It’s Jeph Loeb’s fault that I wanted to be a werewolf when I was nine years old. It was the mid-1980s and Teen Wolf, written by Loeb, was my slumber party entertainment of choice. With my weird circle of friends, that also meant re-enacting scenes with werewolf prosthetics made out of double sided tape and harvests from our hairbrushes.
I have to wonder, if I had told Loeb that story when we met at this year’s Phoenix Comicon, would he have still agreed to this email interview?
Questions contributed by Lisa Fary, Juliana Weiss, Teresa Jusino, and TrinityVixen.
PRG: How did you make the transition from writing features to writing television?
JL: Well, I never held onto one medium at a time. While I was writing features I started writing TV pilots. And when I wasn’t working in features I got a job working in animation (Maurice Sendak’s Seven Little Monsters which was a blast!). And that led to Buffy Animated and my friendship with Joss Whedon which I treasure. And that led to Smallville to Lost and now to Heroes — so you never know. But again, while I was at Lost, I wrote the first draft of The Spirit. I’ve been very lucky and I never take anyone or anything for granted.
PRG: What are some of the differences between writing features and writing for television, regarding both business and craft?
JL: They are the same and very different. Movies have a long gestation period. You could (and I have) been on a movie for two years and it never gets made. Nothing that you did wrong, it just gets derailed for a lot of reasons. It’s the nature of that business. Television is a train that’s running for 10 straight months — or on Heroes it was 19 straight months — and you just put one foot in front of the other. You get an order — this season it’s 25 episodes — and that has to be written and produced. It requires a different kind of discipline. Closer to comics in a weird way…
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PRG: How has “fan pressure” affected your writing for television? Have you made changes based on fan feedback?
JL: Never. We tell the best stories we can and hope for the best. That applies to anything. Comics, movies, cartoons. Just do the best you can. I’ve never cared about sales — they only mean that I’m reaching as large an audience as I can. I’m a storyteller and that’s what is important to me. And as of late, that’s a huge audience in terms of comics. And of Heroes which is a gigantic hit. It could have just as easily been otherwise, but it won’t affect the storytelling.
PRG: Writing for Smallville allows you to set the stage for the mature versions of Superman and his greatest nemesis, Lex Luthor, both. Which character is more challenging, given the constraints of keeping both men in the town of Smallville, to reconcile with the future version of himself?
JL: It was an enormously rewarding experience. In the comics I was telling stories of the hero emerged, inspiring others to do good. On the show, we were (and they still are) telling stories of the young men growing into those roles. There are days I miss those people very much.
PRG: “Powerless,” the final episode of Heroes season two, had to be changed to accommodate the writers’ strike. As a result, it felt a little rushed. Where would the story have gone if you’d had a full season?
JL: For you, it felt rushed. For others, it felt like the Heroes they’d come to know and love. The funny part about it was that we only changed a few things — like moving up the assassination of Nathan. That would have happened later in the season. The good news is that we can start Season 3 fresh and full of fun and wonder. It’s a blast!
PRG: How has your background in film aided you in writing for comics?
JL: I’ve often said they are cousins. They allow you to think visually and put down on paper what you want someone else to execute. Whether it’s the artist or the director. Film is made up of storyboards that look very much like comics. The trick in comics is realizing that there is no movement so you have to pick your moments.
PRG: Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman Begins has said that he intends Harvey Dent to be the back bone of his sequel, The Dark Knight. Given that Nolan’s work freely borrows from Batman: Year One, of which The Long Halloween is a continuation, have you been consulted about the character’s development? Are you excited to see Harvey Dent on screen?
JL: I’m very excited and also very grateful and impressed that Nolan, screenwriter David Goyer and actor Christian Bale have openly and often in interviews credited The Long Halloween as a very influential source material. I wasn’t consulted but it was really kind of them to acknowledge my work in the forward of The Absolute Long Halloween. Cool!
PRG: You’ve done some tremendous work in comics – your Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America miniseries being a personal favorite of some Pink Raygun writers – but you’ve primarily worked with other writers’ characters. Have you thought about, or are there any plans to write a creator-owned book? And if not, what’s the appeal of working primarily with already-extant superhero characters?
JL: I did one creator book — The Witching Hour with Chris Bachelo — it had its challenges because I had to create it all from whole cloth. And besides, I like capes and apparently I do it well. Although Richard Starkings, whose opinion I value enormously, thinks that Witching Hour is my best work. So go figure.
PRG: How did you get your first writing job?
JL: I’ll assume you mean in comics. I was working on a movie about The Flash — the fastest man alive — and through that met Jenette Kahn who was the Publisher at DC at the time. When the movie didn’t happen (as movies often do) Jenette asked if I wanted to a comic book for DC. Well, it was like Santa saying, “I missed you last Christmas, but how would you like to go to Toys R Us with my American Express Black Card?” I jumped at it thinking I’d be writing Superman or Batman, but quickly learned the lesson that you work outside the bullseye and then move in. So, I got Challengers of The Unknown — about as far from the bullseye as Juno, Alaska.
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Related Stuff:
Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
John says I shouldn’t be too jealous about the Jeph Loeb interview, as it was by email, but I disagree. It’s Jeph “I’d marry The Long Halloween if I could” Loeb! I can’t even fault him for volume 2 of Hush, really.