Review Fix chats with Sean Von Gorman and Joey Esposito about their comic, The Pedestrian.
About The Pedestrian:
A strange visitor speedwalks into Summer City and silently changes the lives of its residents. But not all is quiet in this sleepy, small town—an ancient conflict linked to the secret history of street signs is brewing! DON’T WALK… RUN! In The Pedestrian, justice always has the right of way!
Writer Joey Esposito (Batman: Urban Legends) reunites with Pawn Shop collaborator, artist Sean Von Gorman (Ghost Planet), for an offbeat tale that will stick with you!
Review Fix: You released the ashcan a while ago for this- how long has it been in development!
SEAN: We started the earliest version of this project in late 2019, then in early 2020 our schedule opened up in a BIG WAY! We worked on it in SECRET for about a year before we started showing it to anyone.
JOEY: It feels a little like Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey getting this thing out into the world, but we’re at the part now where Shadow is coming up over that hill and about to show everyone that there’s still some fight left in him.
Review Fix: What makes this different from your other work?
JOEY: I think it’s an evolution or even elevation of our past work together, stylistically speaking, but really I think it’s the attitude we had going into it that makes it different. It’s purely what we wanted to do, full stop, without worrying about having an odd structure or offbeat pacing or fitting easily into a particular genre. We didn’t worry about anything that a typical publisher might balk at—and plenty did, but thankfully Magma Comix picked up what we were putting down. The book feels like us, as creators, on the page with no compromises to anyone except ourselves.
SEAN: One publisher suggested we should consider changing the name from “The Pedestrian” so as not to give reviews ammunition to dunk on the book.
We did not do that.
Review Fix: How does it feel to have the band back together?
SEAN: It’s not so much a come back as it is a declaration of not waiting for permission to make a comic.
JOEY: It feels different, but it feels great. I think there’s a maturity and a confidence in our skillset now that we didn’t have 12 years ago, an understanding of what this project means for each of us and what each of us can bring to it. It feels like we’ve reached a new level in terms of understanding one another as creators and collaborators. I hope we can keep doing it for a long time.
Review Fix: For those who don’t know, what is The Pedestrian? Sell us. Sell us hard.
SEAN: The Pedestrian is the story of a street level costumed hero who never breaks the law to fight crime! On the surface it’s a quirky slice of life story through a Super Hero lens, but beneath the surface there is an Ancient War brewing linked to the secret history of street signs. We’re told it’s a comedy.
JOEY: THE PEDESTRIAN is everything we love synthesized through our weird filters and put onto the comic book page. Adding onto what Sean said, it’s about how regular people respond to extraordinary circumstances—good and bad—and how the only way for good to triumph over evil is to accept that nobody can save us except for ourselves. And there’s a lot of weird shit.
Review Fix: How does it feel to have variant covers from Dean Haspiel and Mike Allred?
JOEY: All of the covers we got for the series are unbelievable, I pinch myself every day because I can’t believe covers of this magnitude have my name on it.
SEAN: Working with Mike and Dean has been terrific, but it’s just scratching the surface of who we have in our gallery! The series features cover art from Mike McKone, Chris Batista, Tess Fowler, Brian Level, Valentine De Landro, and Tony Gregori. And PLENTY more in the Vault.
Review Fix: How’s your publisher been to work with this far?
JOEY: They’ve been great and very supportive of our weird little book. Even though we’re nobodies, we were really particular about who we wanted to work with on this, because of how important it is to us. And I’m proud of us for that, because our patience was rewarded by Magma Comix coming on the scene at just the right time.
SEAN: Correction, we are not nobodies. Joey has written for Batman several times.
Review Fix: What’s next?
JOEY: I’m plugging away putting together the next arc of THE PEDESTRIAN (fingers crossed!!!) as well as some other creator-owned comics work. I’ve also got SESAME STREET #1 hitting in late August from Oni Press, so if there are any kids in your life who love Grover and the gang, please tell them how to get to Sesame Street.
SEAN: I have a licensed Graphic Novel project in the works with Z2 that hasn’t been announced yet but that’s going to be a fun one!
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
SEAN: The Pedestrian hits the streets on August 7th! Don’t Run, WALK over to your local comic shop and INSIST they secure you a copy! Final Order Cut Off it July 8th!
JOEY: Would just like to say thank you for taking the time out of your day and your life to help us spread the word about this book. I know how much everybody has stacked on their plate, and we don’t take your time, attention, or generosity for granted.
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