AICN COMICS: Q&@ is our new semi-weekly interview column where some of your favorite @$$Holes interview comic bookdom’s biggest, brightest, newest, and oldest stars. Enjoy this latest in-depth interview filled with @$$y goodness and be sure to join the rest of your favorite @$$Holes for their opinions on the weekly pull every Wednesday with AICN COMICS REVIEWS!
@’s by Geoff Johns on FCBD!
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Hi Geoff, how’s it going?GEOFF JOHN (GJ): I’m good. How are you, man?
BUG: Good, good. (Laughs) I’m actually driving here, so I need to pull over. I was trying to multitask, but here I am. I’m pulling over.
[Both Laugh]
GJ: That’s the world we live in. That’s the story of my life.
BUG: Yeah, I know.
GJ: That’s pretty impressive doing an interview while driving at the same time. Don’t have a fender bender… Let me know when you’re ready.
BUG: [Now stopped.] Oh I’m ready. I’m ready now. Sorry about that. Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk with me. I know you’ve got just a little bit of time, so you’ve got Free Comic Book Day coming up and I know that you have GREEN LANTERN and FLASHPOINT going on. Which one do you want to talk about first?
GJ: Either one. I’ll start with GREEN LANTERN.
BUG: Okay.
GJ: With GREEN LANTERN it’s a chapter from SECRET ORIGIN… It’s the key part of the origin story where Hal receives the ring from Abin Sur and it’s really designed for people who might have heard of a GREEN LANTERN film coming out who are curious about Green Lantern, who either know a little bit about him or know nothing about him, and they can kind of pick this book up and find out a little bit more about what the character’s mythology is.
BUG: Sounds good I love the SECRET ORIGIN story, you used all of the right elements of the origin and updated it well.
GJ: Thanks.BUG: For the folks that maybe do have the issue, is there incentive to pick this one up as well?
GJ: You know most of the issue is Green Lantern stuff and then the back part of the issue there’s a preview of FLASHPOINT #1.
BUG: Oh, cool.
GJ: That’s for all of the die-hards who go in the shop every week.
BUG: That sounds great. So let’s talk about FLASHPOINT a little bit.
GJ: Sure.
BUG: It seems like that’s going to be the big event for DC for the foreseeable future, so what can you tell me about FLASHPOINT?
GJ: FLASHPOINT is a Flash-centric DC Universe event and one of the things we all talked about when we were talking about The Flash and I think what worked really with THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR and BLACKEST NIGHT is that they were centered around a single character that hasn’t gotten the spotlight in quite a while. Flash obviously has been front and center in a lot of events from CRISIS on, but I wanted to do one that was really about him. So Green Lantern might be about The Green Lantern Corps and numerous aliens and people wearing rings, but with Flash I never wanted to do a FLASH event that was about twenty guys that were running fast, you know?
BUG: Yeah.
GJ: I wanted to do an event that was around the conflict of Flash and how Flash relates to the DC Universe and about what’s special about The Flash. A lot of the things we talk about with Green Lantern are this epic backdrop. Its canvas scores across space and with Flash a lot of the time it’s about time. With these DC characters, Green Lantern and Flash kind of always go hand in hand and time and space go hand in hand, so this story is really about that. At the emotional core, it’s a Flash/Batman story and it gives us a lot of repercussions of what does Flash’s existence mean, and what he does mean to the DC Universe? That’s by turning the DC Universe on its head. Flash wakes up and he’s in a completely different world.
BUG: Yeah, it seems like that’s one of the concepts that really hasn’t been explored very much with both Barry Allen and Batman being detectives and having them team up and sort of investigate this whole freaky event that is going on.GJ: Yeah, actually in my mind Batman and Flash…Batman and Green Lantern obviously don’t mix; you have a guy who embraces fear and a guy who rejects fear. You’ve got a guy who lives in the shadows and a guy who lives in the light. Those two guys are just at odds from personality to concept, they just bash heads, but The Flash, underneath the costume (and even in the costume) really they share that common interest in solving crimes and forensic science and tech and everything else like that, so in my mind those two characters always got along.
BUG: How has it been in the past for you guys with Free Comic Book Day and what are you guys doing this year to make more people aware of this event?
GJ: Well I think having a movie like GREEN LANTERN coming out and Free Comic Book Day connecting to that helps a lot because the growing awareness of the movie of GREEN LANTERN, people are talking about it. Free Comic Book Day, it’s a great way to introduce people to the very core of where the character came from, the comics themselves. The hope is that they come in there, they give it a read, they get interested in the character, and they come back to the store and they want to read more comics whether it be GREEN LANTERN or anything else. At the end of the day we just want to introduce comic books to new people, so by hooking up with GREEN LANTERN which is getting so much publicity with the trailer just coming out, I think it’s a good time for it.
BUG: I know we’re about out of time; is there something you can tell us to kind of tease us as what’s coming up with FLASHPOINT?
GJ: OK, one of the things is you will see Wonder Woman living with the Amazons and ruling over the UK. One of the key things behind this is that none of the characters are “evil” or not themselves. So one of the things about FLASHPOINT is any character you see, they are still who they are, but their life has gone through serious different circumstances and so a lot of the story is “How would a character like Aquaman be pushed...” “How would they get to this place?” “How would Superman get here?” It’s really all about exploring our characters in different situations and with different events that happened in their lives and how they would probably react and things aren’t necessarily how they seem at first glance.BUG: Very cool. So where are you going to be for Free Comic Book Day?
GJ: I’ll be at Earth-2 Comics in Los Angeles, CA from 12:00-2:00pm at the Sherman Oaks location (15017 Ventura Blvd.) and 3:30-5:30 pm at the Northridge location (8967 Reseda Blvd.).
BUG: Thanks, Geoff.
GJ: Sure thing, man.
BUG: Be sure to pick up DC’s GREEN LANTERN/FLASHPOINT FCBD edition tomorrow and don’t forget DC’s other FCBD offering, Cartoon Network Presents YOUNG JUSTICE & BATMAN, for the young ‘uns. Support your local comic shops by going out and getting some free comics tomorrow!!!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/reviewer/co-editor of AICN Comics for over nine years. Support a Bug by checking out his comics (click on the covers to purchase)!
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Special thanks to Muldoon for transcription.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
