Interviews

Exclusive Interview with Geoff Johns

Turn That Contrast Way Up!

[Date: April 27, 2006]

By Neal Bailey

Geoff Johns is a fan favorite writer for DC Comics, and at the time of this interview is the writer of the "Up, Up and Away!" arc in the monthly Superman comic books.

You can also listen to this interview as a special Radio KAL audio presentation.

The Superman Homepage would like to thank Geoff for agreeing to do this interview, and for fitting it into his busy schedule.



Superman #650 Neal: Will "Up, Up, and Away!" be your only Superman book for the near future?

Geoff: I hope not. We'll see what happens.

Neal: Is it a matter of you wanting to and not getting to, or is it a matter of just the schedule, or some other factor?

Geoff: My schedule is being scaled way back this year. I'm only working on a couple of books. But there's some stuff to be announced. We'll see what happens. I'd love to do more. I love Superman, he's one of my favorite characters.

Neal: People have been screaming for you to get to do it for years, especially over the email. They say, "When are you gonna get Geoff Johns on this thing, when are you guys going to try and draft him?" kind of thing.

Geoff: That's cool. I love the character. I love his mythology. I love what he represents. Superman: The Movie is my favorite film. I'm extremely biased because I worked for Donner for so long, but it was my favorite film before I worked for him, and still is. I don't know if anything will ever be able to beat it in my mind.

Neal: Good deal. That's the thing, a lot of the fans are just like, I don't know, Superman fans more than other fans it would seem, but I might be biased working for the Superman Homepage, they seemed really geared up toward the continuity aspect of the character, andthey like his complex history, and I think there are few people that kind of get that, and you're one of them, so that's why they clamor so much.

Lex Luthor went from being in his green and purple suit and taking names in Infinite Crisis to a businessman again over the year. Does this mean Lex won't be battling with heroes on a weekly basis anymore, but will instead be working behind the scenes a la the early Byrne years and the Wolfman stuff?

Geoff: You will see kind of an amalgam of both. I don't want to completely reveal where we're taking Lex Luthor, but he will be an amalgam of both. He is definitely not going to be back to running Lexcorp, I will tell you that much. We had twenty years of those stories, and they were great. I think it's time for everybody, maybe twenty years from now he'll be running Lexcorp again. I don't know.

Neal: That's part of what made the businessman Lex so it actually moved the character forward, and that's what you're trying to do. That's part of my question about the, how enmeshed...your "Up, Up, and Away" so far, I've only seen one issue, is enmeshed in continuity that was basically the Byrne stuff, and then it became, it seems like you're trying to set that base so that you can move forward from it without stepping on toes. It's kind of nice.

Geoff: What we want to do, there will be a few bombs that we'll drop in Superman's life. But again, I'm a firm believer of trying to look at what elements that work and what people have done that I like and people like and building onto that and adding our own. Kurt and I were, I mean look, if people enjoy the story and the idea of, we have, we introduce a new element from Krypton called "sunstone", which is the crystal technology, and we've named it, and if that sticks around, I'll be happy.

Neal: People have kind of referenced that and said it's kind of like the movie. Was the movie any inspiration for that?

Geoff: Absolutely.

Neal: Yeah, I figured it was some kind of, usually they kind of riff off each other, whenever something comes out in popular culture the comic kind of riffs off it a little bit and takes a little element, and that's cool.

Superman #650 The fight with Doomsday that killed Superman. In the first issue, it's mentioned as the last thing that happened to Superman before he lost his powers in kind of an ambiguous way. Like, I saw that you used kind of put it in a purposeful writer's ambiguity where because it's a movie and because it's something that Lois and Clark are watching, it could be BS, but more than likely it has some grain of truth to it. So I guess I'm asking you directly: Was Superman being killed by Doomsday the last thing that happened before he lost his powers, or is that something you can't say because it ties into Infinite Crisis?

Geoff: All I can say is keep reading, and it will be very, very clear.

Neal: No problem, no problem.

Was Lex Luthor still the president. Has that changed? Is that something you can comment on?

Geoff: Many people still believe he was the president, yes. That's all that I can say.

Neal: Good enough answer. I like the ambiguous answers that get people going, that's kind of cool.

Alex is supposed to be a good guy, meaning that he's from the reverse Earth. By negating his good (or at least making him a villain to our Earth, if you will, not our Earth like you and me, but as in the regular Superman['s]), does that open the gates for like, say, Ultraman to go to good? Or are the laws of the parallel Earths still unaffected? Or is this kind of like the Earth Universe relationship is shifting, if you follow what I'm saying?

Geoff: Well, you've kind of got to look like, Alex said, whenever you put a Superman or a Luthor next to each other, they will always be at odds.

Neal: Right. So it's just a Superman/Luthor thing, and not just the nature of the universe changing.

Geoff: I think there are a few universal laws, that just will always happen, and I think you know, no matter what happens, Superman and Luthor, Luthor won't necessarily be evil, but he'll be at odds with what Superman wants. And you know, to Alex, this is not a, this is not evil, he, it's like planting a garden that's been overgrown with weeds and he figures he has to replant this garden.

Neal: Yeah, that's what a lot of the debate is about, like, even if Lex Luthor sees himself as good, er, rather, Alex Luthor, I'm sorry, if he sees himself as good, and he is trying to do good, then that makes him a good guy, but if it's not good to everybody around him, you know, it just spurs a lot of good debate.

Geoff: It's a good debate.

Neal: Yeah.

Geoff: And you know, the thing is, I mean, I even have a line in Crisis 7, where someone says, "Why would you do this?" and he says, "I'm like my father. The only hero in a world of villains."

Infinite Crisis #5 Neal: Yep, and that's about it, too. And that's part of the reason why the Infinite Crisis seems to be working with the fans so much, largely, and that's that you've created what is essentially a sympathetic villain. We had a big debate on that in the Kryptonian Council.

Geoff: I think Superboy Prime is another example of a very simple character, complex villain.

Neal: And that's what's made it so good. You know, if you had come to me with the first issue, and said, "Hey, is this gonna work out?" You've got three obscure characters from a bygone era. And what makes it work, and what I think a lot of writers tend to miss and which is one of the reasons that I think fans like you so much is because it's about character. The character comes out, the character steps out, and if you write it well, you can make ANYBODY interesting, and if you've got these particular three characters across time and eras, it provides all kinds of parallels and questions.

Geoff: And I think that Superboy Prime in particular, first off being a super character with the S, and having him represent a different mindset and putting him in the modern world, and having him be a little bit naïve and a little bit inexperienced, a little bit, very emotional, and angry, and jaded, it's, he, to me he's complex, sympathetic, and scary all at the same time.

Neal: Yeah, it's kind of like if our Superboy hadn't had any kind of guidance.

Geoff: Yes.

Neal: I got a lot of emails trying to ask me to clarify what was meant by "Superman hasn't inspired anyone since he died." I tried to explain it as a characterization of Batman in a moment of stress. A lot of people take that as a personal attack on Superman, and some people misconstrue it and see it as you're saying it. How did you intend it?

Geoff: Batman said it.

Neal: That's what I figured.

Geoff: Batman said it, so, I mean look, I wrote it, and I think it's a really good line because it's coming from Batman.

Neal: Right.

Geoff: If Wonder Woman said that, it wouldn't have worked.

Neal: Right, it might have been you saying it if Wonder Woman was saying it, because, and it, and it's a writing choice that people don't get.

Geoff: That's what you have to look at. Did I say the line? No. I didn't. But Batman did in the context of the story. If I put that line in Wonder Woman's mouth, that scene would not have worked. He would have been like, ([comical voice]) "What? No. What are you talking about?" But if Batman says it, you get it. Batman is, unfortunately, in his time of duress, that's his way of telling Superman to get his sh!t together. And that's not to say Batman doesn't have his own problems, but Batman always saw Superman as better than him.

Neal: It's part of his team dynamic, Batman offers that hard-lined edge where you just basically say what someone's weakness is and you get them going so they'll get the job done.

Geoff: It's my favorite line in the entire series.

Neal: Cool!

Dan Didio said there would be no multiple Earths after the crisis as we know them in a recent interview. Will there be multiple Earths that we don't know of? Like as in a new series of-

Geoff: "As you know them" is all I can say.

Neal: Following up again on Dan's statement, will the Infinite Crisis bring anyone from the Multiple Earths and the past back to our current earth before they are somehow gone as we know them?

Geoff: Possibly.

Neal: Um...where's Darkseid?

Geoff: Busy.

Neal: (Laughs) All right. Good answer.

When it is said that the speed force is gone, is that simply because there are no more speed-force based Flashes? Or did it disappear with, say, the disappearance of Kid Flash?

Geoff: It is gone.

Neal: Okay.

Geoff: But not for...it is gone in the way we knew it.

Neal: Okay. Is that to imply that it will be returning in some form?

Geoff: All I can say is that it's gone in the way we knew it.

Neal: Okay. Your fanbase is broad and growing due to years of giving the fans stories that they've been begging for, where you cut the hype and the stereotypical stories in favor of a decompressed look inside of continuity. The reason I mention that is because for years I've had people asking me when you were going to take on Superman, saying you were the right guy. What took this long to get on a run? Was it editorial? Was it foreknowledge of the Infinite Crisis? Or was it some other factor?

Geoff: I think it's a combination of things like, I'm, you know, I wanted to come on this arc with Kurt because I think the story is a very unique story to tell, and I wanted to follow through on what we did with Superman in Infinite Crisis.

Superman #650 Neal: You're bringing back Intergang, Perry with a cigar, Clark at the Planet, Jimmy as a schlub, and Luthor as the businessman, at least in that first issue. Essentially status quo for before the events post-Doomsday. That, coupled with the people who have been reading Supes since 1992, makes it seem like a conscious effort to bring back the time when people thought everything was most cohesive, or at least ongoing and related, and you being a continuity nut would know that. Is this going to be in just your story, or is this the broader editorial direction for Superman in general?

Geoff: I think the direction is, well, Matt Idleson is our editor, and he wanted to get to a very iconic-based Superman world again where the Daily Planet, you know, Clark's at the Daily Planet, you know, Jimmy has his role, Perry has his role. Our Luthor's role will evolve and change as we go forward, I think into something new and good. And Lois had her role. We did, we made a conscious effort to try and get, there's always a back-to-basics approach, and I guess in a way we've done that, we're trying to do that in another way, to be a lot of good characters, some spins on characters that have been around we tried, we wanted to try to flesh out Metropolis in a different light, with the Avenue of Tomorrow being one of the pieces there, and just kind of, you know we just wanted this to be a very straightforward Superman story about Clark Kent and what being Superman is to him, and giving us a clean slate and setting all the pieces on the stage. We're not trying to make a conscious effort to go back to anything specific except an era that we feel will work best for the kind of stories that we want to tell.

Neal: Here's a direct one you may or may not be able to answer. Will we see the Monitor or the Anti-Monitor or the Harbringer in Infinite Crisis? If you don't want to be specific, a "One of those" would be really cool. Or none of those or an ambiguous answer would be cool.

Geoff: Well, we already saw the Anti-Monitor.

Neal: Oh! I meant beyond their corpses. (laughs) That was a specific caveat.

Geoff: You will not.

Neal: Superboy of our current earth seems very much seems to be the Achilles of the DCU. He doesn't want to fight, he's afraid to go in. And he has a heel with Luthor and the commands. How big is his role in the last two issues of the Infinite Crisis? Is this going to be like going and fighting Hector, or is this going to be more of a "part of the team effort" kind of thing?

Geoff: You'll have to read it.

Neal: Okay. How does one fight giant hands coming out of a gaping whole in the universe?

Geoff: You'll have to see how they do it in Crisis 6. It's very difficult (laughs).

Neal: I can imagine! Okay. People have said, mind you, not the writers, but people, that Infinite Crisis is a statement against the grim and gritty 80s and 90s. That this is DC's way of saying it wants to go back to simpler good versus evil. With me, I kind of see it as the opposite. This is a grim and gritty story, and it's calling people to task for their failures as a hero, but when a hero moves past his failures and continues to fight regardless, that's grim, that's gritty, but it's also much more real and it's kind of what the audience expects now. What's your take on it, because I haven't seen anyone get to the bottom of your actual intentions with regards to a commentary on the grim and gritty Frank Miller, Alan Moore, started-from-85 and continued indefinitely, kind of comic book thematic element, if you will.

Geoff: Unfortunately, I think grim and gritty has become a dirty word when I don't necessarily think it should be. There's a reason Dark Knight resonates. There's a reason Watchmen resonates. There's a reason a lot of, Born Again resonates. A lot of these books are very intense, very dramatic...

Neal: Well, it's just flat-out more adult.

Geoff: Yeah, they're more adult. They are dark. The Ultimates is grim and gritty. There are a lot of books that, I don't think you can use a paintbrush to paint the DC Universe and say it's grim and gritty. It's certainly no grim and grittier than it was when Batman killed people. Or when Superman even, I mean, Superman was a real hardass.

Neal: Oh yeah. He used to throw people out windows.

Geoff: Yeah, he used to throw people around. I think it's extremely easy, and people like to put things in a category, and I think it's much more difficult than that, and I think you can't say it's black and white, you can't say, "Oh, it's going to be a happy universe." or it's going to be a grim and gritty Universe. The intentions that you've seen in Infinite Crisis are there. It is taking to task modern day comics and modern day heroes and takes on modern day heroes. It's also saying that we don't go backwards. We need to make our heroes heroic. At the same time, that doesn't mean we're gonna make all the stories hero fights villain, wins.

Neal: Right, a poster child for the fifties Comics Code Authority.

Geoff: Yeah. I have no desire to write a 1950s comic, I have no desire to write a villain who's not an actual villain. Or a world that's just bubbly and welcoming. For the types of stories that I want to tell. Some other people might want to tell those, but I think it's a very complex universe and you want shades of everything, but as Grant Morrison said it best, I think, what we're looking to do in the DC Universe is turn that contrast way up and make the heroes that much more heroic, and make the villains that much more evil. That's something we're really trying to do and I look forward to that. I think once Infinite Crisis is finished and over it should be pretty clear, or it is, I think it's very clear what we set out to do. But you basically just summed it up for me perfectly.

Neal: That's cool! See, that's the reason I wanted to put that question in there. So often you see on message boards and in talkbacks that basically they try and make it a black and white issue. This is his intention, this is what's going on, and often writing is much more nuanced than that, at least I find, so...

Geoff: Much, much more nuanced. I also think this universe is much too complex of a place to say it's a happy, shiny place. Or it's a grim and gritty place. People say, oh, well the DC Universe is so dark right now. Well, yes, there are moments of darkness, but there are also moments of light. Green Lantern: Rebirth certainly was not dark.

Neal: Yeah. No, Green Lantern: Rebirth if anything was one of the most optimistic comics in years when it comes to going from the complete hell of being a mass murderer to being a redemptive figure again.

Geoff: Yeah. It was a story about redemption, and in a way, in my mind, Green Lantern: Rebirth was always supposed to be a piece about redeeming the DC Universe. But you know, I think the DC Universe itself, the heroes are the ones that need to, we need to remember that these heroes are, they're supposed to be people we can look up to, in general in the DC Universe. That said though, every hero in the DC Universe cannot be that hero, because that equals very, very boring stories.

Neal: Well yeah, and you gotta have a Vigilante every now and again, even if that series was flawed.

Geoff: You need to have heroes that have conflict. Conflict to me is what makes a story interesting to write and read.

Neal: Definitely. Conflict mixed with character.

Geoff: Absolutely.

Neal: Speaking of Green Lantern, the Hal Jordan Green Lantern has been pretty conspicuously absent from the Infinite Crisis. Will he show up more toward the end?

Geoff: Yes.

Action Comics #837 Neal: On JLU, there's a huge prevalence of characters that you've brought to the modern fray featured pretty regularly. Stars and Stripe, Mr. Terrific, the JSA always in the background shots at very least. How does that feel, and having written an episode, what are your general thoughts on JLU and its hiatus despite seemingly picking up its stride?

Geoff: I love the cartoon. I think Bruce Timm and Dwayne McDuffie and everyone who worked on it just did an amazing job. Particularly the last few years. I wish it was continuing. I don't know all the reasons why it's not, but it was nice to see those characters picked up and used in that fashion. You know, I discovered a lot of the DC Universe characters through animation when I was a kid, and I hope that happens the same, our next generation of writers, discovers a lot of these characters through Justice League Unlimited. I just think it's a terrific cartoon.

Neal: And if my eleven-year-old brother is any indication, that's exactly what it's doing.

Geoff: Good. You know, when I saw Challenge of the Superfriends originally, I was like, wow, who's the guy in red? Who's the guy with the wings? Right?

Neal: What's the deal with Red Tornado? Yeah. Exactly. That's how I got into it.

Geoff: And I suddenly really gravitated toward those characters, I just, who's the guy in green with the deep voice?

Neal: Yeah, because everybody's seen Superman in a comic or two but not everybody has necessarily seen the Martian Manhunter, or Green Lantern.

Geoff: Yeah, I didn't know any of those guys.

Neal: Given JLU and Blade, will you be focusing more on tv in the near future?

Geoff: I always have stuff on the side beyond comics, because that's just, I think that's what every writer does, and I got my start in film so I always keep my hand in it. But I will be focusing on comics like I always do.

Neal: I know this isn't your story or your fault, but do you know by chance if they plan on reconciling the continuity errors in Birthright with the rest of the universe, and how? I only ask you because you seem to be the person re-starting the momentum of the new teams and thusly you might be privy to the editorial and/or creating it in that regard.

Geoff: All I can say is you need to keep reading.

Neal: What do you think of Smallville and how does that impact what's coming for Superman? Did its influence come into your arc?

Geoff: No. I like Smallville, I haven't watched every episode, but I've liked a lot of the ones I've seen, but no, it doesn't influence us.

Neal: Follow up: Smallville made you into a villain. Will their universe be destroyed in the Infinite Crisis for being insolent?

Geoff: No, but I like that show.

Neal: This is the question I always hate asking but that people will kill me if I don't. How many more major deaths, approximately, in the crisis? Or barring that, how about an eluding sound byte?

Geoff: No comment.

Superman #650 Neal: Can you clarify the 68 years ago note in "Superman #650"? Was it a note for the film that Lois and Clark were watching? Or a note for the comic reader? What relevance does it have for your story? I kind of saw it as a bit of a, just an homage to the character...

Geoff: No, it's not. Something crash landed on Earth 68 years ago. We'll find out what that is.

Neal: Oh! Curious. See, a lot of people were just really debating that, and I thought that it was a minor point, but that's cool, now that it's something bigger.

Geoff: Yeah, it's a major point.

Neal: Right on. Cool. That's subtle.

Why has there been such a delay in the publication of the comics lately? Is it 52? Or is it artists? A lot of people are really beefed about that.

Geoff: You're asking the wrong guy. All I know is, you guys, you see Crisis is 30 pages. It's a billion characters in every issue. It takes a long time to make that book. It takes a long time to write, it takes even longer to draw...

Neal: Oh, I can only imagine.

Geoff: All I can say is everyone's doing the best we can to get the books on schedule and get them with as high quality as possible.

Neal: Sure. Yeah. We were just more curious, like a lot of people are asking, is it the scheduling thing so that 52 lines up, is it a "One Year Later" thing, you know...a lot of people are just curious...

Geoff: Some things got pushed because of the schedule here and there, because with Infinite Crisis you couldn't reveal certain things, but overall it's, everything, we should be getting on schedule here in the next few weeks. People need to understand that Crisis, there's a lot of work going into it.

Neal: Personally, there are books why I question why it's late, and Infinite Crisis is not one of them (laughs) let me put it that way, because like, there are a hundred, like you said, a hundred characters on every page, and meticulous plotting that affects the entire universe, but like, say, Vigilante being three months late is kind of weird (laughs).

Superman #650 is the beginning of the "One Year Later" idea, meaning one year after "Infinite Crisis". Yet "Infinite Crisis" is still two issues away from being completed. Was it always intended for "Up, Up and Away" to begin before IC had finished? IE would we have had a better idea of what's going on in Superman #650 had we read Infinite Crisis #7 first?

Geoff: No. That was always supposed to come out before.

Neal: Greg Rucka assured me, and I've heard everywhere, that you guys love the continuity. From Infinite Crisis, that's obvious, at least to me. But, that said, things appear to be changing continuity wise with every punch that Superboy makes on the wall, mostly to reconcile, but as we've heard from Eddie Berganza, maybe to retcon Birthright.

So this is kind of a loaded question, and I'm sorry, but are you guys changing continuity and ret-conning anything? I know reading Aquaman at very least it seems like the Arthur we know has slipped into some time stream, but that could all be fixed next week for all we know. Is it going to be a universe re-alignment, or what's the basic gist there?

Geoff: Things will change. We're taking the opportunity to change them. I don't know what else I can say to that. There's certain things we're going to adjust, but I guess you'll just have to keep reading.

Neal: Do you have any plans for a novel?

Geoff: For a novel? I do not.

Neal: Darn, see, that's one of the things people are interested in.

If DC and Marvel disappeared off the face of the Earth, say through Alex's machinations, what kind of comic book stories would you write given free reign but no superheroes?

Geoff: Free reign but no superheroes? I'd write television full time. I write comics because I like superheroes.

Neal: Cool, so there's no chance that you've got, like, a dramatic story brewing in the background that's just kind of human based?

Geoff: Yeah, sure, but what drags me to comics is superheroes. Capes, cops, and the only place that spandex works on a consistent basis. You know, occasionally it works in movies like Spider-Man or Superman, but on a consistent basis, I can see cops on tv, I can see westerns on tv, but you know, spandex is confined to comics.

Neal: The reason I wrote that question, what got me thinking about it, was just that when you take the superhero context out and you've got someone who's really really good at writing character, it just sometimes creates something really interesting.

Geoff: Yeah, I mean, I did a horror book, I'd like to do something else like that. I'd like to do something else. I like...superheroes are my favorite, but I'd love to do something else at some point.

Neal: Okay, now down to the lightning round and almost finished here.

What books will you be on for the foreseeable future?

Geoff: Green Lantern and Teen Titans.

Neal: What do you listen to when you write?

Geoff: I listen to everything, from, you know, a lot of times when I'm doing "Up, Up, and Away" I'll listen to Superman (the soundtrack from the movie), but I listen to a bunch of different things.

Neal: What writers inspire you? What historically have influenced you to do what you did?

Geoff: Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, James Robinson, John Ostrander, Keith Giffen, Jeph Loeb, what other guys did I grow up reading that I really liked? Marv Wolfman, of course. I feel like I follow in his footsteps everywhere I go with Blade and everything (laugh). Len Ween, Alan Moore, a lot of guys. I love comic writers. I just think, I love reading new comics too. Like when I see someone do something that Alan Ivar does something that I could never think of, or Brian Vaughan comes out with a book that I just think is amazing, that's just my favorite thing in the world.

Neal: So you like Brian Vaughan?

Geoff: I love a lot of writers, but yeah, I like Brian, he's great.

Neal: What cons do you plan on attending in the near future for folks who want to meet you?

Geoff: I'll be at, let's see. I'm doing a lot of shows this year. It's one of those years where you say yes to every show and then you realize that, oh sh!t!

Neal: Yeah.

Superman #651 Geoff: I'm going to go to Supernova in Australia and New Zealand. I'm going to Bristol. I'm going to Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego, probably go to Dallas. I really want to go to Kansas, Kansas City, and I hope to do that next year. And Toronto I'm going to go to this fall. I really want to travel a lot this year and thank everybody for supporting Infinite Crisis. There's a lot of, I've gotten so many emails, and people contacting me this year, and at the shows, and talking to people, it's really nice to see so many people getting wrapped up in the story and in the DC Universe itself and not necessarily like one book itself but the whole experience of the DC Universe. I really want to go and meet as many people as I can this year and just say thanks.

Neal: That's one of the things that I've really been looking forward to, both meeting you and Geoff Johns in person, that'd be really cool. Er, no, not you and Geoff Johns, Jesus, I'm sorry, I must be sick, but you and Jeph Loeb, (laughter) because basically you, Jeph Loeb, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winnick are the guys that are really keeping me going on, making me think that my kind of story has a place in comics. It's just nice.

Geoff: That's good. I mean, I really like hearing that, because we work really hard and don't always hit a home run. Sometimes we strike out, but we try our very best, and I'm just happy to be able to do it. I'm happy to be able to work in this universe and work in comics and I love comics. We're really trying as hard as we can to make these books worth your time and money.

Neal: It's working, I'm poor!

Addendum question:

A lot of the fans are worried because basically they've taken it down to two books a month instead of the four. Are there going to be any more?

Geoff: Well, you gotta remember you've got All-Star Superman. But really, Dan always wanted to have two core Batman and Superman books and make them the best books that they could be instead of doing four okay books.

Neal: Oh, okay. So basically you're going to have two weeks of Batman, two weeks of Superman, and that makes up your average month kind of thing.

Geoff: Yes. At the same time you have All-Star Superman, All-Star Batman and Robin, and you'll have your Supergirl book, you'll have your Robin book so if you want more, it'll be there. But really, for straight-ahead continuity Superman books, it's two books, and for the straight ahead continuity Batman books it's two books. I think that's good. Two really good quality books. Listen to who they're putting on Batman, Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, and Paul Dini with Rags Morales. Have you ever seen talent on both books that strong at the same time? It's been so long.

Neal: Yeah, and that's the thing, too. A lot of the fans would complain because, on the Superman books, there would be two that you like, and then two that stank. Or three that you'd like and one that stank, or vice versa. The main worry is that yeah, okay, the big names are out now and it's really kicking @ss and will for the next foreseeable future, but what if like suddenly, they like, start falling again and then you've only got two books and nothing to make up the difference.

Geoff: The hardest thing is that nothing lasts forever. You know? You're not going to have Grant Morrison writing Batman for a thousand issues. I think the quality level of all of these books is going to go up dramatically and I hope that what happens is that that attracts quality talent to these books so that the best talent in the business will be on these two books, these main books. The Wonder Woman The Green Lantern. The Batman. The Superman. We always have these special projects, where "Oh my God! They're doing this!" But they have Carlos Pacheco drawing Superman monthly. Terrific. I think the key is just to keep the quality on these books as high as possible and for the foreseeable future, that's what DC's plan is. They want their main monthly books to be the best books on the market. And I think they will be, I really do, between Justice League and all these other new books, I really we've got a shot.

Neal: I think so. Well, so far it's pretty much a golden era. I haven't felt this way with comic books since 1992 when I jumped in when I was, you know, eleven years old. Going nutty about it.



This interview is Copyright © 2006 by Steven Younis. It is not to be reproduced in part or as a whole without the express permission of the author.


Interviews

Introduction

The Superman Homepage has had the pleasure of interviewing various Superman Comic Book creative people about their work.

Question and Answer Interviews:

Interviews/Articles:

Krypton Club Interviews:

Lois When “Lois & Clark” started production in 1993, there was an obvious relationship between the comic book people and the Hollywood people.

A trade paperback “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”, was published, with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher on the cover. It included reprints of comic book stories that were the inspiration for “Lois & Clark”, helping to define the characters. Comic's included are: The Story of the Century (Man of Steel miniseries #2), Tears for Titano (Superman Annual #1), Metropolis - 900 mi (in SUP #9), The Name Game (SUP #11), Lois Lane (in ACT #600), Headhunter (AOS #445), Homeless for the Holidays (AOS #462), The Limits of Power (AOS #466), and Survival (ACT #665).

A number of comic book writers and artists had roles as extras in the episode “I'm Looking Through You” (Season one, episode 4). Their presence was immortilized in the Sky Trading Card #34.

Craig Byrne, president of the online “Lois & Clark” fanclub The Krypton Club, carried out a series of interviews with comic book writers. The interviews are reprinted with permission of the Krypton Club.

Check the Television section of this website for some “Lois & Clark” Interviews conducted by The Krypton Club.