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IN DEPTH SEE HOW
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M AG A ZI N E Issue #6
January 2004
Read Now! Message from the Editor-in-Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2
Write Now! In Depth: POWERS #19 A detailed look at the creative process that goes into the making of an issue of a comic book. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming tell all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 3
Mr. Fantastic Interview with Mark Waid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 42
The Power of Passion: BATMAN, DETECTIVE #27 Michael Uslan reveals how he was driven to write the Elseworlds graphic novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 57
Keeper of the Bat-Mythos Interview with Bob Schreck Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 61
Ride a Dark Horse Interview with Diana Schutz Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 66
Platinum Reflections Interview with Scott Mitchell Rosenberg Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . page 72
Feedback Letters from Write Now’s Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 77
Nuts & Bolts Department Script to Pencils to Printed Comic: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #47 Pages from “Suspended,” by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, and Art Thibert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 36
Script to Pencils to Printed Graphic Novel: PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE Pages from the graphic novel by Michael Avon Oeming and Neil Vokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 40
Waid’s Shoulds and Shouldn’ts Tips for aspiring newcomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 44
Script to Thumbnails to Pencils to Printed Comic: FANTASTIC FOUR #71/500 Pages from “Unthinkable,” Part 5, by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, and Karl Kesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 45
Script to Pencils to Printed Comic 2: EMPIRE v.2, #3 Pages from “This Time,” by Mark Waid, Barry Kitson, and James Pascoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 54 Danny Fingeroth’s Write Now! is published four times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Fax: (919) 833-8023. Danny Fingeroth, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Write Now! E-mail address: WriteNowDF@aol.com. Single issues: $8 Postpaid in the US ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US ($40 Canada, $44 elsewhere). Order online at: www.twomorrows.com or e-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com All characters are TM & © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © the respective authors. Editorial package is ©2003 Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. Write Now! is a shared trademark of Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.
Conceived by DANNY FINGEROTH Editor-in-Chief Designer CHRISTOPHER DAY Transcribers STEVEN TICE Publisher JOHN MORROW COVER Penciled and inked by MICHAEL AVON OEMING (with an homage to Danger Diabolik) Colored by PETER PANTAZIS Special Thanks To MARK BAGLEY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS ALISON BLAIRE NATCHIE CASTRO PATTY JERES ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON MICHAEL AVON OEMING JIMMY PALMIOTTI PETER PANTAZIS ADAM PHILIPS CHRIS POWELL BEN REILLY BOB SCHRECK DIANA SCHUTZ AARON SEVERSON VARDA STEINHARDT NEIL VOKES MARK WAID MICHAEL WRIGHT WRITE NOW | 1
READ Now! Message from Danny Fingeroth, Editor-in-Chief
I
t’s here at last, our bold experiment in comics-writing investigation: Write Now! In Depth: Powers #19.
We present for your consideration a detailed look at a significant issue of a significant story arc by two of today’s most significant comics creators, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. Significant enough for you? From the script of the issue, to the printed comic, to commentary by the writer and artist, we bring you inside the heads of the creators, to see what they were thinking, what they intended, and how they feel about the story with the passage of time. I think it’s a unique way to examine and— given the teaching aspect of this magazine—to learn about the craft of comics making. Brian and Mike were extraordinarily generous with their time and insights and with just allowing us to do this. The new cover by Mike, beautifully colored by Powers colorist Peter Pantazis, is rather amazing, too. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the issue. But since too much is never enough at DFWN!, we’ve also got the usual plethora of amazement in addition to In Depth. Nuts & Bolts how-to wise, we’ve got more Bendis magic in the form of some Ultimate Spider-Man script, and pencils of those pages by the ever-incredible Mark Bagley. And we’ve got Mike Oeming’s writing and Neil Vokes’ art on some remarkable pages from their Parliament of Justice graphic novel. Then, to accompany our information-filled interview with Mark Waid, we have script and art from his and Mike Wieringo’s Fantastic Four (you gotta see ’em), as well as Waid script, pencils (by Barry Kitson) and inks (by James Pascoe) from Mark’s own Empire series. We also have a making-of article by writer and Batman movie producer Michael Uslan about the creation of his Batman Graphic Novel: Detective #27. Talk about insider views! As for interviews that tell you gobs of important info about comics writing and the comics business, be sure to check out the above-mentioned interview with Mr. Waid, conducted by the one-and-only Jimmy Palmiotti. Besides that, there are the conclusions to the interviews with Batman Group Editor Bob Schreck, Dark Horse Senior Editor Diana Schutz, and Platinum Studios head Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.
Also next issue, we’ll be doing an extensive interview with Batman’s own Jeph Loeb, who brings along an awesome Tim Sale Catwoman painting that will be our cover! Plus: we’ll be checking in with Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man writer John Jackson Miller and with Pirates of Cazador’s Chuck Dixon. Platinum’s Lee Nordling will tell us about why Hollywood really wants your comic. Mark Wheatley (who writes the Oemingdrawn Hammer of the Gods) tells about the creation of his Frankenstein Mobster series that he both scripts and draws. And animator Yvette Kaplan (Ice Age is among her credits) will give us her insights into that industry. And issue #8 will feature another bold TwoMorrows experiment as Write Now! and Mike Manley’s DRAW! Magazine do a crossover, creating a character and comic, starting in Write Now! and finishing in DRAW! #9, with DRAW! having a color mini-comic story insert featuring the new character. SHAMELESS PLUG DEPARTMENT: The Comics and Graphic Novel Writing course that I’m teaching at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies has been a blast. (Denny O’Neil, Mike Mignola, Joey Cavalieri, and Axel Alonso have guest-lectured!) I predict you’ll be seeing the names of some of my students in the credits of comics in the not-too-distant future. If anybody’s interested, I’m giving it again in the Spring (and you can check it out at: www.nyu.edu/scps.nyu). Also, my book, Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society, published by Continuum, will be out in the Spring. It’s a book in which I blab on at length about why super-heroes have been so influential in our culture. I think it’ll be of interest to comics fan type readers as well as academic ones. And Stan Lee himself wrote the foreword.
Okay, let’s get on with the issue. Write Away!
Unfortunately, Dennis O’Neil’s comics class notes got squeezed out this issue, but will be back next issue. Danny Fingeroth 2 | WRITE NOW
IN DEPTH Inside
[©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
#19 with BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and MICHAEL AVON OEMING
IN DEPTH
Nuts & Bolts Gone Wild!
“W
hat the heck is Write Now! In Depth ?” you may be asking. Even if you’re not, I’m going to tell you.
One of the missions of Write Now! is to pull the curtain back and show how comics and related media are created, usually from a writer-centric point of view. Comics being a collaborative medium, the visual is always integrally related to the ideas and words. Up until now, we’ve presented interviews with specific creators and decision makers in the comics and animation worlds. You get to read how people like J. Michael Straczynski, Anne D. Bernstein and Axel Alonso think, how they decide what projects to take on and how to approach them. In our Nuts & Bolts sections, we show the elements that go into the making of stories.
by Danny Fingeroth For this issue, I wanted to try something more, well, in depth, dealing with one specific series by one specific set of creators for a large section of the magazine. And nothing seemed more natural for the treatment than Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s Powers series. The unique vision of two pros at the top of their respective games, Powers is an “Indy” that is fully cognizant of the “mainstream” comics heritage it draws on. Because they own Powers, Brian and Mike can take it in whatever direction they choose, not having to please editor, publisher or critics. A look at the close to 40 issues and the Powers TPBs show that they have indeed unleashed their imaginations to both pay homage to and critique the super-hero genre. The fan and media attention to the series shows that their instincts have led them to create something people across a wide spectrum respond to. Using the crime genre that Brian has perfected in comics like Goldfish and Jinx, the result is something that seems both familiar and yet radically different. Love it or hate it, Powers is unique in comics. It’s a series and a universe that many people are intrigued and inspired by. What we’re doing here with WN! In Depth, then, is examining how this phenomenon, Powers, was created, how a specific story arc (“SuperGroup” from issues #15-20) came to be, and to look closely at one chapter in that arc (issue #19). Through probing the creators with detailed questions, we illuminate the creative process, showing how Brian and Mike create the stories—how they function separately and collaboratively. Seeing how they do it should, ideally, offer inspiration for a reader’s own writing and/or art. For those not interested in making stories, but in simply knowing how they’re made by these two accomplished creators, I hope this issue is an enlightening insight into how it’s done. As always, I’m eager to know how you feel about what we’ve done this issue, devoting such a large portion of it to specific creators and their creation. As always, I’m sure you’ll let me know. In depth.
The cover to the collected edition of “SuperGroup” in the fourth Powers trade paperback. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] 4 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
If I haven’t already done so elsewhere, let me here make sure to thank Brian and Mike for their co-operation in this In Depth issue, from letting us reprint the entire story from Powers #19 and its script, as well as for thoughtfully answering my many questions. You guys are really the best!
IN-DEPTH
Ground Rules and Notes How In Depth works: We have Brian’s screenplay style script for the comic, which we’ll be presenting side by side with the printed comics pages. We’re going to break up the comic with interviews with Brian and Mike. The first two interviews will deal with the Powers series in general, the second two will deal with their thoughts on The covers for Powers #15-18, the first four chapters of “SuperGroup.” [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] the “SuperGroup” storyline. We’ll start off on the next For Image Comics: page with the first section of script and story, which will be followed Publisher JIM VALENTINO by the first interview with Brian. Director of Production BRENT BRAUN A note about the issue selected to focus on: Controller TRACI HALLE Picking the next to last (one might even say “penultimate” if one were inclined to throw big words around) chapter of a story arc to dissect may seem an odd choice. Logic might dictate taking either the first or last chapter. My reasoning was purely based on which chapter I thought would best work as the subject of an In Depth study. Since the issues of the “SuperGroup” arc exist as individual comics as well as chapters in a trade paperback collecting the storyline in its entirety, I thought it reasonable to showcase one issue while discussing the entire story. That is, after all, how many readers experienced the issue—reading it as a standalone entity, either having read the previous issues, or even coming to #19 cold. The full credits for Powers #19 are: Image Comics presents:
POWERS created by
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and MIKE AVON OEMING Coloring PETER PANTAZIS Lettering KEN BRUZENAK Copy Editor KC McCRORY Business Affairs ALISA BENDIS
The official Powers website is www.jinxworld.com One more thing... For the sake of those who haven’t read, or who have forgotten, the details of Powers #15-18, I present the recap that readers of issue #19 found on the inside front cover. For those wishing to see how the arc ends in issue #20… go out and buy the issue or the TPB. You won’t regret it. And neither will Brian or Mike. (And the preceding plug was my idea—don’t go blaming them for it!) —DF PREVIOUSLY: Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim work out of the special homicide unit in charge of cases that involve… Powers. One of the world’s most celebrated super-teams FG-3 has broken up and one of its members, Benmarley, is found dead, having exploded from the inside. While investigating the case, Walker and Deena are faced with federal involvement, and both remaining members of FG-3, Wazz and Boogie Girl are missing. When they finally find Boogie Girl, the chase turns into a disaster. A news helicopter crashes right in the middle of the city, killing civilians, and the fight takes the life of Walker’s girlfriend, controversial Power… Zora. Before she can answer for her crime, Boogie Girl explodes from the inside just as her teammate had. AND NOW… POWERS #19… IN DEPTH WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 5
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IN-DEPTH [The story continues on page 15.]
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IN-DEPTH
Brian Michael Bendis Conducted via e-mail October 23, 2003 Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Brian Michael Bendis
B
rian Michael Bendis is today, even more so than when we interviewed him in early 2002 for DFWN #1, one of the hottest writers in comics, both creatively and commercially. Having taken the Marvel Ultimate line from vague concept to successful franchise, he also has amazed readers over and over with his work on titles such as Daredevil and Alias.
But Brian’s roots are in independent publishing, for the most part in the crime genre. Jinx, Torso, Goldfish are noir-tinged stories of desperate people doing the best they can against odds that should make them just roll over and give up. The struggle of the “little guy” against a system stacked against them—and against their own failings—is what makes the crime films and novels of the last century so memorable. Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich and Orson Welles are names that come to mind when discussing Bendis’ work. So it should come as no surprise that one of Bendis’ most impressive achievements has been the noir/super-hero series Powers, published through Image. In Powers, Bendis—with his partner in crime-storytelling, Michael Avon Oeming—tells the story of homicide detective Christian Walker and his partner Deena Pilgrim as they investigate murders related to superhuman denizens of their unnamed city. Walker, himself a former super-hero—or “power”—as they are colloquially called in the series’ universe—is the consummate insider to the world of heroes and villains he investigates, but also an outsider. He’s a cop, so he represents the authority that vigilantes and their prey are in opposition to. He’s also lost his super-human abilities, and so we—and those he meets in his cases—must wonder what motivations he has for doing what he does now.
...talks about POWERS In this interview, Brian discusses the origins of, and inspiration for, Powers, as well as how he and Mike work together to produce the series. Elsewhere in this issue, we'll get Mike's point of view on the same topics, and then talk to each of them in more detail about the “SuperGroup” storyline as we examine it In Depth.
—DF
DANNY FINGEROTH: Can your discuss the way a Powers story arc in general and “SuperGroup” in particular came into being. Does it start with images or ideas or a theme/message you want to put across? BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: It’s always a mixture of things. It was the theme of it first, the desire to do a “SuperGroup” arc of Powers. Plus, I know the exploding bodies were very inspirational. DF: How did the idea for Powers originate? Was it just: what would a crime series with super-heroes be like? Were you thinking about such a project when you were creating Jinx, Goldfish, etc.? BMB: Years ago, Mike would send me his versions of Kabuki and Jinx in a rough Powers-like style, and it inspired me to tailor this homicide super-hero book towards him. I think Mike is amazing and it bothered me that he wasn’t a bigger deal. DF: When you pitched Powers, was there a “high concept” pitch line, the way Miami Vice was supposedly sold as “MTV Cops”?
Police and super-heroes mix in in the station house. Art from Michael Avon Oeming’s preliminary pencils. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 11
developed? I see a lot of NYPD Blue. Homicide, too. Any others? What did you learn from your influences about what you wanted to do and what you didn’t want to do in this series? BMB: I have never seen NYPD Blue but the TV show, and especially the book, Homicide was a huge influence. So was Mamet’s Homicide movie, and Serpico. Also, I have done a lot of actual cop research and ride-alongs and interviews on my own. DF: When you started Powers, did you have the universe and the characters fleshed-out to any great degree, or were you improvising? BMB: Oh, it’s always both. We had a lot of the goods laid out, but other stuff has sprung into the imagination as we went along, or the characters have taken over. We like to leave it organic—leave ourselves open to ideas as they happen and not lock ourselves into things. DF: Powers can be looked at as super-hero stories from the POV of the cops, who are usually relegated to roles as supporting characters in most super-hero tales. Do you ever think about how the story, if it were in say, the SuperGroup (FG-3) of the storyline’s own comic, would be told? BMB: Yes, and it would look a lot like every other damn comic book. This angle is the fresh angle. I think there’s enough comics from the POV of the costumed dude. DF: How would you compare Powers to Alias? What are the similarities? What are the differences? BMB: Powers is a homicide book with two leads. Alias is a private eye book with one lead, and they have totally different views of the world and themes. The only similarity is the juxtaposition of crime and super-hero/pulp genres. Everything else is different. Denna investigates. From Oeming’s original art for Powers #30. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
BMB: Ha! There is one, I’m sure, like Homicide meets Superfriends or something. DF: Another approach to cops dealing with super-human criminals would have been something like the original concept for Marvel’s teams X-Factor or Freedom Force: the government hires superpowered cops to track super-villains. What made you decide to do a series with non-powered cops—including one with diminished powers and a super-heroic past? BMB: I was amazed that no one had tried it from this angle. Everyone who heard the idea said: “good idea.” I was amazed. But, honestly, the series isn’t just the cross-pollination of genres. It’s also got the celebrity and media theme. And, of course, the characters. DF: What books, movies, TV series influenced the way Powers 12 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
DF: What’s the appeal of writing comics scripts in screenplay style, as you usually do? Very few comics writers do. Even if they work full script, they still tend to break it down into some sort of action list (with dialogue) for the artist. BMB: For me, it’s about fully and concisely expressing an idea. Also, with the Final Draft screenplay program, all the scenes and characters’ names are in smart type and I don’t have to type the word ‘Spider-Man’ four thousand times. DF: Do you work screenplay style for everyone, or just for Oeming? BMB: Everyone. DF: What’s the appeal for you of the crime genre? What freedoms does the genre provide? What restrictions? BMB: I like the fantasy of it. The real world fantasy of crime fiction thrills me. I am also so passionate about the visual language of film noir.
DF: Who were the big influences on you for Powers, both in terms of writing and art?
there’s no “tie-breaker” editor, how do you resolve creative conflicts in general?
BMB: Richard Price, David Mamet, David Simon, cinematographer Jon Alton.
BMB: Mike is very open to changes. He wants the book to be the best it can be. Sometimes we rearrange panels and tweak shadows all for the sake of excellence.
DF: You’ve been teasing everyone with Walker’s former career as a super-hero. Clearly, we’d all like (or think we’d like) to see him get his powers back and kick ass, or at least have a flashback to an adventure when he was a full-fledged super-hero. Will we ever see anything like this?
DF: Talk about how color affects the stories. You’ve done a lot of black and white work, yet chose to do this series in color. Why is color important to Powers?
BMB: Oh yes. Powers #s 31-37 is the origin of Walker. It’s a whopper.
BMB: Color is so, so, so, so, so important. It’s the cinematography. It’s part of the storytelling. There are lots of color notes in the script. Powers had to be in color.
DF: Are the Powers characters, visually or personality-wise, based on real people or celebrities? Or are they bits and pieces of real folks? Or none of the above?
DF: What instructions, if any, do you give Ken Bruzenak when he letters the stories? What does he (or any letterer) bring to the look and feel of the stories?
BMB: They are the most original characters in the book. Deena is a mixture of both Mike and my wife.
BMB: Ken is one of the greats. He has a lot of weapons in his arsenal. I often bow to his seniority and expertise. We are so lucky to have him.
DF: Any special meanings we should read into the names Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim? BMB: They are definitely theological.
DF: You’re famous for doing lots of rewrites as the book progresses. Do they go back to Ken to re-letter or do you do them yourself?
DF: Is there a semi-regular way a storyline and its individual issues come together? Step-by-step, take us through how a storyline and issue(s) come about. Do you literally, as you’ve mentioned many times, go for a bike ride and the ideas just come? BMB: Really, yeah. I type out a loose structure and then I dig in and let the voices fly. And then I pick. I pick away. I talk it out with Mike, gauge his enthusiasm towards things, then do them anyhow. Mike draws it, Pete colors the sh*t out of it, and then I pick at it again, yanking balloons and tweaking dialogue. DF: How much does Oeming contribute storywise and dialoguewise to the series? BMB: Not a lot, but I often come to him for stuff, but he ignores me and goes back to working on Hammer of the Gods. [laughs] DF: At what point are character designs done? Which one of you does them? How much description do you give Mike for characters? BMB: None at all. This is really where Mike kicks ass. DF: Is there editorial input from anybody? Do you use anybody besides Mike as a sounding board? Does Image Central have any input on the content? BMB: Image doesn’t even read the book prior to publication. But Mike and I talk about stuff a lot. And of course my wife and David Mack are always part of the equation. Nowadays, the lovely and talented Jamie Rich is there for us too. DF: Once the script is finished, how closely do you and Mike work together? Do you see pages as the pencils are finished? Do you ever ask for art changes? If you do, can Mike refuse? Since Art from Powers #34, part of Walker’s origin tale. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 13
BMB: We use Ken’s letters to redo. DF: In a history of comics that would come out in 2023, what will they say about Powers and its place in comics history? BMB: They will call the chapter on Powers, “The Beginning of The End...”. DF: In a 2023 history of pop culture in general, where would Powers be mentioned? BMB: Dude, seriously, I give this no thought whatsoever. But the history of comics does seem to remember the more adult work more fondly. That seems to age better, so hopefully we will, as well. DF: With Powers, and in general, do you ever change the idea or theme or plot of a story in the middle of an issue or an arc, or do you know where you want to go from the beginning and keep on that path? BMB: Sometimes the story can sneak up on you. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen. It happened a couple of times in Daredevil, where I thought the story was about one thing and it ended up being about something else. The characters take over.
Oeming homages Will Eisner’s Spirit in this art from Mike’s 2003 Sketchbook. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
DF: What are the “rules” of the Powers super-hero world? BMB: The shared rules of super-hero comics. It’s the Marvel/DC rules. Then we f*ck them up. DF: What would or could never happen in Powers? BMB: Cheesy crossovers or sequels to successful arcs for no reason whatsoever. DF: Is there some sort of Official Handbook Of The Powers Universe in your mind that keeps you within certain boundaries, or do you improvise depending on the needs of the character or story? BMB: Both. DF: What’s on the horizon for Powers? BMB: We are right in the middle of “Forever,” a time-spanning arc that is the untold history of Powers. It’s our most ambitious work to date. After that we will get back into the homicide cases in a world where all powers are now illegal. DF: Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Thanks, Brian. BMB: My pleasure. Thanks for trying this unique approach to discussing a comics series. More police work from Powers #30, in a page from the “Anarchy” storyline. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] 14 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
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Michael Avon Oeming Conducted via e-mail in October, 2003 Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Michael Avon Oeming
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ichael Avon Oeming started his career inking comics for Marvel. He then moved to full art chores on Judge Dredd for DC Comics and Foot Soldiers for Dark Horse. His first creator-owned series, Ship of Fools, was published by Image Comics. Recent projects, in addition to Powers, include Hammer of the Gods, Bastard Samurai and (as writer) Parliament of Justice. Along with the Oeming-specific questions, we asked Mike some
...talks about POWERS of the same questions we asked Brian, just to see how differently—or the same—they would answer them. You might find it interesting to compare the answers. —DF DANNY FINGEROTH: How did you come up with the style you use in Powers? Why the decision to go “cartoony” as opposed to super-realistic, which one could argue would be more in keeping with a noirish series? MICHAEL AVON OEMING: The Powers style developed out of necessity. As many people know, I had fallen on hard times and had to get a “real job” for awhile. My son had just been born, so I needed a guaranteed income. I was in a dead end with my career and needed to back out of comics, editors and all that for a bit. With less time to draw, I needed a more simple style to allow for the time I had to work. I’d been playing with the animated look, trying to get onto Batman Adventures, but I couldn’t really do the style. But I found I really enjoyed what I was coming up with. Then my Alex Toth influence really kicked in. The influence of the animation style, soaking up Batman animated’s Bruce Timm and Toth, really just clicked something new in me, and all my years of hands-on experience in drawing and inking just kicked in, and this new style emerged. Beyond Timm and Toth, I took to studying animated films like Iron Giant, Mulan and such. I still do. The more realistic stuff I had been doing actually wasn’t very realistic at all, just more lines. People confuse line work with realism. Noir is tone, and it can be set by any style, cartoony or not. DF: Briefly describe how a Powers story evolves. How much input do you have into the stories? Do they ever originate with you? Is any of the dialogue ever written by you?
Barbarian, Powers-style, as penciled by Mike for issue #32. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
MAO: Honestly, the stories all come from Brian’s mind. The monkey f*cking especially. That was him, not me! Really, Brian just tells me what the next story arc is and I’m all—“that’s cool!” There are things I suggest that he uses. At one point, part of “Foreverman” was going to be during the beginning of the 1980s Hip Hop movement, but the timing didn’t work out, so it was toned down to the group we see called the Freshest. He wanted to do a pirate story during “Foreverman,” but I wasn’t into it. He did the barbarian issue for me, as well as the China story. I suggested a sex tape story about the WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 19
same time as he came up with the whole Red Hawk thing, but I think that was more kismet than anything. There are a few stories I want to do in the future, but for the most part, Brian comes up with the stories, takes my suggestions and feedback. We talk things over a lot. We don’t always agree, or sometimes I take the POV of the reader. I often say “I get it, I totally get it, but I think the readers might not get it.” Brian trusts his readers, he knows they are some smart cats; we go with our instinct, we don’t second-guess what the readers want. A good example of that is a long thread on the Bendis board about the “Foreverman” story and the clues left throughout the Powers series. I don’t write any dialogue. I think, in 37 issues, there’s only been twice when I said a certain line reads out of place for me, so it’s not much of an issue. I really don’t think about the dialogue, other than how am I supposed to fit this on the same page with these characters! Plus, when it comes to dialogue, I’m in good hands with Brian, he has some talent there after all! DF: As a writer yourself, if you see something in a Powers script that you think could be improved, are you free to change it? MAO: Yes and no. I never change without talking to Brian, unless it’s a minor layout thing. Man, we move around panels like no one’s business. Peter Pantazis colors, does visual corrections, moves backgrounds and panels and word balloons. No one else does that kind of work. No colorist works harder than Peter.
This page, more of Mike’s pencils for Powers #32, part of the “Forever” story arc. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
Also, when it comes to writing, Brian is the master, I am the student. I have insight and feedback to offer, but “improvements,” no. Often what people think are improvements (especially editors) are really a change in story and direction. An ending with huge Brookheimer explosions is a very different story than say issue 30, where our Supershock ceases to be. Having him explode and having him fade away are two completely different things. One is a story about change on the surface, what you see, the other is a metamorphosis, a change in character, what you are. DF: Since you write yourself, why would you want to give that control to someone else? MAO: I’m not a writer. I’m a storyteller. I write, but I struggle with it. I’m not a control freak like most writers are. When I’m working with someone I respect or feel has a unique vision, like Bendis or Miles Gunter, I’m all about sharing that control and mixing it up. Also, Brian is such a good writer, I’d be happy working only with him and no one else when it comes down to it. DF: Once you and Brian agree on a story, do you then do thumbnails? Or do you go right to art boards? MAO: I used to. I used to fax him layouts. Now, we are so into the groove, I just do the pages, complete. I send him the pages done. 20 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
Any changes are usually just moving sh*t around to fit the massive amounts of word balloons, or minor pacing things. Rarely, I get something completely wrong and redo a figure or something. DF: How do you decide whether to lay out material as individual pages or as spreads? MAO: It’s in the script. Sometimes, if it’s too much, or my brain is too far removed from what Brian is thinking, I’ll cut it up into two separate pages. Sometimes, because I think a certain panel needs to be much larger than the double page will allow (a double page with a lot of panels can be restricting because of the left to right flow and that middle of the book that you know will crop off art and word balloons), I’ll cut it into two panels. DF: Do you enjoy working from a screenplay-style full-script format? Have you worked “Marvel style”? If so, do you enjoy one style more than the other? MAO: I enjoy both, really. For a writer like Brian, whose work depends on his particular vision, a tight style is what I need. On Hammer Of The Gods we are totally Marvel style, even looser. For mainstream work, it doesn’t matter the style of script, as I will inject my own pacing into it, unless I’m lucky enough to be working with someone like Rucka or Alan Moore. Then I’ll stick close to the script.
When I do my own work, it’s different, because I have a different style of the kinds of stories I want to tell than Brian does. That’s another reason why I like Powers; it’s not the same type of stories I would tell on my own. Parliament always felt like a Powers story that escaped, but stuff like Hammer and Bastard Samurai are Bflicks done on an A-budget. I love films like Highlander (the first one, only), Big Trouble, The Hidden, crazy fantasy films, whereas Brian likes character-driven stuff. I write what I call two-and-a-half dimensional characters. For me, they are very straightforward, where Brian writes pretty deep characters he knows better than he knows himself. Both approaches are fun, both serve a different purpose. I’ve always said, if I was doing Hammer of the Gods monthly, I’d need something like Powers on the side to keep me sane and interested. Powers is my life, but I need the other stuff on the side or else I’d burn out. I’ll always be like that. I’m monogamous in life, but creatively, I’m a whore [laughs]. I can’t get enough. DF: If you were writing and drawing Powers, or even just writing it, how would if be different than it is now?
MAO: More nude Deena. There would be no super-hero fights. Its strange, I love kung fu, I love guys killing each other with swords and crazy sh*t, but I’m not into superhero fights. Whenever we have DF: How do you approach covers? The movie poster that was the inspiration for Mike's cover for this those, it slows me down, but it’s What is the purpose of a comic issue of Write Now! [©2003 the respective copyright holders.] needed for the story. Really though, cover? Of a TPB cover? I can’t imagine Powers being any different from what it is now, MAO: Man, I hate doing covers. Especially on Powers. Doing covers other than it wouldn’t be as good if I was writing it. makes me feel like I’m slowing down. Oddly, I love doing covers for DF: What are the visual and stylistic influences on Powers’ look? others, but on my own work, I’ve little interest. I don’t know why. MAO: Film-wise, it’s a few films, but for me it was mostly Taxi DF: What do you get out of a close collaboration like the one with Driver. Brian intro’d me to a film called T-Men that has a huge Brian that you don’t get from writing and drawing a story yourself or influence on the series. Mostly film. When it comes to colors, we say from writing for another artist? For example, you’ve written to Pete “like the opening of Traffic” or this scene from such-andParliament of Justice and drawn Hammer of the Gods. What such a film. We think in terms of film, but translate it into comics. do they give you that’s different than what Powers does? These are comics, not film. MAO: You know, I’m not kissing his ass—in fact, I rarely tell him how DF: Do you prefer that readers experience the comics/chapters as much I admire his work—but the thing I get out of working with Brian they come out, or do you feel the TPBs express more of the way you is that his stories and characters are so f*cking good. It’s that simple. want to see the stories presented? Look at the complex relation that Walker and Deena have. Read the MAO: I don’t have a preference. Well, okay, the books as they come whole run in a sitting, from issue one to issue 30. It’s amazing. These out because it’s better financially for us. [laughs] characters are so real and have become so epic I can’t wait to read more about them. We know generally where they are going and how DF: I’m assuming your current work has editors from Marvel, DC, things will end, but their growth is totally organic. etc. calling you frequently. Are you tempted to do straight super-hero WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 21
Two pages of Oeming art from his second Hammer of the Gods mini-series. [©2003 Michael Avon Oeming & Mark Wheatley.]
work? Or do you like the indy thing too much? MAO: That’s not really an issue at this point. Most of the editors know I’m busy with Powers and my own stuff. I’ve recently started talking to them openly about stuff, but nothing to “announce” yet. When Powers is done, you can expect to see me doing lots more work at Marvel and DC. I love them both, despite the “war” between them these days. Keep me out of it!
DF: At what point are character designs created? How do you and Brian interact on them? MAO: Some are created ahead of time. Look in issues 3 and 4— whatever the issue is with the double page of the panels of heroes and villains—a lot of them come back later. Others are made up on the spot, as I’m drawing the page. Brian has total input on the look of the characters. We talk about everything.
DF: What’s the status of the Powers movie/TV series, etc.? Who would you ideally like to see cast?
DF: In a History of Comics written in 2023, what will they say about Powers and its place in comics history?
MAO: Things are moving still. Once Frank Oz takes a break after filming Stepford Wives, Powers is next on his plate. For Walker, give me George Clooney or a hair-dyed Brad Pitt, and Wynona Rider has always been Deena for me. I use her for ref sometimes.
MAO: That it was a brave comic that took no heed of trends and was free to move its characters and world anywhere or anyplace it needed to be without fear of boundaries that trap great characters like Batman and Spider-Man.
DF: How are you and Brian involved with the movie/TV series?
Also, that the art was soooo amazing, no one remembers who wrote the stories. [laughs]
MAO: We give them notes on the scripts. Each script is better than the last. I expect there will be more when things move into full production. I don’t think about it though. DF: Are the Powers characters, visually or personality-wise, based on real people or celebrities? Or are they bits and pieces of real folks? Or none of the above? MAO: They started as some people we know. Deena was bits of Brian’s wife and bits of mine, but has moved on. I think that’s true of most influences. The look of the book, the feel, the characters, writing and art style, start with things that influence them, and then we move on and the elements of the book become a separate thing. 22 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
DF: In a 2023 history of pop culture in general, where would Powers be mentioned? MAO: The biggest franchise in comic book history that made the artist and whoever wrote it very, very rich and that they continue to live a happy, healthy creative life as best friends to this day. Fingers crossed. DF: Sounds good to me. Thanks, Mike. MAO: Thank you, Danny.
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Brian Michael Bendis Conducted via e-mail October 23, 2003 Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Brian Michael Bendis
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ere, we go from the general inquiries about the Powers series to discussing a specific storyline—”SuperGroup”—with Brian. As with the first set of interviews, you'll see that I later ask Mike many of the same questions I put to Brian, so you get the view of the series and the story arc from the perspectives of the two main creative forces behind their existence. —DF
DANNY FINGEROTH: How did the idea for the “SuperGroup” storyline come about? BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: This one came about from reading an article about how the music group the Fugees feel about each other now versus how the group came together. I also wanted to do a bit about a prefabricated super-hero supergroup. Mush them together and ta daaa... DF: "SuperGroup" seems to be, at least in part, a comment on portrayals of black people in comics and other pop media. Any particular movie/show/character that made you want to deal with an all-black team? BMB: That was the Fugees part. But it isn’t a big statement on race.
...talks about SuperGroup want to say about that topic? BMB: No. I was probably lashing out at whoever was f*cking with me in Hollywood that week. I do blow off a lot of steam in the pages of my comics. I am also very aware of how the “machine” works, you know? It’s so transparent and it bothers me, so... DF: You also seem, in the story, to be commenting on entertainment journalism with the anything-for-publicity newsman character, Ted, and the super-heroes and super-hero experts that appear on his Powers That Be talk show. BMB: It's all part of the idea that if there really were super-heroes, the entire news and entertainment culture would morph around them. It would be a huge part of our culture. Ben and J-Lo can’t even fly and look how that works. DF: Where does “SuperGroup” fit in the Powers big picture? BMB: It’s a big chapter in what will be revealed to be “how society lost its love for the heroes.” It’s an event with the emotional impact of, say, the day JFK was assassinated, for the Powers universe. DF: What supergroup niche does FG-3 inhabit?
DF: Is stereotypical treatment of black characters in pop culture media something that’s always been of interest to you? BMB: All stereotypes fascinate me. But this time it stemmed from the way the characters felt about their situation and the world. DF: Since it turns out the feds were behind the story’s supergroup, FG-3, why would they want to create an all-black team? BMB: Same reason record companies prop up black artists and sign them to sh*t deals. They know they can and it sells. DF: You also seem to be making comments on showbiz and entertainment media in general, specifically how it treats the people who create the “product” that generates the profits. Anything beyond what’s in the story you
The Powers That Be talk show, from Powers #16, the second chapter in “SuperGroup.” [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 27
BMB: None specific of the genre. There’s a little FF and a little Teen Titans, but it’s nothing glaring in an homage. DF: What does FG-3 stand for? BMB: Agh, you got me. A lot of people think it stands for federal government 3, but it was a shout-out to the Fugees. DF: Why is the epilogue in the last chapter “67 days later”? Is there significance to that number? BMB: No. I always like those off numbers, it makes for an “Ooh, I wonder what happened on all those days?” kind of feel. DF: Noir is traditionally about the loner versus the system or the society. But in “SuperGroup” you specifically deal with teams—FG-3, the Cops, the team that Diamond (Walker in his old super-hero identity) belonged to. Any feelings about what being in a team or group does to one’s individual identity? BMB: Yeah, that’s a big part of the drama of the arc. I think it takes a special personality to be “part of a team.” I couldn’t do it. Spidey couldn’t. So there’s always the one member who doesn’t belong, like in the boy bands, there’s always one that doesn’t belong. DF: Is the concept of a super-hero team in general a metaphor for family or clubs or cliques for you? If so, how? BMB: It’s all that and more, depends on the story. But in this case, it’s about “the Real World-type prefabricated reality” shoving three people in a house in a non-organic way. DF: Is there any reason that Walker’s former team is—as far as I can tell—never named? BMB: Yes, to be revealed in the “Forever” storyline this year. DF: Does Walker letting Triphammer help him—and not trying to have him busted for murder of Retro Girl’s killer—indicate he’s not always the straight arrow he’d like people to think of him as? BMB: Yes. As we have revealed in Powers this year, there is a lot
more to Walker than meets the eye. A lot more. DF: Is the dream scene where Deena has sex with Walker and then ends up exploding in space a foreshadowing of anything? I sort of see them as your own Scully and Mulder, with the chemistry between them strong but dangerous, but A scene from FG-3 The Movie, as seen in Powers #20. clearly everyone [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] wants (or thinks they want) to see them really get together. Any comments on their relationship? BMB: Well, the dream is full of imagery that actually happens to Deena in the next arc. I like women who have ‘“future” dreams they don’t understand. But it is also a statement about how little she knows about Walker and how little they actually trust each other. And it’s images like those from the previous arc, when someone was having sex with one of the big heroes, that were maybe stuck in her unconscious. DF: When will we find out the “real truth” about his and Walker’s past that Triphammer refers to? Is Agent Lange involved in it? BMB: In the “Forever” arc, all questions about the Powers past are revealed. DF: Who would star in the SuperGroup movie? BMB: The biggest names available. (My manager taught me that.) DF: Any other thoughts on the storyline as you look back on it? BMB: The thing I am happiest about is that the villains are never met or seen on-screen. They are still out there untouched. As is the case in life. That’s the kind of ending I like, and I thought more people would smack me around for it, but most people got into it. Also, it illustrates the one thing about Powers that is really important to me, that this is a super-hero comic Marvel and DC cannot publish. The murder, the scandal, they could not present the ideas like we can in Powers. It makes it eversatisfying for me and Mike.
Another kind of power—that of the media—as seen in Powers #20. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] 28 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
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Michael Avon Oeming Conducted via e-mail, October 2003 Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Michael Avon Oeming
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nd here, in our final In Depth interview with the Powers creators, Mike Oeming talks about the making and meaning of "SuperGroup." —DF
DANNY FINGEROTH: Is stereotypical treatment of black characters in pop culture media something that’s always been of interest to you? MICHAEL AVON OEMING: Sure. I think Brian writes great characters of all backgrounds. None of our characters are perfect and FG-3 is no different. I think the FG-3 group is a good example of characters that share a background but are all very different and represent wide character and characterization.
...talks about SuperGroup the cops, the team that Diamond belonged to. Any feelings about what being in a team or group does to one’s individual identity? MAO: I think it set up the fact that Walker is even more of an outcast by the end of the storyline than he already was, throwing him further into the loner role more than ever. As close as Walker and Deena are, they know little about each other’s thoughts. Their bond is based on shared experience more than anything. Walker is with Deena, yet still alone. After “Foreverman” [ the current Powers arc, issues #31-37 —DF ] you’ll see that he not only wants to keep her out of his life, but he has to. DF: Is the concept of a super-team in general a metaphor for family or clubs or cliques for you? If so, how?
DF: Since it turns out the feds were behind FG-3, why would they want to create an all-black team? MAO: Historically, when the government experiments on Americans, guess who they pick on? We have a long sad history of it. DF: You also seem to be making comments on showbiz and entertainment media in general, specifically how it treats the people who create the “product” that generates the profits. Anything beyond what’s in the story you want to say about that topic? MAO: I think it’s interesting that with all the coverage we get on things, truth is rarely part of that. Not only because of the slant media puts on stuff, but often the truth just isn’t airable. Things happen that no one person knows the whole deal on. DF: Any comments you want to make, beyond what’s in the story, about the anything-for-publicity newsman, Ted, and the superheroes and super-hero experts that appear on his Powers That Be talk show? MAO: I don’t know. When I think of Ted, all I can think about is Brian having me draw him going down on a chick and having drool on his chin when he answers the phone. [laughs] DF: Where does “SuperGroup” fit in the Powers big picture? MAO: For me, it comes down to the scene in Walker’s apartment. When the FG-3 guy melts his own face, saying there is a bond between them, that was deep, deep stuff. Like two men who were in ’Nam or fellow police officers, there is a bond that separates superhumans from others. That says a lot about the Powers universe. DF: Noir is traditionally about the loner versus the system or the society. But in “SuperGroup,” you specifically deal with teams—FG-3,
Oeming’s preliminary rough for the cover to Powers #20, the finale of the “SuperGroup” storyline. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.] WRITE NOW IN DEPTH | 33
ends up exploding in space a foreshadowing of anything? I sort of see them as your own Scully and Mulder, with the chemistry between them strong but dangerous, but clearly everyone wants (or thinks they want) to see them really get together. Any comments on their relationship? MAO: It was a premonition. We’ve all had them, minor or not. It connects to issue #30. Walker and Deena have that cop thing—closer than lovers or brothers, but they don’t know each other nearly as well as those groups. Cops and military have it, it’s something no one can imagine unless you’re there. It’s not really definable. There’s deep love there, but not love like we know or think of it.
Walker’s unnamed former team. From Powers #20. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
DF: When will we find out the “real truth” about Walker’s and his own past that Triphammer refers to? Is Agent Lange involved in it?
MAO: I think what we’ve done here is re-examined what a superteam is. For a long time, no one really thought of the whys and hows of a super-team—they’re just taken for granted.
MAO: Well, there are layers of that truth. Part of it is in “Foreverman.”
DF: Is there any reason that Walker’s former team is—as far as I can tell—never named?
MAO: It’s my favorite yet, mostly because of the character stuff with Walker. Sh*t blows up, “who cares?” I say. But Zora dying in Walker’s arms or Wazz killing himself in front of Walker or the moment with the gun in Deena’s car? That sh*t is magic. That’s what Powers is about.
MAO: Brian ran out of ideas. DF: Does Walker letting Triphammer help him—and not trying to have him busted for murder of Retro Girl’s killer—indicate he’s not always the straight arrow he’d like people to think of him as? (This question could also apply to his never following up on his suspicions about Deena having killed Johnny Royale.)
DF: Any other thoughts on the storyline as you look back on it?
MAO: Walker lives in a different world. First, with Trip, even if he wanted to, there’s no way Walker could stop him or arrest him. Walker’s not by the book, he knows the Powers are above the law, there’s no question to it, not even something to consider. With Deena, there’s no real proof that she did or didn’t, so to pursue it would be for Walker to force the issue. Cops don’t go there, powered or not. Does Walker even care if she really did? DF: Is the dream scene where Deena has sex with Walker and then 34 | WRITE NOW IN DEPTH
Walker & Triphammer’s uneasy relationship from the epilogue in Powers #20. [©2003 Jinxworld, Inc.]
THE END
IN-DEPTH
Some final thoughts... We now come to the end of our In Depth exploration of Powers. You've read the comic. You've compared it to the script. You've heard from the series’ creators. While you no doubt have your own opinions about Powers, I thought it'd be interesting to see what a couple of professional comics critics had to say about Powers #19 when it came out. So here are excerpts from reviews by Alan David Doane and Randy Lander…
Powers #19 Review by Alan David Doane …Powers has gotten better and better with virtually every issue, and there’s no reason at all to think that Bendis and Oeming are going to stop now…surely the most cinematic and compelling monthly title on the stands today. …Mike Oeming is totally up to the task of depicting these fascinating stories… This issue finds Oeming bringing a darkness over the characters, a darkness that reflects the increasing horror and paranoia that has settled into this surprising storyline. [The] “SuperGroup” arc has been filled with surprises of plot and structure, and surprises in the approach the creators have brought to the work. It’s clear, very clear, that Bendis and Oeming are having more fun than ever on this title, leading to my assessment that we’ve yet to see how good this book can get, despite the fact that it’s already one of the best comic books ever created. The events of this issue and last have really put a crack in Walker’s psyche, as he has lost much and learned things that will change him and his approach to his work forever. He and Deena have proven to be one of the most compelling, human pairings in comics, and I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing how Bendis and Oeming deal with the changes to their relationship that will doubtless follow this lifealtering story. Powers: Best monthly book around, hands down. From Comic Book Galaxy [www.comicbookgalaxy.com/reviews_archive_041902-02.html] [©2003 Alan David Doane. All Rights Reserved.]
Powers #19 Review by Randy Lander …This one is all about the emotional fallout of the last issue, for Walker and for the issue’s mystery guest, and it’s fantastic. Oeming and Pantazis capture the darkness of Walker’s mood, the quiet desperation, as well as they captured the more spectacular shots of Boogie Girl and Zora battling it out over the street. And Bendis turns on the Oliver Stone mode for some great conspiracy storytelling right in the middle of a believable and gripping emotional wringer for Walker. …Though I’ve enjoyed the lead characters in this book from the start, I was surprised at how much I felt for Walker in this issue…. Walker sitting quietly in a room while a newscast relates the story of her [Zora’s] death is one of the most haunting visuals I’ve seen in a comic for a while. …I tend to ask a lot of conspiracy stories… they’re too easy to write poorly… [but] Bendis grounds the conspiracy in one of the oldest and most believable of motivations, and he manages to make their actions all the more evil as a result of their callous indifference to the human cost involved. Like so much of Powers, the story here is about how the media perceives reality… This story arc has been full of disturbing and powerful visuals and intelligent ideas, with solid characterization backing it up. From: TheFourthRail.com [www.thefourthrail.com/reviews/snapjudgments/041502/powers19.shtml] [©2003 Randy Lander]
Thanks for sharing the In Depth experience. I think it was an exciting look into the creation of a series and a storyline. Please let me know how you felt about it. And as we exit the Powersverse, let's ease our way out by taking a look at work that Bendis and Oeming have done with other creative partners… —DF
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In a more traditional super-hero vein, here's Brian's script for some pages of Ultimate Spider-Man #47, "Suspended," and the resulting pencils by Mark Bagley. (Inks by Art Thibert.)
Notice that here, as in Powers, Brian writes full script (panel-bypanel art descriptions with dialogue and captions) and specifically uses film script format (in his case, Final Draft software).
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] 36 | WRITE NOW
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
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Placement of word balloons and captions is an art in itself, especially on a page like the previous one, where Brian demonstrates how dense copy can be made to work if its laid out in a manner that allows the reader to easily follow it.
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
Of course, it helps if the copy is snappy and exciting, and the art powerfully reflects the thoughts and feelings of the characters. In this case, Brian and Mark, as they regularly do, accomplish those goals.
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Even in a full script job (as opposed to one done in "Marvel" style, where the artist decides how the panels and often the pages get broken down from a short-story-like plot), while the pacing is controlled by the writer, there is still much left to the artist's discretion. Size and shape of panels, "camera" point of view, shadowing, facial expressions and more are decided by the artist. While both are strong storytellers, you would never mistake an Oeming Powers page for a Bagley Ultimate Spider-Man page, despite both series being written by Brian.
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
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And now we see some of Michael Oeming's non-Powers work. Here, his layout and art for the cover of Parliament of Justice, the graphic novel he wrote, with interior art by Neil Vokes. On the right, some of the plot Mike gave Neil. This is done "Marvel" style, meaning the plot is given to the artist, in this case broken down into pages and panels, but not the dialogue. Apparently not a stickler for fancy software, Mike plots in the handwritten manner favored by writers such as Dostoevsky and Melville.
[©2003 Mike Avon Oeming & Neil Vokes.] 40 | WRITE NOW
Here we see Mike's captions and sound effects for a couple of pages of Parliament. The pages were drawn from a similar plot format as seen on the previous page. Neil then broke the plot into thumbnails, and finally did the finished art. Notice how the art changes from sketch to final product, especially the panel layout on page 6. This could have been Neil's decision or Mike's, or the result of a discussion between them.
[©2003 Mike Avon Oeming & Neil Vokes.] NUTS & BOLTS: PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE | 41
Mr. Fantastic
The MARK WAID Interview Conducted by Jimmy Palmiotti via e-mail June 4 2003 Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Mark Waid
I
have known Mark for almost ten years now, and have been reading his work without knowing it even longer. When I started Event Comics with Joe Quesada, Mark was one of the writers we hired to help our characters along. We needed Mark’s touch on our books to make us seem like a “legit” comic publisher and to make the books actually read better than the two inexperienced nuts that were running the company at the time ever could. Along with Brian Augustyn, Mark authored one of the best written and drawn comics I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on, Painkiller Jane. Unlike a lot of people working in our industry, Mark has seen and done it all, and I think that’s partly why we get along so well. He has had all the big hits and the long runs and everything that a successful writer in comics could ever dream about. He is known all over the world for his work and has influenced a generation of hacks like me to give it a try. He has been not only a great teacher, but a steady, inspirational and trustworthy friend to me, something that most of you have already learned is almost impossible to find in anyone’s lifetime. He is one of those friends that, if we don’t talk or see each other for months, the next time we meet or speak to each other, it’s as if we just spoke the day before. I can make a list of all of Mark’s accomplishments, but really, I think the biggest one is the fact that he is still one of the top five outspoken and best-selling writers in comics today, and has been for the past ten years. Mark is doing everything right. Maybe with some of these questions, we can flush out not only how he does his magic, but gain a little insight into what makes this man tick. —JP
In retrospect, I guess my radar should have gone up on my first day, when I learned my initiation task would be firing my predecessor, who didn’t know he’d been replaced. A few months later, I, in turn, was bounced. No tragedy. I can’t guarantee that I’m any picnic to work around in an office environment on a day-to-day basis, but then, neither was the guy running the place. I spent the next few months working as a temp clerk and having no idea what to do with my life until April 1, 1987, when then-DC-Editor-In-Chief Dick Giordano called to invite me to New York for a job interview. I was one of several interviewees. DC was very interested in starting up its own line of creator-owned properties with an “indy feel”—a mission that eventually became Piranha Press—and they were headhunting young, energetic, editorially experienced guys from the periphery of the field. This—all of this—I was told much later. When Dick phoned, in the interest of industrial secrecy, the condition laid down was that I wouldn’t be told what I was being interviewed for, just that DC wanted to speak with me about “a top-secret editorial job.” So I took a red-eye into New York and, bright and early one Monday morning, I sat down in Publisher Jenette Kahn’s office. I want to say
JIMMY PALMIOTTI: Everyone likes to start from the beginning. So, where were you born, where have you lived and where are you right now as we speak? MARK WAID: In brief—born in Hueytown, Alabama in March of ’62, lived all over the Deep South in my youth. Bright kid, went through twelve grades in ten years at nine different schools, spent three-and-a-half years at Virginia Commonwealth University, and then fled academia forever. Today, I’m in Los Angeles, but how I got there is, I think, the road we’re interested in mapping today... JP: What was your first job in comics and what did you have to do to keep it? MW: Jimmy, what on Earth makes you think I know anything about keeping a job? [laughter] After a few years of writing freelance for fanzines, I was offered the editorship of Amazing Heroes [a From Flash #115 (1996). Written by Mark Waid with art by Oscar Jimenez & Jose Marzan. popular fanzine of the ’80s. —DF] at Fantagraphics. [©2003 DC Comics.] 42 | WRITE NOW
JP: Would it be correct to say that a lot of what you do and who that then-VP Paul Levitz you are in comics has to do with the books you read in your joined us, but for childhood? reasons that will soon MW: No. It would be correct to say that it has everything to do become apparent, I don’t with that. As near as I can tell, my situation is relatively unique remember. Dick among pros. Not the part where I came in worshipping Adam Giordano, my only real West and Burt Ward at age five, because there’s certainly a contact, was busy whole generation of us who were of just exactly the right age to elsewhere... and that’s believe that the live-action Batman show was high drama, but where it got gruesome the part that has to do with bonding with the characters so fast. Again, Dick had intensely. My upbringing was the same as that of most comics warned me I couldn’t fans; shrimpy, geeky, picked-upon, friendless—and being a know what the job was couple years younger than my classmates didn’t help—and to that I was being intera large extent, Superman and Batman and Flash and the JLA viewed for—but Jenette and the world they lived in was my refuge. Other than stage somehow assumed I did magic and Elvis Presley, comics was about all I was ever know, and all her seriously interested in for most of my growing-up years. What’s questions presupposed more telling, though, is that I always loved the DC characters this. She had no notion far more than the Marvel characters. that I had no clue what Mike Mignola’s cover to the Waid-edited It took a long, long time to make the connection, but recently she was talking about, Gotham by Gaslight (written by Brian I realized that all my life, I’d preferred the DC heroes to and the whole process Augustyn), the birth of Elseworlds. Marvel’s stable not because theirs were the first comics I’d was less an exercise in [©2003 DC Comics.] encountered but because Marvel heroes were, in their own communication than it world, distrusted and feared and troubled. On the other hand, was the sound of two radios broadcasting at each other. The within their own “reality,” the DC heroes had one thing in result was, arguably, the most disastrous job interview in common: everyone loved them. They weren’t ostracized business history. At one point, Jenette looked at me and because of who they were; they were accepted and embraced. asked—my hand to God—these exact words: “What have you God, no wonder I wanted to be Superman instead of Iron Man. done in your life that proves you have the business experience The DC heroes set my standards. “Yes, Mark, but isn’t it easier necessary to begin a company from the ground up?” And I just to live up to the standards of, say, Spider-Man?” No. Not really. sat there, wide-eyed, big cartoon sweat radiating off my head, You know why? Because here’s how I saw it from the very spinning clocks and calendar pages flying towards me through earliest age I can remember: in order to be like Spider-Man, space as time crawled. Finally, trying desperately to salvage the you have to be a smart-ass and have an ailing aunt. In order to situation with a laugh, I said, “Well, I sold band candy in high be like Dr. Strange, you have to study years’ worth of mystical school.” arts. In order to be like the Thing, you’ve got to be rough and Jenette made a thoughtful “hmmm” and scribbled this down gruff. on her notepad without a trace of amusement. The rest of her In order to be like Superman, all you have to do is always do interview questions were kind of drowned out by the echo in my good by others. head that kept screaming, “Nice save, you moron.” That was Superman’s greatest super-power to me, always. I didn’t get the job. Not heat vision, not flight, not super-strength. It was that given I was, however, offered an Associate Editor position a few the fact that he could do anything, he chose to do only good. weeks later and took it gladly. I was first in a wave of five hired that Summer and Fall—along with Brian Augustyn, Dan [Waid continues on page 49.] Raspler, Renee Witterstaetter, and Art Young. I assisted on numerous books during my two-plus years there, including Justice League, Wonder Woman, and the train wreck that was Action Comics Weekly. I also handled Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Secret Origins, the two Christmas With the Superheroes specials. I also put together Batman: Gotham By Gaslight with Augustyn and Mike Mignola and started Batman: Holy Terror with writer Alan Brennert, thus damning my soul to hell forever for kicking off what became the “Elseworld” franchise, a publishing phenomenon that, like most, lumbered on a little too long before finally being phased out. “Elseworlds: What if the Flash fought in the Crimean War?” Who cares? In December of ’89, I went freelance and have held a few short-lived staff positions since, but overall, it’s been a good From the Waid-scripted Captain America Vol 3 #4. Art by Ron Garney & Bob Wiacek. life, and the freelance lifestyle suits me well. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] WAID | 43
DEPARTMENT
Mark Waid’s SHOULDs and SHOULDN’Ts
JP: Can you give the readers a short list of the things that every writer should and shouldn’t do when trying to, not only learn how to write comics, but break into the business as well? MW: Only a short one, because after this description you write, and try to use common sense about what many issues of Write Now!, it’s tough to make any observawill and won’t fit on a page. Do stick-figure breakdowns for your tions that haven’t already been made by other interviewees. own reference if you must. Asking your artist to draw more than SHOULDS: Keep your proposals and correspondence as brief one action in a panel can be done but is almost never a good as possible, because writing comics is all about economy of idea. (“PANEL FIVE: As Reed activates the communication storytelling. Read William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen console and the monitor screen springs to life, Sue drops her Trade, a primer for story structure. Go through your scripts and glass of milk on the floor, shattering it.” What the hell are we remove any line of dialogue that you’ve ever heard somewhere supposed to be concentrating on here? You’re asking your else (Really, who can hear “Awright, let’s lock and load!” and artist to divide the reader’s attention. not groan by now?). Careful.) Likewise, asking someone to SHOULDN’TS: Never compare yourself draw an establishing shot of the 142nd to anyone else (“I’m at least as good as Cavalry Brigade coming on horseback that guy you’ve got writing JLA!”), unless over the hill as panel one of a six-panel you want to insult the editor who hired page will get you shot. that person. Don’t assume that having Examine comics by, say, John Romita, your proposal read is any kind of priority Jr., Mike Wieringo, or Dave Gibbons—all whatsoever for a hard-working editor, of whom are excellent on detail and with because it’s not, not until they invent the conveying information visually—to get thirty-hour day. Never blow a deadline, but some sense of what will fit on a page. If if you have to, always call the editor and you’re going to err, err on the side of too warn him. And don’t ever settle when it few panels, not too many. On the other comes to your work, because often the hand, don’t deliberately pad your script to difference between an adequate comics two or three panels a page “just ’cause script and a good comics script is about Warren Ellis gets away with it” (an actual four more hours of tweaking. Moreover, if quote I once overheard). Every image on you read some line you wrote that sounds every page should be necessary and “off,” it’s not just the moment or just a should convey some important piece of fluke; it will sound just as tinny to you five visual information. If you spend an entire hours or five years later when you re-read silent panel showing your protagonist, it. It will never stop bothering you, so fix it say, filling a tumbler from a faucet, if that now. Read your dialogue out loud to make action doesn’t have something to do with sure it doesn’t sound preposterous. Lamethe plot or with character advancement, ass, unnatural dialogue is one of the three A Mark Waid written, Mike Wieringo penciled, Karl then you’re just being lazy while jerking reddest of the red flags that show you’re Kesel inked page from Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #70, the reader around. Jesus, even in those still a beginner. a.k.a. #499. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] situations where your plot dictates that The other two, by the way, are asking for you need three pages of conversation to get some exposition impossible action in a panel and overcrowding a page. Let’s across, pick a visually interesting locale for the scene. You can address the former first. “The answering machine light blinks” show us where your character likes to hang out (a Brooklyn is a good example and one I have seen in, literally, dozens of deli) or where he’s naturally uncomfortable (a frou-frou coffee amateur scripts. Don’t forget, this isn’t animation. “Blinking,” bar). You can pepper the conversation with “stage business”— like many other seemingly simple actions, isn’t something that have the characters doing things that are character-revelatory. can be conveyed with one static image. You can think of ten Gadgety guy in a bar? Have him idly building something out of similar examples if you try. cocktail cherries and plastic stir-straws while he’s talking. Artist “Overcrowding a page” is a phenomenon harder to define. guy on the beach? Have him stick-drawing something interEvery artist is different, and some can easily draw six or seven esting in the sand while he’s getting his orders from his Secret panels on every single page without grousing and can find Agency Boss. Anything. Anything. Garth Ennis and Brian Bendis some way to work with even the most ludicrous script are the only two writers I can think of who craft dialogue clever requests. (“PANEL ONE: An establishing shot of the Grand and interesting enough to drag us through five pages of Canyon. A man in a Panama hat stands on the edge, taking a exposition between two men in business suits standing inside picture. On the floor of the canyon, a burro steps on a yellow a corporate office. For newbies, this is death, death, death. daisy. PANEL TWO...”) Still, whether you have any drawing talent Don’t even try. Be creative. or not, try hard to picture in your mind’s eye every panel
Tips for Aspiring Writers
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Mark Waid's script for the landmark Fantastic Four v3 #71, a.k.a. FF #500. Here, Mark works full script, and Mike Wieringo does the penciling, with the finished pages inked by Karl Kesel. On these pages we have the added bonus of seeing Mike's thumbnails as he works out the best way to lay out the panels Mark describes.
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
NUTS & BOLTS: FANTASTIC FOUR | 45
On this page and the next, you can see the artist's interpretive process as Mike tries a couple of different page and panel layouts before arriving at the ones he ultimately draws.
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] 46 | WRITE NOW
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
NUTS & BOLTS: FANTASTIC FOUR| 47
Note how on this, as on all the pages in a full-script job, the writer controls the pacing by determining the number and order of images we see. However, as in a plot-first story, the penciler still determines the layout of the page, the size of the panels (including which one, if any, will be the largest, most important one), the focus of each panel, the size of the objects and figures in each panel, and so on.
Even if a writer gives the artist extremely detailed descriptions (a method not necessary with a team like Mark and Mike who have been working together for a while and know instinctively what each other needs), there are still many storytelling choices that are ultimately made by the penciler.
[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
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[Waid continues from page 43.]
And everyone loved and trusted him for it. Effort, reward. Perfect moral template for an abused, ostracized, precocious eight-year-old. Also, by the way, a crappy pattern for a man to be living by thirty years later, but I’m working on that. JP: Unlike a lot of creators, you have—based on the work you choose to do—a genuine love for the classic comic characters. You are also one of the few writers who makes use of the old continuity, yet you don’t make it seem oppressive. How hard is it to take one of these heroes and not only write them, but totally re-imagine them so they work for current readers? MW: To me, it’s the easiest thing in the world, about a thousand times less difficult than, oh, say, coming up with new characters. [laughter] To be fair, though, I think my last hurrah with using “old continuity” to any major extent was 1999’s Silver Age event. It wasn’t something I pitched—it was a project already in process, and I took the helm because, frankly, I didn’t want anybody else to f*ck it up—but I got deeply into it, even to the point of providing a very tight outline to all the other writers, designing all the covers, and writing all the cover copy and ad copy. On the one hand, it was amazing
Superman “returns” in Mark Waid & Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come #2. [©2003 DC Comics.]
fun and a job I’d have done for free. On the other hand, once it was finished—and received probably the worst sell-through and fan reaction of any DC “fifth week” stunt since “Who will be the next exciting member of Primal Force?”—it was a cacophonous wake-up call for me that the Silver Age had nothing more to offer me other than warm memories, and one more project like this, ever, would be enough to imprison me in Comics Jail forever and ever—a real career-ender. Luckily, about this time, and with the help of younger friends like Brian K. Vaughan, Devin Grayson and Gail Simone, I’d also begun giving serious thought to what the current audience considered “heroic.” Let’s take Superman as an example. There are entire generations to whom Superman is about as meaningful and significant as Woody Woodpecker or Marmaduke... and to be honest, I don’t think it has nearly as much to do with the scarcity of comic books on the newsstand as it does with the undeniable fact that the Gen-X and Gen-next audience perceive the world around them as far more dangerous, far more unfair and far more screwed-up than guys my age ever did. To them, and probably more accurately so than my peers and I would like to believe, their world is one where capitalism always wins, where politicians always lie, where sports idols are assholes who take drugs and beat their wives, where white picket fences are suspect because they hide dark things— —and to them, that’s the world Superman represents and the status quo he defends. For some time now—and even more so in this post-9/11 world, I’d argue—our audience gets excited by, is loyal to, heroes who aren’t agents of the status quo. The next emerging audience wants to read about action heroes who take action— who give voice to their anger at the world and who act to change the landscape. Our audience is of a generation that doesn’t want to identify with “living symbols” who exist to “inspire.” To them, the moral visionaries and inspirational figures of history—from Bobby Kennedy to Martin Luther King to Ghandi—got the same reward for their efforts: a bullet in the head. They want to live vicariously through heroes who symbolize their rebellious spirit and understand their frustrations. I’m not for one second arguing that Superman should go back to punching out wife-beaters or throwing enemy pilots to their doom or otherwise so completely and thoroughly take the law into his own hands... and absolutely no one is a bigger fan of the Silver-Agey “Big Blue Boy Scout” Superman than I am, NO ONE... but I really, genuinely do believe that he’s increasingly marginalized in a world where kids have to go through metal detectors to get to school, and that there’ll be no new, growing place in American culture for super-heroes until our audience once more feels it can connect with characters who show that defending Metropolis from Brainiac isn’t the only way to make a difference. That’s “imagining them for current readers.” JP: What things that new writers do to established characters drive you crazy? MW: When they let their egos or their lack of imagination override what the characters have to offer. When they ignore the characters’ creative roots and change them and their status quo so drastically that their creators wouldn’t recognize them. I’ve been guilty of doing that myself in the past as part of the overall learning curve, but I regret it. I’m not arguing that characters should stay the same as they were when I was a kid WAID | 49
just because that’s what I remember; I’m arguing that, unless you’re talking about characters and worlds specifically designed to change, it’s selfish and wrong to force characters to “grow up with you” for no other reason than because you, as a writer, have read every one of their adventures ever and you’re bored. Guess what? If you’re 45, you’re supposed to be bored. Super-heroes created before you were born were designed to appeal first and foremost to adolescents. If the part of you that’s still a child inside can connect with them sometimes, that’s great. If not, that’s your problem, not a design flaw. Stop trying to screw the next generation of fans from getting the same charge out of these characters you got when you were their age. Is change and growth important for a story’s characters? If you’re reading a Steinbeck novel or watching a Christopher Nolan film, yes. It’s essential. If you’re watching The Simpsons or a James Bond movie, no. It’s f*cking disastrous. Unless you’ve walked in the door having deliberately invented a series like, I don’t know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, designed to reflect the Rising and Advancing of the Spirit, tampering with the status quo is a very loud death knell. What’s the most certain spotlight-bright sign that a TV series is on its last legs? The characters move to a new house or have a baby. “It ain’t workin’ anymore, so we’re flailing.” With 20/20 hindsight, can anyone defend with a straight face the years Clark Kent stopped working as a reporter for the Daily Planet and was a TV anchorman? How about killing off Aunt May? Boy, that sure turned the market around and brought in a trillion new readers, didn’t it? Modernize old, well-trod material, yes, absolutely. Make it more reflective of the times, certainly, no question. But to go back to The Simpsons, is it a good idea to have Bart graduate to community college just because you started watching him when you were a kid and he’s not “growing up with you”? Only comics fans get apoplectic when their heroes don’t age and mature along with them. No one picks up a Curious George book at age 27 and screams in outrage that, after all these years, the monkey’s still sticking his finger in a f*cking light socket. When I took on Fantastic Four, I felt a great deal of pressure to “grow the characters up.” After all, they’d been around for forty years, we’d seen them do pretty much everything by now, they weren’t selling, Eisner awards only go to “serious” works, etc., etc., blah, blah. And, believe me, it was extraordinarily tempting to turn the whole series into The Fantastic Ice Storm. I would have been lauded for my insightful, mature portrayals of the characters by 35-yearolds everywhere, and my cachet in this industry would have risen immeasurably. And it would have been nine kinds of wrong. There is absolutely, positively a huge and very necessary place in this field for mature works—and as readers of Watchmen and Dark Knight or even
Fantastic Four 1234 might attest, there’s obviously merit to taking the older characters and doing “mature” stories with them sometimes if they’re well-told—but like it or not, at core, the FF is an action-adventure series built on family themes. That’s what it is. Case closed. If you can’t make that work, if you can’t use that as a framework to tell serial stories relevant to a young audience, then either go create your own “adult” FF knock-off or just get out. You’re not helping. Go work at Circuit City. “But, Mark,”—I can hear the cries now—“But, Mark, why write comics for anyone under college age? Kids don’t read comics!” Sigh. Bullsh*t. Kids love comics. Anyone who claims differently should try giving them out at Halloween like I do; you’ll have kids swarming your place. Kids love comics. The dual problem is, they (a) can’t find them, and if and when they do, they (b) find themselves frustratingly baffled by bad storytelling about shallow, unrecognizable characters in situations they can’t relate to in the slightest. As a comics writer, I have zero control over factor (a), but I have complete control over (b), and so I choose to exercise it to the fullest of my ability. Yes, I’ll grant that the number of kids out there reading superhero comics is frighteningly small, but I’m not giving up on them. I don’t care if there are only nine of them, they still deserve—and, I’d argue, still need—access to stories about characters struggling to do the right thing in a hard world. JP: When I was with Marvel Knights, the whole idea was to give the established characters a new spin and get the sales up on the titles. Now it seems that every six months, that’s the normal way with all their titles. Do you think Marvel Comics fans care about continuity anymore based on the fact that every book is basically “re-imagined” every year, or do you feel this is just
From the Waid-written Fantastic Four, vol. 3, #61. Art by Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
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some ways, on a day-to-day level, writing that stuff isn’t as much fun for me as writing Superman or the Justice League. Believe me, I know that in the end, career-building is about more than having fun in the moment, and this is a dilemma I struggle with constantly—but the short answer is, writing for my childhood icons pushes a unique set of buttons inside me. I have Empire, I have various original properties set up in animation and live-action, but I see no reason I can’t do both jobs. JP: You were one of the founding fathers of the short-lived Gorilla Comics. What lessons did that experience teach you on how to selfpublish—and I guess not self-publish—a comics line? And why bring your Gorilla title, Empire, to DC and not Marvel Comics or Image? MW: A few years ago, when Kurt Busiek and I envisioned Gorilla and took point among the partners to negotiate with various publishing imprints, we ended up behind it ourselves because we wanted full editorial control over the line, and (understandably) no publisher was willing to guarantee that (nor should that be expected, though it doesn’t hurt to ask). I wish we’d been able to keep Gorilla Comics alive a few more A lesson about heroism from the DC Comics series of Empire #1. Written by Mark Waid with art by months, because I really do think that, a halfBarry Kitson & James Pascoe. [©2003 Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.] year or so in, we could only have succeeded because by that time we had made absolutely every single something that needs to be done to stay fresh? mistake a publisher could make. Every one. We underestiMW: Some of this we’ve already discussed, but I understand mated costs. We underpriced the books, thus raising the breakboth worlds. I know that a mythos containing a complex, even by a deadly five thousand copies. And so forth. And worst cohesive continuity is a great and comfortable refuge from the of all, we let ourselves be lied to by someone who swore—and sometimes horrifying reality of the everyday world for many if spent advertising and promotion money as if—there was not most fans, and I myself grew up feeling that way. To this venture-capitalist dough in the Gorilla bank account when, in day, I’m still connected to that impulse on some level, and fact, there was none. there are still wires in my head that short out when, say, some Our goals were pure, our motives sincere, and I don’t want to writer misspells Elongated Man’s real name or something. Like speak too much for anyone else, but my take on it is that, at it matters. And like I haven’t made similar mistakes. As I say, I day’s end, every one of us had hearts and minds that were understand the allure of that world. better suited and more attracted to the creative process than But for a variety of reasons, like it or not, the days of 67 to the business of publishing. To this very day, I’m not sure I writers and 19 editors being able to pull together a cohesive, can fully explain how it is that we sold 40,000 copies of flawlessly harmonious fictional universe seem to be behind us. Empire #1 and 30,000 copies of issue #2 and yet I managed Even if DC, for instance, hadn’t muddied the waters by halfto lose well over ten thousand dollars. heartedly trying to “clean up” its continuity across the board After Gorilla folded, of course, Empire fell into limbo—but not once but twice, it’s still twenty years since they tried it the because the folks at DC have always liked Barry Kitson and first time—and I think that had “continuity” stayed the way it have always treated him (deservedly) well, they expressed an had, it would probably all be collapsing under its own weight by interest in picking it up. DC’s been very patient since, waiting now anyway. There’s a huge difference between continuity and for Barry to finish pinch-hitting on other assignments so he consistency, and the longer I’m at this, the more I value the could finally clear his desk and make time for Empire, but he’s latter over the former. now charging ahead at full steam, and the stuff looks great. JP: Most of the bulk of the projects I work on these days are JP: Tell us about how you are handling it differently now that DC creator-owned, or at least creator-shared. I look at what the bulk Comics is publishing it. of your work is and I see Superman, Fantastic Four, Flash and MW: I do approach Empire a little differently than I did four so on. Others people’s properties. How long can you keep this years ago, but that has nothing to do with DC. They—and up, and do you think the next thing for you should be more editor Joey Cavalieri—have been extremely hands-off. Still, as a creator-owned material, or are you really happy just continuing nation, our definitions of evil and villainy have changed and the work of others and adding your piece to the history of them? grown since 9/11 in particular. With troops standing at the MW: Both. And I do have my share of creator-owned projects in edge of Iraq waiting to invade, I frankly had to work much various pipelines and at various stages of development—but in WAID | 51
is what keeps me going and keeps me striving to make my harder at and invent new tricks for making a global dictator work better, because it’s a reminder that touching hearts can sympathetic and able to carry his own series. be done and that it’s the greatest achievement a creative soul JP: You’re finally getting a chance to show everyone your vision can hope for. of how you think the Superman legacy should be done with JP: I was lucky enough to work with you on Black Bull’s twelve-issue maxi-series called Superman: Birthright. What do Gatecrasher, still in my mind one of the most fun books ever. you bring into the mix that you think other creators didn’t get, or You also worked for a time with your good friend, the talented didn’t think about, with their takes on the character? Brian Augustyn. What are the positives and negatives with MW: I don’t want to slam anyone else who’s done a turn on working with a partner? Superman... at least, not without a couple of vodka tonics in MW: The main plus is that it’s simply more fun to throw ideas me... so without getting too specific about where it came from back and forth than it is to sit alone in a room and be imagior who put it on the table, and with all due respect to the fine native. You and I are great partners in that sense, because folks who have produced these books over the decades, I think we’re just trying to throw each other off-balance with the the concept that Clark Kent is the real guy and Superman is wackiest notions conceivable. Brian and I likewise fed each the disguise is just about the single most wrong-headed, other in a unique way and had a synergy unlike any I’ve ever idiotic, thunderously disrespectful corruption of the character felt. Everything I ever wrote that he edited or co-wrote began imaginable. Somehow, for some unimaginably pinheaded with a “What do we do now?” phone call that always yielded a reason, someone decided that since we couldn’t “relate” to viable direction within a half-hour regardless of how fromSuperman because he was “too powerful,” that was a problem scratch we had to start. After that, every ensuing stumbling that needed a drastic fix. Yes, I will absolutely grant that in a block or story quandary could be solved with a similar call. It post-Stan Lee, Spider-Man world, it was tough to empathize got to the spooky point where sometimes simply the act of with a guy whose biggest problem was how to safely enlarge picking up the phone to make the call was enough to break the Bottle City of Kandor—but I’d argue that the reason people whatever story block I was phoning to talk out. Brian, in couldn’t find a reason to buy into Superman was because he’d particular, even if it was just in conversation, contributed more stopped doing anything we cared about. Taking away one of the to my overall body of work than I can ever coherently explain, things that made Superman unique—that the secret identity, and I can’t tell you how often I look back on some line or bit of not the costume, was the business and think, “Oh, that was Brian’s suggestion. mask—didn’t address Good one.” That we don’t work together much that at all. anymore is simply a function of the paths our As a character, individual careers have taken; we’re still the best Superman’s extraordiof friends, and we should probably pick each narily powerful and other’s brains a lot more than tough. It’s hard to find we do these days. opponents for him. Great. The downside to Embrace that. Run writing with a partner is with it. It needn’t be that writing a story isn’t an impediment to like laying a brick wall drama, because where the division of underneath all that labor is clearly delinmuscle, Superman eated. Being responsible still has a very human for half a script is, at heart, and that is the least in my experience, wellspring of all good generally as much work stories. as being responsible for JP: For me, inspiration a complete script, comes from so many because I for one can’t places when writing. write without an intimate What do you think are understanding and the main influences connection to the whole. that keep your work so Maybe I’m just a control damn fresh? freak; there’s that possiMW: Reading great bility. But even when I’m writing. I would writing with fabulously honestly sell my soul talented people, such as to have written Tom Peyer on the Flash something as brilliant & Green Lantern minias Lilo & Stitch, and I series, it’s tough for me would probably have to write, say, the first given up a few toes eleven pages and hand it for Finding Nemo. off and move onto the Experiencing anything next assignment without in any medium that Creating “Clark Kent.” From Superman: Birthright #3. Written by Mark Waid, penciled by really knowing what to moves me in any way Lenil Francis Yu, and inked by Gerry Alanguilan . [©2003 DC Comics.]
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someone else’s sandbox and that if I’m not giving the paycheck-cutters what they want to buy, they should replace me and we should both move on without recrimination. The only way to maintain complete integrity over your work is to be ready to walk away if it’s being turned into something you’re embarrassed to have your name on, and I’ve certainly done that more than once. For all I know, I could be called upon to do it again tomorrow. JP: When in a steady relationship, how does that affect your work, if at all? MW: I don’t really think it does. Why? Are you asking me out? JP: No, you’re not my type. I’m through with my red head stage. What would the perfect world be for you? MW: Truly? Honestly? A world in which I could finally The Flash and Green Lantern from The Brave and the Bold #1 (1999). Written by learn (1) to remember that what really matters is what I Mark Waid & Tom Peyer, with art by Barry Kitson. [©2003 DC Comics.] think of myself and my work, not what strangers think, and (2) that approaching the actual physical act of writing like expect from the second eleven pages. And I’m sure Tom feels it was a chore and not a joy is probably not the most relaxing the same way. Collaboration is easy; cohesion takes more way to live. Oh, and I would have my hair back. work. JP: Walking into Stately Waid Manor in L.A. is like walking into JP: I know you better than 99% of the people reading this every fanboy’s fantasyland. No one that I know has such an interview do, so I have some questions that may seem out of left impressively diverse collection of comic book related items. field, but I think the readers would be interested in what you What’s the appeal? Is it something to do with trying to relive your have to say. First up… why would such a talented writer want to childhood, or is it that maybe you need the “toys” to inspire you? ever in a million years be an editor, as you have been in the MW: Not so much the inspiration factor. Ninety-five percent of course of your career? all that stuff is downstairs in the den, not in my office. Some of MW: Because I honestly think that I have more to offer as a the thrill is about owning and obtaining things I missed out on craftsman than as an artist. And because I’d like to have more as a kid, sure, but more than that... Jesus, I just love props. I control over making sure that certain basics of scriptwriting don’t get it, but I love them, and the more accurate the better, and comics storytelling aren’t forgotten. Add to this that, at from the Batphones to the Captain America shield to the this point in my career, I learn more from working with good Fortress key on the bookcase. Maybe they just provide a faster, writers than I do by writing. more easily accessible door into that world than writing does. I JP: How do you feel about editors who are obviously lesser dunno. For a rational, perfectly presentable and dateable adult, talents than you, some that actually have no storytelling skills I cop to spending a freakish amount of time trying to recreate whatsoever, yet feel they know your job better than you do? Do what it felt like to be nine years old. you still get that in this day and age with all you know about JP: What’s more important to you at this point, fame or fortune? comics and writing? MW: Contentment. Seriously. And fortune might be the truer MW: Not very much, but I’m not going to fool myself into path to that at this point, because it comes with more security. thinking that the reason is because I’m Just So G*ddamned JP: What’s the best revenge? Talented =koff=. I think it has more to do MW: In theory, living well. In practice, the fact that I can, at least for now, afford mailing lists. to be pretty choosy about the editors I work JP: What’s next for you and when are we with, and I lean towards guys who are on working together again? the same wavelength as I am about what MW: Next comes taking more advantage of defines a story. Yes, their numbers are Hollywood opportunities in TV and animation thinning, but they’re still out there—Tom and diversifying my time more while the Brevoort chief among them. On those rare figurative iron is hot. After that, a brief occasions I do run up against know-it-all Birthright and Empire-fueled career renaisguys who aren’t as old as some of my sance, followed by a long, slow spiral that shoes, or editors who actively demonstrate culminates with my selling my collection at no discernable talent other than to sign off WizardWorld 2012 to make ends meet and on a voucher, I try to filter some of their ends with my shaking a tin cup in the DC dumber comments (“Married characters are lobby while reminding passersby that I automatically dull”) through the sieve of created Impulse. Let’s you and I try to hook rational thinking and determine what they’re up before I get to that point, okay? really saying or what they really want (“Married characters can be dull if there’s Writer, editor and inker Jimmy Palmiotti was no dramatic tension in their relationship to a co-founder of Marvel Knights and is the coreplace the will they/won’t they question”). creator of such properties as Gatecrasher, I’m a pretty amenable guy; when I’m 21 Down and the upcoming DC Universeworking on company-owned characters, I From Superman: Birthright #1. By Waid, set Monolith ongoing series. know and acknowledge that I’m playing in Lenil Francis Yu & Gerry Alanguilan. [©2003 DC Comics
THE END
WAID | 53
On these pages from Mark's Empire v2, #3, we see a sort of hybrid style midway between "Marvel" style and full script. As in full script method, Mark describes each story page's action, with each paragraph indicating a panel, for penciler Barry Kitson, who co-owns the series with him.
However, the dialogue, captions and sound effects are not written until after the penciling has been done, as in a Marvel-style job.
[©2003 Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.]
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[©2003 Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.]
After Barry has penciled the pages, Mark then writes dialogue, captions and sound effects to go with them. The writer also indicates where those elements will be lettered. Balloon placement is important to the look and flow of a page and an entire story.
NUTS & BOLTS: EMPIRE | 55
With this hybrid scripting method, Mark is able to control the story's pacing, yet (since he writes the text after he sees the pencils) is able to make the most of any spontaneous ideas Barry comes up with while penciling, thus combining the strengths of both methods of comics writing.
[©2003 Mark Waid & Barry Kitson.]
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The Power of Passion
Close-up On
BATMAN: DETECTIVE #27 M
ichael Uslan’s resume is as impressive as anybody’s. He’s a writer, producer, and entertainment lawyer, with a list of awards including an Emmy, a People’s Choice and an Annie. Among other achievements, he’s been the Executive Producer of all the Batman films, as well as the Swamp Thing live action and animated incarnations. Michael is also the man who brought Stan Lee and DC Comics together for the historic Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe line of graphic novels. Currently, through his Branded Entertainment Company, he’s the man behind CrossGen’s various media initiatives, including Way of the Rat, and is the Executive Producer of the new Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman video and Catwoman live action movie. Michael’s career has focused in large part on comics-related concepts, to which he brings an enormous passion. One of the most personal and heartfelt of projects is the current Elseworlds graphic novel he’s writing for DC, Batman: Detective #27. In the article below, he reveals how the project came about. In case you’re not sure why the title seems familiar, it’s because Batman famously first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. In Michael’s tale, Bruce Wayne does not become Batman, but he does become a crime-fighting detective, one designated by the organization he works for as “Detective #27.” Here, in his own words, Michael tells the story behind the story, what it is and how it came to be… —DF
by MICHAEL USLAN
It’s rare when somebody gets to experience a lifelong dream come true. Two of the times that such an event happened to me revolved around Batman. When I was eight years old, I dreamed of writing Batman comics. That dream came true in the mid-70’s while I was a “Junior Woodchuck” (they hadn’t yet coined the term “intern”) at DC Comics, along with such luminaries as Paul Levitz. I had the opportunity of working with the king of kings, editor Julie Schwartz, and the The distinctive cover to Batman: Detective emperor of comic book #27. [©2003 DC Comics] trivia, Bob Rozakis, on some stories for Detective Comics, written amid bleary eyes and lots of black coffee late at night when I was supposed to be studying my law books at Indiana University School of Law. When the stories were published, I realized my dream had come true and it was time for another one. That night, I decided that one day I would produce a dark, serious, movie version of Batman the way Messrs. Kane, Finger, Robinson, et al. had created him in
Ask any comic book collector of any age what the most important issues in history have been and you’ll keep hearing about three comic books: Action Comics #1; Marvel Comics #1; and Detective Comics #27. With the words “Detective #27” being so seminal not simply to Batman but to the entire future of the comic book industry, re-working Bruce Wayne into a hero who actually goes by that name was (in my fan-boy mind) a tremendously ironic device upon which to base my story. And it just reeked of that “pulp magazine” feel I wanted to evoke (Anybody out there besides me remember “Operator #5” or “Secret Agent X-9”?). I came up with the idea that an ongoing, growing secret society of detectives would allow me to tell the story I wanted to impart, a tale that spans 75 years. In addition, the phrase was the perfect title for the story. On this and the next two pages, Peter Snejbjerg art from the Michael Uslan written graphic novel Detective #27. [©2003 DC Comics.] USLAN | 57
1939-40. It would take me fourteen years, but I was fortunate enough to have that dream come true in June 1989 when the Batman film debuted. Obviously, I’m a comic book fan and a Batman devotee. (Batman Comics #1 is still one of my most-prized possessions!) But I’m also a history buff. Since majoring in the subject at IU, one of my best professional experiences was producing a mini-series for PBS/American Playhouse that was the historically accurate telling of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, Three Sovereigns for Sarah, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Patrick McGoohan. I love reading history… visiting historic places… and researching. I have a particular fondness for comic book history, movie history, and New York City history. Detective #27 gave me the unique opportunity to combine my passions into one project. I loved every second of the researching and writing involved in this truly collaborative effort with editor Mike Carlin and artist Peter Snejbjerg. Some of my favorite books over the years have been those that take a fictional character and interpose him or her with people who truly existed in the past, involving them in actual historic events. Ragtime, The Alienist, Carter Beats the Devil, and The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay, were inspirations to me in creating a graphic novel that attempts to cover this ground. Perhaps my favorite book of all time is Jack Finney’s Time and Again, and sharpeyed readers will see several tips of the hat to this incredible novel in the panels of Detective #27. If those books were a driving force to my writing this graphic novel, so was our 58 | WRITE NOW
first Batman movie. Screenwriter Sam Hamm, working closely with director Tim Burton, came up with an intriguing enhancement to the origin of the Batman. First, Tim wanted to have The Joker, before he became The Joker, shoot Bruce’s parents. As a Batman comics fanatic, I was very concerned about this change to the “classic” origin, so I talked to Bob Kane about it. Bob was all for it. He told me that, had The Joker been created in 1939, he would have had him be the shooter, too. Probably to make me stop whining, it was agreed to have a second shooter in the scene so purists could at least accept that “Joe Chill” (the character who for years was considered the Waynes’ killer) was there, too. But as Jack Napier points the gun at young Bruce Wayne, he recites a haunting, mysterious line, “Did you ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?” Ultimately, this becomes an almost throwaway line, but I could never get it out of my head. What did he really mean by that? What was its true significance? I knew there had to be a story behind it. In Detective #27, I finally answered my own burning questions, and that was also a motivating factor in my writing the graphic novel. The birth of the project took place late one night in my office on the third floor of my home. I was browsing through old pulp magazine covers and saw one that featured a character called “Operator #5” and one for “The Black Bat.” It was at that moment the epiphany struck: if Bruce Wayne never became Batman, he could’ve become… Detective #27 in a secret society of detectives. How appropriate would that have been?!!? Bingo! I quickly constructed (with the magic of a copy machine, white-out, scissors and tape) a mock cover of a very pulpish Detective #27. On a roll, I then started typing a barebones outline for what the story could be. What might have happened if, at the exact moment a huge bat was to fly in the open window and inspire Bruce to take on the image of a bat,
it didn’t fly in that window? And if I was going back to that seminal moment, the story would have to be set in May, 1939, the month and year Detective Comics #27 was published. The next question was: which real people could I work into the story that would truly fit and not feel forced? Conversely, which DC Universe characters could I also fit in seamlessly that would not feel forced? It was a difficult task, but the story soon seemed to be writing itself. The end result would have historical figures Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, William Pinkerton, Kate Warne (America’s first female private eye and Secret Service agent), Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, The Knights of The Golden Circle, Teddy Roosevelt, Sigmund Freud, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Babe Ruth, and Franklin Roosevelt intertwined with Batman characters Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Robin, Selina Kyle, Hugo Strange, Jonathan (“Scarecrow”) Crane, The Crimson Avenger, and Superman. Whew! Being a movie producer and a writer, I couldn’t help but decide up front to write this like a movie, structured in three acts. That choice actually proved to be helpful in telling a story that spans 75 years and takes place, variously, in 1865, 1884, 1929, and 1939. As in a screenplay, I tried to make sure every setup had a payoff and every payoff had a setup. Editor Mike Carlin and DC president Paul Levitz were so supportive of this project that they allowed me to plot out the entire story and then show them how many pages I’d actually need to tell a tight tale. When I presented them with the need for 96 pages, they told me to go for it. Mike remained a phenomenal creative sounding board, with every one of his suggestions being eye-openers for a writer who sometimes was just “too close” to the material to make the best objective decisions as to what to leave in or leave out. In my mind, the glue in this story would be the Waynes’ butler, Alfred. It was critically important to me to be able to give Alfred a textured character and his own uniquely important voice. Whether it’s his fondness for quoting great poets or his own Mum, he always seems to have the right, comforting words to say. If Alfred didn’t work in this story, the whole thing could topple. As it turned out, I loved writing Alfred! There’s a lot of my Dad in him. I lost my Dad two years
ago, and kind of molded Alfred in silent tribute to him. None of this would have worked without the amazing talent and commitment by artist Peter Snejbjerg. I was merciless. I was determined that every detail in the art would be historically accurate. I sent Peter, I think, some 260 pages of pictures and drawings for reference. And Peter went far beyond the call of duty to slavishly follow the reference and add his own. Thus, when you see a steamship or a hansom cab, it’s exactly as those conveyances appeared in that particular year. In the backgrounds, whatever year it may be in a given scene, the clothing worn by the passers-by is accurate to the period and reflects each person’s social status. You’ll see what Washington, DC looked like in 1865… you’ll see The Statue of Liberty’s hand and torch on display in Madison Square… you’ll see a true picture of Grand Central Depot and Ford’s Theatre… and the layout of the 1939 World’s Fair is based on actual aerial photographs, crowned by an Exhibit that Bill Finger would have loved. Our six months of research paid off! In the end, the reading public will decide if we succeeded in our quest to create a dramatically different sort of graphic novel. But know that no one could have brought, from cover-tocover, more passion to a work than our entire team did, including Peter, Mike Carlin, colorist Lee Loughridge, and cover designers Amie Brockway and John Hill. I’m tremendously proud to be part of this effort. And without the marketing/publicity team—Bob Wayne, Patty Jeres, and Peggy Burns—getting behind the project with equal passion, we’d be like that proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it. Finally, without the unwavering support of Paul Levitz (a fellow history buff), the project would never, ever have been realized. In May 1939, Detective #27 was published for 10 cents a copy. It recently sold for about $400,000. So… better not miss Detective #27 this time around!
THE END
USLAN | 59
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Keeper of the Bat-Mythos
The BOB SCHRECK
Interview
Conducted by Danny Fingeroth February 19, 2003 at the DC Comics offices. Edited by Danny Fingeroth / Copy-edited by Bob Schreck
Part 2
H
ere we continue our interview with Batman Group Editor Bob Schreck. Bob was talking about his eclectic path from musician and actor to comics promotions guru to editor to co-founder of the award-winning independent publisher, Oni Press. We left off Bob's story as he was deciding whether or not to take the editorial gig that DC Comics was offering. Why would a figure so identified with being outside the mainstream decide to jump into it? How would it affect him, and vice versa? Read on… —DF DANNY FINGEROTH: What made you feel at that point that you had to do it? BOB SCHRECK: A lot of factors. One of them was that I had already done Oni. And I did it, I thought, fairly successfully. I can look out the window and there’s Oni, it’s still there, and they’re kicking butt. The Fourth Rail Magazine people just dubbed them the best independent publisher of the year, or was it the best publisher of the year, because they’re so eclectic in what they present? And they’re there and they make me proud. And I look back and say, “Holy Moley, look!” And I think my leaving at the time helped them, because I was an expensive date. Joe was ten years plus younger than me. I can’t remember what our age difference is, but it’s big. Perhaps it’s more like fifteen years. DF: I doubt they saw it that way. BS: I’m sure they didn’t, but I knew the reality of it. So my
leaving would free up a little extra cash during the year. And I have my family here—I grew up here. So, I don’t know. Just everything pointed to, “Here’s another challenge, something you haven’t done before.” I actually had a lot of people saying, “Oh, you’d never make it in a real corporation.” But the truth is I was never in a real corporation. This is a real corporation. And while it has its frustrations, the reality is that 99.9% of the time—which is a much higher ratio than the other places I’ve worked—I find most of the usual confusing corporate speak here is cleared up very quickly and makes sense more often than not. And I think that because I have some insight into what Paul and others have to go through at their levels of responsibility, because I worked in such close proximity to decision-making at Comico and at Dark Horse. And at Oni, Joe and I… we were it. And it’s a horrible, horrible line from A Few Good Men, but you know, the Nicholson character says, until you’ve stood guard on that wall and have had to make that decision with that gun, you can’t criticize the person that sits on that wall every day. DF: You’ve been on both the creative side and on the business side, so you can understand both sides’ needs and problems. BS: I think so. DF: Now, the logical thing, one would think, would be to say, “Mr. Oni comes to DC Comics, we’ll put him in the Vertigo line or give him his own imprint.” How’d you end up in the super-hero end of things? BS: Well, see, aside from Green Lantern... he’s the only one with powers. Green Arrow—see, we’ve got to get technical here. [Danny laughs] Green Arrow has green arrows, but he has no super-powers. DF: Costumed adventurers, then. Costumed adventurers! But how did you come to the costumed adventurers? Was it DC’s idea, your idea? BS: DC’s idea. Denny O’Neil called me up and they said that he was retiring, and that DC’d like to get me in there so I could take a look at the shop before he left. I asked if I could think about it. It took me two weeks, I think, and then I came out here to DC. Once in the offices it took almost a year before I actually took over the Battitles. And the answer is… I mean, I love Vaughn Bodé, I love Jack Kirby. You can’t get any further apart aesthetically. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on one end of the spectrum, Vaughn Bodé on the other. But I This page and the rest of the interview's illustrations are from Bob Schreck-edited comics. Here, the Green Arrow get them both. I love Peter Bagge, battles Onomatopoeia in Green Arrow #15. Written by Kevin Smith with art by Phil Hester and Ande Parks. [©2003 DC Comics.] SCHRECK | 61
and yet I can pick up a really good run of an Aliens book and say, “Wow, that was really well-written and the art was amazing.” DF: This seems to be sort of a trend in mainstream comics now where, say, a lot of the people over at Marvel are people who two years ago were strictly “independent” and they bring that sensibility with them. I imagine you bring a similar thing to the mix here at DC? BS: Actually, I sit here and I look over and say, “Hey, Joey Cavalieri’s working with all the guys I used to work with! What’s going on?” And yeah, Axel Alonso at Marvel, formerly at DC, he’s worked with Paul Pope and many other folks I’ve worked with. It’s funny. Some editors actually believe that they have a claim on certain creators. But there’s a reason they’re called “freelancers.” I don’t want the responsibility of being the only source of income for Arthur Adams or Paul Pope, or whomever. I can’t do it. I’d love to. But it’s healthier for them to be happy bumblebees and fly around and go weird-out the Marvel world for a while and have some fun with their characters. DF: The danger is, of course, they over-commit and don’t really weird out any world, they just get stuck in the middle of unfinished projects. BS: Exactamundo. One of the things I say is, “Look, if you’re going to do this, you’ve got to do this.” I got as much out of Kevin Smith as I did because I made him write the entire story
The Batman “family” gathers at the bed of Commissioner Gordon in Robin #86, part of the “Officer Down” crossover. Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Arnold & Jacob Pander. [©2003 DC Comics.] 62 | WRITE NOW
out in text. Broad strokes, not all the details. And then got six or seven issues in-house before we launched the first one. We still eventually started shipping late, but only by a month for the last six or so. DF: Kind of miraculous. BS: Pretty miraculous, considering that there’re two different books of his down the street that aren’t coming out at all. DF: Now, specifically, your title at DC is Group Editor, correct?? BS: Yes. DF: I counted up in the recent solicits, and there are something like 15 or 18 Batman-related titles a month. BS: Yeah. I think what I actually have to physically oversee every month is like eleven, and then there’re other Bat-books that other editors are working on. I get the plots to those and just look at them and go, “Okay, fine.” And I get the scripts and I give them a go-ahead. The only monthly Bat-Books I edit hands-on are Batman and Detective Comics, and I edit Green Arrow and Green Lantern, as well. Matt Idelson has Robin, Gotham Knights, Gotham Central, Catwoman and Harley Quinn, and Michael Wright has Batgirl and Nightwing. Nachie Castro assists on a vast majority of the titles, as does Michael. I am absolutely blessed with the best team of qualified editorial support I could ever hope for. And to boot, they are just all-round good guys! DF: And if it’s not fine, you’ll have them change it? BS: Usually if it’s not fine, they agree with me, or their editor. Say, it might be something like, Batman wouldn’t be appearing on TV in the course of a given story. Aside from his appearances with the Justice League, he just wouldn’t be going out during the day, let alone being on TV. So let’s clean that up. I received a script the other day where Batman goes to this guy’s house to talk to him about something, and the Batmobile is parked out in front of the house. And then Batman knocks on the door and the guy inside opens the door and lets him in. I said, “No, that’s not how Batman would enter someone’s house!” And I get the script back, and now the Batmobile is gone, but he’s still knocking on the front door! [laughter] “No!” DF: “Who’s there?” DF & BS: “Batman.” DF: “Batman who?” [laughter] BS: No, no. The way it has to work is… the guy in the house is drinking his Scotch and water—he’s in his chair and it’s three in the morning, he’s about to fall asleep, the drink starts to spill, and Batman appears behind his chair, the guy jumps with start, [startled voice] “Oooooh!” And says— DF: “Don’t you knock?!” BS: Exactly! But Batman doesn’t drive up, knock on the door and go, “Hey, it’s me, how ya doin’?” DF: “Can I get my parking validated, please?” BS: Yeah. So those types of things, you say, “Hey, c’mon, reread what you wrote. Is that Batman?” And they say, “Oh! Yeah, what was I thinking?” And it’s fixed. DF: So are you the backstop on all things Batman, in terms of making sure if he’s got a broken arm in one comic, he has it in the other one, or is it not that tightly monitored? BS: We try not to make it that tight, but in terms of broader strokes, yes. Myself and Matt Idelson, who’s my right-hand man. I couldn’t do anything without him. He’s a phenomenal editor and a phenomenal organizer. We pretty much set the tone and we keep our eyes on it the bigger picture as much as we can. Sometimes we make conscious decisions to look the other way when it comes to a strict adherence to continuity.
Often there are financial concerns or creator concerns—this creator does what they do, they do it well, leave them alone and we’ll just let it happen because, you know what, if we really want to start nitpicking, Batman is dead. Okay? He’s been around too long. He was a full-grown man when he premiered in the late 1930s. He’s just had too many battles. I’d say that by age 60 somebody would have gone “clunk” on his head and he’s D.O.A., that’s it. He’s very, very well preserved for a character his age. DF: Do you have Bat-writers summits—meetings where you get together with the writers and decide what’s going to happen for the coming year? BS: Yes, but we haven’t had one in a while. We were going to have one this Spring, but we’re postponing it because we’re jockeying some different stories and waiting to see the right time to make our move. So right now it’s been postponed. But I have been to two, one Denny was in charge of, and one that Matt and I were in charge of. DF: Is there anything you can put your finger on that makes your Batman different than Denny’s, or is there an evolution more than an abrupt change of any kind? Or neither? BS: Matt and I were just discussing that, and I guess if you look at the “Bruce Wayne: Fugitive/Bruce Wayne: Murderer” run, our goal was to make Batman a little easier to be around if you were one of his “family,” like Robin or Nightwing or Oracle. Because he was just always such a crabby guy! And I was saying, “Gosh, can’t he just once be a little funny.” Just lighten up for five minutes?” So we’ve made him a little less crabby when he’s hanging out with his crew, and more capable to show his thanks and respect to them, because his load is a lot lighter when he’s got them to back him up. DF: But he’s not quite a party animal yet. BS: No. He’ll always have his demons and his torment, but we’re trying to change the focus of that torment. And this is where Frank Miller’s influence comes in to play. If you read Frank’s stuff, Bruce is less torn up about his parents. He’s an adult, he’s gotten through those things. He’s Batman because he really likes the job. DF: Therapy through violence. [laughs] BS: Yeah. It’s a fun job. And a happy Batman makes for a very unhappy Rogues Gallery. If he’s really, really having a good time, then he’s doing his job, he’s succeeding. I’m playing him happier, in a sort of freaky way... If he’s got to put fear in the hearts of bad guys, he’s gotta be really scary instead of just the stalwart good guy. So Tommy Castillo and Ed Brubaker, in Detective, have got him getting a little freakier. Kind of like that scene—I thought it was one of the best moments that Michael Keaton had in the first Batman movie—where he goes to the fireplace and gets wacky and goes after the Joker with the poker. That, to me, was really great because he went crazy! If you’re going to fight crazy people, you’ve got to be crazier than they are! DF: Well, there always is that crazy edge to Batman. BS: We’re trying to amp that up. DF: Crazy, but happy. BS: Yeah. DF: Did you find yourself going to your pool of indie folks when you came aboard at DC? Are they now starting to work on the Batmans and Green Lanterns and Green Arrows of the world? BS: Just a few. Some of them are just (a) not interested, and (b) not appropriate for the material. But there are a few people that love it. Ed Brubaker, clearly. I’ve worked with Ed for over
From the “Spore” back-up in Detective Comics #777, written by J.C. Gagné and illustrated by Michel Gagné. [©2003 DC Comics.]
ten years. So I put him right on it, “You’re writing Batman.” He said, “Huh?” Now, he was already at DC, but he was pretty much relegated to writing at Vertigo at that time. And I think it was a good decision, because I knew that Ed was into crimedrama and into all that material and that he could deliver. And he’s done a great job so far. DF: How did that “Spore” back-up series come about? That’s a wild thing, that’s really intense. BS: Yeah. That was Matt Idelson’s baby. He asked me, “How about this?” “Oh, my God, it’s insane!” DF: It was done before you bought it or...? BS: No, the whole thing wasn’t done, it was just some preliminary drawings and the idea. And I said, “Oh, my God, he does what in this story?” And thankfully it was kept more clinical. DC gets a little crazy with certain images, but it was more clinical and more fun, because that’s what it was. And yet we’ve gotten so much heat on that story. DF: Really? BS: Oh, God, yeah. Heat in both a good way and a bad way. Some people screaming, “Oh, my God, it was hilarious,” and other people pleading, “What are you doing? You're ruining Batman!” It was a fun, goofy story. We “ruined Batman?” C’mon folks, have a giggle! I thought it was a riot. DF: Is there any hard and fast way that story ideas come from the writers, from the editorial crew, or is it a combination...? BS: I try to let the writers have as much creative freedom as they can stand. There are occasions where, like “Fugitive” and “Murderer,” where we’ve got to get them all together and say, “Here’s what we would like to do.” DF: “Fugitive” came from editorial or from a writer? BS: “Fugitive” came from Editorial. Both of them linked together, “Murderer/Fugitive” came together. And it was a very weird the way it came together. Paul Levitz had wanted to do a ten-cent book for several years and hadn’t seen an appropriate editorial/emotional beat to put it in. “Murderer/Fugitive” came about as a result of a conversation with Mike Carlin. As we were planning another, previous stunt, (we like to call them stunts), which wound up being the “Officer Down,” story line, Carlin said, “Well, y’know, you could always do the thing where Bruce gets framed for murder.” Which has been done before. DF: [mock shock] It has? Where was I? Wait a minute! [laughs] BS: Yeah, really! Actually, one day Julie Schwartz came in and SCHRECK | 63
wants to be considered a kid. The best novels, the best art, can be read on two levels, always. DF: At least two levels. BS: At least. And that’s what I try to set forth. Plus, kids are not kids anymore. It all depends on who you ask. Define a child. Define a ten-year-old. A ten-year-old in Long Island or New York City is not the same ten-year-old in Wisconsin or Missouri. DF: I would think they might be united by some of the same popular culture, the shows they see on TV, and so on. BS: They are. They are to some degree. But I can tell you that the kid living on Melrose Avenue In Los Angeles gets away with a lot more than the kid living in Missouri. But, that being said, all of those kids, we shortchange them all the time. We don’t think that they’re smart enough to get it or that they don’t already know 90% of what’s going on. And I’m not talking about adult, sexual content, but just in terms of listening to two adults talk to each other in an honest, adult way. They get it. They hear it. They see it every day. And that’s something that has been one of my goals here. Literally, I’m pretty sure next week there’s going to be a new Nickelodeon show called “Crap.” I would like to be able to use that word. Because if you watch Nickelodeon, there’s excrement jokes, and there’s... well, I mean, Spy Kids, Shrek. In the movie Shrek—they spelled it wrong—the opening credit is all poop and bowel jokes. Now, I’m not fighting for those in Batman. DF: You’re not going to make a lifelong crusade for poop jokes? [laughs] BS: No, I’m not fighting for that. However, there are things, there are words that could be used that would make these books sound and ring a little more true than they do now. And I don’t know when that’s going to happen or if that’s going to happen, but we need to be able to address that issue. Because we’re trying to sell comics to mothers and fathers from the Fifties, and they’re gone. That’s not our market any longer. They don’t exist. Really, what I think we’re afraid of are district attorneys who want bigger careers, who will latch onto any small industry and make headlines by tearing it apart for their own gain. DF: The Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee Batman has been phenomenally successful, by today’s sales standards, and even by ten years ago’s standards. How can you bring some of that magic to something else, or is it just the combination of those two guys? How do you capitalize on that? How do you capitalize on the Justice League show and the Batman cartoons? BS: The only way you can capitalize on it is to put out a product that reflects it in the most positive way, that brings more to the television shows or more to the popular series than the originals. And you just try to keep it out there. The most difficult problem we still have is distribution. To this day, we’re not getting properly distributed. There are a million questions that I can’t answer. Price point. I think that our society’s still reacting because we got beaten down in the Fifties. DF: The society? BS: Our society in the United States. Europe has actually gone down in sales. From Batman #608, part of the popular “Hush” storyline. Written by Jeph Loeb with art by Jim Lee & DF: Oh, in terms of comics. said, “You know, I did that back in—” And I said, “Yeah, and you solved it on the cover!” And he’d moaned, “Ahhh, you know me.” And then we thought, “You know what? This ‘Murderer’ thing has legs.” It has been done before, but the challenge I put in front of the writers was, “I want you to write this so that the most ardent, marketing-savvy, hardcore industry insider will begin to read it and go, ‘Oh, my God... maybe he did commit the murder.’ And if you can push it that far, and keep it making sense so that we can pull it all away later and say, ‘Ha-ha, only kidding. He didn’t do it!’ And make that satisfying, well that’s the challenge I put before you.” And I think they did a magnificent job, because I received a lot of calls from people asking what was going on. DF: “Did he do it?” [laughs] BS: Did he do it? My stunned reply was, “How can you ask me that question? You’re a 44-year-old man. You’ve been in this business how long? Of course he didn’t do it!” DF: He’s Batman! BS: He’s Batman! DF: Well, that sort of brings up a general issue, and I’m sure both of us could go on for about two days with this, but let me ask you:, who are these comics for? When you say a 44-year-old veteran reader, is that the audience? These are still very iconic figures that were originally designed to appeal to children. Is that audience gone? Was it ever there? How do we get new readers of whatever age? BS: I’ll go back to the nine-year-old Bob Schreck. I didn’t want to read kids’ stuff, and I don’t think any kid in their right mind
Scott Williams. [©2003 DC Comics.] 64 | WRITE NOW
BS: In terms of comics, we still think, “Oh, those are those things that the Congressmen said were bad for you back in the ’50s.” And actually, we were exonerated, and the only reason those hearings happened at all was because some publishers were angry that Bill Gaines was making more money than they were, period. It had nothing to do with juvenile delinquency. It was about money. DF: Even Wertham came around to be a fan of comics, oddly enough. BS: Yeah, he figured them out. “Oh, wait a minute, these aren’t evil.” No, they’re comic books! And now you have huge movies being released based on these “lurid, evil” pamphlets. DF: Do you think, just through sheer mass of comics-based media properties—Daredevil, Blade, Spider-Man, hopefully the upcoming DC movies or certainly the DC shows—do you think that’ll make people go back to the source—comics—and remember that they exist? BS: I think so. We have to convey to people that if you loved or hated the movie or show, if you didn’t read the original, you missed out. Because you saw the movie and maybe the movie didn’t capture the original. Why did they even make the movie in the first place? Because all those people who made the movie loved the original comic. DF: Any advice for someone who might be foolhardy enough to want to break into comics as a writer or an editor, since that would be many of the people reading this interview? BS: Yeah, wow. Editors, gosh. Every editor I know has traveled a different path to get them to where they are now. But I think generally, particularly for writers, they need to listen to those stories that are told to them every day, that everybody else just throws away. They need to listen to what their grandmother did when she was 13, back in the day, and use that. Writers should be like cats, only instead of looking into space, into the air and going, “Wow, that’s interesting,” and having nothing there, they need to do that with their ears and go, “Oh, my God.” They need to understand and put themselves as empathetically as they can into other people’s lives, other
A detail from the cover art of Matt Wagner’s Trinity #1. [©2003 DC Comics.]
people’s skin. And as writers, to get a job, you need to go to as many conventions as your budget can withstand, you need to know where all the parties are, you need to know where all the watering holes are, you need to not be a wallflower. You need to tell people that, “I thought Episode I was great!” even though the rest of the world disagrees with you, and prove to them why it was great. You need to share From the cover of Batman: City of Light #2 by your opinions and let Arnold and Jacob Pander. [©2003 DC Comics.] people know what you know about story. Sometimes, all you can do is talk about movies, because that’s where people bond. Or you can get the conversation into books and maybe find another writer, another working editor who will say, “Oh yeah, I read that book, too.” But really, in order to get the work, you have to have a face. You have to be there. While at a convention, walk up to those people toting those big portfolios and strike up some friendships with an artist or two that might enjoy what you’re writing and may want to illustrate your work. Go to Kinko’s and print up some light, easy-to-fold-inyour-pocket mini-comics that you can hand out to editors and anyone else who may care! DF: So it isn’t just a matter of being talented and dedicated? BS: All of those things are, that’s something you should do 101—that’s the first thing. You’ve got to be talented and dedicated and love your craft. That’s the easy part. Of course, I’m being facetious. But it’s a part of the job. The other part is getting the work, and that’s a whole ’nother magic unto itself. DF: Just wrapping up, anything you’d like to plug that’s coming up for Bob Schreck personally, or Batman in particular, or for DC in general? BS: Every day there’s something new here. Isn’t it lovely? I’m in heaven, because it’s like the ’80s all over for me. I’m working with Matt Wagner on something called Trinity, which is the three icons, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. I just got the cover from Dave Stewart, and it’s amazing. And it’s beautifully written. It has this sense of awe that these books should always have about them. Then I’m also working with—I don’t know if this is for release—but with the Pander Brothers on a Batman thing called City of Light, that they’re writing with Mark Panicia and that they’re drawing. The Panders were the artists on Grendel with Matt Wagner, way back when. Geez, I think I’ve known the Panders when they were 17 or 18 years old! Yikes! [Phone rings] DF: Bob has gotten an important phone call, and we’ll wrap this up. Thanks for your time and thoughts, Bob. BS: My pleasure. I had fun.
THE END
SCHRECK | 65
Ride a Dark Horse
The DIANA SCHUTZ Interview
Part 2
Conducted via e-mail by Danny Fingeroth January 15, 2003 Transcribed by Steven Tice / Copy-edited by Diana Schutz
L
ast issue, Diana Schutz, Senior Editor at Dark Horse Comics, was talking about her career path from academia to comics retailing, with a brief stopover at Marvel Comics editorial, and ultimately to various editorial positions at Dark Horse. In this second half of the interview, Diana speaks, among other topics, about what she looks for in aspiring writers. But before that… When we left off last time, Diana was starting to talk about her editing style and how it impacts on the creative people she works with. —DF DANNY FINGEROTH: How do you edit a Frank Miller, a Will Eisner…? DIANA SCHUTZ: [pause] With kid gloves. [laughter] Well, you become a sounding board. When you’re editing creator-owned books—as opposed to work-for-hire books—as a representative of the publisher, you are a partner in the enterprise as opposed to controlling the enterprise. So... ”facilitating vision”... what I meant by that was, my job, as I see it, is to do whatever I can do at the publishing end to help realize the creator’s vision. In
Art from Grendel #10, written by Matt Wagner, with art by Arnold and Jacob Pander, edited by Diana. [Grendel ©2003 Matt Wagner.] 66 | WRITE NOW
the case of, say, 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, that meant putting in the kind of effort like spending Saturday afternoon at the color Diana Schutz and artist Matt Wagner. separation house, looking at the sixteenth or seventeenth color separation and still wanting it to be fine-tuned. I’ll try not to get too technical, but, basically, when I get the art and story from a creator, I have to oversee a number of things at my end, at the publishing end, to present that art and story in the way that the creator intended. I can do that job badly, or I can work my ass off and do it right. DF: Do you and the creator always agree on how it should be presented? DS: Not necessarily. DF: So that must be where the stories you can’t tell are? DS: No, I can tell those stories. It comes down to this. Here’s a story that I like to tell, because it was a lesson that I learned early on in my editorial career. I was working with Matt Wagner on an issue of Grendel, which Matt was scripting. Matt’s the creator/owner of Grendel. He’s also my brother-in-law now, but he wasn’t then. And he and I had a very strong friendship and professional relationship. Because Matt owns the copyright, when I would get the script from him, I wouldn’t make any change to that script without discussing it with Matt first. And one day he and I ended up arguing over one word. And I no longer even remember the word, but we argued for twenty minutes, over the phone, about this one word, and about Matt’s particular usage of the word. I maintained that his usage was incorrect, and we argued back-and-forth and back-and-forth, and finally Matt said, “Di, it’s my book.” End of argument. And that’s the difference between a creator-owned property and a work-forhire property. At the end of the day, as an editor, if you wind up in a serious disagreement with your creator, your only option then is to publish or not publish. DF: And I would imagine that not publishing runs into all sorts of contractual difficulties. DS: It depends on the contract. DF: So is Dark Horse a place for newcomers, people who have a great idea and want to find a place for it, or is it more a place for established people who have a vision, a point-of-view, of their own?
these various submissions. I don’t do that anymore. But DS: Really it’s a little of both. Given the current marketplace, there’s always room for a mini-comic. it’s very difficult to be able to make it financially feasible for a DF: Okay, that’s a good tip. When you get away from the tradiyoung creator coming in the door to do a brand new, creatortional super-hero comics structure, are there rules for what’s owned property. But it can happen. likely to be accepted, or is it all kind of intuitive? When you read DF: And what about the licensed property end of the company? something, what tells you if it’s good and/or saleable or not? I’m asking with a view toward somebody reading this interview DS: Well, that’s the million-dollar question. who wants to know, “If I’m sending out samples, if I’m making DF: Even with a strict structure it’s hard to know, but without it... calls, is Dark Horse a place for me? And if it is, how should I DS: I have to confess, I operate a lot by intuition. I suppose approach it?” there are some standard things. I have a very difficult time DS: Well, I don’t know if you’ve run into this in your own evaluating something that’s given to me in terms of a plot, for editorial career, but our problem with licensed books is that instance, because plots to me are like ideas, they’re a dime a we’re not allowed to look at story pitches for licensed dozen. It’s all in the execution. properties, because our licensed properties are owned by DF: That’s interesting, because a plot, especially a detailed plot, movie studios who have very high-priced lawyers who cover can at least give you the intended flavor. their asses like you wouldn’t believe. [laughter] DS: It can. Language is a wonderful tool, but it’s a precision DF: Oh, I believe it! instrument. It’s a scalpel. And by and large, we use it like a DS: So what that means is, if somebody sends us an idea— butter knife, you know? and as you well know, ideas are a dime a dozen— DF: Or a chainsaw. [laughter] DF: That’s what I hear. [laughs] DS: Yeah! So with a writer, I’m DS: But everybody thinks they have the looking for someone who can use greatest idea that nobody else has ever language. If somebody wants to write thought of. And they send in a one paragraph comics and all they’ve ever read is idea, and there’s a line in there that comics, they haven’t read any of the resembles some movie premise that’s already classics, they don’t read novels… being worked on, and it opens up the studio DF: So an aspiring writer should be to various lawsuits—copyright infringement, widely read. etc., etc. So consequently, the lawyers have DS: Right. What else? Well, they spoken, and thus it shall be: we can’t look at should have the ability to make any story pitches. characters believable. Certainly, DF: But say somebody sends in samples. that’s critical. If I don’t believe a DS: Not cold ones. We have to invite writers character, if I don’t have some kind to submit a pitch. of sympathy—although sympathy’s DF: So in theory, if you have an aspiring probably not the right word—if I can’t writer’s samples and like them, you might invite feel that a character is real in some him to pitch. sense... DS: Yes. DF: It almost sounds like what you’re DF: So there is that hope. saying, though, is that you can’t know DS: Yes. In terms of your readership and if you like it until it’s finished. But I people looking to get work... know there must be steps along the DF: Both established pros and new, unpublished people. Diana even produced her own mini-comic, with cover way that you use to evaluate a script. DS: Well, there are. I mean, all these DS: Well, in terms of the new, unpublished art from Matt Wagner. [©2003 Diana Schutz.] things that I’m looking at can be people, what I recommend is this marvelous evident in the way a writer has written a plot. But, again, I’ve invention of the last fifteen or so years, which I see more and gotten in some great plots, but then the execution sucks. more of at conventions: the mini-comic. Anybody can do their DF: The execution by the artist, or the execution by the writer own mini-comic, and if you only write and you don’t draw, then scripting it? find an artist and the two of you put together a mini-comic. It DS: Well, in my case, those two tend to be one. can be a four-page thing, a quick Xerox job. Even I have made DF: Right, that’s true. a mini-comic. DS: And frankly, if I have my druthers, I guess I prefer to work DF: Even you? [laughs] with an individual who is executing an individual vision. So I DS: Even me. You can put together your own quick little thing, prefer to work with cartoonists—and by that I mean someone and it’s such a painless way for an editor to see whether you who both writes and draws. can write, whether you can draw, how you handle the DF: In the Frank Miller or Will Eisner mode. Is there enough mechanics of telling a story. diversity in the Dark Horse editorial structure that someone who DF: Whether you can staple pages in order. is only a writer or only an artist can go there and show their DS: Yes. And, if you’re an artist, how your sensibilities are for work? reproduction, for instance. I take mini-comics from everyone at DS: Oh, sure! Yeah, absolutely. conventions. I will never, ever turn down a mini-comic. However, DF: Can you talk a little bit about the Dark Horse structure? Are when people come up to me with their inch-thick magnum you the editor of a particular group, are there other editors who opus? I used to take them, in the past, when I would take have groups with their style books? How’s the system work? everything handed to me. I would have to buy a new damn DS: We’re too small for the group structure. At one time, when suitcase to go home from a convention, just to lug back all SCHUTZ | 67
Dark Horse was a little larger and the market was a bit more flush, we did indeed have editorial groups, but no longer. DF: How many editors besides you are there now? DS: There are seven of us, and then a number of assistants. DF: And then is there an editor-in-chief? Is that Mike? DS: There’s no official editor-in-chief, but for all intents and purposes Mike is and has always been editor-in-chief, no matter who stepped into that title. And each editor has certain books within their purview, and in that sense you might say we’re groups. Randy Stradley oversees all the Star Wars books, Scott Allie oversees all the horror-type books—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, etc.— David Land is overseeing a new line of comics that we’re creating called Rocket. DF: I want to ask you about that, although I guess he might be the one to ask. DS: He would, because I don’t know too much about it. Unlike Marvel or DC—because we’re not working in a shared universe here—Buffy does not interact with Marv from Sin City—we don’t necesA view of the working relationship between author and artist from “Happy Endings” a story by sarily have to keep abreast of all the stuff that’s Sam Keith from the 2002 Dark Horse Maverick anthology Happy Endings. [©2003 Sam Keith.] going on in each other’s comics, which makes life Dark Horse still published creator-owned stuff, because that much less complicated for us. perception had gotten lost in the shuffle of all the licensed DF: And which makes it more like a traditional publishing books. company, with different imprints and so on. DF: So Maverick was not a line of books about James Garner. I DS: Yeah. But our work-for-hire comics, by and large, are done finally got that line in, I’ve spent ten minutes trying to get that in! assembly-line process. I recently edited a Star Wars one-shot DS: And how many people are even going to get that special, which was written by Judd Winick, and for which Paul reference? Chadwick did pencils and inks, and Ken Steacy did the color. DF: I’ll write an extensive editorial explaining it. Don’t think I So I’m not unfamiliar with the assembly-line way of working. won’t! [laughter] DF: Is there any stuff that’s not licensed that’s done “assembly DS: That joke is for over-forties. [laughs] line”? That’s such a complimentary way to look at it! [Diana DF: Well, they made the movie with Mel Gibson. laughs] Are there any “group process” books that are not DS: Did they? licensed? DF: Yes, they did. Moving right along… You’ve gone on record as DS: I’m trying to think, and I’m not coming up with any. saying, Diana, that you don’t own a TV. DF: Ten years ago there was Dark Horse’s “Comics’ Greatest DS: That’s right. For twelve years now. World” line. DF: Did you ever see a color TV? They have them in color now. DS: You had to bring that up. [laughs] DS: [laughs] I grew up with black-and-white TV, actually. And in DF: It’s gone, consider it excised. [laughter] Whoever is fact, one day I walked into the video store, and they were transcribing this, forget you even heard me mention that. Don’t running old episodes of The Avengers. And I don’t mean the go telling your friends, “It’s not going to be in the interview, but I comic book, I mean... heard them talking about Comics’ Greatest World,” don’t go being DF: Emma Peel... a big shot. [laughter] [Transcriber’s note: Hey, I liked a few of DS: Emma Peel, right. The Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg TV those books...] Or, say, the Maverick line, which I know no longer series. And I was transfixed! I couldn’t figure out what was exists, but the Maverick comics do. going on, because something was completely odd about what I DS: That’s right. The imprint no longer exists. According to was seeing on the screen. And it finally dawned on me—oh, my Mike, it was too amorphous for the consumer or retail base to God, it was color! I had never seen any of those episodes really get a fix on what Maverick was. It was always pretty clear except in black-and-white, because, of course, we had a blackto me. and-white TV. DF: What was it? DF: But you don’t have a TV—and I respect that, because I DS: Really good comics produced and owned by their creators. understand all the reasons not to have a TV—but it just does DF: But how was that different from the other creator-owned strike me a little odd that someone in the pop culture business stuff? Was it a shared universe? does not have a TV. DS: No. Well, there wasn’t much creator-owned stuff that we DS: You’re absolutely correct that it is odd, and as a result, I did that didn’t fit into the Maverick imprint. do not have my finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the DF: Oh, I see. You took the creator-owned stuff and kind of put it world outside. under the Maverick imprint. DF: Well, you may be better off. DS: Yeah. In part, it was a means of reminding people that 68 | WRITE NOW
DS: And you know what? I don’t care! [laughs] I read a lot of good books instead. I did finally capitulate when Bob Schreck bought himself a wall-screen TV. He begged me to take our old video monitor and to buy myself a VCR. That was in ’95, and since then I even have a DVD player. DF: Whoa! DS: So I can watch movies and such. But I’m sadly short on knowledge of MTV and everything else. DF: I understand all the many reasons in the world not to have a TV. Just in this field, that struck me as notable. DS: Well, one of the reasons is that if I had a TV, I’d never do anything else but watch it, ’cause I’m a TV junkie. If there’s a TV, I get sucked into it. DF: I know the feeling. DS: For me, it’s just a little bit of self-preservation. It’s not that I’m that noble. DF: I understand that completely. But do you keep up with current movies, books? DS: To some degree... DF: What feeds your brain? DS: I must confess that I tend to lead a relatively insulated life. By the same token, I have people foisting stuff on me all the time. “You must read this, you must watch this.” My youngest sister works as a computer animator at Industrial Light and Magic, so there are certain movies that I absolutely must watch, because she’s worked on them. And my boyfriend has a TV, so... DF: And he parcels out portions to you...? DS: I get to watch Monster Garage. [laughs] DF: I don’t even know what Monster Garage is. DS: It’s a “gearhead” show where they build weird cars and suchlike. DF: Since I have infants, I have only two kinds of TV viewing: appointment viewing, and currently, there’s only one appointment show that we have, which is 24. And the rest of it is mindless, brain-dead, “they’re going to wake up any minute, what can I watch to just veg out with for ten minutes?” Besides Monster Garage, what do you feed your head with in your downtime? DS: Well, I read an awful lot of comics. DF: By all publishers? DS: Yes. I generally spend about a day a week reading comics. I try to keep up with what’s going on in comics. I will read almost everything that Top Shelf publishes, everything that Drawn & Quarterly publishes. I read a lot of Fantagraphics books. For my own personal interests, again, I’m looking for
A page from Frank Miller’s 300, edited by Diana Schutz. [©2003 Frank Miller.]
more sophisticated kinds of stories, stories that are going to appeal to an older, female reader. By the same token, I’m a huge Brian Bendis fan, and I’ll read anything he writes, including his Ultimate super-hero books. DF: Well, he’s terrific, yeah. DS: He is terrific, and actually, now he’s a neighbor of mine. And he’s a really nice guy. Which, of course, brings up something else. Having worked in comics now for over twenty years, I have a lot of friends in the business, so of course I try to read whatever they do—which includes all the Bat books, since Bob edits those. And I have favorite writers who work in more mainstream comics, people like Warren Ellis or Brian Azzarello, for instance. DF: Any novelists, screenwriters, you like to read or whose films you like to see? DS: I’m not huge on reading screenplays, although I’ve read a few, mostly because I’ve been asked by the people who wrote them to read them. I read books all the time. DF: Name something really good that you’ve read recently. DS: I read a book called Illywhacker by Peter Carey, who is an Australian writer. Whenever I travel somewhere, to a different country, I’ll ask people to recommend a novel that (a) first and foremost is sort of representative of their culture, and (b) that is not something that I would be likely to find in the U.S. And a young man whom I met in Sydney, Chris Breach, recommended Illywhacker by Peter Carey. Carey’s a brilliant writer, and mordantly funny. DF: You may be the first person I’ve heard use “mordantly” in a spoken sentence, that was great, that’s very impressive! [laughter] So talking a little bit more about the industry... I’m going to give you the Danny Fingeroth kind of all-wrapped-in-onequestion: Who are comics for, what’s the state of the industry, does it need saving, if it does need it, can it be? All that stuff that you must get asked every day. DS: You don’t honestly believe I have the answers to those questions, do you? I’d be a lot richer if I did! DF: But let’s say if the world was cable TV and you had the remote control...? And also, what kind of flower would you be if you could be a flower? [laughter] But seriously, folks... I think this is the crisis of the industry: who they’re for, who’s going to buy them, and how do you get it to them, all that stuff. DS: Well, I really don’t know the answers to all those questions. I do think that we’re moving in a certain right direction. I think the perception of comics has been damaged by their format. I think the 32-page pamphlet—and its disposable nature—has aided and abetted the stigma that comics themselves are disposable, are a trash medium, are for kids. I think that moving to graphic novels—the growing acceptance of the graphic novel—is without a doubt the way for us to go if the medium is going to stick around and mature. DF: Are comics specifically not for kids? Is that a segment of the audience that’s just not ever going to come back? DS: I don’t know. I mean, think back to when we were kids buying comics. They were cheap, they were affordable. We can’t go back there. One of the reasons that we can’t go back there is that, at least in part, they were cheap and affordable then because artists were getting ripped off. DF: [laughs] Well, there is that. DS: We don’t want to go back to that. DF: They’re not that much out of line with the traditional pizza/comic book ratio. [SCHUTZ continues on page 71.] SCHUTZ | 69
From the files of Diana Schutz:
The Will Eisner Sketchbook DF: I know one of the things you’re working on is an Eisner/Miller book. DS: I just got the 133-page single-spaced transcript to the Eisner/Miller interview. I’m not quite sure when we’ll be publishing that. Certainly not before Spring of next year. But before then, I have another Eisner project that I want to
Will Eisner and Diana Schutz.
plug. One that just sort of came into being through this huge comedy of errors that I’m not even going to go into, but finally resulted in the fact that we’ll be publishing the definitive Will Eisner sketchbook this coming October. It’ll be a beautiful hardcover, 9" x 12", just like Frank Miller’s Art of Sin City—on 100-pound archival paper—and will feature Eisner’s original pencil art for several of his graphic novels, for early Spirit work, and for an unpublished Spirit story. In fact, when Will sent the 250-odd pages of pencil art to me, I left a message for him at the studio to let him know the package had arrived safe and sound. Then, I told his answering machine that if he didn’t hear from me for a few days, it was because I had an appointment on eBay and was planning early retirement! He said the message made him laugh—until a couple days later, when he got a call from Brazil, and he thought, “Oh, my god, she’s really done it!” From the Will Eisner Sketchbook: (Left:) Will Eisner pencils for his graphic novel Last Day in Vietnam and for a Spirit cover. (Below:) A sample page of the Frank Miller/Will Eisner conversation that makes up the text of the Sketchbook.
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[SCHUTZ continues from page 69.]
DF: Entertainment Weekly is covering comics and graphic novels. DS: In terms of inflation, you mean? DS: Libraries are beginning to be interDF: Yeah. I mean, a slice of pizza is ested in graphic novels. We’re selling a about two bucks, while a comic is closer lot of books to the libraries. to three. That used to be one of the DF: Can you talk more about that? That measuring sticks of how a comic fit into seems to be a really expanding market. the “kid economy.” DS: I was recently asked to give a DS: You know, a three-dollar comic book guest lecture at Portland State that takes ten, fifteen minutes to read University to a group of graduate versus renting a video game, which Library Science students, and in doing provides countless hours of entersome research for the lecture, was tainment… it’s a tough comparison. gratified to discover that graphic novels Plus the fact that people don’t read have a tremendously high check-out anymore, period. I don’t know how to rate in libraries. Librarians love that! save reading, let alone reading comics. I So, consequently, we’re seeing more think if we’re going to save the medium, and more sales to the library market. comics has got to present itself as DF: The irony in that is that, even something worth saving. And the 32though many people say there’s no page pamphlet is not worth saving. A more kids’ market, or not what there book on a bookshelf is. was, I think these libraries are buying DF: If the books are displayed properly them to get kids interested in reading. and someone takes the care to do that. DS: Well, they really are a tremendous DS: Most publishers are having more educational tool. When I was growing and more success in the bookstore up in Montreal, because it’s a bilingual market. And, on top of that, more comic city, my mum and dad were determined book retailers are ordering graphic Tim Sale and Matt Wagner's cover to the Diana Schutzthat I should learn to speak French, so novels as perennial items as opposed scripted Grendel: Devil Child #2. You can see pages they put me into French school—total to the pamphlets, which are periodical of Diana's script from this series in DFWN #5. French immersion. I didn’t speak a items. And I really believe that is the [©2003 Matt Wagner.] word of the language. We used to have only way to go for us, because with that reading hour every day. And, you know, the French have long format, we can explore other kinds of themes. Chester Brown, been hip to comics. So while the other little girls in my class for example, is currently writing and drawing a comic book would, for the reading hour, get some kind of children’s prose published by Drawn & Quarterly called Louis Riel. It’s to read, I gravitated to the Tintin comics in the bookcase, historical... well, I was going to say it’s historical fiction, but because that allowed me to associate the foreign word with a mostly it’s historical fact. And where Chester lapses away from recognizable picture. I learned to speak French in three recorded history, he footnotes what he’s done and why. And the months. comic comes out maybe quarterly. Louis Riel is a figure from DF: I think I was reading earlier and better than my peers Canadian history. So, we’re talking a pretty narrow audience because of the comics that I read as a kid. here, y’know, in terms of the traditional comic book marketDS: I agree. Absolutely. place. But we’re not talking, necessarily, about a marginal DF: Any advice for aspiring writers, aspiring editors, or anybody audience for a bookstore. So, while Chester’s comic book may aspiring? be read by a few thousand people and probably doesn’t even DS: I use deodorant, myself. [Danny laughs] It’s a tough market make it to the shelves of most comic book shops—it gets to break into, as you know. But I think, in the end, so much of pulled for the subscription slots or whatever—when that type of it is just determination, really. The people who get jobs are the work is collected, it has a much better chance of hitting people who don’t discourage easily, and who continue to hone “civilian” readers. their craft until it’s at a publishable point. Dave Sim used to tell DF: How would a civilian reader even know about something like neophyte artists that you have two thousand bad comic book that to want to buy it? pages that you have to get through before you get to your first DS: Well, civilian readers go to bookstores. So, again, I think publishable page. And to a great extent, that’s true. You have that diversifying thematically kind of goes hand-in-hand with to have patience and determination. And I’m probably idealistic moving to graphic novel format. And both of them have to work here, but just as I believe about comics, and when you asked together, I think, for the medium to continue to exist and to earlier about Dark Horse’s mission and so on, in the end, I still grow. have this little schoolgirl, Mort Weisinger-educated belief that DF: And you think people browsing the way people do in good will out. bookstores will mean that publishers won’t need to have DF: [laughs] Me, too. enormous advertising and publicity budgets, that just people DS: And if I have a mission at all here, it’s to publish good kind of hanging out and browsing will do the trick? comics that are worth reading. DS: Well, one would hope so. But then, beyond that, Publisher’s DF: I couldn't ask for a better way to end the interview. Thanks, Weekly [the main trade magazine of the publishing industry Diana. —DF] has suddenly gotten hip to graphic novels. They’re DS: Thank you, Danny. reviewing graphic novels, they’re not reviewing individual comics.
THE END
SCHUTZ | 71
Platinum Reflections
The SCOTT MITCHELL ROSENBERG Interview Part 2
Conducted by Danny Fingeroth via telephone February 4, 2003 Transcribed by Steven Tice / Copy-edited by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
F
writing teams to go out (meaning we went around and pitched rom his days as founder and publisher of Malibu Comics, a story with a screenwriter, all the studios said “no” to that where such properties as Men In Black were launched, particular story, so we waited a while, then went out with to his current role as head of Platinum Studios, home of another screenwriter with a different take). So we’re willing to Showtime’s Jeremiah series, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg has do all that. A lot of producers will throw it against the wall, always been focused on finding exciting new properties and which may be appropriate for some properties (well, some bringing them to as wide an audience as possible. Unlike already printed ones). A creator who wants instant satisfaction, other studios, Platinum’s emphasis is on developing for whatever reason—and some of the reasons are valid—he properties originated by comics creators, as well as discovneeds an answer. He’s best going to someone who will throw it ering new comics creators. In the first part of this interview, against the wall. Now, the thing’s dead after that, but there’s a Scott described the road that brought him to where he is chance that someone will say yes. today. Now, the conversation continues as he talks in detail DF: I know you generate projects in-house. Is that the exception, about what Platinum is looking for, how to present ideas to or do you do a lot of that? them, and what the future might bring for the company. SMR: We also have the Platinum Megaverse Bible, which we —DF have a team of people right now putting together, taking into DANNY FINGEROTH: So you’re not in the comic publishing account all of the last several years in our universe, stuff like business in the traditional sense. If it doesn’t have that other Cowboys and Aliens and Atlantis Rising and a bunch of others thing going on for it, the movie/TV thing, then it’s not really for that we’ve been creating. So that universe has its beginning, you. middle, and how far it goes in the future, the whole bit. SCOTT ROSENBERG: We have to think that the characters, or DF: The “Platinum Universe” in the same sense as the “Marvel the world, or the stories can live, breath and move around Universe,” that it’s an interconnected fictional universe of through other mediums. And we’re willing to work to make that characters? happen. SMR: Absolutely. It’s very cool. So with that, we definitely have DF: Does someone need an agent to come work with Platinum? writers that write for us in that universe. Some of them create SMR: No, to us, it doesn’t matter one way or the other. It’s storylines or mini-bibles for us and put them in the universe. best, though, if the creator’s at least somewhat knowledgeable We’ve worked with probably ten writers in the past three about how deals work, and what is and isn’t realistic in terms months just working specifically on developing storylines in the of getting a film made. If the creator’s main goal is a film, then bible, some of them writing comic books. I’m not sure they’ll be happy since the odds are so horrible. It’s DF: That’s the end I’ve been involved in with you guys. best if their love is of making comics, and their hope is that it’ll SMR: Right! pay off economically some day. DF: Now Marv Wolfman—is he involved somewhere in the Once the creators are knowledgeable about the Hollywood end of things, they have to go with their gut. There’s lots of producers out there, so it’s easy for a creator to talk to other creators and say, “Hey, which producer do I pitch to?” And there’s totally different kinds of producers. We’re willing to make a comic. We’re willing to spend a few years even if everybody says “no.” Men in Black, every studio said “no” to me on. Jeremiah, I got tons of nos. So I’m used to no’s. But we don’t care. If we like something, we’re going to keep at it. We’ve taken the same project and packaged it with three different screenConcept art for the Platinum project Jaunt. Story by Dean Motter and art by Stefano Cardoselli. [Jaunt and all characters TM & ©2003 Platinum Studios, LLC.]
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The cast of Jeremiah: Luke Perry, Sean Astin, and Malcolm Jamal-Warner. [©2003 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc.]
process? SMR: Absolutely! He’s done terrific stuff for us in our bible and on graphic novels. DF: Do you have any competitors? Is there anyone in the same business as Platinum, or do you have a pretty unique niche? SMR: There’s tons of producers, but I don’t think there’s anyone like us. Do you? DF: I don’t. You have a unique aspect. I guess if you go to someone and you say you’re the comic book guys, it’s sort of “aren’t Marvel and DC the comic book guys?” But you have a new take on it and a different approach to it, I think, and that would be the difference, it would be what sets you apart from them. You once said producing hundreds of comics at Malibu was your most important professional accomplishment to date. I thought that was interesting considering all the cool stuff you’ve done since. Is that still something you believe, even with all the stuff you’re doing at Platinum now? SMR: Well, I guess I just have to add into that mix. And seeing Men in Black come to life, and Jeremiah... I like stories from comic books coming to life, as comics or as other media. And that’s the thing that just gets me. DF: It certainly was a great coup to get Joe Straczynski for Jeremiah. How did that come about? This guy must get offered a million projects. How did he come to agree to do the series? Did you have a previous relationship with him? Did you know him before? SMR: No. I knew Babylon 5 and was in love with that show creatively. From the business side, I knew that he had brought the episodes in on time, on or under budget, for five years. So basically, I loved his work, and met with him about Jeremiah. He was at first unsure, to say the least. And we just kept talking. Quite honestly, I chased him. DF: Do you have input and approval over everything? SMR: A lot of people have input. The network airing it and the studio financing it, honestly, can call all the shots. The executive producers, Ervin Rustemagic and myself and Joe Dante and Mike Finnel and others—we all said “we believe in Joe’s vision,” and then Joe and Sam Egan (EP, great guy, and ran the show with Joe for the first season) ran the show, and the world, so to speak. What also is important, and the writers also see this first hand, is how the characters play out, and things change, sometimes with the actor’s suggestions, sometimes with executives’. DF: Now, Jeremiah came from one of Ervin’s properties that Herman had created, right? How did that come about? SMR: Herman created it in the early ’70s. There’s been over 20 volumes. Malibu published it at the exact same time we published Men in Black, in ’89 or ’90. I was a big fan of it when I published it then. So when Ervin and I were starting up Platinum, playing around with this was a natural. We just
thought there would be a really good TV series in Jeremiah, because there’s just so much to do with those characters. DF: There were about a thousand properties that Platinum got through combining with Ervin at that point, correct? SMR: Yeah. What we were doing was, we were reading through a lot of the different things that Ervin had asked us to. Some worked, some didn’t work. This was one that stood out in our minds as totally working. DF: Now, Ervin’s no longer part of Platinum? SMR: No, as companies, we’re separate. He’s had Strip Art Features since the ’70s and decided to spend his full time and attention on that (and his family). In terms of projects that we started on together, we’re partners, and there are quite a few projects. DF: Right. And he’s still in...? SMR: Slovenia. He has fantastic relationships with creators and he has a lot of different kinds of material. DF: To backtrack a little bit, if I, as a comics creator, come to you with a property and you like it, is there any chance that I would get to write, direct, or produce the movie or series? SMR: Film and TV are very different. The short answer is TV is a lot easier than features. But I’ll answer that in a few ways. This is all coming from what is best for the property, which is how we always have to analyze that. Our situation—and this would be the same concern for any producer looking at something—is “what do we need to do to get the project set up at a certain studio?” We have to look at what’s best for the project in terms of getting it set up. If this is a writer who has never written or directed any film or TV before, it is incredibly unlikely that, short of them writing a spec—-which we would consider allowing depending on how long they thought it would take them to do it and if they’re open to direction and if they’re comfortable with the idea that if people don’t like the spec, then we go on to a different writer. Of course, the spec’s worth a lot of money if it works. So if it’s a writer who hasn’t written or directed anything before, the situation, when you go to studios, is you have to go in, you pitch the property, and you typically pitch a writer with it. The studio execs do not like taking chances on writers for whom there are no feature samples that the studio likes. There are some execs, if they really like the project, and the writing is free, might go for it, but it’s a friggin’ tough thing to be able to do. Now, a lot of times studios will take a chance if it’s a highprofile comics creator known for doing lots and lots and lots and lots of comics. They’ll then take a chance and see how it works. Maybe. I’m putting a big “maybe” there because it goes into their negative One of Platinum’s earliest successes, the column in terms of their Tommy Lee Jones/Will Smith hit Men In Black. looking at something. [©2003 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.] ROSENBERG | 73
people want to see color artwork, some Here’s the problem. At a studio, the exec— people want it distilled down to a whoever this exec is, I don’t care if he’s the paragraph, some people want a line, head of the studio or the lowest level develsome want a ten-page treatment, opment person—they have to talk to other some want the whole manuscript of people there on a committee and sell this the upcoming graphic novel, some very project and sell who’s going to be doing few want the comics to read. There’s it. Again, I don’t care if it’s the different things that we do, and head of the company or the lowest depending who we’re showing it to, we person, they invariably have to say know all their personalities. So, with agents, to go into a group and say, “Hey, we’ll do a couple of things. At a very early we’re looking at doing such-andlevel, let’s say a creator pitches us such. Any reason we shouldn’t?” something and we’re just not sure. By not DF: And to just say, “I’ve read the sure, I mean that we like it, because we’re pitch and it’s good” is not enough. not going to do anything we don’t like, but we SMR: If there’s no script, and it’s an just aren’t sure if there’s anything similar out unknown writer, it’s gotta be a high there because, even though we’re at all concept that the studio’s just the studios every day, we never ask willing to throw away that if, “gee, is there such and such money if it fails. you’re considering?” Or, “oh wow, DF: “MTV Cops.” that project with the robot at SMR: What? Warner, is that going forward or is DF: MTV Cops. Wasn’t that it dead now?” But if somehow we supposedly the high concept pitch for find out it’s dead. “Oh, cool! Okay, Miami Vice? then this is a type of project that SMR: Yeah, exactly. So if a writer wants to be we can do!” So a lot of times, attached, for us to go around that way, where he’s not we’ll run our ideas by agents, and showing a spec script he’s written for the project, but this isn’t for them to sell for us, is going to go pitch it with us to studios, we have to because we don’t have them sell for really believe that this guy is friggin’ Character art from the Platinum project Nightfall. Story us. That’s a big difference in how awesome in a room, that we’ve read stuff by Scott O. Brown and art by Ferran Xalabarder. we use agents. We use them as a that totally will get us and some other [Nightfall TM & ©2003 Platinum Studios, LLC.] sounding board, we use them to execs ready to believe that he can write a suggest team-ups, whether it’s a script. If not, it’s a negative, and will bring writer, a director, talent, another company, whatever. Because down our ability to sell a project, because it means we don’t we have no ego in terms of sending projects out. If it takes walk in with a writer that the studio does like. teaming up with another producer because they’re best friends DF: I love that phrase, “awesome in a room.” That’s my phrase of with a particular writer we want, fine, we don’t care. None of the week. that ultimately affects the creator or his participation. It affects SMR: You know, it’s sad, but writers who sell the most pitches us, but we don’t care. So we’ll use our agents as sounding act like actors. boards to see if we’re in the realm of “does this work?” And, if DF: I’m sure. so, then great, we’ll go forward with it. Then we later on may SMR: So it depends on their past and what they’ve done. By use the agent as, “Do you have a writer for us?” And if you do, the way, a lot of writers, if the pitch is for a TV series, want a terrific. If you don’t, we’re going to go somewhere else and pay shot at writing episodes. We have a lot of creators who say, them. “We’d like—subject, obviously to network approval—to get a DF: So that’s the incentive for the agents to advise you, because shot at writing scripts.” And that pays a lot more money than you’re a possible market for their clients. comics. And that’s easier because that’s not a walking in the SMR: Yes, we’re a possible market for their clients, and they door and demanding to write the movie or run the show issue. have other areas to get compensation from us. Because of all DF: Now, I know Platinum has a relationship with the William the other stuff that we’re doing, they have other areas of Morris Agency. How does that work? revenue from us, which they like. SMR: We actually have strong ties with several of the DF: I guess one thing that I want to emphasize to people reading agencies. William Morris, we’ve dealt with the longest, and this is that Platinum is definitely open to receiving pitches from their vice-chairman, who just retired, is a personal friend, so we people who are not established writers. You’re casting a wide get together all the time. Basically, what we do is, we will go to net, in general. our agent with the movie or TV idea from the comic. We talk to SMR: Yeah. And Lee Nordling is terrific at working with people the different agents. And basically, we’ll share with them an who are not established writers. idea that we have. Let’s say someone pitches us a comic. We DF: Now, if somebody had an idea for a TV show, would they go distill it down to a form we think the agent is comfortable to Lee, or would they go to the Platinum home office? reading. Actually, I think in every kind of presentation, whether SMR: We really try to avoid things that start as movie or TV it’s for business or whether it’s for film or TV or whatever, you ideas. We really want things to start as comics. have to present it to whoever’s looking at it in the way that is DF: Why, specifically? going to be the most comfortable for them. What we do, partly, SMR: Because I’m a big believer that the development process as a producer, is we do a zillion different versions. Some 74 | WRITE NOW
going to be told not only in print, but a lot of comics selfof thinking up a character or a world or a situation for a comic publishers can’t afford print, but they can get their feet wet book is the best launching-off point for TV and film and everylaunching a comic online. Maybe it’s not up to top quality thing else. standards because they have to do it without income, but then DF: For an action/adventure property, or for any kind of idea? they can slowly get a market for it, and then they get a SMR: For me, for anything. We don’t have writers coming in publisher, and then they go into print. But I think at a certain and saying, “Hey, I want to do a TV show.” The only way we point, people will pay for... I’m calling it “electronic comics,” would ever consider that is if we were going to go develop it as and again, that’s a wide definition, I have no idea how it will a comic first. The only exception to this, and we’re just thinking actually be delivered, that’s going to change a million times— about it, is that a studio we have an animation relationship but I think, eventually, people will pay for that. I think that the with wants us to bring in more ideas, whether comics or not. cost of reading the electronic comic is always going to be We’re thinking about that for animated series television. But significantly less than reading the print comic, for the same that’s not our norm. reason as you can go online and pay a subscription fee and DF: So you’re really, really dedicated to the whole comic origin of listen to thirty albums for a lot less than you could buy thirty stuff? albums. SMR: Yes. DF: There’s no physical thing that needs to be manufactured or DF: Very cool. And it does make you unique. shipped. SMR: And by the way, a creator can certainly say, “Hey, I see SMR: Right. And it’s profitable to the company offering them, this as eventually for TV, by the way, so keep that in mind when because they can offer them at ten percent of the price and you’re looking at this” or something. If they’re doing that, they make money. Some people are just going to like reading things need to take into account as they’re writing their proposal for in their hands, that’s never going to go away. And others are the comic, if they’re thinking TV, they gotta think, “Okay, is this going to like reading them online. And I think, over time, there’s live or animated, is it adult or kids.” Is it doable? Some people going to be an explosion of electronic comics, and I think it’s come in and pitch something that just totally isn’t in the realm going to drive up comic book popularity significantly both in of doable, and some of them are very open to our saying, “Hey, print and electronics. change all this to make it doable,” and other are like, “No! It’s DF: From your mouth to God’s ear, as they say. this way or no way.” So on a “this way or no way” situation, we SMR: You take a look at radio. The more a band or a song are either like it as is, and respect the vision, or pass on it. Hey, played on the radio, the more its album sales go up, not down. it’s less work for us—we don’t have to explain everything that There’s no reason why comics won’t at some point work in that has to be changed. same manner. DF: Now, I know you have a website, and you were talking before DF: Are there any particular electronic initiatives that you’re about electronic comics. Tell me a little bit about the Internet working on that you want to talk about? and interactive media as part of the Platinum picture. Where SMR: We’re really just exploring. It’s not a good economic does that fit in? environment to do a launch. We have a few electronic comics SMR: I believe that at some point in the future—and I don’t on our site. We have more of them that we have on a private know if that’s five years, I don’t know if that’s twenty years— that comics are going to evolve from being not just in print, but also being online. When I say online, I mean that in the widest terms. Whatever its viewed or experienced on—on a cell phone or on the net, on a CD, whatever. DF: Wherever people are getting their entertainment. SMR: Exactly. I think comic book storytelling is going to last forever. It certainly has lasted for a long, long time already. In fact, I think from a creative standpoint—I know from a sales standpoint, comics certainly aren’t that high now—but from a creative standpoint, I say it’s going to last forever. DF: I agree with that. SMR: I believe that creators now are able to do so much more than they could before. Two pages from the Platinum project Ages of Kings. Story by Andrew Foley and art by Russell Hossain. So I think that those stories are [Age of Kings TM & ©2003 Platinum Studios, LLC.] ROSENBERG | 75
DF: All right. Any other projects that you want to back door that we plug? don’t let out yet, SMR: One of the things you may want to mention is that we partnered that we really do have strong ties with all of the with several big major studios and the major agencies, and that we music companies are, unlike a lot of places, incredibly eager to hear to give them music pitches. It is a focus of our company. A lot of times, and professional the submissions editor is the lowest person on the voiceovers and the totem pole at a company. For us it’s a priority. whole bit. But we DF: Do you have a vision of where Platinum will be think the market five years from now, ten years from now? isn’t there yet, so SMR: I think that we’re going to be producing a we haven’t really steady stream of TV shows and movies. The TV shown all of them. material will be both animated and live, and the We have little 30features, maybe some animated, we’re hoping, but second previews mostly live. A lot of on our site... them are sequels. And Previews of the future, if you will… I’m hoping to get a lot DF: And your site is...? more toys in my office SMR: platinumstudios.com. from them. DF: That’s very logical. [laughs] DF: And these things SMR: So you can get a feel for what they are. you’ll be producing, you But again, the market isn’t there yet. I don’t still see them as know when it will be. We’ve spent a lot of predominantly from money developing them, developing them with comic book sources? Adobe, putting them together. We know how SMR: Yeah. I would we can make them. And we know that they think that the majority can be made, either as animation-quality as of what we would do what we’re doing, or they can be more of the moving panels and just a little bit of sound, Concept art from The Human Factor. Character artwork by Mitchell would end up being from comic books. which is obviously a lot more cost-effective to Breitweiser, story by Scott O. Brown, graphic novel artwork by Right now it’s 100%. I do. Russell Hossain. [The Human Factor and all characters TM & keep saying we’re open DF: Your highest-profile properties are Men in ©2003 Platinum Studios, LLC to other things, but I Black and Jeremiah, so I’d love to hear about just keep seeming to like stuff from the comic book world. And what’s coming up for them, and then about any other big we take an interesting approach. When we read a submission projects or projects you’re especially excited about. from somebody, our guys, before they give it to me, are SMR: Well, one we’re particularly excited about is Cowboys and knowing that I’m hoping they can say yes. You know, a lot of Aliens. I cannot say which studio yet, but they have told us that people look at submissions and want to say no. We actually they want to make it a tentpole Summer ’06 movie. look at it and want to say yes. And when talking around the DF: Congratulations. I hope that happens. committee, it’s like, “Look, it’s no as it is, but is there anything SMR: Yeah. It’ll be a wonderful, big, expensive movie. And that we can do to it to make it yes?” So we really actually try that’s something that’s been lots of years in development, to think that through. Some creators say, “I want to do it my which happens. Jeremiah is doing terrifically. We’ve added way, period, end of story.” And then we evaluate it based on Sean Astin to the cast. that. We take whatever the creators’ wishes are into considerDF: From Lord of the Rings, of course. And when is the second ation as we’re deciding whether to go forward with the project. season premiering? There’s also the persistence factor. If a creator keeps SMR: When this magazine comes out, I’ll know—right now, submitting comic book ideas to us and hitting it close, but still we’re not sure. Most likely August. One of the things they want getting a pass from us, we start rooting for that creator. For to take into account is how to tie in promotion as best they can that kind of creator, the one who keeps pitching and getting with Sean Astin joining the cast. So we don’t know. We’re now passed on, (but has good pitches—and they can ask us if we producing the episodes. In about four or five months, we’ll be think they should keep trying), we KNOW that’s the person we finished producing the second season. So it will be some want to work with, and the more they keep pitching, the more number of months after that that the show gets launched. The we know we’ll find something. And then once we find one, there production’s going great. will be more. We also know that’s the person who will underDF: I can’t wait to see it. Is there going to be a Men in Black 3? stand what we go through every day trying to get projects SMR: Yup! financed. “No” shouldn’t stop a person. That’s the person that DF: Anything you can talk about or tell us about that? succeeds. SMR: There’s nothing that we’re able to publicly say. DF: Well, you can’t ask for more than that. Thanks, Scott. And DF: How about the animated series, are there going to be more that new phone gizmo worked just fine. episodes of that? SMR: Thanks, Danny. Let’s get some Write Now! SMR: Everyone’s looking into that right now. That’s the official readers to be Platinum writers. answer. DF: Sounds good to me.
THE END
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Feedback Letters from our readers
tainment value to each issue so readers would want to come back next month even though they weren’t forced to. Keep up the good work!
Hello, Danny F! I’m a Norwegian comic fan in my mid-twenties, trying every day to perfect the art of comic book writing. Needless to say, your magazine is a splendid supplement to all the other books I’ve gathered on the topic. Not only that, I think it’s the best comics-related mag out there! In which other mags can you find lengthy interview after lengthy interview with the industry’s most talented players? Anyway, I have a couple of questions. Are you going to interview some of the big hitters in the European or Japanese comic industry, or are you sticking to the US for now? And when can we expect interviews with the likes of Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Peter David, or even Alan Moore? That’s all for now, keep up the good work! Looking forward to the In Depth feature in issue 6!
Thanks for the compliments and the food for thought, Craig, I’m sure your observations will generate much controversy among DFWN!’s always opinionated readership. (And if Mr. S’s name seems familiar, he is, of course, the writer of the always enjoyable “Mr. Silver Age” column from the pages of The Comic Buyer’s Guide.)
Glenn Moane Via the internet Glad DFWN! has been helpful to you, Glenn. As for answers to your questions: I have a feeling that the interviews will probably focus on creators of US comics and animation for the near future. The gentlemen you mention may well appear here soon. Danny, I wanted to let you know that I’m enjoying DFWN! Even though I’m not a comics pro, I am a freelance writer, and I enjoy comparing the interviewees’ experiences with my own. I even occasionally pick up a tip! Your interview with Dennis O’Neil in DFWN! #4 again brought up the notion of “entertainment value per dollar.” Dennis compared comics with movies, and in DFWN #1, you compared them with cable TV and movies, as an entry to your discussion of the advantages in presentation that comics have over other media. But the comparisons aren’t equal, because with a comic book, you own the entertainment source, and it can provide value in many ways after that initial reading. The real problem is that most individual comics today aren’t worth re-reading. Comics could be reread haphazardly and traded individually because each comic had its own entertainment value. Even Marvel’s notorious continued storylines were masterfully designed, because each issue resolved a cliffhanger set up in the previous issue, told a new story and then set up a new cliffhanger (that would be resolved next issue). Most of today’s periodical comics are merely a stop-gap format to generate some cash flow before heading for the trade paperback end market. As a result, comics are not being written to be read in periodical form. It’s ironic that those stand-alone stories, if written by writers who understood the format, just might add enough enter-
Craig Shutt Via the internet
Dear Danny: I am intrigued by the comments in the Fabian Nicieza interview asking how to attract a new age of comic readers. As a father of three young children, I’m hoping and trying to get my children interested in comic books. Television shows such as Justice League help, but I am greatly disconcerted by the darkness and the violence in so many comics today. If we write to an audience of 40-year-olds, that’s what we’ll get. If we want to get an audience of teens and pre-teens, then we need to write to them. The Hot Wheels comic program Fabian is involved with sounds great. I’ll be on the lookout for it for my boys. And I agree that an age-appropriate series based on a familiar property such as Shrek or Ice Age is a great starting point. So once we have the age-appropriate titles, how do we get it into the hands of the kids? Free comic book day is/was a good start, but there’s still the problem of getting kids, who’ve never been into a comic book store, to suddenly go into one. Why not ship those free comics directly into the schools? Or team up with an organization such as Scholastic to put a free comic into the hands of everyone who buys a Scholastic book at one of their fairs? As comic buyers/readers we can do our part by picking up some of these pre-teen titles, and leaving them at places such as the doctor’s office, the dentist’s, a school library. (I’m considering getting a gift subscription to Scooby Doo for my local public library.) Daniel Munson Via the internet More power to you, Daniel. Even if they outgrow kids’ comics, I really believe that if people don’t start reading comics as children, they won’t have the interest or unique skills set that even the most intelligent people must develop to enjoy reading comics. Anything you can do to get kids interested is great!
I can’t wait to hear what you thought of this issue—and about what your fellow readers had to say! You can send your e-mails and letters to me at WriteNowDF@aol.com or Danny Fingeroth, Write Now!, c/o TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605. See ya next time.
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THE TWOMORROWS LIBRARY
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
TOP ARTISTS DISCUSS THE DESIGN OF COMICS
STREETWISE
TOP ARTISTS DRAWING STORIES OF THEIR LIVES
DICK GIORDANO
THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE CAPTAIN ACTION debuted in the wake of the ’60s Batman TV show, and could become 13 different super-heroes. With over 200 toy photos, this trade paperback chronicles his history (including comic book appearances), with historical anecdotes by the late GIL KANE, JIM SHOOTER, STAN WESTON (co-creator of GI Joe, Captain Action, and Mego’s World’s Greatest Super-Heroes), and others, plus never-seen artwork by GIL KANE, JOE STATON, CARMINE INFANTINO, JERRY ORDWAY, and MURPHY ANDERSON! Includes a color section! Written by MICHAEL EURY!
Top creators discuss all aspects of the DESIGN OF COMICS:
An unprecedented assembly of talent drawing NEW autobiographical stories:
MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality!
• WILL EISNER • SCOTT HAMPTON • MIKE WIERINGO • WALTER SIMONSON • MIKE MIGNOLA • MARK SCHULTZ • DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI • MIKE CARLIN • DICK GIORDANO • BRIAN STELFREEZE • CHRIS MOELLER • MARK CHIARELLO
• Barry WINDSOR-SMITH • C.C. BECK • Sergio ARAGONÉS • Walter SIMONSON • Brent ANDERSON • Nick CARDY • Roy THOMAS & John SEVERIN • Paul CHADWICK • Rick VEITCH • Murphy ANDERSON • Joe KUBERT • Evan DORKIN • Sam GLANZMAN • Plus Art SPIEGELMAN, Jack KIRBY, more! Cover by RUDE • Foreword by EISNER
• Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS on his career milestones! • Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! • Extensive index of his published work! • Comments & tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO & others! • With a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!
If you’re serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this guide is must-reading! (208-Page Trade Paperback) $26 US
(160-Page Trade Paperback) $24 US
EISNER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SHORT STORY!
CAPTAIN ACTION
CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME
“I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS GUY!” Explore the lives of the partners and wives of the top names in comics, as they share memories, anecdotes, personal photos, momentos, and never-before-seen art by the top creators in comics! • ALAN MOORE • WILL EISNER • STAN LEE • GENE COLAN • JOE KUBERT • JOHN ROMITA • HARVEY KURTZMAN • DAVE SIM • HOWARD CRUSE • DAN DeCARLO • DAVE COOPER and many more! (208-Page Trade Paperback) $24 US
(176-Page Trade Paperback) $20 US
(176-pg. Paperback) $24 US
THE EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF
ALAN MOORE THE LEGION COMPANION • A history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with DAVE COCKRUM, MIKE GRELL, JIM STARLIN, JAMES SHERMAN, PAUL LEVITZ, KEITH GIFFEN, STEVE LIGHTLE, MARK WAID, JIM SHOOTER, JIM MOONEY, AL PLASTINO, and more! • Rare and never-seen Legion art by the above, plus GEORGE PÉREZ, NEAL ADAMS, CURT SWAN, and others! • Unused Cockrum character designs and pages from an UNUSED STORY! • New cover by DAVE COCKRUM and JOE RUBINSTEIN, introduction by JIM SHOOTER, and more! (224-page Trade Paperback) $29 US
THE LIFE & ART OF
MURPHY ANDERSON R.C. HARVEY’s lavishly illustrated autobiographical memoir of the man whose style defined the DC look for a generation!! • Covers his work on SUPERMAN, HAWKMAN, ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, BUCK ROGERS, and more! • Loaded with ANDERSON ART, plus behind-the-scenes anecdotes about FINE, EISNER, SWAN, KANE, and others! • Includes a deluxe COLOR SECTION showcasing many of Murphy’s finest cover recreations and paintings! (176-page Trade Paperback) $22 US
COMIC BOOKS & OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE A collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV COLUMNS, featuring a NEW COVER and ILLUSTRATIONS by SERGIO ARAGONÉS! Includes his best essays and commentaries, plus many never before published on: • The state of the art form (as only Mark conveys it)! • The industry’s leading practitioners (including JACK KIRBY and CARL BARKS)! • Convention-going and Mark’s old comic book club (with unforgettable anecdotes)!
AGAINST THE GRAIN: MAD ARTIST
WALLACE WOOD
The definitive biographical memoir on one of comics' finest artists, 20 years in the making! • Former associate BHOB STEWART traces Wood's life and career, with contributions from many artists and writers who knew Wood personally, making this a remarkable compendium of art, insights and critical commentary! • From childhood drawings & early samples to nearly endless comics pages (many unpublished), this is the most stunning display of Wood art ever assembled! • BILL PEARSON, executor of the Wood Estate, has contributed rare drawings directly from Wood's own files, while noted art collector ROGER HILL provides a wealth of obscure, previously unpublished Wood drawings and paintings. • Available in SOFTCOVER or LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER with 16 extra full-color pages, plus bonus B&W plates! (336-Page Trade Paperback) $44 US (352-Page Limited Hardcover) $64 US
HERO GETS GIRL!
THE LIFE & ART OF KURT SCHAFFENBERGER MARK VOGER’s biography of the artist of LOIS LANE & CAPTAIN MARVEL! • Covers KURT’S LIFE AND CAREER from the 1940s to his passing in 2002! • Features NEVER-SEEN PHOTOS & ILLUSTRATIONS from his files! • Includes recollections by ANDERSON, EISNER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ALEX ROSS, MORT WALKER and others! (128-page Trade Paperback) $19 US
The reclusive British author tells HIS OWN STORY in an extensive series of interviews! • Spotlights RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK and PHOTOGRAPHS of the author, most never published before! • Features comic stories about Moore by: NEIL GAIMAN, DAVE GIBBONS, SAM KIETH, KEVIN O’NEILL, BRIAN BOLLAND, RICK VEITCH, and others, plus an artistic tribute by ALEX ROSS, and a new cover by DAVE MCKEAN! • Includes the RARE MOORE STORIES “Pictopia,” “Lust,” his unseen work on JUDGE DREDD, and more! (208-Page Trade Paperback) $29 US
WERTHAM WAS RIGHT! A second collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV COLUMNS, with a NEW COVER and ILLUSTRATIONS by SERGIO ARAGONÉS! Includes more of Mark’s best essays and commentaries! • Features many never-before published columns on comic book history, creation, and appreciation! • Includes Mark’s diatribe on comic book numbering! • Essay on comics greatest villain, DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM! (200-page Trade Paperback) $17 US
(200-page Trade Paperback) $17 US
READ EXCERPTS & ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com
ARY! FEBRUOW! N I S P SHI ORDER N PRE-
THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOL. ONE
THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOL. TWO
COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, VOLUME ONE
Reprints the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-3, plus over 50 NEW PAGES of features and art:
Second volume in the series, reprinting the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #5-6 (spotlighting 1970s DC and Marvel comics), plus over 50 NEW PAGES of features and art:
Finally back in print after several years, this first volume collects the long sold-out early issues of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR!
• An unpublished story by JACK KIRBY! • An interview with NEAL ADAMS about his SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI book (including unused art)! • Unpublished BERNIE WRIGHTSON art! • An unused story by JEFFREY JONES! • Extensive new ALAN WEISS interview (including unpublished art), & more! (228-page Trade Paperback) $26 US
EISNER AWARD NOMINEE!
• New interviews with MARSHALL ROGERS, STEVE ENGLEHART, & TERRY AUSTIN on their highly-acclaimed 1970s Batman work! • An extensive look at perhaps the rarest 1970s comic of all, DC’s CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE, showcasing unused stories from that decade! (208-page Trade Paperback) $24 US
• REPRINTS TJKC #1-9 (including the lowdistribution first issues, the FOURTH WORLD theme issue, and the first FANTASTIC FOUR theme issue)! • Special section presenting over 30 PIECES of Kirby art NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED IN TJKC! • Interviews with KIRBY, JOE SIMON, MIKE ROYER, MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN, JOE SINNOTT, and other Kirby collaborators! • Features an introduction by MARK EVANIER, articles on Jack’s life and career, and page after page of RARE KIRBY ART, much in pencil form!
WALLACE WOOD CHECKLIST
Lists Wood’s PUBLISHED COMICS WORK in detail, plus FANZINE ART, ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATIONS, UNPUBLISHED WORK, and more. Illustrated with rare and unseen Wood artwork! (68 Pages) $7 US
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST
Lists all of Jack Kirby’s PUBLISHED COMICS in detail, plus PORTFOLIOS, UNPUBLISHED WORK; even crossreferences reprints! Filled with rare Kirby artwork! (100 Pages) $7 US
G-FORCE: ANIMATED
THE OFFICIAL BATTLE OF THE PLANETS GUIDEBOOK The official compendium to the Japanese animated TV program that revolutionized anime across the globe! Featuring plenty of unseen artwork and designs from the wondrous world of G-FORCE (a.k.a. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), it presents interviews and behind-the-scenes stories of the pop culture phenomenon that captured the hearts and imagination of Generation X, and spawned the new hit comic series! Co-written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, this FULL-COLOR account is highlighted by a NEW PAINTED COVER from master artist ALEX ROSS! (96-Page Trade Paperback) $20 US
(240-page Trade Paperback) $29 US
ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION
FAWCETT COMPANION THE BEST OF FCA
Reprints the ALTER EGO flip-sides from the out-of-print COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, plus 30 NEW PAGES of features & art:
Presenting the best of the FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA newsletter!
• Special color cover by JOE KUBERT! • All-new rare and previously-unpublished art by JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, JOE KUBERT, WALLY WOOD, FRANK ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, and others! • STEVE DITKO on the creation of SPIDER-MAN, ROY THOMAS on THE X-MEN, AVENGERS/KREE-SKRULL WAR, THE INVADERS, and more!
• New JERRY ORDWAY cover! • Index of ALL FAWCETT COMICS! • Looks inside the FAWCETT OFFICES! • Interviews, features, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, DAVE BERG, ALEX TOTH, BOB OKSNER, GEORGE EVANS, ALEX ROSS, Foreword by MARC SWAYZE, and more!
(160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US
(160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US
CRAZY HIP GROOVY GO-GO WAY-OUT MONSTERS
From Frankenclops on the cover and ads for cheap junk, to features on Wanky Winklehausen, Helena Handbasket, and Lom Hinky (by “editor” Gorry Hackerman), PETE VON SHOLLY’s spoof of monster mags will have you laughing your pants off—right after you soil them from sheer terror! (48 Pages) $8 US
MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 1:
MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 2:
First volume in a new series devoted to the best of today's comics artists looks at ALAN DAVIS!
Second volume focuses on GEORGE PÉREZ, from THE AVENGERS and TEEN TITANS to CRISIS and beyond!
• ALAN DAVIS’ most IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW to date, including influences, and his views on graphic storytelling! • DELUXE SKETCHBOOK section, & HUGE GALLERY of rare and unseen Davis art! • Interviews with collaborators PAUL NEARY and MARK FARMER!
• Contains rare and unseen artwork, direct from GEORGE’S PRIVATE FILES! • Features a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW with Pérez on his stellar career, including the JLA/Avengers series! • DELUXE SKETCHBOOK section & MORE!
(128-Page Trade Paperback) $17 US
(128-Page Trade Paperback) $17 US
ALAN DAVIS
THE WARREN COMPANION JON B. COOKE and DAVID ROACH have compiled the ultimate guide to Warren Publishing, the publisher of such mags as CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA, BLAZING COMBAT, and others. Reprints the Eisner Award-winning magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST #4 (completely reformatted), plus nearly 200 new pages: • New painted cover by ALEX HORLEY! • A definitive WARREN CHECKLIST! • Dozens of NEW FEATURES on CORBEN, FRAZETTA, DITKO and others, and interviews with WRIGHTSON, WARREN, EISNER, ADAMS, COLAN & many more! (272-page Trade Paperback) $35 US Also available as a Limited Edition Hardcover (limited to 1000 copies) signed by JIM WARREN, with custom endleaves, 16 extra pages, plus a WRIGHTSON plate not in the Trade Paperback. (288-page Hardcover) $57 US
GEORGE PÉREZ
MR. MONSTER, VOL. ZERO • 12 Tales of Mr. Monster, with 30 ALL-NEW pages by MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • Collects hard-to-find stories, plus the lost Mr. Monster NEWSPAPER STRIP! • New 8-page FULL-COLOR STORY by KEITH GIFFEN & MICHAEL T. GILBERT! (136-pg. Paperback) $14 US
Prices Include US Postage. Outside the US, Add $2 Per Item Canada, $3 Per Item Surface, $7 Per Item Airmail
TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com
MAGAZINES ABOUT COMICS FROM TWOMORROWS
Edited by JON B. COOKE COMIC BOOK ARTIST, 2000-2002 Eisner Award winner for “Best ComicsRelated Magazine,” celebrates the lives & work of great cartoonists, writers, & editors from all eras through in-depth interviews, feature articles, & unpublished art.
CBA #7: (132 pgs.) 1970s CBA #9: (116 pgs.) CBA #10: (116 pgs.) WALTER CBA #11: (116 pgs.) ALEX CBA #12: (116 pgs.) CBA #13: (116 pgs.) MARVEL CBA #14: (116 pgs.) TOWER MARVEL! JOHN BYRNE, PAUL CHARLTON COMICS: PART SIMONSON, plus WOMEN OF TOTH & SHELDON MAYER! CHARLTON COMICS OF THE HORROR OF THE 1970s! Art/ COMICS! Art by & intvs. with GULACY, DAN ADKINS, RICH ONE! DICK GIORDANO, THE COMICS! RAMONA TOTH interviews, unseen art, 1970s! Rare art/intvs. with interviews with WOLFMAN, WALLY WOOD, DAN ADKINS, BUCKLER, DOUG MOENCH, PETER MORISI, JIM APARO, FRADON, MARIE SEVERIN, appreciations, checklist, & STATON, BYRNE, NEWTON, COLAN, PALMER, THOMAS, LEN BROWN, STEVE JIM MOONEY & STEVE JOE GILL, MCLAUGHLIN, TRINA ROBBINS, JOHN more. Also, SHELLY MAYER’s SUTTON, ZECK, NICK CUTI, a ISABELLA, PERLIN, TRIMPE, SKEATES, GEORGE TUSKA, GERBER, new GULACY cover GLANZMAN, new GIORDANO WORKMAN, new SIMONSON kids, the real life SUGAR & NEW E-MAN strip, new MARCOS, a new COLAN/ new WOOD & ADKINS covers, SPIKE! $9 US STATON cover, more! $9 US PALMER cover, more! $9 US more! $9 US & more! $9 US cover, more! $9 US cover, & more! $9 US
CBA #15: (116 pgs.) LOVE & CBA #16: (132 pgs.) ’70s CBA #17: (116 pgs.) ARTHUR CBA #18: (116 pgs.) COSMIC CBA #19: (116 pgs.) HARVEY CBA #20: (116 pgs.) FATHERS CBA #21: (116 pgs.) THE ART CBA #22: (116 pgs.) GOLD ROCKETEERS! Art by & intvs. ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS! ADAMS & CO.! ART ADAMS COMICS OF THE ’70s! Art by COMICS! Art by & intvs. with & SONS! Art by & intvs. with OF ADAM HUGHES! Art, KEY COMICS! Art by & intvs. with DAVE STEVENS, LOS Art by & interviews with interview & gallery, remem- & intvs. with JIM STARLIN, SIMON & KIRBY, WALLY the top father/son teams in interview & checklist with with RUSS MANNING, WALLY BROS. HERNANDEZ, MATT ERNIE CÓLON, CHAYKIN, bering GRAY MORROW, ALAN WEISS, ENGLEHART, WOOD, AL WILLIAMSON, GIL comics: ADAM, ANDY, & JOE HUGHES, plus a day in the life WOOD, JESSE SANTOS, WAGNER, DEAN MOTTER, ROVIN, AMENDOLA, HAMA, GEORGE ROUSSOS, GEORGE AL MILGROM, LEIALOHA, KANE, SID JACOBSON, FRED KUBERT & JOHN ROMITA SR. of ALEX ROSS, JOHN MARK EVANIER, DON GLUT, new STEVENS/HERNANDEZ new CÓLON & KUPPERBERG EVANS, new ART ADAMS ’60s Bullpen reunion, new RHOADES, MITCH O’CONNELL & JR., new ROMITA & BUSCEMA tribute, new new BRUCE TIMM cover, cover, more! $9 US covers, more! $9 US cover, more! $9 US STARLIN cover, more! $9 US cover, more! $9 US KUBERT covers, more! $9 US HUGHES cover, more! $9 US more! $9 US
SUBSCRIBE!
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR
COMICOLOGY
Edited by BRIAN SANER LAMKEN
CBA #23: (116 pgs.) MIKE CBA #24: (116 pgs.) COMICS CBA #25: (116 pgs.) ALAN MIGNOLA SPOTLIGHT, plus OF NATIONAL LAMPOON with MOORE’S ABC COMICS with JILL THOMPSON: Sandman to GAHAN WILSON, BODÉ, NEAL MOORE, KEVIN NOWLAN, Scary Godmother! Mignola ADAMS, FRANK SPRINGER, GENE HA, RICK VEITCH, J.H. INTERVIEW & ART GALLERY, ALAN KUPPERBERG, BOBBY WILLIAMS, SCOTT DUNBIER, extensive CHECKLIST, new LONDON, MICHAEL GROSS, JIM BAIKIE, and NOWLAN & cover, & more! $9 US more! $9 US WILLIAMS covers! $9 US
COMICOLOGY, the highlyacclaimed magazine about modern comics, recently ended its fourissue run, but back issues are available, featuring never-seen art & interviews. SORRY, ISSUE #1 IS NOW SOLD OUT!
CC #2: (100 pgs.) MIKE CC #3: (100 pgs.) CARLOS CC #4: (116 pgs., final issue) ALLRED interview & portfolio, PACHECO interview & portfolio, ALL-BRIAN ISSUE! Interviews 60 years of THE SPIRIT, 25 ANDI WATSON interview, a look with BRIAN AZZARELLO, years of the X-MEN, PAUL at what comics predicted the BRIAN CLOPPER, BRIAN GRIST interview, FORTY future would be like, new color MICHAEL BENDIS, BRIAN WINKS, new color ALLRED & PACHECO & WATSON covers, BOLLAND, huge BOLLAND portfolio, & more! $8 US GRIST covers, & more! $8 US & more! $8 US
Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH WRITE NOW!, the mag for writers of comics, animation, & sci-fi, puts you in the minds of today’s top writers and editors. Each issue features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, and more.
WN #1: (88 pgs.) MARK WN #2: (96 pgs.) ERIK WN #3: (80 pgs.) DEODATO WN #4: (80 pgs.) Interviews BAGLEY cover & interview, LARSEN cover & interview, JR. Hulk cover, intvs. & articles and lessons with WARREN BRIAN BENDIS & STAN LEE STAN BERKOWITZ on the by BRUCE JONES, AXEL ELLIS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, interviews, JOE QUESADA on Justice League cartoon, TODD ALONSO, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, PAUL DINI, BOB SCHRECK, SCHUTZ, JOEY what editors really want, TOM ALCOTT on Samurai Jack, LEE KURT BUSIEK, FABIAN DIANA DeFALCO, J.M. DeMATTEIS, NORDLING, ANNE D. NICIEZA, STEVEN GRANT, CAVALIERI, STEVEN GRANT, more! $8 US BERNSTEIN, & more! $8 US DENNY O’NEIL, more! $8 US DENNY O’NEIL, more! $8 US
WN #5: (80 pgs.) Interviews WN #6: (80 pgs.) “IN-DEPTH” and lessons by WILL EISNER, focus on POWERS by BENDIS J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI, & OEMING, MARK WAID and BOB SCHRECK, FABIAN DON McGREGOR intvs., BOB NICIEZA, PAUL DINI, JOEY SCHRECK, DIANA SCHUTZ, CAVALIERI, DIANA SCHUTZ, SCOTT M. ROSENBERG, DENNY O’NEIL, more! $8 US DENNY O’NEIL, more! $8 US
Four-issues: $36 Standard, $52 First Class (Canada: $60, Elsewhere: $64 Surface, $80 Airmail).
DRAW!
Four-issues: $20 Standard, $32 First Class (Canada: $40, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail). NOTE: Contains nudity for purposes of figure drawing. Intended for Mature Readers.
WRITE NOW!
Four-issues: $20 Standard, $32 First Class (Canada: $40, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail).
Edited by MIKE MANLEY DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on comics, cartooning, & animation. Each issue features indepth interviews & stepby-step demonstrations from top comics professionals on all aspects of graphic storytelling.
IN SHIPSARY! U R B FE DRAW #2: (116 pgs.) “How- DRAW #3: (80 pgs.) “How-To” DRAW #4: (92 pgs.) “How-To” DRAW #5: (88 pgs.) “How-To” DRAW #6: (88 pgs.) “How-To” DRAW #7: (96 pgs.) “How-To” DRAW #8: (96 pgs.) “How-To” To” demos & interviews with demos & interviews with DICK demos & interviews with ERIK demos & interviews with demos & interviews with BILL demos & interviews with DAN demos & interviews with Birds GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY, GIORDANO, BRET BLEVINS, LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN, BRIAN BENDIS & MIKE WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO, BRERETON, BRET BLEVINS, of Prey’s MATT HALEY, Disney KLAUS JANSON, JERRY CHRIS BAILEY, MIKE DAVE COOPER, BRET OEMING, MIKE WIERINGO, CELIA CALLE, MIKE MANLEY, ANDE PARKS, ALBERTO Animator TOM BANCROFT, ORDWAY, BRET BLEVINS, MANLEY, new column by BLEVINS, new column by MARK McKENNA, BRET BRET BLEVINS, ANDE PARKS, RUIZ, PAUL RIVOCHE, ZACK cartoonist JOSÉ AGREDA, section, product TRENHOLM, color section, BRET BLEVINS, color section, PHIL HESTER, ANDE PARKS, PAUL RIVOCHE, reviews of art PAUL RIVOCHE, color section, BLEVINS, PAUL RIVOCHE, color color section, more! $8 US reviews, and more! $8 US product reviews, more! $8 US product reviews, more! $8 US STEVE CONLEY, more! $8 US supplies, more! $8 US more! $8 US
READ EXCERPTS & ORDER ONLINE AT: www.twomorrows.com Prices Include US Postage. Outside the US, Add $2 Per Item Canada, $3 Per Item Surface, $7 Per Item Airmail.
Edited by JOHN MORROW JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life & career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby & his contemporaries, feature articles, & rare & unseen Kirby artwork. Now in tabloid format, the magazine showcases Kirby’s art at even larger size.
CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE TJKC #20: (68 pgs.) KIRBY’S TJKC #21: (68 pgs.) KIRBY, TJKC #22: (68 pgs.) VIL- TJKC #23: (68 pgs.) Intvs. TJKC #24: (68 pgs.) BATTLES! TJKC #25: (100 pgs.) SIMON EDITION (52 pgs.) Kirby’s WOMEN! Interviews with GIL KANE, & BRUCE TIMM LAINS! KIRBY, STEVE RUDE, with KIRBY, DENNIS O’NEIL KIRBY’S original art fight, JIM & KIRBY! KIRBY, SIMON, & 1975 Graphic Novel in original KIRBY, DAVE STEVENS, & intvs., FAILURE TO COMMU- & MIKE MIGNOLA interviews, and TRACY KIRBY, more FF SHOOTER interview, NEW JOHN SEVERIN interviews, pencil form. Unseen art, LISA KIRBY, unused 10-page NICATE (LEE dialogue vs. FF #49 pencils, FAILURE TO #49 pencils, FAILURE TO GODS #6 (“Glory Boat”) CAPTAIN AMERICA pencils, KOBRA, COMMUNICATE, unused 10- pencils, FAILURE TO COM- unused BOY EXPLORERS screenplay, more! Proceeds go story, romance comics, Jack’s KIRBY notes), SILVER STAR COMMUNICATE, to preserving the 5000-page original CAPTAIN VICTORY screenplay, TOPPS COMICS, ATLAS MONSTERS! Kirby/ page SOUL LOVE story, more! MUNICATE, more! Kirby/ story, history of MAINLINE $8 US screenplay, more! $8 US unpublished art, more! $8 US Stevens cover. $8 US Mignola cover. $8 US COMICS, more! $8 US Kirby Archives! $8 US
TJKC #26: (72 pgs.) GODS! TJKC #27: (72 pages) KIRBY TJKC #28: (84 pgs.) KIRBY TJKC #29: (68 pgs.) ’70s TJKC #30: (68 pgs.) ’80s TJKC #31: (84 pgs.) TABLOID COLOR NEW GODS concept INFLUENCE Part One! KIRBY INFLUENCE Part Two! Intvs. MARVEL! Interviews with WORK! Interviews with ALAN FORMAT! Wraparound KIRBY/ drawings, KIRBY & WALTER and ALEX ROSS interviews, with MARK HAMILL, JOHN KIRBY, KEITH GIFFEN & RICH MOORE & Kirby Estate’s ADAMS cover, KURT BUSIEK SIMONSON interviews, FAIL- KIRBY FAMILY Roundtable, KRICFALUSI, MIKE ALLRED, BUCKLER, ’70s COVER ROBERT KATZ, HUNGER & LADRONN interviews, new URE TO COMMUNICATE, all-star lineup of pros discuss Jack’s grandkids, career of GALLERY in pencil, FAILURE DOGS, SUPER POWERS, MARK EVANIER column, BIBLE INFLUENCES, THOR, Kirby’s influence on them! VINCE COLLETTA, more! TO COMMUNICATE, & more! SILVER STAR, ANIMATION favorite 2-PAGE SPREADS, Kirby/Allred cover. $8 US Kirby/Janson cover. $8 US work, more! $8 US MR. MIRACLE, more! $8 US Kirby / Timm cover. $8 US 2001 Treasury, more! $13 US
TJKC #32: (84 pgs.) TABLOID! KIRBY interview, new MARK EVANIER column, plus Kirby’s Least Known Work: DAYS OF THE MOB #2, THE HORDE, BLACK HOLE, SOUL LOVE, PRISONER, more! $13 US
TJKC #33: (84 pgs.) TABLOID ALL-FANTASTIC FOUR issue! MARK EVANIER column, miniinterviews with everyone who worked on FF after Kirby, STAN LEE interview, 40 pgs. of FF PENCILS, more! $13 US
TJKC #38: (84 pgs.) TABLOID KIRBY: STORYTELLER! MARK EVANIER column, JOE SINNOTT on inking, SWIPES, talks with JACK DAVIS, PAUL GULACY, HERNANDEZ BROS., ART GALLERY, more! $13 US
TJKC #39: (84 pgs.) TABLOID FAN FAVORITES! EVANIER column, INHUMANS, HULK, SILVER SURFER, tribute panel with ROMITA, AYERS, LEVITZ, McFARLANE, TRIMPE, ART GALLERY, more! $13 US
THE JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: (100-Pages) The definitive checklist of Kirby’s work! Lists all his published comics in detail, plus portfolios, unpublished work, & more. It even cross-references reprints, making it easy to find inexpensive alternatives to the original comics! A must-have for eBay shoppers! $7 US
NEXT ISSUE:
TJKC #34: (84 pgs.) TABLOID! TJKC #35: (84 pgs.) TABLOID! TJKC #36: (84 pgs.) TABLOID TJKC #37: (84 pgs.) TABLOID JOE SIMON & CARMINE GREAT ESCAPES with MISTER ALL-THOR issue! MARK HOW TO DRAW THE KIRBY INFANTINO interviews, MARK MIRACLE, comparing KIRBY EVANIER column, SINNOTT & WAY issue! MARK EVANIER EVANIER column, unknown & HOUDINI, Kirby Tribute ROMITA JR. interviews, column, MIKE ROYER on ink1950s concepts, CAPTAIN Panel with EVANIER, EISNER, unseen KIRBY INTV., ART ing, KIRBY interview, ART AMERICA pencils, KIRBY/ BUSCEMA, ROMITA, ROYER, GALLERY, FAILURE TO COMM- GALLERY, analysis of Kirby’s TOTH cover, more! $13 US & JOHNNY CARSON! $13 US UNICATE, more! $13 US art techniques, more! $13 US
M AG AZ I N E
Even More Incredible Writing Information From People Who Know How It’s Done—And Do It!
Interviews with:
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7
Featuring an ALL-NEW CATWOMAN COVER BY TIM SALE!
JEPH LOEB Writer of Batman: Hush, the upcoming Catwoman: When in Rome mini-series (illustrated by Tim Sale) and the smash-hit Smallville TV series!
Articles by:
MARK WHEATLEY Writer of Hammer of the Gods, who will tell you how he created and sold his Frankenstein Mobster series, which he both writes and draws! LEE NORDLING Executive editor of Platinum Comics, reveals why Hollywood really wants your comics ideas! Plus: The return of DENNIS O’NEIL’s comics writing lessons! More amazing NUTS & BOLTS how-to’s, and more!
Catwoman TM & ©2003 DC Comics
JOHN JACKSON MILLER Writer of Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man! CHUCK DIXON Writer of Pirates of El Cazador, Batman, and Nightwing! YVETTE KAPLAN Animation writer/director, whose credits include Ice Age!
TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com
FIRST ISSUE NOW SHIPPING! T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !
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Edited by MICHAEL EURY (former DC and Dark Horse editor/writer and author of CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPER-HERO ACTION FIGURE), BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments. BACK ISSUE #1’s theme is DC vs. MARVEL, with these scintillating features: PRO 2 PRO INTERVIEW: Our inaugural team-up is a dialogue between GEORGE PÉREZ and MARV WOLFMAN (moderated by ANDY MANGELS), accompanied by rare Pérez artwork! GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Editor MICHAEL EURY gives an examination of the original JLA/AVENGERS crossover, featuring unpublished GEORGE PÉREZ pages! ROUGH STUFF: DAVID “HAMBONE” HAMILTON gives us a look at JACK KIRBY’S ’70s and ’80s DC and Marvel PENCILED artwork, direct from his files! BEYOND CAPES: Our ongoing look at non-superhero comics evaluates DC’s and Marvel’s TARZAN series (by “Comics Savant” TOM STEWART), with artwork by JOE KUBERT and JOHN BUSCEMA, and interviews with KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, & ROY THOMAS!
COMING SOON:
OFF MY CHEST: Our guest editorial this issue is by former DC editorial director CARMINE INFANTINO, recalling DC’s 1970s’ battle plan to challenge Marvel’s market dominance!
#2 (JANUARY): TOTALLY ’80S! HUGHES COVER! PRO 2 PRO INTERVIEWS: ADAM HUGHES and MIKE BARR, plus MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, with Hughes & Wagner art! GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: STEVE RUDE’s Space Ghost vs. Herculoids, plus ARTHUR ADAMS art! ROUGH STUFF: Pencil art by ADAM HUGHES! BEYOND CAPES: BRUCE JONES’ Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds series, with art by DAVE STEVENS! OFF MY CHEST: MIKE BARR on the DC Implosion! Art by STEVE DITKO, JIM APARO, & JOE KUBERT!
#3 (MARCH): LAUGHING MATTERS! BOLLAND COVER! BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: The Joker’s history, with DENNY O’NEIL, NEAL ADAMS, STEVE ENGLEHART, MARSHALL ROGERS, JIM STARLIN, & BRIAN BOLLAND! PRO 2 PRO INTERVIEW: KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS, and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JUSTICE LEAGUE series, with art by Maguire and Giffen! GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The story behind two never-seen PLASTIC MAN movies, plus Arnold Schwarzenegger as SGT. ROCK! ROUGH STUFF: Pencil artwork and rare sketches by SERGIO ARAGONÉS, MIKE MANLEY, RAMONA FRADON, SCOTT SHAW!, JACK KIRBY and others—plus a look at KYLE BAKER’s new PLASTIC MAN series! OFF MY CHEST: MARK EVANIER tells you why writing “funny” books is harder than it looks!
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Six-issues: $30 Standard, $48 First Class (Canada: $60, Elsewhere: $66 Surface, $90 Airmail).
BI-MONTHLY! 100-PAGES! SINGLE ISSUES: $8 POSTPAID US
TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com