Usually I’d tell you all about a series before we dived into an interview, but that’s basically what this interview is. Shuan Simon was cool enough to sit down with me at New York Comic Con and tell me about his new project from Dark Horse Comics, Neverboy. Pay close attention there might just be some info you won’t find anywhere else!

DUSTIN: So Neverboy, I read a little bit about it

SHAUN SIMON: There's not much out there. The one liner, he's an imaginary friend turned drug addict. And honestly that gets a lot of people excited about it so far.

DUSTIN: It's a premise I've never heard before.

SHAUN: Well yeah, which is nice and I'm glad it's working out. The deal is he takes these drugs to stay in the real world and that's what he wants; he wants to be real, he wants to stay in the real world and that's where we take off on the story.

DUSTIN: Is it also going to deal with addiction and such?

SHAUN: Yes, absolutely.

DUSTIN: When you say he takes drugs to stay in the real world, is there a point where he gets sober or anything like that?

SHAUN: There might be... who knows!

DUSTIN: And when does the book release?

SHAUN: In March.

DUSTIN: You're working with Tyler Jenkins?

SHAUN: Yes, who I just actually met today for the first time and it was amazing. He's just a nice dude, his art is fantastic. His book for Image, Peter Panzerfaust, I saw his stuff and I was like this dude is awesome and he would probably be great and I got in touch with him and everything worked out.

DUSTIN: So you just approached him about the project?

SHAUN: Yeah, I was like what are you doing, do you want to check this out and he loved the idea. His stuff is fantastic and fits really well with the story we're telling.

DUSTIN: Is he doing anything differently for your book, because he has the water colored look?

SHAUN: Well he's not coloring, Kelly Fitzpatrick is coloring it and she's amazing. With Peter, it takes place in WWII era, but this story takes place in New York City and its more now and it was really fun watching Tyler drawing New York City and drawing more of a grittier character and he does it really well. It's been great so far.

DUSTIN: Where did the story idea spring from, I'm sure you've gotten asked that question?

SHAUN: I haven't yet; for me I like a little bit of surrealness, a little bit of weirdness and strangeness. But I also like the gritty and so I wanted to combine those. So that's where I started from. You have some ideas here and there, but there hasn't been one point in which this was it, it was more of a process. You think of scenes and plot points and what's going to make it work and make people give a shit about this guy and go from there. It just kind of evolved over time and turned into what it is now.

DUSTIN: Is it a mini-series?

SHAUN: Yeah it's six issues. Who knows after that, we'll see how it goes.

DUSTIN: Obviously you're going to tell a complete story for six issues, but there could be a larger story?

SHAUN: Who knows what's going to happen. It could be. It would be really cool if it was so we'll see.

DUSTIN: So there's Neverboy who is the imaginary friend, but about supporting cast? Can you talk about that?

SHAUN: His path is going to cross with this character Julien Drag who’s a former artist who’s been driving a taxi cab. He's lost all his inspiration and he's been down on his luck. They're going to meet at a very important time in both of their lives, where they're going to end up helping each other out, but it might not be for the best. That's where we start from, but Neverboy has a family and he just wants to be a dad. He has a son, he has a wife and we see what's going to happen.

DUSTIN: I didn't picture that happening.

SHAUN: They're in the real world (referring to the family).

DUSTIN: So he has a family in the real world and he has to do drugs to stay with the family. That's a deeper motivation.

SHAUN: You heard it first.

DUSTIN: Are there any other projects you want to talk about or can talk about?

SHAUN: Nothing's been announced yet, there's other stuff in the works, but this is it for now.

DUSTIN: Awesome, well where can people find you on the internet?

SHAUN: I have a Twitter, its @ShaunSimon. That's about it.

DUSTIN: That works, that's all you really need anymore.

SHAUN: Exactly.

Look for Neverboy in March from Shaun Simon, Tyler Jenkins, and Kelly Fitzpatrick and released by Dark Horse Comics.