[Editor's note: The following will also be appearing in the next issue of MAIN, due out at the end of this month. You can e-mail Rusty Gilligan, the editor, at maineditor@aol.com or visit members.aol.com/maineditor/main.html for more info.]
Jae Lee first broke into comics in 1991 with a Beast story in Marvel Comics Presents. It was written by Scott Lobdell, who was trying to get into the industry as well and decided to team up with Lee after seeing his samples at a convention. They never worked together again after that, although they remain friends and Lee says they almost did WildCATS/X-Men together.
Lee then moved to Namor, which was being written by John Byrne. After Byrne left, he took on Youngblood Strikefile and WildCATS Trilogy at Image until he was ready to launch Hellshock, his very own creator-owned title. During that in-between time he also did a few issues of X-Factor and a story guest-starring Iron Fist for Spider-Man.
Hellshock is the story of Daniel, a spiritual being with mysterious origins, and Christina, a psychologist who meets him while working the psycho ward at a New York City hospital. He comes to them barely able to speak, and she works with him until they embark on a wondrous journey together. It's a title which first began as a four-issue mini-series from Image two years ago and which now continues as an ongoing book.
Q: How is the new Hellshock series different from the first one?
A: When I did the first one, I wasn't ready. It was my first writing assignment, and it wasn't my best. I was very disappointed with the way it ultimately turned out, because I simply wasn't ready for it. And with this regular series, I took two years away just to concentrate on my writing and to improve my art, and that's a big difference. So when you read this, there's an actual story here as opposed to the first one.
Q: Did you get any coaching or tips to improve your writing?
A: The only coaching I got was people who didn't like the first mini-series. [laughter] "Hey, this sucked." Alright, I have to go back and rework it.
Q: So how has the character Daniel changed from the first one to this one?
A: He's more human. In the mini-series, because it was four issues and I didn't know if it would continue on or not, there was only so much I could get into in terms of character development. So what we saw in the mini-series was five minutes in the life of Daniel. With the regular series I can tell how he came to be, who he is, and just expand on the character. Not that the mini-series has anything to do with the regular series, because when I went back and reworked a lot of it, of course I changed a lot of it also.
Q: So readers should disregard the events of the first series when reading this one?
A: Yeah, it's really. I keep saying this is a prelude to the mini-series, only because there are some events which took place in the mini-series which will take place further down the road, but the only similarity would be the mother and father's names, but that's about it. For all intents and purposes, it's a new story.
Q: How will Christina the psychologist work into the story?
A: She's the main character. She's the one that enables us to relate to Daniel, because he is more of a spiritual being. It's kind of hard to get into his head. There are some events that happen in issue three that thrust Christina into the role of lead character. She carries on Daniel's message.
Q: So will Daniel leave the series?
A: [Unfortunately, Jae asked me to keep the answer to this question off the record so that he doesn't spoil any surprises in the third issue, which is due out at the end of April.]
Q: I was re-reading the first issue of the mini-series noticed the character Josh. Will he play a part in this new one?
A: No, I doubt it. He fell victim to the dangling character plotline.
Q: I have to admit that I didn't finish reading the mini-series when it first ran. Did he play a large part in that story?
A: Yeah, I threw him in there as a character to mirror Daniel's life. A character that people could relate to because he's more human. The conflict which Josh has with his father and the conflict which Daniel has with his father [mirror each other]. So he served his purpose as far as the mini-series goes. He has no place in this series, though. He may come back as a footnote or something. He'll be a male hustler working Times Square.
Q: I noticed in the editorial of the first issue of this series that you have the first thirteen issues worked out -
A: Twelve. But I keep changing it as I go along. I have twelve issues planned out, but it goes on longer than that.
Q: Is this going to be ongoing for as long as it sells, or is there going to be an end at some point?
A: For as long as I have a story to tell. Right now this story could last fifty issues. Thirty maybe. It's hard to say. It definitely has an end, but not after twelve issues.
Q: It seems like a lot of people are doing that in comics these days. Jeff Smith is doing fifty issues of Bone, and Cerebus will last 300. Do you think this is a new trend in comics where a series is carried on for five years but it ends, as opposed to the old days where a corporation would keep a series going forever, like Spider-Man?
A: Well, I think the readers really want to see the creator take a personal hand in this and stick with it. Not give up after doing ten issues. It's kind of a betrayal. It's kind of like "Well, I don't care enough about this character to work on it any longer. Here you go. Have somebody else finish it."
I'm not trying to be part of any kind of movement, and I didn't really know there was a movement.
Q: Well, I just made it up that there was a movement.
A: [laughter] Well, I'm committed to this book, and as long as Hellshock is around, I'm going to be writing and drawing it.
I'm barely aware of what's going on in the real world. I just do my thing here in my little corner.
Q: Does that include the comics world?
A: Yeah, there's so much negative things going on, with people complaining about sales and things like that.
Q: What's your take on the current downtrend in the industry?
A: Well, I've thought about that, and I don't know if it's because I'm older or I've lost interest or what, but it just seems like there aren't many good products out there to keep people interested.
Q: So what do you think the industry needs to do to get readers interested? Have we just lost readers? Can we get new ones?
A: Well, I think we always need diversity. We always need something fresh, something interesting, like Dark Knight and Watchmen did to rejuvenate the industry. We need people who will read the books.
Q: What prompted the move from Marvel to Image?
A: Well, I was on Namor for a little over a year. Byrne had left, and creatively there just wasn't much to it anymore. I found myself rushing through the stuff to get it done. It wasn't fun anymore.
Q: Was Tom DeFalco writing that?
A: No, we had a couple writers. Bob Harras was doing it. And then I got a call from Image with an offer to do my own book, which was terribly exciting at the time. I didn't think I was ready, though, so I did some work-for-hire in the meantime while I was getting that prepared.
Q: What's your take on the business with Rob Liefeld leaving Image?
A: Whatever's better for the company.
Q: You haven't cared one way or another?
A: Yeah, I don't really follow that stuff. All I know is what I read in Wizard or something. If it was good for the company, it's great that he's gone. Anytime something like that happens, though, it really isn't good for anybody.
Q: Do you think you'll ever do anymore work for Marvel?
A: If a project comes up that's interesting, yeah. I'm not like "Marvel sucks and I'm never going back there." Working at Marvel was the best time I ever had working in comics. It's where I first started, so yeah, later on down the road I'd like to do some stuff.
Q: Do you have any opinions on what's happened with Marvel lately with Heroes World and all that?
A: Yeah, what a mess.
[laughter] I don't know anything about what happened with [Heroes World],
and I really don't care. Those guys just fucked it up. The big fall in
the market: A lot of blame goes to Marvel for what they did. Frank Miller
and Todd McFarlane are always complaining about Marvel and their corporate
behavior, and I guess they were right. All the naysayers were right about
Marvel. They doomed themselves. I feel sorry for all the editors and freelancers
who worked for them. I was shocked when Marvel declared bankruptcy.