Foto de Julius Schwartz

1. Your work in DC began in the 70´s after a successful time in Marvel. But in those days the situation in of the publishing house wasn't so good. What memories do you have of those days?

I found DC to be a large, quiet place to play, like a library after hours. They knew I was there to get them back on track, and their extreme professionalism, their corporate background, made them (a) welcome it, to a great extent, and (b) facilitate it, whether they welcomed it or not, because it was part of their job. After all, if I succeeded, their jobs were worth more.

2. DC signed you mainly to give a new air to the “Justice League of America”. The work system of the publisher, Julius Schwartz, didn't seem to be of your liking. Was this reflected in your work or do you have all the freedom to write that you needed?

I had nothing but help from Julie. I have said that I didn't want to work as he had always worked, with him devising the story and having the writer carry it out; that wasn't what I did. But he didn't try to work that way with me; he left me do my thing and acted as a sounding board, offering the very occasional suggestion. And I was happy that we worked together so well because I admired him tremendously.

Página de Justice League of America # 142

3. In Those days the artist Dick Dillin could drew 22 pages each month and he always did a great job. In Spain Dillin its almost unknown. But i'm surprised that a book with and artist like Dillin didn't have good sales. What in your opinion you think was the problem with the Justice League?

Well, my book with Dick had good sales, but before that, he'd been drawing a book that was in no way competing with what Marvel was offering. Their was almost no characterization, no dynamism, no flash. DC had always treated the JLA as a group of marble statues up on a shelf somewhere, rather than real people; readers were supposed to admire them, not feel they could get close to them. So I changed that, and Dick, whom I also admired, got to have some fun for the first time in a while.

4. You worked also in Detective Comics, a book in which you did with the help of Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin what its considered by many like the Ultimate version of Batman. Curiously you were in Spain in Majorca, while those comics were published. I think you should be amazed when you discovered Roger´s Work.

All of DC's big names had left for Marvel, so the likelihood was, I would do my stories and get pedestrian art. But I got those two new guys, who hadn't left because they'd barely arrived, and it was a spectacular surprise. I was in Mallorca, on a year-long journey through Europe, when I got the package from Julie, and I was just astounded at how good it was.

5. Do you would like to have continued in the series, knowing how successful the run was?. And do you think that those episodes would have been different if you could meet Rogers in person, instead of working separately?

I would still like to continue the series! The problem is, DARK DETECTIVE (as I now call all the Englehart/Rogers/Austin runs, including that first one) is often considered better than the “regular” DC one, and it's the template for all the Batman movies, including the Christian Bale ones. That bothers the corporate thinkers at DC, so they wanted it to go away, and, as one editor told Terry Austin directly, “Marshall's death gives us our excuse.”

Portada de Detective Comics # 475, uno de los de Englehart

I love going into places no other Bat-series ever goes, and, though I will always miss Marshall, I would gladly do it with another penciler. Walt Simonson and Paul Gulacy have been mentioned most prominently by the fans. And DARK DETECTIVE III was completely scripted when Marshall died; it's all ready to go.

To answer your second question — it would definitely have been different working directly with Marshall — because it was, once we did. He was a prickly guy and we sometimes didn't get along personally, but we always came back together because we were both devoted to the work.

El Joker y Silver St. Cloud en Batman: Dark Detective. Por Marhsall Rogers

6. For those comics you created Silver St Cloud. Do you thought that Catwoman or Vicky Vale couldn't do the role that Silver did?

Well, back then, Catwoman was a very minor villainess, and Vicky Vale was just a generic girlfriend. I wanted a real woman, who could hold her own beside Bruce Wayne. They later tried to make Catwoman into something like that, but at the time, I had no choice but to create Silver, to get what I needed.

7. You wrote also some secondary comics in the 70´s: Starfire, Kamandi and Madame Xanadu by the way only his first number was printed, what was the cause?. Also you wrote Mister Miracle. Do you feel some pressure for the responsibility of continue Jack Kirby´s works?

I signed up to do JLA and DETECTIVE, but I had some extra time so I took on the extra jobs, just to play in the DC Universe. I was not and am not a big fan of Kirby's Fourth World, so I wasn't all that excited about doing MISTER MIRACLE, but I always feel an obligation to make whatever character I'm doing the best I can make him, so I tried to make MM into something more focused.

As for MADAME XANADU — that was supposed to be a one-issue fill-in for the ongoing series, but once DETECTIVE put DC back on the map, they wanted any Englehart/Rogers material they had to be as visible as possible. So they called it #1 in a mini-series and asked me to write a 2nd and 3rd issue. But that didn't work out, so MADAME XANADU #1 was all there was at DC — while the other issues changed into SCORPIO ROSE for Eclipse.

8. In the 80´s you began to write Green lantern and Green Lantern corps?. It was a long run (form #188 to #223) at the contrary as your run in the Justice League of America. What in your opinion was you main contribution to GL´s universe. Or what are you favorite episodes in that run?

When I came to DC the first time, I knew, and told them, that I'd only be around for a year because I was planning that trip to Europe. When I took over GL, I was able to run it as long as I wanted — and I do come from an era when people often handled books for years. There was plenty to work with in GL, and later the GL CORPS, so I never ran out of stories for them.

At the same time I was doing GLC for DC, I was doing WEST COAST AVENGERS, VISION & SCARLET WITCH, SILVER SURFER, and other things for Marvel — but GLC was my favorite title of that time. I'm very proud of the first issues, establishing Hal and John and Guy and the Corps right beside the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I just got more and more interested as I explored each of the Corps members. In the end, the book was so successful they made it the lead feature in DC COMICS WEEKLY, which meant doing stories just a fraction of the length of the real book, and after all that cosmic grandeur in space, Joe Staton and I couldn't see doing that. We were victims of our own success, but if the real book had been allowed to continue, we might still be doing it.

Guy Gardner, por Howard Chaykin

9. The Howard Chaykin cover for Green lantern #196 had any influence in the development of Guy Gardner personality?

No, he was just reflecting what I'd already created with Joe. Great reflection, though.

En Green Lantern # 192 se desvela la verdad acerca del Depredador

10. You found the plot about the true identity of the villain Predator unfinished when you started to write the series. The final revelation of that plot was your idea or it came imposed by the writer before you.

When Len Wein left the series, he had no idea who the Predator was, so it was up to me to solve that mystery. I tried to think of something amazing — and then, it turned out that making it Carol opened up all sorts of new avenues. That's the way that book went. Everything always worked , as if by divine fiat.

11. Alter a few months working in the series you had to write the crossover of Green Lantern with “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. It was the first crossover which has repercussion in the whole multiverse DC. Do you have difficulties to wrote those numbers?. Do you remember a general nervous feeling in the company, waiting to see if the crossover will be a success.

Not really, but I live in California, 3,000 miles from New York, so it could have been happening without my knowledge. From my end, I accepted that it was happening and tried to make the parts that affected me, and that I affected, work as well as possible.

12. Lets talk about Millenium. Do you think that the way in which it was published caused some damage to the book success?

I don't know. I was happy with the concept at the time, and it did monopolize the DCU for eight straight weeks — and it couldn't have been structured the way it was if it had been, say, monthly. So I have no complaints.

De las páginas de Millenium: Los Nuevos Guardianes

13. Your comics usually talk about superhero adventures but also you have wrote some social and more humane stories. From Millenium came the “New Guardians” series, A book which treated more realistic and social stories. Do you think it was wise to gave the book that kind of spirit after Millenium which was more a cosmic Story.

Sure, or I wouldn't have done it. :-) I wanted to take superheroes to a new level, and even though the heroes had been created by the Guardians of the Universe, they were always destined to work on Earth. I wanted to take a good, hard look at Earth, with characters that (mostly) didn't have any history beyond MILLENNIUM, so they could come at it fresh.

The problem was, once I started looking at real problems, like AIDS and politics, DC backed out of the agreement they'd made to let me do that.

14. After some Batman episodes in the 90´s you worked on “Dark Detective” a limited series which met you again with Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin and Silver St. Cloud. Do you think that the idea you had about the character have changed in those 20 years between the two series. Do you feel any pressure because the readers wanted to read some numbers as good as the originals?

My basic understanding of who the characters were, and why they were that way, had not changed, but that understanding had definitely grown and developed. I saw more subtleties in the situations.

I'm sure the readers wanted stories as good as the first run, but so did I, so I was responding to my own internal standards, rather than to any external pressure — but of course, the end was the same either way.

 

Entrevista de Raúl G. Peribáñez

Gracias a Roi Espino Cid y a Adolfo Rodríguez por la traducción

 

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