Charles Soule and Ryan Browne Pack Up Their Van and Head to Texas
It takes something special to justify lining up outside in 110 degree Texas heat but Charles Soule and Ryan Browne’s Curse Words Van Tour was definitely a good reason to sweat through our shirts. The two creators hit the road in their custom-wrapped van to visit fans, sell exclusive comics and merch, and show off what is one of the best creator-owned series of the year. (And the free beer from a local brewery was a definite plus.)
The line wrapped along the blistering sidewalk outside of Red Pegasus Comics in Dallas, Texas but surprisingly no one complained; everyone was just excited to get sketches and chat with a couple of their favorite writers and artists. We had a chance to interview the pair all about their unique marketing strategy (the first comic tour of its kind that I’ve personally seen … correct me in the comments if I’m wrong), as well as their upcoming projects for Marvel, Dynamite … and, of course, Star Wars.
Some excerpts from our conversation below, edited slightly for clarity and brevity:
Charles Soule: The thing about the tour is that I am amazed how quickly you forget what day it is and how quickly you forget where you are in America and like what you’re supposed to do. It feels like we’re on a ship just drifting through the country, occasionally stopping in these islands of comic book stores that are popping up. And then the population of these islands are people who are super excited to see us and are super nice. So, this has been one of my favorite comic-related things I’ve ever done in my life.
Ryan Browne: I mean, absolutely. What’s even second?
CS: Oh gosh, I guess … when you agreed to do Curse Words.
RB: Yup.
Super Kaiju: That’s cute.
CS: It’s not just the tour, which has been a blast, but it’s been hanging out, spending this much time with Ryan, who was already a guy I liked. 24 hours a day, we’re within three feet of each other.
RB: We’ve gotten really good at both looking straight ahead and talking and not looking at each other. I don’t think we look at each other very much anymore. And that kinda keeps it fresh. We can imagine what the other person looks like.
CS: So that’s what you look like!
The response to a book, especially when you make your own creator-owned book, it can be very abstract sometimes. You’re getting the numbers and orderings and people are talking on Twitter. But here you’re in front of hundreds and hundred of people and they’re telling you how much fun they’re having with your book, that they’re happy. And that makes us happy!
RB: You never know how these things are going to go. But having the pageantry, the hardcover, the van and all this stuff … it’s really exceeded my expectations. Every day we’re doing a mini-comic-show and we get to see people are actually reading our books. The tour is exhausting but it’s actually been really rejuvenating for me because I get to see that people really care. It’s great. It’s different than seeing numbers and sales.
CS: It’s been a huge amount of work to put this together. I started planning it and asked Ryan … “Should we really do this?”
RB: I let Charles really plan this because it was his idea, but then I stepped in and did all the art and design for it. But Charles did the planning and logistics. A lot of energy went into it.
CS: We just wanted to keep the conversation going. Even an Image book that is well received … people aren’t talking about it in six months because the next awesome Image book comes out. Not every book is going to be a Saga. So we thought we could do a marketing event for the book on our own and this seemed to be the way to do something that really hadn’t been done before, to have a reason to keep the conversation going.
SK: I have to ask before we head out of here: ow’s Poe doing, how’s Darth Vader? Are there any more Star Wars one-offs that you have coming up that you can tease?
CS: Poe Dameron is a series I’ve been doing for almost a couple years now and it’s been a lot of fun. There’s a lot of exciting stuff coming up … Lor San Tekka is coming back, something we had when the book first began: Poe Dameron and Black Squadron’s hunt for Lor San Tekka.
It’s really neat to be able to work in the Episode 7 timeline, getting to explore all of these concepts. And Darth Vader just started in June. Star Wars, man.
SK: How does aligning with the Star Wars story group work? You’re introducing all these new elements to the canon … bleeding crystals …
CS: Well, you send some emails and then they send you emails and then you have an approved plan … or not an approved plan. And then you have to make a new plan. So it’s like any working relationship. The Story Group’s job is not to step on any stories … their job is to make sure the stories told are phenomenal and match the other stories being told. They’re a blast and I like them and they seem to like me, which is good.
SK: That’s what we like to hear. Anything else either of you want to plug, any new projects coming up?
CS: Well, Astonishing X-Men just started up for Marvel, which has been really well received. A lot of cool things are about to happen in that book. Daredevil is moving along … the “Supreme” arc is about to wrap up, which is my big Law and Order legal drama in Daredevil. I was very nervous to write that, even though I’m a lawyer, because I think that made expectations super high that I was going to write this scintillating, perfect legal story. I was very nervous but people seem to dig it.
Then we get to a new storyline called “Land of the Blind”, which involves Daredevil’s protege Blindspot coming back into the book after a little while out because … his eyes were ripped out and it takes a little time to recover from that, right?
RB: I’ve been writing a book for Dynamite called Hero Killers, which is part of the Project Superpowers moniker, which they haven’t used for a long time … all those public domain superheroes that Alex Ross tried to bring back to life. They hired me to just do it and make it stupid, something humorous. They basically said to “do God Hates Astronauts but with these characters”. So I’m just finishing writing up Issue #5. Pete Woods is doing the art and he’s amazing so it’s an odd book for Dynamite to be doing … they’re not really known for humor. But it’s awesome.
The rest of the their tour, as well as pictures and videos can be found on wizord.horse. They also personally asked for fans to comment “Gee, Ryan and Charles, I hope you guys don’t die” because, for some reason, no one has done that yet. I’m just passing along the message.
There are nine more stops left for one of the most unique comic events of the year. It really is a blast and, if you’re close to one of the remaining stops, definitely swing by and check it out. As Charles put it: “21 states, 7000 cities, we’re going to see a million faces and rock them all. That’s from a song.”
