It’s unusual that we’d run an interview at IGN where one of the interviewees is an IGN editor, but Love is Love is a very special project.
Published by IDW, in participation with DC Comics, Love is Love -- which will be available on December 28th for $9.99 -- is a 144-page anthology comic book created as a tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL earlier this year. Comic book writer Marc Andreyko (Batwoman, Wonder Woman '77) organized the book and its participants and all of the work for Love is Love was done for free, with all proceeds going to Equality Florida to benefit the victims and survivors from Pulse, along with their families.
The astounding list of contributors includes some of the biggest names in comic books, including Jim Lee, Paul Dini, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, Jill Thompson, George Perez, Matt Wagner, Amanda Connor, Phil Jimenez, Olivier Coipel and many more. The book also features contributions from notable actors, writers and directors outside the comic book world, including Patton Oswalt, Damon Lindelof, Taran Killam, Matt Bomer, Morgan Spurlock and none other than J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter characters are featured in a page drawn by Jim Lee. Along with several stories that feature Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and other DC Comics icons, the Archie characters also appear, and the book features work by some, like Marvel’s Brian Michael Bendis, who have notably been given permission to circumvent their current exclusive deals.
IGN Comics Editor Joshua Yehl was personally affected by the Pulse shooting. His best friend, Drew Leinonen, was one of the 49 victims at Pulse, as was Drew’s boyfriend, Juan Ramon Guerrero. Joshua is now one of the contributors to Love is Love, writing a story illustrated by Austin James.
I spoke to Joshua and Marc about the project, the talent involved and how it all came together.
Love is Love art by Rafael Albuquerque
IGN: Marc, this is an incredible project you initiated. Can you talk about what inspired you to put it together?
Marc Andreyko: When I went to bed that Saturday night, there was a story on the news that there had been a shooting at a club. But we’ve become inured to that sort of thing. Then I woke up Sunday morning and heard that 49 people were dead and 53 were injured and I felt physically Ill. I just felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. My reflexive reaction was “We need to do something.” I grew up as a child in the 80s with Live Aid, and We Are the World, and Band Aid, and Comic Relief and all those great things. Artists react to tragedy by doing something both as a way for us as artists to process our pain and our grief and our loss and as a way to give something back and memorialize people that are lost. That always makes it far harder to compartmentalize things. It’d be really easy to write a check to the American Red Cross and then move on but as I said before, something like this will hurt for a long time. Stuff like this shouldn’t happen. We should never get used to stuff like this. And by having this book come out six months after the event and the amount of love on every page -- the book’s a hard read. I’m not going to lie. The book is a real emotional ringer, in a good way. It’s a way to realize that we, as a species, should never get used to tragedy like this and we should do everything we can to prevent it from happening and to celebrate people loving people. We should all be lucky enough to be loved and to love someone in return. That’s what this is about. After I posted on Facebook, my grief struck message - “We need to do something. Let’s do a comic book” -- by the time I got home that afternoon there were 70 people in comics and friends of mine that said they were in. So I realized “Oh, I guess I’m doing a book.”
IGN: You’ve got DC and IDW collaborating, plus the Archie characters showing up, and a who's who of participants, some of whom are crossing company lines here. Did it just seem like in a situation like this all boundaries were off and everyone was going to make it happen no matter what it took?
Andreyko: Yeah, it was great. We had people coming to us saying “I want to contribute. I want to be a part of it.” It wasn’t like pulling teeth to get people on board. The outpouring of “how can I help?” was just amazing. The book wouldn’t exist without DC and IDW. When I was first drawing the book together, I reached out to Diane Nelson and DC because I was going to ask if we could use some DC characters because DC has always been a progressive company with LGBT characters. And we kept missing each other because Diane is basically running the universe at this point. And she emailed me back and said, “I know we keep missing each other but if you need anything, DC is on board. We’ll do anything we can.” That just overwhelmed me to have not only one of the biggest publishers in comics but to have the president of the company who has eight thousand things on her plate at any given time, and to use these characters. And IDW was right there with them. I reached out to IDW because I have a long relationship with the company and they said they were on board. Sarah Gatos, one of the busiest editors at IDW and Jamie Rich, who’s running Vertigo now, both volunteered instantly. They are two of my biggest heroes because I might have a deep Rolodex and know a lot of people but I don’t know a gif from a tiff from a pdf. I don’t know the technical stuff. They’re both editing 10-12 books along with their other projects. They did this all on their own time and with the support of their companies and they really -- like I said, I can’t thank them enough. They put in so many hours on this to make this come to fruition.
Paul Dini and Bill Morrison's Love is Love story features Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy
IGN: Joshua, you write about comic books but don’t normally contribute to them. This is a tragedy that very personally affected you. How did you first hear that Marc was working on this project?
Joshua Yehl: I had posted on Twitter that my best friend Drew Leinonen and his boyfriend Juan Ramon Guerrero were killed at Pulse. I used to live in Orlando and went to Pulse countless times, it was my favorite place to go out with Drew and our friends. It's beyond tragic what happened there, just unthinkable, and I found myself venting my feelings on social media. So someone at DC PR, Brandy Phillips, she saw that and knew Marc was doing this book and put me in touch with him. I went and had lunch with Marc at Comic-Con and he told me everything he was going to do for the book. I was just flooded with gratitude that he was taking it upon himself to head up such a huge effort to get the comics community involved to help those affected by the tragedy. And it's so inspiring to see how this project has broken down so many barriers with people coming together from different publishers to make it happen. Marc asked me to be a part of it, but that's such an intimidating offer, you know? But I wanted to do something special for Drew, so I said yes. Then I get home and I was like “Oh my god I’m in the same comic as Brian Bendis and Jim Lee!" and I’m like “How am I going to write a story worthy of being among these comic legends and make it a fitting tribute for Drew?” I reached out to an artist named Austin James, who I knew from Orlando and his comic Hollow Mountain, and told him how I wanted to do a Star Wars-y tribute to Drew. Drew and I were huge Star Wars fans, we'd talk about it endlessly, and this is how I wanted to remember him. Austin has this incredible style, very detailed with a storybook quality. He created a beautiful piece of art for the book. I was so grateful for Austin, one, for carrying me to the finish line, but also for understanding the pain I've been feeling about losing my best friend and then capturing that in his artwork.
IGN: Marc, Joshua is one of several contributors to Love is Love who are not normal comic book creators. From Patton Oswalt to Taran Killam, there are a lot of interesting names there. How did such a varied group come to be involved?
Andreyko: I was either fearless or stupid when I was reaching out to people. I just reached out to people and pitched them and said, “This is what we’re doing, it’s one or two pages, it’s all going to charity and it’s going to help these people.” And I just reached out to all the people I knew in comics and the people I have relationships with out there. Living in Los Angeles for 20 years, it’s like when you live in a coal-mining town you know a lot of coal miners. I’ve been here for a long time so I know a lot of people who have gone on to become famous in other mediums. People like Taran, who is a really good friend of mine and we collaborated on things, and people like Patton Oswalt and Matt Bomer and Morgan Spurlock. It was just reaching out to people who could give the book exposure but also people who had points of view. It wasn’t simply going after names for names sake. I spoke to each and every person who worked on this book, individually and directly. They all had something to say. Whether it was some of our creators who did pieces in the book because they have gay children, some of these people lost people. Some of these people trans contributors who aren’t comic regulars. There are a bunch of people who have never done comic stuff before. I wanted to have as wide a variety as possible and have as many viewpoints as possible put in. When I look at the book now I feel disembodied because I can’t believe I had anything to do with this. It’s such a beautiful, powerful book and while it’s something that memorializes all the people lost in this tragedy, I think it also stands on it’s own as a great collection and outpouring of love that can be read at any time. I was saying to a friend of mine, I just heard “Do They Know it’s Christmas” on the radio the other day and that song still makes me cry like a baby 30, 40 years later. I think this still has that sort of impact. When you flip through the book, it’s just a beautiful book. And every single thing was donated. That’s why we got the price point so low. The paper, the press time, the colorists, the letterers, the artists, the inkers, the editors, everything. The book cost zero up front money. If you buy this book, you’re actually knowing that you’re directly helping someone affected by this.
Love is Love art by Stephane Roux
IGN: Joshua, what were the parameters Marc gave you?
Yehl: He just said a one page submission about love. It could be about gay people or it could be about love in general. It could be traditional or something really abstract. He showed me a sample he had on his phone about robots in space harvesting dark matter and they get something pink and when they analyze it, it’s love. The discovery of love deep in space.
Andreyko: That one is by Paul Azaceta, who is the artist on Outcast most recently. I love the abstract pieces. Phillip Tan did a great piece where people unzip their skin suits and underneath they’re all the same robots with glowing hearts. My parameters were I didn’t want it just to become a political screed. Because I have really strong feelings about gun violence and the access to guns and the way we treat the mentally ill, but I wanted this book to not be angry and bitter. I wanted this book to honor the people that were lost. Gay bars in our country aren’t weird sex clubs. They’re sanctuaries. I know so many straight friends that go to gay bars more than I ever do, male and female, because they can go there and be social and there’s no expectation there. It’s a safe place. It’s almost like the real world version of Comic-Con in some places. You can go without judgment. And to have someone come in, to a sacred place and do that it’s just something that shouldn’t happen. I wanted everyone to be able to tell a story that they felt. I wanted it to be stories that were felt and not thought. Whether that’s the story of Batwoman talking to a teenage girl coming out of the closet, or whether that was the story of Brenda McCool and her son Isaiah. Damon Lindelof did this piece -- Brenda was a woman who had eleven children and was at the club with her son Isaiah. She stepped in front of the gunman and saved her son. These are stories that need to be told. These are tears that need to be shed.
IGN: These people were all offering to contribute but you didn’t know what you were going to get and everyone does interpret it in their own way. Was that amazing for you to see, as each person’s work came in? Because I’m sure you didn’t get them all at once.
Andreyko: It was great. It was so wonderful to see what everyone’s interpretations were. It gives the book a variety and a rhythm. I have to give a hats off to Jamie and Sarah, my editors, because the way they placed the pages and the order they put the pages in, there’s an elegance in this book and a beauty and every time you get to a place where you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut, the next page is a page that makes you smile or laugh or a page that makes you think. This isn’t a downer book. It’s a melancholy book and there’s a sadness to it but ultimately it’s a defiant book. Despite all these things happening, we’re going to keep dancing. Love will always triumph over hate. And now, post election, this message is even more relevant than it was before. It’s a book that crosses political lines. It’s a book that -- I think if this is the only thing I’m remembered for in my obituary, I’ll be able to die a happy man. To be a part of something like this is such a privilege.
Jim Lee illustrates new Harry Potter art, featuring a quote from the books by J.K. Rowling, for Love is Love
IGN: Joshua, having known Drew and then getting to contribute to the book, what was your reaction seeing that all of these people have contributed to this?
Yehl: I’ve been in awe of just the caliber of talent that Marc has wrangled together. A typical anthology is hard enough to pull off but there are hundreds of contributors to Love is Love, so it's a real Herculean effort. And I'm so thankful to Marc for doing all this. It's amazing to see that so many comic creators who are incredibly busy and have a hundred other things to do and are on deadlines, they're taking the time to do a page or two and submit it to this book. And all the proceeds are going to Pulse victims, Marc made sure of that, so those affected are getting money they need to get back on their feet and the community is getting this wonderful collection of stories to honor and remember the victims. I got a chance to flip through it early, but I didn't have it in me to actually read them yet. But as I was flipping through it, I saw this absolutely breathtaking full-page portrait of Drew. I didn’t know that someone else who contributed to the book also knew Drew.
Andreyko: That's Billy Tucci. Billy reached out to me at the last minute and said, “I know Drew’s father. My friend’s son was killed in that and I would love to do a portrait of him for the book.” And of course, absolutely. It’s just a beautiful piece of this really wonderful young man whose face was so inviting. I didn’t know him but seeing the pictures of him and talking to Josh, he’s the kind of guy you sit with at a party or a restaurant and you feel like you’ve been best friends with him forever. To be able to memorialize him and carry on the light that he and these other 48 people had, it’s a very powerful thing.
Yehl: It was gorgeous, I was beside myself when I saw it. I'm just so glad we have this anthology to honor and remember those we lost. That I got to do a tribute to Drew in this book means the world. And I want people to know about Drew because he was a nerd and he read comic books and played video games and had a huge movie collection. He loved Star Wars more than anything. I think when a tragedy like this happens, people will of course mourn in a general sense, but they don't always feel a personal attachment to it. I want everyone to know that Drew was just like the people who go to go on IGN and who go to comic conventions and to the comic book store. He was a big nerd and a friendly guy. He was one of us.
IGN: Marc, any final thoughts on what it means to get this out there now that people will have the finished product at the end of the month?
Andreyko: The fact that all the money goes to charity is a plus. But the thing that’s powerful to me is anthologies by their very nature can have a level of inconsistency, but everyone who has read this said it’s one of the best anthologies they’ve ever seen because there really isn’t a weak part of it. It’s something you can revisit time and time again. It’s something you can share with your kids and raise discussion and raise awareness. We need to celebrate the things that bring us together. Hopefully we won’t need books like this in the future and hopefully we can come together without tragedy making us do this. Because ultimately underneath it all, at the risk of sounding cliché, we have so much more in common than we do different. When someone loves someone we should celebrate that and be happy for the people in love. That’s the goal. We’re all here because we want to be loved and love someone else. Hopefully it will open some eyes and open some hearts. It’s a time of year, a really emotional time of year and I hope people pick up multiple copies of this book and give it to their local libraries and give it to their friends and bring it to their families. It’s a book for everyone.
IGN: It is a beautiful book. It’s so great that you got everyone to come together on this.
Andreyko: Thank you. Thank you for the support. Looking back, it’s just insane the caliber of people that showed up for this book. One other thing, in May, we’re going to Orlando MegaCon and doing a live auction with all the original art for the book. All the original art is going to be auctioned off and all that money will help the survivors and the families. Equality Florida is the charity and every penny is earmarked specifically for people affected by the Orlando Pulse massacre. So every penny is going to people directly affected by this.
Love is Love is available December 28th at your local comic book store and online (with extra pages).
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at http://ift.tt/LQFqjj.
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