First Comics News: How did you end up joining Summit Comics?
Nate Schachter: I was in the same circle as these incredible creators, and we started talking about what would become Summit. I think I asked, “What’s everyone talking about?” when I saw how many new messages there were. They said they had an idea, and Christopher Albright, our favorite hater turned reluctant supporter, said they couldn’t–and I said I love a good spite project. When things went from there, we were all so excited, and everybody had so many great ideas. I’m the one just getting my feet wet of all of us, but they never acted that way, and they always valued my perspective.
1st: What does a Group Editor do?
Nate: I’m the group editor for street-level and espionage for our superheroes, and I’ll give an example of what we do, in addition to general developmental and line edits for individual titles. The other day, one of our writers pitched me a fantastic character concept for down the line, and the plan was going to introduce her in an initial one-shot. I saw an opportunity to introduce her before that in place of a new character that was in Vesper arc two’s outline, and it looks like we’re gonna go that route now. I feel like that kind of organic universe-building is something you have to do on a larger scale, and that you’ve got to have people looking for opportunities for–it’s so much of the fun of doing a project like Summit, after all.
1st: How does Golden Sun use the power of the fire of a thousand suns?
Nate: He is a character very steeped in mythology. The first arc will be specifically Greek mythology, since he is the champion of Athena, fighting Olympian threats, and then we move to building out a Summit-specific mythological corner from there. His fire is used the way Prometheus used his: a gift of the gods to man that cannot go unpunished. Our Olympians are, for the most part, well, &^%@&# &%$@, as Owen would put it. They need someone with a bit of fire to stand up to them.
1st: How did Owen Harris get his powers?
Nate: Owen was a young genius who was chosen by the goddess Athena to be her champion–trained to be her ultimate warrior, in the vein of Greek heroes and legends like Odysseus, Perseus, and Heracles. In addition to years of training by the goddess of wisdom in her realm, the Athensphere, Owen was made a vessel of the fallen sun god Helios, given his power, but as we see, not without a drawback.
1st: What makes Owen Harris so special besides his powers?
Nate: He’s so human, but he wants to avoid his problems–so he wants to believe he’s above humanity. His father died, his mother grew aloof, and he used being chosen for something greater to run away from his troubles. He’s put right back in the center of them now, unable to escape them. He’s back home–and for him, that holds something darker than any light he now has within him.
1st: Who will Golden Sun face in battle?
Nate: Athena hadn’t chosen a champion in millennia, not since Odysseus specifically, so that detail made Poseidon a clear primary antagonist for our first arc. Backing him up is his brother, Hades–father of Erebra, who will head up a sort of double-feature with Golden Sun for arc one. Her writer, Adam Barnhardt, asked me if I could come up with a way for him to leave the underworld for his story, and it worked perfectly. Those two are great together, and I think people will be excited by where their plan ends up–it’s a blast. You will see by the end, though, that there may be an even more dangerous threat at play…
1st: Do you consider a hero’s villains as important as the hero?
Nate: I think it depends on their role in the story and what story one’s trying to tell overall. I think the world around a hero is as important, but I think conflating that with just a rogues’ gallery is a lot of people’s first instinct. I think a villain is an obstacle, like any other, but if you can create a more compelling hurdle with an emotional conflict and focus on the antagonist secondarily to bring more focus to those other aspects, I say go for it.
1st: What is the story you wrote in “Holiday Spirits” and what is it about?
Nate: That was for the Thanksgiving special. It was a fun one. I actually just read it for the first time when my copy arrived today. I told a story about the spirit of gluttony haunting a Thanksgiving dinner–the patron saint of the holiday. We leaned into the disgusting, and Jared Lockhart drew just the most incredible Gluttony design. I was showing it off for weeks. Jerome Gagnon, also one of the hardest-working guys at Summit, lettered the hell out of it.
1st: In “The CloakRoom,” what was your story?
Nate: It used a lot of my own experiences and emotions that I put into elements of Golden Sun, actually. A story about childhood trauma and how it twists your perspective growing into adulthood. It was drawn by Trench artist Nicolò Arcuti, and he is my favorite artist to work with–just a breathtaking talent who can capture expression in his work like no one else in indie comics right now. This was our first collaboration, since then we’ve collaborated four more times, and plan to release a short story collection together very soon with all of them, and my entire reason is just to showcase Nico’s artistic range as much as I can.
1st: What makes a good writer?
Nate: Being a good collaborator is first and foremost. Besides that, though, pushing yourself, and really putting your all into every single project–regardless of size or scope. With indie comics, especially, every page takes so much to create–time, effort, not to mention money–why would you put less than your biggest swing or best work into even a panel of that? Also, always looking for ways to push and utilize the tools and craft of your medium–especially in comics.
1st: What comics that you have not worked on would you recommend?
Nate: I don’t edit Trench, I don’t write Trench–and I am endlessly jealous of that fact. Devin Arscott even has Nicolò on art for that series, doing some of the best work I’ve ever seen of his. That book is just so up his alley as an artist, and so up mine every way as a fan. And that’s how I’m really excited to enjoy it at this point. I did read the issue one script, though, and it’s great.
1st: Will you be working on more titles at Summit Comics?
Nate: Yes–two more, as of now. One is a spin-off to one of our bigger titles, and that will be released initially in Summit Presents. It is probably the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything in my life. The other one is maybe my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and I can’t believe how good it looks. They’re both gonna be really special books, and I don’t think I could’ve gotten better collaborators–though they’re probably the two most different stories can get.
1st: How would you use Golden Sun’s powers if you had them?
Nate: He can make his godly armor appear and disappear at will in a transformation of flame. I feel like I’d be busy doing that over and over.
1st: What would you like to say to your readers?
Nate: Thank you, guys, for all of your support. It is already so much more than we could’ve hoped–and we can’t believe it. We’re just a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans who want to bring you the best comics we possibly can. I’m so grateful you’re letting us do that, and I can’t wait for you guys to see what we have in store. And to those reacting to us negatively–thank you too for the engagement, and we look forward to winning you over if you can keep an open mind. Summit has a comic for everyone–we’re hard at work making sure of it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/summitcomics/pinnacle-1
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