By Zack Quaintance — It’s right there on the cover, this week My Bad #1 will launch an IMPORTANT NEW SUPERHERO UNIVERSE. This is, of course, a bit of parody and a bit of satire (this book is being published by AHOY Comics, after all), and a whole lot of fun. It’s written by the team of Mark Russell and Bryce Ingram, who are both razor-sharp wits, and illustrated by Peter Kruase, who is no stranger to superhero send-ups, having worked within AHOY’s Wrong Earth property (another absolutely excellent read, for those of you who are yet to check that one out).

The premise of My Bad is that a supervillain has cornered his arch enemy! And also his other arch enemy! Hijinks ensue from there, and it’s all very clever and fast-paced. Today we are honored to have an interview with the book’s co-writers, Russell and Ingram.

Check out our discussion below!

INTERVIEW: Mark Russell and Bryce Ingram talk MY BAD #1

ZACK QUAINTANCE: Mark, I wanted to start by asking about the cartooning you did for this book. How did that come about?

MARK RUSSELL: I've always been a pretty mediocre artist, so I figured the toy ad page is the one place in a comic book where my lack of artistic talent would actually be an asset. Plus, a lot of what we wanted to do with this series was to create an alternate universe for comic books. A sort of purgatory of disillusionment. And whether as an artist or a writer, I feel like I can do "purgatory of disillusionment" pretty well. Right in my wheelhouse.

ZACK: How if at all does your approach change when working with homage or parody of superheroes rather than with the actual superhero IP?

MARK: The nice thing about parody is that you can be more honest with yourself and the audience. When you're writing a hero in a serious vein, sometimes you still can't help but think, "Yeesh, what a narcissist!" But when you're writing a serious comic, you just have to swallow that feeling or work to make them seem less of a narcissist. In a parody, that feeling becomes what you build the story around.

ZACK: Your comics are to me sort of united by a shared voice and razor-ship witty satire, and I was wondering how much effort goes into that sort of coherence on your end? Is it something you think about consciously at all?

MARK: Like most people, I'm always wittier the second or third time around. I'm the king of coming up with what I should have said in a conversation five minutes after it ended. But when you're writing, you can actually do that. So, yeah, I do put a lot of conscious effort into it. I usually do several rewrites to amplify my meager wit and to tighten the lines and the coherence of my story until I feel like I've gotten it about as good as I can get it.

ZACK: Bryce, can I ask you what the genesis for this book was like, and how the team came together to work on this idea?

BRYCE INGRAM: Once upon a time, MY BAD was going to be a back-up feature in Mark's SECOND COMING book. We both thought the story of a super-rich villain who catches the wrong superhero in his sixteen-stage torture trap was a nice fit for a comic about Jesus Christ and his superhero roommate. At one point, we even discussed the two worlds merging. But our editor-in-chief Tom Peyer had the even better idea of MY BAD becoming its own title with Mark helping to build out the world. Peter Krause was on the project from the beginning, and with his past superhero experience, he's the perfect partner in bringing our slightly off-center heroes and villains to life. Plus, everything he draws looks flipping amazing!

ZACK: What was the working relationship like logistically between yourself and Mark?

BRYCE: We'd get together and talk over the plots, go to our separate computers and write, then share it with the other guy so we could discuss any suggested changes, possible improvements, or better jokes. Mark is a brilliant writer and an even better guy. He's a pleasure to create stories with and he's got the reflexes of a cat.

ZACK: Finally, I’ll ask the standard new #1 comic interview question...what’s the scope of this book? Is there a hope for future volumes or other stories in this world?

BRYCE: Well, as the cover on issue one says, this is an "Important New Superhero Universe" so we can't stop after just one season can we? What kind of pitiful universe would that be? Seriously though, Mark and I both hope that readers respond positively to MY BAD and we get to continue telling stories in this world. We both have ideas for a second season that we're quite excited to share with everyone. Hopefully, the MY BAD party is just getting started.

Read more great interviews with comics creators!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.