You want to give me the chance to interview Jimmy Palmiotti? Um, how about “Hell, yeah!” That’s pretty much what went through my head when GoD’s Dave3 sent me the email about it last week.

I knew going in that the point was to talk about the comics creator’s current Kickstarter campaign for his graphic novel Denver, but I found it difficult to resist asking a few non-comic questions, too. Have you ever wondered if Palmiotti is secretly a Backstreet Boys fan? Or maybe if he ever dreamed of being an X-Wing pilot? I wonder these things, too! But unfortunately, I didn’t inquire about that. So what did I ask? Well, you’ll just have to keep on reading to find out. But I bet he did want to fly an X-Wing, just saying…

Geeks Of Doom: I saw that Denver is fully funded and I have to say that I seldom see such a reward-heavy selection with other Kickstarters. What inspired you folks to load us all down at even relatively smaller level pledges?

Jimmy Palmiotti: It is all about giving people the feeling that they backed a quality project and came away with a great amount of rewards. I am a consumer, so it is important to me to feel like I got my money’s worth on anything I purchase. We want to make sure our regular pledge people are happy and at the same time get more people involved with our projects and this is all a part of that. We have an amazing amount of return supporters and that’s always a good sign we are doing something right.

GoD: Denver seems from the panels you previewed to be very Blade Runner-esque. Am I just imagining that or were you going for a look that draws from that sort of material and others like it?

JP: I really love when a film or book about the future has a vision and with Denver, we were looking to create a visual backdrop against the very common theme of blackmail. I think the world building aspect of a story is important to firmly believe all the other aspects of the story. I am a huge fan of Blade Runner, so in a way I am always influenced by it in some fashion. I think there is a read beauty in these post-apocalypse visions.

GoD: With everything centered around Denver (obviously), is there any referencing to other city-states that survive elsewhere? Is that possibly leaving room for a follow up?

JP: This is the only existing city left in the United States. Other countries have some, but not many…it’s a mess. Our story is less about the situation of the world and more about the characters in it.

GoD: This is the sixth Kickstarter from PaperFilms. Once again you are having phenomenal success at crowdfunding your projects. To what do you attribute this?

JP: We have a lot of repeat business from our last Kickstarters, which means they were very satisfied customers. We also got an extra boost because we hired David Hyde of Superfan Promotions to help us get outside publicity…which took a lot of pressure off us so we could focus on the book and less on the press. David went above and beyond on this campaign. We also have the help of pros like Dan Panoisan, Dave Johnson, John Cebollero, Amanda Conner, and more. I also think sometimes you also get lucky and create something a lot of people find interesting, which always helps.

GoD: What’s next for PaperFilms? You folks seem to stay quite busy with other projects, I was just wondering how you find time to do everything you do.

JP: You always can find time to do something you love and this is true with all my projects. I turn down a ton of work that just doesn’t appeal to me. I figure why waste people’s time and money if my heart isn’t in it. As far as with Justin Gray and I, we have a new series coming from DC that we cannot talk about yet and we have the WOOL graphic novel coming soon from Jet City Comics. It’s a busy time for us and we are happy about that.

GoD: On a personal note, what do you want to be known for? I always refer to you as the greatest thing to happen to Jonah Hex, but I’ve got a good friend who says she is always excited to see what you post for your Sexy Mondays feature.

JP: She will be bummed to find out that I stopped posting the Sexy Monday posts because I found that when you did a search for my name, that came up way before my work did and I really didn’t want that to be the thing I am known for. I love beautiful women and a lot of the posts I did were actual photos I took over the years. One of my main hobbies is photography, but I felt if I was to take my craft seriously, I better cut back on that and focus on the work in front of me.

GoD: How about your favorite beer? If you haven’t tried Shiner Bock, then make sure you grab one next time you’re in Texas. It’s one of the main reasons I stay here!

JP: We get Shiner Bock here as well, so all is good. I like a lot of the lighter beers because I am usually the one driving people home from the bar. Near me, there are these Worlds of Beer places where they stock beer from all over the country, so now you can finally leave Texas and do some traveling.

GoD: But seriously, you don’t seem to be slowing down as time goes on. As a matter of fact, you seem to be doing more and more. I see your name everywhere these days. Is there anything you haven’t done in the comic biz that you want to do?

JP: I would like to do more screenplay writing and have been doing that on the side. I think my next thing will be trying to adapt one of my screenplays to film, but that might take the support of a small studio. As far as comics, I would love nothing more than watch the PaperFilms.com site to be the place where I can just post and sell my books and maybe not depend on bigger companies as much. Right now we have it selling our digital books directly to the consumer as well as signed books, but I think I would eventually like to do a weekly strip and have it featured on our site. That is something I haven’t done yet.

GoD: For those last minute holdouts that haven’t jumped onto Denver quite yet, what can you say that would influence them to get on board?

JP: Denver is a very cool, violent, and sexy thriller by an amazing artist that also features a soundtrack. The coolest thing is you can just pledge a few dollars and get the book and soundtrack and not break the bank. If you have a little bit more to spend, you can get the digital rewards and the actual paper graphic novel that is signed by me for your collection. It’s a minimal expense for all you receive.

GoD: Any last minute bit of info with which you want to leave our readers?

JP: Just to let them know that we really appreciate all the support they have been giving us and to understand that we couldn’t have done any of these projects without them. After Denver is done and delivered, we will be featuring a follow-up to our Sex and Violence Kickstarter called simply Sex and Violence, Volume 2.

A big thanks to Jimmy for taking the time to answer a few questions about his current work and future plans. If you haven’t looked into this Kickstarter, then take the time to do so. Denver ends on Wednesday morning, March 12, 2014. When he says there are some great rewards, he’s not kidding at all. I pledged forty bucks for the Double Print Reward and it’s freaking loaded with extras! Don’t delay or you will miss out! Click here for more information at the Kickstarter site. You can also read the Kickstarter Spotlight article I originally wrote about the campaign.

‘Denver’ Preview Pages