With so many superhero comics running for so long, did you ever run into problems with originality in writing the book?
Again, Steelheart is an action book. It deals less with the superhero tradition and more with the story of ordinary characters trying to take down Steelheart. Still, I am evoking some of those superhero concepts, so I did run into some of the issues you’re talking about.
For example, I found that a lot of potential names for superheroes and super villains have been used a dozen times by DC or Marvel over the years, so coming up with original names was difficult. Finding original uses of powers was also very difficult for the same reason. I had to scratch into nooks and crannies to discover things I hadn’t seen done extensively before.
I do enjoy the comic form, but—’outside of some of the indies—I find I don’t often get complete storylines in the way that I would like to. One of the things I want to do with Steelheart is to create a complete story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. I do hope that I’ve been able to clear some new paths and add something distinctive to the genre. At the end of the day, though, I was just trying to tell an awesome story.
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