I was able to interview Scott Snyder for the Huffington Post about the release of the new American Vampire trade. You can read my take and excerpts from that interview when it goes live on Huffington Post.
We also spoke about his involvement with his run on Detective Comics, which begins next month. Ask for it to be put on your hold now. It’s going to be a good one.
You can listen to the full interview on the Big Shiny Robot! iTunes feed, or read our excerpt about his Detective Comics run below.
Big Shiny Robot!: You’re going to be taking over Detective Comics, the longest running Batman title, and you’re going to leave an indelible mark on it. And I know last time we talked, we both just talked about Batman as fans. I know you’re a big fan and you have an encyclopedic knowledge of the ins and outs of Batman’s character. What’s it like stepping into that?
Scott Snyder: It’s huge. It’s the biggest honor of my whole writing career. I’m so thrilled, but also so nervous. The bar is so high. I grew up reading the stories that made me want to be involved comics, and so many of them were Batman comics. From the Dark Knight Returns to Year One and Arkham Asylum and all of those. So, on the one hand I was really scared. When they asked me, I jumped at it and then it was based on the idea I had pitched. It wasn’t like they asked me and I just took it because it was a good job. I promise I wouldn’t have taken it unless I thought I had an idea I was excited about from the beginning. Without that, I wouldn’t have stepped into it. And hopefully we’ll do something new and different and dark. And the idea is that it’s Batman back in Gotham, solving mysteries with high-tech toys, but overall the concept of the series really is that Gotham is almost like a black mirror that throws back at anyone who puts on the mantle of the Bat. And whether or not Dick Grayson is up to the challenge of facing a Gotham that has adapted to be its own worst enemy. And I’m very excited about Jock and Francesco [Francavilla] on the Commissioner Gordon back up. It’s a confluent story. It’s a big story all called “The Black Mirror”.
BSR!: One of the interesting things about Batman and Dick is that Bruce is the world’s greatest detective. He’s had that moniker for a long time, he started in Detective Comics because he was so great and sometimes in the popular culture, like in the movies (with the exception maybe of the first Tim Burton film), they didn’t really explore his acuity as a detective very well. But Dick Grayson, over the years, has always been the lesser detective. Even Tim [Drake, Robin III], has out-shined him with his detective skills. Is that something you’re exploring with the book? Dick trying to live up to that adequacy and that title?
SS: Absolutely. It really is something we’re really trying to focus and absolutely make it a story that couldn’t be about Bruce in any way. This is really a run, it’s about Dick Grayson coming to terms with what it means to be Batman and not just stepping in for Bruce and all the emotional baggage that brings because I think other people have really done a great job with that already, Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel and so on. But exactly that, Gotham is going to challenge him on all the levels that it takes to be Batman. From the emotional and psychological to the very literal challenges like that, like are you good enough to solve this case? And there will be consequences if he’s not and he’s very aware of that. It really is a trial by fire for him as Batman. This is his second year as Batman. The first year was really about coming to terms with the idea of is he wearing a shroud, or is he wearing the cowl? But with Bruce back and giving him his blessing to be the Batman of Gotham, now it’s about, can he be Batman. This isn’t about him and the feelings of can he be Bruce. With Bruce back, this is about him and can he face Gotham?
BSR!: It sounds really great. Is there anything before we go that you can tell us about it? It starts in November…?
SS: I can tell you that for the most part, we’re interested in developing our own Gotham, with Jock and Francesco, to make it Dick’s worst fears coming to life around him. That means new villains in terms of new faces in organized crime that step in in the vacuum created by the fall of the Falcones. And it also means new dark and psychotic villains. Not so much capes, we’re not really dealing with superheroes at all. But that also means dealing with certain things in Dick’s past and Barbara’s past and Jim… You’ll see in the very first issue, in #871, you’ll see a very important person from his past come back to become a major figure in the series. A dark, troubling person from his past. In that regard, we’re trying to make a new Gotham and a new set of villains and challenges for Dick and everyone around him. But we’re also trying to cut very deep and have a really deep continuity with Dick, or built out of the really organic stuff.
BSR!: What’s that like, writing words coming out of Batman’s mouth that are going to be printed in his comic?
SS: It gives me chills every time. It took me longer to write the first few pages of #871 where I was doing lines of narration from Dick than the entire rest of the issue. It was so nerve-wracking trying to get it right, when you know, you’ve read enough that you know his voice, but it’s so intimidating. And the first time you write the batcave or the bunker, it’s still like being a kid in a candy store.
BSR!: Thanks for talking with us.
SS: Thanks so much for everything, I really appreciate it.
You can order your copy of Scott’s American Vampire Volume 1 now.