Author Interview: Paul Kupperberg - Part Two
We continue our interview with veteran writer, editor, and creator of the ReDeus universe, Paul Kupperberg. You can view Part One here.
In 2010, you began writing the best selling and Eisner award nominated magazine series Life with
Archie: The Married Life for Archie Comics. How did this series come about?
I’ve known Archie editor Victor Gorelick for a long time, ever since I wrote some advertising custom comics for him back around 1980, but for various reasons, I never wrote any Archie stories for them until 2009. I’d done maybe half a dozen regular teen Archie tales--you know, pretty standard stuff, like Archie has to get Mrs. Lodge’s prize pooch from the groomer to the dog show without getting the dog dirty, Jughead pranking his friends, the students trading places with the teachers at Riverdale High for the day. Then I got a call from Victor inviting me to a meeting with him and Michael Uslan on a new project.
Michael, who I’ve known since the early-70s when he was an assistant editor at DC Comics and who’s now the producer of the Batman films among other things, had just done the six-part Archie marriage story line in Archie #600 - 605 that showed two possible futures in which Archie imagined what it would be like to marry first Veronica, than Betty. Well, that story was such a howling success for them, they decided to continue it as an ongoing series.
Michael was too busy to take on writing two ongoing monthlies, so they went looking elsewhere. I think the reason they went with me instead of one of their regular, long-standing writers was because I was new to the characters and didn’t come to them with a lot of baggage and preconceived notions. I mean, I think I had a good feel for the characters to begin with; I’ve been reading Archie since I was a kid in the ‘60s and continued to dip into the titles every once in a while over the years, just to see what was going on with them. From the very first time I sat down to write Archie, I think I had a good grasp on what made these characters tick, and I tried to do stories that played off their traits rather than just funny teenage humor. I guess since I was tapped for Life With Archie, I was successful at that. It probably didn’t hurt that I also had 35 years experience writing serialized story lines, which wasn’t a necessary skill for the typical Archie writer.
I’ve been on LWA for more than two years now (I’m currently wrapping up the script for #28) and the response to the book has been incredible since the beginning. We’ve gotten great reviews and a lot of media attention for some of our story lines, including killing off Miss Grundy, the marriage of Kevin Keller, and the current tale of Cheryl Blossom’s battle with breast cancer--and, of course, the 2012 Eisner Award nomination for Best Publication for Young Adult Readers--and it’s been one of the best and most exciting experiences I’ve had in comics. I really love writing this book.
Recently, you co-wrote Bootleg War with Kris Katzen as the fourth installment in the YA series, Latchkeys , from Crazy 8 Press. " Bootleg War" debuted in June 2012. How did you become involved in the series?
Latchkeys, which was the brainchild of Steven Savile, was a project that grew out of a very ambitious gathering of more than half a dozen writers that called itself the Hivemind that formed about three years ago out of a writers email list we were all part of. The idea was that we would throw a batch of book ideas into a hat and pick the three or four we wanted to develop as young adult novel series. We did a lot of work developing these ideas, creating the characters, plotting out story arcs, etc., but the changing face of publishing and shrinking windows of opportunity, plus the paying work many of the members had committed to, finally made continuing our ambitious plans an exercise in futility, so we all sort of agreed to drop them and move on to other things.
A year ago, fellow Hiveminders Bob Greenberger and Aaron Rosenberg and some others started Crazy 8 Press as a venue to publish their own work and the work of their friends. Once they had that up and going, they offered to revitalize the Hivemind, beginning with Latchkeys, which was the concept that was furthest along in development.
I had already written the thirteenth, penultimate episode of Latchkeys, “Emmett,” and, since I had a hole in my schedule, volunteered to step in and do a rewrite on “Bootleg War” to get it ready for publication.
And speaking of Crazy 8 Press, you and I both have stories in their latest anthology, ReDeus: Divine Tales (August 2012), a universe that you helped create. What inspired your story, “No Other Gods Before Me”?
I was one of the architects of the ReDeus world, again with Bob Greenberger and Aaron Rosenberg, so I had a lot of time to think about my story. The premise of the ReDeus universe is that all the worlds’ pantheons return in one fell swoop one day in 2012 and proclaim that they’re back in charge and henceforth, humanity will worship them once again. That’s all well and good, but what about people who still believe in Jehovah, the god of the Bible and the Koran? Worshippers of the Roman, Greek, Native American, what have you gods can actually see and touch their deities, so what does worshipping a god who hasn’t made himself visible do to their faith? I wanted to look at that idea from three big, different perspectives: a casual, non-observant believer, a deeply religious person, and an over-the-top fanatic whose response to the return of what he sees as the “false gods” is to set out on a mission to destroy them.
What can readers expect next from you?
Lots of new and different stuff, I hope! I’ll be continuing on Life With Archie, and I’m currently writing a middle grade novel starring Kevin Keller for Penguin/Grossett & Dunlap that’s scheduled for release next summer. I’ve also got a story in R. Allen Leider’s Hellfire Lounge 3: Jinn Rummy (www.mariettapublishing.com) and I’m working on one for Hellfire Lounge 4: Reflections of Evil (out in May 2012). We’re also hoping to publish more Redeus anthologies, and, of course, my mystery novel, The Same Old Story (set in the world of comic book and pulp publishing in the early 1950s) is available as an ebook on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com, as are two short story collections, In My Shorts: Hitler’s Bellhop and Other Stories and Two Tales of Atlantis. I’m also working on several creator owned comic book properties with some very talented artists that I hope to be able to bring out one of these days.
What does Paul Kupperberg do when he isn’t writing?
Usually think about what I need to be writing next.
