
When
a door closes on one career at DC, apparently, a window opens. Today,
the publisher officially confirmed that former Senior Editor Peter
Tomasi will be leaving his editing position at DC Comics, and has
signed an exclusive contract with the company as a writer.
“The fact that I couldn’t add more numbers to the face of a clock was
the deciding factor,” Tomasi told Newsarama when asked why he made the
change. “I had recently been repped by the Hollywood agency juggernaut
that is CAA, sold a screenplay, and started trying to write more comics
for the company. At the same time, I was trying to squeeze every hour
in the day to find a healthy balance between my amazing day job at DC
and my wonderful family.
“Actually, I was completely surprised when the offer was made. I kept
pestering Dan on a regular basis to do more writing for the company not
only for the extra dough, which is great, but also because I simply
can’t turn off the writing switch in my head when it comes to these
characters. A conversation between Dan and I evolved into Dan simply
saying maybe it’s time to put away your editing hat and put on your
writing hat full time, and literally two minutes later talk of an
exclusive contract was underway. So, as they say, timing is everything,
and the offer of the exclusive writing contract from DC was an offer I
couldn’t refuse.”
As those who’ve followed Tomasi’s career know, he’s always been writing - occasional issues of JSA, The Outsiders, and Steel as well as The Light Brigade,
an original miniseries published in 2004 by DC, with art by Peter
Snejbjerg. It’s something, he says, extends back to his childhood.
“Since I was a kid, making movies, writing and drawing comics were my
passion. It seems I’ve been a storyteller-type from pretty early on. I
was lucky enough to discover what I love and work towards it. It’ll be
nice not to have to work till 2 or 3am writing specs after a full day
at work anymore that’s for sure. Now I can do most of my writing when
some shiny object I believe they call the ‘sun’ is up.”
Not one to shy away from the obvious, Tomasi said that his 15 years as
an editor at DC does give him an advantage in the writing game.
“I think — and hope — my advantage is that the editors who I’ve
worked with feel I’m a talented writer who has something to offer,
along with already being plugged into the DCU whereby making their jobs
a little easier,” Tomasi said. “I’ve written a few comics over the
years and passed them around and gotten favorable responses, so doors
are opened and relationships already exist, which is always a plus over
having some proposals tucked under my arm and knocking on doors for the
first time. Breaking into this business as a writer has always been
incredibly tough, so it was fifteen years well spent.”
While his comics work will be at DC, it’s not all that he’ll be writing.
“I’m looking to have my fingers in a lot of different mediums, but all
of it centered in putting words on a page. Having an established agent
at CAA has helped me get my material in front of people who can
actually get stuff done in film and television. Of course it’s still a
tough process, but at least it helps the odds a bit.”
Speaking of those odds, Tomasi’s original screenplay, House of Penance
has already been purchased by Andrew Lauren Productions, so yeah – it’s
safe to say that he’s starting to tilt the odds in his favor.
“House of Penance is a drama/horror script that I pitched
and sold to Andrew Lauren Productions about Sarah Winchester, the heir
to the Winchester rifle fortune, who, feeling that she and her family
is cursed by the blood spilled thanks to the Winchester repeating
rifle, decides to build a house 24/7 for close to forty years. Sort of The Others meets The Shining.”
Back on the comic front of course, Tomasi has been named as the writer
of the upcoming Black Adam miniseries, something which he was able to
spill a few more details on.
“It’s titled Black Adam: The Dark Age and it picks up right where 52 left off and leads into the start of Countdown.
It’s being drawn by Doug Mahnke, inked by Christian Alamy and edited by
Mike Siglain. The pages that have come in are pretty damn spectacular!
It follows Adam in Kahndaq and around the rest of the globe as he
searches for the magical word he lost in 52.”
And after that? Where will Tomasi show up next at DC?
“Honestly, I’m interested in everything here. There’s a great stable of
characters at DC that I would love to write. I’ve edited quite a wide
variety of books in my tenure here, so I’m looking forward to casting
my net pretty wide and tackling established characters along with
developing new properties. No reason to limit myself at this juncture
when so many doors are open.
“Wish I could say more, but Dan Didio and I are still finalizing which
books I’ll be working on so I can’t let the cat outta the bag just yet.”