Some kids think of their parents as superheroes; usually that’s a good thing. But when it turns out your dad has superpowers and ditches your family to become the one superhero in the world, well, the reality doesn’t quite live up to the fantasy.
“Like Father, Like Daughter” — by writer Kat Calamia, artist Wayne A. Brown, colorist Lisa Moore and letterer Brant Fowler — is the story of Casey Ryder, a teen girl whose dad is the world’s only superhero, and now has a secret of her own. Comics journalist and writer Kat Calamia sat down with me to discuss her recently launched Kickstarter for issue #7 of her series and the series as a whole.
Matt Lazorwitz: What’s the elevator pitch for “Like Father; Like Daughter?”
Kat Calamia: A father with superpowers leaves his wife and daughter to become Invulnerable, the world’s only superhero. Ten years later, his daughter discovers that she has inherited the very superpowers that made her father leave their family.
ML: Tell us a little about the origin of the project. How did you gather your creative team?
KC: It’s actually a super interesting origin. This story was originally written as a screenplay for a college class I took about five years ago. A few months later, I saw it sitting on my desktop (and with my lifelong love for comics and my job as a comic book critic/journalist) I really wanted to make the story into a comic.
That summer I gathered a creative team and we were off to the races. Now, five years later, we’re actually on the penultimate issue of the story I first created in that screenplay. There are a few beats that have changed over the years, which has been a fun thing to witness during this adaptation process.
ML: You started the Kickstarter model for the book with issue #6, succeeded, and now you’re doing it again with issue #7. Why did you decide to go with Kickstarter?
KC: I just love the community of people on the platform! It’s a great way to engage with your fans and new readers while trying to raise money to fund your project. I’m really happy to see it getting more spotlight towards the mainstream side of comics, which will hopefully bring even more readers to the platform.
ML: Your heroine, Casey Ryder, is in high school and is, at most, a reluctant hero, as a lot of teen heroes start out. What is it about the teen superhero as an archetype that speaks to you?
KC: As I stated earlier, I grew up reading comics, and ever since then I gravitated towards teen heroes (even before I was a teen and well after I left my teen years). Adolescence is a time where you begin to truly find yourself, even if some teens believe it’s the end-all be-all – it’s truly just the beginning.
The high school setting forces characters to interact with people they normally wouldn’t choose to spend their time with – it brings some fascinating dynamics.
ML: So many superhero stories have protagonists with supportive parents, or unaware parents. Here you’ve got adversarial parents. Was that a conscious choice to stand against the norm, or just part of the story as you built it?
KC: It was naturally built into the story – something that was fun to see grow as I developed the book further. I really try to put all the things readers know about superhero comics on its head – something that will be very evident in the last two issues of our arc, especially issue #8.
ML: What have you learned in comics journalism that is an important lesson that you have taken in, and that other writers should, too?
KC: Talking to people is such a big part of journalism in general, even the cold-open emails that we all dread. It’s a skill that I feel every writer should learn to do more. Reach out to creators — get to know the landscape of comic books from writers to letterers.
Check out the Kickstarter to get the new issue of “Like Father, Like Daughter,” as well as tiers to catch up on the series in print and digitally.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
