A New Frontier for DC
Interview by Owen K. Craig
If you haven't read it, head to the store now.
With his jaunty hat and cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth, Darwyn Cooke looks as though he may have leapt from the pages of one of his comics. He could easily have stepped out of his revival of Will Eisner’s The Spirit or his miniseries DC: The New Frontier, which is now being adapted as an animated film.
Cooke has been a fan of The Spirit since discovering the character at the age of 14, uncovering the reprints in Warren Magazine. “Eisner’s ability to tell a story was so advanced compared to the rest”, Cooke describes. “I became obsessed. I spent most of my high school years immersed in Eisner’s work.”
The Spirit was an industry legend. For almost fifty years, Will Eisner would not let anybody use the character in ongoing publication, nor would he revive the character himself. When DC approached Cooke with the opportunity to follow in his idol’s footsteps, it was an understandably daunting task. “It took a while to convince myself.” In approaching the character, Cooke and his co-artist J. Bone looked at what the original series was truly about. “If I were to sum up the series in one word, it would be humanity. Everything and anything that might entail. Eisner was far more concerned with the human condition than with feats of daring do.”
Speaking of his working relationship with J. Bone, he says “it’s hard to pin down why it works so well. We’re very different people: he’s cute and I’m ugly, he’s gay and I’m straight, he likes chicken and I like beef. But when it comes down to it, he’s the only guy I know who brings the same sensibilities to the table that I have. J is also the embodiment of what it means to be a professional, which is almost an out of date notion in this day and age. His work is always on time and always at a high level of quality. He is a perfect friend and collaborator.” Then he quickly jokes, “he pays me to say that.”
The Spirit is about to do something awesome.
Now that Cooke and Bone are moving on fromThe Spirit series after issue 12, they will be sorely missed. But Cooke will be keeping an eye on the character: “I don’t know where DC is going. I hope that the creators approach the title with the same commitment and passion that we have.”
Recently, Cooke’s Eisner- and Shuster-award winning miniseries DC: The New Frontier has been getting renewed publicity due to a feature length animated DVD adaptation being made. “People who enjoyed the book will be pleasantly surprised by how much of the story we were able to maintain. The crew worked hard to maintain the flavour of the book and source material.” The miniseries won fans through its depiction of a more idyllic time in DC’s stories, without glossing over what a complicated time it was, as well. It was a reaction to the books of the day and an acknowledgement of the world the characters were created in. “With New Frontier we wanted to remind everybody that you can tell a compelling story about heroic characters without raping them or turning them into drug addicts or really bringing them down to our level.”
What’s next for Darwyn Cooke? I’m glad you asked. In addition to some creator-owned graphic novels he’s working on, there will be a DC: The New Frontier one-shot comic released to coincide with the DVD movie. Plus, he is currently working on a top-secret project that he can’t speak of yet. But rest assured, for fans of Darwyn Cooke, it’ll be worth the wait.
