GoldenAgeHero
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Newsarama: Lets start with the genesis of the Crime Bible project. Was this something that was planned all along, something that you got a hankering for when the Crime Bible itself showed up in 52, and you laid claim to it
or
when and how?
Greg Rucka: Like all things, theres no easy answer to it. When the Crime Bible material was introduced in 52, I had a particular affinity for it, I think. I really dug it, and probably bugged the other guys, because I was the one guys saying, No, we cant just do excerpts, we have to write the entire book! I wanted DC to publish this little, leather-bound version of it, that would have had all of the chapters and verses all the lessons. The other guys were I guess understanding, and gave me the, Thats great, why dont you do that where are the pages for Week 32?
But throughout 52, especially towards the end, there were discussions about what would come out of 52, specifically, and what were logical series and follow-ups, and so on, and almost to a one, a lot of the different series that were discussed didnt happen, or morphed into different things. There wasnt, as far as I knew, a plan to do a Black Adam series, and then, very late in the game, DC decided that they wanted to tall about what happened afterwards.
As far as the Crime Bible goes specifically, Michael Siglain called me shortly after we wrapped the series, and said that he had talked to Dan DiDio, and Dan wanted to do something with the Crime Bible. Michael was kind of tentative, because he figured that I didnt want to do anything related to 52 ever again, but I think I surprised him when I said that I did.
NRAMA: So who had the idea then, in regards to what the final miniseries has become?
GR: Well, we started talking about it part of the idea there were all sorts of high-concept ideas going into 52 about what the series would do for the rest of the line and for the DC Universe, some of it successful, some of it not so much. We were very ambitious we succeeded in some places, i.e., theres a multiverse; and we didnt succeed in others, i.e., you really dont have a greater grasp on what various religions are doing in the DCU and how they impact the daily lives of not only the heroes and the villains, but the average citizens as well.
NRAMA:
GR: [laughs] I can tell by your overwhelming silence that it was probably a good thing that we dropped that whole line of exploration
NRAMA: Yeah I remember that from the early days of 52 - the list of what the series was going to explore, and aside from the Church of Conner and the implications that to some, heroes were quasi-religious figures, that ball was pretty much dropped early on
GR: Right it would have been nice, but certain things didnt happen. The Church of Kon-el like you mentioned it didnt really quite manifest the way we wanted. Theres a reference to what its becoming in Week 51, but we really didnt go into it. That was kind of us going, Well, its almost what we were after, so well just shove it in and see if it floats.
NRAMA: So back to Crime Bible
GR: Right. Siglain and I spent some time talking about what we wanted the series to be, and what we wanted to have come out of it was to introduce a new force for villainy in the DC Universe. Which is not to say that the series will be five issues of bad guy, but its going to be five issues that are about this religion, how pervasive it is, what it does, what its threats are, how it works, and why, if youre a hero in the DC Universe, you might want to be a little concerned, maybe.
NRAMA: So break it on down
GR: Its called Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood. There are five issues, and each issue is built around a piece of scripture. So the first issue is the lesson of deceit, the second issue is the lesson of lust, the third issue is the lesson of greed, the fourth issue is the lesson of murder, and the fifth issue is called The Parable of the Faceless - as in she without face.
Instead of building it as this thing happens in issue #1, and in issue #2 theres this complication, and in issue #3 theres a big fight, and in issue #4 theres another big fight, and then in issue #5, this catastrophic thing happens! the book sort of follows the bad guy, for lack of a better phrase. In that way, you get to see how each lesson is imparted in the religion, and you see how it carries forward.
And then The Question enters, and completely screws things up, and exits again, over and over until the Parable.
NRAMA: This is all Renee Montoya as The Question in the present-day, not flashing back to say that Nic had run afoul of the Crime Bible before, even if he did it not knowing what hed run into?
GR: Right this is all post52.
NRAMA: What gets the ball rolling here?
GR: Well, to start, theres been some confusion over the number of copies of the Crime Bible that exist. There are three known, complete copies of the book, but its sort of like talking about the Necronomicon in the Cthulu mythos, one of these three editions is a slightly different edition. Two of the three are in the possession of The Question theres the copy that Charlie took in Week 23 which he delivered to Tot and theres the copy that Renee took in Week 48. So theres a third true copy out there.
NRAMA: And Renees on the hunt for that?
GR: Right shes been busy in the interviewing year since 52. Shes had a year to get her game together. Shes had a year of working with Richard Dragon and Tot, to an extent, and shes a different person than she was at the end of 52. Shes now a woman on a mission - shes been working on understanding what the religion is, how it works, and who is responsible where, and how widespread the threat is. Those are her questions. Thats what brings her in this is her self-appointed mission now.
NRAMA: How will what Renee learns reflect upon what weve seen of the Crime Bible in 52? Will there again be specific prophecies that she must stop or at least derail?
GR: The prophecies are in a different book theyre not in the Lessons of Blood.
NRAMA: Oh so the Lessons of Blood are a subset of the larger Crime Bible, like the gospels or the Pentateuch
GR: Right. The Lessons of Blood are prescriptions for how you are to live your life, and the hierarchy of sins, with murder being the most sacred of the sins. The most sacred sin you can commit in this religion is murder. It is the greatest sin that you can offer Cain.
NRAMA: So all of this and obviously, keeping in mind that this isnt a traditional miniseries as you said, how do you make what youve explained work in five issues?
GR: Each issue begins with a page of scripture and an image. In the issue, you see that image in a panel.
There are two forces at work in the series. Once force is The Question; and the other is the Order of Unholy Brothers, the leader of the Order of the Stone, who are monks devoted in the service of the religion. We follow their leader as he moves throughout the world, imparting lessons. As he imparts a lesson, that lesson takes hold. For insistence, in the lesson of murder, hell go and kill a whole bunch of people, spare you, and then say, Heres your lesson. So then, the individual whos been imparted with the lesson will then go off and murder on his own, having been taught the lesson from a holy source.
The story in each issue is from the point of view of the Crime Bible itself. The narrative overriding voice is the voice of the lesson. In each issue, you have the scripture of the lesson, you have the agents of the religion, and then you have the monks antagonist, the Question -who consistently enters and attempts to foil whats being done.
NRAMA: Is she successful?
GR: Sometimes.
So the first issue, being the Lesson of Deceit what is the deception that we are imparting on the world? Part of what the series wants to do is show you how pervasive the religion is. Otherwise, its not a threat. If the religion spelled out in the Crime Bible was made up only of half-human, slavering beasties, youre going to see them coming a mile away. But if for instance, in the Lesson of Lust, what you actually discover is that the Holy Order of Sisters in the religion, their convent is actually a brothel outside of Bethesda that services large number of the government and military establishment, and then proceeds to blackmail the snot out of them. So this religion/criminal organization is something that really does have a lot of power and is capable of having a part that is over the top monster men, while on the other hand, can be a very subtle, invasive, pervasive thing. Ideally, by the end of the series, youll realize that there are people of this religion who dont even know it, there are people who are members in the same way that theyre members of the Honda Riders Club, for instance; and then there are other people who, as far as they are concerned, live their lives by the book. One of the things that we really want to show is that there is an organizational structure and a methodology and a core belief system.
Were going to try to answer some questions and leave some unanswered, so other writers can come in and play.
NRAMA: So who is the leader of the Religion of Crime?
GR: As a body, its missing a leader at this time. Mannheim was not the leader he was the prophet. Following his death, he vanishes. He was recalled to his hell and then he appeared in Action Comics over a year after his disappearance. The high priestess is apparently dead, so there aint nobody running the show, per se. Its kind of like saying that its Catholicism without a Pope.
But and this is important o get out there the Religion of Crime is not modeled on any actual religion.
NRAMA: Right its not inverse Christianity
GR: Exactly. That just doesnt work to try and map it to bizzaro world Christianity. To use religious terminology, the religion is a blasphemy. Consequently, it does take things that are recognizable in the Church and uses them for its own purposes. So, for instance, Holy Sisters of the Order, are not going to be Holy Sisters of the Order as they are in Christianity. He who we call Our Learned Teacher isnt going to be analogous to a Rabbi, for instance.
NRAMA: So where does this religion come from? Obviously, the connection is to Cain, but when did it all become codified, and laid out as a religion?
GR: Those are questions that were going to hint at, but I dont think were going to be inclined to give them all away. Frankly, I think that if you read 52, its pretty clear what the source of the religion is.
NRAMA: Final thoughts?
GR: Each issue is drawn by a different artist, because obviously you dont want the artist drawing, say, the Lesson of Murder, drawing the Lesson of Lust. [Newsarama Note: Tom Mandrake is drawing issue #1, Jesus Saiz is drawing #2]
By the end of the series, were hoping that people will come away with a better idea of what the Crime Bible and Religion of Crime are, as well as a better handle on Renee as The Question shell have a pretty direct adversary by the end of the story as well. More questions will have to be answered.
link.
sounds good to me, sounds promising.
Greg Rucka: Like all things, theres no easy answer to it. When the Crime Bible material was introduced in 52, I had a particular affinity for it, I think. I really dug it, and probably bugged the other guys, because I was the one guys saying, No, we cant just do excerpts, we have to write the entire book! I wanted DC to publish this little, leather-bound version of it, that would have had all of the chapters and verses all the lessons. The other guys were I guess understanding, and gave me the, Thats great, why dont you do that where are the pages for Week 32?
But throughout 52, especially towards the end, there were discussions about what would come out of 52, specifically, and what were logical series and follow-ups, and so on, and almost to a one, a lot of the different series that were discussed didnt happen, or morphed into different things. There wasnt, as far as I knew, a plan to do a Black Adam series, and then, very late in the game, DC decided that they wanted to tall about what happened afterwards.
As far as the Crime Bible goes specifically, Michael Siglain called me shortly after we wrapped the series, and said that he had talked to Dan DiDio, and Dan wanted to do something with the Crime Bible. Michael was kind of tentative, because he figured that I didnt want to do anything related to 52 ever again, but I think I surprised him when I said that I did.
NRAMA: So who had the idea then, in regards to what the final miniseries has become?
GR: Well, we started talking about it part of the idea there were all sorts of high-concept ideas going into 52 about what the series would do for the rest of the line and for the DC Universe, some of it successful, some of it not so much. We were very ambitious we succeeded in some places, i.e., theres a multiverse; and we didnt succeed in others, i.e., you really dont have a greater grasp on what various religions are doing in the DCU and how they impact the daily lives of not only the heroes and the villains, but the average citizens as well.
NRAMA:
GR: [laughs] I can tell by your overwhelming silence that it was probably a good thing that we dropped that whole line of exploration
NRAMA: Yeah I remember that from the early days of 52 - the list of what the series was going to explore, and aside from the Church of Conner and the implications that to some, heroes were quasi-religious figures, that ball was pretty much dropped early on
GR: Right it would have been nice, but certain things didnt happen. The Church of Kon-el like you mentioned it didnt really quite manifest the way we wanted. Theres a reference to what its becoming in Week 51, but we really didnt go into it. That was kind of us going, Well, its almost what we were after, so well just shove it in and see if it floats.
NRAMA: So back to Crime Bible
GR: Right. Siglain and I spent some time talking about what we wanted the series to be, and what we wanted to have come out of it was to introduce a new force for villainy in the DC Universe. Which is not to say that the series will be five issues of bad guy, but its going to be five issues that are about this religion, how pervasive it is, what it does, what its threats are, how it works, and why, if youre a hero in the DC Universe, you might want to be a little concerned, maybe.
NRAMA: So break it on down
GR: Its called Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood. There are five issues, and each issue is built around a piece of scripture. So the first issue is the lesson of deceit, the second issue is the lesson of lust, the third issue is the lesson of greed, the fourth issue is the lesson of murder, and the fifth issue is called The Parable of the Faceless - as in she without face.
Instead of building it as this thing happens in issue #1, and in issue #2 theres this complication, and in issue #3 theres a big fight, and in issue #4 theres another big fight, and then in issue #5, this catastrophic thing happens! the book sort of follows the bad guy, for lack of a better phrase. In that way, you get to see how each lesson is imparted in the religion, and you see how it carries forward.
And then The Question enters, and completely screws things up, and exits again, over and over until the Parable.
NRAMA: This is all Renee Montoya as The Question in the present-day, not flashing back to say that Nic had run afoul of the Crime Bible before, even if he did it not knowing what hed run into?
GR: Right this is all post52.
NRAMA: What gets the ball rolling here?
GR: Well, to start, theres been some confusion over the number of copies of the Crime Bible that exist. There are three known, complete copies of the book, but its sort of like talking about the Necronomicon in the Cthulu mythos, one of these three editions is a slightly different edition. Two of the three are in the possession of The Question theres the copy that Charlie took in Week 23 which he delivered to Tot and theres the copy that Renee took in Week 48. So theres a third true copy out there.
NRAMA: And Renees on the hunt for that?
GR: Right shes been busy in the interviewing year since 52. Shes had a year to get her game together. Shes had a year of working with Richard Dragon and Tot, to an extent, and shes a different person than she was at the end of 52. Shes now a woman on a mission - shes been working on understanding what the religion is, how it works, and who is responsible where, and how widespread the threat is. Those are her questions. Thats what brings her in this is her self-appointed mission now.
NRAMA: How will what Renee learns reflect upon what weve seen of the Crime Bible in 52? Will there again be specific prophecies that she must stop or at least derail?
GR: The prophecies are in a different book theyre not in the Lessons of Blood.
NRAMA: Oh so the Lessons of Blood are a subset of the larger Crime Bible, like the gospels or the Pentateuch
GR: Right. The Lessons of Blood are prescriptions for how you are to live your life, and the hierarchy of sins, with murder being the most sacred of the sins. The most sacred sin you can commit in this religion is murder. It is the greatest sin that you can offer Cain.
NRAMA: So all of this and obviously, keeping in mind that this isnt a traditional miniseries as you said, how do you make what youve explained work in five issues?
GR: Each issue begins with a page of scripture and an image. In the issue, you see that image in a panel.
There are two forces at work in the series. Once force is The Question; and the other is the Order of Unholy Brothers, the leader of the Order of the Stone, who are monks devoted in the service of the religion. We follow their leader as he moves throughout the world, imparting lessons. As he imparts a lesson, that lesson takes hold. For insistence, in the lesson of murder, hell go and kill a whole bunch of people, spare you, and then say, Heres your lesson. So then, the individual whos been imparted with the lesson will then go off and murder on his own, having been taught the lesson from a holy source.
The story in each issue is from the point of view of the Crime Bible itself. The narrative overriding voice is the voice of the lesson. In each issue, you have the scripture of the lesson, you have the agents of the religion, and then you have the monks antagonist, the Question -who consistently enters and attempts to foil whats being done.
NRAMA: Is she successful?
GR: Sometimes.
So the first issue, being the Lesson of Deceit what is the deception that we are imparting on the world? Part of what the series wants to do is show you how pervasive the religion is. Otherwise, its not a threat. If the religion spelled out in the Crime Bible was made up only of half-human, slavering beasties, youre going to see them coming a mile away. But if for instance, in the Lesson of Lust, what you actually discover is that the Holy Order of Sisters in the religion, their convent is actually a brothel outside of Bethesda that services large number of the government and military establishment, and then proceeds to blackmail the snot out of them. So this religion/criminal organization is something that really does have a lot of power and is capable of having a part that is over the top monster men, while on the other hand, can be a very subtle, invasive, pervasive thing. Ideally, by the end of the series, youll realize that there are people of this religion who dont even know it, there are people who are members in the same way that theyre members of the Honda Riders Club, for instance; and then there are other people who, as far as they are concerned, live their lives by the book. One of the things that we really want to show is that there is an organizational structure and a methodology and a core belief system.
Were going to try to answer some questions and leave some unanswered, so other writers can come in and play.
NRAMA: So who is the leader of the Religion of Crime?
GR: As a body, its missing a leader at this time. Mannheim was not the leader he was the prophet. Following his death, he vanishes. He was recalled to his hell and then he appeared in Action Comics over a year after his disappearance. The high priestess is apparently dead, so there aint nobody running the show, per se. Its kind of like saying that its Catholicism without a Pope.
But and this is important o get out there the Religion of Crime is not modeled on any actual religion.
NRAMA: Right its not inverse Christianity
GR: Exactly. That just doesnt work to try and map it to bizzaro world Christianity. To use religious terminology, the religion is a blasphemy. Consequently, it does take things that are recognizable in the Church and uses them for its own purposes. So, for instance, Holy Sisters of the Order, are not going to be Holy Sisters of the Order as they are in Christianity. He who we call Our Learned Teacher isnt going to be analogous to a Rabbi, for instance.
NRAMA: So where does this religion come from? Obviously, the connection is to Cain, but when did it all become codified, and laid out as a religion?
GR: Those are questions that were going to hint at, but I dont think were going to be inclined to give them all away. Frankly, I think that if you read 52, its pretty clear what the source of the religion is.
NRAMA: Final thoughts?
GR: Each issue is drawn by a different artist, because obviously you dont want the artist drawing, say, the Lesson of Murder, drawing the Lesson of Lust. [Newsarama Note: Tom Mandrake is drawing issue #1, Jesus Saiz is drawing #2]
By the end of the series, were hoping that people will come away with a better idea of what the Crime Bible and Religion of Crime are, as well as a better handle on Renee as The Question shell have a pretty direct adversary by the end of the story as well. More questions will have to be answered.
link.
sounds good to me, sounds promising.
