KEEPING THE HISTORY: DAN JURGENS ON THE HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE

[MattBrady]

by D. Carleton Hartman

Dan Jurgens knows a little bit about major events in comic book history; after all he’s the creator that helped chronicle the death and resurrection of a certain “Man of Steel” back in 1992 and ‘93.

Fast forward to 2006, and the Minnesota native is hard at work on yet another defining moment for Superman’s publisher, DC Comics. This time he’s not just helping to define just one moment in time for the publisher. This time Jurgens is tackling the history of the entire universe. DC’s rich (and often times, confusing) history will be re-focused following the earth(s)-shattering events of the seven issue Infinite Crisis series.

This project returns Jurgens to his proverbial roots. After all DC is where he first came to prominence back in the 1980s. Known first for his pencil work on the Sun Devils miniseries, Jurgens then created a first for comics, a superhero who marketed himself for the masses. That creation was Booster Gold, which Jurgens both drew and wrote for a few years in the late ‘80s until the title’s early demise. That title opened the door for Jurgens who then became known for his powerful pencils and prose, which were both showcased in the aforementioned “Death of Superman” story, as well as in 1994’s Zero Hour, event, which he scripted and supplied the art for.

After “jumpstarting” DC’s time-stream in Zero Hour, Jurgens spent the rest of the 90s, working for a variety of publishers. While at Acclaim, Marvel and Top Cow, he lent his talents to such titles as: Solar: Man of the Atom, Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man, Thor and Tomb Raider.

Now coming full circle back to DC, Jurgens is writing and drawing a backup feature for DC’s ground breaking weekly 52 title. Starting with the second issue, “History of the DC Universe” will be presented in weekly 4 page installments for 10 weeks.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with the busy creator who took time to speak with us from his studio in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul recently.

Newsarama: All right Dan, we’ll start out slow here. As a creator is it more difficult deadline-wise for you to be working on a weekly feature like ‘History of the DC Universe?’

Dan Jurgens: It is, because I’m also drawing Battle for Bludhaven, which is written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and that’s a book that’s going to ship twice a month, spinning out of Infinite Crisis. So for right now the workload is pretty well packed.

NRAMA: You’re penciling right? Who is your inker on ‘History of the DC Universe,’ and is it the same one for each chapter?

DJ: Right now it’s looking like it will be Art Thibert who inked me on Adventures of Superman, and the Superman/Fantastic Four crossover I did a few years ago.

NRAMA: Are you writing ‘History of the DC Universe,’ or are you co-plotting it with another creator?

DJ: No, I am writing and scripting it. So I’m writing it, let’s put it that way.

NRAMA: Which do you enjoy doing more, the art, or writing?

DJ: You know for me, when I write and draw a book, I don’t see it as two separate jobs. To me it’s much more one cohesive process, so it’s hard to separate that way. I enjoy writing for other people; I enjoy writing what other people write; and I enjoy writing and drawing my own stuff. I enjoy all aspects of it, but at the same time I don’t necessarily see it as two completely different jobs. It’s just more cohesive than that.

NRAMA: Would you say this is one of the more labor intensive gigs you’ve ever done?

DJ: It can get up there just because of the time element, but I think that most labor intensive job I ever did was Zero Hour. It was a real challenge writing and drawing that because it came out weekly. On top of that I was involved in helping coordinate all the different events that happened in conjunction with that. So that was the most labor intensive thing I’ve ever done.

NRAMA: Now as far as the project itself goes, will be a straight time-line approach like the original two volume ‘History of the DC Universe’ that [Marv] Wolfman and [George] Perez did right after Crisis on Infinite Earths? Will it be more character driven than that project, and if so, which character, or characters will be featured?

DJ: If you look at that original history of the DCU, that was not a comic book per-say, it wasn’t presented as, ‘here are the panels and here are the word balloons.’ It was a wonderful project that was very much driven by text, with visual annotations, and was wonderfully comprehensive. If you look at the word count and the page count they had, we can’t even begin to touch on that.

What we’re going to do is try to give everyone a feel for what the DC Universe was, the changes that its gone through and maybe hint at where a couple of things are going as see through the eyes of Donna Troy. She’s a character who is out there now that has connections to so many realities if you will, that have occurred throughout the DCU. It’s through her eyes that we can show everybody this is the DCU before the crisis ever occurred. This is kind of happened in and around the Crisis and this how Zero Hour affected it. Because so many readers are new to the whole thing, we can kind of take them [and older readers at the same time] through what it the DC universe was, and hopefully will be in the context of these 10 stories.

NRAMA: Without giving too much away, will "History of the DC Universe" touch on a couple of the most confusing characters and concepts in the DC Universe: Hawkman and the future of the Legion of Superheroes? Also when will the story start? Will it start way back at the ‘dawn of time’ with the ‘big bang?’

DJ: Yes. I think that seeing these characters in the context of the times-- for example, pre-crisis, allows us to erase a bit of the confusion. In regards to the second part of your question, without giving too much away, it would be reasonable to get that in?

NRAMA: How will you divide up the different parts of the story, will you divide it up into different ages; the ‘Golden,’ ‘Silver’ and ‘Modern’ ages for example?

DJ: I don’t believe a person could do it quite that way. Because those are for lack of a better word, market terms, or retail terms for how we separate different periods of comic book publishing. What we will say as I said, we have to touch on what it was before ‘Crisis,’ which will include golden and other age, concepts and characters. So, without using the same terminology, we’ll reflect what happened during those times.

NRAMA: Speaking of time-traveling characters, as the creator of Booster Gold, will he be featured? There was a part when he and Skeets come back to the present (from the 25th century) and act like they know what is going to happen in the crisis. Will this be reflected in one of the chapters of ‘History of the DC Universe?’

DJ: I think that the best way to phrase this one is, to look at ‘Infinite Crisis’ as the ‘main event,’ and some of the main characters are going to be dealt with in this project. How’s that?

And as far as Booster himself goes, people who know me, know I wouldn’t pass up a chance to put him in here, and that when I do, there’s a reason to do it too.

NRAMA: Also as Booster's creator, do you feel that they are returning him to his roots as the world's first ‘corporate superhero?’ The cover to one of the
issues of 52 shows him with all sorts of company logos on this uniform, much
like Greg Kinnear's character Captain Amazing in Mystery Men...

DJ: Yeah. See, Booster was never a hero for hire. He was, however, the first guy to capitalize on the Regan/capitalistic/greed era of, "Gimme mine." Booster still likes to do the right thing, but he's all about the money, attention and fame that go with it.

NRAMA: Why did you want to get involved in this project?

DJ: I think in part, DC gave me the call, and said, ‘We have a project here,’ and at the time they didn’t know what they wanted it to be. ‘We don’t know if we want it to be a stand alone book, we don’t know if we want this format, or that format, or whatever.’ The idea for the project came up before they even thought about making it part of 52.

I think its sort what the mutual attraction is, for a big chunk of my career, I managed to contribute a couple of events to the DC universe, so I’m familiar with them. At the same time, I think they know I kind of have an awareness of what’s happening in the DCU over the years. It’s probably kind of a natural fit for all of us.

NRAMA: Is this history going to be ‘the’ definitive history or ‘bible’ for the DCU from now on?

DJ: Boy, I don’t know if I could ever say, or call it anything like that in advance. Often that kind of status is usually assigned to a project after it comes out, and people say, ‘Yeah, this will work.’

You know, whenever you do any project, and it’s the history of the DCU. Whether you do it in 2006 did it in 1984 or you did it in 1974, or whatever company you do it for. The problem with something like this is that universes continue to evolve and change, so I hate to use the word ‘definitive’ in any way, shape or form. I just don’t do that. What I think you can do is say that, for today, for the point at which this comes out where we find ourselves at. It’s hopefully going to be the most up to date look at the DCU and where it is, and where it’s been and where it can be.

NRAMA: One final question Dan, since Donna Troy is the main character, will she be known as the new ‘Harbinger,’ since the original Harbinger from Crisis on Infinite Earths is now dead?

DJ: We’ll leave that one alone for right now.

[DCindebt]

This looks great!

[Cientista]

52 is groundbreaking because of its content or because of its weekly schedule?
Because I don't see how a change in schedule can turn a comic book into groundbreaking.

[Fxdx522]

Great the see Dan's back. I loved his Superman in the early 90s, it was, in my opinion, the best book on the market back then.

I thought the history of the DCU was supposed to be 2 page back ups, but I'm not complaining I'll take 4!

[Bat-Mantis]

Originally posted by Cientista
52 is groundbreaking because of its content or because of its weekly schedule?
Because I don't see how a change in schedule can turn a comic book into groundbreaking.

A weekly 52-issue mega-series telling a story in real time is pretty ground breaking.

[Lars]

WHY did he choose todraw the Earth-2 Robin in THAT costume?!!! It was only used once for a reason... because its so freakin' aweful! Why not the Neal Adams one that most people are familiar with?

That said, I am lookin' forward ta this...

[mookydo]

Originally posted by Cientista
52 is groundbreaking because of its content or because of its weekly schedule?
Because I don't see how a change in schedule can turn a comic book into groundbreaking.

It will be groundbreaking if 52 weekly issues come out on time. Most books can't do it monthly. As for the content, that may be groundbreaking as well, but we won't know until we start to see it. I think having six or more leads in a story that touches upon nearly every character in the DCU can be considered groundbreaking, as well as having 4 writers and the number of artists involved.

Content aside, the format is breaking a lot of new ground.

[SouthtownKid]

Can not wait.

Just one page, but it looks great.

[bassfan]

I´m really looking forward to it. It´s going to be interesting how they change ( yet again ) the history of the DC universe.

[Foobster]

Dan Jurgens is the creator most responsible for getting me into DC Comics. I started with Zero Hour, and after reading that, then Death of Superman, I was hooked.

Jurgen's Superman will always be my Superman. He's (in my book) the best writer/artist out there. Period. Anything Dan does for DC, I'm there. And ecstatic to be there!

Can't. Friggin'. Wait!

[ahaman85]

Originally posted by Fxdx522
Great the see Dan's back. I loved his Superman in the early 90s, it was, in my opinion, the best book on the market back then.

No, man, no. However, his Thor run was excellent

[dollman]

Originally posted by MattBrady


Starting with the second issue, “History of the DC Universe” will be presented in weekly 4 page installments for 10 weeks.

So....the new history of the DCU can be told in 40 pages???

[Kevin T. Brown]

Originally posted by mookydo
It will be groundbreaking if 52 weekly issues come out on time. Most books can't do it monthly. As for the content, that may be groundbreaking as well, but we won't know until we start to see it. I think having six or more leads in a story that touches upon nearly every character in the DCU can be considered groundbreaking, as well as having 4 writers and the number of artists involved.

Content aside, the format is breaking a lot of new ground.

IIRC, as of approximately 2 weeks ago (might even be around the time of NYCC), DC has 18 issues completed, which is 1/3 of the series. 52 doesn't appear for another 7 weeks I believe.

I think DC is well ahead of schedule right now.

[BlueThunderArmy]

52 is looking to be the book of the year!

>wa-wa<

[tralfaz]

Im really glad Thibert is inking him, I always felt he was his best inker when he was doing Adv of Superman.

[Groovie Mann]

dan jurgans was also the artist on mike grells green arrow run for a while and did great work there. looking forward to this.

[j2lepew]

I've always liked Jurgens work. Yet, whenever I think of him, it's either Booster Gold that comes to mind or Flash Gordon. (Yes, Flash Gordon. He worked on a Flash Gordon mini-series for DC back in the 90s. A really good mini-series it is too.)

So, Mr. Jurgens, how about a visit back to Flash Gordon?

[Crusader K]

Originally posted by Lars
WHY did he choose todraw the Earth-2 Robin in THAT costume?!!! It was only used once for a reason... because its so freakin' aweful! Why not the Neal Adams one that most people are familiar with?

That said, I am lookin' forward ta this...

As am I. I just hope Dan gets all the characters looks right. Sometimes he has a tendency to take shortcuts in a costume design.

Still and all, great artist!

[evil solrac]

i always felt that brett breeding was the best inker for jurgens.

[Wright Blan]

Originally posted by Lars
WHY did he choose todraw the Earth-2 Robin in THAT costume?!!! It was only used once for a reason... because its so freakin' aweful! Why not the Neal Adams one that most people are familiar with?

That said, I am lookin' forward ta this...

Actually, he wore that costume at least up untill JLA #102. That's the last time I can recall seeing it (go check out Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3). He didn't wear the Neal Adams costume untill the All Star Comics revival.

[Wright Blan]

What I want to know is: what was Green Lantern doing on a cover with a Chinese flag in the background?

[shakey]

Originally posted by Lars
WHY did he choose todraw the Earth-2 Robin in THAT costume?!!! It was only used once for a reason... because its so freakin' aweful! Why not the Neal Adams one that most people are familiar with?

That said, I am lookin' forward ta this...

I love the ersatz batman uniform that earth 2 robin briefly wore.

it was like his usual suit was in the wash, so he had to improvise.

[yenaled]

yay dan's back!

[CaptainTemerity]

Originally posted by MattBrady

DJ: Boy, I don’t know if I could ever say, or call it anything like that in advance. Often that kind of status is usually assigned to a project after it comes out, and people say, ‘Yeah, this will work.’

Smartly said.

I can't wait!

[brassbuddha]

Donna Troy is Harbinger! It was revealed in the last issue (#4) of the Pre-Infinite Crisis Donna Troy limited series!