Recently, I sat down with Jimmy Palmiotti to talk about his Pop Kill from Mad Cave Studios. You can listen to the full show wherever you listen to your podcasts. The show is also on YouTube.
FCF: Whenever I sit down with first-time guests, I like to know their origin story. What got you into comics and made you a lifelong fan?
Palmiotti: As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, I had a couple older brothers and one younger brother who’s in comics, Peter. This was before cable, before computers, before phones and TVs and all that stuff. You basically had to go outside and play or watch TV or do something, and comic books were everywhere. We’d go to the barbershop — there’d be a stack of comics. We’d go to the candy store — there’d be comics. Early on I probably started reading Archies at the barbershops, but eventually I found Superman and Fantastic Four, and those were my two favorites growing up.
Comics were everywhere, and I had buddies of mine — we’d sit on my stoop in Brooklyn and read comics together and swap comics. It wasn’t collecting; it was just keeping ourselves busy. I always loved comics and I always loved drawing. At a young age I would try to copy the drawings in the comic books. That stayed with me. I went to the High School of Art and Design in New York and took cartooning there. One of my classmates was Mark Texeira.
I decided to go into advertising — I saw there was no money in comics — and I did well until I was around 30. Then I decided I wanted to try comics again. I made a career change and started helping Mark Texeira with his books. He was doing Ghost Rider and Punisher at the time, and I became his background guy. Eventually, I started picking up work at Marvel Comics. I lived in New York, so it was easy to go up there. I was up there every week picking up jobs, and I’ve been working ever since.
The long story is how long it took me, how many samples it took, how many times I got rejected. Short story is, I just kept after it. Eventually, I started getting work doing the artwork side of it. Then I started self‑publishing with Joe Quesada, and then I started getting into writing around the mid‑nineties, early 2000s. I’ve been writing comics and making comics ever since.
FCF: What made you bring Pop Kill to Mad Cave?
Palmiotti: We released Pop Kill as three Kickstarters for the four books years before, and we did very well with it. We had a great audience for the book — so much so that we did three Kickstarters. I was doing some work and met with Mad Cave about some stuff. I had friends up there, and the people there are great. I liked what they were doing. I met with the crew, talked about what we wanted to do with the book. Mark London and his crew — Mark Irwin and those guys — were interested in publishing it for mainstream.
My deal was they could reprint the books, but they had to do all‑new covers. It’s important to me that my Kickstarter backers have exclusive art and exclusive covers. I wanted to make sure they were happy. At the same time, their books were extremely limited and probably worth a lot more now because of this.
Mad Cave came out with the book, and we did the program where retailers could order a couple hundred and make their own covers. That’s been going really well. But I don’t think anybody saw the success of the books coming. Mad Cave doesn’t do adult books normally, and we were their first adult comic — there’s nudity, violence, language. But they were the right guys at the right time. We’ve been partners on this ever since. Great company, great people. Mark London — pleasure to deal with, wonderful man, great writer. He understands and loves comics. It was just the right place.
FCF: For people who haven’t read Pop Kill, why should they check it out?
Palmiotti: Pop Kill is basically Dave Johnson and I having fun. It’s so ridiculous and over the top. Dave came to me with the concept: two separated conjoined twin brothers own competing soda companies. Then we have a woman, Dina Deluxe, who creates a formula that makes the fizz last longer so sodas don’t go flat. Our main character, Jonny, is like a James Bond type — a little out of time, a little bit of a misogynist. We created this crazy story where he’s working for the soda companies to get
the formula from the girl, and they wind up falling in love.
It’s full of action and insanity. There’s nudity, violence — we wrote the comic as if nobody was telling us what we couldn’t do. We went all out. It’s half drama, half comedy, a lot of action. And for some reason it hit a nerve. Everybody who reads it says, “Oh my God, it was so much fun. You gotta do more.” With Pop Kill we didn’t know what the reception would be. If I’m writing Punisher, I know the Punisher people are gonna buy it. Same with Harley. But Pop Kill was an experiment. I think adults like it because the material doesn’t talk down to them. And the initial series is four issues with a beginning, middle, and end — which is nice these days.
FCF: You did this as a Kickstarter. Why go that route?
Palmiotti: Honestly, we didn’t want people telling us what to do with the book. I’ve done creator‑owned books where the first thing a company does is want to change the name or the title. We wanted to do a project where Dave, Juan, and I could just put it out for the fans and not worry about a company. And we wanted to own it. If there’s licensing, we own it. And we’ve had licensing — silver bars, stickers, T‑shirts. In the old days, if you create something for a company, you’re either sharing it or they own it all. For this book, we wanted to own it all.
When we brought it to Mad Cave, the ownership is still ours, but they get the publishing rights. That’s fine because we already put out the book. It has a second life with Mad Cave. And some people never heard of it until Mad Cave put it out. All you want is for your work to be seen. We did the Kickstarter to pay for the artwork, coloring, lettering — and that worked out pretty good. Now we have a second life with it.
FCF: Do you see yourself doing more Kickstarters?
Palmiotti: I do. I just had a Kickstarter for a Painkiller Jane book. I do Kickstarters all the time. The next Pop Kill will not be a Kickstarter — it will be right for Mad Cave. That’s gonna happen.
FCF: Any idea when the new Pop Kill might be coming?
Palmiotti: I will say probably around the end of the year you’ll see some press. We’re working on it right now.
FCF: What about Mad Cave made it the best fit?
Palmiotti: It’s the people. They answer the phone when I call. A lot of companies, the interaction isn’t the best. With Mad Cave, I send an email — it gets answered. They’re transparent with their accounting. Mark Irwin, Mike, Mark London — these are people I’ve known for years and trust. Mark Irwin and Mike Mart gave me my first writing gig doing Deadpool back in the late nineties. You remember people. You trust the people you have relationships with. It’s like a restaurant — you go back because they take care of you. Same with business. Even if something is a little more money somewhere else, you go with the people who take care of you.
FCF: Before we wrap up — what current projects are you working on?
Palmiotti: I do a monthly book for Todd McFarlane at Image called Deadly Tales of the Gunslinger. Issue 14 is out now. That’s my favorite thing I’m writing right now. It’s the craziest book. I’m writing issue 18 right now. It’s set after the Civil War with Todd’s character, so it’s a little supernatural and very over the top. It’s a teen‑plus book — nudity, violence, everything. I just finished up two Punisher books. I’m working on one‑shots and Painkiller Jane books. But Deadly Tales of the Gunslinger is the one you can pick up every month.
FCF: Jimmy Palmiotti from Mad Cave’s Pop Kill. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Palmiotti: Thank you, Ronald. That was a lot of fun.
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