Not really. Spider-Man is the most popular character in comics history, and he’s pretty down on his luck. Even Bruce Wayne can never shut up about his parents. Comics loves down on their luck heroes (although, if you’re going to be down on your luck, being a billionaire is probably the way to go).

I think my comics work was what got me attention in Hollywood, certainly.

All Westworld questions have to go to HBO or the showrunners. I am sworn to secrecy about all aspects of the show.

Someday, if I can get it all figured out, I’d love to return to the world of THE FADE OUT, for sure.

No. It was inspired by a Thomas Paine quote, and the Vietnam era Winter Soldier hearings.

Thanks for getting this fixed so I could answer the questions.

Wow, I don’t even know. Maybe Miss Misery from Sleeper. But I’m not sure if anyone in that book would be described as believable.

Maybe.

I love all those characters, but yeah, I’m only writing my own original comics now. Between TV writing and my own comics, I wouldn’t have time for WFH writing even I had the desire to do it. But I wrote 500 superhero comics over about 10 years, so I have pretty much burned out on them, even as a reader. Although I…

That’s not not accurate. I’m definitely playing with superhero comics formatting and expectations in Kill or be Killed. I wanted to try to bring a monthly comics vibe to something that was ostensibly not a superhero comic, but still use some of the language. Of course, it’s grown into something more than that now.…

I’d love to do a romance comic someday. Or a romantic comedy film.

No. I loved doing a lot of those books, but I don’t have enough time for writing to do any company-owned books, no matter what the character is. Work-for-hire is great for earning a living, but over time, you can grow weary of the system. I’d rather be the one owning my work, since it’s just as hard to write The…

Cheese

All Westworld questions should go to the showrunners, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, or HBO. I’m on an NDA about the show, obviously. Top secret.

Deadenders started as a revamp of an old DC comic called Swing with Scooter. It was supposed to just be a sci-fi teen comic, with no plot. The backup stories in the back of the second arc are the closest to what it was originally intended to be, before they made me put a plot into it too. Heh.

That was me and Greg Rucka on the phone, just kicking ideas around and landing on the most Joker-cruel moment possible. We’d never seen the Joker be interrogated by the police before like it was a scene from Homicide (our big influence was Homicide, the show and the book, by David Simon).

Yes, of course. I spent most of my life being introduced to people and having them go “Oh, like that Redford movie”

No, DC doesn’t generally involve the creators of the comics in the TV and movie side, so no one ever approached me about it. I heard many times it would happen, but then they made Gotham instead, so I don’t think we’ll ever see GC on television. Maybe they’ll make a straight to DVD animated film out of it, though. Who…

My recent favorite new comic writer would be Tom King. Go read his books.

I think that was a way to help get into her head a bit more, to deconstruct the action of a Bond film or Mission Impossible style scene, while showing you who she is and what she’s thinking at the same time.