CCM: What's the secret origin of Geoff Johns?

GJ: The secret origin of Geoff Johns, wow. Well if you're talking about comic books or how I got here...I was born in Detroit, grew up in Grosse Pointe and Clarkston in Michigan. But when I was really young I found a box of old DC comics in my grandma's attic. There were a few Marvels in there too but I never really sparked to Marvel, I don't know why. I always liked the DC characters. My brother and I found this old box of comic books that belonged to my uncle and we just tore through them. We loved going over there because we'd go up in the attic and just go through the comics. And I just started to love those characters. I eventually discovered that there was a comic shop up in Traverse City, which is way up north in Michigan. One summer my brother and I and my family went up there and all we did was buy old comics and read old comics. I started collecting them and I gravitated towards DC and later Vertigo. And I actually used to draw all the time.

CCM: Do you remember some of the books that were in that box that was your uncle's?

GJ: Oh, Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman.

CCM: And were they 1960s era?

GJ: Yeah, they were '60s and '70s. There were some Metamorphos in there. When I started to buy new comics, the first new comic I bought was Crisis on Infinite Earth number 3 or 4. I had had a few others but when I started to really collect comics I bought those and I bought Flash, I think 349 or 348, and Flash is my favorite character. But then I was just starting to get into comics and Crisis. I didn't understand it but I just liked it because there were so many characters.

CCM: Were you stunned when they killed off the Flash?

GJ: Yeah, but I was so young that I just kind of went with it. I was like "Wow," I couldn't believe it. It was the craziest thing I ever read. And as soon as Wally West put on that costume, I was like "Cool!" I think as a kid you're more open to change. And so I just kind of followed along. I just liked the Flash. I remember when I was waiting for Wally West. When I first saw Legends I bought that because Flash was in that and I remember, I don't know why, I was grounded, when Flash number 1 came out. And I remember my friend came to the window and I gave him 75 cents to go to the drugstore and he bought Flash number 1 and came back and gave it to me. That's one of my earliest memories of comics.

I got into comics and then I got more into film and I went to college and then I moved out to L.A. I worked for Richard Donner. I've told this story many times but I cold-called his office because he's my favorite director. He did Superman and The Goonies and all those great films. They transferred me around when I called. I was looking for an internship and nobody wanted to talk to me, to this kid. And then Donner picked up the phone by accident and he said "Hello" in this real deep voice. I said yeah I'm looking for an internship and he put the phone down and I heard him yell, "Someone get this kid an internship," and everyone picked the phone up at the same time. So he said can you come in tomorrow because someone quit today, and I said sure. So I went in. I was wearing a tie, like I didn't really know what I was getting into but I went to Warner Brothers, which was to me amazing. I went to the office and I'm sitting there copying scripts and they have X-Men in development and I'm looking at all the X-Men stuff and I was really excited about that. I was an intern there for probably about two months and then I got hired as what was called a runner, which is essentially a production assistant, but I just delivered stuff all day long. I'd drive around town. It actually gave me a great knowledge of Los Angeles. In the summer of 1996 my sister died in the TWA Flight 800 plane crash. And it was obviously a very difficult time. When it happened I was very out of it, I was kind of in shock. Donner actually paid for my plane ticket home, he paid for a friend to fly with me and he was so amazing. That company took care of me at that time. That was when I realized how fortunate I was to work for people like that.

Eventually I came back to work and I kept working and then I got hired as his assistant. I went to New York and we shot a film called Conspiracy Theory. And Donner invited my parents to the set and he put them in the movie! He was a really great guy. I probably worked 90 hours a week but that's where I met some people--Eddie Berganza, specifically from DC Comics--and that's when I started to get back into comics. I met Eddie when I was shooting in New York. And I don't know what his job was. He was probably an editor at that time, maybe an associate editor and I was just an assistant, I was like 22 or 23. And I was talking about DC Comics and they had come to the set because it was a Warner Brothers film. I just talked their ears off about DC Comics because I loved DC. (Eddie) invited me to DC Comics and I went there for kind of a tour on one of my days off and met a bunch of people and really had an amazing time. And he said if you have any ideas to pitch us, let me know. About a year later I finally had some time. I worked so much on the film front I didn't really have a lot of time to do anything else. And I pitched DC Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. to an editor there named Chuck Kim, who later became a writer on Heroes. He liked it and put it through the system and it got approved. I started doing that and I thought I was going to (write comics) on the side and then I met David Goyer and James Robinson who were working on JSA. And James had taken a look at Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E and I owe him a lot--him and Mike Carlin--for helping to shepherd me into the business. James asked if I wanted to co-write JSA and I started to get more and more into comics and eventually a couple years later, I'd worked for Donner for four years and I had been writing comics for two and comics started to take over full time. And so I just went full time into writing.

CCM: Who are your biggest influences as a writer?

GJ: It's very weird because my mix of influences is probably very modern and very, very '60s, because I didn't know who wrote comics when I was a kid. I just read them and I liked the characters and the stories. (All the original stuff) was going to be by Gardner Fox and John Broome. But then in the modern era when I started to really pay attention to who was writing comics, I really liked Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, all the guys I work with now. Keith Giffin, John Ostrander. Ostrander was one of my absolute biggest influences in comics, specifically with villains. What he did on Suicide Squad redefined what a super villain was to me. Marv Wolfman, of course, Alan Moore. Peter David was the first writer I ever looked for. I read a Hulk comic. It was a standalone issue of Hulk Gray. I can't remember what number it was, like 334 or something. And I finished reading this story and that was the first time I ever said "who wrote this comic?" And I turned to the credits and it said Peter David. That was the first time I ever cared about who wrote a comic. That's when I got into writers, because I had always been reading for the characters and the art and I never really paid that much attention. And then I would follow these guys. I'd follow Peter David to Aquaman and I'd read whatever Waid or Morrison wrote. James Robinson later became an influence with Firearm and Starman and The Golden Age. Oh, Karl Kesel, too. Oh, man...he was great on Superboy. I loved the Mike Baron Flash re-launch; I loved the Keith Giffin Justice League. John Stewart was Green Lantern at the time I bought Green Lantern. I remember buying an issue of Justice League and it had Gypsy and Vibe in it and I didn't quite know who any of those characters were. But then they re-launched everything after Crisis and that was really when I got on board with comics. I think if I started reading comics maybe five years before I don't know if I would have gotten into DC as much as I did, because when I first got into comics it was John Byrne's Man of Steel number 1 and Justice League number 1 and Flash number 1. It was really easy to pick up those books because they were re- launching everything and kind of doing a new universe. That post Crisis era was what really got me into comic books. I think that was a really interesting time for DC. I bought a lot of DCs because I could buy them at the drug store. I bought a lot of DC number ones because there was a new one every week. And then they did Justice League Europe. Bart Sears was my absolute favorite artist.

CCM: Have you ever worked with him?

GJ: I've never worked with him. I don't even know what he's doing now. I remember going to a show in Novi, Michigan and he was there and Graham Nolan was there and I went with my friend and I was probably 16 or 17. I remember just hanging out with Bart Sears and talking to him for like three hours. He was so nice and such an amazing artist. That Justice League Europe stuff was beautiful. It was funny, it was dramatic, and it was really good.

CCM: Over the years you've written many, many books for DC including Blackest Night. Where does an idea like Blackest Night start for you? Did it start just as a story arc in Green Lantern?

GJ: It started way back when on Green Lantern Rebirth. I remember pacing back and forth in my office and thinking I was missing a piece of the Rebirth story. I couldn't wrap my head around how I could write a Green Lantern book about a guy who killed all these people and then comes back to life and gets a second chance. It was going to be a book about redemption and I didn't want to write a book about redemption. I wanted to write a Green Lantern title because Green Lantern's not a book about redemption. It's a book about overcoming fear. So I thought the whole concept of Rebirth had to be overcoming fear. I kept thinking about Parallax, and at that point I decided it's going to be some kind of fear-based entity. And I suddenly started to try and tie it in to emotions with the powers. If green is courage and will, then yellow is fear. It made sense that yellow was fear. I thought there's that moment where Hal Jordan goes into the power battery in Emerald Twilight and he comes out with gray hair and he's all nuts. The white hair to me was always kind of a trigger of fear. You get scared and you get a streak of white in your hair. And it all kind of came together. It was the yellow impurity in the power battery that had never really been explained or touched upon. I thought it could be a living entity of fear and that it had been imprisoned. I started to come up with the idea that we give off this energy and the idea is that these power batteries can collect energy from all sentient beings. In life there's an emotional spectrum and there's all these powers. We're not just life forms, we actually have emotional resonance with the universe and we give off these emotions. You can walk in a room and tell somebody's angry because they give off that vibe. I thought you can collect all these powers and I would slowly introduce these other colors and the emotional spectrum, with the Red Lanterns and Blue Lanterns and everything else, and pulling the Star Sapphires in and creating this celestial core.

I thought if there could be a big war between all these guys--because emotions struggle against each other inside us. And I thought if there's a big conflict between emotions, what's the one thing that can destroy emotion? Death is something that cancels everything out. It doesn't have emotion, it just is. It happens no matter if you're happy, sad, angry...it just happens. I thought the ultimate battle between these core emotions and death itself would be the Blackest Night. I came up with the concept of the black rings raising the dead because emotionally I thought these things would feed emotion. I just got the scene of black rings plunging into graveyards all across Earth and I thought it was a pretty visceral scene. That's kind of where the idea developed, but it was always about an analyzation of emotion because I've had Sinestro say a couple times that Green Lantern can deal with fear but all the other emotions are like everybody else. We struggle with everything. And Hal Jordan is somebody who buries his emotions. The Guardians do it to such an extent that they became completely distant from humanity. And when we bury our emotions, it always will end up tearing us apart from the inside or affecting our lives in other ways. So it just became an analogy and a story about confronting your emotions head on because that's what Green Lantern really is. It's all about confronting and overcoming fear and I thought we'll tackle that on all levels.

And we are all [filled with] emotions. Some days we're Red Lanterns, some days we're Blue Lanterns, some days we're Sinestro. It changes and I think that's why those symbols--you see them all over the place at Comic-Con--because people can relate to that. And it's something I'm really happy with with those characters. I think those characters have taken off because they're fun and they're different and they're relatable. Even though they're aliens, they're still relatable.

But anyway, that's where the idea generated. For me it resonates personally because it deals with a lot of things like emotion and death and fear. I think fear holds a lot of people back. I think it's important to face your fears and overcome your fears because fear is not real. It's a survival instinct but a lot of the stuff that we're afraid of isn't life or death.

CCM: So where does it go from being a Green Lantern story to being a story that encompasses the entire DC universe?

GJ: I always knew it would affect the DC Universe. It was to draw (the characters) in much like Sinestro Corps did, but in Sinestro Corps they're all in the background because it's first and foremost a Green Lantern story. I have to give credit to Dan Didio because he said in Sinestro Corps you had all your eyes on Green Lantern and Blackest Night has the potential because the dead rise to affect the entire DC Universe. I had always had an ending for Blackest Night in mind that would affect the DC Universe. Dan asked do you want a bigger stage to do this on? And we talked about it and I said that'd be great. Out of that, instead of doing it just through Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, was born the Blackest Night series itself. I met with Eddie Berganza who's my editor and the only guy that could pull this off. We talked about how big we could make this in the crossovers and what made sense emotionally. We wanted to make it big but not too big. We didn't want to swallow every title. So you know obviously the Superman books and the Batman books they're moving on on their own. And Wonder Woman is moving along on its own so we didn't have to interrupt other books to do this big story but we could still use those characters in a miniseries. That's how it got big. It kind of grew organically just because there was story to do it. It would have been a shame if we didn't see some of these confrontations. I'm especially happy with what Greg Rucka has done on Blackest Night Wonder Woman. Issues 2 and 3 are really dynamite.

CCM: But you'd just come out of Infinite Crisis and 52. Were you up for doing another epic story like this?

GJ: Well, Infinite Crisis was kind of me being thrown into the deep end and learning how to do these crossovers and how it works. That was a great experience and Eddie and I look back on that and saw the things that worked and things that didn't and things that were challenges. Blackest Night presented all these new challenges that we also were able to tackle with that experience. Infinite Crisis was a very different beast from 52. 52 was an entirely different kind of storytelling. It didn't work the same as an event because you're working with three other writers. It was a grind because it was every week but it was focused in on its own universe. When I was doing 52 I actually was kind of retreating back to just doing Green Lantern and Justice Society of America. And then I took about a year off and I did Sinestro Corps, which required some coordination with Dave Gibbons. But really it was a pretty self-contained story. It didn't really affect any books beyond the Green Lantern ones. When Blackest Night came up, I like this kind of stuff so I didn't have any hesitation because it was an event. I really enjoyed it so I'm going to do another one in probably 2011. I'll take a year off and then do another one in 2011 because they're fun to write and they're big and colorful. It's fun to work with all those DC Universe characters. Though it'll be a different kind of event just like Blackest Night was different from 52 and Brightest Day. Brightest Day is an event, but it's a cool event because it's contained and it's big and it's character driven. It's doesn't require the same amount of coordination and scheduling like Blackest Night or Infinite Crisis did.

I moved to New York for three and a half months to insure that we were as connected and as tied in as possible (on Blackest Night) because I think the devil is in the details. The best thing about working on things like Infinite Crisis and 52 and even Sinestro Corps was I could take all those mistakes and challenges and try to improve upon them. I'm really happy with the result so far. Ivan Reis is drawing the last issue of Blackest Night right now, so we're in the home stretch.

I had this story in my head for so long. The details changed, but all the major beats are still the same as they were when I first thought of this thing. One of the things I really wanted to do with Blackest Night was to do the build up in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. Do the series and then do the aftermath and be involved with the next level or the next story that happens after this and how does it affect everything. I wanted to follow through with it. And that's a major difference from Infinite Crisis.

CCM: And that next story is Brightest Day?

GJ: Yeah, it's Brightest Day. The whole concept of Brightest Day I think right now is a little esoteric and vague and I think people just think--mistakenly so--it's a call to arms to shiny, bright, colorful superhero comics and that's not necessarily what we're doing. Some of it is but what "brightest" actually means will become clear at the end of Blackest Night.

CCM: And you're co-writing that with Pete Tomasi. When you do something like this and 52, how do you break it up writer wise?

GJ: Usually by character. On 52 we plotted everything together but we broke it up by character. And occasionally you'd switch out a scene. Occasionally I would write a Question scene--even though Greg Rucka really wrote all the Question stuff--just because it would either be a team-up with Black Adam or whatever. But we'd really divide it by character and Brightest Day is going to be the same kind of thing. It's much, much easier because A, it's biweekly and B, it's also just me and Pete. So there's only one other writer to work with. It's easier to coordinate, even just phone calls and brainstorming sessions and working with (editors) Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman, who are on Blackest Night and carrying Brightest Day through too, which is great. But it'll be kind of the same way we did 52. We'll be plotting everything together.

CCM: You've been dealing with the "Secret Origins" and "Rebirths" of a number of DC's biggest characters including Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern. What's it like working on these iconic characters and how important is it to maintain the details of their histories while updating and adding to their origins for a new audience?

GJ: You have to find a balance. There are certain things in Green Lantern Secret Origin that have been around since he was created and there are certain things that are brand-new, the same thing with Superman. The thing I do is I try and look at what resonates emotionally and what's visceral to people when they think of Green Lantern. You know...he's got to charge that ring. He's got to say the oath and he's got to be there when Abin Sur crashes in the desert. There are certain things that have to happen. I decided to incorporate Hector Hammond into Hal's origin. I thought he was a good counterpoint to who Hal Jordan was, as Hal Jordan is kind of this extraverted over-the-top guy and Hector Hammond's much more an introvert and intellectual. I thought they played off each other nice. And then bringing in Sinestro as Hal's trainer, which was introduced in both Emerald Dawn series way back when. But there are other things that obviously I changed from certain interpretations. I think it's all a creative choice. For me I always read everything and do my research first and then I kind of make an aesthetic choice of what I want to keep due to his character. It's more about his character than anything else.

CCM: Was there any kind of silent little thrill you got with the fact that as a kid you read the Flash being killed in one of the first comics you collected and then you brought him back?

GJ: I think I'm more excited about the stories coming up then the actual rebirth. It's a little bit like Hal Jordan. I really enjoyed Rebirth even though I kind of grew up with John Stewart as Green Lantern, but I really enjoyed writing Green Lantern Rebirth because I felt it was a good story in getting the Green Lantern mythology back up and running. But the stuff I'm really excited about is the stuff going on now: the Green Lantern Corps being back stronger than ever and all these new ideas coming and the same things with the Flash. It's a thrill to bring him back. It's a thrill to see him running around again. It's great and I think he has a lot of weight. You can feel Barry Allen's weight in Blackest Night. He's just a different character. One of my favorite scenes is with him and the Atom and Mera in the 911 office and they're both saying we need to call in Superman and Wonder Woman. Flash kind of tells them look right now you're Superman and you're Wonder Woman. And he takes off and Mera says well, if I'm Wonder Woman and you're Superman, who's he and the Atom says he's the Flash. There's something that gives it a lot of weight and I think Barry Allen as a character has that weight and that resonance. Flash number 1 really captures that and I'm really excited for that book to start. I've been waiting and waiting to start that book ever since I started Rebirth.

CCM: Is there a Flash Secret Origin coming up in that title?

GJ: Yes, there is. I will be doing the Flash Secret Origin. He's never had a secret origin book. You forget as a fan who's read comics for years and years and you say they just did Green Lantern Secret Origin. Well, Emerald Dawn was like back in the mid '80s, I think 25 years ago now. This is obviously for people today. I think sometimes people forget that there is a new generation coming in and this stuff has to be for a new generation. To a lot of people Hal Jordan is the new Green Lantern, and Barry Allen will be the new Flash. But with Green Lantern Secret Origin, it's a book now and that book actually outsells the other GL trades because you look at it if you're in a bookstore or whatever and that's the first one you'll pick up because it looks like that's the first volume. That's why I want to do a Flash Secret Origin because I like those origin stories. I think they're timeless and I also think that the Flash Secret Origin will be one of those books that you can hand to anybody.

CCM: With Superman Secret Origin we see a really strong influence of the Richard Donner films in the books.

GJ: It's obvious with Donner being my mentor that I hold his vision of Superman in high regard. His films were my favorite movies of all time and he captured the essence of Superman and it hasn't been captured quite right since then. Gary Frank obviously is channeling that as well. But part of the thing I miss is I love the humor in the Daily Planet. Every time we were at the Daily Planet in the films it was always fun and in the comics it's not always fun. So I wanted to try to bring some levity and some humor into that environment. I particularly like what Gary Frank has done with Lois Lane, because she's fun and strong, sexy, witty, really intelligent, cynical as hell to start with. And our take on the Daily Planet is that it's dilapidated like most newspapers. You know it's struggling right now. What I wanted to do was kind of turn the dial back. The Daily Planet is the greatest newspaper in Metropolis but let's see what it was like before, let's see what it was like when they couldn't afford the power to keep the globe turning so it got rusted shut and there are pigeons all over it, and nobody knows Jimmy Olsen's name and Lois Lane can't get a front page article to save her life. Lois was focused on finding the truth but to the detriment of anything positive. She doesn't believe that anything's good just to be good. She cuts right through the BS and gets to the core and tries to drag it out and expose things for what they really are. And that comes from cynicism. When she meets Superman and she looks in his eyes for the first time she suddenly believes in something. Like when he says I'm here to do good. A lot of people today if they showed up and said I'm just here to help, people would go I don't know...what's your angle?

I wanted all the other newspaper in town to be very suspicious. And Lex Luthor is there and he's manipulating the media as well as he always does. So all the other newspapers are warning people and being speculative about what he's really here for and who he is and where he's from and what this is all really about. But Lois Lane and the Daily Planet go against the grain. Lois Lane and the Daily Planet embrace this new savior of Metropolis, this potential hero that's come to the city. And when he says I'm just here to help, Lois Lane for once believes him. She writes her first article and Perry White can't believe that she wrote it because it doesn't have one negative word in it. You see the fact that the Daily Planet embraces Superman, and that starts to feed over into Metropolis. And then the whole city starts to change. You get to Metropolis now and you see in Superman Secret Origin number 3 that the first time Superman gets there, people just walk down the street, they don't look each other in the eye, they don't smile. Somebody drops something and nobody stops to help. It's just a very self-centered city. And Luthor's created this lottery essentially. Every morning people line up at his gates like Willy Wonka waiting for him to come down and choose one person to help. Luthor's trying to create a city of parasites that are leeching off of him and relying on him to help them. And Superman shows up and Lex assumes he wants them to rely on him and Superman says no that's not what I want. I want you to help each other, help yourselves. I'm here to help but I'm not here to help solve everything, which is what Lex wants to do. But that's obviously on the surface. You'll see a lot of influence from the films, but beneath it it's a new story. It's a new emotional story and I wanted to just kind of again dial it back a little bit and see how Metropolis became this wonderful city, how the Daily Planet grew, how Lois Lane grew, how Jimmy Olsen grew.

One of my favorite scenes is in issue 4 with Jimmy Olsen up on the roof. Nobody remembers his name and he's up on the rooftop and he's contemplating moving back home and he looks over and Superman's there. Superman's on the rooftop contemplating too, because he doesn't know why people are rejecting him when he says I'm just here to help. Nobody believes him. And they have this conversation and Superman says, "What are you doing up here?" Jimmy says, "I'm thinking about moving home. You know I came here to be a photographer and it's not working out the way I wanted. The city chews you up and spits you out." And Superman says, "Yeah I know. I'm not sure I made the right choice coming here either." Jimmy looks at him and says, "Well, if a man who can fly can't make it, what chance do I have?" And Superman kind of realizes I have to make it. And Jimmy says, "Man, my parents are going to say I told you so. They can't wait." Superman says, "Your parents said that?" He goes "Yeah, what did your parents say?" And you cut to this quick image and he says, "I'll try and make you proud." Ma and Pa Kent say, "You already do, son." And he's got the support there and he looks at Jimmy and says, "I'd hate for you to move home because I don't have many friends in Metropolis yet and I don't want to lose the only one I do have." And he starts to fly away and Jimmy says, "Hey, wait, wait, wait." And he flies back and he says, "Before you go can I get a picture?" And Superman says I'm really trying to avoid that. Jimmy goes, "Yeah I know, nobody has, but it would mean so much to me, mean everything." And he says well okay and he flies back down and he stands there and Jimmy looks through the lens and he says, "Put your hands on your hips." Superman says it feels weird and Jimmy says, "Trust me it looks great," and takes the picture. And then the next time you see Lois and Perry talking about they just need a picture, they just need one picture for this article, and then--WHAP!--this kick-ass picture of Superman with his hands on his hips looking incredible is thrown on the desk and they both look up and it's Jimmy Olsen. And he says, "The name's Jimmy Olsen." And Lois throws her arm around him and says, "Hey, chief...take a look at your new dream team."

And then you cut to Luthor reading all the negative headlines and enjoying the hell out of them because he's like good they're keeping this guy down, whoever he is and then he gets really upset when we reveal the last paper is the Daily Planet and it says,  "Meet Superman, Metropolis' New Savior," with that big picture on it (and an article) by Lois Lane. To me that's brand-new but it feels familiar, you know what I mean? It's that Jimmy Olsen and Superman relationship people know but they haven't quite seen it like this with what Gary Frank brings to it. And that's something that I try and do in these Secret Origin books is that it feels familiar, but it's new. And emotionally it is new and a little bit different than what we've seen before. Visually, we don't need to change Superman's costume. We don't need to make the Daily Planet a web paper. We don't need to do any of that stuff. It's the emotion that I want to get into and the emotion that I want to explore, more like in Green Lantern Secret Origin or the Flash Secret Origin. It's going to be all about the emotional exploration of these characters and the subtleties behind that and how they got to where they are and who they are underneath the uniform. But that Jimmy Olsen-Superman scene up on that rooftop says more to me about their relationship and about how it was born and how it grew on both of their ends then anything I could say today because it's that beginning spark that I find incredibly compelling. It's like why did these two galvanize? Why do they like each other...just because they're in the same office? There's got to be a better reason. And the better reason is that they're both feeling beat down by Metropolis and they both find a way to pick each other back up.

CCM: One of your 2010 projects is a Batman original graphic novel drawn by Gary Frank. You haven't written very many Batman stories. What's it like working on the character and what is going to be different about your and Gary's take on Batman?

GJ: I've written Batman here and there but I've never got to write a Batman story. I just got done babbling about Superman Secret Origin, but I love working with Gary Frank and he's one of those few collaborators that you want to chain yourself to forever because when we talk and work together it clicks and I'm really happy with the product. I've really been fortunate to work with Gary on all this stuff and Batman is something that we're both excited about because we're fans of the character but we've never worked on a big Batman project. Batman: Earth One is going back and looking at really the beginnings of Batman and a different take on Batman. It's a little early to get into exactly how it's different. And it's not like we're going to say he can fly or he kills people or whatever. It's still Batman, it's still Gotham City. We're just going to take a different look at it and again it's going to be all about emotions. It's going to be about how you overcome loss. Bruce Wayne copes with it very, very differently than most people. He gains his strong sense of not wanting anyone to feel the pain he feels every day by becoming Batman. I want to explore Jim Gordon and Batman's relationship in a different way and how that comes together and what that means. Alfred's actually very different because of the emotional resonance that we're going for with Bruce and the aftermath of his parents' death. And we're looking at that in a very different way with what Alfred is and where he comes from and what he represents to him.

CCM: Is the process of writing a graphic novel different for you from writing a five- or six-issue story arc within a series?

GJ: It is because it's one big story. The way we're tackling Batman, it's a graphic novel series but each story will be a complete arc with emotional and character subplots and some other ones that continue to every book. So the first arc has one big story in it and it's really the first time Batman gets seen in the spotlight and gets involved in a big case and meets Jim Gordon.

CCM: Do you think original graphic novels are the future of comics?

GJ: I think it's an outlet of comics. I think a lot of people want to say the future is all digital or it's all graphic novels. I think it's a lot of different things. I think if the market wants original graphic novel series, we'll find out. I feel really privileged to be a part of the launch with J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis on Superman: Earth One. I'm really excited about being a part of a new publishing model and we'll see how it goes and hopefully it does very well and they can keep doing them. I don't think DC is going to suddenly say we're only going to publish graphic novels. You look at comics and there's always going to be comic shops because they're collectibles. People want those issues. There'll be single issues, but I think as digital grows and as the bookstores continue to grow --which they have immensely--you'll see all these different outlets. And there will be changes to the content and to the way it's delivered but we'll probably have a lot of different models of comic books I think. I think we'll still have some form of monthlies, even if digital takes off huge, I think we'll still have some form of monthlies out there.

CCM: What makes a great writer/artist team?

GJ: Synergy. You look at Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely or Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. There's just synergy and there's not a lot of teams like that that work together consistently. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon are another one of my favorite pairings, both on Preacher and Punisher. I love when those two work together, it's just magic for me. The same thing goes for Loeb and Sale and Morrison and Quitely. I look at what I've done with Gary Frank. We click creatively. And the same thing can be said for myself and Ivan Reis, from Green Lantern into Blackest Night.

CCM: Let's run down some of your collaborators and ask what they bring to the page each time you work together. Let's start with your fellow WonderCon guest Ethan Van Sciver who you've done Green Lantern Rebirth and Flash Rebirth with, and who just finished a brand new piece of art featuring Flash and Green Lantern for the WonderCon Program Book cover.

GJ: Ethan's a mad genius. He's the kind of guy that gets deeper and deeper into the mythology and the character. His art really is reflective of his personality. He's so detail-oriented and he gets so in-depth on things. He's incredibly meticulous. I've probably created more characters and concepts with Ethan--between Sinestro Corps and Rebirth in the Green Lantern world-- than anybody else. We kind of grew up together too. We started on the Flash: Iron Heights one-shot and then we continued on Green Lantern Rebirth and Sinestro Corps and Flash Rebirth. He's somebody that I love working with and really, he's insane. He's insane in the best way possible, but he's insane.

CCM: Blackest Night artist Ivan Reis.

GJ: I started working with Ivan back on a miniseries called The Vision in, I think 2002 or 2003, and I just knew he was going to be amazing. He had an amazing style, kind of an Alan Davis/Neal Adams look with his own insanity laced in. Nobody can touch Ivan in terms of epic superheroes, especially if you look at the schedule he keeps and the amount of art he does per year and the quality to it. There's no one who can compare to Ivan. I think he owns the superhero epic.

CCM: Green Lantern artist Doug Mahnke.

GJ: Green Lantern 50 will be out by now and it's an amazing issue. It's the best issue we've had since I think 43, our first issue. He's much like Ivan in that he's epic and big but he has kind of a real grittiness to his art, even though it's clean superhero art. There's a power behind it and an energy behind it that's raw. Like there's something in there that's visceral and primal but it's some of the cleanest art you'll ever see. I think what he does with his imagination--and you've seen it on Superman Beyond and Green Lantern--what he pulls out and how far he pushes it, is beyond what people think. Every second his pencil's touching that page his mind just must be working at 100 mph.

CCM: Adventure Comics and upcoming Flash artist Francis Manapul.

GJ: Francis is probably one of the most emotional artists I work with. That Superboy story (in Adventure Comics) was all built on emotion, but for me, very open, clean, and pure emotion. I've loved his work on the Flash so far. It's breathtaking because it's clean and modern and it's all about speed and color but it's still about character. At the core Francis is all about character. You see a close-up shot of Wonder Girl and her eyes say everything. If you notice, I don't do any narration on Francis' work because it doesn't need it. It's much like Gary Frank because I have to pull the narration out because their emotions resonate so much my words get in the way.

CCM: And that's the next one, Superman Secret Origin artist Gary Frank.

GJ: Gary Frank is far and away one of the best artists, draftsmen, and storytellers in the business. I talk with Gary a lot and we talk about the emotional content of the scene and where the characters are going and what they're thinking or feeling. The details of their internal journeys are so important to Gary. He focuses so much on character and conveying that emotion and what that character's going through every time. You can see it on the page when he lays it out. He's very conscious of what's important and integral to the scene. He doesn't just do a shot because it's cool, he does it because it's important to the story from the character's point of view. He draws the best Superman of this generation by far. I don't think anyone can touch him. The only other Superman artist I think that is in the same league is Curt Swan.

CCM: You've written a number of scripts for the Smallville TV show including ones that brought both the Legion of Super-Heroes and the JSA to the small screen. What's it like translating those characters to another medium?

GJ: That's probably one of my greatest thrills and greatest goals all around: getting the DC Universe out to the mass public. The Legion of Super-Heroes is in one episode of Smallville and suddenly 3 million people know who they are, which is probably more than did before. And the same thing for Dr. Fate and Stargirl and Hawkman and the concept of the Justice Society of America. But this is just one of many opportunities for DC in 2010 with the Green Lantern and Jonah Hex films, with all this stuff that they've got in the pipeline.

CCM: Are you involved with the Green Lantern film at all?

GJ: I am. I've been consulting on the film.

CCM: IMDb also mentions you in connection with both a Flash and Shazam movie. Are you involved with those?

GJ: Yeah, I wrote the story for the Flash film and I'm a producer on that and the same thing with the Shazam movie. I'm hoping the Flash is going to be a film that will move ahead pretty soon. The great thing about Green Lantern is that it opens the door up for every other DC character out there. I'd love to see a Wonder Woman film. I hope that that happens. I think she's a fantastic character that people already know and want to see. But you know it's hopefully just the beginning of what DC's going to do. They've got the characters, they've got that treasure box.

CCM: What's it's like owning your own comic book store, Earth-2 Comics in Northridge, CA?

GJ: It's one of the best things in the world because obviously I love comics and I always wanted to own a store. But I love going in there and just talking to everybody and learning more about the retail business. What it does is it informs me as a writer and with working for DC Comics how I can better help support the retail business because it's a very important business. Obviously it's what keeps us alive in publishing these books. Carr D'Angelo and Jud Meyers--who run the store and co-own it with me--are incredible retailers and very active in the community and very smart about how the business works. And DC has a long history of trying to work with the retailers and helping the retailers and if I can help in any way then I like to do that. That's really what my main goal is, to learn the business from every angle. It's important for me because I love this business and I love comics and these characters and I want to see this business continue to thrive.

CCM: So you're down there every Wednesday helping to unpack the books?

GJ: Well, we get books on Tuesday nights, so I get my books early. But I still like going to the shop every week and getting my books. And I think owning a store also helps somebody have to put their money where their mouth is. For me I have to be responsible with everything and with what I do. I look at Blackest Night and the things we've done and how big we can make the event. And I can't wait to get into my store and see did we do it properly? Is it too big? Is it too small? Is it the perfect size? And so far I'm very, very happy with the size of it. I think it's just right. Obviously it's one store so the opinions will differ from store to store but we're by Northridge College and our clientele is pretty young and diverse and I think it's a pretty good store to look at.

CCM: What do you like best about doing conventions like WonderCon?

GJ: Well, I like WonderCon because it feels like a big convention but it's manageable, it's more intimate. You get to spend more time with the fans and it's more relaxing but it's still a big convention. You get a chance to enjoy yourself at Wonder-Con. And San Francisco is a great city. I always love going down to Fisherman's Wharf and getting a crab sandwich.

CCM: We're going to steal a round from Dan Didio's DC Nation panel playbook and do a little lightning round here to end the interview. Let's start with favorite DC hero you have yet to write?

GJ: Well, I guess Batman, but since I'm writing Batman, Wonder Woman.

CCM: Artist you haven't worked with but most want to?

GJ: Steve McNiven.

CCM: Favorite comic book?

GJ: Favorite comic book right now or ever?

CCM: Let's do both. Right now?

GJ: I really enjoyed Straczynski's Thor run. I thought it was fantastic.

CCM: And ever?

GJ: Probably The Flash because I own every single issue. I mean, that's a massive run. The story I probably go back and read the most is The Golden Age by James Robinson. And I like the Golden Age characters enough but I didn't love them until that book; that book made me love those characters. I don't know if I would have jumped on the JSA if I hadn't read that book.

CCM: What's your favorite TV show?

GJ: Dexter.

CCM: If you weren't writing comics what would you be doing?

GJ: If I wasn't writing comics I guess I can't say I'd be writing film and TV because I'm doing that too. So if I wasn't in the entertainment business, I probably would do forensic science. That was something I considered briefly before film and comics.

CCM: Superboy Prime, love him or hate him?

GJ: Love him. He needs love, the poor kid. He needs all the love he can get.

CCM: Have we seen the last of him?

GJ: For a while.

CCM: And finally, which ring color are you?

GJ: Green.

CCM: You're green?

GJ: Yeah, no doubt. No fear, that's how you have to live life.