Boy Meets Hero: An Interview with the Creators of the Comic Book

Move over, Spiderman and Mary Jane Watson, because Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia have created the new hottest couple in comics! Boy Meets Hero is the story of Blue Comet, a hero who struggles with not one, but two secret identities. Not only does he have to conceal his identity as Derek Maxwell, but he also pretends publicly to be dating his female partner Sunstar. In reality though, Blue Comet's true love is her brother, Justin.

Boy Meets Hero is somewhat unique in the world of comics because it takes the classic superhero love story and adds a saucy gay twist. Blue Comet and Sunstar work for the World Hero Organization; a company that takes super heroics - and public opinion - very seriously. Blue Comet struggles to reconcile his love for Justin with being a very public figure employed by a conservative company. But, he has a lot of help along the way and the biggest theme of the series - self discovery - is handled both touchingly and hilariously.

I recently got the opportunity to talk to Chayne and Russell about their comic, and I was pleased to find that the creators are as interesting as the characters they so deftly bring to life.

You mention on your web site that your inspiration came from ".. all the super hero comic book characters who have a separate and secret romance in their normal lives." The obvious twist with Boy Meets Hero is that it's a same-sex romance and Blue Comet is still very closeted, yet his boyfriend accepts all of this with remarkable ease. Was it a conscious decision to make Justin the nicest guy in the universe?

Chayne: Yes it was. I know how difficult and scary coming out of the closet can be. I wanted our story to illustrate some of the issues that gay people go through during the coming out process. I wanted Derek to have a healthy relationship with Justin to demonstrate that many supportive gay couplings do in fact exist. As a character, Derek needed to have a supportive boyfriend to help him overcome his fears and thus, Justin was created.

Russ: I wrote several scenes that involved Justin getting angry at Derek for either refusing to come out or just ignoring him while Derek was hitting the town and playing up his fake relationship with Sunstar. I think I tended to write Justin as a bit too shrill and self-concerned which usually led to he and Derek in an argument. But as the story evolved, Chayne and I decided that it was simpler to just allow Justin to be a nice guy while hopefully not having him come off like a doormat for Derek.

Did you ever consider amping up the drama by making Justin more conflicted about Blue Comet's duties like Lois Lane when Superman leaves her alone in the middle of dinner?

Chayne: Yes, we considered having Justin get jealous by the fact that the media really thought Blue Comet was dating Sunstar. We tossed around some ideas of the boys having arguments about it, but it just wasn't the way we wanted the story to go at the time. Since we are planning to continue on with future issues, I'm sure we'll see Derek and Justin have arguments. Couples do fight after all!

Russ: We don't ever fight.

Chayne: Yes we do!

Russ: Whatever.

Chayne: See what I have to put up with?!

Obviously Boy Meets Hero revolves largely around Blue Comet and Justin's growing relationship, but why couldn't Sunstar get a little too? It's been a little conspicuous that we've seen nothing about Jillian's romantic life. Why is that?

Russ: It's funny you ask that, we always wanted to give Sunstar an incredibly hot and hunky boyfriend, who of course, would have always be shirtless! Unfortunately we just couldn't fit it in. Maybe in the future...

Chayne: Actually, that's a pretty good idea! Any chance to draw more hot guys!!!

Ahem... Anyway, I wanted the focus to be on Derek and Justin's romance. The reason I decided to create this comic in the first place is because gay characters in mainstream comics rarely have a meaningful relationship of their own. I can't really think of any mainstream comics that feature a main character who is gay, and also has a meaningful relationship with his partner similar to what Derek and Justin have. I suppose if anyone wants to read about heterosexual relationship in comics, they have access to hundreds of thousands of materials out there already. (Man, that sounds bitter, sorry...)

You've told me before that Blue Comet and Justin's relationship was largely based on your own coming out experiences, but where did the inspiration for Zack Savage come from? What about Zap-Man?

Chayne: Although we wanted to stay away from politics and religion in our comic, the inspiration for Zack came from hearing about gay religious figures and politicians who remain in the closet and repress their true feelings. These people publicly denounce gays but then secretly have sex with men. When they are discovered, they usually lie about their actions and continue to speak against gays. We decided that if we were going to have a gay villain, he would have the characteristics of these types of men who deny who they truly are.

On a lighter note, Zap-Man was actually inspired from the sci-fi cartoon Futurama. He is an homage to the womanizing character Zap Brannigan, who was based upon Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek. We still love Futurama and were sad to see it cancelled. Jim Brannigan, aka Zap-Man, is our humble homage.

One of the things I love about Boy Meets Hero is that casual inclusion of nudity where it's appropriate, but it's not the least bit gratuitous. In fact, it's almost cartoon like. Do you have any fear that the "nude scenes" will be a problem when the comic gets printed in a trade paperback?

Chayne: Yes, on occasion we have had that fear. I think it's unfortunate that we live in a society that allows gory, graphic violence to be viewed by just about anybody, and sensuality between two people making love is considered offensive. We have wondered how the nudity in our comic will be viewed once it is published. We feel that it is vital to illustrate the love that our characters have for each other. At the same time, we made a conscious decision not to include any kind of graphic violence that goes beyond the kind of comic book style battles we depict. We hope that once our book is published, it will be viewed as a positive portrayal of the gay community.

After the surprising revelation about Zack Savage in Issue #4, is there any chance we'll see Zap-Man get busted cruising a rest stop? Think of how his bosses at W.H.O. would react to that one!

Chayne: Ha! That would be funny but I don't think so! Zap-Man is all about the ladies. Although, it would be humorous if he were caught cruising for hot man-on-man action. Interestingly, we have gotten several requests for this to happen from our readers. As of now, we have no plans to have the Zapster switch teams, but you never know!

Blue Comet's visit with his mentor, Captain Cosmos, was only a few pages,but it's one of the most touching scenes in the series. Did either of you have a coming out experience that went that well?

Russ: When I came out to my older brother I was nervous like Derek was with Cosmos and like the Captain, my brother already knew anyway! My parents on the other hand, oy, was that an unpleasant scene. But I can happily report that nearly fifteen years later they've come to gladly accept our relationship.

Chayne: I started coming out to people way back when I was twenty. I've been lucky, practically all of those experiences have been positive. I discovered that many people reacted much better than I imagined them to. Russ and I definitely wanted to combine our experiences into Captain Cosmos's reaction and acceptance of Derek.

You started Boy Meets Hero back in August of 2005 and now you've ended the first series. How do you feel about it looking back? Are there things you'd have done differently?

Chayne: Looking back I can't believe that two years have passed. There were some days that I was so totally into working on this project and there were days when I wanted to call it quits. I know I wouldn't have been able to do this if it weren't for Russell. I'm so glad that we actually finished our very own comic. I feel we have created something special. I'm sure there are plenty of things we might have done differently, but it was all a learning process. As an artist, I look at some of my illustrations and think I could have done this better or that. But overall, I am very pleased with what my partner and I were able to accomplish together!

Russ: I think the biggest thing I would have done differently is push the comic into print much earlier. Looking back, I'm actually still conflicted on that because in the beginning, we wanted to avoid harsh deadlines and financial concerns so we could just play and see where the story might take us. But while it was less stress and expense to keep BMH online only, it also meant that there was very little financial return as well.

So what's next for Chayne and Russell? What are the future plans for Blue Comet and his "blond boy toy"?

Chayne: Well, we've been talking about what's next all year. We've got some ideas for future issues. If we are successful in selling Boy Meets Hero in printed form, we plan to create more issues for as long as we have stories to tell.

Since the story is no longer just about a "boy meeting a hero", we decided that the next phase of the comic will switch to seeing Derek and Justin as heroes in action. We felt that naming the on-going series "Blue Comet and Fusion" opens our stories up so much more!

Russ: Now that Derek's "boy toy" has superpowers as well, we'll have a chance to include him fully into Derek's super hero world. I'm really looking forward to exploring Justin's story as a fledgling hero. He'll have a lot to learn and will make some mistakes as well, (he suffers from foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, after all). Also it's going to be fun to see how well Derek and Justin can work together. It's never easy to comfortably maintain a home life and professional life with a partner/spouse. Having worked on this project with Chayne (plus many others as well) I can assure you that we don't always have a smooth working relationship, LOL. So in that regard I'm looking forward to applying some of the drama and humor to Blue Comet's and Fusion's super-heroics.

If you could pick one thing that you want people to remember most about Boy Meets Hero, what would it be?

Chayne: That's a tough one... I guess I'd have to refer to Captain Cosmos's advice to Blue Comet: "Always be true to who you are and happiness will find you." Our story is about being happy with who you truly are on the inside and never letting other's opinions of you determine your self worth.

Russ: I'd like people to remember it as only the beginning of what became one of their favorite gay comic series!

The entire first series is available online at www.boymeetshero.com. If you haven't read it yet, then you're missing out on one of the best comic book series the web has to offer...and it's only just beginning.