Three Years - Questionnaire - R.A. Wonsowski (the American Zombie)

Who is your favourite comic book character?

Most of my favourites are in the Marvel universe:  Iron Fist, Electro, Thor, Nextwave, pretty much all of Marvel's Cosmic Heroes.  Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan, Lone Wolf & Cub, and Top Cow's Darkness are pretty great too.  But my all-time fave is probably Etrigan, the Demon.

He's the type of character that allows writers to really take risks, and bring out their A-games.  Look at his pedigree:  Jack Kirby, Matt Wagner, Alan Grant, Garth Ennis, John Byrne, Paul Cornell.  He's also the character that I would love to take the chains off and Vertigo-ize.


What is your favourite comic?  

Transmetropolitan.  Full stop.

Who is your favourite comic writer?  

Warren Ellis.  When I think of my favourite stories, Transmet, Secret Avengers "Run the Mission...", Planetary, the Ultimate Nightmare trilogy, Whilce Portacio's X-Force run, FreakAngels...I could go on and on, but pound for bloody pound, there is no better, more prolific, or more solidly entertaining writer than he.  He's the kind of writer that makes me realize I'm not completely insane.

Brian Wood is another inspiration to me, especially
DMZ and Channel Zero.


Who has been the most fun to write so far?
   Electro.  ThoughtBallooners know I've got a ton of ideas regarding my own take on Max Dillon, called Redemption Road, and he never fails to inspire me with some completely mental idea.


Which character do you most dread having to write?  

Batman or Superman.  I know they are every writer´s dream, but nearly 80 years of continuity and stories, some of them definitive, coming up with something original, that doesn't feel like a retread...brrrr...


Which non-comics character would you most like to write?  

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, or Andrew Vachss's Burke.  I'll let you read them yourself and figure out why.

He writes as hard-boiled as he looks. 

Which script do you think has been your best so far?  

Etrigan the Demon.  Probably because I've thought about Vertigo-izing that character for so long, the mood and the rhymes and the feel, it all just came out right.


Which script do you think has been the best on the site?

Ok, let's see...

"Big" Ben Rosenthal's Captain Marvel just nailed both the history and legacy of the character in one succinct page...

Dan "Run for the" Hill's Unknown Soldier.  I said it in my comments on that page, that his take on the Soldier deserves to be illustrated and published.  The moment I read it, I jumped up and down, not just at the sheer bravura of the concept, but at the potential to further stories while still respectful of the previous bearers of the title.  Bonus points,as this was the best thing I read all year - absolutely inspiring (so much so, I was compelled to continue the tale).

Grant McLaughlin (with you, not at you) completely had me with the brilliant twist at the end of his POTUS script...

JD Coughlan (with you, not on you) ate my brain with his short-but-sweet, pulp-meets-time-travel Escapist page...

MK "Stranger in a" Stangeland's Nightcrawler was authentic, heartfelt, and spiritual at a time when I really needed it (thnx, sir)...

Niel "eye-ee, not ee-eye" Jacoby's Spider Jerusalem was timely, entertaining, and made me laugh evilly, making my wife look at me sideways.  It broke my brain....

Ryan "the K stands for quality" Lindsay...Squared Circle. (did you really think it would be anything else?)

Shaun "Ruffles have" Richens wrote the most sublime Peanuts strip, it would have been right at home printed in a newspaper. (Good Grief!)

Thanks again to all of these guys, not just for letting me play in their sandbox this past year, but for helping me become a better writer.  Here's to the NEXT year!

Three Years - Questionaire - Niel Jacoby

Who is your favourite comic book character?

• Daredevil

What is your favourite comic?

• Either Garth Ennis' Hitman or Jack Kirby's OMAC

Who is your favourite comic writer?

• Grant Morrison

Who has been the most fun to write so far?

• Deadpool, I really like tempering goofy comedy with a crueler context.

Which character do you most dread having to write?

• I don't think I'd write a very good Cyclops.

Which non-comics character would you most like to write?

• Robocop.

Which script do you think has been your best so far?

• My Pokemon script is definitely among my favorites.

Which script do you think has been the best on the site?

• I really liked Wonzowski's Escapist script.

Three Years – Questionnaire – Shaun Richens.

Who is your favourite comic book character?

Truth be told, I am more of a creator guy these days. I tend to follow them from book to book rather than reading a particular characters.

Although as a kid I loved Gambit in the X-Men animated series a ton!

What is your favourite comic?

Fell and The Umbrella Academy are the two series that instantly come to mind. They are the single issues I will pull out every few weeks and re read and just get pumped to make comics.

Who is your favourite comic writer?

Robert Kirkman, it’s as simply as that. If it wasn’t for Invincible and The Walking Dead starting at Image I wouldn’t have gotten back into comics and wouldn’t be writing them today.

Who has been the most fun to write so far?

Jonah Hex for me was a hoot to write. I’m a sucker for all those old western tropes and loved getting a chance to play with some of them.

Which character do you most dread having to write?

Honestly, any that I like to much. It’s the characters I know inside and out that always prove the hardest to work with I’ve found. When you know all of a characters stories, finding your own tale can be daunting.

Which non-comics character would you most like to write?

I’d personally love to write a Fast and The Furious comic. I have a strange love for the franchise and think the over the top action and crazy car plots could make for one hell of a comic series.

Also as a kid I was a huge fan of the 3 Ninjas series of films and my inner child would jump at the chance to write an old ages comic set in that universe.

Which script do you think has been your best so far?

Two scripts stand out in my mind, Rainbow Dash and Peanuts. They both came one after another and at the time seemed like subjects I thought so far from my wheel house that I could never come up with a story for them worth telling. Perhaps because of this, the fact I found my in, so to speak and managed to write something I could be proud of makes them stand out.

Which script do you think has been the best on the site?

I have pulled out the script that stands out for me as the best for all my fellow current tenured writers.

Ben’s  Starship Troopers still stands out as one of his best for me. Its tightly written and perfectly paced. It captures the source material just right as well.

Dan has written so many scripts that I wish I had written but I’ve picked the script that I never could have written, Dan’s Krypto script. Mr Hill came at the week from an angle I never would have and ended up with a truly powerful and emotional script, that even now, just rereading had me touched.

Grant wrote a clinic during the Planet of the Apes week. In one page he introduced us to, and fleshed out two strong and fully formed characters, whilst having them explore the themes at the very heart of the material, a wonderful piece of writing.

J.D used some elegant time changing and minimal, yet powerful captions to craft one hell of a page during our Alfred week. J.D really showed how much you could do from a craft point of view with a single page. It’s the kind of writing that I want to deconstruct so I could learn from it.

MK showed a skill during the Top Cow Talent Hunt Week that I am still very jealous of. The dude can write one hell of an action scene. He creates drama and movement in each panel that makes the combat and action feel fast and brutal in a way I can still only dream of achieving.

Looking back at Niel’s work I thought I’d found my pick for him a dozen times, the guys written so many wildly different and brilliant pages. But then I hit this script with a beat boxing rap battlin’ Etrigan and it couldn’t not be my pick. I remember reading this for the first time and with each new panel loving it more and more. That’s good comics!

Ray’s ongoing tale of redemption hit a crazy new high with his Electro page. This tale of one man trying to become more than he was for his family, set to the back drop of some of the craziest characters in the Marvel universe truly makes for a sage that is as big and bold as any of the great comic book adventures.