An interview with Shelly Bond

Interview #2 with the notorious former DC Vertigo Executive Editor.

Shelly Bond is an American comic-book editor, renowned for her tenure with Vertigo at DC Comics. Shelly became an Assistant Editor at Vertigo in 1992, working under Karen Berger, eventually becoming Executive Editor and Vice President of Vertigo Comics in 2013.

Shelly worked on titles including The Sandman, Shade, the Changing Man, iZombie, Fables, Young Liars, Lucifer, and The Invisibles. The wide range of creatives who she worked with throughout her time at Vertigo reads like a compendium of the stars of the Western comic-book medium.

Shelly Bond and Phillip Bond

In 2017 Shelly launched the punk-rock inspired Black Crown imprint at IDW, publishing (among others) series including Punks Not Dead by writer David Barnett and artist Martin Simmonds. More recently Shelly and her husband, artist Philip Bond, have published new work through their Off-Register Press.

This includes Filth & Grammar, a 162-page guide to making comics that Shelly describes as “80% step-by-step process on making comics from pitch to print, 20% my life as an editorial ingenue working at DC/Vertigo in the 1990s”; and Fast Times in Comic Book Editing, Shelly's illustrated memoirs of her time at Vertigo, which she describes as “20% editorial tips & tricks of the trade, 80% comics & prose love letter to living and working in the NYC comics scene in the 1990s.”

Shelly is currently running a Kickstarter to conclude that trilogy of books with i-DOPPELGäNGER: Portrait of the Comic Book Editor in the 21st Century & My Last Days at VERTIGO.

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1/ We last spoke in 2020, when you were drawing up plans to publish Filth & Grammar.

Has it really been four years? Time definitely moves in weird ways as we age…I think a lot about Michael Moorcock’s Cornelius Chronicles and the Entropy Tango. Jerry and Catherine Cornelius led fascinating lives and deaths. Thanks for inviting me back to your newsletter.

2/ What’s new for you since Filth & Grammar came out in 2022?

I’ve been teaching Comics Editing from the book each spring semester via Zoom at Portland State University.

3/ What’s not as cool and exhilarating?

Long Covid.

4/ What’s new since 2023’s Fast Times in Comic Book Editing?

Philip’s work on GEEZER continues to blow my mind. And I’m even more into Pulp than ever.

5/ What’s not as cool and exhilarating?

Repeat offender, AKA US election results. Just another reason to remind everyone that the best time to make comics and channel our energy is now.

6/ If you could revive any comic-book series that you've worked on professionally, what would it be and why?

That’s almost an unfair question. It’s like picking a favourite child, but fortunately I only had one and done. I’d have to say American Virgin would be up at the top of the list. Steven T. Seagle was one of the core Vertigo writers from the jump, and he always captured the heartbeat of our chaotic times.

The series had a steady 23-issue run, and posited the questions that come up every election cycle about church and state, love and loss, lust and regret, and violence — both intimate and global. Plus those Frank Quitely covers blew me away. Who can forget the billions of salivary glands on that first issue cover? Trust me, I counted. All part of the comic book editor’s daily routine.

“I like to challenge writers to ‘get visible’… Hire an artist to do one pivotal illustration/avatar/headshot of your main character. Give them a prop that they can’t live without and an instantly recognizable silhouette or a unique physical trait… Now get it out far and wide.” – Shelly Bond

7/ It looks like you're still mixing business and pleasure with your husband, Philip Bond - do you have any tips for creating art with a loved one and is it a collaborative process that you'd recommend?

Be patient but firm. It’s not easy living and working with your spouse 24/7. The pandemic brought us together in the new age of working from home, but it’s still important to put on suitable work clothes. Except for the times you’re running a Kickstarter campaign and you suddenly realize you need to drop off some comics at the post office, and you’re not only still wearing pyjama pants—you’re wearing white socks with black open front shoes. It may have worked for Adam Ant and Dirk, but it’s not a good look for me.

(Record) Thieves Like Us

8/ Music is everything to you - what bands or tracks have helped you to get through 2024? Is there a playlist you can share or any deep cuts that you want to recommend?

Believe it or not, I’ve been back on a Jarvis kick. Always liked Pulp, but found myself more likely to revisit Suede if I’m craving a 1990s Britpop soundwave. But I’ve been feeling guilty lately because I made the mistake of committing 20 Records that Changed My Life (AKA (Record) Thieves Like Us) into a 7x7” 48-page hardcover and I forgot to include His ‘N Hers. I guess I’m trying to make it up to J and Co. Hey, Jarv, if you’re reading this, I await the opportunity to edit your graphic memoir… Can you imagine how bloody cool that would be?

9/ Do you have any advice for aspiring comic-book writers trying to get the attention of editors and publishers? Pitching to editors and publishers, the strength of an artist is easy to see on the page, but what does a writer need to do to get that first chance and escape the fate of watching their collaborator artists get hired to draw for the big time without them? Asking for a friend.

I like to challenge writers to ‘get visible’ in similar ways. I call them ‘Big Shot’ ads. Hire an artist to do one pivotal illustration / avatar / headshot of your main character. Give them a prop that they can’t live without—for me it’s a red pen—and an instantly recognizable silhouette or a unique physical trait. High contrast hair? Streaking mascara a la Robert Smith circa Head On the Door? And have that character deliver a money line or two to camera. Now get it out far and wide. Post and print it on a sticker with your website.

The young women I’ve hired to work with me on my graphic memoir editing trilogy are from disparate parts of the globe. I found Imogen Mangle when Sofie Dodgson, my colourist on Bitter Root, recommended her for the Heavy Rotation anthology. I discovered Artbylid on Instagram because she posted her art and it captured all the fan and fervour of my two great loves: music and comics. So I sent her a direct message and hired her to do spot illos for (Record) Thieves Like Us. It was a trial run for what has become an amazing working relationship.

Have I answered your question?

Thanks for supporting my work, P M! And since you have great taste in comics and music, if you happen to bump into Mick Jones at the Comics Mart, tell him I’m ready when he’s ready to capture his life story via comics, the ultimate art form. Can you imagine? Jarvis and Mick in a flipbook that dissects the highs and lows of life on earth and in supermarkets. With an introduction by Adam Ant, who showed up at a UKAC convention one year before I started at DC Comics… Story of my life.

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The Kickstarter for i-DOPPELGäNGER: Portrait of the Comic Book Editor in the 21st Century & My Last Days at VERTIGO is live as I write this edition of IF YOU GO AWAY. Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sxbond/i-doppelganger

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I can’t remember exactly how I met Shelly, other than the fact that everybody in the comic-book industry knew her by reputation as having had a hand in a disproportionate amount of the most influential American comic-book series of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.

You’d be hard pressed to find a big name editor in the 2010s who I wasn’t regularly pitching comic-book series and graphic novel ideas to. During that period it felt like the vast majority of people who were regularly buying and reading comics wanted to make them, so there were an inordinate amount of us competing for a tiny amount of opportunities.

I think that my path and Shelly’s most closely intersected late 2017 and early 2018. At the end of 2016, I worked with my friend John Pearson to curate an exhibition of folk-horror art for the launch of HERETICS, my 44FLOOD folk-horror series with artist Martin Simmonds. One of Martin’s next projects after HERETICS was to launch a new series called Punks Not Dead (with writer David Barnett) for Shelly’s BLACK CROWN imprint at IDW.

This marks the second time that I’ve interviewed Shelly, following up on first speaking to her in August 2020. I realised this week that I’ve been writing on Substack regularly since 2019, when it occurred to me that I was giving away a lot of work to publishers who rarely paid me, so it made more sense to meet readers here directly.

I’ve been doing some work to make past interviews more accessible and easier to share. There’s a lot more to do, but if you read something that you enjoy, I’d appreciate it if you could share it and help new readers to continue discovering my writing.

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Further reading

– P M Buchan