Interview on PULSE

Click here.

Regular readers of this blog will already be familiar with most of the ideas and opinions expressed, but Jen’s questions did elicit a couple of responses you haven’t heard before.

Take a look — and if you’re enjoying COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY, please comment on the article and let Jen’s readers know.

Good grief. It’s Christmas eve day already?

How the hell did that happen?

What with continuing health annoyances and worsening computer catastrophes, I’ve just been through one of the most aggravating months of my life.

Another week and we can put this year out of its misery. About time.

Happy holidays, all.

11 Responses to “Interview on PULSE”

  1. ROG Says:

    Happy merry yourself.

  2. Starocotes Says:

    I read it and it really was for one a nice recap of everything mentioned here or elsewhere including some new ideas that where nice to hear.

    Really a good point to point someone who want’s to know more about YOUR Dr. Fate.

    Oh, and merry xmas to you too, even though I hate xmas.

  3. Charles Bryan Says:

    “At that point in his life, he would probably have defined “the power of the ancients” as any scotch that was over 40 proof and more than 18 months old.”

    I don’t often read comics-related interviews that give me good laughs (well, some do so unintentionally, sometimes). Thanks for that and for “eternal — and eternally boring”.

    I’m loving the series and hoping that there will be more after these eight issues.

    Happiest of holidays to you, and everyone else. I hope you all go out and get your Saturnalia on.

    And Starocotes: Don’t hate the day — just be good and peeved at the people who decided to make it into a stress-inducing consumption fest.

  4. Clifford Meth Says:

    Good interview, Steve.

  5. Steve Gerber Says:

    Psst — I’m glad to hear from all of you and everything, but if you post comments on the PULSE site itself, it might actually stimulate another reader or two to pick up the book.

    (Writing that on 12/25, I feel like a character out of Stan Freberg’s “Green Christmas.”)

  6. Jack Holt (Bgztl) Says:

    “At that point in his life, he would probably have defined “the power of the ancients” as any scotch that was over 40 proof and more than 18 months old.”

    Ha!!!

    Great article.

  7. Alex Krislov Says:

    I’ll hie me o’er to the PULSE site as soon as I read the new issue, which I just picked up. In my dotage, I’ve become the Guy Who Gets Five Weeks Worth At Once, rather than the youngster who ran to the comic store each Wednesday to annoy the clerk.

    Merry Kwanzchrismukkah to all, and good luck with the list!

  8. Scott Andrew Hutchins Says:

    Good interview.

    2007 overall has been a horrible year, with the loss of a car, the gaining of a job with a vindictive boss who thinks I’m worth $8.50 an hour, and finally, the death of my father.

    I hope 2008 is a better year for all of us and sees you, Steve, in better health.

  9. Starocotes Says:

    @Steve: I would like to post a reply on THE PULSE but my “membership” is not approved yet.

    @Charles: But I love my wife 😉 It’s a bit more then all that and very complicated to explain. But I HATE xmas.

  10. berk Says:

    My favourite bit from the interview was this:

    [quote]GERBER: To be honest, I’ve spent a lot of time studying the original Gardner Fox stories from the early 1940s and very little looking at anyone else’s interpretation of the character, including my own from the late ’70s. Anything you’d want to emulate about earlier versions of the character is there in those original stories, primitive though they were. Most of what came later — and again, I’m including my own stuff — was mainly clutter. [/quote]

    This is an attitude I’d like to see become the norm for new iterations of established characters. Going back the original source, or whatever it is about the character or concept that engages the current writer even if it was some version other than the original (assuming of course that the current writer actually is engaged by the concept in some sense beyond the mere fulfillment of professional duties). Every writer should be allowed this freedom, the freedom not to have to incorporate or even keep in mind every single nuance of a twenty year (at the least) character history which is, inevitably full of internal contradictions anyway, just by virtue of its sheer duration and the number of different creators who’ve worked on it. If this prescription had been followed with, say Kirby’s New Gods, we might have seen more interesting takes on that concept through the years than the drivel we’ve generally been subjected to.

    The other bit I liked was the hint that Nelson won’t necessarily be enjoying smooth and steady progress along his journey into the mystic or whatever it is he’s encountering:

    [quote]GERBER:Something that may surprise some readers is that his progress along that path, like everyone’s progress through life, won’t be a consistent movement forward. There will be setbacks, lots of them. There will be distractions that may or may not amount to anything. There will be moments that seem to be grand revelations but turn out to be even grander self-deception. In other words, we’re not only going to see a man fight his way back from dereliction to purpose — assuming he succeeds, that is — but also the making of a sorcerer, starting with the rawest of raw materials.[/quote]

    I was saying a while back that I would liked to’ve seen more psychic fallout from the degrading personal circumstances, including the ‘bumfight’, in which he began the series, though, but in light of the interview, maybe I’ve been judging a little too hastily.

    My NEXT favourite thing was … oh, never mind, this could go on forever.

  11. Starocotes Says:

    Hi

    can anybody who is registered at the Pulse please post there and tell them I cannot register? I tried to but my account is not activated and they are not responding to mails.