Interview: Matt Miner Discusses LIBERATOR

Matt Miner wants to bring his writing and animal activism into a new medium: comic books. He is hoping to achieve that with his Kickstarter campaign that is currently active. Liberator is about a new anti-hero who stalks the night to protect animals and exact revenge on those who have tortured animals. Matt was kind enough to take time out of his busy (and holiday!) schedule to answer a few questions for Comicosity.

Maxwell Majernik: You have a previous writing background. Is this your first foray into comic books? How has the transition been so far? -COVER-Liberator1-

Matt Miner: I’ve been writing all my life, but not for comics. I went to school to be a writer, and lost my way at some point but always continued writing. Whether it was for myself or for activist groups or newsletters or news articles, I’ve always liked to bang out words with my fingers and try to put them in an order that makes sense.

Writing comics is a lot different from what I’ve done in the past. I knew it would be when I had the idea to give this a go, so I studied up on screenwriting, comic script writing, techniques on writing and thinking visually, and went back to school to study under Scott Snyder. I wanted to be sure if I was going to do Liberator, I was going to do it right and not half-ass it. This story is way too important for me to not put 100% into it.

While I started working on Liberator before anything else, I think my piece with the Occupy Comics anthology is going to see print first. I was in Rockaway during Hurricane Sandy and so I have a special appreciation for the work that Occupy Sandy’s been doing out here. The publisher tapped me to do a piece on my experiences out here and I’m proud to be able to say thanks to Occupy in this way.

Majernik: With industry regulars like Joel Gomez, Beth Sotelo, and Vito Delsante attached to the book, how were you able to put together this team?

Miner: I was referred to Joel Gomez through Freddie Williams II and through Joel I met his wife and ace colorist Beth Sotelo. The phenomenal art team has really brought a level of depth and meaning to Liberator that I could never have done with words alone. Vito’s a great guy and a buddy from his days of managing Jim Hanley’s Universe and my days of fanboying there.

Recently announced, Liberator just got some pretty sick cover artists onboard – Yasmin Liang is a rising star and has some big things in the works that you’ll be hearing about very soon. Plus we have Rod Reis on two covers and an epic piece from Yildiray Cinar as well.

Very proud and humbled to have all these great folks onboard.

Majernik: Where did the original concept for ‘Liberator’ come from?

c1f3d2ce3e8a872a0c0535f2c319b585_largeMiner: Well, there are people in real life who do this kind of night-time black ops clandestine work for animals. They pull on masks and dress in black and go out and save abused animals. Years ago when I learned about these people I thought “Whoah, they’re like superheroes but for animals – this stuff would make a great comic book!”

Majernik: Can you discuss what rewards you are offering and the pledge levels for your campaign?

Miner: Well, we have all the awesome stuff you’d expect from a comic book Kickstarter: limited editions, Kickstarter exclusives, prints, original art, sketch commissions and the like.

However, in addition to all that, we’ve partnered with some pretty incredible groups, bands, filmmakers and the like to provide some of the articles and extras in addition to the comic adventure. So, some of those folks have bundled up rewards of their own creations, just for us, to give our Kickstarter another level of awesome. That’s why we have all those killer rewards from folks like Bad Religion, Propagandhi, the Descendents and others.

Majernik: Any final words for Comicosity’s readers regarding Liberator?

Miner: If you’re a fan of gritty anti-hero stories like Dexter or Batman then check out the Kickstarter for Liberator, a new kind of comic featuring a new kind of hero who takes action to avenge abused animals.

Every day new celebrities and folks in the public eye are jumping onboard to endorse Liberator – folks like Neko Case and Bif Naked have rallied to let their fans know this is a project worth supporting, so please check it out and grab some cool swag for your support.

Liberator01_05-panel

You can find the Kickstarter for Liberator HERE. You can also follow Matt on twitter @MattMinerXVX.

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