GOTHAM ACADEMY takes a step away from what fans traditionally think a DC comic book is. It's the story of Olive and her life at the Gotham Academy. The book mixes mystery, adventure, and has a light-hearted feel to it, which readers have embraced. Writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher and artist Karl Kerschl chatted with us over the phone about this series.
COMIC VINE: GOTHAM ACADEMY is about adventure, growing up, and mystery, how did the book all come together?
BRENDEN FLETCHER: This is the Mark Doyle reaching out to Becky Cloonan story and then Becky grabbing Karl and I by the scruffs of our neck and dragging us along and giving us no choice but to work with her.
BECKY CLOONAN: That is actually very true.
BF: It's less "grabbing by the scruffs of our necks" and more like just pointing at us and saying, "You! You! Come do this with me" and if Karl and I started to object and ask questions, Becky put her finger to her mouth and just went "SHH!"
KARL KERSCHL: There was no objection. I remember I was coincidentally talking about wanting to draw Batman, maybe a couple days before.
BC: I was a few days.
KK: I was working on something else. Becky was sitting with me in the studio and Mark called and after that conversation, she looked up and we locked eyes. Then it all happened.
BC: Karl is going to draw this, of course! [laughs] It was like the master plan came together. Just one phone call in January of 2013.
BF: We were just marveling about it last night about that day Mark called Becky in the studio and Becky put the team together... put the band together.
CV: The series is a big step away from what DC comics traditionally puts out. This reads a little bit more like a Vertigo book more than anything else. What were the challenges or concerns in the first couple of months from either you or DC?
KK: No concerns from DC. They're so supportive. It's amazing.
BC: I'm actually marveled with what we get away with in this book.
BF: SHH! Don't draw attention to it. I don't think there's any concerns, really. I guess, of the top, it was just trying to put together our ultimate collection of elements, all these things we all wanted to do, and then presenting them to Mark, to DC and crossing our fingers and hoping that everybody understood what we wanted to do. We were prepared for the sort of battles that you hear about in comic book production lore. We faced none of that. It was incredible and everyone understood our vision from the top and the elements we wanted to incorporate and how we wanted to tell the story. Everyone was 100% supportive from the top. We like to tell the story that the only push-back we got was for the request of a single character because that character was on Earth-Two at the time. Because our story takes place in continuity, that would be problematic. I can't imagine a more supportive situation. It's almost like we're doing a Vertigo book or a creator-owned book. I guess that makes sense since our editor, Mark Doyle, came from Vertigo, so I think he did this the way he used to edit books at Vertigo. It's really incredible. We're very lucky.
CV: Critically, this book has been a success. More importantly, what's the response from the readers been for all of you?
KK: Across the board, the response has been amazing. We're getting all this enthusiastic feedback, on social media and at conventions, and even after the first and second issue. We've gotten such an amazing response.
BC: I really like that we're getting a lot of younger readers. The other day we had this young girl doing a YouTube video. She was like...
BF: She was like 9, maybe?
BC: Knowing that this could be someone's first comic means so much because I remember my first comic and what impact it had on me. There is an impact on a whole new generation of comic book readers and we're very conscious of that. A person who's never read a DC book in their life could easily pick this up, but there's so many Easter Eggs and little fun things because we're such fans of Batman anyway. There's a lot of stuff in here for people that are veteran readers.
BF: And the book is taking place in continuity, which is this incredible balance that we're trying to achieve by having a book that doesn't rely on continuity, so relying on the readers to buy the entire line of books, which may not be appropriate for their age, but it exists within it, so we make sure that our book slots into the time line in a correct way. "What's going on with Bruce Wayne? What's going on with his home? Wayne Manor is now Arkham Manor." All of that stuff is happening in the background of our book, but you don't need to be completely aware to understand what our story is and what's going on with all of the maps and the academy. But if you do, it's that extra layer of fun and understanding. At least we hope. That's the intention.
CV: In issue #4, there are a ton of different versions of Killer Croc that you could have been inspired by for the design of the character here. Why did you go with the first version of Croc from Batman: The Animated Series?
KK: Well, the animated series was the artistic style of this book, pretty much from the get-go. Bruce Wayne, as he appears in issue one, is absolutely influenced by the animated series. Honestly, that's our go-to for Batman reference, almost every time. When it came to drawing Croc, we talked about it, among ourselves, and I think it was all our first instinct to riff on the animated series version, but in order to keep it in continuity, he had to be bulkier and bigger. I don't think at the time there was a really clear idea of just what Croc really looked like, in current continuity. I think he may be a bit greener in other books. We may have to sweep the color palate a bit. The other reason for doing it was that first animated series version was the most human looking Croc design and we really wanted to make the character sympathetic and not just have him look like a raging beast.
BF: The simple answer to that question is Kevin Nowlan. [laughs]
KK: I know that Nowlan worked on it, but didn't Glen Murakami work on Batman The Animated Series?
BF: Glen Murakami came on afterwards. I think that was the New Adventures stuff. He may have been responsible for the redesign. But certainly the initial Killer Croc design was the Kevin Nowlan design.
CV: Croc has a picture of Olive's mother, Calamity, who is currently at Arkham Manor. Are we going to be seeing a crossover between these two books?
BF: No. You've seen the crossover. That's how it goes. If you read today's [January 27th issue] ARKHAM MANOR, the question to your answer lies in there.
CV: Why does Maps like saying "crap" all the time?
BF: [laughs] I don't think that's something we necessarily thought through. I remember scripting that first issue.
BC: Yeah, I think you wrote "oh my crap!"
BF: Yeah. "Oh my crap" was me writing something else because I write "OMFG" all the time and then thinking "I don't want to go there with her but what can she say?" I was just kind of slotting in other words.
KK: We're always making each other laugh.
BF: It's true.
CV: Olive is a really bad ass character, which we get a bit more of in issue #4 when she sees the "ghost," where does this fearlessness come from and what inspires you to write this character?
BC: I think she was the first part of the puzzle. She was there from the very beginning and a lot of the other characters came in later. The thing is the people that Olive needed were the people that we created for new characters. Maps came in a clear second and Kyle right after that. She [Olive] has this new relationship right from the beginning and Maps is definitely the Robin to Olive's Batman.
BF: I thing it's safe to say that across the board we've always scratched the surface of what lies within these character. When we say that about Olive, it's not just sort of a character complexity sort of thing. It's actually plot operated as well and we're sort of kneading it out slowly and part of her character development will come through the twists and turns of the plot. We're really excited to get where we want to go her but we also need to take a little time so her growth feels organic. It's gonna be so fun and we promise a crazy ride for anyone willing to stick with us.
CV: Will this book get a bit more supernatural or will it stay relatively grounded?
KK: It gets supernatural already in issue #5.
BF: We're always going to keep these kids grounded.
KK: It's a Batman book, so it's as supernatural as Batman ever gets, in that there are mysteries and weird scientific horrors and things that can't be explained but always grounded in the idea that it's a detective story, a mystery, and it can be answered in some way.
CV: Karl, I've been paying attention to your page layouts in the series. You keep each page very unique and distinct. Do you find the layouts to be just as important as the art itself?
KK: It's all part of the art and considered the same thing. It's funny you mention that because I took a lot of time composing the pages and I think I've been pushing it a little farther in this book than I have in previous books to the point where I kind of feel like it's a personal failure to me when I layout a page that looks like a standard grid, even though I really like standard grid pages. Sometimes, I think there are parts of this story that require interesting angles to sell the mood a bit, in the same way that the old 60s tv show would tilt the camera a lot. Because we're dealing with kids in school, I want to push the feeling of the abnormal, the unusual, and the creepy by tilting the camera here and there and by doing strange panel layouts and by pushing the feeling of depth by using very extreme angles wherever I can.
CV: You definitely hit on that. Looking towards the future, will we be seeing any familiar faces in this series, maybe Bruce Wayne returning?
BF: You'll absolutely see some familiar faces in the series in the future. [pause] You'll just have to guess who they are. [laughs] I can't do it. It's not gonna happen! What we can say for 100% certain is that you're going to see a really fun issue in March that ties in to Endgame. It's our GOTHAM ACADEMY Endgame issue. We've got some incredible art coming in that book. Of course, that ties into Scott's [Snyder] story with the Joker. That's a thing!
BC: That is a thing! Good thinking! Beyond that? Who knows? Anything is possible.
A big thanks to Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl for answering our questions and make sure to check out GOTHAM ACADEMY! Issue #4 is currently available at your local comic shop and as a digital download!