Rick Remender is passionate about creator-owned comics. That passion has translated into a number of critically acclaimed titles, and given him the freedom to tell a variety of stories. Remender's current creator-owned output published by Image Comics includes science fiction tales like “Black Science” with artist Matteo Scalera and “Low” with artist Greg Tocchini; the coming of age, crime thriller “Deadly Class, where he collaborates with artist Wes Craig; and the recently launched fantasy series “Seven to Eternity,” which features art by Jerome Opeña.

That diverse body of work has also drawn the attention of Hollywood and other companies looking to produce adaptations and licensed merchandise based on his work. So in order to build his brand and help fans and other interested parties find the work he and his collaborators do, Remender recently launched Giant Generator (Giantgenerator.com), a new studio which will serve as an umbrella for all the creator-owned books he and his co-creators produce, as well as the films, television shows and merchandise associated with them.

We spoke with Remender about the origins of Giant Generator, how it will operate, and his vision for the studio. The discussion also included updates on the status and storylines of all his creator owned books as well the development of the television adaptation of “Deadly Class,” which Remender has been working on with the Russo Brothers and Sony.

CBR: Rick, what exactly is Giant Generator? What inspired you to form it, and why do it now?

Rick Remender: Well, I have four different projects that are being adapted and developed as TV shows, and then another that we are working on a film pitch for and, on and on, as more of this kept happening it occurred to me that I needed an umbrella and company name. Someone jokingly referred to the projects as parts of the “Remenderverse.” I chuckled -- and then realized I had to get a company name to make sure that didn’t stick. [Laughs]

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EXCLUSIVE: Art from "Low" #17

That was really the inspiration for it; just recognizing that I'm in a position where we're starting to make toys and sculptures, a whole line of comics, maybe movies, and TV shows. It was time for a name for the old production house.

Is Giant Generator comparable to what Robert Kirkman has with Skybound?

Yes, except while we have an exclusive arrangement with Image, and I see no sign of that changing, I am not an Image partner, and Robert is. Skybound is a little different in that it's a lot like Top Cow. It's an official part of Image, whereas Giant Generator is just my home studio and will serve as an umbrella for all my jive and collaborations.

As business builds, and these creator-owned books become more and more viable for film, television, video games, and other media, more money goes on the table, which makes the business practice more difficult. In the past twenty years of working on creator-owned books, I've always shared ownership 50-50 with the artists. In the course of doing that as long as I've done it, I've had a couple situations where it really bit me in the ass, and I considered that it would just be easier for me to hold the copyright to myself and I'd make all the business decisions.

I see plenty of sensible reasons to do that, but ultimately one of the things I wanted to do with this company was to say, “No, with the energy, effort, and love that's put into these things, we should co-own the properties. If that means the artist wants to do something with low scruples or doesn't have great business sense, [Laughs] so be it.”

Giant Generator is a business model where I co-own all of the properties with the artists. Usually it's 50-50, but in some cases it’s split up a little more than that with the colorists and other team members. The artists are part of all the business decisions too, which means for those who want it the Image accounting statements get sent to both them and me, and they are involved in everything, from beginning to end.

Some other studios occasionally feature books where the main creator develops an idea and then passes it off to other creators to run with it. Is that something you see yourself doing at some point with Giant Generator?

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EXCLUSIVE: Art from "Seven to Eternity" #5

I was considering that at one point for “Tokyo Ghost.” I had an art team and another writer lined up to take my outline and do the next 10 issues of the book. One factor is navigating the money of it all, but ultimately, what Sean Murphy and I created with “Tokyo Ghost” was a real labor of love. It was something we spent 2-3 years creating and was fairly personal, so it was hard to hand it off even if it might have been better with the new team. We had some very talented people lined up to take it over. Maybe that will change.

It didn't feel natural to me to hand off my story in that kind of way. I'm not a publishing house at Image in the way Kirkman is with Skybound. I'm not going to be publishing other people's books. This studio is my books and people that I'm working with. I don't see myself doing that anytime soon, although I have come pretty close to it. It could just be that I'm a control freak and I can't hand one of my things to somebody else. [Laughs]

Let's talk about the books that fall under the Giant Generator umbrella. March's “Black Science” #29 brings the current arc to a close, and then it looks like the series comes back after only a two-month gap.

Yeah, we had a little slowdown because Matteo injured his arm significantly. He's gone through an operation and had some ligaments replaced, so he's back up and running. Not at full speed, but he is sort of an inhuman monster of perfect and fast pages even when he's injured. At this point, he's done half of issue #29. #30 wraps the sixth volume.

Speaking to your question about the other books is the way Grant and the cast in “Black Science” can meet the cast of the other books. This is something I’ve got worked into the next arc and am pretty excited about. A way for me to get Led and Debbie form “Tokyo Ghost” or Bethany Black from “Strange Girl” out of retirement for a bit.

We recently slowed things down and dealt with character development, they are now in pretty terrible situations, which I like. Starting around issue #29 though I put my foot back on the gas and the next 12 issues will very much resemble the first six issues in that it's a huge outline condensed, boiled down, and crammed into a smaller space. It's going to be very fast and full of action. So for these last 12 issues I wanted to try and reduce the gap between the shipping of arcs. We're going to do what we can and hopefully ship them all in a bit over a year. That's our goal, anyway.

March's “Deadly Class” #27 comes in the fallout of one of the series biggest reveals: Marcus and Maria are still alive. How did it feel to finally reveal those characters' fates?

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EXCLUSIVE: Cover art for "Deadly Class" #28

It felt good. It was a hard decision, though. I had two outlines written, and I had gone back and forth repeatedly on which way to go. Maria was going to come back in either one. Then in one outline I kept Marcus dead and the other one I brought him back. In order to make the decision, I literally had to write both outlines and see what each of them did. [Laughs]

Once I had done that, I negotiated it with Wes and I negotiated with our editor, Sebastian Girner. I also spent a lot of time talking with my screen writing partner on the “Deadly Class” TV show, Miles Feldsott. Miles was very passionate about the return of Marcus. His passion, and the other debates, convinced me to go the road where Marcus comes back, and I think we made the right decision.

It was also nice to see the reaction people had when the book came out. I think it came out at a time when there wasn't a whole lot of good news, and “Deadly Class” in particular is not the most cheery book. Our loyal readers, who have been passionate about the series, stuck with us, and turned our book into such a hit, needed some good news, especially since we had taken things down into the depths of darkness. Getting that burst of good news seemed to make people pretty happy.

“Low” also returns in March with issue #16, which is the start of a new arc. What do you want people to know about this new story and the book's return?

We're at a point in the story where things seemed rather hopeless. Now is the fun of getting to see if there's a way through to the light, and to find out what it is that they're exactly contending with since we saw some terrifying new villain types show up in issue #15.

As we were moving into this, Greg Tocchini had an idea that I really fell in love with. He pitched an idea for issue #16 based on some of the things that we have coming up. We developed it together, he broke the outline with Seb, and then he went off and did it. So issue #16 is pure collaboration. It’s a jump into the past where we get to meet some new characters. We'll also seem some familiar faces, and something that will play a big role moving forward in where were going with the story.

A lot of Greg’s pages are almost fully ink wash painted with Dave McCaig coming in and doing his magic thing. It's one of the most beautiful issues we've had to date. We spend this whole arc in the City of Salus before we return to the surface and see what happens to Stel.

In April, “Seven to Eternity” returns for its second arc with issue #5. I thought the first arc moved at a highly satisfying and brisk pace. What can you tell us about this new arc?

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EXCLUSIVE: Art from "Deadly Class" #27

I allowed myself to keep the pace of the first arc slower and grounded in character. Ultimately, I wanted to tell a story that didn't rocket past everything. It’s been a joy to write this way.

The thing about working with somebody as brilliant as Jerome is that every page he draws takes him three days. That can be somewhat daunting in that you want to make sure that every single page is worth his time in visuals and action. I really had to pull myself away and ignore the fact that Jerome was going to take 10 months to draw these issues. The way I did that was, I wrote it all at once. I started writing “Seven to Eternity” a ways back, and I wrote all of the first 16 issues in one big go, and now the mighty Opena is slowly producing it. We are also bringing in some very talented friends to do origin stories and side adventures to round out the world. News on that soon.

What we see when we come back in issue #5 is the Mosak and Adam Osidis are on the road trying to take the Mud King to the wizard Torga so she can disconnect him from all of the people he has insinuated himself into. The fun of it is, issue #5 in particular is just part of the journey, but the journey allows me to go hog wild crazy in fantasy town. I get to make up new villains, new cities, and just see Jerome cut loose. [Laughs] Jerome and I like to do cinematic, fluid, widescreen action sequences, and I think that “Seven to Eternity” #5 has the best one we've ever done as our characters meet a new villain, another child of the Mud King.

What really surprised me about that first arc is, we meet the series' big, seemingly all-powerful villain -- and then he's suddenly in the custody of your heroes, and the book becomes a prisoner transport story.

I'm glad that turn surprised you and hopefully hooked you. That was the turn I was going to open on, but ultimately I decided we needed to spend a couple of issues with the characters and the backstory. Then it would be surprising when that happened as opposed to just opening up with that. I struggled with where to open the book, but hearing what you just said and talking to some other people at the signing I did last week tells me it was a satisfying and unexpected turn that sets up a new situation.

You'll be announcing a new book at Emerald City Comic Con that we'll talk more in depth about in another piece, but any interest in revisiting the worlds of some of your older books to tell new stories?

We still talk about more “Tokyo Ghost.” Like I said, I have the next story outlined, and I know what it is. Sean is super busy over in Batman town. So I need to find someone who can follow Sean. I had someone lined up, but it's going to be a style shift no matter which way we go. I would still like to get to that and I know the story would be pretty satisfying.

Finally, what can you tell us about the progress of your books that are being adapted for film and television?

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EXCLUSIVE: Cover art for "Low" #19

“The Last Days of American Crime” adaptation got pretty far. We had F. Gary Gray directing and Sam Worthington starring in it at one point. So I almost got to see that made before it all crumbled in front of me. [Laughs] I'm told that iteration is dead, but they are working on some new angles for the project.

“Deadly Class” is a little further than that in terms of the pieces that are in place. We recently turned in a new draft to the Russo Brothers. We’ve been wrenching on it with them our incredible show runner Adam Targum for a bit now and they’re notes are crazy, insightful. I've been working on this pilot with Miles for quite some time so it's very easy to become snow blind where you've rewritten outlines and scenes so many times that you might not be aware of where they're working and where they're not working. The team we have producing are ensuring what we do it working, and I genuinely think that it is. The screenplay is many magnitudes better because of their contributions. We're one to two drafts away from taking the screenplay to the network. We haven't announced the network yet where it landed. Then we find out if they're going to pull the trigger on it.

It's exciting, but it's also terrifying, because I've dumped so much of my time and love into it that if they're like, “No thanks” I'm going to want to run off to the woods and hide in a cave for three years. [Laughs] Here’s to hoping. I’d have to eventually come back from my cave and get back to work as we have some incredibly exciting stuff happening with “Low,” “Fear Agent” and “Black Science” as well. Fingers crossed.