how you tread that line? How you keep Billy as a character readers want to succeed while also wearing his flaws on his sleeve?

MORECI: That’s a great observation, and one I embrace. In our world of political and ideological extremes, where everyone’s entrenched in this our side vs. your side warfare, I wanted to craft a character who wasn’t always going to do the things or say the things we wanted or expected him to do and say. Who wasn’t always right. And he’s not an antihero—he’s not Walter White, where we can just get behind his badness in that satisfying way. Billy’s us. He’s good, he’s bad, he’s right, he’s wrong, he’s selfish at times, heroic at others. It’s okay, for us as readers, to embrace characters who aren’t great people. And it’s okay for writers to write them! You know, I read something like Saga—which is brilliant, wonderful etc etc etc—but it also drives me nuts because the characters are always so correct. Even when awful things are happening, they kinda happen and exist to gauge a character’s correctness; it’s for them to gaze on and say “ohhh, that’s bad.” Billy is just indiscriminately an asshole at times, because that’s just who he is. All the characters are selfish and bad and outright wrong to some degree, and that feels more real to me than anything.

JARRED: Speaking of your Vault work: The Plot. I think that wound up being one of the most well received books of the entire year. It had such a brilliant first issue and each after that kept really building on that. How do you and co-writer Tim Daniel approach writing horror that feels so personal?

MORECI: Well, horror is my favorite genre, and I find that the best horror—my favorite horror—are the stories that feel personal. Where the story is centered on the emotional journey and punishment/trauma of the characters. That, to me, is when you really start getting somewhere. Life in general is pretty horrifying—and I don’t mean that in some generic goth way. I mean, we’re all going to die yet we don’t know when or how, and in the time between we’ll hopelessly endure all the strange things existence has to offer. That’s horrifying in and of itself. Now, that said, horror is best—again, in my opinion—when it’s intimate. When we’re talking about the horrors of life. I think of stuff like Halloween, which was about the fear of death, relentlessly and anonymously pursuing you no matter what you do. Or the horror of parenthood in The Babadook, or the horror of grief in The Haunting of Hill House. I can go on. In The Plot, I can’t speak for Tim, but I know I’m tapping into some very personal and serious stuff, about familial illness and grief. The story doesn’t at all resemble what I experienced, but I think I captured the feeling, and I think people are resonating with that in a major way. And I love that. I’m so grateful for that.

The Plot is arguably the best horror comic right now among a field of excellent horror comics. — **The Plot** is arguably the best horror comic right now among a field of excellent horror comics.

JARRED: In terms of writing horror versus science fiction, is there a significant difference in how you tackle them? Do you change your process depending on which one you’re working on?

MORECI: For sure. I’m more of a horror guy, I think. Like, my sci-fi is kinda limited to “I love Star Wars,” and I write in that space adventure, myth-building genre. And that’s more about ideas and robust storytelling. Horror is far more intimate. When I’m writing something like Wasted Space, my mind is more focused on bigger things relating to society, politics, morality, stuff like that. In The Plot, I’m doing more to mine my own experiences and the anxiety and dread they’ve brought into my life.

JARRED: Technical aspects aside, what do you think is the biggest difference between writing a comic and writing a novel?

MORECI: The solitary nature of writing a novel is the biggest difference, I think. Like, when you write a book, your editor says “Okay, go ahead and go do it, I’ll see you in a year.” (They’re still there for you, but you get the idea.) With a comic, not only are you collaborating, but you’re in touch all the time. I love them both for those exact reasons, but that’s a huge difference in the creative process.

JARRED: A little more technical, but how do you approach writing in general? Are you big into outlines or do you approach stories a little more loosely?

MORECI: I’m a deep plotter. I can write by the seat of my pants, a little, but I generally don’t, and I rarely enjoy it. I like a plot, all outlined, and by the time I’m writing there’s little mystery as to what I’m doing. Writing is hard and nebulous enough. I don’t really need to add to that by sitting down and not knowing what the hell I’m doing!

JARRED: Who do you think are some of your bigger influences? Do you see their influence in your own work?

MORECI: Listing them off: George Lucas, Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, Tim Zahn, George Romero. And I definitely see them in my work. All the time. And I love it.

JARRED: As a fellow Star Wars fan, I can’t interview you without asking about Star Wars in particular. Is there a piece of Legends that you’d like to bring back into the new canon? A story or character or anything like that?

MORECI: I’d bring back A LOT from Legends. But if I had to pick one, I’d bring Brian Daley’s early Han Solo novels back into canon. Those books are so good, so much fun, and so wildly imaginative (they built out the Star Wars universe in wonderful ways) that they should be made to “count” and we should be drawing from them and even adding on to them.

JARRED: Lastly, and my most favorite question: is there something you feel your writing excels at? What’s something you feel you do really well?

MORECI: Hmmmm…I think I can pace a story pretty well. I know how to juggle the necessary elements of a good story—plot, theme, and character—and deliver them in a satisfying way that doesn’t call attention to itself and keeps those pages turning.

Jarred A. Luján makes comics, studies existential philosophy, and listens to hip-hop too loudly. For bad jokes and dog pictures, you can follow him on Twitter.