MichaelUslan

Comic books are, to me, our modern day mythology. They are the descendant of oral tradition and stories from The Bible to The Odyssey to Beowulf, et al. In addition, the graphic story-telling marriage of words and pictures provides a unique entertainment experience.

Yes! My wonderful partner, Benjamin Melniker, who just turned 102 this week and is still sharp and vibrant. Ben is a legend in the movie biz and, I think, may be the only one in its history to have worked actively in nine different decades, as he started at MGM in late 1939. Ben was Exec VP at MGM in its glory days and all divisions reported to him. He put together the deals for Ben-Hur, Dr. Zhivago, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gigi, and the list goes on and on. He also helped Hanna-Barbera get their careers started and later their own company started. With the other studio heads and President LBJ, he was one of te founders of the MPAA.

I think there's a missing link. How can millions of people go to an "Ant Man" movie yet the comic book not sell over 25,000 copies (that would equate to selling 500 copies per state in the US). By the way, this is not a real example, I'm just using Hank Pym as a hypothetical. How can San Diego and New York Comic Cons get 150,000 fanatical fans, yet a typical super-hero comic can't sell over 50,000 copies in a month? A link needs to be found to unite the movie, TV, animation and videogame fans with the comic books themselves. I would LOVE to hear all your ideas as to how best to accomplish this goal!

I'm happy to say I've been privileged to write many comic books and several graphic novels. My latest g.n. goes on sale Wednesday (unabashed plug!) from Dynamite and is "Justice, Inc."... the first ever team-up of The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Avenger! I also wrote the hardback g.n. "Batman: Detective #27," "The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights," and "Archie Marries." What I love about the g.n. format is that I get to structure it like a three act screenplay and often have over 100 pages to tell my story... as opposed to the 22-24 in a normal comic book tale. This allows for more textured, layered characterizations and character arcs and sub-plots, which I enjoy.

I love Scott Snyder's work. Anything he does on Batman is of keen interest to me. Of all time, my favorite Batman story is "Night of The Stalker" from Detective Comics back in the 1970's. Batman doesn't say one word, yet it is, to me, the most powerful Batman story ever written. Other favorites: Batman #1, "Night of The Reaper," the Steve Engelhart/Marshall Rogers run, especially "The Laughing Fish," "Robin Dies At Dawn," everything Denny O'Neil wrote and Neal Adams drew, especially the initial Ras Al Ghul story arc.