But you have to look at your work with an honest critical eye. Work on the things that you need work on. Scare yourself. Surprise yourself. If you don't like the way it's going, you have complete control over changing the course. That's one of the best things about doing this.
I love meeting fans. The people who are fans of my books are really smart and dedicated, because some independent comics are hard to get. I will drive all the way to Pittsburgh or Detroit to put it in their hands.
And I had worked at the comic-book store almost by accident, because I was deciding to make a living as an artist, be it as an art tutor or illustrator, and that's how I wanted to make my living.
When it was announced that Spider-Man was going to be in Captain America: Civil War, "Miles Morales" was trending on Twitter for like a week. More people than I ever thought had heard of it. Listen, people go to Build-a-Bear and make your Miles Morales Build-a-Bears and tell everybody that's what we want!
I never look at things again once they're done.
Well it's been about 100 years and every attempt at a comics writers' union has failed miserably. There is, sadly, a long history of short-term thinking and self-destructive behavior among my fellow comic book creators. No matter how many horror stories they have heard they won't even go so far as to hire themselves a lawyer when they need it. It breaks my heart. I am a very proud union member of the Writers Guild. And I can't imagine my fellow comic creators being able to pull something like this together.
You can't just have a fight scene. In my opinion, it has to be a character moment or story moment.
Charlie Huston, who showran the first season [of Powers], is a novelist, and likes to internalize fiction as a novelist does.
If you like Powers, you'll love The Victories!
I was into comics because these were my real male role models, even though at the time, I didn't know it.
Lettering should be invisible. You shouldn't notice it, unless it is a determined piece of storytelling in graphic design. Whether handmade or digital, the lettering should be easy on the eye and well placed. It should help tell the story and do nothing to get in the way of it.
The other cool thing is, even with Jessica [Johnson], or Daredevil, I had taken a break from those characters for a while in the comics, so I can enjoy the shows without the agita. I completely love the Daredevil show. I feel no physical connection to it, because it was 10 years ago since I wrote that comic, so I can just enjoy it. And when people connect it in a positive way to me, I go, "Well, that's very f - king flattering!"
In the history of comics and movies and music too, it's always when things are at their bottomed-out, either creatively or financially, there's more chance-taking going on.
Bike riding is where I go to solve all the problems. I know you can't tell from looking at me, but I'm a long distance bike rider, I'll ride my bike and by the time I get back I will have solved whatever problem I had creatively or found that other thing that I was looking for. That's a big part of it.
You find there's no magic trick, sometimes in the shower, sometimes you're just lying in bed calm, sometimes you're just enjoying life and just have a notepad, it's never far away. Always have a notepad on you, because you never know what's going to happen, take a moment and write it down the minute that comes in your head. Even if you can't deal with it until later, I've had that experience where I was in a wedding party and I'm on stage, I'm like, "I hope I don't forget this, something just occurred to me."
I'm wired with a little bit of self-loathing, not that kind of self-loathing that paralyzes me, but it's there. The things I'm most loved for are sometimes the things that annoy me, not my favorite stuff, but those flashes of genius moments, they're called, I rarely see them as a one eureka light bulb idea.
I didn't write superheroes for the first 10 years of my comic career. I was just doing fan fiction. I wasn't thinking about superheroes at all, even though I loved them. I was raised by Watchmen and Dark Knight, so I was raised in with it's all been done, they don't worry about that.
Reading Homicide by David Simon was the first time I said, "What if this was in a world of superheroes?" That was a very good idea. What if Chinatown took place in a world of superheroes, that became Jessica Jones. Just things that I love, you can match up the genres and have fun with it, those moments.
From my personal taste, it needed more of a visual style. It's so hard when you're adapting something that's so visually scrumptious like Mike Oeming's drawings. They're so unique to comics, but they're a voice.
One of the things I'm most proud of over the years, is time management and balancing family and work. Everyday, you just look at what needs to be done and do that, what needs to be done. That includes the idea that family is first, kids are first and when you're with the family, put the phone down, look them right in the eye.
It's too theatrical not to express yourself constantly.
One of the things I like to do is people's hearts are on their sleeve, whether it's a good or a bad heart.
It was a very excellent day over there at HBO/Cinemax when they bought 'Powers' . I felt like I graduated television college, because they make amazing television. The person who said yes to Veep said yes to us, which made me feel very good about myself for five seconds. Which my self-loathing doesn't usually allow me to feel. Even I could not say that that wasn't a fun day.
I don't take it for granted, because I saw the fruits of Stan's [Lee] 50-year labor, and I didn't have to wait 50 years myself.
I couldn't take my eyes off of Stan [Lee]! As good as the movie is, all I could think about is, "What's he thinking?" So the movie ended, and then he, very whimsically, expressed all of his feelings about how long he waited, and how the TV shows in the '70s were all, "If only they could do this," and now they could. And he didn't get choked up and blubbery, but he was moved. Like, "Ohmigod, it happened while I was alive." And I can't believe I got to see that. He was very raw. It was quite beautiful.
