Love, Death, Sex, And Power — Discussing ‘The Breathtaker Collection’ With Comics Legend Mark Wheatley

Over the course of his storied career, Mark Wheatley has won and/or been nominated for every major comic book award, including the Harveys, the Inkpots, and the Eisners. Back in 1990, he and artist Marc Hempel published Breathtaker at DC, a limited series about government agent Chase Darrow who has a lethal kiss. After many starts and stops, Titan Comics is now publishing the series in a new deluxe edition, out this September. In an interview with Comicon.com, Wheatley discussed the deluxe edition’s extended gestation period and why we’re still talking about the series after more than three decades.

Tom Smithyman: Remind us of what Breathtaker is about and the long history from its debut until now.

Mark Wheatley: Breathtaker: Love, Death, Sex, Power was one of the earliest creator-owned projects published through DC Comics. In fact, our lawyer, Richard Theibert, spent over a year working with Lillian Laserson at DC to write what became the first official creator-owned contract for the company – setting the foundation for many projects that followed.

Originally released as a four-part prestige format series, Breathtaker sold so well it went into multiple printings. It was nominated for a Harvey Award, and both Marc Hempel and I received Inkpot Awards largely due to its success. When it was collected, Breathtaker became the very first book published under DC’s Vertigo imprint, and that collected edition went through seven printings over the next decade.

When our editor Mike Gold left DC, plans for a sequel stalled, and eventually, Marc and I regained the rights. For a brief moment, Breathtaker was even optioned as a film at Sony, with Kate Hudson attached to star, but the project shifted when the studio changed hands.

Then something extraordinary happened: in 2008, the Norman Rockwell Museum included Breathtaker in their LitGraphic touring exhibition, alongside works by Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Steve Ditko, and other legends. It became their highest-attended show ever. Later, the Rockwell mounted a dedicated Breathtaker exhibition, which finally opened at McDaniel College in 2022 after pandemic delays.

In 2014, Marc and I launched an Indiegogo campaign to remaster Breathtaker as a definitive collection. Titan Comics came on board as publisher, but each time we were ready to release, some industry-wide disruption would hit – from distribution changes to COVID. The last time the book was at the printer was in 2020, just before everything shut down.

The good news is: every delay gave us the chance to make the book even better. There are already editions out in Germany and Spain, so I’ve seen it—and I can tell you: it’s spectacular. This is the version of Breathtaker we always hoped to make.

Smithyman: Breathtaker’s hero, Chase Darrow literally loves people to death. How did you come up with that concept?

Wheatley: We have all known people who are psychic vampires. They latch on and suck the life out of you, giving nothing in return. That basic idea was the seed. Marc and I had been collaborating for years, starting with the Be An Interplanetary Spy paperback books for Bantam, then Mars for First Comics, Blood Of The Innocent for WaRP and Jonny Quest for Comico, as well as a good deal of advertising work.

We are both perfectionists. We challenged each other a lot to produce our very best work at all times. After all that time, we were looking to work on solo projects and each be responsible just for our own creativity. But Marc was not the sort to go out and drum up work. We shared a studio, and I knew he was in need of a new paying gig. So, one day I took a hike in the woods and thought about some beautiful, erotic science fiction paintings that Marc had been doing as personal works. I wanted to come up with an idea that would have that same kind of subtle, sexual excitement.

I knew Marc could do great things with something like that. Because I thought the paintings were breathtaking, I thought of a character called Breathtaker. Once I had that name I almost instantly came up with the entire set of characters and what their epic story would have to be.

After that, it was mainly a challenge to see if we could find a way to collaborate that kept each of us out of the other’s hair. I worked up a full script in short story form, to allow Marc to make the visual storytelling decisions. Then I let Marc do what he does best. I messed with him once. I asked him to change the directional flow of the action in two panels, and that was the total amount of meddling I did in his art for the story. To this day, I think Breathtaker is our most successful collaboration.

Smithyman: 1990 was a long time ago. Why do you think we’re still talking about this book?

Wheatley: Breathtaker is still a vital, contemporary story because it is about love, death, sex, and power. No matter what else changes in our world, that stuff stays with us.

Smithyman: Walt Simonson writes an introduction to the book. How did you manage to get that coup?

Wheatley: I am a fan of his work. And we are friends. And years ago, Mr. Walt Simonson described our book as, “Breathtaker is the sound of breaking glass in the morning, the smell of diesel oil in the afternoon, the frisson of violence in the evening, and the delight of love and death in the night. This is why I read comic books.” After that, how could I not have him write the introduction?

Smithyman: One of the extras in this collection is a standalone comic called Make Way for the Man, featuring the Breathtaker villain. How did that come to life?

Wheatley: Make Way for the Man is the comic book version of The Man. In the Breathtaker book, The Man has his own TV show, toys, clothing line, video game, and a comic book series. In fact, one of his fans asks him for an autograph on the cover of Make Way for the Man #137 in the Breathtaker story. So now Marc and I collaborated again for the first time in decades and created issue #138 of Make Way for the Man to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original publication! It is all very James Bond. It is all very meta. Right?

We had a lot of fun with it. We even included The Man in a parody of those old Hostess Twinkie ads, because this is designed to be a full comic book. Not only that, but we included a variant cover, drawn by the super talented Mike Oeming!

Smithyman: What other extras will readers find in the book?

Wheatley: The original character designs and pitch artwork, unused pages of art, development art, pencil pages, layouts, script pages, the original paintings by Marc that inspired me, and the full-length Make Way for the Man comic book. There is even a new painting with the lyrics for the Breathtaker theme song. And you can see the animated music video here.

Smithyman: If you found out you had superpowers but that they drained the life out of the people around you, how would you handle it?  

Wheatley: That’s a great question. Because if all you do is take from the people who love and support you, then you are going to have a very sad and lonely life, no matter how powerful you are! That said, the entirety of Breathtaker: Love, Death, Sex, Power is my answer to your question. So, if you want the answer told to you in a lot more entertaining way than I can do here, you should read the book!

Smithyman: That sounds like a plan! Best of luck with the book!