Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have
been in the business and career of
writing comics for at least a decade now (and for Palmiotti, in
drawing), having first begun in mostly creator owned/independant
series, and Hawkman’s
fourth volume
is one of the titles these two fine gentlemen have been writing, having
taken up the reins in 2004 with its 28th issue. Recently, I enjoyed an
e-mail interview with them, which I am proud to present here now:
What city and state did you originally
come from?
Jimmy Palmiotti: Born and
raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Justin Gray: My father was in
the military so I’ve lived all over the states.
Were you big comics readers when
growing up?
Gray: I started reading comics
when I was six or seven, back when you
could get them at 7-11. I continued to read comics up until I was
sixteen.
Palmiotti: Having two older
brothers that read comics helped me along. There
were always comics somewhere to be found around the house.
What were your favorite comics
series/titles and characters?
Gray: Growing up I read mostly X-men, FF, Spiderman, Batman and Superman,
Micronauts, Daredevil and Silver
Surfer, who remains one of my favorites.
Palmiotti:Superman, Fantastic Four, Master of Kung
Fu, Jonah Hex, Killraven,
Daredevil, Archies and anything horror.
How did you get into comics writing
and drawing, and for Mr. Gray, how did you get into a career in
photography?
Palmiotti: Went to high school
and trained as an artist. Got my first big
break at marvel around ‘89, and been working ever since. The writing
and creating was a natural progression.
Gray: To be completely honest,
I fell into it. In college I had a
girlfriend who was a photo major so I spent a lot of time with her in
dark rooms, sometimes I even developed pictures. I had a friend that
was working for a fossil company and he suggested I apply for the
photography position. I jumped in and managed to bulls*** my way
through it.
What was the first comic book you
wrote, and for Mr. Palmiotti, what was the first comic that you drew?
Gray: The first published comic
was a Chaos Comics’ character called
Chastity.
Palmiotti: First I drew, a
Madonna comic for Personality Comics.
How many series/characters/titles did
you both work on to date, for any company?
Gray: Hmnn, I think we’re up to
ten or eleven.
Palmiotti: Maybe add a few
hundred more to my list.
If we were to compare the Hawks of
planet Earth with the Hawks of planet Thanagar, which characters do you
consider more interesting? Those of Earth, or those of Thanagar?
Gray: I think they both have
distinct qualities that make them
worthwhile. With the current Hawkman you have a multi genre playground
to work in, but I love sci-fi elements and distant worlds like Thanagar
in terms of developing societies and using it as an allegory for our
own.
Palmiotti: It’s tough to
compare equally interesting characters. Each has
their own built in cool factor. With the Thanagar hawks we can make up
more sci-fi type elements, so that’s interesting right away to me.
What do you think of Kendra Saunders,
the new Hawkgirl?
Gray: She’s a great character,
but then again we both seem to gravitate
toward strong female characters. Kendra is going to become much more
interesting in the year to come.
Palmiotti: Love her, she needs
her own book for sure. Like Justin said, we
love all the female characters. Personally, they are my favorite to
write.
What new nemeses, both one-time and
recurring, will we see in upcoming issues of Hawkman that you'll be
writing? Will Hath-Set (and even his decsendant, Kristopher Roderic) be
among them?
Gray: To date we’ve seen
Fadeaway Man, Lion Mane, Trygg and Satana. There
are a few more waiting in the wings, and don’t worry, you can’t have
Carter Hall without Hath-Set.
Are the Fadeaway Man and Lion-Mane,
who're going to appear in the 37th issue, the same characters who first
appeared years ago (Lion-Mane in Hawkman
#20 Vol 1. from 1967, and
Fadeaway Man in Detective Comics #479
from 1978), or, will they be new,
post-Crisis takes on these characters?
Gray: The characters are
fundamentally the same, just modified and
updated for a new century. Their origins are the same.
Palmiotti: Wardrobe changes are
needed to update them a bit, but the same.
What other writers and artists are
your favorites?
Gray: That’s a huge list on
both sides. Luckily I’ve been able to work
with some of the best artists on books like Hawkman, Monolith, 21 Down
and so on.
Palmiotti: Too many to list,
really, its not a fair question. That’s like
asking a person their favorite album, there are so many.
What other writing projects do you
have coming up, with DC or Marvel or other companies?
Gray: Let’s see, the Twilight Experiment from Wildstorm
is a six issue
miniseries that debuts in February. I’m currently writing a two-issue
story for Moonstone Books based on a modernization of the Mummy
concept. I’ve written a three-issue arc of Batman: Legends of the Dark
Knight. We’ve got a new series coming from DC in the summer.
Palmiotti: Got a mini coming
from Blackbull with Phil Noto called New
West,
and a few other secret projects coming around in summer as Justin
mentioned. We also have some multimedia things in the works as well.
Are any of your works available in
trade paperbacks, and will your stories in Hawkman be made available in
trades too?
Gray: To date we have the first
7 issues of 21 Down in trade
format,
published by Wildstorm.
Palmiotti: My ink work has many
trades: Punisher, Daredevil,
Blackpanther,
Batman, the list goes on. Recently, 21 Down, Beautiful Killer and The
Pro.