One of Image Comics' most exciting titles new titles is Skottie Young and Kyle Strahm's Twig, so we sat down to speak with Young at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
A Comic industry veteran since the 2000s, Young is known to many fans of comics for the runaway success of his "Baby" variant covers for Marvel Comics. These variants depict classic Marvel heroes in a much more cute way than fans are used to. Art such as Young's Spider-Verse baby variant cover proved to be incredibly popular with fans and continues to be sought after to this day. More than just a cover artist though, Young is also a writer and his most recent work is on Image Comics' Twig along with artist Kyle Strahm.
At SDCC, Screen Rant caught up with Young to talk about the origins ofTwig, how he handled the pandemic, and what his creative process is like!
Twig is such an interesting world and such an interesting premise. Could you talk about the genesis of it?
Skottie Young: I've had I had a few little projects over the years where I just knew that I wanted to use that name, Twig. So I think I had a beaver character once that I was going to name Twig. So I've always had the name. So Kyle and I are friends. We both live in Kansas City, and we're over at a friend's kid's birthday party. So we're just talking, and I've always loved Kyle's personal sketchbooks. Outside of his horror, the core comics and stuff he was drawing, his sketchbooks are filled with awesome little critters and fun, wacky weird monsters and things like that. So I say, "Man, it'd be really cool to see you do like, like a weird Fraggle Rock slash Dark Crystal style book. That'd be so fun. We should do one, right? I'll write one. If you want to draw it." He was like, "Oh, that'd be great." He and I shared a studio at the time. So then we would just go grab lunch, grab some buffalo wings at The Peanut in downtown Overland Park in Kansas City. And we just started brainstorming. I would go away and come up with some story ideas, Kyle would go away and just draw on some of our talks. He would draw these cool random creatures and critters and all this stuff. So a lot of times, I'd see a drawing of his I was like, "Ooh, I'll put that in this part of the story." It was about as close to just playing pretend as I've ever done with the project. So that's really the origin of it.
Were there any times when Kyle Strahm's art forced you to rethink a plot point or an element of the world?
Skottie Young: Well, we started out on one path with Twig and one version of the story with Twig and Kyle actually got a decent amount of pages into that. And then the shutdown from the pandemic happened so it made us kind of reexamine the story we're telling. So we scrapped that version of the story completely, started from scratch, and boiled it down to the story that we have here. I don't think that any artwork that Kyle did changed my mind, and we had to rethink it. But all of it his art. Like I said, there were times where I would go like, okay, Twig is going to head to this. And then the next issue that comes out. So I don't want to get too specific yet, but you know, there's a thing that Kyle drew, that I was like, this is the perfect place, I was just waiting for a place to put that thing. And finally, I have it so that was more Kyle inspired. I would know that there's a plot point coming, so it's cool to look at the array of sketches and drawings that he had. And I can grab this character and they're here. So he inspired a lot of like, where we were heading. And I was able to place those things in some of the holes in the plot.
Do you ever see yourself returning to the world of Twig after it's done?
Skottie Young: Oh, for sure. I mean, Kyle and I set out to do this one story with Twig but absolutely built a world that's as vast as could be. You know, comics are an interesting business and you always got to keep in mind like it might not work, it might work out, things might not work, so you don't want to you know if Wallace said we plan thus 60 issue story, and nobody bought it, they were like "Well, right, we got to bail right?" So we really kind of had in mind where "If it didn't work, and we told exactly a fun story that we want it to which has really worked, then we have plenty of other stories sitting there ready for us to jump on." So yeah, we don't have anything for sure to say yet, but it's definitely likely people will see more Twig in the future if we can make it work out.
What would you say separates Twig from your other work?
Skottie Young: I'd probably say it's Kyle's brain, you know, the way that Kyle interprets the things that I've written, I just think it's awesome. Like, I will say, Twig and, you know, another character run down a bridge. And in my head, it's a flat bridge, or whatever. And then Kyle interprets it without me saying anything, just so his brain could be at another level of visual storytelling and design that absolutely couldn't come from my brain. So I love that. So I think Kyle's the differentiating factor there. Him and Jean-Francois Beaulieu, the colorist, are just a fantastic team together.
A lot of your work combines the cute and dark. What draws you to that sort of story?
Skottie Young: I think it's just a product of the time that I grew up in. I mean, honestly, that's really 80s movies. Kyle and I grew up on 80s movies and TV. So when you think about it, like E.T. is cute, and dark. Dark Crystal has really cute characters and really dark characters, right? Neverending Story, Labyrinth, you can just keep going down the line. And we grew up on movies that were all cute and dark. Short Circuit had a cute robot that was kind of silly, but also it was kind of a dark movie. Like, espionage and all that. So there's an era that we grew up where that really was popular. And I think over the years, everything's grown really safe now. It's all clean. And so this is just our love letter to the movies and books and things that we grew up reading and watching.
Have you ever had to second guess your work and worry about whether Image will let you publish anything too dark?
Skottie Young: The great thing is for Image, there's just a no. You never have to second guess that because I think this is the only entertainment company that I'm aware of that whatever the creator wants to do is go. Image never comes in and says no to anything. If they accept your book, it is 100% your book, and they publish what you want them to publish. So it's a great place and safe home to really express yourself. So as far as my creator-owned books, I've never second-guessed an instinct on that front. We just kind of make what we want and go for it.
Has the pandemic affected your workflow at all?
Skottie Young: Not really. I mean, you know, we're, we're a group of cartoonists and comic book writers. We're all a group of people who are used to working in our homes. I personally work at home offices, but it's like working at home. It's just one home away from home. But we're kind of built for that. Like, the other parts were hard. I mean, my kids not being able to go outside or go play with friends or any of that for two years. That was difficult. So that takes a toll on just your energy level. Because you want your kids to be happy. So there's a lot more time that it's, you're playing video games with them. And, you know, because there's just no option for other kids to be doing that. But other than that, no, it actually helped kind of focus me. Because it's like, well, a couple hours of video games with the kids and then back to work, you know? There were no parties, no going out, nothing to distract us for two years.
In your opinion, what would you say is your most underappreciated work?
Skottie Young: Awesome question. I instantly have the answer. And it's Bully Wars. Bully Wars is one of my favorite projects. I've had that in my head for 10 years before we did it. And I did it with Aaron Conley. I still to this day think it's one of my best books. But I don't know if I'm just misreading it. I think it was just not the right time. I mean, sometimes things just don't hit at the right time. Yeah, Bully Wars for sure. That's one that I hope people go and rediscover and that we can bring back in because we have so many story ideas for that past the first issue.
You've taken on so many roles in the Comics industry. Do you ever get your wires crossed? Is it ever like you have to put your artist's brain away?
Skottie Young: Not really, no. I thought that when I started writing more that I would be overbearing on the artists that I work with and stuff, but I don't know. A good thing is that I'm always thinking visually, even when I'm writing, because it is a visual medium. So I just think that my brain is always an artist first and foremost. And it just helps inform the writing. So I think it's nothing but a benefit for me.
What is one thing about the comics industry that's better now than when you started and what's one thing that's worse?
Skottie Young: Better is that I think Image Comics has blossomed and grown into this awesome safe haven for such a wide diverse set of storytellers. And really helped open up the level of diversity in storytelling, of the kind of characters. We're seeing a lot more people of color. We're seeing a lot more women main characters. Across the board, from the content to the creators. I think you're seeing a huge spike in readership across the board and diversity. When I first started going to conventions, it was dudes. No, just dudes. And now there's husbands and wives like getting each other into things and kids are now here too, so the family stuff, the family level, and the diversity of what we see. Showing up to the conventions in the comic shops is just awesome. What's worse now? I have a hard time answering that one because I'm just so happy with where comics are, whether they're in print or online, that there are so many avenues to share storytelling. So yeah, I don't think I have a what's worse now. I think that things are just constantly getting better.
Is there anything in your career that you would say is like a big missed opportunity?
Skottie Young: I've been pretty lucky. The funny thing, I mean, I would say it's, you know, I thought after getting my run on New X-Men, I thought the next one would need to do one of the main X-Men books, or I was gonna go to Spider-Man. Until, until I saw how Oz performed, I thought that that was a missed opportunity. But it turned out not to be, so that taught me that if you trust your instincts, you're never going to look back and regret it. Because you're going to make the right choice. I've been good and just followed my gut. And so far, everything's worked.
Do you have any advice for anybody who wants to get into writing for comics?
Skottie Young: The great thing is, is there's never been an easier time to make comics and share them with the world because the internet has made the world so much smaller. So the good thing, the thing that I tell every comic creator or aspiring comic creator, is to start making comics now. Like, you're in high school, and you want to start making them, you're gonna make that, you want to get all the bad stuff out. I can get it all out and get better and better and better, right? But there's no better time to start than the minute you think about it. So my that's my number one thing is, you want to make comics, start making comics, put them online, put them on a website, put them on Instagram, just do it! Share it with the world. If it's good, it's gonna rise to the top and get seen.
What is the most positive experience you've had with your fans?
Skottie Young: Oh man! Alright, so this is a really cool story. We did a livestream We did a livestream a couple of months ago. And we're just talking, and we realized that there was a couple there that was like, they're at home date night was to watch our livestream together. And we just thought that was so cute. So they had done it and it was like the third or fourth or fifth week or something that they had done it. So we decided, hey, let's just have them on. Like, let's see if they want to come on right now. So we were like, hey Megan Hodge, who runs my company, and she gets on there. Types like, "Hey, do you guys want to us on the livestream?" And I'm like, "Yeah, like, it's great." We're talking and the man runs off. He's like, "Oh, you know what? I had an idea. I'll be right back." Runs off camera. We're talking. His girlfriend's like, "What are you doing?" He comes back and he proposes to her because they're fans they're both fans. This was a special thing for him. He's had this ring for a long time and was just trying to figure out when to do it. And it hit him there. And I was like, "That's so freakin cool." Like oh my god. To mean something to people in a way that he wanted to build this special moment, so let's do this special thing for both of us. Because we both like comic art and writing so that was awesome. You just can't get better than stuff like that, where you're like you're in people's houses and in their hearts in a way that you're like, "Man, I got to be a part of this thing."
