Fred Van Lente has had a long career at Marvel on titles like Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, and Marvel Zombies. He had a successful run at Valiant on Archer & Armstrong, and has written non-fiction graphic novels like Comic Book History of Comics and Action Presidents. He worked with co-writer Greg Pak on Incredible Hercules, MODOK’s 11, and Scorpion. Recently, he has worked with Dynamite on Jennifer Blood and the spinoff series Ninjettes. During Baltimore Comic-Con, Van Lente talked to Scoop about his work and the convention.
Scoop: Are you having fun at Baltimore Comic-Con?
Fred Van Lente (FVL): I am, I love Baltimore, it’s one of the best shows in the US.
Scoop: What do you like about Baltimore?
FVL: I like that it’s very comic-oriented. I’m not just a creative of comics, I’ve gotten into collecting again, so I’m beefing up my Kull and Tomahawk collections while I’m here. I’ve spent more money on comics this weekend than I’ll admit on this interview. [laughs]
Scoop: What are fans most interested in talking about this weekend?
FVL: A lot of fans are digging Jennifer Blood, which is a crime series I do at Dynamite. I also do non-fiction comics that a lot of people know. I do a book with my partner in crime Ryan Dunlavey The Comic Book History of Animation is up for a Ringo award tonight, so we’re all going to go to the ceremony and hopefully we’ll carry the non-fiction category. He’s written a speech and I haven’t, so he’s talking if we win.
Scoop: How have your con experiences been since the COVID pandemic shut them down for a while?
FVL: To be totally honest with you, not very different than before. I think in 2021 I went to a few shows that were a bit more muted, but now I think people are getting more into it. More people are vaccinated. This is only my third Baltimore con, but it seems like it’s back up to full speed.
Scoop: As far as the characters you’ve worked on, are there any dream team-ups you’d like to see?
FVL: That’s a fun question. It would be fun to have Jennifer Blood and the Punisher team-up. I’ve done a bunch of Punisher team-up comics, I did Deadpool and the Punisher and then I did Eminem vs the Punisher which was…different to say the least. That would be fun because Jennifer is kind of a female Punisher and they’re both criminals technically, so would they be friends or spend the whole comic trying to kill each other or both? Only one way to find out.
Scoop: That would be really interesting. Are there characters you’d like to work on that you haven’t yet?
FVL: There are. I’ve never done a lot for DC, so it would be fun to work with a bunch of the Kirby DC characters like the Demon, Mister Miracle. What’s fun about doing this professionally is there’s always…publishers come to you with characters you never thought that you’d want to work on. I’ve got a bunch of that coming up, like “Oh, this is awesome. I never realized I’d want to do this.”
Scoop: What are you working on?
FVL: Well, the aforementioned Jennifer Blood and the spinoff series Ninjettes. I am doing a lot of licensed stuff I can’t talk about it right now. I have my third prose novel called, Never Sleep, that is out in March.
