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This month, I was the poor victim chosen to do the interview,
and I chose for my subject, Greg Rucka. I met him ever so briefly
in Boston to set up the interview, and at the panels I attended, I
found him to be a funny, intelligent, and long winded man. He's
full of amusing stories, and has a sharp mind, and good sense of
humour. Which is good, since I'm not entirely serious to begin with . . .
Jason Bourgeois:
Let's start off with the basic questions, what are some of your influences?
Greg Rucka:
JB:
For comics, your novels . . .
GR:
Oh, so everything then? Um, that's actually a hard question. Lots of mystery writers, obviously. For comics, there was Neal Adams. Denny O'Neil was a huge influence on me. See, this was a really unexpected question.
JB:
Well, it's one of those common, first questions you see in interviews.
GR:
Yeah, it's a good one! Also, Frank Miller. Each writer has their own voice, and it developes over time, and I can definitely see in my first few attempts, I was very influenced by Miller. If I looked at it now, I could definitely see it as a very poor atempt at a Frank Miller lite. The more a writer writes though, the more he developes his own voice.
JB:
Kind of spinning out of influences, you're becoming one yourself, to a whole new generation of writers, and Wizard asked you to do a writing seminar thing in Boston. When you're asked to do things like that, do you ever wonder, why are you asking ME?
GR:
Well, no. I understand why, they ask. And there is a bit of ego involved. I did spend some time teaching, and I love teaching. I know why they ask me, and I definitely enjoy doing it. The best thing about the conventions, is that every person in there, everyone coming to listen to me talk about writing, wants to learn how to write. I did another one of these for a different group of people, and I could tell that they were all just waiting for me to get done, they were more interested in hitting the bar and getting a drink. Shortly after that, I did another at a comic convention, and I let everyone know just how glad I was to be there.
JB:
Let's more on to some DC questions . . .
GR:
JB:
Let's get the fun one out of the way . . . What did Keith Giffen ever do to you?
GR:
He killed my brother, in a back alley.
JB:
GR:
I was thirteen, or fourteen at the time, and I came out just in time to see him do it. I vowed on that day, to destroy Keith Giffen. When I got my job at DC, they asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, "I want to destroy Giffen's Justice League!" and they said no! So I waited. Eventually . . . No, I don't have anything against Keith Giffen!
JB:
Have you ever noticed how these characters seem to go unnoticed, until they're killed off and then the fans seem to crawl out of the woodwork?
GR:
Oh yeah. I think it was Dan DiDio that said to the fans, if you all loved Blue Beetle so much, how come we had to cancel his book? I'm a fan, I love these characters too. I didn't take killing them off lightly. As I was working on OMAC, and it came time to kill off Rocket Red, I didn't want to do it. It was really starting to seem deliberate at that point, with everything I was doing. My editor said, "Go on, kill 'em! Keith doesn't mind!" I was still hesitant, and a few minutes later, the phone rings. And it's Keith himself. What did he say to me, "Go ahead, kill 'em off! Kill them all!"
JB:
I don't think a lot of fans realize, he can be a bit bloodthirsty himself. Did you ever hear about his 'hat trick', when he was working on Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires a few years ago?
GR:
JB:
This was back when there was the Legionnaires, and the clones, and just tons of characters. Keith wanted to write this huge story, and just do a wholescale massacre, and toss everyone's names into a hat, and pick who dies . . .
GR:
Literally from a hat. That's great. Yeah, Keith said go for it. "Max is a bastard! He always was a bastard!"
JB:
Well yeah, can't be a nice guy if you're putting a bullet through someone's head. So, who's idea was it, for the OMAC project? Were you involved in the inception of that, or did they come to you?
GR:
Most of the Infinite Crisis groundwork was laid over three years ago, before I even got involved. I helped flesh out some of the details, but it was pretty much laid down when I came aboard. Understand, I like working collaboratively. I love having people to talk to as I write. I've never liked holing myself up, alone in a room. I work best with other people, so had no problem working on OMAC like this.
JB:
Any idea why they chose to recreate the OMACs, and not go with something all original?
GR:
Not really. That was already decided by the time I started. It could have been Dan who said it, or some other editor, or it could have been some guy walking down the street that said how great the original OMAC was, and someone overheard him, and said, "Hey great, let's bring him back!"
JB:
Now, I may have missed it somewhere in there, so this may be irrelevant, but do you have any plans to flesh out the origins of these new OMACs? I've seen a few hints here and there, maybe, but nothing clear.
GR:
JB:
Yeah, where they came from . . .
GR:
Well, we've given a little of that, yeah, we've dropped hints about the nanovirus being secretly given to people, and being controlled by Brother I, but saying anything more right now will give away stuff coming up in Infinite Crisis, and the OMAC special.
JB:
Wonder Woman . . . There seems to be an interesting situation with Max's death. He's an American citizen, she's a diplomat for lack of a better term, it happened in a third country not related to either of them . . . Did you have to put in any special research to sort out any kind of legal troubles, jurisdiction, etc, to get her to turn herself in, prosecuted?
GR:
No. There's a huge misconception with diplomatic immunity. Thank you, Lethal Weapon 2. You can't go around just killing people, and get away with it, not even with diplomatic immunity. It just doesn't really work that way. She's being responsible, and turning herself in, and doing the right thing.
JB:
You've said you like to work collaboratively, which is pretty different from novel writing . . .
GR:
Yeah, but I still stay in touch with my editor and talk things out there, and I also like to bounce ideas and writing off of other people, usually my wife because she's there, and is a writer herself, but even with my novels, there's still a good deal of collaboration going on, after a fashion.
JB:
A lot of your writer seems to be mystery related, what drew you to that genre?
GR:
Um, that was mostly because it was what I read a lot of, and it's become what I know. It's what I've become most familiar with, and comfortable with writing in. I'm sure if I wanted to, I could eventually write some sort of fantasy novel, but I just don't have that kind of world in my head. I have a great deal of respect for those who do.
JB:
You've also written a book, Perfect Dark: Initial Vector, which is based on a video game?
GR:
Yeah, that just came out, actually. It actually takes place after the new game, and before the first one which was out for the Nintendo 64.
JB:
Even though you're pretty busy, do you spend any time playing video games yourself?
GR:
Yeah, when I can find the time. It's all about time. Between the books, and the comics, a family. And in fact, my X-Box just broke.
JB:
Ow. Well, I guess that kind of answers my next question, were you planning on getting any of the upcoming consoles?
GR:
They're actually giving me an X-Box 360 for writing Perfect Dark.
JB:
Ah ha! So that's why you do it. Free consoles, free comics from DC . . .
GR:
Oh yeah. It's all about the swag!
JB:
Back up features kind of fell out of style awhile ago, what prompted you to bring them back in Detective Comics?
GR:
Actually, that was Denny's idea, and I loved it. I love anthology stories, but they're very hard to write. It's tough for me to get a story done in 22 pages, let alone six or eight. Some folks can do it really well, and some fail miserably, but it's a great challenge, and I loved bringing them back.
JB:
Do you miss writing Batman?
GR:
Oh yeah. But the great thing about the DC Universe, is that he's so integral to so many things, that it's very easy to have him turn up somewhere, so he's never really been all that far.
JB:
Yeah, with the OMAC special, I'm sure he won't be far behind. You said awhile ago that you were working on a backup story featuring the Question, whatever happened to that?
GR:
It's dead. I wrote the first chapter, it got drawn, wrote the second, and it's probably sitting in a drawer somewhere. The thing is, it got set aside, then things happened, continuity that we set up for it got ignored, and the general landscape has changed so much since it was first in the works.
JB:
He's definitely an interesting character.
GR:
Oh yeah, one of the greatest creations of Steve Ditko.
JB:
What do you think of him on the Justice League cartoon?
GR:
I actually haven't watched it, I just don't have the time, again. My tv watching is seriously limited. I've been told by others that it's probably one of the best takes of the character out there.
JB:
Also in the cartoon, and even though you don't watch it, they've started hints of a romance between Batman and Wonder Woman, two characters you're quite familiar with, do you have any thoughts or comments?
GR:
I don't watch, so I'm not going to comment.
JB:
Fair enough. You're pretty busy with novels and comics, but have you given any thoughts to television, or screenplays?
GR:
Again, maybe when I find the time. I keep getting calls, telling me I've got to write a film script, and I say when I make the time, and they call back asking when I'm going to make the time, and I just don't know! I'd love to do it someday, though.
JB:
I had wanted to ask you some Marvel questions, but couldn't really come up with anything specific . . .
GR:
That's probably a good thing, it was quite some time ago!
JB:
I'm sure you've seen the recent announcement that Stephen King is going to be writing for Marvel. Being a novel writer yourself, any thoughts on his coming into the field?
GR:
I don't really have much to say on what his work will be like, but I have seen some of the reactions so far, and many comments about how he's taking work from real comic writers, which is just absurd. Writers are writers. Comicbooks are just another form of writing. I remember back in the day, when people would write comics as a way to get into the industry, as a stepping stone, and more and more these days, it's becoming a career unto itself, and other writers are coming from outside of the field to do this as something extra. Someone who's just writing comics, I feel is in serious trouble. I feel they have very little grasp of how to write, if that's all they can manage. Now, I'm a fan of Stephen's work, and I'm not going to say anything against it, so I'm pretty sure he can make the transition pretty smoothly, but either way, this is huge for Marvel. This is Stephen King. The amount of exposure, and fans of his work that this will bring to Marvel is enormous.
JB:
I personally don't think more writers in the comic field is a bad thing. We have some writers doing three or four books a month . . .
GR:
JB:
I recently saw that you've decided to auction off a character appearance in one of your novels for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund . . .
GR:
I've actually done that for three books now.
JB:
GR:
Yeah, I thought it would be a good way to raise some money, I mean, I love the CBLDF, this is my fund. I haven't been sued yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. The First Amendment is too important to everyone. In Uzbekistan, if you say their leader is a jerk, you get shot. Here, at least I can say the President is a jerk, and not be gunned down by the police for saying it. It may not be true, I may not believe that, but I can say it, you know?
JB:
GR:
It's just something so many people end up taking for granted, and we can't do that.
JB:
It's probably a good thing to auction too, I know a lot of fans would love to see themselves in a book somewhere, I'd love to have my name in a comic someday.
GR:
Yeah, and I've made sure that they're not just throwaway characters, either. The first one went on to have an important role, and the second even made later appearances, and the latest, well, I'm sure it'll end up turning up some more as well. I believe in giving people their money's worth, they're paying quite a bit for this, and it's all for a good cause.
JB:
Have you ever given any thought to auctioning off a character in a comic somewhere?
GR:
Yeah, but I don't think it would have as broad of an appeal.
JB:
So, more of an appeal thing, not so much with legal issues, with throwing someone into the DC Universe?
GR:
Oh, that's definitely part of it too, the legal issues of trying to put a character like that into a work-for-hire type situation.
JB:
Just a few more questions . . . Are there any characters out there you'd like to work with that you haven't yet?
GR:
Well, not really. I've worked with a lot of my favorites so far, and I'm sure any I think of, I'll eventually get the chance. I've been extremely lucky with the characters I've written so far. And there's always stuff coming up that I can't talk about yet.
JB:
Is there anything coming up, any future plans, that you can talk about?
GR:
You ended up asking this at exactly the wrong time. If you had asked a month later, I'd have some great news for you, but right now, I'm in a bit of a news blackout, since Infinite Crisis is starting up, and I don't want to spoil their show over there. But let's just say that 2006 will bring some very unexpected things from Greg Rucka.
JB:
Thanks for the interview, Greg, and we look forward to seeing just what you've got cooked up in the future!
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