EXCLUSIVE: Writer Tom Peyer and artist Peter Krause take you inside the world of the hilariously inventive The Wrong Earth prequel…
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One of the very best comics I read last year (and into early this year) was The Wrong Earth, by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and the rest of the merry pranksters at AHOY Comics.
In a nutshell, the series is a riff on What If? As in: What if a very grim Dark Knight by the name of Dragonfly switched worlds with his campy Caped Crusader counterpart, who goes by Dragonflyman?
The six-issue run was a sly commentary on heroism and comics, yesterday and today, equal parts homage and savage satire.
It was brilliant.
Now, the Adam Westish and Frank Millerish heroes return in a 5-part prequel series: Dragonfly & Dragonflyman, by Peyer and artist Peter Krause, again with colors by Andy Troy. This time, Igle is on cover duty. (More on that Wednesday.)
In this go-around, we get to see the heroes and their sidekicks before Dragonfly and Dragonflyman crossed over to each others’ Earths — and judging by the first issue, out Wednesday, the creators haven’t missed a step.
So as a 13th Dimension EXCLUSIVE, Peyer and Krause give their commentary for the first five pages of Issue #1 — which opens in the ugly confines of Earth-Omega, with Dragonfly and his sidekick Stinger investigating a beloved but besmirched baseball icon…
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By TOM PEYER and PETER KRAUSE
CONTENTS PAGE
Peyer: A list of reprobates to rival any masked crime-fighter’s rogues gallery!
Krause: I’ll cop to being a reprobate. (Quickly accesses online dictionary).
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PAGE ONE
Peyer: Our prequel to The Wrong Earth opens on Earth-Omega, the grim-and-gritty planet where vicious bullies are the good guys. The narration belongs to Stinger, Dragonfly’s junior partner; this is to set the tone of the series, which looks at the relationships Dragonfly and Dragonflyman have with their sidekicks (which we couldn’t have done in The Wrong Earth).
Krause: The contrasts between the two worlds go beyond the hero/sidekick relationship. As the artist, you get to draw the dark and gritty along with the grinny and goofy. It’s like two different comics in one!
To keep things straight, I draw all the Earth-Omega scenes first, and then all the Earth-Alpha. I surely don’t want to mix up the attitudes or the costumes.
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PAGE TWO
Peyer: Of course, ballplayer Jarrod Dietrich bears no relation to any real-life athlete who might have been the most worshipped player of his generation and squandered much good will by “buying” another team and stripping it of its heroes. As if a monster bit him and made him a destroyer.
Krause: Peyer couldn’t be describing a former Yankee here, could he? I’m a Twins fan, and if you follow baseball you know how we feel about the Yankees here in Minnesota.
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PAGE THREE
Peyer: Wrong Earth co-creator Jamal Igle and I are united in our admiration for the job Peter Krause is doing here. The gritty scenes, the silly scenes – they all feel real. Andy Troy, who has colored every appearance of these heroes, perfectly complements Peter’s style.
Krause: Let me join the chorus in praising Andy Troy. In this opening sequence, Andy colors the gutters between panels and that adds so much. It’s great that comic fans have come to appreciate good coloring — I think it makes or breaks the visuals.
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PAGE FOUR
Peyer: This preview doesn’t cover it, but the Earth-Alpha Dragonflyman scenes give us a much happier hero/sidekick relationship. It would have to be; if you read The Wrong Earth, you know what eventually happens to Stinger-Omega, and how tragic that is.
Krause: The Earth-Alpha scenes are a gas to draw. The first few pages of the sillier world had me drawing a Tasmanian Devil and a boxing kangaroo. Those were both firsts for me!
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BONUS TIME!
Check out this rough from later in the issue — featuring a boxing tableau and some well-known celebs:
Let’s see. I espy the Kennedys, a mild-mannered reporter, his bald-pated adversary — and Joyce Carol Oates.
Seem familiar? It should:
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Dragonfly and Dragonflyman #1 is out Nov. 6 from AHOY Comics.
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MORE
— THE WRONG EARTH: The Surprise Comic Every BATMAN ’66 Fan Should Read. Click here.
— THE WRONG EARTH: Why Sunny Superheroes Still Have Meaning. Click here.
