Tim O’Shea: My first question actually comes from your biggest fan in the O’Shea home, my 9-year-old son, Colin. He asks: “How did he come up with the Mini Marvels?”

Chris Giarrusso: I was a big fan of newspaper comic strips growing up, and many of the classics comic strips featured casts of kid characters, like Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” and Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” for example. I thought it would be neat to do a sort of Charlie Brown meets Marvel Super Heroes hybrid.

O’Shea: If I understood correctly, the first printing of the Mini Marvels digest sold out. Did the strong performance of the digest take you or Marvel management by surprise, or were you guys expecting it to do that well?

Giarrusso: Marvel was on the fence with the decision of whether or not to publish it at all in the first place because they didn’t think it would do well. Marvel was very surprised that it sold out in under a month.

O’Shea: From the Mini Marvels Skrull story that’s been going on in parallel with Secret Invasion, has there been one or two scenes that you really enjoyed developed that you enjoyed doing more than others?

Giarrusso: That has been my favorite story to work on so far, so it’s hard to single out one or two scenes.

O’Shea: While you write a majority of the Mini Marvel stories, a few of them were written by Sean McKeever and Marc Sumerak. What did you learn about approaching these mini characters after seeing them written by others?

Giarrusso: It’s hard to pinpoint specifics, but it showed me there’s more ways to open up the Mini Marvels world than I’d previously considered. They opened my eyes a bit.

O’Shea: You run a Mini Marvels site from your own website, rather than Marvel’s website. How did Marvel legal and management allow you to do this–are there certain guidelines and restrictions that come with that?

Giarrusso: I asked Marvel for permission, and they gave me legal documented written permission to post the Mini Marvels material that is currently found on my site. I am currently restricted to the material that is there, and so far I have not received permission to post any more than that.

O’Shea: A visit to your website reveals some DC sketchs–is there any chance you would ever consider doing work for their Johnny DC line–or are you strictly a Marvel man for the time being?

Giarrusso: I approached the folks at Johnny DC and they were not interested in working with me. So it’s Marvel and Image for now.

O’Shea: Has your Mini Marvel work brought increased exposure to your creator-owned and/or other non-Marvel work?

Giarrusso: Yes, more people have been buying the G-MAN comic (published by Image Comics) lately. G-MAN features an all-new cast of kid super heroes written and drawn by me in the Mini Marvel style.

O’Shea: Does Marvel editorial ever completely shoot down a story idea you have, or is it more of a give and take revision process, where you typically can revise your initial idea to meet their needs as well?

Giarrusso: It’s give and take. Sometimes they shoot down my ideas, and sometimes they ask me to parody a specific story or ask me to use specific characters. And there’s always revisions along the way.

O’Shea: As folks like Colleen Coover start seeing their work pop in Marvel books, do you think your Mini Marvel work somewhat opened the door to Marvel publishing a style like that.

Giarrusso: I think if anyone opened the door, it was Chris Eliopoulos with his FRANKLIN RICHARDS comics. Before Chris E. came along, Marvel had already closed the door on me. Chris E’s success led to Marvel giving me a second chance, as well as Colleen Coover’s work and the new Super Hero Squad stuff.

O’Shea: Why do you prefer to go by Chris G, rather than Chris Giarrusso? Is it more of a marketing, you got tired of people misspelling your name kind of deal? If your profile continues to rise as it has, might you start using the Giarrusso name more?

Giarrusso: I thought “Chris G” worked better as part of a website name (chrisgcomics.com), so the website name was definitely more of a marketing choice, especially since people do have a difficult time spelling and pronouncing “Giarrusso”. But I will continue to sign and list my full name in the books.

O’Shea: Have you ever consider teaming up with Fred Hembeck on a project, or has something like that already occurred?

Giarrusso: I’m a fan of Fred and would be open to a team-up, but so far nothing like that has happened.

O’Shea: What’s on the creative horizon ahead?

Giarrusso: At the moment I’m working on more 4-page back-up installments in the WOLVERINE AND POWER PACK mini series, a 5-page story that will appear in THOR #600, and another chapter in the Mini Marvel World War Hulk storyline that will appear in an upcoming issue of WHAT IF.

The G-MAN one-shot was just re-solicited by Image Comics to be on sale in January.

There’s also a second volume of Mini Marvels due out in February, MINI MARVELS: SECRET INVASION, which should contain pretty much everything that wasn’t found in the first volume.

Tim O’Shea: As the positive reaction to Ghost Rider has grown, how much were you surprised at the number of reactions that ran along the lines of “I’ve never found the character of interest…until now”?

Jason Aaron: It’s nice to know I’ve helped bring new readers to the fold, but Ghost Rider was already a fun character long before I came along, all the way back to when he was first written by Gary Friedrich.

O’Shea: Given how busy you are with your various writing assignments, what drives you to take on the GR letters column? (Don’t get me wrong, it makes for fun reading…)

Aaron: GHOST RIDER was my first big ongoing assignment for Marvel, and I figured a lot of the people who’d be reading the book would have never heard of me, so I thought the letters column provided a great opportunity to introduce myself to them. And yeah, it’s a blast. GHOST RIDER gets a lot of mail. In particular, we get a lot of letters from people who don’t read any comics other than GHOST RIDER. I don’t know what it is about the character, but it has a very broad appeal. From church folks to cons, we get letters from them all.

O’Shea: How is it that the Ghost Rider series has seemingly dodged the Skrull invasion?

Aaron: We talked at one point about doing a Secret Invasion crossover, and I had some cool ideas for a Super-Skrull with the powers of the Champions, but ultimately it would’ve been a distraction from the overall story I was trying to tell, and it just didn’t make sense to do it. I did get to kill plenty of Skrulls in Black Panther though, so I still got my Secret Invasion fix.

O’Shea: Speaking of the good old Skrulls, why was your three-issue run on Black Panther not longer than that? Any chance you could end up writing the character again? (I would think so, given that at least one of the issues in the run sold out) What about the books dynamics was it that attracted you to the assignment in the first place?

Aaron: I was offered the three issue Secret Invasion story on the book, and jumped at the chance. I’ve always been a big fan of Black Panther, from the old JUNGLE ACTION issues to the Priest series and now the new book. I’d love to write the character again some day, but I know Marvel and Reggie Hudlin already have big plans in the works for T’Challa and I can’t wait to see what’s coming. Plus, I’ve already got plenty of stuff on my plate to keep me busy next year.

O’Shea: Did Marvel approach you about the Punisher Christmas one-shot or was that a concept that your proposed?

Aaron: Axel Alonso asked if I wanted to write a Punisher MAX Christmas Special, and I replied, oh God yes, or something like that, and then came up with the most heartwarming holiday story I could think of. It involves three hitmen from back east and a pimp named Shepherd and Frank Castle trying to deliver a baby and… you get the picture.

O’Shea: Wolverine is a man of many miniseries–what is it about your miniseries that you feel will make it standout in the very diverse and very busy comic market?

Aaron: I’ve written Wolverine in a few different stories now, and I’ve tried to make each one distinct in tone and setting and set-up. This MANIFEST DESTINY mini-series is basically my heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema and all the Kung Fu films I spent my Saturdays watching when I was a kid. There are mystical warriors and one-armed swordsmen and aging masters and even the Sons of the Tiger.

O’Shea: In doing mainstream characters like Black Panther and Wolverine, do you hope that you’ll gain new readers for Scalped?

Aaron: Yeah, I hope that every new reader who likes my Marvel work will go out and give SCALPED a shot. I still feel like I’m trying to get my name out there to all the mainstream fans. And if any of them enjoy my work on WOLVERINE or BLACK PANTHER or GHOST RIDER, then I don’t really see it as much of a stretch that they’d enjoy SCALPED. Without SCALPED, I wouldn’t be writing for Marvel in the first place, since that’s how I got their attention.

O’Shea: Speaking of Scalped, where do you hope to take that book in 2009?

Aaron: To even darker places. 2009 is when everything really hits the fan. And then we’ll begin picking up the pieces.

O’Shea: Why is it that on the heels of your success with Scalped that you chose to do work with superheroes at Marvel instead of DC?

Aaron: Quite simply, because of Axel Alonso. He may be one of the most powerful editors at Marvel, but to me he’s still just a Vertigo guy at heart, so he and I really hit it off. Everything I’ve done at Marvel so far has come through him.

O’Shea: As much as you are a fan of University of Alabama football–would you ever consider creating a comic book series with football playing some sort of a role in the series?

Aaron: As a matter of fact, yes, I would. I’m actually already working on a graphic novel that deals with Alabama football that’ll be published by Oni. It’s still in the early stages though, so I don’t wanna spoil any details. I’ll just say that growing up in the south, football is indeed very close to my heart. I live and die by the success and failure of my beloved Crimson Tide. So it’s been a good year, what with the Tide ranked #1, and I’m excited to finally be able to combine my loves of comics and football.

O’Shea: Is there anything else you’d like to discuss about your current or upcoming work?

Aaron: It’s been a hell of a year for me, but next year is seriously shaping up to be bigger and better. I’m excited already.

And he’s gonna be annoyed that I don’t post with any graphics. But hey, he’s the guy who just posted an eight-part prose piece at his blog.

That’s where the free part comes into play here. While this first ran elsewhere in anticipation of his Marvel Comics 2006 miniseries, Agents of Atlas, Parker recently re-ran the eight-part Menace from Space story. Here are links to part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven and part eight. Jeff’s a great writer and the gives folks great dialogue lines like:

“I’m not finding the pulse.”

“Well I couldn’t find a suspect, so we’re even,” said Marvel Boy.

Thanks for the free entertainment, Jeff.