Chip Kidd, author of “Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan” will be signing and discussing his work @ Chicago Comics, this Tuesday, Nov. 18th from 6-8 p.m.
3244 N. Clark Street
Chicago, Il 60657
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Jai Nitz is a Kansas-based comic book writer whose work for DC includes “Blue Beetle” and his current project, “El Diablo“. He recently discussed his work, his history in comics, and the blossoming Kansas comic scene with Nerd City’s own Max:
Jai, currently you’re writing”El Diablo” for DC, and you’ve also worked an all-Spanish issue of “Blue Beetle”. Why don’t you tell us a little about how you came to work for DC, and some of your training and earlier work?
I have always wanted to write comic books, but didn’t seriously try until I was 22 years old. I had just graduated from film school and wanted to write comics. I self-published a few books and got small work from Marvel and DC. I went to cons and befriended pros and editors (in the days before MySpace and Facebook, mind you). I had a few creator-owned books at Image. One of the people I met at cons was an assistant editor named Nachie Castro. He worked on Green Arrow with my mentors Phil Hester and Ande Parks. Nachie eventually took over as the full editor of Batman Strikes! at DC (it was the print version of the animated show, The Batman). I had kept in contact with him over the years and he gave me a shot at an issue of Batman Strikes! He liked what he saw and gave me another. And another. I did six issues in all. During my run, I visited the DC offices in New York and landed El Diablo. That led to Blue Beetle. It’s been a series of baby steps for a decade to get where I am. 
Could you please tell us a little bit about the character of “El Diablo” and the changes being made to the character by you and Phil Hester?
Our El Diablo starts off as a bad guy. He’s a bad guy given powers that make him do “good” things in the name of vengeance. That’s the drive of the story and the main difference from other incarnations. The other versions of El Diablo have been heroes. Ours comes from a very different place. Visually, he’s very different from the other versions. One looked like a Zorro/gaucho, the next looked like a masked bullfighter. Ours looks like a luchador from Hell.
Is “El Diablo” DC’s first Hispanic superhero? How does the character’s heritage affect the storylines and overall feel of the book?
Nah, he’s not the first. Currently, Blue Beetle is the biggest and best example. One person described our El Diablo as an American-Mexican-American which is very accurate. LOL. The ethnic background ties to me writing about what I know. The name, heritage, and look all draw from Hispanic influences. They’re all good touchstones for things that happen in the book. El Diablo is set in the Southwest and Mexico. Issue two is set in New Mexico. New Mexico is the “Land of Enchantment”. I take that literally. LOL.
You live in the Kansas City area. As do Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron and frequent Hester collaborator Ande Parks. Why do you think Kansas is currently producing such top talent?
It’s weird. I grew up (for the most part) in Kansas City. Growing up, there weren’t as many guys and gals around that were serious about making comics in KC. Every now and then someone would put out a book, but there weren’t any legit pros that were working in the business on a monthly basis. Now? There are comic writers and artists all over the place. There’s me, and Freddie Williams at DC. Fraction, and Aaron at Marvel. Clay Moore, Alex Grecian, and Harold Sipe at Image. Ande at Oni. Kerry Calen at Slave Labor. Nathan Fox and Chris Grine at Dark Horse. I know I’m leaving out several other guys and gals. It’s awesome.
I don’t know if KC is producing top talent, or if talent has settled here because of cheap living and cool amenities. Oddly, Fraction (North Carolina), Aaron (Alabama), and I (Georgia) all lived in the South before we moved to KC.
So what’s next for you?
Right now I’m concentrating on making El Diablo as good as it can possibly be. I’ve always got my eye on the horizon, but I want to knock that off and worry about the here-and-now. Of course I have several projects in the hopper, but few come to fruition. We’ll see how El Diablo is received, then I’ll worry about what’s next.
Yesterday, a rumored list was leaked claiming to be the final cast of MK vs DC. Well, this morning it was confirmed by Midway that that list was correct. So rounding out the cast of previously announced characters, we now have Shao Kahn, Darkseid, Baraka and Lex Luthor. With these four new fighters the final roster is as follows.
Baraka
Batman
Catwoman
Darkseid
Deathstroke
Flash
Green Lantern
Jax
Joker
Kano
Kitana
Lex Luthor
Liu Kang
Raiden
Scorpion
Shang Tsung
Shao Khan
Shazam
Sonya
Sub Zero
Superman
Wonderwoman
Recently announced at the Gamestop Summit in Las Vegas, Mark Hammill will be reprising his role as The Joker in the upcoming Batman video game. Arkham Asylum will be the newest Batman game based off the comic series as EA is releaseing a game based off of the movie (well maybe). Paul Dini provides the story for the game which has The Joker taking over Arkham and leading Batman, obviously, to stop him. What is interesting about this game is that it will not be the standard beat em up action game, but it will be very puzzle based as well suposedly having the same feel as Bioshock. There is no official release date yet but I’m thinking early 2009.
Image courtesy of Kotaku
Could be a very awesome comic/ pop culture con. Adam “…And how come Batman doesn’t dance anymore?” West will be there.
Screaming Tiki Comic and Pop Culture Convention
5555 Youngstown Warren Rd.
Niles, Ohio 44446
At the Leipzig games conference today, Ed Boon announced four more fighters for the upcoming MK vs DC game. It was announced that Wonder Woman and Deathstroke the Terminator (very awesome) have joined from the DC side, where Raiden and Kano have been announced for the MK side of things. With these four additions the cast has grown to 16 fighters which include the following:
DC: Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, Batman, Catwoman, Green Lantern, Shazam, Superman, The Flash and The Joker.
MK: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Kano, Liu-Kang, Sonya, Jax, Shang Tsung and Kitana
Sometimes, you just can’t tell if something is going to suck or not. I present to you Exhibit A:
At SDCC this weekend, Ed Boon revealed that Green Lantern and The Joker (along with Jax and Kitana) will be available fighters when Mortal Kombat vs DC comes out later this year. So far Midway has compiled a pretty stellar cast of characters from the DC side of things, I’m just waiting to hear if Noob Saibot or Sektor will be available to play. Below you will see a video of Scorpion performing a Fatality on Batman. Big ups to www.gamingbits.com for the original video.
The Batmania continues! This custom Batmobile-style Transformer was posted on the always awesome ToysREvil. It was apparently created by some dude named Jolin Jester JJZ.
The celebrity-studded Dark Knight Gala took place this Wednesday and Nerd City caught it all.
Behold!! Pictures of Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Chin Han, Christopher Nolan, and Awkward Joker Impersonator:
When nerd happens, Nerd City is there.
Nerd City - Episode 10: Play Now
The Tenth! Somehow, someway, Nerd City has made it to a very special episode 10. Listen as Ben and Max recount their Wizard World Chicago misadventures, including the McFarlane / Image panels, and the “Batman Gotham Knight” premiere. Featuring Big 5’s with Image founder Jim Valentino and professional wrestler Al Snow. This one is not to be missed.
Pics and links after the jump…
Nerd City will be covering the premiere of Batman Gotham Knight at Wizard World Chicago.