Interview with Massive-Verse Creator Kyle Higgins

Our Creator Interview series continues with the ever-fascinating and growing Massive-Verse! Today we are sitting down with Kyle Higgins about this tokusatsu-style universe, with notable titles including Rogue Sun, Radiant Black, The Dead Lucky, Radiant Red, C.O.W.L, Inferno Girl Red, and even more coming soon.

GlobalComix: What was the moment you knew you wanted to create comics professionally, and in the beginning, did you know you wanted to work on your own IPs with your own universe? What were your goals back then?

Kyle Higgins: You know, it’s funny. Except for a period in high school where I was trying to draw my own books, I never really wanted to create comics professionally. I wasn’t a strong enough artist, and I didn’t think I’d ever understand enough about the way the world worked to write anything that meant anything. That said, I’ve always loved comics and have read them my entire life. My teenage, high school and college years were filled with multiple trips a week to the comic store, multiple pull boxes and hundreds if not thousands of books. 

In so many ways, my love of comics, film, and superheroes are all quite intertwined. I fell in love with movies because of Richard Donner’s Superman and Tim Burton’s Batman, animation because of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-MEN and Batman: The Animated Series, and comics because that’s where all of the amazing superhero stuff I loved was coming from. Which is why, when it was time to make my college thesis film, I decided to go back to the genre that made me fall in love with it all: superheroes

My film was called The League and it was a half-hour long superhero noir about a superhero labor union in 1960s Chicago. We shot entirely on 16mm film, had something like 100 VFX shots, costumes, stunt doubles and choreographers, big action sequences, an original bebop score… we went all out. (The film is actually online– anyone interested can find it on our Massive-Verse YouTube.) Once I finished The League, we put it online and a friend sent out an email to about 200 people or so, everyone he knew in film, tv and comics. One of the first people who watched the film was Joe Quesada, who reached out to tell me how much he enjoyed it and to offer that if there was ever anything he could do for me, to let him know. I remember sitting at my computer reading the email, crazy sleep deprived from finishing the movie literally the night before, and realizing that this could be a window cracking open. While I never seriously thought I could write comics, I also got very excited about the idea of trying.

When you ask about goals back then, and whether I wanted to work on my own IP versus established properties, I remember very much wanting to do both. In my first emails with Joe, I remember him asking me what types of stories I enjoyed and/or were interested in telling. I talked to him about the Marvel characters I loved, the genres and types of things I wanted to explore, but I also told him about The League and our desire to build it out further as a comic series. The latter wouldn’t be a fit for Marvel, since it would be a creator owned project, but that book did eventually happen: it became C.O.W.L., which is now part of The Massive-Verse.

Inferno Girl Red

GlobalComix: As someone that studied animation in college, I find that there’s a lot of overlap between film, comics, and other forms of visual narrative. How did your early work in film and writing influence your approach to comic storytelling?

Kyle: I think that’s very true, as true as it is that each one of those mediums is also very unique and that as a creator, it’s your responsibility to learn what makes the medium you’re working in, work. Different forms of sequential, visual storytelling are going to have overlap, absolutely. But understanding what works in, say, a movie versus what works on the printed page is really important. There are things you can do in comics, for example, that you can’t do in any other medium. Page turn reveals, the inverse relationship between panel count and pacing, the silent panel, the opportunities for formalism… plus, since there are no actor performances and everything comes back to words in a white balloon, there are all sorts of storytelling and unreliable narrator aspects that you can design for that would never work in any other medium.

All of that to say, when I was first starting out I would definitely find myself translating a lot– it’s kind of like learning a second language. When you’re trying to learn, say, Spanish, your brain doesn’t start off by just naturally thinking in that language. You don’t default to thinking “biblioteca.” You start off by thinking “what’s the Spanish word for ‘library’ again…?” Writing comics was like that for me early on. I came from a screenwriting and directing background– when I would build stories, my brain would default to thinking about them as if I was going to write a screenplay. Then, I would get out a notebook and start “translating”-- breaking the story across hypothetical print pages, checking where my page turns were, trying to always remind myself that double page spreads should be on even-odd pages, etc.

Of course, like any language, you get better at it the more you speak it. At a certain point, my brain stopped needing that translation stage and I got very comfortable just thinking in page breaks from the get go. But one of the fun things that happened through that process was the way that I found different elements from my screenwriting and filmmaking background that did translate. I love page wide panels, I love trying to stay on the right side of the 180 degree rule, I often crosscut my action in the third act, there’s nothing better than controlling the pacing with a perfectly placed splash or double page spread.

Learning how to tell stories in different disciplines definitely helped me to find my preferred storytelling style.

Rogue Sun #26

GlobalComix: What inspired Radiant Black and the broader Massive-Verse? Was there a moment or story that sparked the idea? We all love origin stories!

Kyle: I’ve told this story more times than I can recall at this point (laughs) so I’m going to keep this a little shorter, but the gist of it comes out of some projects that I was working on after my time on Power Rangers– a six issue post-tech dystopian series with miniature black holes and the moniker “Radiant Black,” plus a potential DC project where I was anchoring around the idea of a mid-to-late 20s something getting laid off from Wayne Enterprises and having to move back in with his parents in the Gotham suburbs.

But then, after NYCC 2019, Eric Stephenson (Image Publisher) asked me if I’d ever have interest in building an original, contemporary superhero. Something Right Now, optimistic sci-fi if I preferred thinking about it that way. I told him I’d kill to do a book like that but I figured there wouldn’t be a market for it. He thought there could be, walked me through why, and then told me to feel free to tell any other creators who I thought would be a fit that he was open to doing more Image Superhero Universe stuff. I reminded him of the Radiant Black concept and threw out an idea– what if I used the name and iconography from my Radiant Black stuff as a way to build a toku-influenced modern day superhero series? 

I also brought in the moving-back-in-with-your-parents element from the Gotham pitch that I never ended up actually submitting and made the choice to set the series in my home town. The book isn’t about me but there’s a lot of me in the book and these characters have given me an opportunity to write about a lot of my fears, in a structure and format that can grow and change as we– the creative team– does.

But looping back to Eric’s comment about letting any other creators know he’d be open to these types of stories, my first call was to Ryan Parrott, who pitched me what became Rogue Sun three or four days later. Mat, Michael and I were already working on what would become Inferno Girl Red and so, for a while, we worked on all three concurrently… before getting the numbers on Radiant Black issue 1 and deciding to work towards connecting these series in a new way, carving out the beginnings of our own corner of the Image Superhero Universe.

Radiant Black #34

GlobalComix: Can you walk us through your typical writing process—from initial idea to final script? Do you work on this process alone, or is it more collaborative alongside your creative team?

Kyle: It really depends on the script, the project, the deadlines, etc. Regardless of what I’m writing, I outline quite a bit before I start scripting any actual pages but also leave room for myself to find things on the page. I do a lot of co-writing these days, which I love, in no small part because it gives me another person to bounce ideas off of, problem solve complicated bits with, split scripting with, etc. And then, I’ll always go back and do another pass once the art is finished.

But even when I’m purely solo writing, I would say that at this point in my process it’s all pretty collaborative. We make all of our Massive-Verse books over Google chat, so there are always threads going with collaborators as we develop things and sometimes even write pages in real time. In particular, Radiant Black, Marcelo, Eduardo, Joe, Michael, Rod and I have such a short hand at this point that it really does feel like a jam band at times. Which I adore.

Rogue Sun #29

GlobalComix: Is there a creator that you haven't worked with yet that you'd really want to work with in the future? Who's on your Mount Rushmore?

Kyle: Oh, that’s a fun question. I’d say that most of the comic book creators that I’d kill to work with tend to be artists, people like Chris Bachalo, Jock, Simone Di Meo and of course, Dan Mora. Dan and I are finally getting to work together on Immortal Legend Batman, which I couldn’t be happier about.

On the writing front, I’d love to do something with Brubaker or Jason Aaron one of these days. Ta-Nehisi Coates would be amazing.

Radiant Black #32

GlobalComix: Related to the previous question, where do you hope to take the Massive-Verse in the next few years? What can we as readers expect to see in the future that you can share with us?

Kyle: The focus right now for the foreseeable future is on Radiant Black and Rogue Sun, keeping the books on a consistent monthly release schedule. We had a lot of delays last year for a variety of reasons, but now that NO/ONE and The Catalyst War storylines are finished, we’ve been able to really zero in on keeping Radiant Black and Rogue Sun production consistent. We have big plans for both books, as well as the upcoming book 2 release for Inferno Girl Red that should be dropping in the next few months.

Outside of those three titles, though, the big focus is about raising general awareness and exploring some different medium possibilities. So, that includes the upcoming Radiant Black audiobook that we’re in the middle of recording with a full voice cast, featuring Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Troy Baker, and so many others.

Brian Buccellato and I are almost done with the screenplay for our NO/ONE movie, which I’ll also be directing and which will actually be in-universe with both the comic book and audio series.

We’re constantly looking for new ways to reach new readers, both in the direct market, but increasingly, outside of it.

Radiant Black #31

So many thanks Kyle for taking time between all of your projects to share your experiences and knowledge! It's always a joy to sit down with a fellow creator, especially someone with experience in film like yourself. Additional thanks to Michael Busuttil for providing us with so many amazing images for this article.

I'm incredibly excited to see more about your future works, especially the upcoming Immortal Legend Batman as a manga creator myself. It's been a pleasure of mine to bring this interview to our community here at GlobalComix.

If you would like to keep up with the Massive-Verse, here's a list of GlobalComix links:

• Start Reading the Massive-Verse on GlobalComix here
• Follow Image Comics on GlobalComix to not miss any updates

And here you can find their social media profiles and website links

• Find their website here
• Subscribe to the YouTube channel here
• Follow Kyle Higgins on Twitter here
• Keep up with the Massive-Verse Instagram feed here
• Find even more socials on their carrd here