Article by: Andy Serwin
With the final chapter of The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá (De:TALES) hitting on Feb. 20—and plans for a follow-up in 2008 already under discussion—Way grabbed the mic and shared the story of how his dream job came to be:“[Avengers/Invaders co-writer] Jim Krueger was the most instrumental person in my [comics] career. I’m on a train, still in school at the time. I [was interning at DC Comics] and had these photocopies of Preacher. He was sitting across from me and he says, ‘Do you work at DC?’ He says, ‘My name is Jim Krueger. I write Foot Soldiers. Do you mind if I take a look at your sketchbook?’
“He really loved my stuff. He was like the first guy to really, really respond to my work because it’s quite different. It’s got a very kind of European influence. I didn’t have the kinks worked out, but it wasn’t exactly what people wanted for mainstream comics. Out of pocket, he started paying me to do gigs like Foot Soldiers. I actually did a lot of designs for him because he loved my design sense.
“Before I had actually gone to make The Black Parade, I went and had lunch with Jim. We sat down together and I said, ‘Jim, I’ve been wanting to do this comic.’ He put in a phone call to Eric Wiler at Dark Horse and he said, ‘Hey, I have a buddy, his name is Gerard Way, and he’s in My Chemical Romance, and he’s got this comic that he’s been wanting to do for years.’
“So, Jim is the one that got my foot in the door at Dark Horse. He’s one of my great buddies. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met. He was one of the only guys that really supported me when I couldn’t get work.”
All credit for this article goes to Andy Sewin
