Geekscape Interviews: Mark Waid Talks ‘Shadow Walk’, Character Creation, And More!
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” –Psalm 23:4
What if the well-known and memorized Biblical verse was more than just a metaphorical phrase and was an actual place? Interestingly enough, how would mankind respond? Would we seek to destroy it? Hide it from pubic knowledge? Would someone seek to control it? Legendary Comics seeks to answer those questions with Shadow Walk.
A comic dream team consisting of writer Max Brooks (The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z), artist Shane Davis (Superman: Earth One), and Mark Waid (The Flash, Daredevil, The Rocketeer, Kingdom Come) have come together to tell the story of a U.S. Spec-Ops team led by John Raines, a soldier accused of killing his entire platoon years earlier, who are sent to extract a strange energy source from Iraq before it falls into the wrong hands. It turns out that the energy source is far more than what the team bargained for, and now find themselves in a fight against demonic forces, as it seems the doors to Hell have burst wide open.
I have to admit that unlike most interviews I’ve conducted in the past, this particular one was quite special for I conducted the interview in my classroom filled with sophmore students. When they learned I was interviewing Mark Waid, some of my comic-savvy students begged to listen in. I knew that the 15 year-old version of myself would have done the same if my teacher was going to talk to an award-winning writer, so I allowed them to stick around for the phone interview.
During the interview, I informed Mr. Waid that my students were sitting in and had a few questions for him regarding his writing career and what drove him to a career in comics.
“The funny thing is that I wanted to be an editor, not a writer! After editing for a while, I saw what some of the guys were doing and I just kinda fell into writing; I just found out I had a knack for it.”
I then informed Mr. Waid of a small exchange between two of my students.
“What did he write?”
“He wrote The Flash and is doing Daredevil.”
“The Flash? Oh, is he the guy who runs really fast?”
Mark said it was his job, as a writer, to help the reader identify with the hero. “Not everyone can run as fast as The Flash, so the challenge is to place him in situations readers can identify with. Not everyone can run at the speed of sound, but everyone knows what it’s like to wait in a long line at the supermarket or at a theme park. Imagine how torturous it must be for the fastest man alive to suffer at a long line at the grocery store or at the DMV.”
My students have been studying character development and one of my pupils wanted to ask Mr. Waid his thoughts on what makes a strong character which makes the reader:
“One of the worst pieces of advice I’ve ever heard regarding character development is that the writer had to simply create a sympathetic character. An effective character is one that makes you care about what they’re after and if they ever get it.”
As Mr. Waid said these words, I saw students furiously writing down everything they heard. It’s not everyday one gets writing advice from one of the industry’s best, and there’s no doubt readers will be heavily invested in the story Mark Waid, Max Brooks, and Shane Davis have have in store for all of us.
Shadow Walk will be available November 27.
Grab your copy here.
