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MEETING WOLVERINE’S MARC GUGGENHEIM
by Newsarama
That’s okay, you can say it, he doesn’t mind…
Though not his first comic book work for the “Big Two” publishers, when two week ago to the day Marvel announced that writer Marc Guggenheim would be joining artist Humberto Ramos as the new Wolverine creative team with issue #42, a not at-all uncommon reaction to the news was, “Who dat?”, and no one was referring to Humberto Ramos.
Newsarama thought it was time to arrange an introduction. So without further ado…
Comic book fans… Marc Guggenheim...
Mark Guggenheim… comic book fans…
Newsarama: Marc, it probably won’t come as a surprise to you nor will you feel slighted when we say common reaction in the comics community to the news of you writing Wolverine was "Who??"... So let's answer that question to start.
First of all, according to Marvel’s announcement you interned there during college?
Marc Guggenheim: Yup.
NRAMA: When you were there?
MG: The summer after my sophomore year of college - 1990.
NRAMA: Who did you work with then and what projects you do remember working "around" (which we suppose would be the best term for an intern)?
MG: I divided my week between working in Terry Kavanaugh's office and with Steve Saffel in the Promotions Department.
At the time, Terry was editing Excalibur (Scott Lobdell's writing debut, if I'm not mistaken), Namor (John Byrne's new pages came in every Tuesday like clockwork and they were a sight to behold), and Marvel Comics Presents (including this little story called “Weapon X”).
For Promotions, I forget what specific projects I helped, well, promote, but I do remember that Marvel had just gotten their first Macintosh computers (SE's, I think) and I was one of the few people in the office who was Mac-savvy, so a lot of the stuff I did in the department was Mac-related.
I also managed to do some for-pay work on the side. I colored an 8-page Human Torch/Iceman story for MCP, sold a caricature of Mark Gruenwald (the nicest guy) to Marvel Age, and did some past-up work on Excalibur.
Paste-up is a vestige of the days when books were lettered by hand. Remember those days? If a book was running late, one way to make up the time was to letter the book on velum while the pencils are being inked. Then the vellum had to be - you guessed it - pasted-up on to the newly-inked boards. A few years later, I found one of my pasted-up pages at a convention and now it hangs in my office. But I digress. No, wait, that's Peter David...
NRAMA: So was writing and/or editing comic books ever a part of the long-term career plan?
MG: It was part of the long-term career fantasy. I initially had designs on being a lawyer but had hopes of writing comics on the side like I'd heard Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen were doing. (I don't even know where I heard they were lawyers. It might not even be true, but it was a lovely notion).
NRAMA: How did comics influence your eventual career as a writer?
MG: How much time do you have? I was a pretty voracious reader of novels growing up, but comics were my first exposure to serialized fiction which, not coincidentally, is what television is. I learned a lot about how characters develop and evolve over time; I learned a lot about how sub-plots work; I learned about cliffhangers; I learned a lot about how conflict can really drive the story... I could go on and on...
NRAMA: Marvel said you are in fact an attorney, plus a multi--credited TV writer and producer, and videogame writer. So are you a renaissance man? Or can't you decide what you want to do with you life?
MG: I'm a renaissance man who can't decide what to do with my life. Seriously though, I view all those things as just variations on a theme: I'm a writer. It just so happens, I've been fortunate enough to write legal briefs, television episodes, a videogame and, now, comic books. My philosophy is that if you're a writer, you write. There's no reason to limit yourself to one medium so long as you're willing to adapt yourself and your style to other mediums.
NRAMA: How's your mother handling you writing comic books and not practicing law?
MG: Better than if I wasn't writing television and not practicing law.
NRAMA: Your first comic book work was Aquaman for DC, correct?
MG: Yes.
NRAMA: Tell readers a little about that story and how you found your way "back" to comics and eventually back to Marvel?
MG: I wrote a two-part Aquaman story (#30 & 31) cumulatively called "Kiss of Death."
Here's how it happened: A friend of mine, Glynis Lynn, was asking me one day, "Since you love comic books so much, why don't you write them, too?" My response was something on the order of, "I'd love to, but it seems harder to break into comics than television," mainly referring to the lack of agents (for writers anyway or other clear paths to professional work). Glynis in all her wonderfulness wasn't very satisfied with that response and took it upon herself to reach out to Peter Tomasi, one of the fine editors at DC (Glynis works with David Goyer, which brings her into regular contact with Peter.)
Peter, to his credit, didn't laugh her off the phone when she brought up the idea of talking to me. This is a very rare and special thing - Glynis taking it upon herself to try to find me comic book work, and Peter being receptive and open-minded to the idea of working with a comic book neophyte such as myself. Peter and I talked on the phone and really hit it off.
Peter is a smart guy and a real class act. Long story short, Peter needed an inventory issue of Aquaman and asked me if I'd pitch him a couple of ideas. Through a miscommunication on my part, that one inventory issue turned out to be two - and the story turned out to be a murder mystery in Sub Diego that was actually a real blast to write.
Big shout-out here to Brad Meltzer by the way (I was working with Brad on Jack & Bobby at the time) for fielding even my dumbest neophyte questions.
Meanwhile, my manager, Lisa Santos, reached out to Marvel and was put in touch with recruiter extraordinaire Ruwan Jayatilleke, who I sat down with at San Diego Comic-Con and paved the way for me into Marvel (thanks, Ruwan!) and hooked me up with Axel Alonso (double-thanks!).
Jeez, is there anyone I forgot to thank?
NRAMA: Is/was Aquaman and now Wolverine your first attempts at comics, or is there a string of rejections and non-starters from your first comic book life along the path to publication ?
MG: Well, when I interned at Marvel, I made quite the pest of myself pitching stories to various editors, giving them various one-page synopses that didn't go anywhere. Since then, I didn't really try very hard to break in.
NRAMA: Leading up to this interview, you mentioned being a regular reader of Newsarama, so we're going to assume you know there are some readers “wary” (to be kind) of TV writers seemingly breaking into comics with high-profile titles like Wolverine right out of the gate.
Do you believe writing for television allows for a quick and natural jump into plotting and scripting comics? Are the disciplines that similar? And any messages to the skeptics out there?
MG: Ah, where to begin? First, although it may seem the case, Wolverine isn't actually my first Marvel project. It's just the first Marvel project I've written that's been put on the publishing schedule.
Second, I don't understand any wariness about TV writers entering comics. I mean, I could if the TV scribes who came before me screwed the pooch, but c'mon: JMS, Allan Heinberg, Damon Lindeloff, and that other guy... the one who wrote that Buffy TV series... can't seem to remember his name, but he's done a pretty okay job in comics, too.
Third, and to finally answer your question, yes, I believe the disciplines are quite similar. For one thing, TV really teaches you how to write on a deadline and how to break a solid story. And as you can probably gather from my comments above, I believe that writing is writing is writing - the only limitation is your ability to adapt to the medium you're writing for.
NRAMA: And can we assume given your history you don’t need a crash course in Wolverine history? This is a character you’ve been following for years, right?
MG: Many years. My first exposure to Wolverine was also my first exposure to the X-Men - Uncanny #139. I read and re-read that comic more times than I can count. And I stuck with Wolvie ever since...
NRAMA: Well, we won’t get a better cue that that… Tell readers more about how you landed the gig? How'd you go from never having written a Marvel Comic, to being smack dab in the middle of Civil War?
MG: I have photographs of all the right people in all the wrong situations. No, seriously, as I intimated earlier, I did a writing job for Marvel - a Punisher one-shot - which the editor, Axel Alonso, in his foolishness liked. I guess he liked it enough to offer me Wolverine. That's how it happened, isn't it, Axel? (Remember, I still have those photographs...)
NRAMA: Now, are you the regular writer indefinitely, or are you signed for a certain number of issues?
MG: I'm doing seven issues at the moment because that's the projected length of the Civil War tie-in. Neither Marvel nor I see any reason to think much beyond that.
NRAMA: Tell us what you can about your first arc "Vendetta"?
MG: Lemme take a look at my Non-Disclosure Agreement for a second... Hmm... Okay, here you go:
My first arc is called "Vendetta"…[very long pause]
…Seriously though (can you see now why I don't write comedy?), when Axel approached me about writing the Wolverine tie-in to Civil War, I sat down with the script to Mark Millar's first (kickass) issue and his rough outline for the entire (even more kickass) mini-series and tried to generate some interesting ideas that were Wolverine-centric. I've been a comic book reader and consumer much, much longer than I've been a writer obviously, and one of my pet peeves are crossover tie-ins whose only connection to the crossover is the trade dress. I know this is something Marvel is really trying to avoid also, so my main goal was to try to figure out what Wolverine had to "say" about the events depicted in Civil War.
Without revealing the contents of that first (did I say kickass?) issue of Civil War, something happens that I could see Logan having a very specific reaction to.
I've been reading this a lot in other interviews lately, but I now personally know it to be true - I pitched Axel something I never thought would get signed off on and they signed off. (Of course, I had to remind him and Joe about the photographs, but it really was as easy as that).
NRAMA: Understandable if you won’t want to reveal too many specifics about your story, but our readers won’t be happy unless we get you to tell them something about the story they didn’t already know before…and frankly, some of them can be a little surly...[laughs]
MG: Who cares if they're happy?
NRAMA: [GASP!!]
MG: Kidding. The thing is, there's simply no way to summarize the arc without giving away a key plot point from the first issue of Civil War - and that's not my surprise to spoil. The good news is that the Wolverine arc is that closely tied-into Civil War.
Like I said, this isn't a tie-in that only has trade dress in common. It follows directly on the heels of what happens in Civil War #1.
All that having been said, I can tease readers with a few things:
1.) How close is the tie-in? We'll see some of the events of Civil War #1 from Logan's perspective in Wolverine #42.
2.) The first issue (#42) features cameos by, among other people, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Luke Cage, and Iron Man.
3.) The first issue spans several locations including, Illinois, Connecticut, Manhattan, Westchester, and... Latveria.
4.) In keeping with the hero-versus-hero theme of Civil War, the arc will bring Wolverine into conflict with a character I don't believe he's ever fought before.
5.) Said character is one of Marvel's earliest mutants.
6.) My favorite line of dialogue: "I love corn."
NRAMA: We always said there wasn’t enough corn in comic books…
How is it working with Humberto Ramos. Humberto of course has a very distinctive style. Do you find yourself writing for Humberto's specific skills in a way you might not for another artist with different strengths or style?
MG: Y'know, this is the first comic I've written where I knew who the artist would be in advance. Yes, I definitely am trying to write to Humberto's strengths, but I'm finding that no matter what I throw at him, he hits it out of the park.
For example, I always thought of him as a great action artist, but I've been blown away by how well he handles the "quiet" scenes. Humberto draws an amazing Wolverine/Logan. His take is unique while at the same time completely faithful to the character. What's more, he's drawing in a much darker style than I think people are expecting. The art on this book is really going to blow people away. Humberto, Carlos Cuevas, and Edgar Delgado are playing at the top of their game.
NRAMA: Okay, finally, you mentioned having a few more projects in the works including that Punisher one-shot. Would it be safe to say you see Aquaman and Wolverine as the start of your comics writing career. Is your ambition for readers to see more of you, more frequently in the future?
MG: The first part is up to the readers and the powers-that-be in the industry. The second part is, yes, more comic book work is definitely an ambition. I'm having a blast doing it and hope to do more. At the moment, I'm also writing a Batman project that I’ll be able to talk about more another time…
Yeah, Wolverine and Batman. No, I can't believe it, either…
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