Juan Gedeon has wanted to draw comics since he was a kid staring at a Spawn cover and thinking about Greg Capullo’s artwork. The Argentina-born artist, who has moved from working in animation to American mainstream comics, has made a name for himself on projects like Ghost Racers, Venom, The Jurassic League and C.O.W.-boys of Moo Mesa, among many others.
And now turning his attention to four mutant dogs on a tear through Los Angeles.
Super Mondo Mega Mutts #1 arrives from Oni Press in July, written by Curt Pires and drawn by Gedeon, and it is, by his own description, considerably more violent than the Saturday morning cartoons that inspired it. We talked about designing dogs with distinct personalities, what it means to go cartoony in a superhero book and the projects he’s got waiting in the wings.
Before we get into the mutts, can you walk us through how you got into comics? What was the book, the moment, or the person that made you think, “This is what I want to do?”
It started with Spawn 28, around 1997. I saw that cover, and it blew me away. I wanted to draw like Greg Capullo. The first waves of Spawn figures were hitting stores, too, so my dad got me the Maxx toy, and it was one of my favorite things ever. When I saw that The Maxx was also a comic, I thought, ”I’d love to draw comics and turn my characters into toys!” So here we are!
Where did the idea for Mega Mutts initially come from?
The concept was Curt’s, and I came up with the designs based on photos of his dogs. When I heard this was basically if the Ninja Turtles were dogs, it totally resonated with me.
The four dogs with distinct names and personalities. When you were designing them, how did you differentiate them so they each look like their own character, rather than just variations on a theme?
All dogs had different weapons like the Turtles in Curt’s briefing, but also each dog has his own vibe: the bomb expert, the one with Liefeld guns, the one with katanas, the angry street brawler. So those things informed the designs. I pulled inspiration from movies, video games and obviously comics for the outfits.
Oni gave you room to “go big and take risks,” as you put it. What’s something in the book that you might not have gotten away with somewhere else?
Although Mega Mutts is inspired by Saturday morning cartoons from the ’90s, it’s way more violent than those. We didn’t go this hard with C.O.W.-boys of Moo Mesa, for example. I’m also working a little differently and going more cartoony in some parts, which is harder to do in the average superhero book.
This is a four-issue series. Is the ending locked, or are you and Curt leaving yourselves room for more?
For sure, we have plenty of ideas to expand the world of Mega Mutts. New characters, new threats, new abilities. What I love about this concept is that there’s no limits to what we can do with these dogs.
What else have you been working on lately?
I have done covers for different books and am working on my own characters. I’m going to write and draw my own stuff, and also collaborate with friends on some projects. In the next couple of years I’m going to do a dad with superpowers, a capybara family, a monster that eats other monsters, fighting sea creatures and many more.
Above: various variant covers for Super Mondo Mega Mutts #1, including an homage to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. The first issue arrives in stores July 15.