The fun of superhero comics is finding ways to turn the pieces that you know so that they're suddenly about things that you want them to be about, as long as they're true to the core and true to the DNA of the mythology.
I like stories where people have to face some big demons internally. It always seems to be an element of horror, because it's pretty scary to have to face yourself and the things you're most worried about: your own abilities and your own capabilities and your own level of competence in being a hero.
I love everybody in Gotham. Gotham suits me really well. I'll write anything from 'Nightwing' to 'Batgirl' and any of the villains.
The secret to 'Year One' is that it's a Jim Gordon story. It's a great Bruce Wayne story, don't get me wrong, but Jim Gordon is the focus of that book. To me, that's the stronger emotional arc. It's not that the Bruce Wayne stuff isn't masterful, because it is, but it's Jim's book.
I love working on 'Superman' and 'Batman' dearly.
I'm a difficult person, sometimes, to work with because I'm so intense about this stuff sometimes, and I get focused in ways that I think can be overwhelming for me and also the people I work with, where I'll get so about every little bug in the thing, every little line.
You have a book like 'The Shining,' where the hotel is scary - but scarier because it's the haunted house of Jack Torrance's heart.
With 'Batman,' I actually had a really bad period when we started 'Zero Year,' right at the beginning, I just wasn't taking care of myself at all. I was up too late all the time, I was working too hard. I wasn't exercising.
I love what Brian Azzarello did with Wonder Woman.
One of my favorite books was 'The Book of Immortality' by Adam Leith Gollner, which talks about cheating death and life extension and frames with a story that David Copperfield finds a fountain of youth on an island he bought.
I've always been a relatively big history buff. In college, I took a lot of history courses, and when I was in grad school, I liked to audit them.
When I've gone through those periods of depression or anxiety, it's almost like your body is telling you constantly with these panics that the world really is the terrible place that you think it is, and all the things you fear are true about yourself have to be true.
The Batman that I loved growing up, the thing that Frank Miller did in 'The Dark Knight Returns,' is that he's so vulnerable and mortal in his 50s. That book was the first time I saw Batman as being really layered, human, and suffering, and worried that he wouldn't achieve what he wanted to achieve. Seeing him being obsessed and pathological.
I feel like no matter what I'm on, whether it's 'Tiny Titans' or 'Swamp Thing' or 'American Vampire,' there will be an element of horror in it. Which would be fun for 'Tiny Titans.'
My favorite Swamp Thing stories have always been about a man wrestling with monsters both internal and external.
I remember when I was in school I had this teacher give me this E.L. Doctorow quote: They asked him how much historical research he does for his books and he said, 'As little as possible.' So I try and adhere to that.
When I get the possibility of using a character like Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson, I try and think about what's most exciting or interesting about them as a person, so I try and think what they are at their core, or what piece of their psychology do I gravitate toward that I respect, and I'm excited by it when I read books about them.
The thing that really interests me is characters facing challenges that are emblematic of the things they are most frightened of about themselves.
My favorite Batman stories were very much in conversation with the zeitgeist over the years.
In a post-9/11 world, 'Batman' is less about scaring bad people into the shadows than he is about bringing good people out into the light.
