Bomb Queen creator Jimmie Robinson

Bomb Queen creator Jimmie Robinson

By Daniel Robert Epstein
Sep 7, 2006

Every month I am astonished by the wide variety of comic books released by Image Comics. When I first spotted Bomb Queen with her breasts nearly busting out on every page I figured it was a cheap knockoff of Garth Ennis and Amanda Connor’s The Pro. But when the trade paperback was released I figured I would give it a chance, and boy was I wrong. Bomb Queen is a very funny book that has a truthful take on the idea of a supervillain running a major city. In the first book creator Jimmie Robinson introduces us to the bisexual villain Bomb Queen and the lascivious and sociopathic way she runs New Port City. She has blown up all the superheroes in her vicinity and forced the mayor to allow crime to run rampant while she oversees it all.

Buy Bomb Queen Volume 1: Woman Of Mass Destruction

Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Jimmie Robinson: I’m just coloring the new Bomb Queen series right now and I’m having a Photoshop blast.
DRE:
Is it another miniseries?
JR:
Yeah, I’m not doing an ongoing Bomb Queen series. I keep it in short story version so I can stay fresh and not be locked down. I can walk away from it if I have to so it’s nice to just do short stories.
DRE:
What’s the new miniseries about?
JR:
It is about Bomb Queen losing her rule because she gets laid so she gets sloppy. She falls in love and the question is, can a villain still be a villain when they’re having fun under the sheets.
DRE:
Is she with a girl or a guy?
JR:
[laughs] It is interesting because it’s with a guy but it was a girl who had a sex change just to get between Bomb Queen’s sheets and get access to some sensitive material.
DRE:
Oh, it’s a spy.
JR:
It’s a spy/revenge tale of sorts. It is Transamerica meets Bomb Queen [laughs].
DRE:
You’ve shown that you’re a fan of SuicideGirls by having one of the background characters in the first miniseries wearing a jacket with the SG logo on it. Do you see Bomb Queen as a SuicideGirl?
JR:
I love SuicideGirls. I’m on the site all the time with my membership. I’ve referenced lots of women from the site. It has been a great resource for me.
DRE:
Does it help you figure out how crazy girls think?
JR:
Yeah it does especially because SuicideGirls is not just the pouty Playboy, glamour girl stuff. They’ve got attitude, the photography’s dynamic with more natural positioning of the body rather than just posed on a bed or just outdoors.
DRE:
Bomb Queen’s costume is very SuicideGirls.
JR:
[laughs] Yeah, that’s true. In the comic book industry I got a lot of flak based on the low riding pants of Bomb Queen and all that. What’s really odd is that in comic books there are scantily clad women in spandex all up and down the block. [laughs] It’s just not much different than many others it’s just that I’m flaunting it.
DRE:
She does have a thong up there right?
JR:
Yeah, she’s got this thong thing going on and anti-gravity pants or something. They’re not even pants at this point. Right now they’re just leggings that come right up to the crotch. Also the spandex gets ripped up a lot throughout the story so she’s running around half nude most of the time. There are a couple of times she’s been topless and even bottomless. Also since this new story is a love story there’s a lot of sexual play going on.
DRE:
New Port City must be a very warm place.
JR:
Yeah [laughs] but actually it is East Coast. The new series takes place during a snowy winter. The person she’s up against this time is the Ice Queen.
DRE:
What are the names of some of the SuicideGirls that helped you figure out Bomb Queen?
JR:
I’ve got a bunch in my favorites so it’s a mishmash of a lot of different models. There’s one in particular that I used as a cover for the new issue one that’s coming up in November. Her name is Espen. I believe she’s from Germany.
DRE:
She’s hot.
JR:
Yeah, I’m a breast guy so that’s cool with me. I’ve used a lot of different models trying to just get different attitudes for the queen. It’s just a lot of fun and to be honest I haven’t drawn superhero stuff before. I’ve done other comics, but as far as the sexy, sultry things I really needed SuicideGirls to help me out. [laughs] I can draw comics but I’ve never drawn anything that needs to look sexy on this level.
DRE:
When I first saw Bomb Queen I thought it was one thing but once you read it, it is really funny and silly but it still has a lot of serious social and political commentary in it.
JR:
That was very important because I wanted Bomb Queen to almost be secondary to the city. I wanted the city to be this character that was just wrong. Bomb Queen represents everything that’s wrong in that city with the rapists and pedophiles and murderers that occupy the city. Since it was a city I had to get into the politics and the infrastructure of how such a city would work. Most superhero books don’t even talk about what’s happening in the city. It’s mostly the hero with the city as backdrop. Here I wanted to flip it around and make the city the hero.
DRE:
Did you do research into really corrupt cities?
JR:
Not at first but now I’m finding out all this information about sub-cities and governments and officials and it’s just horrible.
DRE:
It’s turned into real work all of a sudden.
JR:
Well, sort of. I always wanted it to be a miniseries because I didn’t want this to drag on forever because I do nice stuff too. I’m not always about sex and violence [laughs]. But this just sparked the imagination of a few people because of the half-naked babe on the cover [laughs].
DRE:
Did you come up with the character or the setting first?
JR:
Actually I came up with the name, Bomb Queen and it was just so bombastic, pun intended. It just struck me as, “who would name themselves that?” The character was just so outrageous I had to make up the environment around her and then the environment took over. Surprisingly a lot of my women friends were saying “Don’t hold back.” They liked this idea of a woman who’s totally in charge sexually without mercy.
DRE:
Did you mean to tackle feminist issues or was it hard to avoid with this character and setting?
JR:
I actually did mean to. Some of it came later on but mostly I wanted to. There’s a scene where she pretty much sexually assaults this political candidate and men totally get away with doing that all the time but women don’t. So I wanted her to just grab the balls of this politician and threaten him sexually. There was some empowerment issues going on there and my work has always reflected that going back ten years ago with Image Comics.
DRE:
Did you know that Bomb Queen would be perfect for Image to publish?
JR:
No, I didn’t. Matter of fact I didn’t think they would publish it because it pushes so many buttons.
DRE:
And you’re not Garth Ennis.
JR:
[laughs] Yeah, that’s true. But I showed around a couple of pages and Jim Valentino [one of the founders of Image] liked what he saw. I said, “Hey man this is not like a normal book. I’m really trying to break some rules here.” He was like, “That’s fine.” Sure enough he let them fly. I held back a few things because I don’t want it to be an x-rated book. I want to be edgy but I don’t want to go off the deep end with full out sex scenes.
DRE:
Do you ever see doing an x-rated version of Bomb Queen?
JR:
No, this is how far I’m going to take it because again I don’t want it to be too much about her so much as it is about the city.
DRE:
When you do take stuff out do you take out sex or violence?
JR:
Oh it’s definitely the sex [laughs]. Even on SuicideGirls they had to pull down some photos because of the fear of being censored by Senator what’s his name.
DRE:
Senator Douche.
JR:
[laughs] Yeah. There are certain sets that they consider too far gone and then you’ve got to realize you’re in America so there are rules you’ve got to play by. But I’ve changed certain sexual aspects because I know there’s some comic book store in Alabama or South Dakota or something that just won’t like it at all. But I’m definitely out to push buttons so Bomb Queen is a book that isn’t trying to make friends. It’s trying to support villains, pedophiles, drug dealers and serial killers so it’s an ugly book. The things that I’ve pulled out have been some incest jokes and really touchy stuff like that. But somebody’s buying it because sales keep going up on it.
DRE:
Where’d you grow up?
JR:
On the West Coast on the mean streets of Oakland California.
DRE:
Were you always drawing?
JR:
Oh yeah, I’ve always drawn one way or another. I started out just watching television cartoons and I would draw my favorites like Timba the White Lion or The Flintstones or something but then I’d have to draw another picture to show how they reacted and then that became pages of sequential artwork.
DRE:
How did you break into comics?
JR:
I self published. I just made my own book and started showing it by hand to individual comic stores and word got around that I was doing it. I was going to comic book conventions and selling my little stuff. After about eight issues of my own self published book, which featured this lesbian superhero, I decided to put it on hiatus for a while so I made an announcement but many people said, “No, don’t stop.” One of those people was Jim Valentino from Image Comics. He said, “Hey man, don’t stop, continue over here.” That became a series called Amanda & Gunn which did really well.
DRE:
What’s the thing you’re doing after the next Bomb Queen miniseries?
JR:
Well there’s more Bomb Queen [laughs]. I also wrote a Wolverine story for Marvel Comics.
DRE:
Cool!
JR:
Yeah, Marvel likes Bomb Queen [laughs]. Beyond that more Bomb Queen and after all that I’d like to get back to some all ages adventure kids stories. I have a soft spot for just good adventure stories and I have got this 1930’s Indiana Jones type story that I think will be really fun.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck
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