DC Reboot

[Buddy Baker]

Darkseid si, lo si cita nella JL

[Murnau]

Darkseid si, lo si cita nella JL

azzo è vero.

[Green Hankey]

Brett Booth disegna di nuovo Wally



Scrive anche I'd love to spin a Wally Flash book out of TT, but I do have another idea as well;)

Siamo oramai alle speculazioni, ma non è che sotto sotto ci sia qualcosa  

[Lois Lane]

bello come disegno 

[Green Hankey]

Interessante questo New York Comicon:

DC will reveal some big-time creators who'll be jumping on board the "New 52" — the 52 titles it just launched with fresh takes on iconic characters like Superman, the Flash and Wonder Woman.

That'll include an announcement that local legend Andy Kubert will draw a couple of issues of "Action Comics," the critically acclaimed Superman revamp featuring a younger, brasher Man of Steel. Kubert's "a fan favorite," Harras says—and that announcement is just the tip of the iceberg.

The company will also reveal the surprising origin of a longtime member of the Justice League, and will have a 3,000-square-foot booth with numerous giveaways and creator signings.

[Azrael]

DC Comics All Access: Mike Marts



Wow. Where to begin? These are exciting times at DC Comics...our new 52 titles are off to a great start, and we have YOU to thank for all of the positive buzz. There are so many exciting projects in my office I could mention...Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's BATMAN...our new BATWING series...the all-new BLACKHAWKS...but today I'm talking about one project in particular...

Pain. Prejudice. Two words I don't normally associate with things that are great, but hey, an editor can change the way he thinks about things, right? And this project has definitely changed my way of looking at things. This project is an eye-opener, pure and simple.

PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE is more than just a character study, more than just a five-issue miniseries debuting this October. PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE is a seductive, in-depth look into the past, present (and perhaps the future) of Batman's most complex foe, Oswald Cobblepot–THE PENGUIN.

So you think you're familiar with the intimate secrets of Cobblepot's dark past? Think again.

L.A. Times best-selling author and suspense novelist Gregg Hurwitz delivers a sinister, macabre tale that is brilliantly illustrated by graphic artist Szymon Kudranski (BRUCE WAYNE: THE ROAD HOME, MANHUNTER, Spawn). Both creators are at the top of their game with this project. I couldn't be more happy.

Well, actually I could be more happy...I'd be happy if everyone reading this column rushes to pick up (or download!) a copy of PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE. You won't want to miss it. Trust me–it's an eye opener!

Mike Marts — BATMAN Group Editor

[Azrael]

DC Announces Justice League #1 Sells A Quarter Of A Million, Fourteen Books Sell Over A Hundred Thousand And Five Million Comics Sold In Six Weeks

DC have released a bunch of sales statistics... so far.

That they have sold of more than 5 million copies of the DC Relaunch comics in only six weeks, which averages out at around 75,000 for each comic.

That JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 has sold more than 250,000 copies.

That ACTION COMICS #1 and BATMAN #1 have both sold more than 200,000 copies.

That DETECTIVE COMICS #1, THE FLASH #1, GREEN LANTERN #1 and SUPERMAN #1 have all sold more than 150,000 copies.

That AQUAMAN #1, BATGIRL #1, BATMAN AND ROBIN #1, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #1, GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1, GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #1 and WONDER WOMAN #1 have all sold more than 100,000 copies, bringing a total of fourteen comics to cross that mark.

This will also include the second print of comics that have now started to appear in stores, the UK sales that are not reported by Diamond and, I guess, the comics that could be returned to DC by the stores under current favourable incentives. But there is not likely to be a lot of returning going on.

The DC press release also gives som fun Nw York-related statistics



    2,090,880 comic books laid end to end to stretch from one end of New York State to the other. We've sold enough DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 first issues to span New York State in its entirety two times over.

    174,480 comic books stacked on top of each other to reach the top of the Empire State Building. That's every copy of GREEN LANTERN #1—with issues to spare.

    36,600 comic books stacked in a pile to reach the top of the Statue of Liberty. That means copies of WONDER WOMAN #1 could reach the top of Lady Liberty almost three times.

    Oh, and 5 million copies sold? That's enough copies of DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 to lay out and span the distance from New York to Chicago – with some left over.

But for me the most impressive statistic is one from the bar last night, talking to a fan who harldy read DC Comics, now committed to ten comics from them a month, every month. And trying to justify a way to bring it up to fifteen. Repeat that across the comics industry, soupled with the observation that other publishers aren't suffering in their sales, and you have a success story that everyone can be a part of.

Da BCool

[Buddy Baker]

Gail Simone Quits Firestorm

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/12/gail-simone-quits-firestorm/

[Daredevil]

Mah.

[Selina Kyle]

Su Facebook non c'è nessun riferimento alla cosa, e i due sono piuttosto attivi (Van Sciver e la Simone intendo) sul social network. Vedremo, così su due piedi la cosa non mi sembra buona, anche se la serie mi interessava il giusto.. spero non ci siano "scossoni" per Batgirl, quello sì. Magari al comic-con confermano o smentiscono.

[Bobby Drake]

Bilancio dopo la seconda settimana del secondo mese: Batman and Robin, Batwoman e Swamp Thing una spanna sopra gli altri (ovviamente intendo per quelle 26 testate che hanno già visto uscire due numeri).

[Bruce Wayne]

Articolo molto interessante:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/13/female-characters-superhero-comics/

[Selina Kyle]

Questo dibattito sul "ruolo delle donne nel mondo dei comics" va avanti da tempo, da una parte mi fa piacere, dall'altra tutto questo sessismo non lo vedo. Mi farebbe piacere se più donne scrivessero o disegnassero fumetti, ma sono pochissime quelle che li leggono.. di riflesso non li scrivono. Se ci sia discriminazione a priori non lo posso sapere, mi auguro di no. Ma secondo me non vale nè il "ti do il posto di lavoro perchè sei un uomo" o il "ti do il posto di lavoro perchè sei una donna", dovresti meritartelo e basta. Non apprezzo questo tipo di quote rosa o azzurre che siano.

Ho letto alcune posizioni, in particolare condivido quelle di Busiek e Rucka. Il primo dice che bisogna insistere sulla varietà, e proporre una maggiore quantità di "tipi diversi" di donne, meno stereotipate, Rucka dice che prima di scrivere un genere si scrivono dei personaggi. Il genere influenza i personaggi, ma il lavoro a monte deve essere grande in ogni caso.
Dicevo che quando Busiek parla di "varietà" io condivido.. ma io (sarò cieca?) questa varietà in realtà la vedo. Batgirl, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Power Girl.. sono tutte diverse fra loro. Montoya non è Carol Ferris, Jessica Jones non è Maria Hill, Scarlet non è Ms Marvel.

Ci sono meno testate perchè il pubblico non è così interessato e le lettrici sono poche.. ma sono davvero scritte così male le donne nei comics attualmente? Io penso di no.
Sulla nudità e il sesso: Catwoman vorace che fa l'amore con Batman su un pavimento è davvero un problema? Parliamo di un personaggio come Selina, che non è mai stata una santa. Ci sono donne forti ed eroiche, ci sono donne cattive e ammalianti, ci sono ragazze borderline problematiche. Sono davvero scritte così male? 
Io ho visto Cassandra Cain scritta da Snyder come non l'ho mai vista dai tempi di Terra di Nessuno.

Sul fan-service: sì, spesso ci sono tante (troppe?) chiappe/tette in bella vista. Il problema quale sarebbe? Il pubblico dei comics è in gran parte maschile e a volte si preme su quel tasto. Ma sono tutte così? Magari saranno troppo perfette, troppo modelle.. ma lo stesso allora si può dire dei supereroi maschi, che sono i belli per eccellenza. Io a volte credo sia un falso problema.. e a queste cose ci faccio caso, e mi arrabbio anche.

Boh, non so.

[Azrael]

DC's 'New 52' Initiative Sells 5 Million Comic Books In Six Weeks

Oct 13th 2011 By: Andy Khouri

DC Comics announced this week that its aggressive New 52 initiative had yielded sales of 5 million comic books in the span of just six weeks. The publisher released 52 brand new or relaunched superhero comics series from issue #1 throughout the month of September as part of a bold and controversial plan to revitalize the brand, attract new readers and bring lapsed comics fans back to the heroes of the DC Universe. In a press release, DC claimed the figure represents the company's biggest sales in more than 20 years.

In addition to the 5 million units figure, DC confirmed sales numbers for some of the line's top tier titles, as well as some surprise hits:

   JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 has sold more than 250,000 copies.
   ACTION COMICS #1 and BATMAN #1 have both sold more than 200,000 copies.
   DETECTIVE COMICS #1, THE FLASH #1, GREEN LANTERN #1 and
   SUPERMAN #1 have all sold more than 150,000 copies.
   AQUAMAN #1, BATGIRL #1, BATMAN AND ROBIN #1, BATMAN: THE DARK
   KNIGHT #1, GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1, GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #1 and
   WONDER WOMAN #1 have all sold more than 100,000 copies.

Usually, the bestselling American comic book periodicals move around 100,000 copies. As such, DC's numbers are indeed cause for celebration at the publisher, who'd been losing comic store market share to rival Marvel Comics.

"We are thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive response from retailers, fans and the creative community to DC Comics -- The New 52," said DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson in a statement. "This was a bold publishing initiative that is reinvigorating and growing the industry and medium we love."

Nelson added, "When DC Entertainment was created almost two years ago, we committed
to an environment of 'no fear' when it came to creative and business risks," said Nelson. "I couldn't be more proud of our Publishing team for embracing this mantra and delivering in a way that is growing the genre, our partners' businesses and our fan base, while helping to fuel the creative engine that drives so many Warner Bros.' content businesses."

All the titles in DC's New 52 initiative are also available digitally on the same day the print versions go on sale in comics shops. Digital sales numbers remain unreleased by the publisher or its digital partner comiXology, but DC's Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing John Rood had this to say about the company's digital comics operation:

"Our digital sales have been better than we could have imagined and we are pleased that these sales are additive to traditional publishing sales in the comic book stores. We're not migrating readers from print to digital. We're adding more new readers into the mix."

In related news, Bleeding Cool reports that DC will begin offering digital combo packs of Batman and Action Comics beginning with issue #5 of both series. Already in place for Justice League, the digital combo pack is a scheme by which a print comic book is priced at a premium $4.99 (one dollar more than the standard print copy) and comes with a download code that the customer can use to read that comic on their iPad or other device. The move was likely prompted by the sales successes of Batman and Action Comics. However, Marvel Comics have already announced plans to offer its forthcoming Avenging Spider-Man #1 with a download code for no extra cost, a move that many comics fans and digital comics pundits believe should be the standard for every comic book published by either company.



Da CAlliance

[Green Hankey]

 
Post Uniti: 13 Ottobre 2011, 21:33:38
NYCC: Ann Nocenti Returns To Comics With "Green Arrow"

After a fifteen-year hiatus, writer Ann Nocenti is returning to the world of comic books, taking over the ongoing "Green Arrow" series with issue #7 as announced today by DC Comics at New York Comic Con.

An editor at Marvel Comics in the '80s and early '90s, Nocenti rose to prominence after creating the character Longshot with artist Arthur Adams in 1985 and stepping in to take over after Frank Miller as the permanent writer on "Daredevil" in 1987. The relatively unknown Nocenti took the industry by surprise as her run on the character proved as popular as Miller's, collaborating first with artist Barry Windsor-Smith and then John Romita Jr. on the title. Tackling social issues and creating enduring characters such as Typhoid Mary during her 1987 to 1991 run with the Man WIthout Fear, Nocenti went on to write for several other Marvel titles,, writing the 1988 graphic novel "Someplace Strange" with artist John Bolton and creating the "Kid Eternity" miniseries for Vertigo Comics with artist Sean Phillips in 1993.

Nocenti's involvement in comics dwindled in the late '90s, however, and outside of four standalone Batman stories written for DC in 2003 and 2004, Nocenti has been absent from comics for the past fifteen years. Nocenti has spent the last decade and a half focusing on a journalism career that has taken her everywhere from agitating for prison reform in the United States for "Prison Life Magazine" to reporting on tribal unrest in Pakistan, a subject she also documented in the film "The Baluch."

Announced today by DC Comics as the new permanent writer for "Green Arrow," Nocenti gave CBR an exclusive interview about her return to comics, her views on the New 52, and her plans for Oliver Queen -- weapons, goatees and all!

CBR News: You're writing Green Arrow starting with issue #7. Is the plan for you to come on as the permanent full time writer for "Green Arrow" as a first step towards your way back into writing comics?

Ann Nocenti: Yeah, I miss comics a lot, My life has been pretty busy and crazy doing lots of other things, so when Bob Harras called me in with Dan DiDio, they just wanted to talk to me about bringing me back into comics. They said that the writer was leaving "Green Arrow" and they gave me some of the New 52 relaunches to read. The ones they gave me were terrific, I thought! "Animal Man" and they gave me the "Frankenstein" one and "Red Hood" -- they gave me a whole bunch of them. Anyway, I thought they were terrific and it seemed like an exciting thing to be part of. I had never read a Green Arrow comic, so I read his Wikipedia entry! [Laughs] I thought, well, I don't really get a sense of who he is at all. The only consistent thing was this phrase that he was a "thrillseeker/activist." I thought, for tradition's sake, keep that, but try and really figure out who he is with the first trilogy that I do. So what I've done is I've sort of thrown him someplace new so I could figure out who he is.

Does that mean you're coming on and cleaning the slate, moving him away from Seattle where J.T. Krul placed him and rearranging his supporting cast?

Well you know I believe in tradition, I believe in keeping a lot of elements secure, because people's lives don't tend to completely switch from month to month. I want to keep the stuff that the previous writer did, which was to create this huge tension in Oliver Queen with his boss, Emerson. He's just really sick of the bureaucracy of running a corporation. I play off that as a way to jettison him someplace else. Then, he has these two characters, this kind of reluctant weapons guy and he has his tech girl, and I like that. They will remain his tether to the real world while we send Green Arrow out in a more international way.

Since you are uprooting Oliver in an attempt to try and figure out who he is, are you also creating new villains in order to bring out aspects of his personality and build the character by placing new obstacles around him?

Oh yeah, absolutely. In the very first issue, he has a brand new, very devious -- well, let's say he has a new villain and a new girlfriend in the very first issue. And both are complicated! [Laughs]

I think people's strengths are kind of, in some way, their flaws. Green Arrow is a thrill seeker and he shoots off and does stuff, but there are repercussions to this shooting off and doing something. I'm going to play a lot with the notion that if you are going to be an impulsive, reckless hero, your heroic instincts better be pretty right on. What I think about is sports; Wayne Gretzky has to know where the puck is next and he has to get to it, no matter what. The long distance runner has to endure a huge amount of pain, they have to develop a tolerance for pain. If [Green Arrow] slams himself off to do something, his instincts have to be unerring -- like shooting an arrow. So I'm going to fool around with that, I'm going to fool around with the double edge of his strengths also being his weaknesses, in a weird way, and I'm going to give him some really awesome new women to play with!

Also, I was talking to Dan [DiDio] and Bob Harras and they started talking about Steve Jobs -- this was weeks ago, before he died -- and what an insane perfectionist he was towards all of his technology. I think I'm going to have Green Arrow experiment quite a bit more with his weapons arsenal and have that kind of obsessiveness. It's got to be perfect. Somebody with a bow and arrow and quiver, it's a very cumbersome weapon in this day and age where everyone else has a sleek little pistol. He's vulnerable in close combat when he can't draw his bow. I'm going to fool around with giving him some smaller arrows and things he can use in close combat, but like Steve Jobs, within the comic he's going to be testing things until they're perfect, from his point of view.

I have to imagine that from a creative standpoint, it's got to be fun to spend hours thinking up new trick arrows.

It's a blast! I mean, I've always been into weaponry; I've got a gun, I do karate -- I'm into weaponry. The other day, I was outside just fooling around and I took some twigs and made myself a little bow and arrow! I think [Green Arrow's] got to become more in love with the fetish of the bow and arrow. I know it comes from Robin Hood, but Robin Hood is a very old myth that goes back to when the bow and arrow was kind of a cutting edge weapon! [Laughs] To me, what I love about "Green Arrow" is ,there are a lot of challenges there. How do you make sense of a guy that will take up a weapon with obvious, severe vulnerabilities and weaknesses? It's like that joke, who brings a knife to a gunfight? He does! [Laughs] I'm going to have fun with that, because for whatever reason he has an instinct that fighting with an arrow is the thing he's got to do. He has his reasons for it that maybe have to do with challenging himself. Up where I live, in the country, there's a lot of deer hunters who will only hunt deer with a bow and arrow because they like the discipline and precision, and they think the gun is kind of cheating. I think Oliver has some of that in him. Mostly, I want to fling him around the world on some very exotic adventures with some extremely eccentric villains and lots of exploration of different femme fatales he encounters, and then have this kind of undercurrent of the Steve Jobs-ian fetish with technology and weaponry.

As you mention, Robin Hood is something of a template for the character and one of the most famous versions of Green Arrow was when he was used as just that -- a hero standing up for the working man, and his comic became a soap box for different social and political issues. Is that something you are going to do with this Green Arrow, use him to address real world issues?

Even though, in my various runs in comics, I've certainly done a bunch of activist comics and social justice comics and things like that, I find it a little boring to do that stuff in a comic. I would have to find a way to make it extraordinarily exciting. I mean, is he going to go over to Occupy Wall Street? No. [Laughs] Is going to go down to Occupy Seattle? No. But in a kind of Steve Jobs-ian, grand gesture way, maybe he would send a box of something over there.
I don't really know yet how I'm going to reconcile the big international adventures; I think the template for him, which I talked about with Bob Harras and Dan, was a touch of Steve Jobs and a touch of James Bond. James Bond is no social activist. Did he fight for the right side? Yes. So I think somewhere in there, I'm going to find a way to have him continue the tradition of, like you said, fighting for the working man and social justice, but on a grander scale.

As you are still figuring out Oliver, when you write a comic, how do you approach an issue? Do you plan strict plot points and beats out or is it a more organic process?
I have a particular way of writing a comic. Comics are short. Yhey are only twenty pages, so you can take a year of comics and that can be your opera, and the opera can have a lot of different passages in it. I kind of believe every issue should be a single story, just a complete story. But there is a momentum that forms like triptychs over it, and then it forms your big overtures, and then the whole thing ends up kind of operatic. I also want a beginning, middle and end, a classic short story approach to every single comic. What I do is I try to figure out, what is the kick in this comic, what is the main feeling I want to get, and everything in the comic has to serve that. I mean, this is real technical writer talk and probably boring for most! [Laughs] I think where comics get in trouble is when they try and plot too much in a single issue. It's only twenty pages and you should leave with a feeling that you get from reading a short story or watching a short film. But most of all I want to have fun, because if I have fun, the book will be fun!

You mentioned you really missed writing comics -- how does it feel to slip back into the grind of putting out a monthly book again?

It's really fun! I did a monthly for DC, "Kid Eternity," but I'm having all these flashbacks to writing "Daredevil" and the affectionate bond that develops between you and your character and how they're always in your head. Everywhere you go and everything you do, it's sort of like they become your pal; they're hanging out in your head! [Laughs]

It's a really sweet feeling to have this heroic buddy that you carry around with you; when I do things, he's always there. I don't quite have that feeling yet, completely, for Green Arrow, because I've only just started. I remember over the years with Daredevil, he became quite real for me. It's a lot of fun.

I think most people know you best from your long and successful run on "Daredevil," which also starred a character whose inherent idea was that he took risks and flung himself off buildings. Is that something that attracts you to Green Arrow and these types of characters in general -- that idea of somebody flinging themselves into situations without thinking it through and only going off of moral impulses?

Absolutely, because I'm a bit of a risk taker myself. I just came back from teaching film to Cherokee Native Americans, and I'm headed to Lapland to teach film to reindeer people! [Laughs] I was in Haiti teaching film and I made a film in Baluchistan, which is a really rough tribal area in Pakistan. I know my own nature is, "Ugh, life's getting too comfortable -- what can I do to shake my mind up and challenge myself?" I used to take big physical risks with sports. I don't do the physical risks anymore -- well, I guess it is a bit of a physical risk the countries I go to -- but for the most part I feel very reckless and impulsive myself. That part, I think will be easy.

I don't know about "no physical risk" -- I've read your articles about Baluchistan and so many of your pieces seem to start, "I was in a bullet-proof armored tank," or, "So there were guns everywhere!"

Yeah! [Laughs] I mean, I also have that international experience, so I can take [Green Arrow] places. I know what those places smell like and I know what the people are like, so I can do things with that. I've only been to Seattle a few times, so I have a certain sense for what that town is like, but I think I'm going to keep Oliver Queen there and send Green Arrow out and about. But like I said, your best qualities are your flaws; to a certain degree, some of the things I did were a bit stupid! Putting yourself in danger is a little stupid. I never looked into the reasons why I do it. Maybe I will with "Green Arrow," but it's definitely what I was saying, that your strengths are in some ways your flaws.

Like you said before, you've been teaching around the world and you've made some documentaries -- outside of comics what are you currently working on?

I really like to teach, I just really love it. I'm about to start a two-year mentorship with the Samis who are in Lapland, which is like Arctic Norway, which means going back and forth to Lapland and teaching film there and immersing myself in that culture. I always have something going on. I'm working on a novel now, a piece of journalism, I write for this site called HiLowbrow and I wrote a series of tales from Haiti. I'm always doing stuff, but I probably will put all my creative juice into "Green Arrow."

You wrote a couple of "Batman" one-off stories semi-recently, but you've taken a long hiatus from comics for the most part. What prompted you to leave comics in the first place to focus on your journalism, and what's bringing you back now?

It's weird. I guess it gets back to what I was saying about how the good of something is also the bad of something. I mean, comic book writers and artists, I don't know about the rest of them, but you definitely start living in a little fantasy bubble. It's really, really fun and there are aspects to it that keep you in a fantasy, like something childish, though not in a bad way. I just wanted to start doing stories that were more engaging to the real world. Probably it started when I began doing some issue-related "Daredevil" comics. I went, "You know what? Maybe I want to actually address some of these issues in journalism." It was just a natural progression.

I also love story. I just like storytelling in all sorts of forms, so it was natural to say, "How do you tell a story in journalism? How do you tell a story in film?" And then it all comes back to comics and it's still just, "What's the drama?"

You've talked a lot about defining who Oliver is and putting him in different situations, so obviously, it's time to ask one of the biggest questions, and one that's been floating around internet fandom for a while -- do you have any plans to bring back Oliver Queen's goatee?

He had a van dyke or something, right? I actually don't know what his facial hair is like now! [Laughs] You know, it's funny. I have a lot of pretty young friends and sometimes when you go into a Starbucks, there are guys who have van dykes and goatees now. It's kind of a trend. So if [DC] shaved him because it was dorky and old fashioned, it's kind of come back around to being hip again! [Laughs]

I don't know. I didn't have any plans, but now that you've mentioned it, I'll probably start obsessing on it!

The other thing is that he has to also fight with a certain illogic. Most characters that have secret identities wear masks, and it's a delicate suspension of very strong disbelief that you would have a world famous entrepreneur Oliver Queen who has the same exact face as Green Arrow. I think sometimes they must both be on page six and somebody goes, "Hey, he looks like him!" A lot of the fun with superheroes is the tension between their secret identities because I think they often get a little schizophrenic and say, "Oliver Queen did that, I didn't do that." I don't know why they got rid of the van dyke, but maybe they thought it would be too obvious when there are two high profile people running around with van dyke beards. [Laughs] It's an interesting question, thank you!

You're welcome! So, you're coming onto "Green Arrow" with, really, no prior knowledge. You came onto "Daredevil" the same way, and you've said before that you didn't know much about comics before talking your way into your first Marvel job. Do you feel it's been beneficial that you have an outsider's eye on these characters?

I think certainly looking at someone like Green Arrow and saying, "Oh my god, he looks like Robin Hood! What's the little green hat for? This is going to be tough, it's not cool," you have to kind of figure out, even visually, how you are going to approach him. But at the same time, like I said before, I'm really into tradition, I'm really into the shared universe having deep roots, so at some point I'm going to have to say, "Ok, I have my clean slate feeling on him -- now let me see what some of the other writers have done with him." I don't really know anything other than there was a long Mike Grell run. I'd be interested to see what he did, and to see what Kevin Smith did, but I haven't really looked at the old issues yet.

Denny O'Neil did a version of him as well.

Oh, yeah! I'll have to check it out, Denny's a master. I should have figured it out when you said social activism, that's one of his things! [Laughs] He's such a terrific storyteller, I'll definitely look at his issues -- Denny gave me my first job in comics!

Finally, now that you are getting back into the monthly swing with "Green Arrow," what is the number one big thing you want fans to take away from your new work?

I want people to have a good time. Comics should be fun, and if you layer them with something profound or moving, they should still be a blast to read. That's one of the things I noticed from the issues Bob Harras gave me; they were super-fun to read! The few times people have handed me comics over the years, there were so many characters, I didn't know what was going on. It felt like you had to have read the fifty issues before to understand. They were too dense for me to enjoy. I think it is a good thing to get away from making comics so impenetrable that a new reader can't just pick them up and be enchanted.

I've only done this little trilogy so far, so I don't really know yet. I'd like more reader involvement. Last time I wrote comics, there were letter pages and you got feedback; I know there's an Internet presence now, but I kind of would like a more direct relationship with the readers. The other day I was thinking, it was just so much fun to think about weaponry! What if we got people's ideas? Just be interactive -- I've always liked the interactive nature of the letter columns. That's always fun for me, having a relationship with the readers!

CBR