Q&A with Sean McKeever

Despite just finishing up a busy 2005 and getting ready for what looks like an even busier 2006, Eisner-award winner Sean McKeever (Gravity, Sentinel, The Waiting Place) was kind enough to indulge us with a Q&A this holiday season.

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JK: 2005 was a good year for you, what with the return of Sentinel, the Gravity mini, being named one of the "10 Terrific," an Eisner, etc. What would you consider the highlights, both professional and personal?

Sean McKeever: You know, I'm having a hard time deciding which should be the personal highlight and which should be the professional one because they both mean a lot to me in both ways, but definitely the Eisner and Gravity.

It's funny; when I see people mention my Eisner win, for a split second it doesn't register. It's still that surreal to me, I guess! You know, it was a really good feeling to win, and it still is, but the highlight of that win was taking the statue to my folks' place for them to see. They were clearly very proud. So, hmm, I guess that's the personal one, huh?

And then Gravity. Man, if you came up to me when I was 10 years old and completely engrossed in Marvel comics...well, first of all, I'd be worried you're some kind of perv. But if you told me that someday I'd get to create a super hero for Marvel with one of my best friends and have him interact with the Marvel Universe, I'd have said you were crazy. And here I've gone and done just that. Sure, the sales weren’t all that great, but I couldn't be happier with what Mike and I put together, and I also couldn't be happier with the overall fan reaction.

JK: What has being named one of the "10 Terrific" meant for your career?

Sean: Ha...stay tuned. You'll find out in a few months.

JK: Joe Quesada said about the 10 Terrific that, "Much in the way that Joe Straczynski, Mark Millar and Brian Bendis helped shape the Marvel U over the last few years, we’ll be expecting several of these guys to step up and take their turn as well." If you were given your choice of a high-profile book to "take your turn" on, what would it be?

Sean: I always feel kinda guilty when I answer this question in public, like I'm gunning for someone else's job, you know? But since I'm all tied up for 2006, I think I'll get over it. Lately, I've really wanted to tackle the X-Men. I really miss writing Inhumans, which was an ensemble drama--essentially the same thing as a team book. As a teenager, I always loved the mix of crazy adventure and soap opera that Claremont & Co. delivered month after month, and I think I'd like to take a stab at that.

JK: Now that the Gravity mini is over, the character seems to be popping up all over the place – Marvel Team-Up, the Marvel Holiday Special, etc. What are the chances we’ll be seeing him again in another series of his own, or in a team book?

Sean: All I can say is, I can't say. Keep your eyes peeled.

JK: How is Sentinel doing this time around, sales wise? Did you approach it any differently than you did the first series?

Sean: I have no idea on the sales front. They really don't provide me with that kind of information. If I'm lucky, I get a ballpark figure. That said, JJ Miller of Krause Publishing estimates orders at just under 20k. I think that's up about 25% from issue 12, so I guess it's not too bad. The real barometer of success for Sentinel, though, appears to be the digests.

With this second go at Sentinel, I knew that the main gist of the story had to do with the whereabouts of and mystery surrounding Juston's mother, but I also really wanted to give the protagonists something to fight against. Initially, they were going to be up against this teen mutant speedster girl, but for various reasons I had to scrap that idea, and that's when I came up with the idea of the Stealth Sentinel and tied it into our Sentinel's "origin".

Other than that, I approached it no differently, I think, than I did the first 12 issues.

JK: What can you tell us about Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane? From the title, it sounds like it will focus more on Spider-Man than the previous Mary Jane series did.

Sean: Spider-Man will be in every issue, and that's not even the biggest change to the story. MJ's going through a rough patch with her circle of friends, so now much of her time is spent with her study partner, Peter Parker. So while Peter was a bit player at best in the previous two runs, here he's pretty much front and center. But it's still MJ's book all the way.

JK: Is it true you’re guest writing Funky Winkerbean next year? How did that come about?

Sean: I met Tom Batiuk at Mid-Ohio-Con in 2004, and it turned out he was a fan of my work, particularly The Waiting Place. So we exchanged numbers and a few months later he was in town and wanted to discuss my coming in and lending a hand.

It was a great opportunity and I really enjoyed the whole experience of writing a newspaper strip. All in all, I think I wrote around 15 weeks' worth (minus the Sunday strips). My first stuff appears in March 2006, and then it's peppered throughout the rest of the year a week or two at a time. My name won't be in the byline, but I'll be announcing on my site when my episodes hit the papers.

JK: John Byrne recently made an appearance in the strip. Any chance you’ll be bringing him back?

Sean: Ha ha! Nope, no comic book-related stuff in my strips, I'm afraid.

JK: How is 2006 shaping up? Any new projects on the horizon you can talk about?

Sean: All booked up for 2006 already, and it feels great. I'll be writing Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane for a bare minimum of 10 issues and then I've got some other stuff I can't talk about coming up. I thought 2005 was a banner year, but 2006 looks to be HUGE.

JK: What's on your wish list this holiday season?

Sean: More than anything, I'm hoping for the last two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street, and I have a strong feeling they're gonna be under my parents' tree when I go visit them this week.

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Read more about Sean and his upcoming work over at his Website, http://www.seanmckeever.com/.