The following is an interview with AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer and Operations Officer Stuart Moore regarding the publishing company’s fifth anniversary. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Peyer and Moore about the standout moments throughout the company’s past five years, the amazing anniversary releases that the publishers have in store for readers, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations to you and the entire AHOY Comics team on your fifth anniversary! As you look back at the past five years, what have been some of the stand-out moments for you – personally and professionally – along the way?
Tom Peyer: Thanks! The best memories always have to do with collaboration, meeting new people, reconnecting with people I worked with in the past—the Peter Milligans, Steve Pughs, Alisa Kwitneys, and, yes, Stuart Moores of my Vertigo days; people whose work I’d only admired from a distance, like Carol Lay, Matt Bors, Mark Russell, Paul Cornell, and many others. I don’t like naming people because I can’t name them all.
Stuart Moore: In my freelance capacity as Ops (just “Ops”) for AHOY, I’ve done all kinds of things I’d never done before, like dealing with distributors, keeping schedules, and generally coordinating the publisher’s systems. On the creative side, I’ve gotten to work with some of the most talented artists in comics, and to stick my nose into various other projects. Most recently, I coordinated a really fun fifth-anniversary stunt, which we’ll discuss a little later, I think.
BD: Tom, to mark this special occasion, AHOY Comics will be releasing several fifth anniversary special series. What can readers anticipate from these special edition releases?
TP: The Wrong Earth: We Could Be Heroes (by Jamal Igle, Juan Castro, and me) and Captain Ginger: The Last Feeder (by Stuart Moore, June Brigman, and Roy Richardson) revive titles we published when we started; I think they’ve both managed to retain that new-publisher smell. (Wrong Earth deals with masked crimefighters who are prone to being trapped on the multiverse’s cracked-mirror versions of their earth; Captain Ginger is cats on a starship, ’nuff said!) Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog is a very funny one-shot uniting the animal stars and creators of two more recent titles, My Bad (Mark Russell, Bryce Ingman, Peter Krause) and Billionaire Island (Mark Russell and Steve Pugh). And running through it all is Partially Naked Came the Corpse, a dangerous experiment in fiction launched by none other than Grant Morrison and featuring a different writer each chapter. Stuart, this is your baby, so add what you’d like.
SM: Partially Naked came out far stranger and more mind-blowing than I expected. It runs through all the fall titles, up through Captain Ginger: The Last Feeder #2, which features a cosmic conclusion by Brit comics writer (and suspected robot) Kek-w.
BD: Stuart, as a creator whose work has repeatedly appeared in the AHOY Comics catalog, what are you most excited for readers to experience with these anniversary specials, and how would you describe your experience in revisiting these worlds and characters?
SM: I’ll write Captain Ginger anytime the universe will let me, especially in collaboration with the amazing June Brigman. Revisiting those characters was a real joy. I think we managed to tell an exciting two-part saga with the usual assortment of cat jokes—and I was happy to get the whole team back together, including inker Roy Richardson, colorist Veronica Gandini, and Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft on lettering.
BD: As you look ahead to the next five years (and beyond!) for AHOY, what are you eager to tackle in terms of new or recurring series and creator collaboration?
TP: I think our writing, art, and production have been done to a high standard; I think it’ll feel good to keep that up over the long haul.
SM: There’s a wide variety of different kinds of work coming up, by both new creative people and seasoned pros. It’s a cliché, but I think AHOY is going to surprise people going into 2024 and beyond.
BD: Are there any other upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?
TP: We have some huge announcements coming in 2024; if I spoil them now, there are people here who would kill me and replace me with another Tom Peyer. (I’m the third one!)
Stuart Tom #4: I also am terrified of replacement! Next question!
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to join in and celebrate AHOY Comics’ fifth anniversary milestone?
TP: Dress up nice, go to the comics shop, and treat yourself to some AHOY publications! You’ve earned it!
SM: Seconded. As ‘80s funk singer Jermaine Stewart famously put it: We don’t have to take our clothes off to enjoy AHOY Comics!
