Cameron Cooke of Kansas City, Miss., is a comic book writer for Bluewater Productions. Cooke's biographical work — ranging from actor Vincent Price to Prince William and Kate Middleton — has grown in popularity after the genre emerged during the 2008 presidential campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cameron Cooke, 28, writes comic books for Bluewater Productions. He has pages on Facebook and www .kansascitycomics.com under CW Cooke, the name he writes under. This conversation took place at Pop Culture Comix in Overland Park, Kan., www .popculturecomix.com.

Q: On this rack are celebrity biography comic books you’ve written — about Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Conan O’Brien, Prince William and Kate Middleton, the cast of “Glee,” Vincent Price and others. When did this genre of comics emerge?

A: In 2008, during the presidential campaign. A couple of different companies put out Barack Obama comics, John McCain comics and Sarah Palin comics and a Joe Biden comic. Bluewater Productions saw the nonfiction comics were popular and decided to stick with it. I’ve been writing in that niche for them ever since.

Q: How do you approach a celebrity comic?

A: It depends on the person. Conan O’Brien I’ve been a fan of since 1993, so that was fun. Vincent Price was a blast because I’ve loved his movies my entire life. That one was my idea — I told the publisher we should do it because this year he would have been 100. That’s my favorite of all the ones I’ve done.

Q: So that was the payoff for doing Will and Kate.

A: And Madonna and Lady Gaga. Yes.

Q: How X-rated is the Howard Stern comic?

A: Not at all. They are all written to appeal to an all-ages crowd.

Q: What skills are required to do what you do?

A: I think my editor, who is in Vancouver, Wash., likes that I have a pretty quick turnaround with my own research and my writing and my editing.

Q: Have you had anything published outside the celebrity category?

A: I’ve written a nine-part series called “The Muses,” about the classical muses of Greek mythology. The first one is the muse of dance, who goes back and meets Bob Fosse before he was famous and basically gives him the idea to dance and the ability to dance. There will be eight more to come. The idea was my editor’s, but I came up with how to tell the story and who the people would be that I told the story through.

Q: Do you do any action comics or detective comics that keep going indefinitely?

A: Not now.

Q: Would you like to do something like that?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Is that the holy grail for a comic book writer?

A: Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are the holy grail for me. If I could write one of those, that would be the dream come true.

Q: Did you write comics when you were a kid?

A: Yes. I tried to draw them, too, but my art stopped progressing while my writing continued to progress. Unfortunately.

Q: For most kids, the drawing part is probably more fun, but you liked the words.

A: That’s because comics taught me a lot of words when I was a kid. People forget that comics can make kids better readers. That’s what I want to do. I don’t talk down to kids when I write.

Q: Is writing comic books your full-time job?

A: No. I have a day job. I work for State Street Bank. I am a trade processor.

Q: That explains why you don’t look like I thought you would. I was expecting Zach Galifianakis’ character in “Bored to Death …”

A: I trimmed my hair and my beard a little just for this (interview).

Q: Is your goal to write comics full time?

A: Yes. I’ve set an internal goal of age 30, but if it doesn’t happen by then I’ll keep at it.

Q: When do you do your writing now?

A: I get off work at 4 (p.m.), then go to the gym, come home around 6 (p.m.) and either do research for a comic I’m working on or write or talk to my wife until about 10 (p.m.).

Q: That sounds pretty structured.

A: It’s very structured. When I stare at numbers all day long, I can’t be up all night. Although one time, when I was working on a comic I’m writing on my own and finding an artist for on my own, I got to Page 10 of 22 pages, and I was just in a rhythm, so I stayed up till 4:30 (a.m.) to finish it.

I read it a couple of days later, and it was a little weird, but it was perfect because it was a horror comic that I’m writing about a little town with a water monster.

Q: What’s it called?

A: “Stillwater.” Hopefully it will be out by early next year.

Q: What’s the hardest thing about writing comics?

A: Not getting disheartened. When I was starting out, I met Jai Nitz — he writes “The Green Hornet” and he’s from Lawrence (Kan.) — and he told me, “You’ll hear a thousand ‘no’s’ before you hear your first ‘yes’” and I got at least 55 “no’s” before Bluewater said “yes.”