2007 Comic Book News Archives
August 31, 2007: Dini and Quitely do T.O. Comic-Con
by Jason Marsh LaroucheThis past weekend at the FanExpo 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, the annual Canadian event, as last year, did not fail to impress. This year, however, Superman and Warner Bros. Animation fans alike got a double dose of the creative talent behind the Man of Steel's exploits: writer Paul Dini and artist Frank Quitely.
Though the current head writer of the DC Comic series Countdown, Dini's forte has been in writing for animation. An interest in writing began at an early age and manifested through college and gravitated towards animation. As to the difference between writing comics and animation, he explains it is in the amount of content. "You have to be director in each case. You have to call the shots and plot out the action the same. The thing, in comics, you have a little bit more room to write and the characters can speak a little more. It's more of a writer's medium than in animation. In animation you have to be very brief with what you're saying because you don't want to show characters prattling on and on. When writing animation, you get right to the point."
As for Quitely, in a thick Scottish accent he digresses, "I've been drawing since I was a kid. I've been influenced by comic books, fine art, album cover art, posters, you name it. I went to art school, I get kicked out of art school, [and] I get back into comics again when I was in my early twenties, so that's pretty much it."
One of the biggest character developments in Countdown has Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen, not only gaining a myriad of superhuman abilities, but discovering Clark Kent's secret identity. "Jimmy is going through an evolution in body and in mind and is becoming more cosmically aware of certain events. So it kind of walks hand in hand with his growing powers."
Having collaborated with Bruce Timm on Superman: The Animated Series, he reflects on the importance of trying to balance the direction where they wanted to take the show with what fans knew about the characters. "You want to be reverential to the characters and you want to kind of write by what's gone on before and keep in mind of the continuity. And there are times when you want to go in a different way and you say, 'Well, this character B didn't work for me but I think I can find a way to not necessarily ignore it, but make it better, which is kind of what I want to do with the other characters.'"
Frank Quitely had a similar job as Paul's, only from an artist's perspective than a writer's. Teamed with writer Grant Morrison, his partner from Marvel Comics' New X-Men, Quitely delivered a story in which the Man of Steel receives a terminal illness from absorbing too much energy from the sun during a rescue, but a story that does not take place in regular continuity, thus allowing some creative freedom on his part. "[In designing] Superman himself, " he recalled as he signed comics, "I guess I was looking at what I considered to be classic Superman like Curt Swan, Len Walt, those kind of guys. Beyond that I had to get something that I thought was a classic look but was also something that I could actually draw. So it had to be kind of in my style and kind of classic at the same time."
As to what advice these two can offer aspiring writers and artists follows the same line of thought: Don't aim high, and this applies to both fields. Dini suggests, "I would look at some of the smaller publishers and see what they're doing and try and write a story and publish it for them first. There are [also] some online comic opportunities out there. What big publishers like is they can read something that's been published before. You go in and say 'This is my independent comic, where I published this through a solid press company.' And they can read it and go 'Oh this is pretty well written. I'll give this guy a shot doing a backup story or something.'" [You] should definitely shoot for Marvel or DC but know you're not gonna hit the target the first time out, so don't get discouraged."
Following the completion of his duties on All-Star Superman, Frank has no plans as of yet. "Hopefully I'll get some offers when I'm at the end of it. I never make up my mind until I'm really close to the end of a project in case something better comes up, y'know?" As for Dini, while open to doing a Superman comic book story, fans should not expect his hand on an animated feature anytime soon. This is because "Warner Bros. doesn't exist anymore. Not as the entity that did the animated shows. They're not doing the shows anymore and I haven't had any contact with them for [over] two years. I know there are still people working over there, they have projects. You never say never, but it seems to be so thoroughly moved away at this point that I doubt that I would never do another one."
Don't miss out on Countdown every week, nor the remaining issues of All-Star Superman.
Note: Superman ink drawing by Leonard Kirk.
2007 Comic News
Listed below are all the Comic News items archived for 2007.- January 20, 2007: Geoff Johns Previews Superman for 2007
- January 26, 2007: DC Comics Teaser Poster
- January 29, 2007: Wrestler Jerry Lawler to Draw Superman
- February 1, 2007: Didio Answer Questions on DC Teaser Image
- February 8, 2007: Ale Garza to Draw Supergirl
- February 15, 2007: Geoff Johns Explains Action Comics Delays
- February 16, 2007: Further Geoff Johns Action Comics Elaboration
- February 20, 2007: Details on DC's Weekly Countdown Series
- February 21, 2007: Dan Didio and Mike Marts Talk Countdown
- February 23, 2007: DC Comics Sends Action Comics #845 Back to Press
- February 23, 2007: Content Change for Superman #659
- February 25, 2007: NYCC Report - DC Nation Panel
- February 27, 2007: Joe Kelly Talks Supergirl
- February 28, 2007: Superman Comics Content Changes
- March 4, 2007: WonderCon 07 DC Nation Panel
- March 6, 2007: Justice League of America #7 Cover Revealed
- March 8, 2007: Brad Meltzer Justice League of America Interview
- March 19, 2007: Fabian Nicieza on Writing Action Comics
- April 4, 2007: Extra Pages in 52 Finale at No Extra Cost
- April 5, 2007: Superman Legends #1 Debuts April 19th in the UK
- April 12. 2007: Alan Burnett Talks Superman/Batman
- April 13, 2007: Mike Carlin Remembers The Death of Superman
- April 15, 2007: More Scheduling Problems for Action Comics
- April 18, 2007: Byrne is Dead... Long Live... YOD!
- April 18, 2007: Superman Comics Continuity Post-Infinite Crisis
- April 19, 2007: Exclusive Countdown Preview on MySpace
- April 19, 2007: Dan Didio Prepares to Countdown
- May 7, 2007: Wizard World Philadelphia 2007 - June 15-17
- May 11, 2007: Gary Frank - The New Action Comics Artist
- June 2, 2007: Dan Jurgens Talks History of the Multiverse
- June 14, 2007: Dustin Nguyen on Illustrating Superman/Batman
- June 16, 2007: DC Nation Panel at HeroesCon
- June 17, 2007: Superman Comic News from Wizard World Philadelphia
- June 20, 2007: Exclusive Interview with Fabian Nicieza
- June 20, 2007: Alan Burnett Talks Cartoons to Comics
- June 20, 2007: Dustin Nguyen Talks Superman/Batman
- June 28, 2007: Alex Ross Unveils Up-Coming Wizard Magazine Cover
- July 3, 2007: Didio Reveals New Countdown Teaser Image
- July 12, 2007: Superman Homepage Wizard World Tour Continues with Chicago!
- July 13, 2007: Superman Homepage at San Diego Comic-Con
- July 18, 2007: DC Comics Final Crisis Teaser Image
- July 19, 2007: Superman's Death Rated No. 1
- July 20, 2007: Wizard World Returns to Chicago August 9-12
- July 27, 2007: More Details from San Diego Comic Con
- July 27, 2007: SDCC Panel Report - DC Countdown... To The End? & DC Group Therapy
- July 27, 2007: Gary Frank Reveals His Superman Sketchbook
- July 29, 2007: SDCC News - DC: Big Guns Panel
- July 29, 2007: SDCC News - DC: New Worlds Order Panel
- July 29, 2007: SDCC News - DC Nation Panel
- July 29, 2007: All Star Superman Wins Eisner Award
- August 3, 2007: San Diego 2007: Countdown to Salvation Tangent Run to the Finals!
- August 8, 2007: Gary Frank Superman Sketch Book Updated
- August 10, 2007: Superman Homepage at Wizard World Chicago 2007, Day 1 - Friday
- August 10, 2007: Wizard World Chicago - DC Nation Panel
- August 10, 2007: Wizard World Chicago 2007 - Preview Night
- August 13, 2007: New Supergirl Creative Team Announced
- August 13, 2007: The Death of Mike Wieringo
- August 15, 2007: Wizard World Chicago 2007 - Final Report
- August 28, 2007: Keith Giffen Talks Four Horsemen
- August 29, 2007: Geoff Johns Talks Action Comics and Bizarro
- August 31, 2007: Dini and Quitely do T.O. Comic-Con
- September 5, 2007: Superman Confidential Comics Rescheduled
- September 5, 2007: Kingdom Come Superman in JSA Comics
- September 19, 2007: More Superman Comic Scheduling Changes
- September 27, 2007: Kurt Busiek Talks About The Third Kryptonian
- October 10, 2007: Kurt Busiek Reveals the Third Kryptonian
- October 12, 2007: Eric Powell Talks About Drawing Superman
- October 20, 2007: Geoff Johns Reveals Details on Up-Coming Superman Comics
- October 31, 2007: Palmiotti and Gray Talk Superman Confidential #7
- November 21, 2007: Wizard World Texas 2007 Report
- December 9, 2007: Renato Guedes Named New Superman Artist
- December 12, 2007: Superman Confidential Scheduling Changes
- December 13, 2007: Darwyn Cooke Returns for More New Frontier Stories
- December 17, 2007: Chloe Sullivan's Comic Book Debut
- December 19, 2007: Dates Set for Superman and Superboy Lawsuits
- December 24, 2007: Dan Didio and Geoff Johns Talk Superman in 2008
- December 28, 2007: Frank Quitely on Drawing Superman
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