EXAMINING DESPERADO'S NECESSARY EVIL

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

We've heard about schools for superheroes, most recently with the Disney movie Sky High, and even schools for young, bright wizards, like Harry Potter. But where do villains go to learn how to manifest their malevolent intentions?

That's the question answered by Necessary Evil, a new series from Desperado Publishing by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Marcus L Harris. Based in Necessary Evil Academy, the series follows the sons of one of the most evil female villains the world has ever know as they unravel the mystery of her death and learn about the secret world of supervillains.

Originally intended as a mini-series, the comic has been upgraded to "ongoing" by Desperado. Newsarama caught up with the writer to find out more about the series as it heads toward its fourth issue, and we found out the concept has even gotten a little attention from Hollywood.

Newsarama: What is the comic about, in a nutshell?

Joshua Williamson: It's about a school for Supervillains! That's the quick one-liner.

Extended, it goes like this: Jacob and Miller are the sons of the Matriarch, the world's greatest super-villainess. The Matriarch is now dead at the hands of a superhero, and the boys want answers -- and revenge. They are invited to Necessary Evil Academy, the school for supervillains. As the brothers go to class to learn the tricks of the bad-guy-trade, they begin to unravel the secrets surrounding their mother's death, finding that her legacy may have destined them to become more than just villains.



NRAMA: How did you come up with the idea?

JW: Honestly, I wish I had some awesome story, where it was an epiphany while I was climbing Mt. Everest or traveling the world searching for Shangri-La. The truth is... I was playing video games. No joke. I was just sitting there when I had a thought: "There should be a school for bad guys." After that, my brain went nuts with ideas and concepts. I stopped playing and started writing. The initial solid concept I had was: "My mother was the greatest supervillain the world had ever known," which became the opening line in issue #1. The first issue script went though a bunch of changes and was at one point 36 pages long. I eventually managed it down to 24. The more I wrote and played with the idea of a school for bad guys, the more material I had. The concept really fed into itself.

NRAMA: How would you describe the artistic style of the comic?

JW: Marcus L. Harris is the artist. Let me ask him real quick. Marcus? What would you say is the artistic style of Necessary Evil? Marcus says: "Legible?"

It's a superhero style of art with a taste of slice of life drama. Marcus and I are both big fans of the Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire era of Justice League and we were aspiring to have a look close to that. We are still far off, but its the thought that counts, right? The book has a classic clean comic look. We try to focus on facial expressions and making sure the emotion of the characters shines through.

If I had to compare it to a book? The first pages I ever saw of Marcus's were sample pages he drew from an Ultimate Spider-Man script. Recently, in a podcast review, the art was compared to Mark Bagley's pencils in Ultimate Spider-Man, so I'm gonna go with that.

NRAMA: Is there any other movie/genre you can point toward and say, "if you like that, you'll like Necessary Evil?"

JW: Movie- and mass appeal-wise, I'd say Sky High, Wanted, New Mutants, Teen Titans and Harry Potter. I've met with a few interested Hollywood people and they say "a dark Harry Potter" every other sentence. If you like the whole "kids in school getting into crazy antics," you'll like this book. The majority of the story has the kids training to be villains, but at the end of the day, kids will be kids. If you like any movies that focuses on the bad guys or about someone's evolution from a good person to a total sociopath, this is for you.



NRAMA: Tell us about yourself, as far as writing goes. What did you do before writing Necessary Evil?

JW: Before Necessary Evil, I had written mostly mini-comics and books with really small print runs under an independent banner called Big Boss Comics. The first mini-comic I ever published was back in 2001. I made 20 copies and handed them to my favorite creators at the San Diego Comic-Con. It wasn't my greatest work of art, but it was a start.

Eventually I became one of those guys that has a table in the small press section of the San Diego Comic-Con every year. I did a few different comics - Plan B, Gentleman Zombie, Kid Justice and Lost Rites. My books never made it outside the convention scene aside from me going store to store selling copies. I did a few short stories in some anthologies, anybody remember Captain Greedy? Eh? Anybody?

I also had a comic strip on www.komikwerks.com called Kid Justice, about a teen superhero who is the son of the president of the U.S.

NRAMA: How did you get the gig with Desperado?

JW: This story is actually kinda long and epic, with three different epilogues but I'll try to keep it to short, just the gist.

I used to hand out my mini-books to other creators at conventions, try to get some feedback, hell, even if they laughed at me I was still happy that I got a reaction. One of those creators was Stephan Nilson (Atomik Mike, Justice League Unlimited). He was in charge of Across the Pond Studios and was becoming the Creative Director with Desperado. Stephan would swing by my table every year and we would B.S. a bit. He was familiar with my past works and was always interested in seeing what I was working on. A few conventions ago, I gave him copies of some newer stuff I had done; in there was a rough copy of Necessary Evil #1. He said he would read everything and get back to me after the convention. We played the email game for a few weeks and eventually he gave me the call saying Desperado had picked up Necessary Evil. I was really excited and proceeded to call Stephan everyday with questions, slowly driving him insane. Kidding.

Working with Desperado has been really great and rewarding. They were still in the process of leaving Image, so I feel lucky knowing that in their freshman year going solo, they took a chance with me, being pretty much a rookie and not a name by any means. The same month Desperado released the first issue of Necessary Evil, they also released books by Phil Hester, Shannon Eric Denton, Stephan and Keith Giffen. Keith Giffen! I was honored to be among those creators.

Desperado has been awesome in dealing with the book. Originally it was only going to be four issues long, but they gave us the go-ahead to change it to an ongoing, which was a huge show of trust in us.

NRAMA: OK, then. Last question, and your chance to sell it - why do you think people will want to check out the comic?

JW: Bad guys!!! Everybody loves the bad guys! This book is wall-to-wall supervillains, people! If you want to see how the other half lives and is trained, or you've ever wondered where all the crazy supervillains in animal costumes came from, here is your answer!

It's got interesting characters, action, romance, and a little bit of mystery. These first four issues are a self-contained story arc, but they also build on a bigger plot that will pay off big. People think they know where the book is heading and they will be surprised when they discover what direction the book is really going. The first issue has an great cover by the awesome Dustin Nguyen ( WildC.A.T.S 3.0, Detective Comics) and issue 2 has a sexy cover by Todd Nauck (FN Spiderman, Teen Titans GO!). The art is great and the book itself has been getting good reviews.

Really, if you are a fan of bad guys doing bad things, you have to check this book out. I'm a big believer in that, in fiction, for there to be heroes there needs to be bad guys. The worse the bad guy the better the hero. They are.. dare I say it?... a Necessary Evil! Dun, Dun, Dunnnnn!!!

Issues #1, #2 and #3 of Necessary Evil are currently on stands.
For more:
www.desperadopublishing.com
http://www.myspace.com/necessaryevilcomicbook

[CitC]

That preview was quite good. The art wa nice and the writing drew me in. Nice stuff.

[johnlayman]

I've been following Josh Williamson's career for a long time. He's a bright guy with a lot of good ideas and a real drive to write comics. I suspect in a few years he will be a household name.

Necessary Evil is definitely something I'll be picking up.

[LikeaPhoenix]

Whoa, the 2 ending pix of the previews are disturbingly violentl and cool!

[Blackbeard]

This looks fantastic. I'll definitely pick it up.

[J.Williamson]

CitC and LikeaPhoenix, Dwight (Blackbeard), I'm glad you like what you see!
John, as always, you are awesome.
Here is a 3-pager I did with Jason Ho to promote the book. It was posted on the Newsrama forums:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141017

[Rob Levin]

Nice going, Josh. Glad to see you guys will be around for a while.

[Faust]

Looks good.

[Xysmurf]

Looks great, very different from the all the other dribble out there. I sure hope that teacher has a keen healing factor teaching that class........

[Faust]

........I posted another reply when trying to fix a spelling error. Move on nothing to see here. heh

[ultraaman]

Pretty nice, looks real good. Congratulations.

[trialsze]

Looks really good. I will give it a shot.

[iggy]

Love the homage to The Winner (I think that was the portrait's name). I will definitely get this. And, have nightmares about waiting in the principal's office in elementary school. :P

[QUANTUMZEN]

I just read issue 3 two days ago and I gotta say that it's the best issue so far. Anybody on the fence about picking this series up should give issues 1-3 a try!

[STL]

Love the premise, good sample pages too. I'm definitely going to give it a try and see if my LCS can the early issues in

[iggy]

I am planning on getting this ongoing (including back issues). The story is great. The art is awesome. And, dang it, they paid homage to the great American artist, Norman Rockwell. What else do people need to see to get to talking about this?

[laffinhyena]

I just finished reading all 3 of the issues of Necessary Evil. I was impressed. It's got great art and the story is good enough to make it a regular pick-up.

[Sambo253]

My dad gave me the first two issues of this comic. He said that one of his former patients was writing it. Being a bit of a comic snob, I was skeptical about its quality. I had never heard of these guys so how can they be good? Then I saw that it was from Desperado Press, and my defenses were lowered a bit since I have heard of the publisher.

Anyway, this is a very good comic and I'll be picking up future issues. The high concept is spectacular, the dialogue is solid, the pacing is just right, and the art fits well with the tone. Keep up the good work, Joshua and Marcus.