La vita di uno sceneggiatore di fumetti non dev’essere affatto facile. Lavorare a cottimo e perdipiù con addosso la pressione dei dati di vendita, un riscontro che difficilmente rispecchia le reali qualità artistiche delle opere in gioco. Come cantava Mike Muir, “It’s not easy”. Specie in un mercato asfittico come quello dei comics, dove ogni novità viene guardata con sospetto da negozianti e lettori.

Per queste ragioni, devo ammettere di provare una crescente antipatia nei confronti di Tony Bedard, attuale scriba dello spin-off legionario “R.E.B.E.L.S.” (vol. II).
Bedard è autore di una collana che giudico davvero pessima (a giorni le mie spietate review delle uscite di ottobre) e che, in un raro esempio di karma efficace, si trova fin dall’inizio in costante emorragia di lettori. Se si fosse trattato di un allenatore dell’Inter, a quest’ora Bedard sarebbe già protagonista sulla Gazzetta di imbarazzanti titoloni sul panettone.
La situazione, invece, è alquanto diversa, almeno all’apparenza. Dan DiDio e il blog ufficiale DC, The Source, dedicano costantemente a “R.E.B.E.L.S.” spazi inusitati. E ho perso il conto di quante interviste a Bedard, raccolte dai più disparati siti di settore, ho già segnalato dall’apertura di questo blog. Santo cielo, negli ultimi mesi ne ha rilasciate più del padre di Michael Jackson.

Insomma, quanta fatica e quanto spazio sprecati per promuovere una ciofeca come “R.E.B.E.L.S.”!
E dire che, in ogni numero del “Previews” Diamond, ci sono badilate di comic books che meriterebbero davvero una tale spinta promozionale. Piccole gemme come molti titoli DCU e Vertigo (ancora soffro ripensando alla chiusura di “Hard Time” di Steve Gerber), che arrancano nella Top 300 schiacciati dall’handicap del pregiudizio di cui sopra. Mentre le soporifere avventure di Vril Dox e soci proseguono il loro cammino fallimentare come se nulla fosse.
In attesa che le cose cambino e della pace nel mondo, riporto nella parte “nascosta” dell’articolo alcuni segmenti dell’ultima “fatica” del buon Tony, che si è a lungo concesso ai microfoni del sito Examiner. Perdere un paio d’ore in più sui tuoi script no, eh, bello?

Uno che ha sempre meno tempo da perdere, invece, è James Robinson, che ha di recente aggiunto al suo carnet anche “Justice League of America” (vol. II). Comic Book Resources lo ha appena intervistato sul tema, e l’autore britannico ha colto l’occasione per spillare qualche anticipazione anche sul personaggio di Mon-El. Al quale, al contrario di quanto sta accadendo in questi mesi a numerosi volti della League robinsoniana, auguriamo una vita lunga e priva di truculente menomazioni fisiche…

Alcuni stralci dell’intervista a Tony Bedard da parte del sito Examiner:

When R.E.B.E.L.S. first came out it didn’t have the luxury of having a family of characters or existing franchise to latch onto in order to catch readership, has this been hurting the book or making it difficult to widen it’s appeal?

Yeah, it’s kind of in it’s own corner of space and that’s good and bad. It’s good because I have great freedom, story-wise, to do what I want and I don’t have to worry that I’m sharing the characters with someone else. There’s a certain mentality with some readers where this doesn’t really count because it’s not the core DC universe characters or it’s not set on Earth or something like that. So I have to be mindful of that and make it feel like it matters.

As a storyteller it has to be liberating not be anchored by the weight of a franchise character(s).

Yeah, as this book was gestating, it was so off the beaten path that nobody stepped in to mess with it. That’s one of the reasons I think it turned out reading so well.

[…] back to R.E.B.E.L.S., what can we expect from this storyline after Blackest Night and how will the tie-in resonate.

Starro and Vril Dox’s son, Lyrl Dox, or Brainiac 3 if you’re keeping track, will be setting up the next two issues in which the Starro thing is finally resolved. That’s been the big over arching storyline so far, against which we’ve been pulling together and having fun exploring different planets and different alien races, but it’s dragged on long enough. We’re going to end it by issue 14 and then we’re talking about other things coming up. Oddly enough, for a series doing so well in it’s own corner of space, now everything I’m talking about doing with people is a crossover with JLA perhaps because James Robinson is a fan of the book and I love his stuff, so I’d love to collaborate. And we’re also looking at the next big DC event for next summer because it’s another cosmic, outer space thing. Also, the original Brainiac will figure in that storyline so I want my character, Brainiac 2 to confront his dad somehow.

What you’ve done with Starro the Conqueror has really taken the Silver Age villain in a new direction at this point. Is this a story you’ve been itching to tell, or something that came organically through R.E.B.E.L.S., or maybe something that came from editorial.

It came through R.E.B.E.L.S. because originally I pitched it, I pitched it as L.E.G.I.O.N. (Tony spells it out) and, this is another funny thing, the title with all the periods in it, I always called it just Legion and then I got to work with Dan Raspler who edited the series at DC, he always referred to it as L.E.G.I.O.N. so I got used to it. Anyway, when I first pitched it, I pitched it as L.E.G.I.O.N. and I wanted the bad guy to be Brainiac because I thought it would be a good fit because of Vril Dox. But DC said no because they had something really cool in store for Brainiac. After having read that story, I’m glad that’s the way it went. (If you haven’t read Geoff John’s Action Comics / Brainiac story, you’re missed a great book about one of DC’s greatest villains…so go get it.) But I had to rethink who the bad guy was going to be, and after we threw out a bunch of names, Starro’s name came up as a character that could use a revamp. And I’m hoping that the story we ended up telling didn’t invalidate the old stories. Yeah, this guy is a humanoid, he’s not a giant star fish, but I think the giant star fish is still valid, it’s just a different twist.

[…] But to your point, it seems like the decline of sales for single issues has resulted in becoming a down payment on the graphic novels as they are really driving sales these days.

R.E.B.E.L.S. is a good example of this. I don’t think they (DC Comics) were making their money on the series but they’re waiting to see how the trade does. And just like in movies and TV shows that lose money, the DVD set comes out and they make it back so the whole model on how you make money is changing. And the other thing too is how we’ve got all this back and forth between TV writers, comic writers and also with the gaming world. I’ve looked into picking up work in the gaming industry and I’ve done some screenplay stuff. It’s all the same skill set.

Infine, i quotes Legion-related dall’intervista di Comic Book Resources a James Robinson:

OK. What about “Superman” #694? This issue is hyped as the start of “a new 5-issue storyline that will rocket readers all the way to the monumental ‘Superman’ #700!” So what’s ahead for Mon-El, the current protector of Metropolis?

It will tie in all the elements that we’ve been lining up for Mon-El. It will reveal what Legionnaires are on Earth and what their objective is. It will strengthen the ties between Mon-El and Superboy. And it will, I think, wrap up his arc neatly. He won’t be going back into the Phantom Zone for a while, yet, but his personal arc will be over in “Superman” #699, and I think everybody that has stayed with the title and with the character – thanks to all of those people by the way – will be very happy with the way his time as the central figure of the “Superman” comic will be concluded.

You’ve been writing Mon-El now for over a year now. With his story coming to an end, will you miss him?

I love Mon-El. Unfortunately, he has to go to the Phantom Zone, but I would be quite happy writing a monthly Mon-El comic book. If he didn’t have to go to the Phantom Zone, I would lobby hard for a Mon-El comic book.

But he’ll be playing a role in your “Justice League of America,” correct?

He’ll be in it for a period of time until he can’t be in it anymore.

So I guess it’s safe to say that Superman will be back headlining “Superman” when #700 arrives next spring? And while we’re at it, can you confirm you’re staying on board as the writer when Superman returns?

Much to the horror of some Superman fans, I will be writing the book after #700. And to the delight of those same fans, Clark Kent/Superman will be the main character and all of those elements that they love will be featured in full effect.

Tags: Blackest Night, Fotomontaggi, Interviste, James Robinson, Justice League, Justice League of America (vol.II), Lyrl Dox, Mon-El, R.E.B.E.L.S. (vol.II), Superman (vol.I), Tony Bedard, Vril Dox II

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