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WILLIAMS FROM LONE STAR TO ROBIN
by Jennifer Contino (Pulse)
Joining Bill Willingham to help bring the Teen Wonder's comic adventures to life for a few issues is Bill Williams. He's co-writing a Robin story which also feature the Teen Titans. Williams told us how he got his foot in the door and what's next on his plate in the New Year.
THE PULSE: How did you come to work on a few issues of Robin with Bill Willingham?
BILL WILLIAMS: Like any good story about employment in the world of comics, it started with a phone call. Michael Wright in addition to being a Pittsburgh Steeler fan is Bill’s editor on Robin. Michael had written a few comics for me before he went into the murky world of editing and we talk every so often. Bill and I had pitched a project to Joey Cavalieri over the Summer and I guess I was at the back of his mind. I was a little surprised by the call, I had been unsuccessfully pitching comics in between writing the occasional book. Michael offered me the chance to co-write a couple of issues of Robin (#146 & #147) with Bill to help me get my foot in the door and get a little work done.
And I’ve known Willingham for years. He wrote PANTHEON and STRANGE HEROES for me before doors opened for him at DC and beyond. When I started self- publishing comics in 1997, Bill penciled and I inked the first cover on the first comic book I put out.
While comics are largely character- driven vehicles, the creators are the engines that move the car. There is a real search for new talent at the writing level. I’d spent years training to be an inker, just to find that there weren’t any jobs at the end of that road. With Marvel and DC struggling to push each other off of the retail racks by flooding the zone with more material, there is an opportunity for writers now. The Big Two comics publishers seem to want to put out more books than they have talent for.
THE PULSE: What do you personally like best about this version of Robin?
WILLIAMS: The Tim Drake version of Robin especially as Bill has written him is a character born of dedication and inspiration instead of tragedy. Tim figured out who Batman was and trained to be Robin because he wanted it. That allows him to be a more positive and affirmative character, which plays him against the rest of the extended Bat-Family. In his case, the tragedy was added later and is now a common reference point with the rest of the crowd.
Over time, this Robin has expressed his desire to be the new Batman in case the current one has to step aside. So he has re-dedicated himself to training and honing his skills. That makes him more like someone earning a title and less like a son waiting to inherit the job.
THE PULSE: What are your issues of Robin about? You mentioned something about the Teen Titans being involved.
WILLIAMS: These two issues of Robin are about showing that Tim has the potential to be a leader and a go-to-guy in the worst of conditions. And to show that he has that half- criminal devious streak that Batman has that helps him out- think security systems like his mentor.
The story of the two issues is a rescue mission of sorts. Superboy is gravely ill and Robin deduces where a cure might be found. So Robin and some of Superboy’s other friends and teammates fly off to steal a cure for him from a lab operated by Lex Luthor and Brainiac. The story is set in the Titans Tower and in the mysterious lab operated by the two villains. Since the story guest stars the Titans, it’s also about a sense of family in that group of orphans and strays.
THE PULSE: How familiar were you with this incarnation of the Teen Titans? If you knew a lot about them already, what did you find the most intriguing about this group of heroes? If you didn't know much about them, how did you get to know the heroes?
WILLIAMS: I’m a huge fan of the Titans. I picked up the first of the Archives because I didn’t have some of the issues from the first run, especially the Brave and the Bold issues.
I love the runs by Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, and George Perez up through Mike McKone. I caught up to McKone in San Diego and bought the cover from him that got reused for the TEEN TITANS: THE FUTURE IS NOW trade.
Robin has a strong voice and as the narrator of the issues is pretty easy to write. Speedy is still forming to an extent that in Green Arrow she’s tragic one moment, shy the next and focused the next. Wonder Girl has essentially dropped out of the Wonder Woman title since that one re- Greeked. And Beast Boy is the perfect team member. If you need a one liner to break some tension, Gar is there. If you need someone sneaky to disarm something, Gar is there as a snake. Beast Boy the elephant knocks down bad guys. He’s fun.
Anyway, for research I went back and reread Geoff Johns issues of Titans paying attention to the Luthor/ Brainiac combo that came out of the four part The Insiders story.
The most interesting thing about that squad is that they follow the leader pretty well. They all listen and respect Robin, meaning they can spend time on the mission at hand and not on second- guessing. Since they agree on the goal no one has to be the devil’s advocate.
THE PULSE: How did you guys decide which members of the Teen Titans to include in this story?
WILLIAMS: The Teen Titans have a pretty deep bench, but a lot of the characters are out on a road game right now. I knew that the part of the team on the mission would be a small team, because it is a stealth mission. In the first draft, I had Cyborg explain Superboy’s deteriorating condition to Robin and the others. It made sense, his parents were doctors and Cyborg is half lab- equipment anyway. After talking with Bill, he said that the Titans we could use were all that were available. I only found out later that Cyborg had run off into space with Supergirl and Donna Troy in the Infinite Crisis series. So I rewrote the diagnosis scene in my first draft.
Plus, as fun as it might be to write big scenes with the new Hawk and Dove, it would be presumptuous of me to step on things that the regular writers have planned. So, we went with Robin plus three for a variety of reasons, first and foremost it’s his name on the cover.
THE PULSE: How was working on this team different from some of the others you've had a hand in bringing to life?
WILLIAMS: When you own the characters, you can do what you want with them. When you produce work with other people’s characters, you are not free to do whatever you want. When you own the characters, you can have the characters drink tequlia and swear and whatever. When using characters owned by someone else, they should be on model and in character and consistant with what came before. At the end of the day, making comics is a commercial art and you are working for someone who has the obligation to sign off on the work. Robin is a household name. More people probably know who Robin is than know who the Vice- President is.
In my new novel The Killer Outfit, I’m going for a pulp superhero feel. An early criticism I got from another writer who read the first draft was that the story didn’t have a strong enough sense of an environment with the superhero angle. So I added a chapter that created a super team called the Vagabonds and gave them a clubhouse in space and a history and all of that. I made the lead character a founding member and had him visit them and hang out for a while to build out that missing angle. Those are the kind of big structural things that would require a meeting or two if you did them at a major publisher. Because the Mister Adams material is mine alone, if I get an idea or find a quick solution, I can run with it without further imput. By way of contrast, in the second Robin issue (#147), I hint at something that another writer might use or not. Or it might not survive the editorial process. Working for yourself, you have the final say. Working for someone else, they have the final say. Using someone else’s characters pays better, but in a strange way helps hone your skills because the restrictions of the job force you into a different kind of writing discipline.
THE PULSE: How did you co-write these? Did you send scripts back and forth or meet up and plot the whole thing out together? What was the process like?
WILLIAMS: Bill has a six month plan for the book on file with the editor on Robin. I don’t know for certain, but I think it’s an editorial policy at DC. So, I called Bill after I got the call from Michael and we talked about what was in the comic book. I thought about it for a day or two and got the outline from Michael. Then I wrote pretty far into the first draft in a couple of days. Bill called me when I was on my way in to work and let me know that we were going to miss deadline and that we needed to finish something that day. So, I took the day off and rewrote Cyborg out of the scene and finished that first draft that afternoon and shot it over to Bill.
Bill wrote a second draft and sent it over to me for input and then he sent it on to Michael. It took a couple of days to get someone in the Infinite Crisis group to read it. We made changes based on something that had changed there. And just when we thought we were done with this step, I got the chance to rewrite a couple of lines of dialogue at the editor’s request and we were done with that part of it. All that’s left is proofing the art boards as soon as the penciled pages are inked and lettered.
I’ve got to tell you that in the days between finishing the first draft and getting word back on the second draft, I was nervous. I left a call on Willingham’s machine that started, "I’m sure your busy with twenty two tedious pages of rewrites but..." He made some changes in the dialogue and fixed the pacing so that the action started a little sooner. I’ve been open to changes in the final work, because Bill is the award- winning writer and I’m the guy who hasn’t figured out what editors want yet.
THE PULSE: What were some of the things that influenced your work on Robin?
WILLIAMS: I went back and re-read six months of Robin and six months of Teen Titans before I got started. I was looking for the attitude and behavior of the Titans and looking at technique when it came to Bill’s work on Robin. For the technology involved, I wanted to Robin to have the awareness of the latest tech gear that a lot of teenagers have. So, I have Robin using a souped- up PDA and faking RFID technlogy when he gets inside of the complex. Aside from that, I can’t really point to anything in particular. I’ve been reading comics for thirty years or more by now, so I have a lot of influences that are just internal and would be hard to pinpoint off the top of my head. My weekly comic diet is about ten comics, good and bad. Throw in a moldy British mystery and an episode of House and I’m good.
THE PULSE: How did you get in touch with your inner teen to get the dialogue and other elements right?
WILLIAMS: I have an adopted kid who is 19 this year, so I have a source nearby. Beast Boy makes a couple of movie sub- references because people speak in movie and TV dialogue from time to time. The story as a whole lends itself to a painful kind of sincerity common to teenagers. A few months ago, I saw the Angel episode where Fred died and I had that tone in my head for the Superboy scenes. You can do worse on dialogue than learning from Whedon.
Having a 40 year old guy write teen dialogue is pretty ridiculous, but if we can do it and do it well, why not.
THE PULSE: Have you worked on any other superhero comics for DC or Marvel? If so, which ones? If not, how did it feel to work on a series like this?
WILLIAMS: This is my first writing work for one of the Big Two comics companies. The actual writing of the Robin scripts were challenging. There were some story beats that had to be hit and the space is limited to twenty two pages. And I wanted to write a fun comic book. Most comics are dark and gloomy, but I was interested in finding some light in the story. That was part of what made writing Beast Boy so much fun.
Up until now, I have been writing for my tiny little self- publishing outfit. I write a couple of hours a day, three or four days a week and that might not sound like much, but I work pretty fast. I’ve got a novel and a collection of short stories published this year and maybe thirty or forty comic book scripts completed over the past few years.
Writing for the Big Two companies or any comic book company really is a challenge. I’ve pitched a few things over the past few months and I haven’t gotten any work as a writer. But I’m having more luck as a writer than I ever had as an inker. I trained for years to be an inker and ended up with some modest amount of skill along the way. I inked a job for the IDW guys and one on a monster book for Moonstone, but the more I looked at that gig, the less I wanted it as a career. Inkers get no respect, they don’t even get their names listed in the catalogues. Right now, there are at least two qualified guys for each job opening.
THE PULSE: What do you think about DC's plans to skip ahead one year forward after the Infinite Crisis?
WILLIAMS: We certainly live in interesting times. I think it’s a bold move and creatively it might spin out some fresh takes on the core DC characters. It is an opportunity to have a fresh take on established characters and rework some of the archtypes. Bill’s run on Robin has been about Tim taking the next step in his training and about creating a Rogues Gallery for him. Johnny Warlock, the Rising Sun Archer and the Dark Rider are interesting new additions to the DCU and I think that if all of the creators pick a direction and stick to it that something cool can spin out of the big reboot. While DC is shuffling the deck, the real success or failure is made out in the field in the brick and mortar stores.
The One Year Later thing is a big gamble, especially for the comic book retailers. Right now, if you run a store, you know how many copies of Wonder Woman you can sell every month. When the new team comes on, who knows. The fans have the luxury of picking up something and making a decision then and there. The retailers have three months of books in the pipeline aimed at them. And the more coy the publishers are about the content of the books, then the harder the retailer’s job is.
THE PULSE: After Robin are you working on any other DC projects?
WILLIAMS: Willingham and I pitched a project at DC and it was put on hold, probably due to the fact that I’m an unknown. After these Robin issues hit the stands, that might change. And it might not. I enjoy writing whether the final project is published by a big publisher or when I self- publish under the Lone Star Press logo.
THE PULSE: For those who might not be familiar with your other work, tell PULSE readers about Lone Star Press, please.
WILLIAMS: I looked at the stands and saw the load of the T & A comics that were all over the stands in the late 90’s. I reached out to Robb Phipps who does some nice penciling and wrote a story about an alien princess that comes to Earth. I published that story in a title called Heroic Tales and stuck with that title for a year plus. Along the way, I published a couple of comic book series that Bill Willingham wrote and I inked covers and interiors by Mike Weiringo, Chris Sprouse, Matt Haley, Jeff Moy, Mike Leeke and more. I had a lot of fun, but I lost loads of money. Now, I’m working on getting some of the original comic book material together for a few trade paperbacks to keep the material in print.
THE PULSE: What are some of the Lone Star upcoming comics or projects?
WILLIAMS: We are working with one of the other publishers to put out the PANTHEON color trade paperbacks. In 1998, Bill Willingham wrote the last great adventure of a superhero team in this comic book called Pantheon. Mike Leeke penciled it and I inked it. We had sorry sales and went off track with the scheduling and most of the retailers gave up on us. Well, we have gone back and are coloring all 350+ pages of the mini-series for release in trade paperback format. The mini-series is a real look at what Willingham can do with full creative control of the characters. In Pantheon since the characters are created just for that series, we could do all sorts of horrible things to them in service of the story.
I hope to have some sort of announcement about the scheduling of the trades as soon as we have more of the color work done and the contracts signed. We will be working on putting the rest of the Lone Star catalog into trade paperback format.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you personally working on?
WILLIAMS: I’m a firm believer that as a freelancer, you have to have some ownership of some of the things that you create. That said, I’m writing a series of pulp superhero novels about an ex-superhero named Alan Adams. The first of the Mister Adams books is titled The Killer Outfit and it came out in October this year. The Tarzan novels and the Doc Savage novels are a source of inspiration for the series but with a modern hero’s feet of clay. Mister Adams is an ex- hero who is retired from the spandex life, but who works as a private investigator. His main client is the law firm of Porter and Porter which specializes in extra- human law. If this sounds familiar to some of you, that is because the characters from the novel are spinning out of the Ex Parte comic book series that Lone Star published a few years back. It may be the only case of a novel spinning out of a cancelled comic book series.
The Killer Outfit has Mister Adams looking into a disaster in San Francisco. An ex- teammate of his was an armored corporate spokesman called the Golden Guardian. When the Guardian levels a few city blocks in San Francisco, Mister Adams gets called in for the defense. In his investigation, he meets some fringe elements to any superhero world like the leader of a snake cult, a society of metallic men, an unstable ex- hero and more.
I’ve got the about halfway through the first draft of the next Mister Adams book. The next one has him looking into the case of a young woman with telekinetic powers who was the victim of a mental attack which has left her with amnesia. With any luck that one will be out in the Spring of next year. After that I’ve got another two Mister Adams novels plotted.
The Mister Adams books are a nice way to scratch the superhero itch while waiting for someone to decide that I can write my way around a mainstream comic book. Hopefully these Robin issues will prove that at least with a little help, that I can do the job.
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