via The Blog From Another World
Writer (and co-founder of digital publisher Monkeybrain Comics) Chris Roberson has worked on such a wide variety of projects, he's impossible to pigeonhole–which means we sit up and take notice whenever a new project is announced. So when we heard that Roberson, who has written for such disparate projects as Cinderella: Fables Are Forever, Star Trek Legion of Super-Heroes, and Memorial, was bringing five (at least!) classic pulp heroes together for Masks, we had to chat with him about it for our Behind the Masks event. In Masks, the Green Hornet, Kato, The Shadow, Zorro, and The Spider team up to fight a corrupt government in the 1930s, and issue #1 features fully painted interiors by Alex Ross!
Roberson fills us in on what it's like to write for the original masked heroes, names his favorite comics, and tells us what's coming up next. While you're here, check out our four-page preview for Masks #1, and pre-order it this September to save 35%!
TFAW.com: Since leaving DC, you have a reputation of being selective with your work-for-hire projects. What was the lure of Masks?
Chris Roberson: I've been a fan of the pulp-era characters since I was a kid in the 1970s. I was the perfect age to be introduced to them during the tail end of the big pulp/retro revival that started in the 1960s and ran through the early '80s. And as a result, guys in slouch hats and twin 45s have a habit of popping up in my writing from time to time (as early as in Book of Secrets, one of my earliest prose novels, and most recently in the pages of iZombie). Getting the chance to work on the "real deals" was a childhood dream come true.
TFAW.com: How do you feel about Dynamite's business and creative practices?
CR: I've had a lot of friends who have worked for Dynamite over the years in various capacities, and not a one of them have ever had anything negative to say about their experiences with them. As for their creative practices, I only have the finished product on the stands by which to judge them, and I've been a big admirer of a lot of the work they've been putting out in recent years, and in particular things like their Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, Kirby: Genesis, and Shadow titles.
TFAW.com: We live in an age of pumped-up superheroes and otherworldly alien invaders — why should readers care about these older pulp heroes? Why do they still matter?
CR: I think the fact that these characters are continually reintroduced and reimagined suggests that readers still find something appealing about them. But speaking purely as a fan of superheroes and the like, I find it fascinating to go back and revisit the roots of that genre, and the kinds of characters and stories that inspired the creation of the superheroes in the first place. But the fact that these are (by and large) normal men and women who are inspired to put on masks and fight for justice is itself really interesting to me, both as a reader and as a writer. And by distilling it to guys and gals in masks fighting crime, without the louder, wide-screen elements that superhero comics have become known for, it's easier to get at the essential ideas behind the notion of masked avengers.
TFAW.com: What do the Green Hornet, Kato, Zorro, The Shadow, and The Spider each bring to the table?
CR: Well, first and foremost, each of them are very different characters. They all might wear masks (or at least concealing scarves!) and operate outside the law, but the reasons that they have chosen to do so, the means that they employ, and the goals they're fighting for, all are very distinct. One of the main things we'll be doing in the pages of Masks is examining how they are similar, and where they differ.
TFAW.com: What are the most exciting aspects of bringing all of these characters together?
CR: I suppose you could say that I was ruined at an early age by exposure to the work of Philip José Farmer, a science fiction novelist who played a sort of literary game starting in the 1970s in which he imagined that all of the pulp and literary characters he grew up loving had been part of one enormous family. And aside from the occasion crossover between one or two characters, we haven't really seen all of them in a wide-scale "crossover" in the "line wide" sense of the term as it's used in superhero comics today.
TFAW.com: How familiar were you with these characters before you started the project?
CR: I started researching for this assignment when I was about eight years old, I think.
TFAW.com: What's it like seeing your work painted by Alex Ross?
CR: Are you kidding?! I still haven't managed to convince myself that it's actually happening, and that I'm not just sitting in a corner somewhere drooling, imagining my whole life!
TFAW.com: Which of these heroes is most like you, and which do you wish you were most like?
CR: Ha! Well, I'm not proficient in any martial art, I'm a horrible shot with a handgun, I don't own a mask, and I spent my nights at home with my family instead of out fighting crime. So I don't know that I'm much like any of them, to be honest!
TFAW.com: What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?
CR: I type very fast and I'm horrible at estimating large numbers.
TFAW.com: How do you handle periods of self-doubt or, god forbid, writer's block?
CR: I don't believe in writer's block, per se. But there are moments when the well of inspiration runs a little dry. My answer to that is to always be working on more than one project at a time, so that if I hit a rough patch in one project, I can switch over to working on another for a while. Invariably when I do that, the solution to the first problem occurs to me while I'm busy doing something else.
TFAW.com: What inspires you about the comics industry today?
CR: Great comics? It sounds facetious, but it's true. I would argue that there's a greater number of fantastic comics being produced now than at any point in the medium's history, and especially if you extend the definition of "comics" to include web comics, original graphic novels, graphic literature for kids, and so on. There's so much amazing work being published these days that I find it very hard to keep up. And all of that inspires me to want to make the best comics than I'm capable of making myself!
TFAW.com: What titles would you recommend?
CR: My list changes from day to day, so if you asked me tomorrow you would probably get a completely different list. But today, my list is probably Atomic Robo, Sixth Gun, Saga, Fatale, Prophet, Multiple Warheads, Mudman, anything by Kate Beaton, anything by Lucy Knisley, Adventure Time, Godzilla: The Half Century War, Dresden Codak, Study Group Comics, and of course the fantastic offerings of Monkeybrain Comics! Anyone that hasn't read Kurt Busiek's Astro City owes it to themselves to do so. Anyone who hasn't read Brandon Graham's King City is missing out on something truly amazing.
TFAW.com: You've got a thriving career in both prose and comics: what's next for you?
More comics and prose, of course! I'm hard at work on Reign, the new ongoing that Paul Maybury and I are doing at Image, Rich Ellis is busy drawing the next installment of Memorial for IDW, Dennis Culver and I are rocking along with Edison Rex, and there's a lot of other stuff in the works I can't talk about yet!
Our thanks to Chris Roberson for answering all of our nosy questions. Pre-order Masks #1 now and save 35%!
PRE-ORDER MASKS AND SAVE 35% IN SEPTEMBER
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