An extended version of the article from Tuesday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
Tulsa-born writer Sterling Gates, the new writer on DC Comics’
“Supergirl” comic-book series, knows exactly when he decided to be a
writer.
“At exactly 9:13 Central time, September 13, 1998,” he said.
“Seriously. I had just delivered a monologue that I’d written to a
group in my high school’s cafeteria. It was a monologue that detailed
the exact things I thought and felt when my father passed away, and
everything I wanted to tell him at his funeral.”
Gates closed his monologue by asking the crowd to call their fathers
and tell them how they felt, because you never know when it might be
your last chance.
“After the show, a girl came up to me and told me that because of what
I wrote, she was going to talk to her father that weekend for the
first time in seven years. She had been so moved by what I’d said,
she’d made that decision sitting in that cafeteria listening to me.
All because of something I wrote.”
That his writing was able to move another person so deeply made him
decide to commit to working as a writer and storyteller. A chance
meeting with writer Geoff Johns at a convention led to an interview to
work on “Blade: The Series.” He broke in as an assistant in the
writer’s room for “Blade: The Series,” which aired on Spike. He’s
since written for the comics “Green Lantern Corps” and two specials
featuring Green Lantern characters. “Supergirl” is his first ongoing
series, and it’s one for which Gates has an affinity.
“I was a big fan of the Carmine Infantino-Paul Kupperberg ‘Daring New
Adventures of Supergirl’ comics in the mid-80’s,” he said. “I loved,
loved, loved ‘Supergirl’ the movie when I was a kid, and I read that
comic book adaptation they did so many times the staples fell out. I’m
also a big fan of the Jeph Loeb-Michael Turner story in
‘Superman/Batman’ that introduced this version of (Supergirl) Kara
Zor-El.”
While Supergirl is part of Superman’s legacy, unlike the Man of Steel,
she’s not a finished product.
“Unlike Superman, she can make some pretty drastic mistakes. She does
things that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman don’t approve of, and
to me, that makes her more human,” he said. “But even if she screws
things up occasionally, she’s still a hero, she’s still doing more
good than you and I could do on a given day, and she’s someone we
should admire and respect.”
Gates moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of
becoming a writer, but his home state is never far from his mind. He
said moving to California was “culture shock.”
“That’s like asking about the difference between living on Earth or
living on the sun,” he said. “It’s a loud, bright, insane, amazing,
terrible, wonderful, intense, smoggy, happy city, Los Angeles. It
never stops moving, no one ever stops to really take it all in,
because they have to be somewhere fifteen minutes ago, and traffic has
made them late, and they don’t have time to stop and say how d’you do.
“Oklahoma is completely different, but different in a good way. I
never thought I’d miss Oklahoma until I moved away, and now I think
about moving back at least once a week. I think a lot of people move
away from Oklahoma, but their hearts never really leave.”