I started
writing because of my love for comics, so it's great fun to realize
that so many of my characters have been turned into movies, TV,
toys and animation. Fact is, I've been told that I've created
more characters that have been adapted into movies, TV and animation
than any other comics writer with the exception of Stan Lee.
My newest non-fiction book is Homeland, The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, and it covers the founding of the country from the time of Abraham to the present. Homeland has won The National Jewish Book Award among many others. Although Homeland was written for adults it is easily understood by younger readers, too. Superman Returns, my novelization of the
summer 2006 movie, was published June, 2006 and won the SCRIBE Award for Speculative Fiction, Best Novel Adapted. My novel, Crisis
on Infinite Earths, based on my award-winning 1985 comic, was published April, 2005. The first
printing sold out in less than three weeks and the second printing
sold out a few weeks later. The trade paperback was released
in April, 2006.
The
New Teen Titans, which I co-created with artist George
Perez back in 1980, has been a major hit on the Cartoon
Network for five seasons. Although different from our comic,
aimed more at the younger crowd than the high school/college age
audience we were aiming at, it still features our characters, Starfire, Cyborg and Raven as well as Titans greats
such as Robin and Changeling. I, for one, could
not be more proud. A Teen Titans animated movie, based on the hit show, will be released in the fall of '06. A new Titans animated movie based on the our comic story, "The Judas Contract," is in the works and a new big budget live-action feature has just been announced.


Teen
Titans TM and ©2002 Warners. All rights reserved.
Teen Titans TM © 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
Many of our
villains appear in the series, as well, from Trigon to Slade Wilson
- Deathstroke The Terminator, The Hive, Mammoth, Gizmo, Thunder
and Lightning and many, many more. To learn about the origin of
Titans Tower, and many other never before seen Titans Tidbits,
click here. And speaking of the music, the show has one of the best cartoon
theme songs in years, written and performed by singer-song-writers,
Puffy AmiYumi.

This
photo of me with the Titans actors was taken during the voice
recording for a Titans episode entitled "Deep Six."
From left to right: Me, Wil Wheaton (Aqualad), Greg Cipes (Beast
Boy), Tara Strong (Raven), Scott Menville (Robin), Dave Coulier
(Tramm), and Hynden Walch (Starfire). Not pictured: Khary Payton
(Cyborg).
Besides
appearing in the Teen Titans, Cyborg has also made his
live action debut in Smallville, the incredibly popular series appearing on the WB Network.

Blade The Vampire Hunter has been featured in three hit movies
starring Wesley Snipes, the first directed by Stephen
Norrington and the second by Guillermo Del Toro and
the third by David Goyer who has written all three movies
as well. I was lucky enough to visit the set of the first Blade
movie and met with the director and star. It really is a thrill
to watch your creations come alive. I later had dinner with Guillermo Del Toro, a real dyed-in-the-wool comics fan.

I
came up with the idea for Blade while at Warren Magazines editing Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Typically, those
magazines had 5 or 6 unconnected short horror stories but I
decided to try something different and commissioned a half dozen
stories which would follow the history of vampires from the
first to the last. I was going to write the contemporary story
dealing with Blade as a vampire hunter. His origin, personality
and look actually came to me in a flash. That's only happened
twice in 30+ years. The other time was with the creation of
Deathstroke, The Terminator. I left Warren before I wrote the
story which appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10 but was hinted
at in number 9.
The
third movie, Blade: Trinity features yet another of my
creations, vampire-detective Hannibal King, played by Ryan Reynolds. Hannibal King made his first appearance
in Tomb of Dracula #25.
Hannibal
King came out of my love for the old 30s/40s mystery stories.
King's very much in that great tradition of hard-boiled detectives,
but he has one thing extra going for him: vampire abilities that
let him see things and do things ordinary detectives could only
wish for. The first Hannibal King story kept his vampire origins
secret until the very last panel, although clues were liberally
sprinkled throughout the issue.
Tomb
of Dracula #10. The 1st BLADE story! Tomb of Dracula #25. The
1st Hannibal King story
Blade was one of the earliest black comic book heroes, and the first
Marvel hero not to wear the typical comic
book
spandex costume of the time. Since Tomb of Dracula took place
in a semi "real world," I wanted Blade dressed in somewhat
realistic clothes: leather bomber jacket, pants, boots and his
special goggles which, because he had vampire blood running through
his veins, would let him see in daylight. Yes, he wore a bandolier
complete with wooden knives (the better to kill vampires with,
my dear), but they were only a fashion accessory.
Blade also starred in his own live action TV series.
You can read
the first Blade and Hannibal King stories in Marvel Comics' Essential Tomb of Dracula which reprints the first 25 issues
of TOD as well as a few crossover extras.
Below
is Bullseye, another character I created, as played by actor Colin Farrell. Bullseye is one of the
main
villains in the Fox movie, "Daredevil." The film made more than 100 million dollars which puts it in that
very rarified zone of mega hits. Most critics have said that Farrell's
Bullseye is the highlight of Daredevil, and I couldn't agree more.
He was all about fun and fun to watch. I can't tell you how proud
I am of him.
I
created Bullseye in issue #131 of Daredevil. I wanted
a villain who could literally turn anything he came in contact
with into a weapon, from a drinking straw to a paper airplane.
Yeah, I know it's hard to kill someone with a paper airplane,
but, hey, in the hands of a super-villain those paper cuts can
be pretty nasty. I also helped design his comic book costume,which
was brought to life by artist John Romita. Bullseye's trademarked
forehead bullseye target has been morphed into a branded target
for the film, a cool idea I wish I had thought of. Bullseye
was pretty much a hit from day one, and after his original two-part
story, I brought him back for another two-parter a few months
later.


TM
and ©2002 Fox and its related entities. All rights reserved, Bullseye
TM © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Some of my
other characters, such as Cat Grant and Professor Hamilton, have appeared
on the hit TV show, "Lois and Clark," and more
recently Hamilton has been seen on "Smallville." Other characters such as The Teen Titans, Phantasm,
Nova, Terrax, Black Cat, and Nightwing have been featured in many animated series. I also
created Tim Drake, the new version of Batman's partner, Robin, The Boy Wonder that has been appearing in the comic for the past decade
and a half as well as in the animated series. I also co-created
a new version of Brainiac, one of Superman's arch foes and Nightwing, who has been voted among the top comic characters
of all time.
One
of my favorite ideas was coming up with the revised version of
Superman's arch foe, Lex Luthor. When I was growing up,
Luthor was a mad genius who wore prison grays every time you saw
him. The typical story began with him breaking out of jail, finding
one of his old hideouts, and usually building a giant robot or
something equally preposterous in order to fight Superman. I turned
Luthor into a brilliant businessman who lived on top of the highest
mountain in Metropolis, so its citizens would have to look up
at him while he looked down on them. In the comics, Luthor hated
Superman because, as a boy, he lost his hair in a chemical accident
and blamed Superboy.


The
Young & The Ruthless: Michael Rosenbaum from "Smallville"
John Shea from "Lois And Clark"
I
wanted something a bit more nuanced. My version hated Superman
because Luthor used to be a God in Metropolis until Superman appeared.
Lois Lane was also his fiancee, again until Superman showed up.
In one moment, he lost everything that was important to him. My
version of Luthor has appeared in the Superman cartoons of the early 90s as well as "Lois And Clark" and can currently be seen in "Smallville." I'm
proud of all these appearances.
Below is a
picture of Cat Grant actress TRACY SCOGGINS and myself taken at a DC Comics Christmas
party held on the set of "Lois & Clark." I timidly
introduced myself to Tracy as the man who created her and she
instantly fell to her knees and kissed my ring. It was hilarious!
Photos are not usually taken on a TV set, but Tracy insisted on
us taking this one. Tracy is as nice as she is lovely.