Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman's Venom run was a critical and commercial hit, so the news that they're reteaming for a new creator-owned series, Vanish, was met with a lot of excitement.
The comic book will focus on Oliver Harrison who, at just 14, killed an ancient evil. However, the consequences of that heroic endeavour have followed him ever since, and after years of dealing with severe PTSD and anxiety waiting for the next big threat to emerge, that comes in the form of a new superhero team. However, it appears this group - the Prestige - have some sinister plans.
We're excited to check this one out - you can subscribe for updates on the series here - and recently asked Stegman what he could tease about Vanish. As well as making it clear that fans of Venom can expect a similar tone, the artist also shares his thoughts on a possible anime adaptation down the line.
Check out our full interview with the internationally acclaimed artist below:
You’ve mentioned that you and Donny [Cates] are working on Vanish, so is there anything you can tease about that series? It seems to be building a lot of buzz, especially after Comic-Con a couple of weeks ago.
What can I tease about it? Well, it’s me and Donny, right? You said you’ve read our Venom stuff, so there’s a similar tone. We kind of have our thing down. There’s that and it’s a magic-based book, but with superheroes and all the things that we love. If you take, say, Spawn, Wildcats, and mash all these things together with Harry Potter and all these different things, and that’s what you’re getting from us. It’s really cool. There really is nothing like it where I’m creating the entire world. There’s no precedent for how it should be drawn.
Sometimes, I’m so into the artist that came before me that it becomes a little stifling. There’s nothing to stifle me here, so it’s both of us off the leash and we’re doing things we never could at Marvel. It’s really good. We have KLCPress.com where people can sign up for our newsletter and they can watch as we create this book. We have all kinds of process stuff as we make Vanish for the fans as well as a bunch of other books Donny is writing. If your readers can, get on there and sign up for the free newsletter and check it out!
When you’re doing this creator-owned work - and you mentioned how cool it was to get a mention in Venom: Let There Be Carnage's credits - are you thinking ahead to a future where these things could be adapted for film or television? Or, as the artist, are you just focusing on building these original worlds?
That’s a great question. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I am not making this to have anything made out of it. I want the publishing end to be successful enough to sustain it because I love comic books and that’s what I want to do. My ultimate dream for the property would be to have an anime series made out of it. Real, true anime. They don’t have to draw it like I draw it. I’d like it to be drawn like My Hero Academia. I think it’s just a thing I’ve loved forever and I think it would be suited well for it.
My stated goal as an artist is to reach the 10 - 15-year-olds that love comic books because that’s when I discovered them. There’s just this memory of that time in my life where I had my place in the world and I was going to do this thing and then became obsessed with this one thing. The anime audience of 10 - 18 really eat this stuff up, so that’s another way for me to reach that audience I want to speak to with my work.
My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission is out now in UK cinemas!