Ask the Author: Matthew Phillion
Answered Questions (6)
Matthew Phillion
It can be a little discouraging, but every writer I've ever known has had to learn that there's really no completely original idea--creators come up with similar ideas and themes independent of each other all the time. The trick is to just tell the story you want to tell, as best as you can.
Matthew Phillion
Glad you're enjoying the series! I have some good news--Book 4 is already with the editors and will be out soon (early spring) digitally. Like Vol. 1, I plan on releasing 2-3 novellas digitally first, then have a collected print edition for Vol. 2. Thanks for asking!
Matthew Phillion
Missed this question earlier! Echo's sequel will be out in the first quarter of 2019 (it's already with the editor), and a fifth Indestructibles book will be out by the summer.
Matthew Phillion
I've written a few op-eds since the book came out and mentioned a few times how I selfishly hope the trend doesn't go away, but I do worry about overexposure, like any pop culture thing that becomes overused.
I have a couple of thoughts on this, actually. First--absolutely I think superheroes could become overexposed. I think what will save them from completely souring is that they are already eternal. These characters have been around for decades, surviving some terrible storytelling and editorial decisions, horrendous movie adaptations, and worse, so I don't think we'll ever have a world without Superman, to borrow a phrase.
I also don't think we'll see an end to the trend until Hollywood gets over its fear of new properties. I believe it was in New York Magazine where Bryan Singer said if he were a new filmmaker now he wouldn't even bother pitching the Usual Suspects--the studios won't invest in something without an existing audience (like comics, books, and such).
But lastly and most importantly, I think it's great that they have become mainstream because I, like a lot of my peers, felt a lot of shame being a comic book reader as a kid. They brought me a lot of joy growing up and I stopped reading them for a while because I felt like I shouldn't. Any trend that normalizes something harmless that makes people happy is a good thing. Even if we sometimes get horrible film adaptations as a result of it.
I have a couple of thoughts on this, actually. First--absolutely I think superheroes could become overexposed. I think what will save them from completely souring is that they are already eternal. These characters have been around for decades, surviving some terrible storytelling and editorial decisions, horrendous movie adaptations, and worse, so I don't think we'll ever have a world without Superman, to borrow a phrase.
I also don't think we'll see an end to the trend until Hollywood gets over its fear of new properties. I believe it was in New York Magazine where Bryan Singer said if he were a new filmmaker now he wouldn't even bother pitching the Usual Suspects--the studios won't invest in something without an existing audience (like comics, books, and such).
But lastly and most importantly, I think it's great that they have become mainstream because I, like a lot of my peers, felt a lot of shame being a comic book reader as a kid. They brought me a lot of joy growing up and I stopped reading them for a while because I felt like I shouldn't. Any trend that normalizes something harmless that makes people happy is a good thing. Even if we sometimes get horrible film adaptations as a result of it.
Matthew Phillion
The sequel! The Indestructibles Book 2. (I want to call it I2 but that doesn't seem really visually interesting when I type it.) It takes place a year after the first book and focuses on how the team deals with attention, good and bad, after their heroics became public knowledge. If everything goes according to plan, we're aiming for a November release.
Matthew Phillion
I always liked team-up comics more than individual heroes growing up, whether they were the X-Men, Avengers, Justice League, or lesser known books like Harbinger. I love the way people interact, whether they're regular everyday people or super-powered teenagers. Any of the characters in those books were in interesting enough on their own, but watching the way they push and pull each other to become more is what really drew me in.
Individually though the Indestructibles are a bunch of what-if's. The clearest example for me is Kate/Dancer. I know a lot of dancers, ballet dancers in particular, and they continue to perform through some catastrophic injuries that would level a professional athlete in a "tougher" sport. So I thought, what if the world's most dangerous vigilante wasn't some millionaire or genetically enhanced soldier, but one of these tough as nails dancers who has decided to leave the world better than she found it?
The others are all plays on classic archetypes I wanted to explore because they left me cold as a reader growing up. The Sun God, the chosen-by-an-alien-force space hero, the out of control monster, the master magician whose power no one really fully understand. I became more intrigued by these types of characters as an adult and I wanted to kind of poke at those themes and see what I could find.
I have no idea where Emily came from. She really began as an experiment in creating a character who had enormous power but had more fun being deliberately obtuse to see how far she could annoy people.
Individually though the Indestructibles are a bunch of what-if's. The clearest example for me is Kate/Dancer. I know a lot of dancers, ballet dancers in particular, and they continue to perform through some catastrophic injuries that would level a professional athlete in a "tougher" sport. So I thought, what if the world's most dangerous vigilante wasn't some millionaire or genetically enhanced soldier, but one of these tough as nails dancers who has decided to leave the world better than she found it?
The others are all plays on classic archetypes I wanted to explore because they left me cold as a reader growing up. The Sun God, the chosen-by-an-alien-force space hero, the out of control monster, the master magician whose power no one really fully understand. I became more intrigued by these types of characters as an adult and I wanted to kind of poke at those themes and see what I could find.
I have no idea where Emily came from. She really began as an experiment in creating a character who had enormous power but had more fun being deliberately obtuse to see how far she could annoy people.
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