LIFE AFTER THE CAPE - TALKING TO HOWARD WONG

**MattBrady** · 01-25-2007, 03:04 PM

by Ryan McLelland

The release of Image’s three issue miniseries After the Cape this March sees a powerful blend of superhero fiction and powerful real-life addiction. With its gritty black and white art After the Cape tells the tale of a man called Ethan Falls who was once a superhero of the highest caliber only to lose it all because of a serious bout against alcoholism and the repercussions that stem from his drinking problem. His glory days are now behind him and we are left with a man who needs to support his family while not dealing with the problems that lie in front of him. It makes Ethan stoop quite low to do things he never thought himself capable of, events that as Ethan’s once powerful alter-ego Captain Gravity he once swore to defend against. It’s a powerful story of what can go wrong when you are at the top of your game and how ‘one little drink’ was what made the legacy fall.

Howard Wong is the creator and scripter of After the Cape, working off the assistance of Image’s Shadowline imprint head Jim Valentino’s plots. The duo are joined by artist Marco Rudy whose artwork captivates on this book with his haunting pages made more stunning by the lack of color in the book with a look reminiscent of Frank Miller’s Sin City. Together they create the haggard tale of Ethan Falls with the idea for the book coming from a conversation that Wong had one night with his wife.

“I wanted to tackle a superhero story, but (do) something that was different,” Wong reminisces. “A discussion with my wife while she was pregnant with our first child set things off. We were discussing why she didn't dig superhero comics. It basically came down to, "if a superhero had none of the safety nets that typical people have (no education, no job, no income, etc.) because he was too busy out saving the world in his younger years, how would he deal with taking care of a wife and kids?” It was a challenge creating something that she would enjoy as a non-superhero reader. You could say I created After the Cape for her and others like her.”

Going off of that conversation Wong set out to create his fallible hero and his tragic backstory, “Ethan became a superhero because he believed it was the right thing to do. He never really thought about how it would affect his future, and if you think about it, how many superheroes out there do? Ethan is an average guy with no college degree and doesn't come from a wealthy family. He has no job experience. He just so happens to have a superpower that even he doesn't understand, but still decides to do good things with it. If you think about it, he's been struggling just to be a hero. He has no smarts or money to help himself, so when he gets hurt (for example) where could he go for help? No healing factor, no butler to come to his aid. Just him. When he got married and had kids, it wasn't just him that his superhero persona affected. Everyone he loves is being dragged down with him and he knows that. Being unable to help support his own family is a crushing blow to him. It’s not as easy as saying everything is going wrong because of his alcohol abuse, everything going wrong is what caused his alcohol abuse.”

Valentino, whose Shadowline imprint has published such books as Shadowhawk and Runes of Ragnon, decided to join the book by hammering out the pacing by plotting the book page by page. Valentino has passion about the project as he notes, “I think heroes must be, at their core, people. Men or women. And people are flawed. We give into our baser instincts more often than we'd care to admit. Some people take the blows and lift themselves up. Others don't fare so well, there's a weakness in their soul and this manifests itself in many ways. In Ethan's case he wasn't strong enough as a person, he let his weaknesses drag him down and that's what fascinates me about the story. How easy it is to let misfortune cripple us. Now, in the case of super-heroes we always expect them to be perpetually virtuous, but I don't see that as being very interesting. Ethan is a fragile and flawed man at the end of his rope and as we all know desperate times call for desperate measures. And he's desperate.”

How desperate? Desperate enough to become a villain so Ethan can put food in his babies mouths? “I look at my own family and asked a simple question, "How far would I go for them?" says Wong. “Ethan answers that question with the choice he makes to start stealing. He sees his family as innocent people who have been thrown into their situation because of him. His guilt drives him to do everything within his power to "save" them. He tells himself that everything he does is for a very good reason: them.”

Wong continues, “(The book is all) about choices and events that made them decide on such a choice. If you truly believe something shady that you are doing is for the right reason, does that still make it wrong? Ethan wants to be the husband and father that his wife and kids can look up to. He wants to be their "hero" if you will, but the road he was on wasn't heading that way, so he made a choice. He truly believes it's the right choice. If it is or not is something we learn later on.”

“Ethan's choice to steal for his family's sake stems from his belief as a superhero. He has always saved people, no matter the obstacles that he had to face. For someone who could do that for people he doesn't know, why wouldn't he for those that he loves? Most superheroes probably wouldn't go as far as Ethan. There is a line, but Ethan's is just drawn further away than most others.”

For artist Marco Rudy he finds that his first professional job was one that allowed him to stretch and find new, creative ways to tell a story, “I draw in very detailed way, but for this book I had to try a different approach. Since there would be no colors or grays on it - should be in every aspect as appealing as it could be. I came across the movie Renaissance, released in 2006, where the action occurs in this heavy black and white contrast style (and) I loved it. I went on looking for more of the same, saw works by Jim Steranko, the obvious Sin City reference, and went back to the script where this story of a fallen hero in his darker days and the heavy black and white contrast style match perfectly. In some scenes, the dark tells you more about this story than the lighter parts.”

The fall (and possible redemption) of Ethan Falls is chronicled in style when After the Cape’s first issue, of a three issue mini-series, hits comic books stores this March.

MarkG72 · 01-25-2007, 03:16 PM

That cover to issue # 1 is just awesome.

dorknerdgeek · 01-25-2007, 03:17 PM

Count me in as long as I remember it. Someone remind me about this sometime in about a month.

jeircho · 01-25-2007, 03:24 PM

Won't Penny Farthing Press be miffed since they've had a comic for a character called Captain Gravity?

RedRonin · 01-25-2007, 03:57 PM

Looks good. I'll just have to see if I can remember this.

creatorman · 01-25-2007, 03:58 PM

I have a love for good black and white comics, so I am definitely picking this one up. Really excellent work guys!

Disco Cookie · 01-25-2007, 04:02 PM

Yep, I'm all over this one. Nice, nice art and an interesting story. Image has some good stuff coming up...damn, now I have to buy more comics!

Kolimar · 01-25-2007, 04:20 PM

Definitely an interesting idea. It sounds appropiately depressing.

Very attractive art.

Rod Odom · 01-25-2007, 04:27 PM

Captain Gravity ? Is his power the ability to fall from a great height ?

**MattBrady** · 01-25-2007, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod Odom

Captain Gravity ? Is his power the ability to fall from a great height ?

and Count Vertigo shows up, gets dizzy, and pukes.

MattB

aeast317 · 01-25-2007, 04:31 PM

this looks really cool

OM · 01-25-2007, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBrady

and Count Vertigo shows up, gets dizzy, and pukes.

...Afterwards, Major Disaster, disgusted with the whole mess, concocts a perfect storm *and* earthquake with lava flow to wipe the slate clean and start over.

Derek Ruiz · 01-25-2007, 04:40 PM

Can't wait to get my hands on this...

Disco Cookie · 01-25-2007, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod Odom

Captain Gravity ? Is his power the ability to fall from a great height ?

No, it's the power to come across as ultra-serious, even in lighthearted moments...

JimmyKitty · 01-25-2007, 04:48 PM

This is a cool title concept and the art is great.

Pure 100% focus on the fall of a superhero... down to the bottom of a bottle.

It will be interesting to see which way Howard Wong directs this. To the bottom and up again, or tragic poster child of a life wasted - even for the superhero community.

I also wonder how the world media will show up in this? Media LOVES dirty laundry like this. A superhero drunk, again? People in danger because he screwed up again? Was he above the law as a superhero.... drunk in public? Public opinion against him? Good questions, good topic. These are the kinda books I like to see coming out from creative minds.

nosybrat · 01-25-2007, 05:01 PM

Great two posts in one day, and for completely different books, but as I said about Texas Strangers(is that the right title?), I love to see books that go off in different directions, and you gotta love superhero deconstructionism, when it's done well. Seems I'll be spending even more in a month or two. Really can't complain though. Anyone else notice the logo has an Action Comics quality to it?

rolltidewall · 01-25-2007, 05:01 PM

This is one of the few moments I wish it was just a trade, and not a monthly serialized book. I'll just have to wait.

Derek Ruiz · 01-25-2007, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolltidewall

This is one of the few moments I wish it was just a trade, and not a monthly serialized book. I'll just have to wait.

Don't wait. Being only 3 issues I doubt there will be a trade but don't hold me to that I'm not 100 %

The 'Nam · 01-25-2007, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolltidewall

This is one of the few moments I wish it was just a trade, and not a monthly serialized book. I'll just have to wait.

Yeah, sounds like it would make a great OGN.

Either way, I'll have to pick this up now. All the info I had on mailordercomics.com was a great cover and a cliche solicit. Now that I've seen some of that art, it's a no-brainer.

Boxful · 01-25-2007, 06:03 PM

Yep, looks like somebody's been reading Sin City

Frankfurt · 01-25-2007, 06:50 PM

Sounds good.

Tank · 01-25-2007, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolltidewall

This is one of the few moments I wish it was just a trade, and not a monthly serialized book. I'll just have to wait.

There more people that have that attitude, the less likely a trade is!

ShinAkuma666 · 01-25-2007, 09:28 PM

Well, I am also like that, waiting for the tpb, I am never going back to floppies and I think a 3 issue ogn would have been quite nice.

It looks promising so I guess I will have to wait if theres a tpb at some point in the future.

Disco Cookie · 01-25-2007, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShinAkuma666

Well, I am also like that, waiting for the tpb, I am never going back to floppies and I think a 3 issue ogn would have been quite nice.

It looks promising so I guess I will have to wait if theres a tpb at some point in the future.

Why the lack of love for single issues? Not a criticism, I'm genuinely interested as to why some people just don't love 'em.

I'm the opposite - I want the original issues. I'm such a purist...

ShinAkuma666 · 01-25-2007, 09:46 PM

Cant speak for other people, but myself I just prefer to have the whole story in one book, it looks nicer on the shelves then in long boxes, its easyer to re-read them later on then when its single comics. Trades sometimes have corrections, extra materials that arent in the single issues.

Living in Canada, prices are a little bit more costly, so buying a tpb from Amazon makes all the sense in the world for me.