Art by Michael Cho
Upcoming graphic novel The Avengers in the Veracacity Trap! They bring the Silver Age incarnation of the Avengers back to life in the battle against their perpetual enemy Loki. It is an exciting homage to the story of that era, created with love and affection evident by author Chip Kidd and artist Michael Cho. Cho is naturally suited to books like this, with visual styles that draw obvious inspiration from people like Alex Toth and Jack Kirby. He has written some gorgeous variant covers and some small stories for Marvel in the past. But the Avengers in the Trap of Truth! It represents the longest story he has portrayed for the publisher and a showcase for his considerable abilities. He spent a bit of time discussing his love for the character, and what it’s like to work with Kidd, answering questions asked by all Silver Age Marvel fans.
D. Morris: The Avengers of Truth Trap! Can you talk a bit about your history in Avengers as you’ve thrived so much with nostalgia and deep love for these characters? And do you have a time of your favorite stories and comics?
Michael Cho: Do you know how much I love the Avengers? It’s a child who wants to see the best and shining superheroes together in one book. When I entered the comics at age 9, I was always trying to figure out which teams were better at the JLA or the Avengers. Personally, I was a kid from the Marvel and Jim Shooter days in the 80s, but I was drawn to the OG Avengers lineup and read a lot of my own stories collected in reprints and paperback collections. They were the best, brightest and shiniest heroes for me, and I loved the lineup.
What’s my favorite story about Avengers? Ah, that’s a long list. Where do you start? Avengers #4, “Captain America Live!” is one of my favorites and one of the best things I can read as a child. But I hope the ink gets better about it.
Avengers #58/Art splash page by John Buscema and George Klein
I also loved the introduction of the vision in Avengers #58. “Even Android can cry!” Found in a torn Treasury sized edition. The art of John Bucema in that story seemed to be the work of Michael Angelo or another master of the Italian Renaissance. The book’s splash pages, including the lettering on the Black Panther and brick wall, are masterpieces.
I also loved the running of Kurt Bisyk and George Perez during the “Heroes Return” era of the early 2000s. I’ve been back reading superhero comics for a long time, but I was excited to see these two incredible creators at the top of their game and made a story that had so much love and joy for them.
There are so many more, but only a few from above my head.
Morris: What was the secret origin of this project?
Cho: Chip could probably convey this better than I did, but Abrams’ Charlie Kochman approached him and confirmed if he was interested in writing an Abrams Marvel Art Line book. Tip agreed and suggested working with me on that. He said I’d seen the cover I was doing at the time.
Marvel Masterworks Avengers Vol. Cho cover 1/Art Michael Cho
We spit out which character to be and had a pitch featuring a character that was in Limbo in Marvel around that time, so we proposed the original Silver Age Avengers. So they were in my heart.
Tip immediately sent me treatment. It was a joy and kind of pitch to not know what would happen in the next paragraph. I think I was in paragraph 3 when I began to bump into each other with joy. Initially, the idea featured a bunch of other Marvel characters in two stages, but Charlie skillfully piloted the ship into a more manageable sea.
Morris: While reading a book, something in my mind is how I used the unique traits of comics mediums when telling stories. Since you and your collaborator Chip Kid have a design background, what was the creative process between you to bring this story to life?
Cho: This is a fun question. And I’ll point out that my “design background” is not near the level of chips.
One of the double pages spreads from the Avengers in Veractiy Trap! /Art by Michael Cho
The creative process on this was pretty organic, but it doesn’t fully represent how strange and fun it is. Tip wrote the treatments and scripts, but there were many tweaks and rewrites along the way, and there were moments of support. Chip writes scripts in a very unique way. It is laid out in Indesign (of course) and writes to a panel with very few visual attachments. He was also a very generous collaborator and allowed me a huge amount of room to contribute to storytelling.
My only request to him before he started writing the script was to stick to 4-6 panels per page so that he could add or subtract panels to the page as needed. My main focus when drawing cartoons is pacing, getting the “beat” right. Therefore, the chip carefully wrote the sequence. So he knew I would combine, trim, and add panels for flow.
Some fun things that happened along the way I’ll be happy to share with Beat readers:
We tried to cram as many splash pages into the book as possible, but each Avengers (and Loki) got a splash as introduced. In the script, Chip attaches an example of a classic Marvel pin-up page to show the impact he is aiming for. Asi saw these, I suggested to hold “The mighty Marvel pinup!” Include caption boxes and character logos from these pinups into the story. I think it worked really well and added to the flavor of the book.
It features two pages that stretch near the edge of the book, showing off a crazy Kirby-esque machine. Naturally, we incorporated pinups into our book, so we thought this was a great opportunity to do cutaway diagram-type things, like the old spread that marks the “secrets of Baxter’s Building.” Or something like that. So I created a caption that explained all the different elements of the machine and made a bit of a callback to these great pages.
I wanted to give the pages that take place in the “real world” a unique look to distinguish them from the “comic world.” Chip’s first note suggests the effect of “Oh, you can draw like Alex Ross.” Yes, I understand… * Insert a daunted face*
Chip was a great outdoor thinker and had some great ideas along the way, never making the final cut. At one point, the ending pulled out a four-page gatefold spread. He sent me and Charlie a small video explaining how it would be printed so we were able to wrap our heads around ideas.
The book jacket is reversible (another tip kid special). So, if you want to remove the dust cover, you can redeploy it and use the best cover.
At one point we messed around with the idea of a variant cover for this book. Hardcover book variant cover. Seriously.
Every inch of this book is designed. Lifting the front flap will reveal a Loki word balloon hidden in the front-end paper, which is the actual start of the story. Another tip idea. The rear end paper also features the beginning of an entirely new Avengers adventure compared to the male frogs in space. I drew it last and it was a breeze as I was getting so warm.
Art by Michael Cho
Morris: You’ve worked in comics for Marvel before, but I don’t believe in anything bigger. How exciting was it for you to tackle such a big story?
Cho: It’s fun! fun! fun! While working on this, that was my mantra.
The question is, when I first released my graphic novel 10 years ago, I was looking forward to writing more stories. But then my wife and I decided to have another child, and I knew there was no way I could paint the interior regularly while raising the child. Other artists can do that, but they are much faster and more organized than I do. Therefore, I stuck to cover the challenges as much as possible. But I knew that once my son entered school, he could go back to talking. So when that time came, I began writing (with collaborator Anthony Falcone) and soaking it in the water, here I began to draw a short 10-page Captain America story, there a 10-page Spider-Man story and a 20-page Batman story a few years ago. So I was excited to move up to draw a 64-page deluxe graphic novel. Now I think I’m ready to do the 250-page miniseries I’ve always wanted to do.
Art by Michael Cho
Morris: Finally, I feel that I have an obligation to ask Marvel’s questions from the eternal Silver Age Marvel, as this is such a love letter to Silver Age Marvel. The one who wins the battle. Hulk or something?
Cho: That’s easy. case. Because he never gives up. He’s like that cap. Even if he was beaten, you cannot call him a loser because he didn’t quit. Hulk is an angry monster, but everything is in his heart and fights to protect what he loves. And we all know that in the end, love is always winning.
The Avengers of Truth Trap arrive at Bookshelves on August 5th from Abrams Comicarts.
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