Geoff Johns gives advice, scoops at spotlight panel
Eddie Berganza and Geoff Johns
SAN DIEGO — Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns kept the crowd engrossed during his Spotlight panel at Comic-Con, with tales of his days interning for Superman director Richard Donner and advice to aspiring writers. Along the way, he dropped some hints and revelations about upcoming DC storylines. Editor Eddie Berganza was on-hand with Johns to help the discussion along.
Barry Allen, the Flash who returned from the dead to the DC Universe, will be around for a while, Johns said, and is co-starring with Wally West, another Flash, in the Blackest Night: Flash series by Johns and Scott Kolins.
Blackest Night, the zombie-superhero tale currently unfolding from DC Comics, is meant to be dark and scary, Johns told attendees who might be concerned about the content. It’s intended to push the boundaries.
“It’s about the dead rising; it’s supposed to be violent … it’s supposed to be horrific,” he said.
“Blackest Night” has Green Lantern Hal Jordan front and center in the DC Comics universe. When asked why he preferred Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern that Johns has returned to the spotlight, over 1990s Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Johns said he thought the Jordan character was more universal.
“It’s about the theme of overcoming fear,” Johns said. “We’re bombarded by things that are all about scaring us.” Green Lantern’s ability to overcome fear should resonate with everyone, he said.
Johns has no plans to leave Green Lantern anytime soon, he said, and said the villain Hector Hammond will return to prominence in the future of the title.
A large number of people at the panel thanked Johns for getting them into, or back into comics. Some wanted his advice on breaking in as a writer.
Johns recommended those looking to break into writing look for internships to hone their craft, and to check out the books The Writer’s Journey and Shot By Shot.
From his own days as an assistant, Johns told a story of wrecking Donner’s car, then calling Donner and saying, “I’m fired, right?” Johns survived the mishap, and later met with DC Comics execs while Donner worked on the film “Conspiracy Theory.”
Even after that, it took a couple of years for his project “Stars and STRIPE” to get going at DC, Johns said, advising persistence to those in the crowd.
- Matt Price
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[...] What stood out to me about the picture included at the top of this article is that it’s based on a photo I took. The Geoff Johns half, anyway. I don’t think it’ll win any photojournalism awards, but you can check out the original photo here. [...]