Late September saw the release of Mythic #4 by Phil Hester and John McCrea — to mark the release I interviewed Hester.

Tim O’Shea: You got the news that MYTHIC #1 just passed 400,000 in sales. How does that feel?

Phil Hester: Well, it was a joke. I meant we passed 400,000 PAGES of Mythic #1 sold. That said, our numbers have been very encouraging and we look forward to a long run with the book.

You pointed out things happen in MYTHIC that have never been seen in a comic book before. Care to elaborate?

We’re always looking for ways to turn things on their heads. Little moments reveal themselves while scripting the book that I’ve never seen in comics before, like Nate being motorboarded by a cow udder, or a little girl absorbing a Norse fire god with a flashlight etc. Those might seem like asides to the main plot, but they give the book its true character and are the most rewarding scenes to create.

The cold open for the first issue details several weeks before the action begins.

Yeah. We wanted to move back and establish a little bit of Nate’s backstory before jumping right into the first adventure.

Are there characters you ended up liking beyond initial expectations.

Sure. I mean, if a book works, that’s always going to happen. I must say, I haven’t enjoyed characters I’ve created this much since Golly, also from Image. I ahve to fight to keep from introducing even more characters because they’re so much fun.

A baby man wrestling an alligator what inspired that?

More of that “let’s do something new” impulse both John and I can’t control. Probably not the weirdest thing you’ll see before this is all over.

How vital is john to the inherent left field success of the series?

Oh, he’s integral, along with Rian [Hughes] and Mike [Spicer]. If the book didn’t look so good, people wouldn’t be curious enough to crack it open in the first place. Once we get them into the story, odds are we’ll connect with people who share our similar tastes for weirdness.