J. M.’s very latest breath of fresh air awaits in Augusta Wind: The Last Story, drawn by Vassilis Gogtzilas.

#2’s on the way! Imagine a threat to every story ever told! What can destroy Story itself?

See below for some cool convo about a synchronicity that heralded a new fantasy heroine!

OG: I recall Steve Gerber blew letter-writer you away, as recounted in the LC of Defenders, by Marvel Comics Group. Your letter appeared during the Guardians of the Galaxy / Badoon Invasion stories (Defenders #27).

Did you come back to Baby Face’s work at any point before or during your three year tenure?

JM: I was a huge fan of just about everything Gerber did in the 70’s: Defenders, Howard the Duck, Man-Thing (which was probably my favorite), etc. He was a writer who looked around, saw all the structures that had been built in comics’ history and started kicking them all over. An incredible writer and creative force.

OG: Were you reading when your future collaborator (Keith Giffen) drew the series?

JM: I absolutely was!

OG: Fourteen year-old John Marc, writing letters to Amazing Spider-Man, couldn’t know he would write an as-yet-non-existent Marvel Team-Up, starring Spider-Man, much less that he’d write a signature arc in “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” (J.M.’s 1st letter: in ASM #73)

JM: If I could go back in time and talk to my younger self, tell him that one day he’d be writing Spidey…well, I

think the kid would just faint.

OG: When you wrote your second Spider-Man story in Marvel Team Up #111, Spider-Man and Devil Slayer, you played with the unfamiliarity of the Devil Slayer character to create a twist that hinted at your ambition to do something memorably different, right out the gate!

JM: All I really remember about my early Team-Up stories (all of which were wonderfully drawn by Herb Trimpe) was that it took me a while to find what I wanted to do with the book and, just as important, how to do it. That series was really about emphasizing character and emotion, so that the stories weren’t just about a couple of super-heroes beating up a couple of villains. I really figured it all out around the time Kerry Gammill took over the book. Another wonderful collaborator.

Mr. Miracle, Barda, Beetle and Booster, drawn by Joe Phillips in Mr. Miracle #5, first DC assignment by my IDW

partner on Hero Duty.

OG: Your philosophical and humorous run of Marvel Team-UP delighted me. The melodrama of Dr. Faustus was a masterpiece to me when I caught up with it through my friend David’s copy in 1985.

I just realized, it revisits the trick of a team up star not being who we expect!

JM: Having the star of the book not actually appear in the story was a fun little twist. But the real fun was dissecting Faustus’ psyche.

OG: Could you share a little of what characters you chose to team-up in your issues? Maybe a little of your pitches and dialogue with the editor of the time? You made good use of Defenders, your first year on Team Up.

JM: Tom DeFalco was the editor on Team-Up. Tom was a wonderful editor, a great guy, and remains one of my best friends in the business to this day. He gave me a lot of room to play on the book, to make it my own, but was always there to backstop me if I went off the rails.

As for what characters I chose, I sometimes went for the Big Names, but really enjoyed using characters that were a step down, characters like Devil Slayer or Daimon Hellstrom , Dominic Fortune or Man-Thing, that would allow me to do deeper work without stepping on another writer’s toes.

OG: So, with issue four on the way, would you care to talk to me about Scooby Doo Apolcalypse?

JM and Keith Giffen

JM: It’s funny. I never knew much about Scooby-Doo beyond the general concept. It wasn’t a show I grew up with or paid much attention to. In the past year and a half I’ve written five episodes of the Be Cool, Scooby-Doo animated show and then, completely unrelated, Giffen and I were asked to be the launchpoint for the new DC/Hanna-Barbera universe. Suddenly, I’m up to my neck in Scooby-Doo!

The book is an attempt to do serious horror, but with a grounding in character and humor (one of our touchstones is the movie Zombieland). We’re trying to stay true to the essence of these classic characters yet take them off into uncharted territory. So far, we’ve been having great fun and the book has been getting a great response.



OG bets you can relate to this: Hexer Dusk began as one of Jan Duursema’s literal dreams, of two cities in the sky waging a tragic war of mutual demise!!

See https://www.outrightgeekery.com/2016/06/08/kickstarter-hexer-dusk-interview-jan-duursema-guest-writer-cecil-disharoon/ -ya True OG

JM: Seekers Into The Mystery—which is getting a collected edition in January from Dover Books—began in a similar way. First I had an instantaneous vision of the story structure…the whole thing laid out in my head in seconds…and then I had a dream that filled in some of the details. That’s the way writing should always work: Open the door to the unconscious and let it lead the way. It’s pure magic when that happens.

OG: Can you tell me a story of how a creator-owned project of yours came, in any part, literally from your dreams? Was Augusta Wind created from any of your remembered dreams?

JM: Augusta came less from a dream than from a vision. I had an image in my mind of a girl, in Victorian dress, holding an umbrella and standing in front of the ruins of a castle. Not long afterward, my friend Vassilis Gogtzilas sent me a new sketchbook he’d done. In it was a picture of (you guessed it) a girl, in Victorian dress, holding an umbrella and standing in front of the ruins of a castle! So the story came from a shared vision, which is really unusual. I immediately emailed Vass and asked him to draw the series.

We’re currently working on the second Augusta seres, The Adventures of Augusta Wind, Book Two: The Last Story. I think it’s even better than the first. Very proud of this book.

OG: You wrote my wife’s favorite ever Spider-Man story in Peter Parker #248.

JM: If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I plotted that issue and Mark Bernardo scripted it.

OG: My bad on the MJ jim-jam, JM! It’s #245. But the Chameleon doesn’t fool Mary Jane. Tense scene where she sticks up for herself ends up so awesome!

JM: Yep, I was the definitely the one who wrote the story about MJ beating the hell out of the Chameleon!

OG: As for our pal, Johann: he wants to know if you will ever have Booster Gold travel back in time to find Ted and the JLI, but be forced to team up with Justice League Antarctica?

JM: Wouldn’t that be fun? Both Keith and I consider the JL Antarctica story one of our favorite JLI tales.

OG: Joe Braband thanks you for your Defenders run, which he bought monthly in real time!

He asks what you think of Gargoyle as you originated, compared to his changes later-did these fit your vision of Isaac Christian?

JM: If there were changes initiated by other writers, then I don’t know anything about them. I only know my own Gargoyle stories. The Gargoyle mini-series that I did with Mark Badger remains one of my favorite stories done for mainstream Marvel. It was less a superhero story than a dark fantasy and it really dove deep into Isaac’s character. I’d love to see it collected.

OG: Joe also asks your inspiration to create the plot line featuring the Six Fingered Hand.

JM: When I started at DC, I did a lot of work on the so-called “mystery” books (House of Mystery, Weird War Tales, House of Secrets), so I was immersed in horror and the supernatural and brought that over to Marvel with me. I realize, looking back, that my work on Defenders—fusing superheroics with the supernatural—was a great warm-up for my more recent work on Justice League Dark.

As for the Six-Fingered Hand: I just thought it was a cool name and a cool image.

and to close part one:



OG: Any unresolved Defenders plotlines?

JM: Nope! When I was done, I was done!

OG: You can read JM’s personal musings and keep up with his career at his blog spot.

http://www.jmdematteis.com/

I have found a LOT of things JM did while I was busy not with comics, and reminded of many milestones such as I, Vampire, which I’ve not yet read. But The Life And Times Of Savior 28? An awesome find, a complete arc that says some things new in superhero comics of the times. Can’t wait to read Mercy: Shake The World– maybe next week! That book was one of the three founding comics of the Vertigo line.

But I DID go back to Justice League issues #13, 14, the Suicide Squad crossover I’d missed, then #1-7 for old times’ sake, to lighten my heart on the hardest day at my brand new writing gig. Such refreshing laughs, nearly 30 years later. This fast and furious dialogue, from the Kraven’s Last Hunt guy, the Joker’s Going Sane story in issues of Legends of the Dark Knight- such a versatile career, and for now I’m happy to have heard back from him!

See you at Dragon Con!

C Lue