10-05-09

Wildstorm’s Senior Editor Ben Abernathy and the Higher Authority are back to give you a peek into what’s going on with Wildstorm post-SDCC and get a look at the landscape for Wildstorm a year after the Worlds End storyline hit. December brings new creative teams on the WSU titles and a list of creator driven titles that bring something different to the Wildstorm landscape. Ben takes some time to begin the Higher Authority’s new tour of the Wildstorm Universe.

Chris Striker: If you can believe it, we’re now a little over a year after NUMBER OF THE BEAST wrecked the status quo and World’s End began. It looks like you’re keeping with the current “Scorched Earth” for WildStorm’s core titles into 2010, and even hinted at the characters starting to rebuild the world, which is a change from the last year where they’ve been surviving in it. Can you go talk about how important it was for WS to go with the “No Reboot” for the current state of the core titles and some hints what we can expect for the rebuilding to come?

Ben Abernathy: I think it’s important for the consistency of the story and the characters that we maintain the course we’ve set...while we haven’t had a “reboot” since WorldStorm, it seems that a lot of people perceived World’s End as such (clearly people not reading the books), so to we’re staying the course, laying the groundwork for great things to come. We will be seeing some rebuilding and attempts at stabilizing the WildStorm Earth in 2010...and a scouring of the Earth for certain beings who have the power to “fix” everything...

Chris: The confirmation of the long awaited PLANETARY #27 coming out in October was announced during the WildStorm Panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Do you think the final issue will match or exceed fan expectations for this long awaited issue?

Ben: I think it’ll match expectations easily. Will it exceed them? Too hard to gauge. This book has a serious following and has been in the works for so long, that it’ll probably elicit the gamut of emotions from people. I was really happy with it and it made me want to sit down and re-read the entire series, which I think speaks to the quality of the issue and the vision that Warren and John brought to the book.

Chris: With all the announcements surrounding the new creative teams, STORMWATCH: PHD was very much absent. The fans are left to assume that the rumor, from Bleeding Cool ‘The Sixth’s The Charm’ article, is true: that STORMWATCH has been canceled and the characters are going to be filtered into other books.

Ben: Instead of canceled, how about we call STORMWATCH: PHD retired for the present? But the characters and storyline are continuing in the pages of THE AUTHORITY and WILDCATS, so the book that Gage, Mahnke, Smith, Edginton, and Fernandez built and maintained will not be forgotten!

Chris: By now everyone knows the entire line will be getting a creative team change, can you tell us how some of the creative teams were chosen for their new projects?

- WILDCATS by Adam Beechen (KILLAPALOOZA) & artist Tim Seeley.

Ben: I’ve enjoyed Adam’s work for years and he was a guy that I approached originally about contributing to World’s End, so seemed a natural choice. In fact, we’re enjoying his work so much, he’s also doing a two-part GEN13 story! And I’ve been a fan of Tim’s stuff for years and when he agreed to do it—the stars had aligned! Wait until you see the first issue. Phew!

- THE AUTHORITY by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman (THE HIGHWAYMEN) & artist Al Barrionuevo.

Ben: Adam and Marc are near-and-dear to our hearts, having delivered a home run in their first project for us—THE HIGHWAYMEN. I know they were big Authority fans and when we began talking about the next writers, we knew two things—taking over from Abnett and Lanning, we needed co-writers who were also fans of the direction. Marc and Adam scored high on both counts! And Al’s work is really blowing us away...I liked some of his earlier DC work I’d seen, but it didn’t prepare me for what he was going to bring to the table...wait until you see the first double page spread!

- GEN13 by Phil Hester & artist Cruddie Torian.

Ben: Phil is probably better known for his art, but he’s really established himself as a writer “on the rise” with his work at Top Cow and elsewhere (I remember when I first read The Coffin—check the book out, people, if you haven’t already). And he’s really taken to the direction and material! Cruddie is another guy near-and-dear to our hearts, as he was runner-up a few years ago in an art internship contest we had. Not to be discouraged, he kept working and perfecting his style and now he’s landed himself a gig on a flagship book. Hard work and commitment, kids—it pays off!

Chris: Also announced were fan favorite titles such as DV8 and WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY: ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. Fans have been asking for a new DV8 series for some time now—if the mini does well, could it be turned into a new monthly title? Does Gail Simone have more WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY minis planned after One Foot in the Grave?

Ben: It would be great if DV8 did well enough to launch an on-going! Brian has said in interviews he hopes his arc will help spearhead something along those lines for other creators to follow...but we’ll have to wait and see. And I’m sure Gail has plenty more tales of the Tranquility folk to tell, but right now, we’re focusing on getting One Foot in the Grave wrapped up and in your hands!

Chris: In our last interview we talked about the use of the back-ups to showcase some characters and help lead up to a major storyline in late ’09 and early ’10. The readers can now finally see the bigger picture that was set up in the back-up stories. Are you considering using the back-up stories again to set up future storylines again? Would you consider it a successful experiment?

Ben: I’d consider them a success, definitely. They executed exactly what I wanted—compelling stories contributing to the new state of the world using a variety of talent. And damn, there was some nice art! Wait until you see them all in the collection!

Sadly, no plans for further back-up stories right now, but who knows what the future could hold?

Chris: If you could describe both the past year and the future of WildStorm in a few words, what would they be?

Ben: Hmm...exciting. Challenging. Thought-provoking. Diverse.

Chris: Earlier this year we’ve seen titles like MYSTERIUS: THE UNFATHOMABLE, KILLAPALOOZA, and NORTH 40 coming out and during the SDCC Wildstorm panel, a new crop of creator driven titles like RED HERRING, SPARTA: USA, KURT BUSIEK’S AMERICAN GOTHIC and GARRISON were announced. Where did this big push for creator driven projects come from?

Ben: I don’t know that there was ever a “big push,” planned—WildStorm has always been producing and releasing creator-driven material. I’ve always been excited, though, about the possibility of producing original, creator-driven material and when given the opportunity to cast a wide net, I jumped at the chance, encouraging Scott and Shannon to do the same—hence the variety of titles. One of the differences, also, is that we’ve been stock-piling the books so that they release on a timely schedule. The books you name above are really the tip of the iceberg, as we have quite a few more not even announced yet that’ll blow your socks off.

Chris: These days WildStorm seems to be held up by three pillars, the WildStorm Universe, Creator Driven titles, & Licensed Properties. Fans have posted on the WS Message board asking why not put them under different banners like Cliffhanger or Homage to help distinguish the different lines?

Ben: We’ve tried variations in years passed with different branding and logos, and received an equal amount of feedback then that it didn’t really make much difference to retailers, and to some extent, fans, what corner logo was on the cover (determining it was content and creative that drove the book). If you look carefully at our books now, there IS a subtle branding in place—you hold up a WSU, Creator-Driven, and a Licensed book next to each other, and there is a noticeable difference between them. Take a look and you’ll see!

Chris: In the past year there’ve seen some WildStorm titles that have been optioned for film—RED, OCEAN, and SLEEPER—how excited is everyone to see the WS Logo on the big screen? WildStorm also produces a comic based on the World of Warcraft video game that also has been optioned as a film; is there hope that these films will bring some mainstream attention to the WildStorm line?

Ben: That’s an absolute hope. The more doors that can be opened to help our diverse line of books reach a wider audience the better. We’d love to see more of our books get optioned and developed and I hope this new reshuffling up top will help facilitate that. Who wouldn’t want to see a MYSTERIUS television series?

Chris: With that said, when are we going to get our STORMWATCH, AUTHORITY, WILDCATS, and GEN13 movies?

Ben: Good question! Have hope...it could happen someday...how cool would an AUTHORITY video game be?

Chris: With the coming creative team switch, are the fans going to see Ian Edginton, Simon Coleby, Mike Huddleston, Leandro Fernández, SChristos Gage, Neil Googe & Scott Beatty on other Wildstorm projects?

Ben: Some have other projects in the pipeline with us already and others are working on developing stuff. I’d love to work with every single person you mentioned above on just about anything—a better, more creative group of professionals and human beings, you’d be hard pressed to find!