Steve Darnall is best known for teaming up with Alex Ross and writing Uncle
Sam, a book published by DC Comics. He also writes a comic called Empty Love
Stories and is here to talk to us about comics, politics, his current and
upcoming work.
Coville:
What is your book Empty Love Stories about?
Darnall:
For practicality's sake, it's a satire of old romance comics--and more
importantly, about the attitudes many of those romance comics espoused. A
great number of those stories of the 50s and 60s were written by
middle-aged men--often men needing some money before the next superhero or
western script came in--and aimed at adolescent girls. Now, if you were to
ask a hundred people at random, "Which demographic do you think should be
giving young women advice that will shape their lives forever?" I doubt
very much if the first answer on their tongues would be, "Middle-aged men."
It's absurd. So I just decided to be absurd in the extreme.
In the grand, philosophical sense, it's about the fear of being alone.
Coville:
How long have you been doing Empty Love Stories?
Darnall:
The first issue came out in late 1994, another in '96, a third earlier this
year, and we're planning to reprint issue #1 in July of this year--with
another new issue scheduled for January--so that makes almost four years of
sporadic loving.
Coville:
Where did you get your start in the comic industry?
Darnall:
The embryonic moment came when my friend Alex Ross came to me with an
eight-page story he'd done involving the origin of the Human Torch. He
wasn't feeling very confident with his script and asked me to try my hand
at it. I did so, we rammed the two scripts together at high speed and
suddenly, I'd helped to write a comic book story. Some years later, the
story appeared in Marvels #0.
As far as landing a position that suggested I could be in this business for
awhile, that came when I took a editorial position at a trade publication
called Hero Illustrated in 1993. I learned an awful lot about the industry,
worked with some good people, won an Eisner Award and got to cultivate a
lot of friendships--some of which I still maintain.
Coville:
Have you ever sent proposals to Marvel and DC? If so what were they?
Darnall:
Oh, sure. They were among the many companies that turned down Empty Love
Stories--Marvel's paying the price for that one now! Obviously, Uncle Sam
came about in part because of a written proposal. I recently sent something
to DC regarding a Batman story, but I hear there's a long line of folks
ahead of me waiting for that character.
Coville:
What inspired you to write Uncle Sam and pitch it to DC Comics?
Darnall:
The initial inspiration came from an evening spent over at Alex's where I
mentioned that Sam was one of the few unjustly neglected characters in the
DC or Marvel Universes. At that point, the light bulbs over our heads went
off. Over the next year or two--a period filled with the Persian Gulf War
and the Los Angeles riots and the looming Presidential elections--we
discussed the idea that there were really two Americas, the flawless giant
we were told about and the rather fragile creature we were seeing in the
raw. Then, as the years went by and one of us became a hot property--I'll
let your readers guess which one--Karen Berger approached the hot one about
the idea of doing something for Vertigo. Alex brought up "U.S." and the
ball was officially rolling.
Coville:
I'm sure you got some reaction from conservative readers regarding
Uncle Sam, how did you deal with them?
Darnall:
I accepted them as part of the diversity of opinions that make this nation
great and wished they could have directed some of their indignation towards
their elected officials, who are doing a far better job of selling us down
the river than I ever could.
Actually, there wasn't a lot of negative feedback brought to my attention,
and most of what I did see came from people who'd only read the first
issue. In fairness to them, I only read the first half of their letters.
Coville:
I got to ask this.. Who did you vote for in the last election?
Darnall:
Let me put it this way: neither Kang nor Kodos.
Coville:
What new books will you be writing?
Darnall:
The one thing that remains firmly in place is writing and publishing Empty
Love Stories--something of a job in itself these days--and I'm working on
getting a new issue written this spring so my artists can have it ready for
release next January--just in time for Valentine's Day. Jeff Smith is
scheduled to do the cover. I'm keeping busy freelancing for some other
media, in case the powers that be sink comics entirely.
Beyond that, I've got a couple of things in the pipeline but nothing so
final that I want to talk about it now.
Coville:
As a writer, who are your influences?
Darnall:
Oh God...one that leaps to mind is S.J. Perelman. An absolutely brilliant
humorist. John Steinbeck. Graham Greene. Howard Zinn. Willie Dixon.
Shakespeare. Woody Guthrie. Hunter S. Thompson. The Beatles.
In terms of comics: Will Eisner, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Los Bros.
Hernandez.
Coville:
What comics do you recommend to other readers?
Darnall:
Of the current crop, my hands-down favorites are Bob Fingerman's Minimum
Wage, and Linda Medley's Castle Waiting. I've never been big on fantasy
storytelling but Linda's work has a great sense of humor and I'm always
drawn to that clean, fluid style of art. I thought Ragmop was tremendous; I
was really sorry to see it go. Starman has always impressed me: it's great
to see DC publish a book that's basically about getting along with your
father. Let's see...Palookaville, Manya, Action Girl, Scary Godmother,
Bone...I must like Lethargic Lad, since I'm always calling Greg Hyland with
story ideas I hope he'll use...the EC reprints, of course...and of course,
anything by Evan Dorkin.
To learn more about Empty Love Stories check out it's webpage at:
