Creator Spotlight: Jimmy Palmiotti, Co-Creator of Painkiller Jane

Jimmy Palmiotti

I write stories for a living, a world builder with my own characters and those owned by others. I've mostly worked in the comics field since around 1990, but I have also written Video Games, Animation, and for Movies and TV, I wrote a few screenplays as well.

Besides writing and creating, I am also a self-promoter for everything I work on, another full-time job.

Jimmy Palmiotti

A couple of ideas came to mind when collecting 30 years of exceptional art into the Painkiller Jane Uncovered collection. I wanted to feature the creators that have been along for the ride the most, while bringing some new talent into the mix. Honestly, I could have made the book 200 pages if I wanted it to be that big, but we went for a more collectable size that comics fans asked for.

The selection was made up of my personal favorites as well as bring in a new batch of artists to contribute like Peach Momoko, Tim Bradstreet and Sean Murphy. It is all about the artists this book, and I am proud of it.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Joe and I created the Event Comics label and our first book was about a fireman called ASH and we figured our next should be a female character and we decided to make her a police officer, initially, that gets into some bad trouble. We wanted to round out our publishing and do something a bit different with Jane at the time. The idea that she is somewhat indestructible was initially what it was all about, but the character has grown much more over the years.

At the time there were a lot of bad girl books and we felt it was our time to join the pack. Her character caught on in ways we never imagined.

Jimmy Palmiotti

She is my wife and will do just about anything to help with my work, so it was natural I get a piece from her and she wanted to lean into the design of Jane and make that a feature of her cover, the bandages themselves taking the shape of the title of the book. Amanda has a brilliant eye and her covers are always something to see, never a dull moment or design, always fresh.

I was super excited when she showed me the concept and when done, she colored it as well, something she does a lot these days.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Most of those Painkiller Jane covers featured in the collection were done in the early '90s, so we didn't have clean files anymore. It was not files back then, it was actually film, and that film no longer exists. So each cover had to be scanned, logo and lettered, restored, and I ended up doing all the digital retouching myself, removing logos and type, rebuilding the art that had been covered, and matching the originals as closely as possible.

It took a while, but I'm proud of how they turned out. I even got to use the photo-retouching skills I picked up at my first job out of college in the early '80s.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Not having publisher constraints gives me real freedom to explore characters like Jane in ways that would be off-limits elsewhere. There's no list of "can't do" rules hanging over me, so I tend to push my stories into darker, more adult territory while staying true to who the characters are.

That freedom is the best part of making comics for adults. I still love writing other people's characters, but gigs like Punisher and Conan come with restrictions I wish I could've ditched to make the stories better.

Jimmy Palmiotti

There are a couple easy ways to support the character and the work I do. First, head to PAPERFILMS.COM and sign up for our mailer when the pop-up appears, we send about two a month with exclusive art, convention listings, and chances to grab special editions and all our books. The next thing is to follow our Kickstarters, since that's where we launch new titles.

I only do two or three Jane books a year because I want them as strong as possible, and they take time. For this specific book, we'll post a purchase link on the website, but we only have a limited number of copies left.

Jimmy Palmiotti

I always tell them to follow any of the professionals they can on social media since most will answer questions pretty easily. The other recommendations are the obvious ones that everyone talks about like UNDERSTANDING COMICS by Scott McCloud, Graphic storytelling and visual Narrative by Will Eisner and FRAMED INK 2 by Marcos Mateu-Mestre.

Jimmy Palmiotti

A lot of people don't understand that I work about 7 days a week, most of the day and I work in commercial work for hire gigs and constantly work on my own projects at the same time. Also, that a lot of my time is talking to companies and doing zoom calls with publishers coming up and pitching projects constantly, and a lot of them never see the light of day, unfortunately. This is not a job for the lazy if you want to make a living, that's for sure.

Like most creators we think of quitting the business a few times a year and then we get pulled back in. That is love.

Jimmy Palmiotti

The best way to do your job is to take breaks, fall in love, see all kinds of movies, read books, travel as much as possible, never sit for more than an hour, have your heart broken, watch as many sunrises and sunsets as possible, support your friends work and have their backs, get rid of people in a drama triangle, keep positive and use social media to promote and be yourself. Have opinions but also try to listen to others and keep learning, always learn new things, you will never age.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Because I wrote constantly, I hardly read a damn thing, but I do go out to the movie and travel as much as possible. I have a pretty impressive pull list at my local comic shop to get all the #1 books outside of the big two, so when I have time, I catch up a bit, but for the most part I have to keep my head clear.

I do read cover-to-cover Metal Hurlant Quarterly. I love fresh voiced and art.

Jimmy Palmiotti

My local comic shop is one of the biggest in the state of Florida, EMERALD CITY Comics in Clearwater. They are as big as a supermarket and one of the few stores that stocks back issues all the way back to the Golden age. My relationship is great since I have an office in the back of the store I would out from each week.

The owner, Neil Johnson, and staff are all good friends and are always open to suggestions. They are a great group of people and I just love going to the shop.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Well, I have a book out called DEADLY TALES OF THE GUNSLINGER that comes out monthly and is ongoing. I am currently working on issue 24 and issue 15 just came out. I will be on this title for a while and I think its one of my best written titles.

For Mad Cave I have a three-issue mini-series called DENVER dropping soon as well as a new POP KILL series coming in the fall. It's a continuation of the last hit series. Outside of that I have books coming from PaperFilms and a bunch of things that will be announced soon, some at New York Comic Con.