>Where this actually comes from is the old Swamp Thing epic, "American Gothic", and the notion of examining a character's mind-boggling true nature and origin story. I mentioned this to Alan Moore and he pointed out a couple of things about dogs and welding that I actually found very helpful.
>>Had you noticed -- and if so, what do you think about this? -- that the restaurant they use in the Supergirl TV show is Noonan's?
N>o, haven't seen it. Can't imagine it's anything like our Noonan's, though. Noonan's (and its owner) actually took its name from the Sean Penn crime flick State of Grace, which has to be the most criminally underrated gangster movie of all time.
>>Have you ever had pushback from DC on using the mainstream superheroes in these stories? There's at least one guy in this issue I haven't seen in a while.
>Not so far. Dan DiDio told me that DC need to be able to laugh at themselves, and I was more than happy to help out. If you look at the first Section Eight series, the superhero humor is more incongruous than anything else: Batman gets a parking ticket, Green Lantern's calling his lawyer, etc.
>I liked The Spectre's appearances in Swamp Thing, I always thought Alan used him well. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake picked up the ball and ran with it to good effect in their '90s series.
>>The first issue is pretty contained. Will this live up to the Hard Travelin' name and be a road trip story eventually?
>Oh yes, there's a road and some hardness, and traveling. The title was really too much to resist, especially when you consider the series we took it from.
>>Will we recognize who the trench coat wearing smoker is? I thnk a lot of people expected Constantine, but those don't look like his shoes.
>It's been a long time since I wrote Constantine, but I understand he's undergone a few changes now that he's back in the DCU. I think I've managed to incorporate those elements and still come up with a figure that long-time fans will recognize.
