Michael Avon Oeming is probably best known for his penciling work on Powers, the creator-owned comic written by Brian Michael Bendis and published through Marvel’s Icon imprint. Over the years, Mike has been adding to his writing resume, most recently with the Ares miniseries from Marvel. FractalMatter’s Casey Cosker was able to catch up with Mike at New York Comic con for a quick discussion of his creative process and some of his current projects.
How’s the Ares series going for you?
Well issue 1 sold out, so that’s a good sign. I was really excited about the feedback on it. Of all the projects I’ve done, it’s the one that’s been the most favorably reviewed and responded to.
That’s the first of your writing that I’ve seen, and I really enjoyed it.
Thanks.
What other projects are you working on right now other than that and Powers?
Drawing Powers mostly, but I’m also writing Red Sonja monthly. Issue 6 just came out of that. That’s been half a year of Red Sonja. That’s a regular monthly book I’m writing. We’re talking to Marvel about doing other monthly projects.
How far along is Powers, and what’s going on with that?
We just passed issue 50 and there’s some really crazy stuff going on with Christina and Walker. Walker has evidently gotten some sort of superpowers at this point. Whether it’s for a short period of time or a long period of time, you’re going to have to tune in to find out.
How long is Powers intended to keep running?
I see us going at least for another three years. If we decided to end it now and to work up to the final story and wrap things up, it would still take another three years. That’s four to five story arcs. So we’ve still got a good amount in it. Even if we were ending it right now, we still have plenty of time to wrap stuff up.
Do you have any plans to draw anything else?
Yeah. I’m doing a creator-owned thing called The Cross Bronx, which will probably come out through Image and it’s written by Ivan Brandon. It’s four issues, and I’m drawing stuff, so I’m excited about it.
Which process do you enjoy more—drawing or writing?
Definitely drawing.
What’s a typical day for you drawing?
Drawing—I usually do that earlier in the morning, and the idea of that is if I get all my drawing done in the morning time say by twelve o’clock to three o’clock, I have the rest of the day to write. So I get a full day of drawing in and a full day of writing in.
What’s your writing process like? Do you sit by the computer or what?
Yeah. A lot of times I’ll take the computer to Barnes & Noble. I always start out with an outline. Then from the outline, I break that down into issues. Then from the issues I break it into pages, and then from that I just start writing it.
All right, I gotta ask just to see if I can get an answer. Where is Ares going to show up later in the Marvel universe?
In one of the major teams. And it’s not Thunderstrike or Fantastic Four.
Okay. Could you just speak for a bit about your movie projects?
I do some short films on the side. I see it as an expansion of the storytelling of writing and such. I did a short film for Six, which is a comic book that I did. And I shot a short film based on a short story, but there’s a lot of special effects, so it’s going to take a while to finish it up. It’s more of just an exercise in storytelling. If it leads to anything bigger than that, it’d be great.
Do you have any plans to move into other mediums?
With the film thing yeah, but I’m not trying very hard. If it happens, it happens, but it would be like a natural progression.
I think that’s about it. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Casey Cosker lives, reads, writes, and occasionally studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He spends his free time and money buying comic books and novels he can’t afford. He has been a self-proclaimed geek for several months now, and has no intention of changing his ways. He also has a hat.