Robert Kirkman, Benito Cereno, and E.J. Su discuss how friendship, art influenced ‘Blood & Thunder’

Blood & Thunder #1 features perhaps one of the most impressive hooks for a sci-fi comics in some time: Bounty hunter Akeldama “Blood” Bledsoe tracks down aliens with the help of her partner, Thunder…who happens to be a massive talking gun. Take that, Star Wars.

If that’s somehow not enough to bring you in, I can safely say that the first issue extends on the premise in a major way. There’s action, aliens of all shapes and sizes, and the banter between Blood and Thunder is packed with razor sharp wit.

It’s only fitting, then, that a comic about an off-kilter partnership features a creative team who’s bonded just as tightly. Writer Benito Cereno and artist E.J. Su brought Blood & Thunder to life thanks to an assist from iconic comics scribe Robert Kirkman. Their friendship and collaboration is central to the book, pushing Blood & Thunder forward as a compelling story about society, the future, and how we all might live better together.

I got the chance recently to sit down with Cereno, Kirkman and Su to discuss all things Blood & Thunder. That includes how the story came together, some of the group’s previous collaborations, inspirations and influences, the design process, and the power of great sci-fi stories. 

AIPT: I read the first issue of Blood & Thunder #1 and loved it. How did it come into being?

Robert Kirkman: Blood & Thunder started out as a different book that Benito and I were talking about doing…help me out here, Benito! 15 years ago?

Benito Cereno: More than that! Like 19 years.

RK: So 19 years ago, Benito and I had talked about doing this sci-fi book, and that was so long ago that I remember no details. Many years later, I had this title pop into my head, ‘Blood and Thunder,’ that was from a Jack Kirby quote that might be apocryphal because I’ve searched for it online and now I can’t find it.

BC: I think it was from an actual comic…the first page of either his ’70s Black Panther or Eternals.

RK: I thought it was something he actually said! But I remember him saying, ‘Good comics bring the blood and thunder.’ Which doesn’t necessarily sound like something Jack Kirby would say, but that’s my vague recollection of it. And I was like ‘That’s a good title.’ And I was talking to Benito about doing something and EJ about doing something, and I was like ‘Wait a minute! Why don’t we dig up that old space idea, use that Blood and Thunder title and make some cool comics?’ That was a number of years ago…we’ve been working on this project in secret, and here we are.

AIPT: Benito, you’ve worked with Robert on the Invincible Presents: Atom Eve and Rex Splode miniseries. EJ, you helped co-create the insanely underrated Tech Jacket. What was it like to work with Robert again on a new project?

BC: It was really good! For example, I was able to pay my rent which was very nice. (Laughs) It’s always fun working with Robert. He and I have been friends for 25 years now…

RK: I’ve gotten entirely too old!

BC: He’s a great idea man, he’s always got the most exciting approaches to comics and stuff. Robert gave me a great prompt and let me do my thing with it. I think it came out really fun and cool.

EJ Su: It was great to be working back with Robert and Benito — like he said, we’ve known each other for 25 years. Looking back at working on Tech Jacket, now that I’m 25 years older…I hope I’m doing a better job than Tech Jacket from before! It’s good to be reunited with friends I had back in the day. It’s very exciting for me. The project is…it gave me a lot of way to flex my muscles. I get to flex my creativity.

RK: That’s what’s been really fun about this project for me. I’ve been working in television, in writers’ rooms, and doing projects with a bunch of different writers. It’s fun to see their points of view, their tastes, their life experiences add to things we’re working on that I’d never done…it’s a really cool process and that process is how this book is working. Like Benito said, I gave them for lack of a better term, a prompt and it’s great to see what Benito and EJ have been doing and how they’ve turned this into something special.

AIPT: Did you guys have any specific influences for Blood & Thunder? I felt a little bit of 2000 A.D. vibes when reading it.

BC: A number of people have mentioned 2000 A.D., which is interesting to me because I’ve never read 2000 A.D. outside of a scattering of Judge Dredd influences…I’m not saying it’s a major influence, but a secondhand influence. I did read many of those British sci-fi writers that came to America in the ’90s…Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Alan Davis.

I had a variety of influences, as the book goes on you’ll see it go a bunch of different places and pull from different things. Blade Runner was an influence, to an extent Futurama was an influence but it’s less a wacky comedy and more like using a futuristic setting as social satire/commentary on modern events. In that regard, it’s an influence.

AIPT: EJ, what was the best part about designing Blood & Thunder?

ES: We went back and forth on the hair a lot. We talked about how it would look like a bucket of red paint you’d dump into water and what that would look like. We played with different kind of ideas. That part of the creative process is a lot of fun, and hearing what things should look like from Robert and Benito. It’s a lot of fun creating things from scratch and imagining how things would look like in real life…we ended up with something we’re happy with.

AIPT: I’ve noticed that between this comic, Void Rivals, and the upcoming Battle Beast that your comics are taking on more of a sci-fi bent, Robert. Did you ever see that happening?

RK: I’ve always had a love for sci-fi. I grew up on Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica…it certainly wasn’t something that was deliberate. But I think at a certain point I noticed I hadn’t really done a lot of science fiction stuff and I started seeding different kinds of projects. It’s funny because Void Rivals came together pretty quickly where this book…we worked on it for many years to get it ahead of schedule. Same with Battle Beast. I have this thing where I work on different projects at different paces.

AIPT: If you could sell Blood & Thunder to readers in a single sentence, what would you say?

BC: Alien bounty hunter and her sentient gun chasing the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy, encountering new types of planets and new types of violence everywhere they go.

ES: It’s something new, it’s different, it’s everything you wanted, anything can happen.

Blood & Thunder is available wherever comics are sold beginning May 7, 2025. Be sure to read AIPT’s review of issue #1.