OF UMBRELLAS AND KILLJOYS

RUSSELL: Of course, there's still some great stuff that comes out of left field every once in a while. "The Umbrella Academy" is a great example of that, I think.

ALLIE: Thanks. I love that book, because there's a quality to it that has nothing to do with the fact that the guy sings in a band, you know? That definitely helped us find an audience for it, but yeah -- that comic really, really works.

RUSSELL: What's the next "Umbrella Academy" miniseries?

ALLIE: "Hotel Oblivion." What's next for Gerard is that we've got to get "Killjoys" written. "Killjoys" is this non-"Umbrella" miniseries that we're doing; Becky Cloonan's the artist. Shaun Simon's the co-writer on it. And we've got to get working on that. Gerard's been very busy with his record -- his day job...

RUSSELL: His rock-star day job....

ALLIE: His hugely successful rock-band day job. Yeah. They're still recording this darn album that's going on and on. It's been a while that they've been focused on that. He had a kid last year. He's just been really busy, and so we haven't made any headway on "Killjoys," and "Killjoys" is in line in front of "Hotel Oblivion" -- "Hotel Oblivion" being "Umbrella Academy" Series 3. I'm going down there at the end of March to kick-start the "Killjoys" process. Hopefully we'll be getting that rolling fast enough that we can get on to "Umbrella."

I spoke to Gabriel Ba the other day. He's super-busy, really overbooked, but always wishing that "Umbrella" would happen faster. Ba's career has exploded since "Umbrella Academy" started -- and he's such a remarkable creative force, he really needs to be doing his own thing. Have you seen "Daytripper"?

RUSSELL: No, I haven't.

ALLIE: It's one of the best comics ever. Gabriel writes it and his brother draws it. One of the best comics in the world. [Scott shows me a copy he has lying around the house. It's gorgeous.] These twins are the most inspiring people to work with. So he really needs to be doing more of his own stuff -- but he really wants to get back to "Umbrella."

RUSSELL: Can you tell me anything about the stories for the new Gerard Way stuff?

ALLIE: "Killjoys" is like a post-punk psychedelic road-trip comic. Reality is the MacGuffin of "Killjoys."

RUSSELL: That sounds sort of in keeping with the "Umbrella Academy" vibe. Nothing in that comic is at it seems. Ever.

ALLIE: That's true -- but in "Killjoys" that's so much more the case, without giving away too much. You can't even compare the two. With "Umbrella," Gerard wanted to do a comic, so he made up a superhero team that just happens to be unlike any other superhero team -- but it's a superhero team through his filter. "Killjoys" is just him through his filter. So rather than taking a genre that's external to him and doing it his way, "Killjoys" is more like the raw, unadulterated Gerard Way. And it might be the comic-book experience his fans would have wanted in the first place, so to speak.... It's got a real plastic feel to it, it's got a bit of a '70s vibe and a '90s-rock vibe, to some degree. But I can't give away too much.

RUSSELL: Is Gerard Way a character in this? Is this the "Hard Day's Night" of comics?

ALLIE: No, no. It's not about a rock band at all. It's about a group of anarchist heroes, in a way. It's personal, not autobiographical. It's a personal story unfiltered by genre.

RUSSELL: Will the next "Umbrella" be in keeping with the all-bets-off vibe of the previous books? Gerard Way seems like he could kill or fatten up anybody in those books at any time.

ALLIE: [laughs] Yeah, man. He'll fatten up anybody. "Umbrella"'s so weird. The next one will reveal a bit more about the secrets that we've been keeping, the backgrounds of the characters. It'll be unraveling characters in the ways we've been unraveling characters thus far -- changing who they are and taking apart preconceptions about them.

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ACIN interviews Scott Allie, The Umbrella Academy and Killjoys Editor