While I was covering C2E2, I had the opportunity to sit down with John Layman and talk about various aspects of his career and the titles he writes for.
John Layman
Larry Poupard: You write for both DC Comics [Detective Comics] and Image[Chew]. What unique challenges and conflicts do you face in creating product for two companies which creators who only write for one company do not face?
John Layman: Well, at Image, you don’t have an editor. You are writing on a tightrope without a net. Whereas with Batman, you are not only writing for an editor and a wider audience, but Batman has five other books in the whole interconnected universe. You have to worry about tying in other events and crossovers because there might be something big happening in Scott Snyder’s book or in someone else’s. With one book, I am playing God while I am playing a ship’s captain in the other in which I have to guide the ship and avoid the icebergs.
Larry Poupard: You mentioned the continuity with Batman over multiple titles. Do you find yourself communicating more with other writers about what is being done or with the main offices of DC Comics?
John Layman: Both. I try to keep myself as open as possible with other writers. Everyone knows my aim and anyone can do a drive by or call me to ask me any kind of questions. The writers are very good about coordinating that. I used to be an editor so I am very aware of how to roll with the punches. You gotta be willing to make things mesh.
There is a thing I like to do myself. In the current thing I am writing right now I’ve got this jump cut of Batman doing various fights. I might say to someone that I don’t know what to have drawn in this particular frame. I don’t want Batman just fighting a bad guy so tell me who he should be fighting [to go along with] who he is fighting in another book. When people read that they will say something like “Oh that is what is going on in Batman & Robin #21,” or whatever. This helps with the overall system of continuity.
Larry Poupard: In Detective Comics, you introduced Man-Bat while tackling the 900 story. Is there a difference between introducing a previously developed character in the New 52 than there is with introducing a new character which has never seen print before?
John Layman: The thing is that these characters all work and everyone knows them. In some ways, you are revisiting familiar ground but it is also an opportunity to wipe away the statements people might ask about “Do you have to read 70 years of Batman?” No, because that is the glory of the New 52.
It is cool if you already know Man-Bat because you have the opportunity to see this classic story again. You can watch as we revisit something old and reinvent it at the same time. In some ways it is a cheat because some of the work has been done for you. The most liberating part, though, is not having to worry about what happened in 1974 or in Detective Comics #681. I am a bit of a lazy person so it is really good.
I always site someone like Mark Waid who is just a living encyclopedia and has all these trivia questions and knows everything. I don’t. Even if I read something, I don’t necessarily retain it. So the fact that I don’t have to adhere to all of this archaic continuity is a good thing for me.
Larry Poupard: Each Batman supervillain is unique and creates interesting types of challenges for Batman. Which member of the Rogue’s Gallery which you have not worked with is at the top of your list to work with in the future because he or she would fit in best with your story and which fit would be the most difficult?
John Layman: Two-Face, yes. I am kind of glad that Joke is kinda off the books for right now. Joke is too dark at this point for my story. When Joker comes in, he does horrible things and sends out his “psychic reverberations. I was glad I got to touch on that, but he is the one I want to work with the least. Since Scott Snyder just did this history Joker story [Death of the Family], I don’t really have to for a while.
Two-Face is the one I have been dying to use for long time now. I keep trying to. I keep trying to squeeze him in, but then I say “No, it is not time now.” I am going to get Two-Face before the end of my run.
There are many different aspects which make [Two-Face] interesting. There is the “law” aspect and the split personality aspect which Batman has too, just in a less obvious way than Two-Face. He is someone I am going to use before the end. I just don’t know when the end will come.
