ComicMix Radio: Darwyn Cooke Looks Back at ‘The Spirit’

It was the job everyone admired, but no one wanted to try: following in the footsteps of Will Eisner on The Spirit. For over a year, Darwyn Cooke stepped up to take on the task and in an exclusive ComicMix Radio interview, he talks about the good — and bad — moments, plus: — DC finally makes a move with Manhunter — Spectacular Spider-Man blows up the ratings — Dark Horse partners with Universal — Sure – there’s another trivia question and another chance to grab an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com It’s a click away – so just press the button: And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Transcript

Broadcast 176. ComicMix.com! ComicMix radio! 3, 2, 1. Stop thinking. When you stop thinking about it, you will grow up grow up.

It was a one job everybody in comics wanted to do but nobody would touch. Hi, it's Mike Raub on ComicMix Radio. Just in a couple of minutes, we're going to talk to Darwyn Cooke. As he takes us down the road that led him to stop and start working on the spirit. That's all coming up on March 15th. 2008 ComicMix News!

It was dead, that was alive and who knew what happened after that? But the good news is Manhunter is coming back to DC. In June, DC will continue the Manhunter series beginning again with issue number 31. Art will be by Michael Gaydos and writing the book again is Mark Andreko who couldn't be happier. It's a blast to write. I'm thrilled that I get to continue doing it because the characters are really really fun to do.

Manhunter number 31 on the schedule from DC in June. For a year now we've been following the path of the spectacular Spider-Man cartoon series in a debut as you know just last week on the kids WB. Now some great news, those two back to back episodes they showed had huge ratings for the network. According to Nielsen ratings for the first half hour the episodes were up 20% over similar ratings in the times lot a year ago and 25% over the previous week. I'd look for a good run at least a couple of years for the spectacular Spider-Man animated series which is on the kids WB Saturday morning.

Universal Pictures and Dark Horse have a three year production and distribution agreement deal now that establishes a home for all of the Dark Horse properties. The deal Universal has creative access to the Dark Horse characters and properties as well as any material Dark Horse might acquire on its own or might want to develop as a motion picture. In addition Dark Horse has the opportunity to distribute movies through Universal. It all works out well because Universal is opening Hellboy 2 the Golden Army from Dark Horse on July 11th this year. Hard to believe it's been 30 years since Heavy Metal was on the movie screens and now it's coming back with a combination of people involved.

Including director David Fincher, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator and Heavy Metal magazine owner Kevin Eastman and Tim Miller from Blur Studios. They'll each direct some different segments of the overall animated feature according to Variety there'll be erotic and violent storylines that have been a trademark in the magazine since it first debuted on the newsstands in 1977. More on the way as we know it I would look for Heavy Metal sometime in late 2009. If you're a Batman fan this is something way cool to mark on your calendar. WizKids releases the DC Hero clicks Batman 4 figure booster.

That will come up on June the 4th during their period right before the big Batman film of course. It premieres on July 18th as you well know. This is a little window box with four different Batman figures from four different eras of Batman from the Golden Age to the Silver Age through the Dark Knight and right up to the current Batman character. It'll look great on your bookshelf that will retail for about $9.99 and of course as part of the Hero clicks game as well. Hey this is Terry Moore with Strangers in Paradise and you're listening to ComicMix.

Comic Bitch Radio. Darwyn Cooke's first published comic book work came in 1985 in DC's new talent showcase. From there he worked in animation on both the Batman and Superman series and then came back to comics in 2000. Even worked a bit for Marvel before he came over to DC to revamp Catwoman in a memorable series. It still is considered to be one of the best in her long run.

In 2004 he gave the incredible DC new frontier but it was in 2005 it was announced that Jeff Loeb and Darwin would team up on a Batman spirit one shot. And from there Darwin took over the first regular spirit series done in decades. It was a job that every artist and writer in comics really wanted to do but they were afraid how do you follow an act like Will Eisner. Darwin remained on the spirit until late last year when it was taken over by Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragonis and Michael Plouffe. My first question was among the talent pool in comics today who else did he think was best qualified to write and draw that book down the line.

Well geez I think the guys who are doing it right now are a good choice. Mike Plouffe having been one of Eisner's assistants is kind of perfectly suited to it and Sergio and Mark are terrific talent. In terms of guys out there that I'd like to see take a shot at it, geez that's a good question. I think Paul Pope would do a really cool thing with the spirit. It's tough because I really think it's a type of strip that there aren't many guys who are quick to do it anymore.

I'm not trying to be condescending I just don't think that type of artwork or story telling is natural for most people anymore so it's a tough thing. As you can hear this was not an easy task for Darwin and I had to ask if he regretted ever taking the job in the first place. Well I don't think that I shouldn't have done it I just don't know that anyone's ideally suited to taking over his work. It was really a nerve wracking year working on it because you're carrying the weight of his reputation and everything he achieved and it's just a lot. Overall he does miss the project.

Yeah I miss it. Yeah I love Danny Cole. I love the character and you know it's always been one of my favorites. And frankly he was so easy for me to write once I got past worrying about Will I found Danny a very comfortable fit for me and easy to write because he's not invulnerable and he's not a genius. You know he's a lot more like you and me he's just a regular person so it was very easy to warm up to him. Like they say never say never again. I'm definitely going to do something else with the spirit if the chance comes up. I don't think that we're done with each other yet.

We'll talk to Darwin more in the coming week and we'll see if we can pry out a little bit about just what's coming up next. Yeah a clue. Okay they involve characters I've already worked on. ComicMix Radio. We've got a winner. ComicMix Radio. As long as you don't run out of answers we will run out of trivia questions and here's another one that could get you a limited edition variant issue comic from Graham Crackers comics. They're the guys with nine stores in Chicago but they can serve you as your comic store anywhere on the planet at Graham crackers dot com.

These are limited editions with exclusive covers. Print runs probably no more than a thousand or fifteen hundred and are very nice collectibles. How do you get one? Well the rules are simple. First you listen to the question then get a sure answer to us by the deadline we set in every broadcast. We choose one winner drawn randomly from all the correct emails we receive and duplicate emails do not count. Let's pick another winner. Here's our latest question. Weekly comics have been trying a number of times in the history of funny books but what major DC title went weekly for less than a year in the late 1980s? It was action comics Phil Notto got it. Congratulations Phil. On the way to you as a Graham Crackers comics limited edition. Hope you enjoy it.

I could give one out to you if you're ready to try your luck. Here's another question. Manhutter has been a character at DC since the golden age in one form or another but one creator had a successful run with his own version of Manhutter back in detective comics during the 1970s. Everybody loved it. Everybody seems to remember it. How about you? Name the creator who was involved and you're the winner. Get us the information right now. We need your answer by Tuesday the 18th of March at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Or do you send it podcast at ComicMix.com. Once again podcast at ComicMix.com. Type carefully and good luck. ComicMix time line. March 13th 1985.

It was not hard to find a comic book store this week and they were filled with some great books for us to buy including from DC. Jim Son of Saturn. Remember that series? We were at issue number 10 at this point. Legion of Super Heroes was at issue number 11 from DC. We got Star Trek number 15, Superman number 408, Batman of the Outsiders number 22 and the 13th issue of Blue Devil. At Marvel we got the Savage Sword of Conan magazine number 160, Spectacular Spider-Man was at number 102, we were loving the New Mutants with issue number 27 and Uncanny X-Man 2 at number 193 as well as Daredevil number 218. Couple of nice independence too from Eclipse we got Aztec Ace number 12 and from Aardvark Van Hymne we got Mystery number 18.

1985. In the news Soviet Premier Gorbachev was considering an invitation from President Reagan to attend a peace summit in the U.S. The Senate banned phosphate laundry detergents forever and Bill Cosby's new TV series captured him four People's Choice Awards while Bob Hope was voted the favorite all-time entertainer. This week your movie ticket got Jim to see The Killing Fields missing in action too with Chuck Norris. It was 1984, a little fun and the sure thing and a movie called Vision Quest with a chart topping hit from a girl who called herself Madam.

TV Tonight had episodes of Codename Fox Fire, there was Webster and Mr. Belvedere on TGIF and Late Night CBS had Friday night videos and at the top of the charts when they counted those videos down was won by Gethro. Just in case you wondered why she's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 1985. On the radio believe it or not was somebody besides Madonna this was a U.S. based New Wave synth pop band that had a couple of different names while they were traveling around and a whole bunch of different members through the early 1980s before they managed to hit the chart. At this time one of the voices in the background belonged to an actress named Cynthia Rose.

You know her best as a character Penny Johnson from Dirty Dancing and yet she managed to slip in the back of a group called Animotion. Top of the charts for the dance hit it was called Obsession. Top of the charts for the dance hit it was called Obsession. Don't miss any of that, grab us right now on iTunes and be a winner too of a Graham Crackers Comic Buried edition by writing us right now at Podcast at ComicBigs.com Lots of free comics of course and comments galore await you constantly on the ComicBigs site. Check in several times every day there's always something new. We'll see you right here in a couple of days. Bye!