San Diego Comic Con is the bastion of immense talent just spilling through all corners of the convention center, and we were given the chance to interview one of our favorite creative talents at the Con, Joëlle Jones.
Joëlle is best known for her series published by Dark Horse, Ladykiller, and the main focus of our interview revolves around her lead character, Josie Schuller, taking her special talents to Cocoa Beach, Florida in Lady Killer 2.
Without spoiling too much, Josie Schuller is a simple housewife with a peculiar set of skills. Her Tupperware selling is a simple front for a hobby that’s a bit more messy. Joëlle’s decision to set Lady Killer in the 1960s adds to the allure as we have a kick-ass lady in a time where that wasn’t really so.
Check out the interview with Joëlle below, and look forward to grabbing Lady Killer 2 #1 releasing August 3rd.
Jenny: So let’s start you off with an easy one and definitely my personal question: You took this obviously strong and very independent woman, and now you set her in the 60s, a time that is not really known for having women like Josie. So what was your inspiration in putting her in this era and creating her the way that you did?
Joëlle: You know I had a few reasons. I think it was mostly because I was obsessed with the aesthetic, the clothes, and I wanted to do the set design. And I was tired of drawing jeans on everybody. That was part of it. The other part of it was I grew up with a really traditional upbringing and saw a lot of the housewives stereotypes in play. I love the idea of something so sweet being so horrible on the inside.
Joey: What kind of trouble can we expect to see from Josie now that her mother-in-law has kind of seen behind the curtain at the end of the first book?
Joëlle: That is what I am most excited to draw in the next series. I can’t say too much, but in this one we are going to delve into the past of the mother in law, and it is going to inform how she makes her decisions going forward.
Jenny: Are any of the other family members going to see Josie for who she is?
Joëlle: I can’t say. I mean, I could ruin it if you want me to.
Jenny: So now that she is on her own, what kind of struggles is she going to face basically running her own business, so to speak?
Joëlle: So basically, it’s a lot more stress. She is taking on a ton more work and trying to make a name for herself in a completely different part of the country that is sort of alien to her and me. I grew up in the northwest so I thought of what would be the opposite, and Florida is the complete opposite of anything that I am used to. So, yeah, she is kinda starting out on her own and kind of failing and succeeding in other parts, and I bring back some people from her past to kind of trip her up along the way.”
Joey: Since the character gets compared to Dexter so much, if they did meet, who do you think would come out on top?
Joëlle: I think Josie would come out on top, and not just because she is from my book. But I think that she doesn’t have as many rules as he does. She is not as emotionally tied to it. She is a hard worker that doesn’t have all these rules likes, ‘It’s gotta be like this, not like this.’ She gets the job done.
Jenny: So I think this is kind of for us personally since we are such big fans of Lady Killer, but with its success and doing a second series, do you have any plans for more merchandise? Is Lady Killer going to expand into anything else?
Joëlle: Yeah, we are talking about the possibility for bigger media at the moment. It’s really exciting, and there has been a lot of interest. It’s just been juggling all that and who’s the best person to see the image of this comic book to the big screen or the little screen of however we are going to do it. Yeah, it has been exciting, but it is a landscape that I am not familiar with at all. I only understand comic books, so yeah, it is tricky.
Joey: Do you have anything else that you are working on besides Lady Killer that you can talk about?
Joëlle: I just signed an exclusive with DC Comics. So I have some things in the works with them that I can’t quite talk about yet. But, I will be writing and drawing some stuff for them, and I couldn’t be more excited.
You can catch more from Joëlle Jones at the following sites:
Twitter: @Joelle_Jones
Instagram: Joelle Jones
Website: Joelle Jones
