Post by Godmera on Dec 11, 2013 21:05:11 GMT -5
From Newsarama
When DC Comics releases two issues for the price of one in February's Green Lantern/Red Lantern flipbook, readers can thank Robert Venditti for the deal.
The two Lantern comics will be combined into a 40-page, two-sided flipbook in February, as the crossover story depicts a conflict between the different colored Lanterns and their leaders, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. At the center of the conflict is the recent revelation that the Red Lanterns are now the protectors of Sector 2814 — the portion of space that contains Earth.
The flipbook is the brainchild of Green Lantern writer Venditti, who pitched the idea to DC after he and Red Lanterns writer Charles Soule came up with a story that combined their titles. According to Venditti, the flipbook will be the ideal jumping-on point for new readers of either series, and he's hoping to attract some new readers to other titles in the Green Lantern universe.
In the first installment of a two-part interview about the Green and Red Lanterns, Newsarama talked to Venditti and Soule about what readers can expect from the crossover story — and how Venditti convinced DC to take a risk and release them in a flipbook.
Newsarama: Robert and Charles, before we talk about the flipbook, what brought about the idea to crossover in the first place? Was this story driven?
Robert Venditti: Yeah. We were plotting out "Lights Out," and Charles had come up with this idea that the Red Lanterns would ask for a sector to be able to patrol as part of their deal of going to help Hal deal with Relic, since Hal needed them because there are certain abilities they have that other corps don't have.
And that idea was out there. And then Charles and I ended up being in New York together, and we were sitting down in one of the rooms at the DC offices, just kind of hanging out and talking to each other. And he was just sort of talking out loud about how we need to figure out what sector Guy is going to get.
And there was this moment where the two of us just looked at each other. It was like Charles had the peanut butter and I had the chocolate. We just realized it would make perfect sense for Guy to think he was asking about 2814, while Hal didn't really realize that's what the deal was. And for there to be this misunderstanding between them, and the conflict and all that just came from there.
From that point, it was really just figuring out how to get the story in as many people's hands as possible, and so with the marketing of it and doing the double issue, and the free content at the same price, it was just an effort of trying to not only tell the story in the best way possible, but also get more people to look at Red Lanterns, because Charles is writing such a great book. When you do a crossover, it doesn't guarantee that people will pick up both books. So the structure was just a way to insure that everybody would get the full story. They can't help but not read it, because it's all going to be in one spot.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Check out Part 2 of the interview here.