Interview: Cloonan, Fletcher, and Kerschl Break Open GOTHAM ACADEMY

Well, we already gave you 10 reasons you must read Gotham Academy, but how about 3 more?

Writer Brenden Fletcher, writer/artist Becky Cloonan, and artist Karl Kerschl sat down for an very generous, extended chat with us to talk all about how they opened the doors to Gotham Academy — from the first conception of the series to where all the characters are headed. Buckle in and prepare to hear all about how Olive, Maps, Kyle, Eric, Pomeline, and the rest of the gang came to be in our Gotham Academy interview-supreme!

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Matt Santori: You’ve really filled this world of Gotham Academy with all these new creations — cast, environment, architecture all made out of whole cloth. What was your process starting out in creating all this from scratch?

Brenden Fletcher: Well, it really all came from [editor] Mark Doyle’s call to Becky, a year ago now.

Becky Cloonan: Yeah, one year ago. Let me take you back… to Montreal. Mark Doyle called and basically just asked me to pitch anything. It could have been an ongoing, a mini-series, a one-shot.

Well, I thought, it’s got to be an ongoing. So, Gotham Academy just sort of happened in that phone conversation. Karl was sitting maybe four feet across from me. And Brenden was there too. From the get-go, it just all fell into place very easily. Being in the same spot actually helped a lot in the creation, and back and forth. The three of us got together and had story meetings and jammed on stuff.

OliveBF: Some of the fun stuff to know is, that when it came up that Ms. Cloonan had the option of a Batman book — and what would that be? — Becky’s first inclination was, “Well, I’m otherwise committed, so Karl will draw this book.”

And Karl’s inclination is “OMG. Let’s do a full-on, straight-up-the-middle Batman book, because that’s what I’ve always wanted to do.” And Becky’s like, “Um, no. It’s going to be a book about kids.” [laughs]

So, at that point, the discussion became about the kids and a school, but where do we go from there? What’s going to sell this to Bob [Harras], Dan [DiDio], and Jim [Lee]? What’s going to make them see that this needs to be in their roster of Batman titles? It can’t just be any book in Gotham. It’s got to be somehow connected to the mythos.

The first thing that Becky and I really talked about was Olive, and what we wanted to do with our protagonist. One of the other things that we don’t want to reveal yet is the real crux of the thing — which I think was one of the main selling points for us. It’s the way Olive is attached to the Academy, and how the Academy is connected to the larger Batman mythos and Gotham City as a whole. That really provided the core of our pitch.

That connectivity, plus Olive’s character, became what we pushed hard. I think everyone saw the potential in that. It’s something that we’re still super excited about and we’re only scratching the surface of. You’re going to see a lot of it come to fruition by issue #6. You’re going to get a lot of the answers you want. But there’s so much more. And we’re so excited to get into it — so excited for everybody to read it!

gotham-academy-olive-625x949BC: Yeah, a lot of this hinges on Olive’s connection with Batman and Batman’s connection with the school. Everything is steeped in Batman lore and Gotham lore.

MSG: How did you come across Olive’s unique look to start?

Karl Kerschl: Well, we were all involved in it. I think Becky did the initial sketch after we talked about it. I don’t remember why, but initially — since we were dealing with boarding school, Olive had a more traditional dress or some kind of uniform that was a little closer to a robe.

BF: She had dark hair. She definitely had glasses.

KK: And she had a mole, which where I took that from. For some reason I saw her with darker complexion and white hair, because, if we were going to be focusing on her all the time, I wanted to give her a look that was kind of mysterious. And I don’t think her last name Silverlock was even locked in at that time.

BC: Yeah. It was just “Olive.”

KK: Right. Brenden, did her last name come from her hair colour?

BF: Absolutely not. There was a list of names before you had locked down the design. One of the reasons I wanted to go with it, I hate to say, was the alliterative nature of it with her mother’s name, the Batman villain Calamity, Sybil Silverlock.

kyleBC: The design of it was all in Karl’s hands, but the fun about it was that — when you’re making characters up from scratch — you’re kind of just throwing things at the wall and seeing what you like and don’t like. Olive was a little tricky to nail, I think, but you got Maps right away. And you got Kyle right away.

KK: Well, I dunno. I only ever did the one drawing of Olive. Maps and Kyle were first-pass designs, for sure, but they’re all based on a lot of research. I looked at A LOT of photos of people: different face shapes and sizes, different kinds of hair, before settling on Olive.

Maps came up pretty quickly though. Maps is based in part on my wife. Kyle came together pretty quickly. The all-American tennis star. There was a lot more back and forth on Colton, Heathcliff, and Eric, though. They all changed quite a bit over the span of a few months while we were doing design work.

BF: Pomeline was struck first, I think. I ended up finding you a lot of reference on Pomeline, and it wasn’t until we hit upon a few certain photographs that she started to come together.

KK: I should put together a post with all the reference, because the photograph that you found that inspired Pomeline is dead on, right down to her huge eyebrows.

PomelineMSG: So, if you can, talk a little about Pomeline and her role in the book opposite Olive.

BF: She’s an important character. And — this is true across the board with all the characters — she’s far more complex than we’ve had time and space to really show at this point. With issue #4, we’re only 80 pages in, and so much of that is plot. We’re trying to weave in complex character moments as much as possible.

Pomeline, in the first issue, was understandably looked at as this kind of “mean girl.” She’s anything but. There’s information in there if you read deeply enough. Yes, she’s privileged, and she’s chosen a unique path for herself. But she also holds a personal grudge against Olive because of her boyfriend Heathcliff and his personal relationship with Olive. As you can see with issue #4, they are a bit close and you can understand how maybe a girl like Pomeline can feel uncomfortable with his friendly relationship with another girl.

But there’s more to it than that. Pomeline has things going on with her that are related to the plot. There are things that she wants, things that she’s looking for. Why would she try to communicate with the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot? Why is that important? How does that tie to Olive’s story?

BC: That’s a good question!

MSG: And to finish off the triangle here, Maps is sort of like Olive’s Robin, so to speak. How did you come to her place in the book?

MapsBC: She was there from the very beginning. Maps is the perfect foil for Olive. Without Maps, Olive is very internal. She tends to brood and Maps is there to pull her out of her shell — to make her take action!

On the other side, Olive is good for Maps as well. Maps is this incredibly exuberant character and Olive sort of grounds her.

KK: I think the idea of Olive and Maps as Batman and Robin is an apt comparison, but I always think of it as Holmes and Watson — in that Holmes is completely dysfunctional and would lock himself in his room and brood all day if not for his relationship with his friend. I tend to think of these two that way.

MSG: Well, you have this triumvirate of female students at the center of the book, but you also have these male students sort of circling around them. Eric, in particular, has stood out as this mysterious character in the first four issues. What is his place among the other students?

BF: Oh, Eric!

BC: I like this guy. He changed a lot, actually. He’s kind of fulfilling the same role we imagined in the beginning, but in a completely different way. His role has actually decreased a lot from our original outline.

BF: The reasons why we have Eric in there are probably ones we shouldn’t speak to, because they involve plans for the future. But, his character and the way he’s written now is strongly influenced by the way that Karl has twisted him to his own purposes. [laughs] Now we’re kind of using him slightly differently than we intended. But he will be a super fun character and will be in a lot of issues in the future.

BC: Yeah, it’s just so hard. We need more pages per issue! We get all this information out, but there’s just so much more I wish we could do. You know, we have years of material between the three of us.

GA03BF: When looking at what Karl is doing with Eric, I just can’t help but think this is his way of continuing his take on Aqualad in his Teen Titans: Year One book.

KK: He does have the same sort of awkward perspiring and screaming! [laughs]

MSG: Interesting that you feel there’s not enough space to get everything in, because one of the things about the book that makes it so unique is this proliferation of new cast and setting that is so well developed that it seems familiar. Like, I’m expecting to go to Wikipedia and find 50 years of information on Professor MacPherson.

BC: She’s great! She and Hammer are pretty much the only original characters we have as teachers, actually.

BF: Yeah, we’re definitely trying to pull in characters from the larger Batman universe to be supporting characters in the book. And of course, because they’re all adults, they’re going to end up in roles like teachers, or maybe parents someday, or groundskeeper — something like that.

We knew that we needed a character who played a role as a strong support to Olive, almost like a surrogate mother. Some sort of caring mother figure or big sister. Someone Olive could turn to and trust.

BC: Someone in a position of authority, not just another student. Someone she could actually turn to and trust.

BF: And that could have been Aunt Harriet, but c’mon…

MSG: As we begin to wrap up, tell me this: what’s you pitch to someone who hasn’t tried the book yet, or maybe isn’t into Batman comics? What do you want to tell them?

coltonBF: You don’t need to have read years of other comics, Batman or any other comics, to get this book — to understand what this book is doing and become invested in its characters. Just come in fresh with issue #1, dive straight in, and enjoy it for what it is! Feel like you belong at Gotham Academy alongside Olive and Maps and Kyle.

That’s one of the things we’re really trying to do with it is make it a really welcoming book for new readers, while at the same time, giving a nod to so much of the Batman mythos (76 years of stories). We’re slotting it into the overall Batman continuity, making sure it feels like it’s part of that universe right now — but not depending on it for our plot points.

I hope that it’s an easy book to get into. I think it is.

KK: I think it is. One of its real strengths is that it’s truly all-ages, without talking down or writing down to anyone. Kids can read it. Adults can read it. It’s written to our sensibilities. It just happens to be something appropriate for kids.

BC: And it’s created by three huge Batman fans. There’s a lot of Batman stuff in there, and a lot of heart. Lots of references to Batman Beyond and the old ’66 show. I think you can feel our excitement for the material.

If you haven’t tried Gotham Academy from DC Comics yet, don’t wait another minute. Issues #1-4 should still be available at your local comic shop and online at Comixology. It’s the book we’ve all been waiting for. The time to jump on is now!

 

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