Milk Run is Bryan Reheil‘s first comic, a story right for fans of Back to the Future and Minority Report about a guy who can time travel! Two days ago I got a chance to sit down and talk with him, check it out!
Zee: OK. So over here at GateCrashers, one of the questions we always try to ask anybody we’re interviewing is: What’s your go to sandwich and your sandwich place? But this is important because my editor found out you’re from Philadelphia and my editor is also from Philadelphia. So he told me that there are two places that you should not name, otherwise I’ll have to end the interview. (jokingly laughs)
Bryan: Oh man. OK, I won’t. I won’t name them because I know what I’m being led into there, but my favourite, we’re going to talk favourite sandwich and we’re talking from Philly. I’ll go with my favourite cheesesteak place, and that would have to be The Rook which is in the neighbourhood that I live in, so they make a really good, really good cheesesteak and overall I like their sandwiches
Zee: I guess from there, what’s Zach’s favourite sandwich?
Bryan: I think much of Zach can be reflected in why he uses his time travel powers in the first place, which is just to save some money. So I think he likes just a basic grilled cheese. Something that he didn’t have to go out for. He’s all about just trying to live comfortably and he uses that to his disadvantage, I think by not being able to try a lot of things like that, because he’s too focused in on using his powers to do that.
Zee: Yeah. Totally. What made you want to write comics? But specifically, what made you want to write Milk Run? What inspired it?
Bryan: For Milk Run specifically, it was just like trying to figure out different ideas for books. One of them was like, “Okay, what would I do if I had this ability? And how can I make it so like what if I was the worst person in the world and I had this really cool ability to help people and do cool things, but instead I decided just to help myself.” As far as making comics, I’ve been reading them for so long, I thought I should try to leave my own impact on the medium after reading them for so long and feeling like they’ve done so much for me, I want to give back in that way.
Zee: To go from there, what’s the engine behind your run? Because as I read the first issue, which is really good by the way, a lot of it felt like it’s rooted in some form of frustration with the city and how it operates. So where is that energy coming from?
Bryan: It’s coming a lot from my own recognition of privilege that I have, as you know, just a white straight guy living in Philly, where there is a very diverse population and you see things that you think, well, what would I do if I could change this? But then you also realise, “How flawed is my thinking?” because I have such a limited understanding of what other people go through and how does my own bias impact that so it’s just kind of flows into who Zach is as a character in that way.
Zee: Yeah, that’s a good answer. So then from there, what really inspired the story?
Bryan: For this one not particularly anything that I’ve seen or experienced recently. It was a lot of just general ideas. I wrote a lot of it over 2021 and that was still in the height of the pandemic in isolation. So, A. you’re seeing people not getting what they needed, and B. left in a situation where the government could have done more to help them. It grew a frustration of, you know, if there’s so little they would do in that sense, who’s to say there wouldn’t be situations where there are those in power who are more corrupt.
Zee: Yeah, totally. How did the creative team come together? Did you and Jared Katz know each other beforehand, or was this something that happened through Scout Comics?
Bryan: The first thing I did was look for an editor and that’s how I met James B. Emmett, who’s a great editor, and he recommended Jared to me after we start talking about some different possibilities for artists. I went to Jared’s portfolio, checked it out and it just captured a lot of what I think I was wanting to go for when I was first starting out, which was a guy who does a lot of moving through the city because he lives there, but also has to lash out every once in a while, and his artwork really fit that.
Zee: How differently do you view the medium now as opposed to when you were just a reader?
Bryan: It’s changed a lot in the sense of, you know, I knew they were collaborative to begin with. It wasn’t just one person making them for the most part. Reading them now, I take a lot more time noticing panel layouts and word balloon sets and the colour choices.
Zee: How does it feel to finally write comics?
Bryan: It feels good. It feels like that itch in my brain is being scratched because I’ve had these stories like wrapped up in my head that I’ve been wanting to get out for a while, so it feels very cathartic to get them out there in this way and see them come to life with colours and letters in that way.
Zee: Since you said you like how you went to Jared’s portfolio, when you end up scripting the book, are you letting him go free with how he wants to draw it or are you very strict in how you want your page layouts to look, for example?
Bryan: I start off with a fully written script like less of the more well known Marvel methods of like two guys fight for a bunch of panels. I kind of lay out everything and talk with him through that. He would come back with like rough pencil sketches and some things were changed a little bit from my initial scripts, but a lot of times they worked out because he knew what he was doing with his spacing. So yeah, I trusted him in that sense. So I would fully write everything but had a note to him being like if you have a better idea or you have a concern, let’s talk through it. And try to come up with the best possible solution and I’m pretty happy with where we land it out.
Zee: So why ‘Milk Run’ as the title specifically?
Bryan: I thought it was just a funny title for when you’re going out, you go grab something in a grocery store. Just go out. Go on a milk run.
Zee: Yeah, totally. Well, since the issue does open up with it, what’s a standard grocery run for Zach? What’s he looking for?
Bryan: He’s looking for just the staples. He’s very into online recipes, so he tries to keep everything in stock as best as much as he can, and depending on what he wants to make, he’ll maybe venture down some aisles that have some more expensive ingredients for himself.
Zee: How do you feel? FOC is this Monday, it comes out in November. Are you feeling nervous? Excited?
Bryan: Yes, a mix of both. It’s a lot of just contacting people, shops, outlets to see like who wants to talk about it, who’s interested in doing something extra for it. Nervous to make sure everything happens on time, and it gets out to people who have preordered the book. Still excited to, you know, get it into people’s hands and have, like, my own physical copy to be like, “I made this.”
Zee: Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, I’m sure that’s going to feel great next month.
If you had to do the elevator pitch for Milk Run, what would it be?
Bryan: Pretty much perfected this, I think.
I think the best way to put it is it’s about a selfish slacker guy living in Philly with the ability to time travel up to 10 years in the past, but he only uses it to buy cheap groceries until he finally has to use it for good and solve a murder.
Zee: So as you’ve been writing Milk Run, what comics or books or whatever have you been looking at or have been inspired by?
Bryan: A lot of crime. There’s a crime element to Milk Runner as you’ve seen and others will see with the rest of the series. So a lot of like: Brubaker/Phillips stuff. Some older books like the Parker Illustrated series by Darwyn Cooke. Just like crime noir in general. I got big into watching old noir movies over the last couple of years. So I think those little like plot points and character beats that would be portrayed on screen, I try to work into my writing too.
Zee: That’s the noir aspect. Have you been looking at anything for time travel stuff or is that mostly just you going off of your head?
Bryan: It’s mostly just coming off the top of my head with trying to come up with the system. The biggest inspiration was this romcom from maybe 10 years ago, About Time, with Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson. Domhnall Gleeson can just time travel because I thought that was the easiest way to describe my time travel method without getting too technical. Like he can throw his hands together. Great, a portal and he time travels. I didn’t want to beat it to death. It was more complicated coming up with the rules to how it works, so it wouldn’t contradict anything.
Zee: Since you said it was complicated coming up with the rules, has it been like somewhat difficult for you to maintain or has it been smooth sailing for you to figure out how to as you’ve been writing it?
Bryan: It took a bit to nail down. But then, because I got a couple of notes from my editor at Scout, who was like “You need to lay this out directly for me, so I need to make sure there’s no open loops that we need closing later.” So it did take a bit, yeah.
Zee: Time travel stuff is always like so messy, where as soon as you get into the weeds of it, people will start latching onto it. And there’s always a risk.
Bryan: Exactly, yeah. I told a couple of people like, “You know, if you really like time travel stories, I recommend not trying to come up with one because it’s very challenging and might ruin your experience with that type of story.”
Zee: Yeah, and sometimes it’s just good to go off the vibe.
Bryan: I think I laid it out and the our team did a good enough job explaining through the pages like here’s how it works without over complicating it or without over explaining it as well. So I think they’re going to be like, “Oh yeah, this makes sense.”
Zee: Yeah, totally. Have you finished writing the whole series or are you still going through it?
Bryan: It is all done. All three issues are fully written and drawn and put together. I have all three proofs from Scout. They’re ready to go.
Zee: That’s great! So then it’s November, December and January. It’s a monthly series.
Anything else for cooking up now that that’s over?
Bryan: Yeah. I actually have a bunch of things kind of in development, but it’s just a matter of coming up with the time and the money to put some effort to them. This has really made me want to continue working in the medium and making comics so I have things that hopefully people get to see in the future because of how inspired I was from the experience of making Milk Run.
Zee: What made you want to go to a publisher directly, as opposed to doing a Kickstarter or some sort of fundraiser?
Bryan: I was nervous for the most part. I was kind of intimidated by the process of Kickstarter despite having a lot of friends who are very successful in the platform and I just thought, “Well, if I’m too intimidated right now, I should go the other route,” which is just all out to a publisher and see what happens, and my plan was if I didn’t make it in a public in a publisher sense, I was going to get brave enough to get on Kickstarter and really get the book out there to people.
That was the goal. Ultimately, it was just like to get it out to the people. And I thought that a publisher at the time was the easiest way with distribution and getting the word out.
Zee: Are there any artists that you’re looking forward to collaborating with in your work?
Bryan: I mean, I’m such a big fan of a lot of people. There’s so many. I would love to work with Laura Helsby, who did our variant covers. I would love to work with them on interiors if they had time. They’re so talented . A couple of Philly based artists like Heather Vaughn, super talented with interiors. Skylar Patridge does incredible work. I’d love to work with her. Yeah. You know, there’s too many to name and I feel like I’d be doing a disservice by naming any more than I’ve already done.
Zee: When you write, how do you get in the zone? What do you do? Do you just sit down and write or do you have a meditation?
Bryan: My favourite thing to do is to put on either a four hour video of open window city sounds somewhere with like no ads or a live stream of the beach with waves crashing down. I just kind of zone out and knock out a couple pages or a pitch section or some supplemental material.
Zee: What have you been reading or watching or playing lately outside of for work?
Bryan: Reading wise, I’m doing a read through of the Bendis Era Avengers. Trying to read through the Mignola-verse. Reading Killadelphia for the first time because it’s October, the time we’re discussing this. I just started the Red Robin series. Reading through all of the TMNT Collections and then just like my monthly stuff too. I have so many on there.
Zee: Wow, that’s a lot of books in circulation. I can’t do that.
Bryan: Yeah, some nights I definitely get misty eyed because it’s just, “Okay. I’m too tired to read another four issues of anything.”
Zee: Do you like the single issue reading experience? Or are you more of a collected edition person?
Bryan: I love collected editions. They’re my favourite guilty pleasure within the hobby of comics. I have two really stacked shelves sitting right behind me of my favourite collections of things that range from the Carl Barks and Don Rosa comics at Disney to Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil, The new New Frontier, all in their nicest formats of oversized hardcovers and trade paperbacks.
Zee: Is Milk Run getting a trade paperback?
Bryan: Yep, it should as soon as all three come out. Scott will put together a graphic novel edition, that people that order.
Zee: Awesome! Thanks for thanks for stopping by, really excited for Milk Run.
Bryan: I really appreciate you taking the time to have me on and say nice things about the book.
Zee: Yeah, of course. FOC is the 21st this Monday?
Bryan: Correct, October 21st and then book is out November 27.
Zee: Alright, hell yeah! Exciting! Good luck. Hopefully it turns out well.
Bryan: Thank you so much.
Be sure to pre-order and check out Milk Run #1! Main Cover | Variant Cover
