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Detroit's Reckoning
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http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68322
I'm meeting waid and Perez next month, maybe i can get more scoop!
by Vaneta Rogers
Catching up with George Perez is no easy task. It's been a busy year for the artist. In between his time working on the interiors of the seven-part mini-series Infinite Crisis, a recent issue of JSA and the upcoming Brave and the Bold ongoing title for DC Comics, he's been churning out amazingly detailed covers for the Infinite Crisis.
But fans are lucky -- Perez does sit still for a little while when he's at comic book conventions, and he's got quite a few of them on his schedule for this summer. So, as he worked on one of over 50 sketches he completed at this past weekend's Pittsburgh Comic-Con, Newsarama had a quick chat with Perez to get the inside scoop on his latest work and a few more details about what he's doing next.
Newsarama: So it's finally happening? Months after it was announced that Mark Waid was writing a Brave and the Bold ongoing for DC with you as penciller, you're finally working on the series?
George Perez: Yes! I was supposed to start in November, but because of Infinite Crisis and JSA, and Mark being caught up in 52, it got delayed more and more. But I'm starting on the first issue, and it looks like a lot of fun. The first teaming up is Batman and Green Lantern -- in Vegas! So I've got to keep freeze-framing CSI" I believe, from what I gather, Supergirl will probably be the next character that's spotlighted.
NRAMA: So, basically, you'll get to draw a lot of different characters, something that obviously plays to your strengths.
GP: Right. Mark has asked me who I want to draw. And of course after doing the Crisis books and JLA/Avengers, I'm running out of characters I haven't drawn! So it's always going to be a welcome challenge no matter who it is.
NRAMA: Did you give him any names of characters you'd like to draw?
GP: I tried to name a couple characters, but I had to actually think about it. I've never actually done a spotlight of Zatanna. I've done Zatanna in a few books -- obviously JLA/Avengers -- and she's a fun character. And Hawkman is always a visually exciting character to work with. And of course, at one point during my run on Brave and the Bold, I'd like to do Wonder Woman as a lead character. So there are a lot of characters like that.
I was tempted to mention how I'd like to do the Legion of Superheroes in there, but maybe I'll just wait until after I'm done with Brave and the Bold, because the idea of me actually working on a real Legion of Superheroes story -- it's something everyone says needs to happen.
NRAMA: And you agree? Is Legion of Superheroes a book you'd like to do?
GP: The Legion was favorite comic when I was a kid, and ironically, I've never drawn an issue of Legion of Superheroes. I'd say that's a wrong that has to be righted.
NRAMA: The cover you did for Infinite Crisis #7 was just released in black and white. Without a calculator handy, it's tough to tell -- how many DC characters did you draw for that cover?
GP: There are 56 characters. There would have been more, but that really was a rush. I had to do it in three days.
NRAMA: You drew that cover in three days?
GP: I had to rush because they needed it sooner than usual because of the lamination process.
NRAMA: That seems like a lot of characters to draw in three days, particularly with so much action happening on the page.
GP: Well, Jim Lee upped the ante by putting the most characters you could ever have on a cover! I think he had more characters in that cover than all the other covers combined! I don't know how many characters Jim did. I did 56. But he didn't have any background! He's got a lot of space back there! I had to draw Metropolis!
NRAMA: Good point! That's a lot of detail. That's got to count for something.
GP: The way I work, I did all of Metropolis in pencil first, then started erasing and putting all the characters on top of there, like an animation cell. That way I don't lose track of where does that line start, or where does that line end on the other side of the character.
NRAMA: That cover and the others for Infinite Crisis are certainly an accomplishment, but you've been doing a lot of the interior work for the mini-series as well.
GP: I just finished my part on Infinite Crisis #7 on Wednesday. And you know, I'm glad that Crisis is over. As much as I'm glad it's a success, I just want to get back and do one of my own books. That's why I'm looking forward to Brave and the Bold and enjoyed doing that JSA story.
NRAMA: That JSA story was for February's issue #82, where you teamed up with writer Paul Levitz for the first time.
GP: I've known Paul Levitz since we were teenagers, so it was great that we finally got to work together.
NRAMA: How did you know him?
GP: Oh, we were fans. We're both from New York. And we had mutual friends.
It was a lot of fun for me because I got to work in a kind of retro style. For the first time, I felt like I was really drawing the Superman I grew up with. I was deliberately having to draw the '40s to '60s Superman, and ditto with Batman. The pre-new-look Batman. So I had a lot of fun. And even Wonder Woman, I was drawing in the Ross Andru style of the 1950s. There are a lot of little in-jokes in there.
NRAMA: In-jokes such as...?
GP: In the car where you see Lois and Clark driving, it's the same car that was driven in the Superman TV show in 1952. Clark Kent is actually wearing the George Reeves suit and Lois Lane is wearing the Phyllis Coates' outfit for the TV series.
And if you look at the page -- and people on the internet have spotted this -- where Superman is flying down while Batman is reading the newspaper, in the background it says Alyn, Wilson, Lowery & Reeves Costuming, paying tribute to Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Kirk Alyn and George Reeves who played Superman and Batman prior to the 1952 time.
NRAMA: It sounds like you really looked into the history.
GP: I actually had the DVD of the Superman TV show so I could freeze-frame and follow a bit of that. I think that's why it was set in 1952. That's the year the series premiered. So it was a fun job.
NRAMA: Despite everything you're doing, you seem to have a full convention schedule this year.
GP: I do have a lot of conventions. Like I said, I just finished my last part of Crisis on Wednesday, and I flew out for this con on Thursday. This one raises money for Make-A-Wish, so I always try to attend the Pittsburgh show. This is one of those rare years where not only do I have two conventions in one month, I've got them consecutive weekends. I'm doing Toronto next weekend. And a lot of the ones I'm attending this year are because I had to cancel so many last year because of health reasons. So I'm making up.
I'm meeting waid and Perez next month, maybe i can get more scoop!
