This week I’m wrapping up technical work on Hero By Night #4, the last issue in the first miniseries. There is talk of an ongoing series of some kind but I need to work out a schedule and plans with my editors after all the busyness is done here. There’s one plan I originally pitched that they accepted

Colorist and good friend, Jason Embury, informs me that now that we’re done with the pages we’ve created the equivalent of 292 since starting in October last year. The cool thing is, the original concept idea of having the lead in journals of David Day, the original Hero By Night from the 40s and 50s, as sort of a prequel, then the actual books is complete. When you sit and read the original journals first, then the actual books, an entire world is fleshed out. More than that actually, over 50 years of an entire world are mapped out. I did that on purpose of course, because I have so many more stories I want to tell there in that world.

I’m just doing a little reflection here on the general idea of Hero By Night and why I even chose such an idea in the first place. I wanted to launch it with PVComics.com back in 2003, but it sat on the “to do” list until the Comic Book Challenge 3 years later. I have other projects like that waiting over on the shelf. It’s not that I got a little big headed in thinking about creating a NEW SUPER HERO ICON . I had conversations with friends who were saying “Super Heroes?? Why!??” — or telling me it just wouldn’t work in general because it’s ALL been done. That last part is true, it pretty much HAS all been done. But at least the writing aspect of Hero By Night was inspired by the fact that everything mainstream Marvel and DC, etc had become too mature or heavy for younger readers. I was just at a retailer over the weekend casually talking about this issue, and the retailer laughed and said:

“Yeah, I don’t know if you asked me if your kids wanted a Spider-Man comic if I’d point out the one where Aunt May gets shot, or point them to the statue of Mary Jane bending over…”

I don’t believe you can appease that by simply putting out a bubbly cartoony version of Spider-Man and saying you’re all-ages. It seemed to me that my own kids were watching shows like Avatar that had some pretty intricate plots that they followed along with easily. Kids are smart! You don’t need to write DOWN to them in order to include them. So I set out to write something that could really be ages 7-70. I don’t think Marvel of DC have done these things on purpose over the years, writing to a more adult crowd, but they may have unknowingly left behind generations of new readers. I kept asking myself…. WHY? Why haven’t there been any NEW iconic characters brought out from Marvel and DC. I mean… Jack Kirby Iconic. The answer is probably that there was only one Jack Kirby, and well, take a look at the Marvel and DC universe (moreso Marvel) and you see that it’s not only the same characters he created an industry with, but also, sometimes it feels like they’re doing them all a grave injustice.

I bragged a lot on the blog here as I was writing it or during the writing process, mostly because I was very excited. It might have just been my imagination or ego, but it really felt like I was doing something different and fresh. I had no real idea how it would translate over to the actual current comic book market. Here I had written and sketched out this thing, sitting down late at night and pretending to listen to the ghosts o legends like Jack Kirby and Wally Wood. I let those voices guide me over the years. Unlike other projects, I didn’t really doubt anything I was doing, it all just sort of flowed out and felt “classic”. It felt iconic to me. I thought, well, Platinum Studios is sort of a new company, maybe I can just create their Superman, Batman, Spider-man…. their own super hero icon.

I had a lot of warnings from both friends and loud mouths not to do so. Worrying about rights or giving away too many ideas and this and that, but honestly, none of them had seen my contracts with Platinum. If I accomplished my lofty goal of ever making Hero By Night into some super hero phenomenon, I would be taken care of and attached all the way through in any media. Much unlike big companies like DC and Marvel do. It didn’t feel like a gamble to me at all, it felt like an awesome and unique opportunity I had. So, those were my hidden ambitions for HBN… make a new icon for all ages. (Also one that could kick the other icon’s asses if there were ever a crossover!)

So the inspiration maybe going forward is to take the problems with comics as a whole and try to at least fix them with how I go about writing this Hero. Another great example of a problem I see in comics is the exploitation of women. A taboo subject for most artists who can sell tons of cheesecake pinups at shows or publishers can sell out of a book with a overly half naked vixen on the cover (that was probably swiped from a men’s magazine model by the way) - or the bruhaha over this Mary Jane statue where she’s bending over washing Spider-Man’s suit??? Insane. I purposefully wrote my female lead character in Hero By Night to be a real female. I’ve always enjoyed the way Terry Moore drew women in Strangers in Paradise because they looked like real women! — So that’s something I want to work more towards as well. I can’t say it would be done to increase female readership of my super hero comic, but I at least don’t want a woman feeling like she’s looking at porn when she opens a copy of my book. It would make me feel creepy and sad.

When the book actually came out… I was nervous to hear reviews. I thought I might get reamed out by comic book fans and purists. Would they miss the point and think I was just ripping off archetypes? — No, the reviews came in and they were ALL positive. Every issue so far. And don’t think I don’t sweat a little on every issue when it hits. Just this past week issue three came out and I waited with baited breathe to see what actual readers thought… again it was great feedback and they see exactly what my idea was in doing each issue. (see all reviews here)

And Platinum Studios has been great. In a lot of ways they are still just getting things together and just starting up as a comic publisher–, but every step of the way with Hero By Night they’ve been more than great. I’ve had great editors who watch my p’s and q’s. I wish I could tell you everything, but I just can’t. I’ve said before, but it really feels like they’re doing something special, and I’m glad to be a part of it. They’ve taken, what I feel is a lot of unnecessary criticism online, but what really matters is what they accomplish in the coming years, so I just say sit back and watch. Because if I have any say in that matter, they’ll be a big part in revolutionizing how comics are published, sold, created…. actually they already have, but the best is yet to come.

What’s the future hold for Hero By Night? Well the fourth book comes out third week of June I believe. You can also keep reading at the website every day, right here. — There’s plenty more stories coming.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 11:19 am and is filed under Hero By Night, Entertainment, News and politics, yirBLOG, yirmumah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.