VITA: She’s… incredible. I loved her work pre this project, and I am amazed at how much she has poured herself into improving her craft with every page. I am lucky to have the chance to be working with her on her first longer project, because there is a real joy in watching someone grow and push themselves to do their best at something new.

I joked that she was going to get too big to work with me and I think I bummed her out!

PAT: You and Emily might also be the nicest people working in comics, no lie.

VITA: Haha, nah, I am a total cranky old man. But, I try and do onto others and all that, because this is a tough business, and I have not reason to make it harder on anyone.

I am SO pumped to see Renzo ‘s take on your story! Did you do design and development together on this?

RENZO: Aw yeah, Renzo is such a master of monsters! Honestly, if I didn’t know Renzo, I would probably be doing this book as a prose autobiography or a really furious thinkpiece on Medium, hahaha. He and I had done some horror stuff before, and my core inspiration here was that I wanted to do something that was OURS, you know? No compromise, no corporate notes, nothing. I approached Renzo with the (very) rough idea, mostly some character details, because I thought of Scout and Grace-Eisley, her assistant, before any of the plot. Renzo sketched the characters and illustrated our first cover… and from there, we built the story up. We’d been sitting on the cover and sketches, planning to get to it in 2018, but then Matt Pizzolo hit me up and this was one of the series he wanted us to do! From there, Renzo and I just dove right in, so yeah — it’s been a full collaboration from jump.

And speaking of Matt, how did The Wilds end up at Black Mask?

VITA: I have been developing another book there for a bit – co-written by Matthew Rosenberg – but I had some other ideas kicking around. Whenever I am at Cons, the Black Mask Booth is usually home base, and I was talking to Pizzolo about maybe doing more books with them and he told me to send some pitches. He could tell I really wanted to do this story, I think, and the rest is history!

I have to ask, how many issues are we getting for Breathless, and would you do more if you could?

PAT: Four to start, and hell yeah! I have some more Black Mask stuff brewing myself, but if they want more Breathless, I am so there. It’s one of those series I could do for years.

Oh and hey… with Black Mask being your home base at cons, is there any way you were at their New York Comic-Con booth in 2016?

VITA: I was in fact, yes. Why?

PAT: Is there any chance you were there when that drunk guy threw up and collapsed while walking past the booth?

VITA: Yup!

PAT: Oh my god. That is when I was pitching to Matt!

VITA: Katy Rex actually went and brought him water I think.

PAT: Yeah, I ran and tried to get him help and the convention people looked at me like I was crazy.

VITA: It was wild. And gross haha. My sibling, wife (then gf) and I left the booth for a bit.

PAT: I totally botched that pitch session. That incident threw me waaay off my game, haha. But then Matt hit me up a while later, and here we are! That is kind of amazing that you were there!

VITA: A large yet tiny community for sure, haha. You did fine if he hit you up later!

So, I am obsessed with additional content type stuff. Do you have any things you like to do for your comics besides the main story itself? Any process stuff you offer on the side?

PAT: I loooove process stuff and extras! With Breathless, I’m still kinda figuring that out. I have this one character I mentioned, Grace-Eisley Wellington Burke, who is this lab assistant who never stops talking until Scout makes it clear that it’s quiet time. Maybe I could have a little bonus feature from her perspective. Black Mask always seems to do great with the bonus stuff, in general. Are you doing that kind of thing with The Wilds?

VITA: In the issues themselves, there are little 4 page stories called “Best Runs” that take place before the series timeline wise. They center on the Runners, who are trying to outdo each other with stories about their best runs.

I tend to write to music, and I have been spreading the link to the Spotify playlist I made, and to the Pinterest that Emily and I use for the series. I would LOVE to do some more media stuff, like a podcast from the POV of a character or something, but there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day!

PAT: Yesssss! What do you listen to? Emily recently sent me some KPop.

VITA: I have a REAL wide taste when it comes to music. I can link you the playlist if you like!

PAT: Heck yeah.

VITA: Here is the spotify list!

PAT: All right, last question on my end. What does the rest of 2018 look like for you?

VITA: If all goes to plan, I should have three limited series coming out in 2018, with another 1 in the works and possibly an OGN in the works. My hope is to have a single issue on shelves every month starting in February in 2018, and have a draft of an OGN on deck. How about you?

PAT: Fuck yes. I would love to buy a Vita Ayala comic every month. For me, the same month as Breathless, I have Crossed +100: Ecliptic launching from Avatar Press. Christos Gage (current Buffy writer, ahhhh!) is scripting the main story, and I’m doing back-ups. I have a few more things I’m doing with Avatar, as well as preeeetty much the exact opposite of all the intense horror with my all-ages cartoon comics, Underdog and Casper from American Mythology. I’m still planning out the rest of the year for freelance stuff, but my big plan is to do some more Kickstarter projects and publish graphic novels through my own company, Space Between Entertainment. We’ve got Destiny, NY Volume Two already funded and coming out in the summer… featuring a bonus story written by you, which I am super excited about.

And everyone, please pre-order The Wilds from Black Mask. Hit your local shop, tell them you want the book this month while pre-orders are still going! And then go home and follow @definitelyvita on Twitter for updates.

VITA: If you haven’t already looked into Pat Shand (@patshand on twitter), then RUN don’t walk! Make sure to pre-order Breathless, and to check out all the other amazing work he has available!