You've had a very successful run with DC Comics' "Batman" series, and now you've got a 6-issue series for Marvel's "Daredevil" that debuted beginning in late July. How did you get started writing for comic books?
The first of six issues Bob Gale penned for Marvel's ''Daredevil'' series
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I think it was in 1997, Jordan Gorfinkel, then one of the Batman editors, found out I was a comics fan — I think it was from a letter I sent to DC. He contacted me and asked me if I'd consider writing a Batman text story — something they used to do in the 70's. I said sure, why not, I'd always loved Batman. So I wrote "To See The Batman" which ran in an issue of Batman Chronicles — I think it was #11 or 12. They liked it so much that when the editors had their "Bat Summit" in Spring '98 to plan what Batman would be in 1999, they asked me to attend and contribute. I was flattered, and said yes. Gorf had already concocted the general idea of "No Man's Land". Then I started shooting my mouth off about the sociological aspects of the thing being the key to making it interesting...no one had really considered that, but it was a real spark. A week later, they asked me to write the opening story arc, which I did. It turned out beautifully — so beautifully that I got a call from Joe Quesada at Marvel asking me if I'd do a Daredevil arc to follow Kevin Smith's, and he'd illustrate it. I said if I came up with a concept I liked, then yes. I finally did — and I actually wrote the first issue of that way back in September 99. I had an 8-issue version finished in February, but the book was WAY behind schedule, then they decided to run the David Mack thing first, then Quesada got promoted...finally, when they got a new editor, he asked me to cut it down to 6 parts, and promised me Phil Winslade (who I worked with on Batman and Ant-Man, and I love) would draw it. Then they decided to make it bi-weekly instead of monthly to make up for the spotty publication they've had over the past 2 years, and Phil didn't have time to do the whole thing. Stuart Moore, the new editor, put Dave Ross on it for parts 4 and 5, and Dave just can't compare to Phil, so the art style changes radically, and I wasn't too happy about that. Bottom line, my experience at Marvel was pretty aggravating and I'm not gonna be in a big hurry to do any more work for them. DC, I don't know. All the people I worked with are no longer there, and nobody's asked me back. I'd certainly consider it if they did.
Did you read a lot of comics during your childhood? If so, what were your favorites?
Yeah, I was a comics addict. In grade school and junior high, it was Superman, Batman, Flash, JLA, all their superhero books. I discovered Marvel in 1967 and read EVERYTHING they did — those were great books. FF, Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, I loved 'em all. I still read comics regularly. "Rising Stars" by J. Michael Straczynski is brilliant; Kurt Busiek's "Astro City" series was excellent; I like the new line of books from CrossGen — good stories. Lots of others too, but those are standouts.
All of your film career, you've produced and directed films based on scripts that you've written. How difficult a task is it to write stories based on other people's established characters such as Bruce Wayne and Matt Murdock than those of your own creation — something you've not done a lot of since you first began writing scripts for television soon after graduating from USC?
Well, if you know the characters — Batman I knew very well — it's not hard. Also, Batman has so many aspects that it's not hard to find something interesting about him to write. DD was trickier, because the version I grew up on, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, is really not the character anymore. When Joe asked me to do it, I told him that Stan's version of the character was really the only one I understood and I'd be writing a character more like that. I don't much care for the angst-ridden DD that Frank Miller gave us — although I generally LOVE Miller's work.
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