THE SUNSHINE BOYS

Here's a short clip from the recent Raleigh Supercon Giffen-DeMatteis panel where I talk about how I came to work on Justice League International.  

Oh, yeah: some guy named Keith Giffen was sitting next to me and I still have no clue who he is!  (But he seems absolutely thrilled to be up there with me, doesn't he?)



Update:  And here are the Sunshine Boys again, talking about their, shall we say, unique collaborative process.

CONSTANTINE IS COMING

While I was away, WB released the trailer for the full-length Constantine: City of Demons movie, which will be available on October 9th (the birthday of another famous Liverpudlian).  The 90 minute film features all the episodes of the CW Seed series, including those that haven't aired yet, plus exclusive story material that can't be found anywhere else.  

You can view the trailer below:

BACK

Just returned from a vacation in the South Carolina quietude, reconnecting with What's Important.  Lots of reading (Dickens, James Hilton, Richard Matheson, China Mieville). Lots of writing, too (deadlines never stop).  A deep and valuable time away.  

And now...back to so-called reality! 

SUPERCONNING

Next weekend is the Raleigh Supercon and I’ll be there all three days, at Booth SG4, talking to the fans, signing books, tap dancing and singing opera (well, I lied about those last two).  I’ve also got three panels that I’m very much looking forward to, especially the two with someone named Keith Giffen.  I’ve never met the guy, but I hear he’s an interesting fellow.

Friday

Comic Writing Across Multiple Universes

JMD, Keith Giffen, Peter David

4:30  Room 305B

Saturday

Justice League to Scooby Apocalypse: The Giffen-DeMatteis Q & A

Noon Room 305A

Sunday

Writing Comic Books

JMD, Peter David, Larry Hama, Tini Howard, Michael Kingston

1 pm 305B

Hope to see you there!

SILENCE DAY 2018

"When the Word of my love breaks out of its silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who I really am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have been always longing to hear."  

Avatar Meher Baba

                                              

APOLOGIES

Just discovered that I haven't been receiving email notifications about comments for quite some time, so if you've posted a comment to the blog and haven't received a reply, it's because I wasn't aware of the comment.

I'm going to dig in and try to find and answer as many comments as I can in the coming week.  Please be patient and accept my apologies.  I love interacting with the folks that post here and do my best to answer every comment posted.

Stay tuned!

REMEMBERING DITKO

The comic book world is reeling from the news that Steve Ditko—genius, visionary, giant of the industry—has passed away.  What Ditko, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created in the 1960s was the foundation not just of the Marvel Universe but of a good part of our current popular culture.  And of course Ditko’s contributions to DC Comics—Hawk and Dove, Shade The Changing Man and the Creeper, to name three—still have vitality and importance today.

I worked with Ditko twice in my early days at DC, the first time on the short story “The Dimensions of Greed,” which appeared in the science-fiction anthology Time Warp. (Could a writer new to comics ask for anything more? I knew I was lucky then, I know it more now.)  I’ve often wondered where the surreal visual language Ditko created—on display in the “Greed” page below and at its peak during his extraordinary run on the Doctor Strange feature in Strange Tales—came from. Comics had never seen anything like it and we’ve all been echoing that work ever since.  (One of the most overused words in my scripts is “Ditkoesque.”  The other, unsurprisingly, is “Kirbyesque.”)  It’s no wonder folks in the 60s thought Stan and Steve were dropping acid!

Without Steve Ditko there would be no Ted Kord, which means no Blue Beetle and Booster Gold anchoring JLI.  Without Steve Ditko there would be no Kraven the Hunter, which means no Kraven’s Last Hunt.

We build our careers on the backs of giants.  

Rest well, Mr. Ditko.

Addendum:  I’ve shared this before, but here’s the story of the one and only time I met Steve Ditko:

Steve Ditko was the visionary creator who pushed, some might say shattered, the boundaries of 60's mainstream comics with his work on Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. I can't think of another artist of the era—aside from the King of all boundary-shatterers, Jack Kirby—whose work was more revolutionary and influential.

Ditko illustrated a couple of my early stories—including a Legion of Super Heroes issue that's considered one of the worst Legion tales of all time (my fault, not Steve's!)—back when I was starting out at DC Comics, and one day, when I wandered into the office of editor Jack C. Harris, there he was, the legend himself: an unassuming middle-aged man, dropping off his latest batch of pages. Ditko is notoriously reclusive, the J.D. Salinger of comic books, so I was delighted—and perhaps a bit awed—to be standing in the same room with him, making (very) small talk.

Now imagine my excitement when I discovered that Ditko was leaving the office at the same time I was. We hopped in the elevator, walked out of the building together, and headed off, side-by-side, in the same direction. We talked a little (perhaps about the story we'd just worked on, I can't say for sure) and the twelve year old inside me was doing cartwheels. Me and Steve Ditko, strolling down the avenue and chatting? By the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, I was in Comic Book Heaven.

I didn't stay there long.

We'd gone, perhaps, half a block, when I said something to the effect of, "So...ah...do you ever think you'll go back and draw Spider-Man again?" In my defense, I don't think I realized that the subject of Spidey, of Ditko's Marvel work in general, was verboten—but I found out soon enough: Within seconds of opening my ignorant mouth, Ditko wished me a good day, crossed the street and vanished into the crowd. I felt like an idiot, but a lucky one: I'd had my moment, however brief, with the elusive legend. 

And, all these years later, I still treasure it.

©copyright 2018 J.M. DeMatteis