Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

On the ??? of June LotsofInterviews.com conducted a interview with writer Chris Eliopoulos and artist Colleen Coover about the first issue of "Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers" as part of a series of interviews about the series. Colleen drew the intoduction of "Frog Thor" in this issue. LotsofInterviews.com would like to thank Chris and Colleen for their time and we hope you enjoy the interview!

Did you find it hard to find a way to introduce the cast in

this issue?

It was a bit of a job. I wanted to make this book new-reader
friendly, set up who they were and what the mission was. The worry was that this would be the typical "introduction issue" and I hope it wasn't that.

Frog Thor's introduction, I felt needed to be a bit more substantial. Having a frog with the powers of the thunder god and his importance to the series, I wanted to lay out what made him him. Coleen Coover drew it and did an awesome job. The idea behind it was that it would be like a storybook intro ala Beauty and the Beast.

What isn’t mentioned in this issue is the fact that Illuminati split up the infinity gems to keep them apart, is there a reason for this?

You will see later, but this story takes place a while back, Marvel time.
 
It’s been announced that “Bo Obama” is set to appear in the third and fourth issues of the series; what made you want to include him in the book?

Just as I was finishing up the script for the first issue, the announcement came out that the Obamas were getting Bo. It's as if the cosmic tumbler fell into line. It seemed like a fun and interesting thing to have in the book and after talking with Nate, my editor, we figured out a way to incorporate him into the book. It's just fun and goofy and if this book is anything, it's fun and goofy.
 
This issue sold out, was it a good feeling having your work in such high demand?

It was a great feeling. I honestly thought that either people were going to love this book or HATE it. Luckily, it seems, a LOT of people liked it. Mostly people's comments were that they were so excited to see a mainstream comic be fun, not take itself seriously and be something different than what fills up the newsstands. I think this says that the buying public is open to new things, not just the grim and gritty.