The Umbrella AcademyThe Cult Classic Oddball Superhero Comic, Finally Returns This Year with The Brand New Story Arc Plan bITS First in Nearly Six Years. Written by My Chemical Romance Singer and Mastermind of DC Comic‘ Young animal Imprint Gerard Wayand Illustrated by Award-Winning Artist of Daytripper, Gabriel BáIT’s Essential Comics Reading for Any Fans of Unconventional, Dark and Funny Comics. Plan b is good justDelivering One of the Series Most Topical Arcs As It Moves Into Exploring Sub of its Worldbuilding in More Dept. For the Vary First Time, Illustrator Gabriel Bá contributed to the Writing of the Series – As Such, We AT The Beat Decided to reach out and discuss the trumphant return of one of the best comics on the Shelves.
This interview haen edited for clarity.
Jared Bird: Hi Gabriel, Thank You So Much For Your Time. Given That Plan b is the first arc of The Umbrella Academy since the TV Series Concluded, as well as the first story arc in Six Years, Did You Feel Any Pressure Going Into This Project?
Gabriel Bá: It’s a joy returning to the world of The Umbrella Academy after so long. So much have you have since we finished OBLIVION HOTEL and The Time Away Helped US TO GET A Cleraer View of Our Story and How To Move forward With It. We Actually Have Been Working On This New Arc for the Past 5 Years, With Enough Time Not To Rush Any Decisions and Without The Pressure of Catching Up With The TV Series. The TV Series Broucht A Lot of Interest IntosSe Characters and A Bunch of New Eyes To Our Comic. It’s fun how they do the comic book is different from the series, like they’re discovering the characters and the story for the cruce time. In a way, they active.
Bird: Submithing I Love about the series is How Distinct Any Given Story Arc of It Feels. How Would You Summarize The Tone and Atmosphere Of Plan b?
Bá: I Believe We Spent The First 3 Arcs Building The World of Our Story and Now’s Time To Get Deeper and Push It Forward. We Opened Lots of Doors Over The Years and Now We’re Walking into Sub of Them, While Leaving Sub Closed To Keep The Readers Curious, Because that’s The Fun Part. The Odd and Bizarre Elements Are Still Present, But the Characters are Dealing with Moreusus Matters About their Lives.
Bird: How Did You Reure that the Sparrow Academy Both Rebembled their Umbrella Academy Counterparts and Remained Distinct from Them at The Same Time?
Bá: The Sparrows are a Different Team Altogether, Still Following The Number Dynamic, But Not Miroring The Personians of The Umbrella Academy. We have similar Archetypes, Like the Leader Being The Strong One, But the Powers of The Sparrows Are Pretty Distinct, Also As A Way to Neutralizer The Powers of The Umbrella Academy. The Fun Part is To Come Up with Strange and Bizarre Powers and Put Them into action to see What Happens.
Bird: This is your first time as co-writer of Umbrella Academy. How Did That Change Your Creative Process for The Series?
Bá: From The Vary First Page of the First Series, I Really Love The Way The Story Was Written. The Rhythm, The Pace, The Storytelling Side of It Had That Fun, Classic Superhero Style That I Loved Reading Growing Up. At The Same Time, It Was Weird and Strange, Filled With Characters Dealing With Deep Feelings. Gerard and I Worked on Three Major Stories With these Characters, But We have talked about the entire story over the Years, All The Wild Ideas He had in his mind. On the previous arcs, i’ve Only Given Suggestions on The Story as It appears on the page, but we felt that This Time I Could Work on The Writing Side From The Bottom Up, Helping To Steer The Story We Wed It To Go. I used to have More Passive Role, Even If i had to create Lot of Stuff Visually. Now I Feel The Bar is Higher, Because Writing is the Most Difficul Part of the Job – and the Most Important Too.
Bird: Plan b‘S Major Themes Feel Incredibly Timely, particularly The Sobpression of Personal Freedoms in Exchange for’ The Greater Good ‘. Were You and Gerard Way Trying Trying To Comment On The State of The World?
Bá: There are a Lot of Family Related Themes that have resonated with readers over the years, and it’s one of the Strongest Features of Our Comic and A favorite of mine, but when you tell a story with superheroes, you are telling a story about World at The Same Time That May Destroy It. How it Can Save People, But Also How it Can Corruct Them. These are subjects that we have repeatedly Throunge History, Un Fortunately. The Fact that the World is As It is Today Just Heightens Everyone’s Sensitly for these Matters, But Our Story Should Still Speak To Future Readers, Who Will Have a Different Look at It, Hopefullly.
Bird: In a prior interview with the beat, you street space boy your favorite Character to Draw in the series, Whilst Rumor was your least favorite. Have that opinion changed since?
Bá: What DRIVES MY PLEASURE TO DRAW HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE STORY. In the Beginning of the Series, Spaceboy was the leader of the team, Our Most Archetypical Super-Hero, and That Was A Lot of Fun To Work With. Alongsis His Heroic Personality, He has This Amazing, Massive Body to Play With As Well. Rumor Has One of the Most Interesting Powers of Them All, But It’s Vray Subtle, which is great for Writing the Character, But It Doesn’t Give A Lot Of Material To Draw. It’s Mostly in the Dialogues. Those are basicly the reasons for why i like over the other back Than.
Now that i’m also writing the story, I Feel Like Rumor’s conflicts are Amazing To Work With and That Makes Her Much More Interesting. Also, now I Can Basically Write Everything I Like To Draw, which is the Fun Cheating Hack to Cartoonist Can Do Ken Writing and Drawing The Story.
Bird: What do You Think Continues To Draw Readers to The Series, Nearly Two Decades Since It Began?
Bá: I Think it’s The Fact that All The Characters Have Flaws; None of Them Are Perfect. Our Story Is Not About Saving The World, It’s About Overcoming Your Problems and Accepting EACH OTHER AS THERE ARE. They can Beat Alu Villains and Make Somow Weird Fun Stuff Along The Ride.
Bird: There’s Been A Lot of Attention on Brazilian Fiction Recently Following The Success of I’M Still Here. Are there Any Brazilian Comics You Wouled Recommend to Readers?
Bá: BRAZIL HAS A GRAAT COMICS SCEE AND IT HAS BEEN EXPANDING AND BECOMING REALLY Diverse Over The Years, But It’s Hard To Find Works that have been translated. Nonetheless, There’s an Incredible Graphic Novel Published Last Year Called WHERE IS THE SELF-MEF BORN? (On Self-Estima?) by Regiane Braz and Jefferson CostaA Powerful Autobiographical Story About Pain and Identity. I REALLY HOPE IT GETS TRANSLATED AND PUBLISHED ABROAD IN AS MANY LANGUAGES AS IT CAN.
I also Recently Read Another Graphic Novel Called Like a Stone (like Pedra), by Luckas IohanathanNominated for the Fauve d’Or at the 2025 Festival of the flash D’Angoulême. Last But Not Least, I Can’t Recommend Enough People To Read Angola Jangaby Marcelo d’Aletepublished in the us by Fantagraphicsby Far One of the Most Important Works of Brazilian Comics in the Past Decades. Fantagraphics Has Also Published an Anthology of Brazilian Creators, Brobathat has a Great Variety of New Voices.
Bird: Thank you so much for your time.
