Greg: Now FVZA isn't the only horror work from you coming out this week. There's also your upcoming Batman: Arkham Reborn mini from DC. Tell us about that now.
David: Funnily enough that book is probably quirkier than FVZA even though it's a DC book and part of the Batman stable. I was given a lot of free rein on the Battle For the Cowl Arkham one-shot and that book left a lot of loose ends. This new mini-series, Arkham Reborn, follows those loose ends. That's not to say that everything is neatly tied up. There is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in mystery at the heart of the asylum. I'm having a lot of fun with it.
This time round there are more of the established Batman characters, including Batman himself. We have Clayface, Mr Freeze, Doctor Phosphorus. Basically the villains who have been rounded up over recent months and thrown back in the asylum. There's also a new character called Alyce Sinner. I don't want to say too much about her because almost anything would be a spoiler. Let's just say she has an interest in the Seven Deadly Sins. I've been very lucky with the Arkham books because these are very offbeat stories that probably wouldn't normally get a massive audience. Because it was part of the Battle for the Cowl event, the one-shot sold over 40,000 copies, which is very healthy. I was a little worried over the reception it might get from Batman fans. My characters, No-Face, The Hamburger Lady and the Mirror Man aren't villains and have no super-powers but that didn't seem to bother people. I do see speculation on message boards debating what kind of powers they will develop and what villainy they have planned but they really aren't like that. My work in the mainstream is a constant test to write popular comics without big fight scenes and standard good v. evil scenarios. There is a fight scene in this series when Batman shows up but really the interest should be in the interaction between the characters and the torment of their mental illness.
Oh yeah, and there is a character called The Raggedy Man who is about as twisted as any character I've written but you know... he can't help it. It was his parents' fault.
This issue also furthers the theory that Black Mask is
