Broken Frontier

Going to college with Milestone Media creator and current JLA scribe, Dwayne McDuffie was an auspicious beginning to Matt Wayne’s enviable career. Wayne transitioned from editor/writer for Milestone to writing for notable animated projects, such as Justice League Unlimited, Ben 10: Alien Force, Spectacular Spider-Man, Storm Hawks and the Sword of Storms Hellboy film. He’s currently writing the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, as well as the tie-in comic, which launches in January. The series removes the Dark out of the Dark Knight in favor of more family friendly fun and team-ups with every episode, and issue.

BROKEN FRONTIER: What’s the main difference between writing for television as opposed to the printed page?

MATT WAYNE: The main difference is the number of cooks.

There are, at the most, three creative engines to a comics story: The writer, the artist and the impresario (although inkers, letterers and colorists all bring something to the table as literal embellishers). The impresario's either the editor or the group editor.

That's it. No hands-on review by programming executives, license executives, Standards and Practices executives, corporate stakeholders and so on. To have a satisfying experience writing comics, I only need to be teamed with an editor and a penciller who I'm compatible with--and in a pinch just one or the other will do. In animation, you need to be part of a whole clique who agree that we're all making something of value together. When you fall in with the right clique it can be the best experience in the world. But when it's not going well, when the fifty or so people making decisions are not of similar minds, what's otherwise a dream job becomes just a lot of tedious playground politics.

I hope comic books stay small and maneuverable. They've been such a source of innovation because it only takes only one or two creative people to make something totally new. Which is probably an argument against company-wide crossovers ever being innovative, because suddenly dozens of people have to be kept on the same page.

BF: Your relationship with DC goes back to Milestone’s formation with Dwayne McDuffie. Now that those characters are finally being integrated into the DCU, will you have any say in their direction?

MW: Of course not. Not everyone who worked at Milestone made up Static!

But thanks for mentioning my favorite job ever, five formative years that I wouldn't have missed for anything. I take a great deal of pride in Milestone's success, having witnessed much of it firsthand. And it's about [scribble]ing time we saw some new stories with the characters! Working there was one of several career breaks I owe to Dwayne McDuffie. He can come to me for a letter of recommendation whenever he likes.

BF: Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a new direction for DC’s animated projects, with a more youthful target audience. How will older fans be pleased by the show?

MW: It's a fast-paced, imaginative adventure show. The older fans always embrace quality, sooner or later.

BF: Will the Brave and the Bold comic feature additional characters to the show, or will it be using the same ones?

MW: The comic's cast will overlap with the show’s, but there are heroes and villains that will just be one or the other. It isn't a coordinated effort; the DC stuff is an adaptation of the show. My editor at DC, Rachel Gluckstern, is the one I'm pitching these stories to, not the show's producers. That said, Executive Producer James Tucker is the creative force behind the show and has taken an interest in the scripts so far. He even drew the first-issue cover, which is great!

One thing that the comic has but the show doesn't is Andy Suriano. He's drawing several issues and is one of the best artists I've ever worked with, both in terms of telling the story and just coming up with eye-catching stuff. He's doing Charlatan Ball with Joe Casey and drawing all these Kirbyesque creatures and crazy cosmic action. He made this first issue one of my favorite comics.

BF: The announced cast of characters for the show is surprisingly diverse. Are there any characters who didn’t make the cut this season, but will perhaps show up in the future?

MW: I'm sure there are, but you'd have to ask the show's producers who these characters will be... assuming Warner has even begun to work out future seasons.

BF: Seeing as the cartoon will not be the usual dark Batman we’ve come to know and love, what has the response been like thus far?

MW: Uniformly positive, as far as I can tell. But I talk to more animation folks than disinterested viewers.

BF: Writing the animated forms of the Justice League, Hellboy, Legion of Superheroes and Spider-Man is pretty impressive. Are you usually familiar with the characters before you get the gig writing their cartoons, or does it take a lot of research on your part?

MW: With all of the above, I knew the characters beforehand. But I'll usually go through my comics and do some Googling before I start. It pays to make a closer study of something you're going to write for than you would just reading for enjoyment.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is on sale January 28th from DC Comics priced $2.50.