2003 Comic Book News Archives

DC Comics

August 2, 2003: More on “Action Comics” from Chuck Austen

Comic Book Resources also recently had a chat with Chuck Austen to talk about his up-coming run as writer on the "Action Comics" title. Here's an excerpt from that interview...

A lot of writers and artists would undoubtedly love to work on Superman, and with Batman, he's arguably number one on most creator's list of dream projects. But Austen didn't need to make any phone calls - DC Comics called him. "Eddie Berganza [Superman Editor] asked me. He asked me a lot. I kept saying no, and he kept sweetening the deal. Not financially, but from the standpoint that I could make fundamental changes to the character to make him more interesting to me. Of course, maybe I should have been thinking financially (laughs)."

And which series will Chuck Austen be writing? "Action Comics. The original book," says the scribe with unbridled enthusiasm. "So cool. I believe they all [the Superman comics with new creative teams] debut in March, but Eddie can give you more specific dates."

Like he revealed above, Austen wasn't interested in working on the Superman titles till he was able to makes some changes and flex his creative muscles. This didn't mean getting rid of Superman's powers and giving him shoulder pads to match his spanking new vacuum guns, but simply the chance to move the mythos forwards. So what attracted Austen to the Superman comics? "Initially? Nothing," admits Austen. "Superman is such an icon, you can't really do anything with him for fear of screwing up some licensing deal or other. Therefore, his sales are less important to the company than maintaining his 'status quo.' That can make for some pretty dull stories. You literally can't do anything to surprise people because you can't screw up what people paid lots of money for as a property outside comics.

"Superman's been like that a long time. And he's the original, so he's the oldest, he's almost 70 now, isn't he? So most of the interesting stories have been done, and had been for a long time. I thought he was fairly boring when I was a kid, so I never read them then. I was a character guy, so I loved Marvel stuff. Superman was plot driven. Didn't interest me.

"But I wrote a couple stories that were pretty much 'out of the box' as far as DC thinking was concerned, and it invigorated Eddie. He liked the fresh approach, and got very enthusiastic about my ideas. So he asked me 'If you were to write Superman, how would you handle it?' and I did some research. I read tons of Superman stuff, and the only work that grabbed me was the original Siegel and Schuster material. Brilliant in its charm and simplicity. I loved it.

Read the complete interview at the CBR website.



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