Talking ‘The Pedestrian’ With Joey Esposito And Sean Von Gorman

Superheros don’t have to be larger than life. Sometimes they can just be pedestrian, or the pedestrian, as is the case in writer Joey Esposito and artist Sean Von Gorman‘s new comic, The Pedestrian, about a road sign-following vigilante who dresses like the “walk” street sign. With colors by Josh Jensen and letters by Shawn Lee, find out more about the series in the following interview with the creators below:

Rachel Bellwoar: More than any one person (or Good Samaritan), The Pedestrian is about a town. How did you come up with the idea for Summer City?

Joey Esposito: Summer City is directly inspired by the small city I grew up in, which was a place that my generation was told was a dead end. Ravaged by a corporation environmentally and economically, a place with no opportunities and no real future.

As a result, I grew up without forming any real connection to that place or planting any roots for the future there, rather than being inspired to help build that connection and improve the community. My family is still there, but all of the close friends I grew up with left as well. So that feeling of just waiting to escape to something better — even if that might not be the truth — really came front and center for me writing The Pedestrian.

Bellwoar: I was reading about your previous graphic novel, Pawn Shop, and that idea of community seems very central to your collaborations. Whereas Pawn Shop was set in New York City, though, has it been fun to create a small town (which could be anywhere) from scratch?

Esposito: It’s a blast. There’s nothing that’s more fun for me than creating characters and figuring out how they relate or connect to the world. In Pawn Shop, a lot of it was this sort of ethereal connection between lonely people who didn’t necessarily realize they had connections with one another. In The Pedestrian, those connections are often unavoidable — and in some cases, unwanted — because it’s such a small community that you don’t always have the option of disappearing into anonymity. So thinking about the unseen history of this small city is a lot of fun for me, and a great way to work out my own issues with the place I grew up.

Sean Von Gorman: I’m from NYC but grew up in the very south of Brooklyn. Which is still very much its own thing. When putting together the look for Summer City, I took maps from both of the places we grew up and merged them together. I think this will pop up in a future issue. I wonder if a bird’s eye view of this place might reveal anything?

Bellwoar: Continuing with that community theme, The Pedestrian has a lot of narrators. Did you always want to center the voices of local fixtures who might otherwise be overlooked and do you think these kinds of stories are a reminder to people that they might have more in common than they think?

Esposito: I really hope so. On a narrative level, I just love the idea of making the usual supporting cast of a superhero story the main characters. Like, sure, the hero might have to deal with a giant robot or whatever, but what about the person who had a really important doctor’s appointment that day that took months to schedule and now is back to square one?

As far as finding commonalities with one another, a lot of what The Pedestrian would be about solidified during the heart of lockdown in 2020, when we were all isolated and the societal pot was boiling over in a bad way that we still haven’t recovered from. There was this profound lack of empathy that was clearly always there, but became so exposed during that time it was stunning. So I think it’s important to find empathy for other people and consider their experience — especially when we don’t agree with their positions or opinions — and what made them the way they are. You might not be able to change their mind on anything, but more nefarious forces are definitely gunning for them, so it’s worth a shot, right?

Bellwoar: The Pedestrian also touches on the idea of people who get “stuck” in the town where they grew up. With that in mind, how important was it to you to also have characters who are relatively new to Summer City (like crossing guard, Sophie, and the twins, Syd and Jeremy)?

Esposito: I think having that different perspective is super important, for both sides of the argument. Maybe new arrivals confirm what the longtime residents have always suspected, that it’s a dead end town on a backslide, or maybe someone new can show them that things can actually be better if they just make the effort. For me, I was very much a person who felt stuck in their hometown and left the first chance I got, because every adult around me would say things like “it used to be so nice here.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the future. But when I was older and wound up back there for a brief time during a what-does-it-all-mean phase, I met all kinds of new people working hard to make their adopted home better, and that really changed my perspective on what a community should look like.

Von Gorman: We all have a moment where we find that we are exactly where we have to be.

Bellwoar: While we already know the inspiration behind The Pedestrian’s look is the “walk” sign, how did you land on unflattering jumpsuit and reflective goggles for the final design?

Von Gorman: UNFLATTERING? This interview is over. [Sean leaves the room. Joey follows and drags him back into the studio.]

I had the idea of creating a sort of “real life” costumed hero, picturing someone like The Flash but who couldn’t run fast. So he’s just sort of walking at a brisk pace. Not anything superhuman, just like a New Yorker walking around in the suburbs. That’s when I started thinking about the little glowy man in the street sign. What might it look like if someone on a fateful night, instead of having a bat crash through their window, became entranced with the figure in the Walk sign and devoted their life to it? And what if that person had no money? That’s how I came up with the earliest sketches of The Pedestrian. But didn’t have much more than a name and a costume. That’s when I reached out to Joey to help me flesh out the world and the story.

Bellwoar: While The Pedestrian’s outfit is undoubtedly memorable, the way they walk is extremely distinctive, too. Particularly since The Pedestrian doesn’t talk, how important was body language in creating that character?

Von Gorman: The Pedestrian is non-verbal but he absolutely gets his message across. He’s a man of action and those actions show you who he is, and what he’s trying to do.

Bellwoar: Every town has a pizza shop. What made you decide Pizza Sun would be Summer City’s and did you enjoy coming up with the logo?

Esposito:  I love the world building of fake branded corporations. Especially for a Pizza Hut style pizza factory that can inhabit the bones of a failed business, like a Spirit Halloween store. And then how horrible would that place be if it’s the only restaurant in town? Welcome to Pizza Sun.

When coming up with the design I thought it would be really funny to have the slogan in the advertising be “You’re getting Pizza, SUN!” There will be a full ad peppered into a future issue.

Bellwoar: We already know there’s at least one other street sign vigilante walking around in Summer City, but will there be others — or sidekicks, like a duck crossing superhero?

Esposito: A duck crossing superhero would be hilarious, so you never know! But I would say you’re onto something interesting … and if sales are where they need to be for Magma to invest in us continuing, the stuff we’ll be introducing down the line will be truly bananas.

Von Gorman: We have clear plans for a multiple arc epic that will take this to gloriously unexpected places. Are the stakes low, or have they NEVER BEEN HIGHER?

Bellwoar: I’d say never higher! Thank for agreeing to this interview, Joey and Sean.

The Pedestrian #1 is on sale now from Magma Comix.