Gail Simone's Blog, page 165

Aside from Canary and Huntress, who else would be in the BoP if you wrote it for Arrow? :)

I don’t know, I don’t know the show yet.

But I am an expert on ARROW.

ARROW

So today I mentioned on Twitter that I would like to write a BOP episode of ARROW and forty bagillion people responded, mostly very enthusiastically, but a few pretty firmly against the idea…”I watch ARROW for Green Arrow, hon, get your OWN series”-type things. Which is fine.

So there’s some confusion.  I keep saying I haven’t watched ARROW. But routinely, I get asked about a million ARROW questions a day, even things like casting questions, which I REALLY don’t know anything about because I don’t follow Hollywood at all and don’t know any actors or actresses. This is true. When I go grocery shopping, all the celebrities on the covers of the magazines, I have NO IDEA who they are. Not a clue. It’s funny how quickly not watching broadcast television puts you out of that loop.

So I always say I’m an expert on ARROW because it makes me laugh. But the truth is, I haven’t seen any episode of ARROW since the first one. I haven’t seen any of the other recent comics series except two episodes of Constantine, which I enjoyed, and the King Shark Flash, which I REALLY enjoyed (he’s a shark).

It’s true. I haven’t watched it.

BUT I have nothing at all against it. Some friends work on the show, they have put in several kind nods towards me and my work, I like the casting I have seen, and I have no expectations that they will follow the comics, that’s not their job.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to write a BOP episode. I don’t care about my resume, it’s not that, it’s that I love the BOP characters and writing a film version of them again, animated or live action, is always very appealing, even if they are very different versions. When I wrote for JLU, Huntress and Canary (who love each other in the comics) had to hate each other in the show. I dug it. It’s just an alternate version.

IF I wrote an episode, and they haven’t asked me but I’ve been told it comes up a LOT, I would spend a week getting caught up and learning the intricacies of the show first. I don’t mess around when it comes to that stuff.

But it was really just an idle thought, I love the Boppers, I know that Canary and Huntress are very different on that show, but I think there’s always fun to be had if you bring passion and intensity to a gig. 

TV is not my goal as a writer, film is not my goal. But I have enjoyed the things I’ve written primarily because it’s fun to hear talented actors bringing their skills to my stories. That really makes me feel awe. 

Anyway, it’s true. I haven’t seen Arrow beyond the pilot. But if the opportunity came up, I would do my best to make the girl characters awesome.  

That’s all. :)

Since I don't really do much on Twitter, bringing the Zinda Blake discussion over here :) I am DYING to see a live action Zinda Blake and since Legends of Tomorrow is built on a premise of time travel, it would be so easy to add her to their roster for at

Here’s the thing. The characters that have the most potential appeal to non-comics buyers are often not the best sellers or the biggest forces in comics. Superman did well, Deadpool will do better, and Superman has a ton of books while Deadpool has been canceled for low sales several times.

Harley Quinn, much of her appeal came from and to non-comics readers. She was more popular at Hot Topic than in comic shops until just recently.

Sometimes a character has that breakout potential. There are a few comics properties that I think have that. I think the LEGION could be a huge thing if they did a non-animated series. I mean bigger than Galactica, just a huge phenomenon, because a big crew of attractive teen aliens with powers and star ships sounds like it’s very much of THIS time.

I feel the same way about Lady Blackhawk. There’s so much love for that era of glamour and moxie, and no one presents that more unapologetically than Zinda, AND the idea of a time-lost warrior pilot gal, I just feel that she could have that Harley Quinn level of appeal. She was a huge hit in Bop, she was just supposed to be the PILOT but she became popular and people wanted more. 

Her look is killer, her attitude is fierce. If she had a tv series, it would be big. Girls would be wearing her shirts everywhere.

In some cases, the comics appeal and the tv appeal are different animals. 

crufl:gailsimone:housebatbrendan:I didn’t know Ferdie...

crufl:

gailsimone:

housebatbrendan:

I didn’t know Ferdie could be sweet, but there you go.

It surprised the hell out of me, that’s for sure!

Gail you literally invented him and wrote this scene

I know, and I don’t want to sound too twee about it, but this scene really surprised me, so maybe Ferdie’s secretly taking command when I’m not looking.

Would you ever write Deadshot again? New Floyd could use some fleshing out.

I am actually trying to borrow him for something right as we speak!

:)

Not sure it will happen, but it would be nice.

Hey Gail! I was wondering if there is a release date set for CROSSWIND.

We are deciding about that this week, in fact. But OH MY GOD wait til you see the art. There is NOTHING like it on the stands. The page I got yesterday actually made me cry a little bit!

Who will win a fight John Constantine or The Spectre

The Spectre gloveboxes Constantine in two seconds.

Gail Simone writing Princess Leia?! Say it ain't so! Book me a one-way ticket to the parallel universe where that actually exists! Any chance you might tell us what the pitch would have been?

It was a fairy story, that ended with Leia leading an army of Wookies, it was pretty awesome. :)

As great as the new younger Babs is it's ..... weird reading her sometimes because it almost feels like she's much more like Stephanie Brown than (the formerly established) Barbara Gordon, which to me causes some disconnect. That's just me though

I have a timeline in my head to make it all fit, or else it just doesn’t work for me.

I see it going like this. 

BATGIRL YEAR ONE: My all time favorite Batgirl story, by the way

CURRENT BATGIRL: Young and still learning, smart and light.

New52 BATGIRL: My run, where she’s a little older and a little darker, things have been happening in Gotham that made the place a little more dangerous.

ORACLE: Her ‘final form.’

That’s the chronology of it for me, but being comics, they came way out of order. :)

So even though it doesn’t quite make sense, I think the current run happens before mine, and both of ours take place after Year One and before she becomes Oracle. For me and Babs, all roads lead to Oracle.

Is it even possible to "flood" comics with diverse characters? You'd need an insane number of people just to achieve the breadth and depth of personalities displayed in white heterosexual characters, multiplied by so many groups and identities...

No, it’s not really possible, the whole idea is just goofy.

People who worry about ‘floods’ of diverse characters are just building sand castles with soggy pasta.