Tom Peyer dishes about Tek Jansen #2

We were lucky enough to be able to interview Tom Peyer when Tek Jansen #1 came out, and he’s given yet another perspective on the Tek Jansen project for Issue #2, with Comic Book Resources. Here’s an excerpt from that interview:

In June 2006, Oni Press announced they would publish of a five-issue miniseries featuring the character in a main story by writers Tom Peyer & John Layman with art by Scott Chantler with back-up stories by Jim Massey ( “Maintenance,”) and Robbi Rodriguez, (“Maintenance,” “Hazed”). The first issue was released in July 2006, but the rest of the series was delayed by the WGA Strike, although Peyer claims the reason why the rest of the series wasn’t released was “because the world of 2007 wasn’t ready, but the 2008 people have earned it.”

With the Harvey-nominated first issue on sale now in a new printing and the long-awaited second issue released this week (featuring a cover by Matt Wagner), Tom Peyer and Scott Chantler sat down with CBR News to talk “Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen,” as well as Peyer’s upcoming work on “Marvel Apes,” and the conclusion of his run on “The Flash.”

Peyer says Stephen Colbert’s involvement in the series consisted of one conference call. “John Layman, Jim Massey and I worked with him directly for all of one conference call,” Peyer told CBR News. “He was as smart, funny and nice as you’d want him to be. He approves everything that goes out. And he monitors how we dress, which I can’t even begin to understand. How is it his business?”

Oni Press approached Layman to write the series, and Layman — of whom Peyer said, “He could never get enough of me” — approached Peyer about writing the pitch together. “It creeps me out to see the way [Layman] stares at me when he thinks I’m not looking,” he said.

Randy from Oni Press shared some more details about the writing process with the Colboards earlier this week:

Here is some more information for anybody who is interested.

Tom, like all the creators on the book, was on one conference call with Stephen.

After that, all interactions between Stephen and Rich Dahm and the creators was handled via the principle editor on the book.

Scripts would come in to the editor. He would then send it to Stephen and Rich. They would make their notes and changes and send it back to the editor. If more drafts had to be made, the process was repeated until everybody was happy. The editor then sends the script to the art team.

The WGA strike halted all approvals and all work on the project. We had to cancel all orders and take the books off the schedule.

The way comics distribution works further delayed things. After the WGA strike was settled in February, we were able to submit the re-solicit the issues in March for the April Catalog for books shipping in June. This is why there was such a large delay between the end of the WGA strike and the re-release of TEK #1.

I hope this clears things up for anybody who was curious.