by Ash Aiwase

Mindy Owens is living every hardcore comic fan's dream. As webmistress of the premier Runaways fansite, Mindy's enthusiasm for Marvel's Runaways knows no bounds, and Marvel took note. Runaways Saga #1, her comic-writing debut, bridges the gap between Brian K. Vaughan and Joss Whedon's runs on the title.

Mindy took time out of her busy schedule to graciously answer a few questions for us here at Your Mom's Basement.

Tell us about yourself and when you first got into comic books in general.

Though I lived most of my life in California, I was born in Maine and have had this strong sense of Maine pride as long as I can remember. Maine is pretty much known as two thing: Lobsters and Stephen King. Seeing as lobsters are pretty damn expensive here on the west coast, I read as much Stephen King as I could get my hands on instead. And my mom strongly encouraged this even though my teacher scolded her for letting her 11 year old daughter do a book report on The Stand. But growing up on a diet of the spooky and supernatural lead to me to being drawn to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and I couldn't get enough of it. They started putting out a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic and I just had to have it. This forced me into comic shops for the first time and those places are very intimidating to females and people just getting into comics, which I was both.

I was lucky enough to go to A-1 Comics in Sacramento, who treated me great and had no problems that I was only there because of Buffy comics. But it wasn't until the X-Men movie came out and I fondly remembered all those characters from the X-Men cartoon show, which drove me into other comics. Like a lot of people, X-Men was my gateway comic, but I also was a huge fan of Battle Pope and Crimson in my early days of reading. X-Men also brought me to the world of message boards which expanded my comic reading horizon.

Due to message boards, I went from a so-so fan to a hardcore one pretty fast. Maybe it was because of how quickly I became a hardcore fan of comics, that I have a falling out with them. It just seemed that all of a sudden about 5 years ago there was nothing good comic-wise coming out. And it took just one comic to get me back in much harder-core than before. And that was Runaways...

What drew you initially to Runaways? What made you take that extra step from just being a fan to becoming an evangelist for the book?

Runaways was this breath of fresh air for me. It was a really fun book that had likable characters and was well written. It also had really well written female characters which sometimes a lots of comics can't seem to get right without doing the "angst-y good girl", the "bland super goddess", or the "bad girl with a heart of gold". So it was nice to finally read female characters who wouldn't read as archetypes. Even though I love all the females in Runaways, Chase is my favorite character so I'm not sure what that says about my argument.

I became an evangelist for Runaways after I noticed the online presence of Runaways love was really small. It seemed most people had written this off as a kid's book and it was really one of the best comics currently coming out. So I started pimping it out to anyone who would give it a chance and even made a website so people could read up about Runaways and why they should be reading it. And little by little, more and more people started talking about Runaways. Marvel also made an ingenious decision by publishing them as digests, which at the price of 7 bucks, put Runaways onto a really big number of people's bookshelves. Runaways now has a strongly devoted fanbase and many vocal supporters so I'm no longer worried that Runaways is about to be canceled.

What was the time line like for your involvement in Runaways Saga #1? When were you originally approached by Marvel and how long did the process take from conception to delivery? Did your initial involvement change as the project moved forward?

C.B. Cebulski contacted me on New Year's Eve asking if I could help him out with something. The Saga had already been in Previews, so I just assumed he needed some help with some continuity questions. Turns out that help he was interested in was help co-writing the Saga itself. So I summarized all the points we wanted to talk about and C.B. broke it down to specific beats and page numbers. I had the first shot at writing the whole thing in Molly's voice and C.B. then fixed everything and did some great revisions and added his bookend story. We both tweaked it a bit more and I also chose all the panels that would go along with Molly's entries. We did the whole thing in a little less than two months. I don't feel my initial involvement changed much as we progressed in it, as there was a lot of back and forth between us, but I'm very glad and proud of this and honored that C.B has asked me if I wanted to co-write another thing with him.

What was the collaborative effort like? Did you and C.B. Cebulski have delineated pages or was it a more organic effort? Did you work through the story over e-mails and conference calls, or were there more discrete assignments that each of you handled independently?

This was definitely a team project. Aside from the bookend story that C.B. did by himself, the rest was a ton of back and forth via e-mails. E-mailing him the first go at the draft was a nerve-wracking time as I spent so much time fine tuning everything. Would an eleven-year old say it like this? Does this flow right? Have I used this word too many times? Molly's pretty tough to write and doing all those pages in her voice? Yikes. So yeah, I was pretty nervous that C.B. would read it and hate it or find it to be a giant mess. But he loved it and changed some stuff around so it flowed even better and this Saga turned out better than the two of us could have hoped.

We know you've been a fan of the Runaways characters for a long time, but were there any surprises as you started to write the characters directly? Did you find one voice surprisingly hard or surprisingly easy to write?

Well it was just Molly who I wrote, but she's a really tough character. Molly misuses words and acts like, well, an eleven-year old but she's also got this great fierce intelligence too. So when I was writing all of this I had to play a balancing act of that. Go too far in either direction and suddenly she's acting too young or too old or just plain out of character.

Has Brian K. Vaughan seen the story that you and C.B. have put together? What was his reaction to it?

I showed him the first part of the finished Saga to him at WonderCon and he really liked it. And that was after I accidentally called his wife by the wrong name, so I guess that really says something.

We've heard a rumor that you might have some more comic-related work coming up. Can you tell us anything about that or tease us with some information? Did the work come as a result of working on Runaways Saga #1? Will it be for a big company or a smaller company? Pre-existing characters or new?

There are two more projects that C.B. and myself will hopefully (nothing has been signed yet) be working on for Marvel. We've already begun on one and the other will start after we finish the current one. I can't tell you too much info about them other than yes, they came about because of the Runaways Saga. Marvel really loved it and said it was the best Saga they've put out.

When are you going to relaunch Cloak & Dagger with Adrian Alphona?

I wish! Adrian is an amazing artist and I would give my right arm to work with him. As far as relaunching Cloak and Dagger I think every writer and then some have sent in pitches and have all been shot down. I haven't sent in my pitch yet, but I have a pretty good one kicking around in my head that I really should. Cloak & Dagger need some love and they are such great characters, I would love to write those two especially at a time where the two are back to being underground like when they started out.

Now that you're a superstar Marvel writer, are you going to go all "diva" on us and stop hanging out your plebeian friends at the Isotope?

Considering I'm talking 5 classes, working 6 days a week, and doing all of this at the same time, I can honestly tell you guys that I love the Isotope with all my heart and will always want to hang out with you guys. Unless the alcohol runs out. What do you want from me? I'm full blooded Irish...

And lastly, because we must know, did the paycheck have Spider-Man printed on it?

I haven't gotten it yet, but I believe it was sent out on the 16th which means I can tell you guys sometime this week.

Thanks for your time, Mindy. We couldn't be happier for you!

ADDENDUM: Shortly after this interview was completed, Ms. Owens did call the interviewer and informed him that yes, Spider-Man was on the paycheck as well as the envelope in which the paycheck was sent.

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