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ANGELO: Hello Shon! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. A quick Google of your name provides an impressive list of writing credits. Could you give us an overview of your comic book career to date, starting with the date and title of your first published work and listing your most notable works?
SHON: My pleasure. Well, my comic career to date isn't much to speak of. I haven't done any published work in about five years until this past year with my own comic book creation "Shon C. Bury's Threshold." Back in 2001 I decided to take a hiatus from comics to refuel and focus on other creative endeavors. But now I'm back...oddly enough with the book I was developing just before I went on hiatus. Threshold is basically Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" cast with overeducated urban hipsters. A contemporary retelling of the Hero Cycle with a focus on the journey and Everyman situations. But it's not even as remotely as boring as I just made it sound.
Threshold is a five issue miniseries coming out of Italian company Narwain set to hit the stands this May...and run bimonthly until completion. They're making a big push into the US market and have a wide variety of books. They're going to be a company to watch, that's for sure.
My first published comic was a Firehawk feature in ShowCase'95. I forget the issue. It was a great learning experience. After that I made a big jump to WildStorm when it was still part of Image. I helped Jim Lee and Dan Norton create a book called Black Ops. It had a follow-up mini. I did about a dozen books for WildStorm, then bounced around from Marvel, DC, and Acclaim on various titles like Cable, Power Pack, Impulse, Superman Adventures...and a little book I co-created with artist Joe St. Pierre called NIO. This last one was from Acclaim.
Oddly enough, my favorite comics are those that weren't published. Cary Nord and I made five issues of an unpublished Micronauts revamp for Marvel back in...'98? Cary and I had a great time on that book. Unfortunately, licensing problems developed and it was canceled just after I finished the fifth issue. Three complete issues are sitting around somewhere.
I'm also very pleased with an unpublished first issue of a comic that was to be a three-part Xavier's memoirs miniseries. It got canceled when Quesada became Editor In Chief of Marvel...along with many, many X-Men projects at that time. We turned the first issue into an inventory script for Uncanny X-Men, but it got lost in the shuffle. As things are wont to do when a company goes through the kinds of changes Marvel was back then. Oddly enough, the story is exactly the kind of "New Marvel" storytelling that put Marvel back on top. It's hard to be a man ahead of my time. ;)
ANGELO: From the books you've done to date, which characters have been your favorites?
SHON: Well, I have a couple properties I've developed (am developing) that have characters I'm extremely enjoying. Obviously, I'm having a blast with Threshold. All five scripts have been written for almost a year now, but we're still coloring issue one and the pencils for issue four are rolling in now. Five issues in and you really get a sense of who these characters are...and then the story ends. As far as my published work (with characters I don't own)...? Working with Professor X on the aborted memoirs was both exhilarating and terrifying. Exhilarating because it's fun imagining what Xavier did as a young man, leading up to his decision to create the X-Men. Terrifying because it's frickin' Professor X. That's not a story I wanted to phone in to my editor. Also, Huntarr on the aborted Micronauts. He's a completely under appreciated character. Very tragic. Very heroic. Very horrific. Kind of Clayface meets Wolverine. And where's the bad in that? There's a lot of pain and anger waiting to be explored with that character. Other notables...loved Copycat from DV8 and Geek from Black Ops. LOVED Geek from Black Ops.
ANGELO: Do you have a "wish list" of characters you've yet to work with? Is there a "dream book" Shon C. Bury would love to write?
SHON: Yes to both questions. I have several characters I don't own that I would love to play with. As you can probably guess, I'd maim innocent people if it meant I could do something with a young Professor X. He was like the bald Indiana Jones of his day, who happened to read minds. Man-Thing/Jennifer Kale/Nexus of Realities for many reasons. The main reason for working on them would be to find a way to make the book sell. I also love magic and alternate realities. Throw a little suspense, inbred swamp hicks, and crocodiles in the mix, and I'm sold. I'd also love a crack at The Eternals. If Marvel can make the Inhumans cool again, they can make The Eternals cool again. I wouldn't mind helping with that. I've had a pitch sitting around forever and was at first peeved and then really excited to hear that Neil Gaimen was redeveloping the characters. I'm a huge fan of Neil's...so now I'm dying to see what he's doing to Ikaris and company.
Dream books? Teen Titans. Outsiders. The Eternals. Hellblazer. I'd like to make an honest go at a couple X-Books. But really, I like to develop my own properties instead of monkeying about with characters I don't own and don't have the final say with. I'm getting kinda weird about that.
ANGELO: What was your inspiration or motivation to get into the comic book field?
SHON: I love them. That's the main reason most writers and artists work in the industry. Not every one's doing as well as they would if they got into commercial art or writing screenplays. Some leave to pursue those lines of work, but there's a few with "the bug" that keep coming back for the pure love of it. I've got the bug.
ANGELO: You've worked for a wide range of companies within the comic industry. What advice would you give to aspiring writers wanting to forge a career in the industry? How did you break in?
SHON: My first words of advice are this: There is no "breaking in." You have to break in with each editor you win over, with each proposal you sell, and with each deadline you meet. It's an ongoing process. Other than that, I can only encourage young writers to finish college and read more than just comics. Comics are awesome but there is tons of awesome outside comics.
ANGELO: Let's touch on another aspect of your comic book career. How did you get involved with Sequential Studios?
SHON: I got involved with Sequential Studios in a very sad way. Sequential was founded by Brazilian artist Antonio Martinez, Junior. When Junior started getting work in the United States, he partnered with Doug Miers of Comic Conspiracy to help him represent the artists. Their partnership lasted for about eight years, then Doug passed away very suddenly just this past year.
I had known and worked with Doug and Sequential Studios for a number of years, and Doug was actually helping put some projects together with some of Junior's artists at the time of his death. Obviously, we where all stunned and saddened by Doug's sudden passing, but Junior needed to keep the studio up and running. Junior and I had never worked with each other directly, but my work had crossed his desk many times over the years and I had helped the studio get some of their artists established at a few companies in the past.
The obvious question eventually came up: "Well, if you're getting back into comics anyway, would you be interested in helping me find work for my artists?" I had to think about it for a long time because I just wanted to write and, obviously, many of my contacts had atrophied. I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to help. But I finally agreed. It was rocky at first, but Sequential finally got her footing again and now we're busier than we've ever been.
ANGELO: Can you give us an overview of the services offered by Sequential?
SHON: Sure. That's the favorite part of my job. The short answer: we do everything. We're a full service studio. That wasn't the case when I first came on board. We had many pencilers, inkers, and colorists spread out over several projects. And no letterer. Now we're able to take a client's script and run it through all the way to prepress. To include logos and cover work. Or you can just hire the individual talent you need. Which is still, predominately, what people do.
Although we're primarily a comic book studio-for-hire, we also do game cards, commercial art, and video game box illustration. Many of our artists have been prominently featured in several "how-to" books and pinup magazines. And one of our best artists, John Bosco has just been picked up by Image Central's "Noble Causes." His first issue is #19. And it's HOT. Oh, and before I forget, we do conceptual art and character design. Always the first step of any project we take on.
ANGELO: What projects can your fans look forward to buying RIGHT NOW or in the near future?
SHON: "Shon C. Bury's Threshold" hits the stands in May. And that's it for 2006 to date. I'm putting other things together at a brisk clip so we'll see how things go.
I've only just decided to get back into the game this past January year after taking so much time away from the industry. Some days I kick myself for letting my contacts atrophy so much, but then I remind myself that I needed that period to recharge. I was just a kid in my early twenties when I started getting published. I didn't know ****. Now I'm all grows up and writing my @$$ off. I've been working feverishly on getting my Sequential artists work since partnering up with Junior. And, in all honesty, I'm in no big hurry to become a professional proposal writer for the big two again. I've just been working on my own stuff. I have a number of personally owned properties in various stages of developed - two of which I'm shopping around even as we speak. We'll see what happens. But, by hook or crook, they'll be printed.
And until I find a home for these projects, you can always check out Threshold #1 in May.
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