Brandon Thomas’s “The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury” releases from ASP Comics in February 2008. He took some time to discuss his creation with us.

Richard: What is the storyline of "The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury"?

Brandon Thomas: “Miranda Mercury” is a crazy sci-fi comic about the greatest adventurer in this or any galaxy, which intends to challenge perceptions. Launching a purposely insane and unconventional sci-fi book on the back of a black female lead is the main challenge, but you combine that with the format, which calls for nearly all of the stories to be completely self-contained, while still advancing several over-arcing subplots, and there’s no question this will be the most difficult thing I’ve ever written.

I’ve tried to stack the deck in our favor of course, setting the book within an environment where literally anything can happen; where strange civilizations, strange villains, and stranger heroes all crash into each other with such frequency that it appears almost commonplace. Even with that element the series calls for things to be created and then jettisoned immediately by the time the next story begins. Miranda is meant to never stop moving, never stop trying to change, and this first of hopefully many minis will exemplify that.

Operating under the over-arcing theme “Time Runs Out,” which was a phrase suggested by editor supreme Joe Illidge, it tells the story of Miranda Mercury entering the final year of her life due to an alien poison put into her bloodstream by archenemy Cyrus Vega. The arc will total six self-contained chapters that will feature Miranda and her best friend/partner Jack Warning as they free a samurai genie from his mystical prison, save every resident of the Glass Planet from impending destruction, battle the Time Raiders of Xaxium that have been stockpiling bits of lost time, get into a very violent misunderstanding with cross-dimensional heroes The Infinity Class, survive the Perils of Yor, and receive a message that makes everything in Miranda’s life much, much, much worse.

If we can survive the first arc, readers can look forward to a host of stories populating arcs like “At What Cost” and “Only the Strong.”

Richard: How did you and co-creator Lee Ferguson come up with this comic?

Brandon: Because there wasn’t a character like Miranda Mercury in comics, and we thought it somewhat insane that there wasn’t. I started compiling notes for what would eventually become the series after another of my creator-owned projects stalled out and I wanted a complement to the action-adventure-romance comic that I was developing. When things began to form up a little more Lee was brought in and that’s when things really kicked off. We were paired together on a Luke Cage book for Marvel Epic, and since then, we’ve been looking for just the right thing to team-up on and Miranda was it.

At that point, I mistakenly believed that I’d figured everything out, but Lee’s input and infectious enthusiasm for the project is what really got things moving. That’s why it was an absolute no-brainer to give him a co-creator credit, because his ideas and input will just make Miranda a better book. Seriously, with him there’s absolutely no ego involved in this process; both of us have contributed story ideas, visual hooks and cues, and at this point I’m starting to lose track of who thought of what first. A mutual rush of ideas follows almost every single conversation we have and we’re literally keeping an open file of all the things we want to try over the course of the series.

Right now, the focus is on making these first six chapters a success and solidifying the character and concept within comics, but if things play out the way we hope, there are certainly more Miranda stories to be told. And without Lee Ferguson, there’s no question they would be significantly less interesting.

Really, the entire series is all about the challenge of it. Launching a purposely insane and unconventional sci-fi book on the back of a black female lead is the main challenge, even though it shouldn’t be. Couple that with the format, which calls for nearly all of the stories to be completely self-contained, a prospect that I’ve always found somewhat terrifying, and there was no question this would be incredibly difficult to write on a monthly basis. The only thing that would help was setting the book within an environment where literally anything can happen: where strange civilizations, strange villains, and stranger heroes all crash into each other with such frequency that it appears almost commonplace. It calls for things to be created and then jettisoned immediately by the time the next story begins. Miranda is meant to never stop moving, never stop trying to change, and somewhere in the middle of all this, I realized that it would probably be me writing all this craziness.

Richard: Who exactly is Miranda Mercury?

Brandon: Adventurer. Explorer. Crusader. All three of those words would accurately describe Miranda Mercury at some point in her life. She’s been doing this since she was a small child raised by her grandparents. And her grandfather just happens to be the famous adventurer James Mercury who taught her literally everything she knows. His story began on Earth and took him to every corner of the known and unknown galaxies, and for much of her life, Miranda was along for the ride.

The relationship there informs nearly every choice she’s ever made, especially in regards to her views and feelings on equality and justice. James came from an environment where all men were definitely not created equal, so it’s no surprise that nothing crawls under Miranda’s skin more than having to witness similar sentiments of intolerance and ignorance played out amongst the stars. You’d like to think that civilizations would be beyond such things, but it still exists in places and Miranda has made it her mission to stamp as much of it dead as possible.

Past that, she’s constantly in search of the new: experiences, friends, even enemies to a certain extent, and even before she found out she was dying, this was the number one priority for her. Jack Warning is her best friend in the entire universe and has made it his duty to chronicle the many adventures they have together, because Miranda can’t be bothered with such things, believing her own memory is enough to recall important experiences and also because she doesn’t realize the significance of her own life. She’s not one to take a count of how many lives she’s saved, or how many bad guys she’s put out of business, even though the number is staggering.

Miranda Mercury is almost completely oblivious to the mark her life is leaving across the galaxy…until she’s forced to confront the eventuality that it’s going to end much sooner than expected…

Richard: Will she be traveling to exotic places?

Brandon: Absolutely. The entire point of this series is to stretch ourselves creatively as far as possible, and to be able to even consider that means putting our title within the confines of an environment where literally ANYTHING can happen. If Lee and I can think of it, there are probably three ways of making it happen within the narrative frame of the book.

We’ve been keeping a file of this stuff for over a year now, little bits of ideas and high concepts for issues that we hope to slowly work our way through as we tell the larger story of Miranda’s impending demise. Things like the black-and-white planet or the planet of reverse gravity will eventually show up, and having the capability of doing things like that is again the reason we’re so excited about Miranda Mercury. The entire second issue takes place on a planet of glass, actually…

Richard: With only one year left to live will she be searching for an antidote?

Brandon: Not actively, believe it or not. Miranda’s feelings about her upcoming death are very clearly explained in the opening issue, and we’re hoping that it’s probably not what people expect. Miranda is someone that begins this arc of her life believing in herself and her unshakable sense of right and wrong more than anything else in the world, and the idea that she should “waste” time focused on herself when she could be saving lives and experiencing new worlds and cultures is almost obscene. To her, anyway—to her partner and friend Jack Warning…? There is nothing more important to him than keeping her alive, even if she can’t be bothered…or is too afraid to admit that even impending death terrifies even her.

Richard: What does Cyrus Vega hope to gain with Miranda's death?

Brandon: What any decent villain really desires: the knowledge that they’ve utterly and completely destroyed their adversary.

Vega is a man that’s very accustomed to having every single thing he desires, with the exception of Miranda Mercury. He’s been obsessed with her for years now and has done literally any and everything to secure her attention. At this point, it’s quite possible that he’s actually in love with her and Miranda’s continued rejections have damaged his psyche somewhat—because instead of using his brilliant mind to attempt to correct the evils of the universe, he’s destroying civilizations and daring Miranda to stop him. Much in the way that Lex Luthor blames Superman for not being able to focus his talents elsewhere, Vega feels the same way about Miranda—if she would just give in, then together they could make the galaxy a better place.

He’s also responsible for the darkest period in Miranda’s life, which is alluded to in our first story. Vega did something to her, or tried to, and it’s one of the defining moments of her admittedly young life that literally turned her from a young adventurer into more of a crusader. This will be explained further down the line, but their “relationship” if it could be called that, is a truly ugly and disturbing one, which also justifies the overwhelming level of hatred that Jack holds for him at all times.

Richard: Did you enjoy working on the "Fantastic Four Tales"?

Brandon: Let me just say this…without FF Tales, there’s a strong chance that I wouldn’t have had the balls to attempt something like Miranda Mercury. That series forced me to begin and end every story in 22 pages, which is the one thing I needed to help whip my long-winded ass into shape. Until then, nearly everything I wanted to write was some 6-12 chapter epic with huge explosions and equally huge body counts. I blame the influence of Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis personally, but this was a situation that forced me to slow down and examine just how stories are structured and paced out. I haven’t met a script yet that wouldn’t benefit from an extra page or two, but when you’re working with a fixed count, you’ve gotta get in and get out.

The challenge there is enormous, because there’s always the sensation that the door is slamming on your foot. You have to be highly aware of your pacing, because every page you use takes away from the eventual conclusion and the proper emotional beat you’re ultimately trying to hit. Also, there were a variety of production concerns to consider, like the number of panels, or the amount of printed dialogue that always had to be monitored.

And it was intended for all ages, and anyone that’s ever listened to me talk for, I don’t know, more than five minutes, knows how funny it is that I wrote material for kids.

It was like boot camp and fortunately, I got to experience it within the confines of the Marvel Universe and play with a lot of different characters like Black Panther, Doc Strange, and the Hulk. Without the experience and what I felt was “learned” from it, no Miranda Mercury for me, because nearly every concern or challenge indicated above has been transplanted to Miranda and amplified by ten. So whenever something is just killing me while drafting out one of these stories, I only have myself to blame, but it makes it all the more satisfying when I figure it all out. But without FF Tales, that wouldn’t be possible…and more than that, I got my first trade out of the deal…ain’t nothing wrong with that.

Richard: Why do you write "Ambidextrous"?

Brandon: Pretty much because no one can stop me J. “Ambidextrous” is the only reason that I’ve made any sort of measurable progress in transitioning from a comic reader to a comic creator.

Now, it only seems appropriate that it should be used to chronicle the makings of my first fully functioning creator-owned project. More than 200 columns and every single one of them has been generated from a book I loved, a creator I loved, an experience that I had trying to get noticed, etc. By design, it’s had to be so many things because I knew if it was just straight opinion pieces week in week out, I wouldn’t be able to sustain it for any period of time. Best decision I ever made, because the column is an incredibly personal mark and I think it makes for an interesting commentary on what it actually takes to “break in” and then after that staying in, which sometimes proves just as difficult.

It’s also made for this little touchstone of my life, something that’s remained almost the same while everything else about my life changes gradually and/or suddenly. I can skim through an old column and remember instantly what was going on in my life, the things that I wanted but couldn’t say, and all the little inside jokes left for myself and those closest to me. I’m hopeful some day I’ll be able to get some of them collected.

Richard: Why is Robin #167 important?

Brandon: Obviously, being afforded the opportunity to work within the DC universe, and more specifically, the Bat-family of titles, is something that I’ve been anticipating since deciding that I wanted in to comics as a professional. Sure, justifying an intense fascination with Batman won’t be necessary, as he’s one of the most recognizable and undeniably cool superheroes on the face of the planet.

To me though, there has always been something slightly more interesting about his teenage sidekick Robin, the Boy Wonder. In comics, in the animated series, even in those awful movies, there was always something exciting about seeing the Dynamic Duo cracking heads together. The very idea of the character makes absolutely no sense and casts Batman in an even more unstable light (if that’s even possible), but when it’s done right…it’s an awful lot of fun. But really? Probably only saying this because of Tim Drake, the third and certainly most capable of the young men to wear the Robin costume. And if you know anything about anything, you realize that what I just said is not opinion, but undeniable fact, even with my considerable bias showing.

Tim Drake was the one character that truly brought me into comics, the only thing capable of overpowering an incredible devotion to the flashy beginnings of Image. It was the spring of 1992 the first time I stepped into an actual comic shop, and before then the only comics I’d encountered came from city newsstands, hospital gift shops, or from sending in proofs of purchase from Batman cereal. Naturally, I gravitated toward characters I was already somewhat familiar with, so Spider-Man and Batman were all that mattered that day.

While my eyes glazed over in the Bat section, something reached out and caught me by the throat. There was this cover of The Joker, who looked extremely more terrifying than the Jack Nicholson version, holding something sharp and looming over this poor guy strapped into a dentist’s chair. As they say, from here, all downhill.

Some independent research revealed that the Robin featured in this particular mini-series (Tim Drake, of course) hadn’t been wearing that amazing-looking costume for very long and was only doing so because the previous Robin had been blown up and killed by The Joker and an 800-number.

I started with the violent death of Jason Todd and worked my way forward, collecting every single appearance of Tim Drake in and out of costume. For there to be anything about this character I didn’t know was simply unacceptable and running with this compulsion, I discovered just what was attractive about comics and the ways it told its stories.

And now several years later, I’m writing my first DC comic and it’s an issue of Robin. No, I don’t know how things like this happen but I’m grateful and fortunate that it does occasionally…

Richard: What future projects do you have lined up?

Brandon: Right now, Miranda is my primary focus, but we’re also trying to get The God Complex back on track, which is a long gestating project that I’ve been working on since 2003 that ran into some production problems. Best case scenario, we can get it firing around the same time MM launches and I’ll have two incredibly different books running concurrently.

Past that, I’m in pretty steady contact with my Robin editor who I’m hoping will be able to find me something larger to work on there at DC. We’ve worked together before on the cult classic X-Force: Shatterstar mini at Marvel and he’s the one and only reason why I’m getting the opportunity to write Robin, probably my all-time favorite character. Marts and I go way back to his Acclaim days—he was one of the first editors I ever approached about submitting work—and if I have my way, we’ll be something more substantial in the near future. So, we’ll see…

Richard: What is the most important thing in your life now?

Brandon: A pretty girl and her dog.

Richard: What comics did you read as a child and do you read now?

Brandon: Too many to list here, sadly. Back in the day, I was pretty obsessed with finding characters and concepts that had just been launched so I’d have the luxury of following them from birth to eventual death. Over the last ten years or so, I became a little more discriminating and started to follow writers almost exclusively. So anything by (and I know some people are going to get mistakenly omitted) Bendis, Millar, Morrison, Ellis, Vaughan, Priest, McDuffie, Brubaker, or Waid comes home pretty much without any thought.

For the same reason I was obsessed with finding new characters to follow, I’m equally focused about supporting “new” talent before everyone else starts paying attention. Right now, the two “next big things” in comics writing are clearly Matt Fraction and Christos Gage, and if you didn’t know that already, consider it a freebie.

Richard: How can someone contact you?

Brandon: Easiest way is through the column, which includes a link to drop off e-mails, or people could just contact me directly at brandon_thomas24@yahoo.com .

Richard: Any last words of advice?

Brandon: Man, I’d say to write the kinds of characters and stories that you want to read about in comics, and if you don’t find that comics currently has any, then create them yourself.

Also, when you’re attempting to break in focus almost all of your efforts getting something published through a smaller Indy before attacking the majors. I think the days of being able to make lightning strike and begin and maintain a successful career through the larger companies is pretty much over for a ton of reasons, chiefly being the insane level of competition there are for writing assignments. You have established pros, novelists, screenwriters, former editors, and rookies all removing water from the same well and as someone that doesn’t have a wealth of writing credits to your name, you’re at an extreme, extreme disadvantage.

Personally, I devoted an incredible amount of time and energy to forcing my way into Marvel when I probably should’ve concentrated on more creator-owned pursuits. I’d say I was marginally successful doing it, but from an emotional standpoint it was as exhausting and frustrating as it was exciting and fulfilling. It feels really, really cool (and validating) to have written a comic for Marvel or DC, but there’s a smart way and a not-so-smart way of going about it, and honestly…most of the time, I was doing things the not-so-smart way.

So don’t be like me…put everything you have into finding a reliable artist (if you can’t draw yourself) and getting something (really anything) out that will show that you have some grasp of the form and style of comics storytelling. And use that opportunity to work all the kinks out of your method. Then, the big boys can come to you and it’s easier for you to maintain some decent momentum.