By Zack Quaintance — I don’t know this for sure, but I think I might be one of the only people who is not employed by publisher Bad Idea who has read the firs tissue of their second title, Tankers, written by Robert Venditti and illustrated by Juan José Ryp. The reason I got a chance to check out the book was so that I could ask Venditti a set of questions about them in advance of the book’s release, Wednesday.

It’s a wild book, where people in mechs fight dinosaurs. Lots of mechs; lots of dinosaurs. And a good time is had by all. Check out my conversation with Robert below…enjoy!

Robert Venditti Interview

ZACK QUAINTANCE: One thing I immediately liked about this book was how many pulpy comics staples it packed in, from dinosaurs, to mechs, to time travel...what was the starting point for this book, and how did all of these elements come together in the scripting?

ROBERT VENDITTI: It all started with this germ of an idea that the oil companies would invent time travel for the sole purpose of saving the dinosaurs, so they’d continue to breed and die for another 60 million years, leading to more oil reserves in the modern day.

There are so many thought-provoking implications in that concept. Humankind’s reliance on fossil fuel. The misguided view we have that the natural world is something to be plundered and exploited. The use of technology as a vehicle for base greed.

We figured the best way to tackle those heady issues was with giant mechs fighting dinosaurs, and time travel was the only way we could think to do it.

ZACK: I think I counted something like nine solid pages of massive mech-on-dinos firefighting in the middle of this comic...can you talk about your collaboration process there with Juan José Ryp, and how you wrote those sequences for him?

ROBERT: Only nine? Seems a little light, to be honest. Thankfully, those numbers go way up in issues two and three.

Working with Juan is an absolute dream. When Bad Idea told me he’d be drawing the series, I was thrilled. We’d worked together a little bit in the past, and I’d always wanted to reteam with him. He’s such an amazing talent, not just in terms of the detail and storytelling in his art, but—and this is the most important thing—the emotion as well. I wrote the scripts specifically for him, and I can’t imagine the story being told any other way.

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to write, for example, a moment where a character uses a gigantic mech chainsaw-arm to slice a Tyrannosaurus Rex in half lengthwise—and for that character to be completely convinced that it’s the necessary and appropriate thing to do—and know that the art will capture both the guts and feelings of the moment. Juan is of the rare breed who can not only accomplish that, but take it to a level beyond my most hopeful imagining.

I really can’t wait for people to see his pages.

ZACK: It definitely seemed like taking ideas to the extreme was a big thematic interest of this comic, going big, I guess you could say. Is that part of what drew this story to Texas, too? 

ROBERT: Right or wrong, I can’t think of oil without Texas being the first thing that comes to mind. Growing up in South Florida, the closest I ever got to oil was the tar that sometimes washed up on the beaches. South Florida was cocaine and Miami Vice. Texas was oil and the derrick logo on the helmets of the Houston Oilers football team.

In terms of going big, though, we definitely wanted to embrace a bravado and swagger throughout the series. Mechs vs. dinosaurs is a go-big-or-go-home concept. At no point do any of our time-traveling mercenaries think twice about the dangerous implications of their mission. They’re wholly invested and in it to win the future.  

ZACK: I don’t want to spoil the end here, obviously, but it leaves things pretty wide-open for the second issue. Can you tease anything about where this book might be heading?

ROBERT: I’ll spoil it, so you don’t have to. The humans win Round 1 of this title bout, but the dinosaurs come roaring back with a vengeance in Round 2. Where that leads, readers will have to wait and see.

Along the way, though, we’ll have tons of surprises. Every member of the Tankers squad has their own motivations and desires. As much as Tankers is about bullets and teeth, none of it means anything if it isn’t grounded in relatable, honest characters.

ZACK: One of my favorite books that you’ve written was Wrath of the Eternal Warrior, another collaboration with Juan José Ryp, but I really liked all your Valiant work. With the leadership and other folks from those days now working with Bad Idea, I was curious how it felt? Was it, creatively, like picking up where you left off?

ROBERT: Very much so. We all had a great creative relationship at Valiant. It became a friendship, really. With the band reuniting at Bad Idea, how could I not take part? Tankers is just the first of many projects, we’re putting together. Each of them is very different from the other, and they’re all going to surprise people.   

ZACK: Finally, what’s the worst idea you’ve ever had for a comic?

ROBERT: I’m not sure when it comes to comics. But when I was in middle school, I decided on a whim to completely take apart my bike and put it back together, so I could feel like I knew about mechanical stuff. Next time I rode it, the chain popped off and flew into the back tire, launching me over the handlebars and onto the street. I broke both bones in my left wrist and had to wear a cast for the first half of ninth grade.

Man, what a bad idea.

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