Q&A: Dave Baker and Nicole Goux Discuss the Punk Music and Messy Misadventures of Their New Graphic Novel PUNK’N HEADS

Life gets complicated for Hannah Lipsky after she swaps her paint brush in art school for a microphone with a campy horror punk band in the new graphic novel Punk'n Heads. Co-created by writer Dave Baker and illustrator Nicole Goux, Punk'n Heads is now available from Top Shelf Productions, and we caught up with Dave and Nicole to discuss their coming-of-age romance story that features complex characters, plenty of punk music, messy misadventures, and killer costumes!

You can read our full Q&A with Dave and Nicole below, and to learn more about Punk'n Heads, be sure to visit:

• https://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/punkn-heads/1146

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us Dave and Nicole, and congratulations on Punk’n Heads! When did you initially come up with the idea for this rockin’ coming-of-age story?

Dave Baker: Many years ago, honestly. We’ve been working on this project for what feels like a millennia, haha. Punk’n Heads is a coming-of-age romance comic about Hannah Lipsky who, after a bad break up, moves into a punk flop house with her old high school will-they-won’t-they flame. Through a series of misadventures she ends up romantically entangled with him, and fronting his shitty punk band, the titular Punk’n Heads. Honestly, I think it was Nicole who first came up with the idea, but I’ll let her tell you about that.

Nicole Goux: We were on a roadtrip somewhere, I don’t really remember the place we were going. Maybe San Francisco? Not sure. But I was thinking about stuff that we could make a book about. Dave and I are kind of always bouncing things off one another. And I just had the realization of “Punk” and “pumpkin” sounding alike, and I pitched it to him, and his eyes lit up. That’s how you know when an idea is good. One of us pitches it, and the other one gets really excited.

Punk’n Heads is described as a “DIY love letter to youthful messiness about making music, making mistakes, facing your past, and choosing your future.” Like all great coming-of-age tales, this story really reflects a pivotal pocket of time in a lot of people’s lives when they don’t really know how things are going to work out or who they’ll become. How much fun was it for you to set a story during that exhilarating (and terrifying) era of young adulthood?

Dave Baker: Nicole and I are both very interested in this period. And also just in characters who have flaws. We’ve made quite a few books together at this point, and I think it’s pretty clear that we love the idea of people trying and failing to sort themselves out. There’s something romantic about the quest to better oneself, I think. And also: it’s fun to write characters that make mistakes.

Nicole Goux: I think there’s something about coming-of-age stories that are really fascinating. It’s the first time you’re away from your family and are able to really self-define. And because of that your choices, even small ones, have outsized impact. Or, at least, they feel like they do.

I love the chemistry (even when they’re not getting along) between Hannah, Jerry, Morgan, and Birdie—they all feel very lived-in and authentic to this story of a band just trying to make it. How long did you spend fleshing out these characters and getting to know their backgrounds and personalities before letting them loose on the page?

Nicole Goux: I think all the characters in the book have aspects of my personality or Dave's personality. And that’s kind of my favorite part. We spend a lot of time coming up with these details and quirks. And I really like the process of doing that. I like having all these little secrets that only Dave and I know. Like this character has a vocal tick of an old friend we used to have. Or that character looks like an ex-girlfriend or whatever the case may be.

Dave Baker: For me, I’d say that we both spent a lot of time trying to get that right, and also it felt like it came together pretty quickly. Making a comic about a band is like making a team superhero book. Everyone needs their power and their weakness, you’ve got to give them their space and also push them to be their best and worst self when the story needs it. So, that math was really fun to figure out. I really like turning those dials and calibrating those various levels of character interaction.

In addition to being a compelling story of discovery, Punk’n Heads really captures the roller-coaster ride and camaraderie of being in a young and hungry band (I even found myself reminiscing of my treasured garage band days while reading this story). While working on Punk’n Heads, were either of you inspired by bands that you played in or bands that you followed when you were growing up?

Dave Baker: Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of stuff we pulled from. I mean the first and most direct answer is Misfits and MCR. But there’s also a lot of Turnstile in the band’s personal history. And beyond that a lot of Further Seems Forever, and Rage Against The Machine, and even The Smiths. The music of all these bands was important to me at various points, but also the bandmates and their relationships informed the book. Like, Hannah is Gerard Way to me. She’s obviously totally not. But there’s an aspect of her that is. The creative type who’s got Vision. You know what I mean.

Nicole Goux: Most of that music history stuff was Dave. But I feel like I made specific visual decisions about the Punk’n Heads’ costumes to both build on what he was doing, but also play into the specific characters and how they view music. Like, without giving any spoilers, each one of the Punk’n Heads has a very specific costume and they all have little details that are in there for very specific reasons. I really like coming up with those details. Those are my favorite parts of the process.

I love the autumnal vibes of the Punk’n Heads costumes. The masks remind me of Over the Garden Wall and classic Beistle Halloween decorations while still having their own distinct visual style. How did you come up with the look of the Punk’n Heads band?

Nicole Goux: Haha, well, I kinda answered some of this in the previous answer. But to go further into it. When we were working on the book Dave sent me a bunch of reference of Misfits in the ’70s and also My Chemical Romance, and even some Panic At The Disco! We wanted to build out a visual universe that was kinda campy and over the top but also wasn’t fully complete, so that over the course of the book Hannah and her contributions would cement what the band would eventually evolve into.

Punk’n Heads is the latest of many graphic novel collaborations that you have worked on together. Do you communicate back and forth a lot as you’re writing and illustrating a story?

Dave Baker: Oh, yeah. We’re both very involved and very communicative. Even before the writing process we have lots of discussions of what the book should be. Then I go away and write, and we’ll live read the scripts, after which Nicole will give notes. And then I’ll go away and rewrite things. Honestly, though, when Nicole does the art, I give less notes. Because by that point we’re so on the same page that she’s just making all the ideas better with her drawings. But I think the back and forth collaboration is my favorite part. The fact that there’s a book at the end of it is just a bonus. Almost like a fossil record of this fun time we had.

Nicole Goux: We end up playing a lot of catch. Like in between drafts we’ll go to a park by my house and throw a baseball around and talk about the story. That’s something that initially seemed kinda funny to me, but now that we do it a lot, it really helps. The physical movement and the discussing the themes of the story really makes the work better, for some reason.

From the first draft to the finished version, approximately how long did it take to write and illustrate Punk’n Heads?

Dave Baker: Years.

Nicole Goux: I think we’ve been working on this book for six years? I think? Not all straight through. But… pretty consistently. I was drawing both this and This Place Kills Me, my book with Mariko Tamaki, at one point. I really didn’t enjoy that. That was so much work. Never again.

Do you have plans to bring the Punk’n Heads back onstage in the future? I’m ready for an encore performance!

Dave Baker: That's all dependent on the sales! If it sells amazingly well? Sure! I’d love to make more. But we wanted to make something that stood on its own and didn’t need a sequel.

Nicole Goux: I’d love to do more. It just depends on sales. But, like Dave said, this is a standalone book that we hope tells a beginning, middle, and end.

What has it been like to work with the team at Top Shelf Productions as you prepare to release Punk’n Heads into the world?

Dave Baker: I love Top Shelf. They published my book Mary Tyler MooreHawk, and they’ve been great to work with. Chris Staros is amazing and kind and really lets us do what we want with the scope and vision for the project.

Nicole Goux: I’ve really enjoyed working with Chris and Top Shelf. It’s been great. No notes.

Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from Punk’n Heads?

Dave Baker: It would be cool to walk by someone in a comic shop and overhear, “Dang, this might be the best drawn comic of all time.” Because that’s what I was trying to do. I was trying to write Nicole the scripts that would make her art sing the best.

Nicole Goux: I hope people come away with a feeling we all get to choose who we want to be, even when it seems like life is putting us in a box. Oh, and that making things is great, and making things with your friends is even better.

What advice would you give to comic book writers and artists who are just getting started?

Nicole Goux: Start small, make mini comics. Complete things. Move on and start the next thing. Make stuff. Fail. Repeat. Try and fail less.

Dave Baker: Aside from everything Nicole said, I’d say, “Find a collaborator you can trust.” There’s something about working for and with someone else that really helps build a working muscle. You also have someone to share the highs and lows with, as well.

With Punk’n Heads now rocking out in comic book shops, what other projects do you each have coming up that you can tease for our readers, and where can they go online to keep up to date on your work?

Nicole Goux: April 7th I have an issue of The Twilight Zone, published by IDW, that I wrote and drew. The story is titled "Growth" and sees a young woman adopting a small organism that initially seems like a plant, and then eventually grows into something much more. I’m very proud of the story.

Dave Baker: And I have a collection of comics being published through Oni titled Halloween Boy, coming out May 27. It’s an action adventure horror comic that I’ve been writing and drawing for the past few years. If you like things like Hellboy, Indiana Jones, or The Phantom, this one might be for you.

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From the Press Release: Being young is supposed to feel like a perpetual dumpster fire of debilitating heartbreak, terrible decision making, and non-stop identity crises… right? Enter stage left PUNK’N HEADS, the latest punk rock graphic novel collaboration from critically acclaimed, Eisner-nominated creators Dave Baker (Mary Tyler MooreHawk) and Nicole Goux (This Place Kills Me). The iconic, Los Angeles-based creative duo—who have previously joined forces for works such as Fuck Off Squad, Forest Hills Bootleg Society, Everyone is Tulip, and many more—get the band back together for this raucous and revealing new graphic novel about a campy horror-punk band that plays together, lives together… and unfortunately two of them are sleeping together. The DIY love letter to youthful messiness about making music, making mistakes, facing your past, and choosing your future will debut with an eardrum-splitting bang this April from Top Shelf Productions.

"Punk'n Heads is a book for all the broken hearted losers out there,” said writer Dave Baker. “The kids who wanted to accomplish great things and then ended up playing shitty back-room punk shows. If you've ever broken up with someone in the back of a van, right before six idiots in Doc Martens are about to pile in, this is the book for you."

"For anyone whose journey hasn't been a straight path, Punk'n Heads might just bring you a little solace,” said artist Nicole Goux. “Join Hannah, Jerry, Morgan, and Birdie in their quest to make something cool, make it big, or maybe just be a little less sad."

In PUNK’N HEADS, Hannah Lipsky isn’t sure what’s happening. She dreamed of becoming a fine art painter, but after breaking up with her girlfriend, she’s suddenly dropped out of art school, moved into a flophouse, and gotten roped into singing in a campy horror-punk band. With costumes. To make things even more complicated, she might be hooking up with her housemate/bandmate/high school crush, Jerry. Whatever, I’m sure it’s fine… Now put on your punk’n mask and let’s rock!

"Hannah's relationship is a failure, and so apparently is her budding art career,” said Goux. “When she moves into a house with her past ‘what if?’ Jerry and his group of ragtag friends/bandmates, her life takes an unexpected direction. Will she follow the path or cling to the past?"

"Punk'n Heads is a coming of age graphic novel about playing in bands, living in a flop house, and kissing the wrong people,” said Baker. “It's also about how everyone should be wearing pumpkin masks in 2026."

PUNK’N HEADS will stage-dive its way into comic shops (and hearts) everywhere on April 7, 2026. For more information, follow Dave Baker on X and Instagram and Nicole Goux on Bluesky and Instagram.