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The fix #1
Steve Lieber is the popular and award-winning artist whose work includes Alabaster, Shooters, Underground, Whiteout, and more! He’s reuniting with his remarkable Foes of Spider-Man collaborator Nick Spencer for The Fix. Lieber talked with Westfield’s Roger Ash about this upcoming series from Image.
Westfield: What was the genesis of The Fix?
Steve Lieber: Nick Spencer and I worked together at marvel on a book called remarkable Foes of Spider-Man, an Eisner-nominated knucklehead caper comedy about five loser villains. (The omnibus edition just came out in February.)
It was insanely well received, with the most enthusiastic fans of any comic I’ve ever worked on. people come up to me at every convention and talk about their favorite moments. After wrapping up remarkable Foes, we immediately started talking about collaborating on another project. That became The Fix
The fix #1 preview page 1
Westfield: You’re working again with Nick Spencer on the book. What makes this a good partnership?
Lieber: We’ve got similar senses of humor. also we’ve put together a special way of collaborating that’s based on our depend on in each other’s skills. often Nick writes marvel style- plotting without dialogue. often he just writes the dialogue for a scene and leaves the visuals and pacing in my hands. often he writes a standard script. often he tells me what a scene needs and I just go wild. In all cases I try to take what he gave me and put a spin on it when I send it back to him. We’re regularly unusual each other.
Getting readers to laugh out loud at a comic is hard, but Nick and I can do it.
The fix #1 preview page 2
Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the book?
Lieber: horrible people making horrible choices. Laughs. Shocking reversals of fortune.
Westfield: who are the main characters readers will meet and what can you tell us about them?
Lieber: Mac and Roy are two crooked cops. Josh is a monstrous, sociopathic crimelord who brews his own kombucha. Donovan is a motion picture producer with poor impulse control. Pretzels is an LAPD beagle, and the only member of our cast who isn’t complete moral garbage.
The fix #1 preview page 3
Westfield: one of the characters I’ve been curious about considering that the title was announced is Pretzels the drug sniffing beagle. how did a pet dog become part of the cast and what storytelling challenges/opportunities does that present?
Lieber: We had a corgi puppy who played a small but significant role in remarkable Foes of Spider-Man. It was clear to any individual who read the book how much fun Nick had writing him and I had drawing him. Dogs are great!
The challenge for me is getting clear and believable expressions and body language on a beagle. He’s just an ordinary indicate little beagle. This is a crime story, not a fantasy, so he can’t talk or anything like that. That indicates the pictures have to tell the reader everything they need to know.
The fix #2
Westfield: any closing comments?
Lieber: Nick and I are hugely pleased of this book. It’s genuinely funny, full of twists and turns, and it reads like nothing else out there. We’re knocking ourselves out on it, and we think readers are going to love it.
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The fix #1
The fix #2