GEOFF JOHNS ON ACTION’S SCHEDULING, AND ERIC POWELL - NEWSARAMA

GEOFF JOHNS ON ACTION’S SCHEDULING, AND ERIC POWELL - NEWSARAMA

GEOFF JOHNS ON ACTION’S SCHEDULING, AND ERIC POWELL Action Comics - DC’s flagship title. Been running through some rough waters lately. “Last Son” the opening arc of Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Adam Kubert’s run on the series (which has seen the return of the classic Phantom Zone villains General Zod, Ursa and Non) has hit some snags as it’s gone along. This week, DC announced that the remaining three parts of “Last Son” will run in issues #851, #852, and #853, with #848-#850 seeing a change in their contents. We spoke with Johns about the scheduling, as well as the artist who’s slated to join the series for an arc after “Last Son,” Eric (The Goon) Powell. Newsarama: Geoff, let’s start with the changes in the Action schedule – from what it looks like, the “Last Son” issues are not coming along as fast as planned? Geoff Johns: DC wanted make sure the last three issues of the “Last Son” storyline come out monthly, so we made the decision to ship four issues of Action by other creative teams, and then, when we have our issues written and drawn, ship the parts 4-6 of “Last Son” monthly. Lateness is a problem plaguing DC and Marvel line-wide (except for 52! Ha!). So Kurt and I went to the North Pole to get inspiration and we developed an insane plan to have both Superman books each ship more than 14 issues this year before all is said and done. Plus, Kurt’s got an extra project I cannot wait for connected to it all coming up. I’d also like to see if we could do another Action Annual in early 2008. We had a blast with this one. And there are also plans for an unorthodox short project for mid-2008 that I hope we will get underway. NRAMA: With the scheduling changes, is the 3D effect originally slated for part 4 of “Last Son” going to happen, or has that addition been lost due to scheduling? GJ: Yeah – it’s happening! Adam is kicking ass on it and I want my “Phantom Zone Vision” glasses! It will be in #851 now. That also takes an extra six weeks to prepare on the art side. Look, I think they’re doing the best thing that they can do – rather than ship an issue every two months; they’ll ship good stories monthly while they’re stocking up our issues. I don’t know what the better solution is without a time machine (and if I had one I don’t think making sure this came out on time would be my first stop – I’d go buy 100 copies of Action Comics #1) – obviously, there’s no one solution out there, look at Civil War and Infinite Crisis. And Civil War published like 6 or 7 specials to compensate for the lateness and I think people enjoyed them, right? But nothing will please everyone. I know that people want to read Action Comics each month, and on our side, we want to keep the integrity of the arc intact. I mentioned Adam’s timetable on the last issue elsewhere only to move the blame off Donner since it’s easy to label the “outsider” but really I should take as much responsibility for our shipping schedule as anyone and I do. That said, we’ve got double-shipping coming up later this year since we’re working so far ahead. So save your money for stories like “Escape from Bizarro World!”, “The Prison that held Doomsday”, “The Auspicious Autobiography of the Toyman!” and “The Madness of Mr. Mxyzptlk!” NRAMA: The issues that are coming up – one by McDuffie, two by Fabian and then #850 – that’s an anniversary issue of sorts? GJ: Yeah – with that one, Kurt, Fabian and I got on the phone together to come up with what it would be, and we all wanted to make it an epic, emotional story about Superman that’s retrospective; as well as a look ahead at what we’re going to do in the rest of 2007 and into 2008. That issue, we wanted to make it kind of like the Action Annual – I felt that was something that you could kind of give to anybody and have them get a sense of all these things in Superman’s life. We’re looking to make #850 the same kind of thing. NRAMA: Art-wise then, Adam is back to finish “Last Son” in #851-#853, and right after that, Eric Powell comes on for the Bizarro arc? GJ: Right. It’s called “Escape From Bizarro World.” I’ve been a huge fan of Eric’s for a long time, and early on we were talking about Bizarro and Bizarro World; and Matt Idelson mentioned him and I was like, “Can we get him?!” I didn’t think there was a chance in the world it would happen, but Eric said he was really into it and wanted to do it. He’s the perfect guy to draw and design Bizarro World. NRAMA: When you have an artist like Eric, who’s so good with design and with Bizarro will be working in his element, do you pull back as a writer, and let him do more of the heavy lifting when it comes to giving everything its look and feel? GJ: Donner and I have our ideas of what we want things to look like in there, but Eric is the expert on world design. He creates such a rich and original world with The Goon, so we’re extremely lucky to have someone of his high caliber re-creating Bizarro World with us. I cannot believe how fortunate the timing worked out. NRAMA: To date with “Last Son,” you and Dick have really put your own twists into some of the classic elements of the Superman mythos, any teases about how you two are looking to re-envision Bizarro and Bizarro World? GJ: There’s a very specific reason that Bizarro World has been created, and there will be an emotional exploration of Bizarro that goes with it. Superman and Bizarro have always been opposites, so what’s Bizarro’s role in Bizarro World going to be? It’s really going to be about Superman relating to Bizarro in some way he never thought possible. We’re trying to take a new look at Bizarro World and what Superman’s reaction to it would be. There’s something happening on it, so there will be a mystery that has to be solved, and Superman has to figure out why it exists, and then also have to ask, should it even exist? NRAMA: And how many parts is this going to run for? GJ: Three ridiculous and horrifying issues. Think Dawn of the Dead meets Roger Rabbit on a square planet. And if that doesn’t make you want to read the story check out Eric’s cover.

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