You might be surprised to hear this now, given our epic sales numbers, critical buzz and massive fan following...but about five years ago, no one wanted MONEY SHOT.
You might be surprised to hear this now, given our epic sales numbers, critical buzz and massive fan following...but about five years ago, no one wanted MONEY SHOT.
The idea for the series had some to me one night while watching a Vice News piece about science funding with my lovely wife. The piece described cuts to academic study of everything from physics to vaccines, largely due to a shift in priorities during the notoriously science adverse Trump administration. My wife, in a stroke of brilliance said "They should just do porn in the lab to make money."
And, by god, it was like a bolt of lightning struck me. Or, perhaps, more like getting hit with a big dick in the face. And thus was born the seed what became Money Shot, a concept I then pitched to my good internet friend, comedian Sarah Beattie, and managed to convince my good real life friend Rebekah Issacs into joining. We mashed our resources and ideas together to create an epic 5-page pitch that combined Star Trek and the Fantastic Four with Only Fans.
And everyone turned it down.
At the time I had a deal with DC Comics that meant I had to pass everything I did by them first, ostensibly for Vertigo. Though my editor liked it, he knew it wouldn't pass Warner Brothers. I sent it to Image, and my friends at Top Cow, and my old buddies at Skybound. And Dark Horse too. And everyone came back with the same note: we love it, it's hilarious, but we can't do anything with the word 'porn.'
I had just done a non-comics gig with Vault, and figuring them to be kinda hip young dudes, I mentioned it to Adrian Wassel over beers and tacos. And he said..."Yes, we'll do it." No deliberation. No concern about the politics and satire. No worry about that dirty word 'porn.'
Looking back at now, I see what those other lovely publishers saw. There was a storm coming...a moral panic fueled by the worst elements of Trump's base...reactionary, close-minded, Christian-I-guess? A panic that would fuel fear of drag queen, and trans people, and Stormy Daniels. A distinctly anti-progress movement that was as terrfied of books and science as it was of big dicks and lubed buttholes.
But, Vault rode that storm. Went head first into the torrent, and stood by MONEY SHOT through printer problems and internet outrage. And it was worth it. It's a comic series that works, that sells, that makes people laugh, and think, and maybe even get a little turned on. So, it's with great gratitude to Vault's steel balls that I present MONEY SHOT COMES AGAIN--a comic series that pits our explorers against the force that destroyed their world: billionaires. And I thank you, the readers, for wanting it, even when a vocal, ignorant minority has been trying to make you feel bad for who you are and what gets you going. For being curious, and having questions. Because that's what both porn and science are about.
That, and big dicks.