For my latest Nexus Graphica column over at SF Site, I was lucky enough to interview the legendary Walter Simonson about his new graphic novel The Judas Coin as well as other things artistic.

What was the impetus for The Judas Coin?

Back when I was working on Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, Mark Chiarello at DC approached me and asked me about contributing to a new comic he was going to be editing for DC. It was called SOLO. Each issue was going to be written and drawn by a single writer/artist. The book was to be a 44 page comic of short stories, at least one of which was to be about a DC character. Otherwise, it was wide open. I was delighted to be asked. I started thinking about what I might do, and eventually had the idea for an anthology of short stories, threaded together by one of the coins Judas was paid to betray Christ. I worked out the plots for each of the stories, but in the end, the Elric book took me longer to do than I’d thought — no surprise there — and by the time I’d completed it, SOLO had run 12 issues and was done. I still liked my idea for the comic, so I spoke to Dan Didio at DC about the anthology. He liked the idea, and suggested I find an editor and write up a proposal for a 96-page hardcover. That worked out, but Mark was the guy whose initial approach sparked the book.

Check out the entire interview over at SF Site.