The Pedestrian Q&A

2024 was a thunderously great year for the comic industry. Almost every major franchise (and I’m a person who says franchise with respect, not any negative judgment) was steered into a great and high-selling direction by some of comics's best creators: DC’s Absolute line, DC’s All-In books, Marvel’s Ultimate line, The X-Men books, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and GI Joe among others.

In addition to that there were so many outstanding new creator-owned books. The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Windjegard, Falling in Love on the Path to Hell by Gerry Duggan and Garry Brown, FML by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez, The Moon is Following Us by Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo, and one of my favorites that we are here to talk about today The Pedestrian by Joey Esposito and Sean Von Gorman.

The Pedestrian follows the mysterious titular superhero who speed walks through the lives of the citizens of Summer City connecting them and protecting them from even stranger enemies. It is a book about a superhero, but it’s also about community, our place in the universe, how we interact with one another, the way the media we like as kids influences us, about the strange forces in the world that feel like they are all pulling us down, and it feels much more like a 90’s independent film than a modern day superhero comic, and I mean that with all affection. Reading this book issue to issue I was taken aback by how authentic, odd, satisfying, and oddly spiritual at moments it was.

Joey Esposito, the writer, and Sean Von Gorman, the artist, have made something special, I would recommend everyone go check out and read. The collected edition/graphic novel containing the four-issue mini-series came out yesterday.

A little extra context, Joey is someone I met when I was at DC Comics. He was a writer and I was an editor. I had the great fortune of working with him on three excellent Batman: Urban Legends stories and we’ve stayed in touch over the years as writing buddies. I think the world of Joey, he’s a great writer and a good dude. However, I want to make it clear, I’m doing this because this comic knocked me flat on my ass. I wanted this book to be good because Joey wrote it, but it exceeded all my wildest hopes. These guys crushed it.

I spoke to Joey and Sean about the book, take a read below, and I bet the three of us together are going to convince you to check out this great book!

DAVE: First and foremost, guys, I loved The Pedestrian. It was one of my favorite comics of 2024, and as a fan, I was thrilled to see it make so many end-of-the-year best-of lists—huge congratulations to you both on that. I wanted to start this interview on that note.

 JOEY: Thanks, man. I’ve told you this before, but this means a lot to me coming from you specifically.

SEAN: Thank you so much! It was our hope people would dig it but the level of response from readers and comics peeps has been unbelievable.

 DAVE: It’s all one hundred percent deserved, you guys have knocked it out of the park. All right here’s my first question.

 In our lifetime as comic book readers, creator-owned projects can often be broken into two different categories, and admittedly, this is me being a little broad. The first category is the novel-length or HBO prestige-style series I think of Preacher, Y: The Last Man, The Walking Dead, and Something is Killing the Children. And then I think of comics that are explicitly designed around a character creators have made that they want to share with the world: Hellboy, Spawn, Cerebus, Invincible, Bone, and Madman come to mind.

The Pedestrian feels like the latter, it feels like you guys had the idea for this character and then everything formed around that in a really beautiful way. Am I far off in my assumptions or foolish in my breakdown of types of creator-owned endeavors? Haha

SEAN: Yes, I had come up with the design, the name of the character and a couple of character bits but I didn't have much more than that. I had remembered working with Joey on a book called PAWN SHOP years ago and how great Joey is at writing rich diverse characters. I tapped him to see if he would be into the idea and would want to help build this world.

 JOEY: Seeing Sean’s design instantly spawned a million ideas for what the book could actually be, so I think your read was definitely spot on. Once we had the core concept, it was just kind of like unspooling a ball of yarn. Pedestrian himself is the through-line to exploring a world that is similar to our own, with down-and-out people trying to do their best despite a system stacked against them.

 DAVE: I love that. It’s great to hear the visual came first and the stories/mythology afterward, it’s a great reminder to folks to be creatively flexible, especially at the start of a project.

 This comic also feels like a great first album from a band. It feels like so much of what you guys love and are interested in found its way into this project in very creatively interesting ways: Superhero comics, after-school kids’ action shows, slice-of-life/independent film character pieces, cosmic intrigue, and surrealist imagery. Is there anything I missed in my read of the book or stuff that you wanted to get into the book but was left on the cutting room floor?

 JOEY: Honestly, I don’t think so. Part of our thesis statement with this was to do whatever we wanted and throw in anything that we thought was cool and interesting, even if at first glance it didn’t seem like they should go together. Like, Twin Peaks and Power Rangers? Maybe a strange recipe, but feels natural to us because these are the things we’ve synthesized for our own inspiration.

SEAN: Madman is a great comparable. Madman is everything Mike Allred is and loves in comic book form. This is very much the case with us and The Pedestrian.

This is basically OUR Watchmen.

This was originally envisioned as a series of Vertical Scroll Shorts. In those we had a few moments that didn't make it to the print version, mostly extended walking sequences. We're working on putting out a Vertical version that will have those bites worked back in.

 DAVE: Oh wow! That’s a pretty wild alternate universe for this project, I could see it working in that format too.

 Traditionally, in superhero comics, you focus on your superhero, and then you get to know a great deal, and then you get to know a little bit about the people in the city around them. This is the opposite. For the most part, in this comic, The Pedestrian is an enigma, and we learn a lot more about the people whose lives he walks through. I referenced an independent film earlier, but it feels like you guys sit with the people of this city in an almost Richard Linklater-esque way, it’s very humanist. Was it a goal to make Summer City feel so lived in?

JOEY: For sure. I love Linklater. The Before Trilogy is one of my favorite pieces of art, full stop. I am definitely more interested in people’s complicated personal lives than anything else, just generally speaking as a writer, whether they are superheroes or not. So hearing this comparison tickles me, because I think few people do that better than Linklater, even in his more freewheeling movies like Dazed and Confused or Everybody Wants Some! We get a complete portrait of these people even though we’re only spending a few hours of their lives with them. It’s a really complex magic trick to pull off, but I think he does it better than almost anyone.

SEAN: Joey and I talk a lot about Twin Peaks being an influence. Especially in how Violence is depicted in art and how theatrical the portrayals of otherworldly elements are presented.

 DAVE: Sean, like all great superheroes, The Pedestrian’s costume is elegant and wonderfully uncomplicated. Were there any visual ideas for the character that went unused, and can you tell us about some of your visual influences for the series whether they be from comics or elsewhere?

 SEAN: Not really, at least not where we were in the story so far. The Character's look was pretty set on the first sketches, I wanted to design something that would be very simple and easy to make in real life. Especially for Con season, we’ve had a few people start cosplaying as the characters already.

 DAVE: Like Madman, Spawn, and Hellboy you guys got some really awesome variant cover artists to contribute to the series. Mike Allred, Valentine De Landro, Brian Level, Tess Fowler and more. If you guys got to come back and do more stories about The Pedestrian, do you have ideas, and do you have any dream variant cover artists you didn’t work with on this first series?

JOEY: There are dozens. I’m so pumped with who we’ve gotten so far. I would love a Chris Samnee take on The Pedestrian.

SEAN: It took almost 5 years to get this book published. We were so certain this book would be made that I spent years reaching out to artists to line up cover art. It really helps to approach an artist you admire for art and not having time as a factor.

We have a list of artists who have already said yes. We came REALLY close to getting Steve Rude on the last series but the schedule got away from us at the end.

I have all the covers that have come out so far, with the expedition of Dean Haspiel’s. I’m coming for yours, Dino!

DAVE: Chris Samnee and Steve Rude would both knock variant covers for this out of the park. I will keep my fingers crossed that these come to fruition. We’re all putting those ideas into the universe with this interview!

 I like to end these interviews with a fun question. Joey, I know that we have a mutual affection for Power Rangers, which certainly comes through in The Pedestrian. You have a pretty epic Power Rangers collection of merchandise, is there white whale merchandise from that franchise you’re currently hunting down?

 And Sean, is there anything akin to Power Rangers that you are an avid collector of?

 JOEY: There was a Heritage auction not long ago that had a shitload of original prop helmets and power morphers and stuff that I would kill for, but it was too rich for my blood. But mainly, I love collecting anything outside of the usual action figures and zords (though I love those too) — things like cake toppers and magnets, from when they were just slapping the branding on anything cheap enough to sell to kids (i.e., me). Unrelated to MMPR, I also collect small animals and Maine-based confections.

 SEAN: Probably Star Trek stuff atm. I started doing cover for IDW a few years back and got REALLY into collecting props and models for reference. I’ve also falled down a pretty deep custom 1:12 scale figure rabbit hole.

 DAVE: The Pedestrian trade paperback is out on Wednesday, January 29^th, I’m going to be buying a copy. What else do you guys have going on right now, or maybe even later this year that you can talk about? I’m eager to support whatever is next!

 JOEY: I just launched a new book called SHITKICKERS with Andrea Schiavone that I released under my own imprint, Soup Dad Comics. It’s like a stoner comedy mixed with Lethal Weapon and Starship Troopers. The first issue is available to read for FREE on GlobalComix while we crowdfund the first two issues with a campaign through Zoop! We’ve got two amazing variant covers from Declan Shalvey and Seth Damoose in addition to Andrea’s stunning covers. Beyond that, I’ve got a horror OGN called MADAM, co-created with friend Pandamusk, that we’ve been working on for literally a decade that will hopefully see release this year as well. And, of course, more Pedestrian by hook or by crook!

SEAN: I just wrapped up an OGN written by Esoteric of Czarface LOOSELY based on the life of Kool Keith. It should be out later this year from Z2 comics. And The Pedestrian WILL return this year in some unexpected ways.

 DAVE: Thank you guys for your time!

 JOEY: Thank YOU for being so supportive of us, and our book!

SEAN: The pleasure is Mine, ALL MINE!

Huge thanks to Joey and Sean for doing the interview, we had a blast. And listen, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I want to read more comics about The Pedestrian, so guys buy the trade paperback! I promise you won’t regret it!

Likewise, Joey mentioned his creator-owned mini-series Shitkickers, which he wrote and is being drawn by Andrea Schiavone, they’re crowdfunding the project through Zoop and I recommend checking that out and supporting that too. I’ve read the first two issues and it’s AWESOME. Joey has another awesome creator-owned project on his hands.

That’s it for this week, I’ll see you all here next week.

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz