Fifteen years ago, Greg Rucka bursted onto the comic book scene with his Eisner Award winning series, 'Whiteout.' Fast forward fifteen years later and Rucka is one of the most recognizable names in comics. He has worked for all of the major comic book labels, tackling some of the most popular superheroes including Superman, Wolverine, and Wonder Woman. Most readers will know Rucka from his work on the Eisner nominated series 'Gotham Central' which explored the lives and adventures of the Gotham City Police Department. Rucka recently has turned his attention to creator owned projects. He successfully funded a print version of his web comic, 'Lady Sabre,' on the popular crowd funding site Kickstarter. He is also working on his popular ongoing series 'Lazarus' through Image Comics. I spoke to Greg at the 2013 New York Comic Con about his experience with Kickstarter, his thoughts on the possibility of a 'Gotham Central' television series, and his upcoming Dark Horse limited series, 'Veil.' It has been 15 years since you first entered the comic book industry with 'Whiteout'. What has been the highlight of you career so far?
I honestly don't know how to answer that. Right now at this moment it's going to be 'Lazarus' because that's the thing that I am working on that's out. I am as delighted with the way that it's going, working with Michael as I have been on anything I have ever done. You are asking me to pick out my favorite child and I can't. There is work for DC that I did that I love. There is work for Oni Press that I did that I love. I wish I could say this, but I can't. You recently used Kickstarter to fund the print run of your web comic 'Lady Sabre'. You were incredibly successful with your funding. What advice would you give someone looking to crowd fund their own project?
You know it's funny. We had a lot of people ask after the success of our Kickstarter and when you have a successful Kickstarter one of the things that happens is you start getting messages from people who are doing Kickstarters say "how did you manage to do this?" The answer is I worked in comics for 15 years. There was an audience. Appealing to that audience and having proven to them that we weren't asking for money to make the thing, we were asking for money to fund the print. Once we had the print run you were getting a copy. My Kickstarter advice you need to offer something, you need to be honest with your backers and communicate with them. It is crowd sourcing; you need to communicate with the community. If you do not communicate your going to fail. Everything is going really well on it. The book should be shipping to our backers in mid-December so they should have them by the holidays. One of things we really tried hard to do is update the backers as we had more information to give them. They will know if there are delays. One of my favorite series that you were involved in was 'Gotham Central'. Now that Jim Gordan is getting his own series with 'Gotham', what do you think about the possibility of seeing a series based on 'Gotham Central?'
Do I think there is a TV show to be made in it? Absolutely. I would love to see those characters walking around and saying things that Ed (Brubacker) and I wrote on sets that are influenced by Michael Lark's designs. If it happens that's terrific. If it doesn't happen then it doesn't happen. You still have the incredible book.
It's also work for hire, so while I can claim a certain amount of authorship, I can't claim ownership. It would be naïve and I think arrogant to have a hissy fit and say that "this is me," when it's not. What could you tell us about your upcoming creator-owned Dark Horse series 'Veil'?
Not much. It's a horror themed work. It is far more a thematically built story then it is a plot built story. I am trying to examine certain things and I am trying to do them in a different way in comics then I think I have ever tried to do before. Fejzula has been wonderful thus far. Scott Allie has been a terrific editor. I am nervous as hell to see what people say when it comes out in March. Do you prefer working on creator-owned series or writing for a character that has already been established and has a built in audience?
When you own the thing you do whatever you want. The flip side is when you are doing work for hire I get to put words in Wolverine's mouth and he said them man! You know what you are getting into. You don't get to pretend that you don't. It is work for hire for a reason. There is a joy to be found playing with icons that are recognized globally. At the same time, I am at a place and in my career that I want to do my own thing. There may never be a Superman, Spider-Man, or Walking Dead, but you know what? They are the stories that I want to tell and my collaborators want to tell. It's nice to be able to do that without having somebody say that you can't do that.Lazarus #5 hits shelves November 27, 2013 and the first part of Greg Rucka's new series, 'Veil', will be on sale March 5, 2014.