Name: PilapZ
Subject: question...
Question:
How did you come up with the concept of runaways? where did you base these characters? did you use your teenage friends as reference or base them on the characteristics of a stereotypical teenager in the modern age? so far who is your favorite runaway character and why?
*** I always thought that there was something slightly suspicious about the way adult writers had protagonists like Batman and Spider-Man revere their deceased parents (or parental figures). I mean, if Mr. and Mrs. Wayne or Uncle Ben had lived to see their children turn seventeen, Bruce and Peter probably would have ended up hating them (the way most kids grow apart from their parents around that age). To me, it felt like grown-up comic creators were subtly suggesting to their young readers that true heroes always respect their elders and blindly follow their teachings. (On the other hand, maybe the real message was that the only good parent is a dead one...)
Either way, artist Adrian Alphona and I are both in our 20s, and we still believe that it's important to question authority and challenge the status quo established by the previous generation. Underneath all the superhero trappings, that's what our book is really about.
And yes, many of the characters in the book are based on people in my life. I named Alex Wilder's evil mom and dad after my folks, but I swear that Catherine and Geoffrey Vaughan are delightful human beings who never beat me, threw away my comic collection and/or killed young girls in sacrificial rituals.
(My kid sister Molly Hayes Vaughan, however, is just as adorable and powerful as her namesake!)
And Gert is probably my favorite character, just because I love writing people who don't like other people!
