1999 Comic Book News Archives
October 12, 1999: Dematteis Joins The Superman Family
DC Comics this week confirmed a new addition (and subtractions) to the regular roster of Superman creators. On Tuesday a spokesperson for the publisher told Newsarama that writer J.M. DeMatteis will join the monthly Adventures of Superman as its regular scribe some time after the upcoming exit of long-time penciler and plotter/co-writer Stuart Immonen, who announced his departure to the online comics magazine Psycomic on Monday. Immonen's co-writer Mark Millar will depart with him."I'm totally delighted to be involved with the Superman books," exclaimed DeMatteis when reached for comment. "When I came back to DC a few months ago, one of the things I knew was that I wanted to work on a Superman project. When (Superman editor) Eddie Berganza offered me the final issue of Man of Tomorrow I jumped at it... and had a terrific time (best time I'd had writing comics since working on Man-Thing with Liam Sharp by the way.) Then I signed on to do a 64-page Superman graphic novel with Liam - and thought, hey, can't get better than this. And now it has!"
"The 8-year old in my soul is so thrilled he can't speak. The rest of me is pretty happy, too. Superman is THE American icon. I can't remember a time in my life when he wasn't there inspiring me - a symbol of hope and decency and, yes, primal male power... every little boy's role model, right?
DeMatteis tells us he starts with issue #478, as "Clark and Lois try to get away from it all - by going to another planet."
As to what kind of flavor he'll bring to the super-family the writer says it'll be distinctly DeMatteis, but that the specifics are still evolving. "Eddie and I are discussing the book's direction right now. Safe to say there'll be a strong focus on character, relationship, emotion, and some dollops of old-fashioned JLA (well, Giffen-DeMatteis JLA) style humor. And I'd like to spend some time really getting into the villains' heads, exploring them in new ways... in much the same way I rethought and refocused several old-time Spider-Man villains at Marvel."
DC could not confirm who will join DeMatteis as the title's regular penciler, but did say artist Yanick (Wonder Woman) Paquette is being brought on for an upcoming 2-issue stint.
1999 Comic News
Listed below are all the News items archived for 1999. Archiving started in September 1999.- September 3, 1999: Super-Custody Battle!
- September 22, 1999: Superman Settlement?
- October 5, 1999: New Era for Superman books
- October 12, 1999: Dematteis Joins The Superman Family
- November 2, 1999: Superman Scribe Jeph Loeb on AOL!
- November 8, 1999: Superman Rumor On The Grapeline
- November 12, 1999: DC Comics Voted No.1 Comic Book Publisher of the Century
- November 21, 1999: Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary Sign Exclusive Contracts with DC
- December 5, 1999: Valuable Comic Books Swiped From Conn. Home
- December 13, 1999: Able to Leap a Techo-Organic Building...
- December 20, 1999: Looney Tunes/DC Universe Crossover Back On Schedule
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