Bop

You mentioned a while back that you had some problems with working on the Brightest Day-era BoP series. What went wrong? If it's any consolation, I thought it was fine up until your last storyline got cut short.
— indestructible-theory




Purely editorial stuff. It sucks, but it happens, for one reason or another, an editorial and creative team just don't click. It's not one side or the other, it's just that the two sides don't fit properly. There's a lot of stuff in Volume Two that I like, that came off really well, but several factors, some of which I am to blame for, did prevent us from hitting the heights I had been hoping for. The lack of a consistent art team was a huge and unfortunate factor—we were really cursed there and it was no one's fault, really, artist after artist had personal crises that were unforeseeable and unavoidable.



I also feel that the cast was a little big. Hawk and Dove and Savant and Creote in particular didn't get the room to shine that they deserved and required. That, too, is my fault. But when you think you are doing an ongoing, you always feel there is time to get around to things like that.




In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to do a new team. Much as I love the classic mix, and sales were really very, very good, I do think it would have been great to do something with a newer cast, maybe keep just Huntress or Canary and add new characters who don't get much of a spotlight. The fun of Bop was always the relationships, I think, and it would have been enjoyable to throw a bunch of new ones into the mix.




This is something I think Duane Swierczynski is doing a lovely job on in the new book. The title has been around a long time, and while I am thrilled that readers supported us on Volume Two the way they did, I can certainly see the appeal of a newer team motivation and dynamic. So, while I was very bummed at the time, in retrospect, I am glad the book has a new life and direction with a really talented creative team.



(Postscript:  WOW, this formatted badly.  I do know where the paragraph breaks should go, sorry this came out as a block, for some reason!).