A longtime reader from Malaysia posted some questions to me on the forum about Hero By Night, I’m pasting the mini-interview in here. I know there’s been not a lot of talk about Hero By Night after the media rush died down from the Comic Book Challenge , but there has been a lot of things going on behind the scenes and I’m working almost every day on HBN related goodness.

There hasn’t been any Hero By Night discussion since your win, DJ. So I’m going to ask a few questions regarding this comic:

There’s been some discussion of Hero By Night, but it’s been mostly in the CLUB YIRMUMAH section. There are a lot of things I just can’t talk about yet being under contracts and all, but guess what… I think it’s safe to tell you there’s not only a 4 issue book series coming in March 2007, but there’s a Weekly Webcomic in the works as well, and coming really soon.

How is Hero by Night (HbN) inspired by Jack Kirby and which of the King’s comic that idea?

The story concept or the art really isn’t inspired by Jack Kirby persay. I’m inspired by Jack Kirby’s work ethic personally. But back in 2003 when I was coming up with the idea for HBN, I thought if someone gave ME a chance to do a super hero book, what would “I” do? So I made it into a nostalgic thing, something for the OLD readers to feel familiar with, there’s power rings, night time vigilantes, big ominous bad guys, bigger than life dillemmas, etc. I started thinking about the forefathers of comics. Will Eisner, Kirby, etc…. I named the main character in modern day JACK KING after (Jack KING Kirby) — And the only thing with Will Eisner would be, I’m trying to infuse a more real world story approach, AND I added in a tenement building as sort of a MAIN character in itself. The building, it’s history, etc.

What makes HbN stands out from all the superhero comics out there?

Reread what I just wrote up there, but also when I go grab hero comics now, it seems like there are things that are a little too adult, or it takes a LONG time for something to happen, drawn out. Heck, my kids can’t even really get into an issue of Spiderman and Xmen because it’s written more toward adults. With HBN, ANYONE will be able to pick it up and enjoy it. It will seem familiar in some ways with the “nostalgia” but honestly, when you look at it, it’s not really like any other story that’s been done. I’m really writing it for NEW audiences.

How are you going balance duties between Yirmumah & HbN?

Yirmumah will continue in “story mode” for some time to come, and this makes it much easier on me. Writing the gag-a-day format is actually more challenging and difficult. You either sink or swim with it, and you run the risk of other comics doing similar gags. Now, looking around at other “pop culture” gagging comics, I see how predictable and similar they are, so I’m sort of glad to be taking a break from that. I never really read many other popculture based webcomics before, only when someone would e-mail me to say someone stole something from us, like a LLAMA or some gag like the Brick-O-Silence — It’s sort of HO-HUM reading them, although ours always seemed to have a special little BITE to them that other comics I’ve seen don’t– they see the line and kinda stop on it, but Yirmumah often went over the line and did a little dance and then gave you the finger or called you names.

Balancing two projects at once is no big deal really, you just have to be disciplined, and again, I channel my hero’s like Kirby and Eisner to get me through the tough boring moments. But in the past, I’ve drawn up to 4 or 5 projects at one time!!! Off the top of my head, once I was drawing CRACKURZ, then the Daily GRAVITY strips for the newspaper, and then a Monkey Man Webcomic and 3 issue mini series. I was made to be busy, but sometimes I do need to just unwind and veg out. I’d rather only have TWO projects on my plate, so being able to have fun with Yirmumah, then have something fun and adventurours like Hero By Night to work on, it’s a cool shift in creative directions. Right when I might get bored of drawing a moody Yirmumah page about pilgrims burning witches, I can take a break and go draw Hero By Night flying through a window saving a kidnapped kid or something. It’s cool.

Is there going to be more Comic Book Challenge in subsequent years from 2007 onwards?

I can’t say OFFICIALLY , but i know PLATINUM STUDIOS has definitly said they want to do it again. It was a really positive experience for everyone I’ve talked to from the contestants, judges right down to the people handing out water that day and people just watching from the sidelines. There’s no set date or show I know of, but if I had to guess, YES they’ll be doing that again, and I’d love to help with it, maybe they’ll let me be a guest judge or let me help people with their pitches. That would be fun.

Hero By Night mysteries:
First mystery is,
Why a complete stranger like Jack King? Why not someone else close to the previous bearer like a grandson take the mantle of the Hero?

Not to sound coy, but that’s answered in the first issue of the book that will be out in March. HBN sort of takes a more real world approach, and things aren’t always as perfect as a kid taking on the mantle of thier grandfather or a ring like the PHANTOM being passed onto ancestors. Somethings just happen out of happinstance or if you believe in FATE.

Why would he be so interested in finding out what’s going on with previous bearer of the Ring, when as you stated in your pitch, could’ve sold them on E-Bay?

Again, this is answered in the book, but to give you a vague answer, if suddenly there were bad ass villians trying to kill you or your friends or family, wouldn’t you want to maybe know a little bit about WHY or WHO they were? And hey, if you had a handbook to guide you through that, I think we’d all be reading it from front to back!

Operative word here is mystery, not criticism, so you got me intrigued, Deej

I’ve done my job then. Stay tuned! you won’t have to wait until March to find out more about the original Hero By Night.

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