New Frontier ©2007 DC Comics

CCI: You worked in animation for a number of years including at Warner Bros. Animation. What's it like going full circle and coming back to work on New Frontier?

DC: It was pretty weird, in a good way. It's been probably seven years since I worked with the guys at Warmers' and I still have a lot of friends there. My time there was great and I got to know so many of the guys who ended up working on The New Frontier, so it was like old home week. It was a lot of fun.

CCI: New Frontier is an epic work. How much of it will we see translated to the movie version and how difficult was it to let some of the story go?

DC: It's like a lot of things: it feels a lot worse than it is at first. We were all pretty daunted by trying to compress this material down to a 70-minute video. But Stan Berkowitz did a great job of objectively going through the story and finding out what needed to stay and what could go. The screenplay he pulled together did a very good job of that, so it was just a matter of us playing with it a bit more. It was really kind of difficult and hard to let go, but in the end we were all pretty amazed at how much of the story actually made it into the video and how much does feel like the book.

CCI: New Frontier is very much of a particular era, the late 1940s through the 50s. Is that maintained in the movie?

DC: We certainly did our best and there were some hilarious moments when the prop designers were designing things like pink telephones from 1959. So yeah, we had notes for them (laughs) but all in all the entire crew really embraced the challenge of trying to put that together. And our partners overseas will let us know if we've succeeded or not, but what we tried to do with it is not to use any techniques that will make it clear that this was made before 1955. We want it to feel like it was made with the resources and technology available at the time. Granted we are using digital to support what we're doing everywhere we can, but we want it to look traditional.

So in everything from the color palette on down, I think we've done pretty good in scoring it. I did design most of the characters so I was able to control the wardrobe and things like that. I think we got it. I mean, until you see the footage you just don't know.

CCI: New Frontier included a lot of history and social issues. Will we see that transferred to the movie?

DC: Again, we were in a tough spot because we had to cut so much material. But its incredible how much we've managed to maintain. It's in short bursts, but we're using devices like Batman looking through an old style microfilm catalogue, so we get these slides that roll by with Rosa Parks, or the Russians, and all this kind of material that we've used as much as we can for backstory. And I really think it all comes through pretty clearly.

CCI: The way we understand it, the new DVD films are not beholden to the continuity that's on, say, the Justice League TV series.

DC: If they had been adapting this in the "Adventures" style that would have been great. But the fact that this was going to get to stand alone is what made it really exciting, and that they wanted it to look like the book is like, "Wow, what a great opportunity." We didn't have a lot of time to put it together which is probably the toughest part of it, I guess.

The Spirit ©2007 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.

CCI: How did the Spirit job come about for you?

DC: It's funny. DC and Will Eisner talked about this forever, and apparently just before he went in for his heart surgery, they all made a real effort to kind of get this in order. So they constructed this deal before he went in. I think Denis Kitchen was instrumental in coordinating the actual deal with DC. And then of course the worst happened and it was shortly after that that Mark Chiarello called me about the project and it was a very difficult thing to sign on for.

I mean, the only way I can describe this is, there's this old Harvey Kurtzman MAD Magazine cover, and it shows this African safari tribe and they're standing in the footprint of this giant ape, and the guy says something like, "I'm telling you guys, I don't see a giant ape anywhere around here." And that's like Eisner's footprint, and I'm this little bug standing in it looking up. I mean, he's the most beloved creator in the industry and he created a character that's not been screwed up in the 40 years it's been in existence. So there's a lot of pressure. There are a lot of people who don't even feel it should be done let alone by whom. And I kind of knew that would be the case so it took a while to come around to it.

First off, I can't top what Eisner did, so what would be the purpose of doing it? And secondly, how much crap am I going to have to take for having the balls for doing it? And casting about in desperation because I was so afraid of the job, it occurred to me that if it could take place today, there were a whole new bunch of social conditions and story ideas and graphic treatments that I could bring into it.

CCI: I think you threw everyone a curve by setting it in the present.

DC: I think it had to be. The question is what is the purpose of relaunching this character at all? To me, in my mind anyway, the answer is it's going to introduce a new generation of readers to Will's work. So it was like, "How are we going to capture 20-year old readers with a retro book about 1945?" Whether they think it's pretty or not is one issue, but how are we going to make them actually read it? The other thing was, from a purely selfish point of view, New Frontier completely pigeonholed me into retro, and I knew that if I went ahead and did The Spirit that way that would be it for me. I would forever be pigeonholed that way.

With New Frontier there was a purpose to going back and doing it that way. But with Will's to go back and do it in that time frame is like copying the best stuff there. And yes, it became a challenge because we have a trademarked character here and he has to have a blue hat, the mask and the whole look of the guy is not modern. So we're playing with that in a small way with the characters who encounter him. Nobody calls him "The Spirit." He's "Mr. Blue," he's "Gainsborough," he's all these different things to these people.

CCI: Are going to be continuing on with The Spirit?

DC: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I will be involved with this book for at least two years, and if things are going well, who knows? The minute I found out we were allowed to do present-day stories, we got forty story ideas in a week. I mean all I have to do is turn on Fox News for five minutes and I get so pissed off that I've got another story to write. It's remarkable.

The way I sold it to Dennis and DC was, look at The Spirit (and a story of Eisner's such as) "Olga Bustle, the girl with those big, big eyes," the Jane Russell parody he did. We all look at this now and we think it's quaint and it's old-timey, but this came out when the movie (The Outlaw) came out. Something was happening in the news and he'd do a strip about it. He wasn't looking at the good old days, he was dealing with the here and now. So, yes, I'd love to stick with it because we have a lot of stories and it takes a while to get deep enough into a character where you can play with it a certain way. I think we've coming up with stuff that's pretty cool and unique and doesn't disturb anything Will did.

CCI: How daunting is the monthly schedule for you?

DC: You know, in regard to things like the schedule, you're only as good as the crew you've got. I mean, it's the guys you work with who are keeping it together to be quite honest. I work with the most talented people in the business. My artistic partner J. Bone, is so much more than an inker really, now after so much time of working together. (Colorist) Dave Stewart, Jared Fletcher, our letterer, and Scott Dunbier and Kristy Quinn in editorial, they're keeping it together, so we're not going to ship late. And yeah, it's pretty thrilling, I can sit down with this book and I don't get stuck.

With a lot of projects you'll find those spots where you're stuck, where you dry up for two weeks, and I just find this isn't happening with this book. So at this point, I'm telling you, and it's nothing personal to any other guys, but to me, you have to ship on time. It's called a monthly for a reason. I spent my early years as a magazine art director, so I had it burned into me on an atomic level that you can't ship late. I mean, you don't see Time Magazine ship late because the guy they wanted to shoot the cover wasn't available, so they'll wait a month until he's available.

I know with new readers, we have to be there when we say we're going to be there or they'll just drop the book. These kids all have a budget and a pull list now and if you get them to put you on their pull list and you screw up and are late, off you go.

CCI: One thing we've noticed is you've kept the Eisner tradition of splash pages and evocative title treatments.

DC: I wanted to continue that tradition, and I think it all fell into my understanding of what a short story would be to a modern reader. When Will was doing the 8-pagers, it was the norm. These days, a 6-issue arc is the norm. I thought psychologically for a modern reader, the 8 pages and the 22 pages equate. By the time you put in all the character beats that people expect these days, it works out about the same.

But I'm telling short stories and in this format I can take two pages for the splashes. In that regard, I can at least not compositionally duplicate anything Eisner did before. And frankly, we have the room to have the artwork shine there.

CCI: Going off an epic work like New Frontier which was 400 pages, and now doing short stories, is that invigorating?

DC: Yeah, it's a lot more my speed. I guess the truth of the matter is I'm not a big super hero guy. I'm much more comfortable with the Spirit because he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He's not infallible, he's not Batman or Superman. This guy takes his lumps. He's a lot more human and a lot more interesting and it's certainly a lot easier. Adding weight and relevance to the DC characters was a lot of work. A lot of fun. too, but a lot of work.

CCI: We know Frank Miller is writing and directing The Spirit movie, but if you were going to cast The Spirit, who would you cast?

DC: Gosh, I really don't know, that's a tough question. I know I'm going to sound old now, but I guess in my head I always pictured a young James Garner.

My girlfriend, Marsha, thinks Josh Duhamel (from the TV show, Las Vegas). Wow, I wish I could give a great answer, but I don't know. Maybe Chris Noth (Law and Order) would have been great ten years ago. The character needs to have a certain familiarity, but also an almost other worldly calm. To think he (Denny Colt, The Spirit) has been running around with no ID, people think he's dead, and he's just getting into crazy stuff...it would take a very particular person to pull the Spirit off.