Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir: Q&A

Posted: Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Posted By: Tim O'Shea

Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir are a writing team that’s garnering greater recognition in the comic book industry. Already well established on the independent market, thanks to several varied projects at Oni Press, 2003 proved to be a major boost for their profile. Mainly this was due to their success on the Marvel relaunch of New Mutants with DeFilippis & Weir on the writing chores. This April Oni Press will be kick off a brand-new series of fantasy-themed graphic novels, Once In A Blue Moon. As detailed by Oni, it’s written “by DeFilippis & Weir and illustrated by Jennifer Quick, the series bends the bounds of reality, chronicling the adventures of Aeslin Finn, a young girl who finds a doorway into a strange and magical world.” SBC got the writing team to discuss their creative process, Once In A Blue Moon, as well as their other ongoing and upcoming projects at Marvel, DC and Oni. And, trust us, if and when they can talk about it, SBC will find out what that “second book” is that they are discussing with Marvel (mentioned toward the end of the interview).

Tim O’Shea: How do you break down the writing process on a typical project? Does it vary from project to project?

Christina Weir: We usually try to have a solid plot outline before we start writing. In the case of an ongoing project like New Mutants, we like to know what falls in each issue of an arc. Then we'll do a page breakdown prior to writing each issue. Sometimes when working on a graphic novel like Maria's Wedding, we may have target pages in mind - where we want to be in the story by a certain page and then work a bit more fluidly. But it's really important for us to know where we're going before we start to write.

Nunzio DeFilippis: When we do the scripting, Christina sits in front of the computer and I pace. We pass the page breakdown back and forth as needed. We then try to break each page into panels before finally doing the full scripting of descriptions and dialogue. I talk a lot and she takes the parts that make sense and fixes the parts that don't. And changes whatever else she feels like. She wears the pants in our office.

TO: I know you don't want to discuss your two years spent on HBO's ARLI$$, but I was curious, how hard or easy of a transition was it writing for comics instead of television?

ND: It's not so much that we don't want to talk about ARLISS. It's just that it was a difficult work environment in that Robert Wuhl had created the show and was very hands on. So a lot of what we wrote seemed to serve the purpose of laying the groundwork for Robert's eventual rewrite. That's hard for a writer, but it teaches you to let things go. My hesitation is that I don't want to come off as badmouthing Robert Wuhl who gave us a huge break as untested writers. For that, we will always be grateful to him.

CW: I'm not sure it was a hard transition. There were things to learn because they are different mediums. But both are visual mediums and in some ways you get more control in comics than you do in television. In comics, you get the chance to describe what the reader is seeing and play director to some extent. And if you have a good artist that you like working with it becomes a real collaborative effort. It's the way things should be in TV but often aren't.

TO: How did Once In A Blue Moon come about? What appealed to you about working with artist Jennifer Quick on the project?

ND: Once In A Blue Moon came from several places. I have always been a fan of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. We've also both been really into certain manga lately. Particularly Inu Yasha. So a story of someone transported into another world was hanging around in the back of our heads. Also, I gave Christina a small stuffed dragon back in college. His name is Blue Moon and she's had him ever since. We had always said we'd work him into a story someday.

CW: We discovered Jen Quick after a friend told us about a webpage of several artists. We were browsing and saw Jen's stuff. We really liked it and told James Lucas Jones about her. She's been fun to work with because while we thought she was talented at the start, we can see her improving with each batch of pages she does. It's exciting to see how she creates this world we put on paper. And we feel like we're watching a major talent emerge.

TO: I think Once In A Blue Moon has a narrative infrastructure that libraries will love, as the hero is set clearly in a world that her parents read to her about at bedtime. Do you or Oni have any intent in making a push for the graphic novels with the American Library Association?

ND: No. But that's a great idea that should be shared with the guys at Oni. While the literal details of our story don't apply (the book her parents read to her is one of a kind and not likely to be in a library), the tradition of parents reading to children is something we both love and wanted to be central in the story. We can see how that would appeal to the ALA.

TO: What pop culture or literary works influence Once In A Blue Moon?
CW: As Nunzio said above, there's some Chronicles of Narnia mixed with
Inu Yasha. There's also some Fushigi Yugi and the movies Dragonheart and The Princess Bride. I suppose there's also the influence of some of the console roleplaying games, particularly the Suikoden series for the Playstation.

TO: Do you think your success at Marvel will help to make people more aware of your work at Oni?

ND: Do we have success at Marvel? Hard to tell sometimes. Just kidding. I think it would be nice if fans of New Mutants found our Oni stuff. It'd be great for Oni if that would then translate into them discovering some of Oni's other, better books. But the sad reality is that people who go to comics for superheroics often have difficulty with non superhero books and black and white books. We have a message board with a great community of fans and some of them have sought out our Oni stuff. But I think that's the exception, not the rule.

TO: While I agree with your assertion that "people who go to comics for superheroics often have difficulty with non superhero books," do you have a certain advantage in overcoming that bias, given that the New Mutants isn't as traditional as the typical superheroic fare that Marvel publishes?

ND: We'd hope so, but I'm not so sure. In the end, people still think of our book as an X-book, which helps explain why response to the first arc was mixed - there were no traditional superheroics, until the end of the arc. And even then, we wrapped up the combat quickly and used it as a launching point for character stuff. In the end, because this is still a book about superpowers, we draw a fan base who expect powers and (probably more importantly) color in their comics. Having interacted with our fans on a message board, I can safely say that a lot of the ones who are very vocally supportive of our work would probably really like our Oni stuff. I can only hope that over time, we can get them, and a broader section of the New Mutants fans, to check it out.

TO: To date, have you achieved what you creatively set out to do with the New Mutants?

CW: Yes and no. It's been a bumpy road on New Mutants. When you start working with a company like Oni, you get used to having a creative freedom that you just can't find when you're doing work for hire. If you work for a company like Marvel or DC, you have to accept that editorial or the company is always going to have the final say. That having been said, we were given a great opportunity with New Mutants in that we got to create a handful of brand new mutants and really leave a mark on the Marvel universe. So sometimes we get to tell the stories we want to and sometimes we don't. But we are still having fun telling stories with these characters we created and exploring where they take us.

TO: What new work is on the creative horizon for 2004?

CW: Well, there's Once In A Blue Moon, obviously which will be the first in a series of graphic novels. Then this summer we have another, totally different, graphic novel coming out entitled The Tomb. It's a combination of a haunted house story and an Indiana Jones story. An archeologist is hired to go on an expedition into a "haunted" New England mansion where the last owner had rigged the place like an Egyptian tomb and buried his servants with him. We're working with a really talented artist, Christopher Mitten (Last Exit Before Toll), on that one and it should hopefully be a lot of fun. And we're still going forward on New Mutants, despite recent delays the future of the book looks good.

ND: We've also got a six-page story in Wonder Woman 200. It's a playful look back at the Silver Age stories that we both love and sometimes cringe at. We're hoping to parlay that into more work at DC. And of course, we are ever in discussions with Marvel about a second book.

TO: [SBC aside: DC sent me an advance on Wonder Woman 200 (on sale January 28), so I’d actually read the story] Ty Templeton was a perfect match for the Silver Age WW story vibe you were writing, what did you most enjoy about the collaboration with him?

CW: Well, there wasn't a whole lot of collaboration, to be honest. We wrote the story and then it was sent to him. However, we LOVE the final product. Ty has such a strong sense of the Silver Age feel and really brought the story to life. At every turn, he got what we were going for and not only made it work, but made it better.

TO: Are there any particular DC characters, creators or editors you're particularly interested in working on or with, if given the opportunity?

ND: Booster Gold. Booster Gold. Booster Gold. Other than him, I'm desperate to write Zatanna, Blue Devil, Steel, Martian Manhunter and Blue Beetle. And, of course, I couldn't really call my career complete if I didn't get a shot at Superman even if it was only a six-page story like we did with Wonder Woman. I wrote a Batman story before Christina joined me in comic writing, so if I can get a Superman story, I can say I put words in the mouths of each of D.C.'s big three. Plus, Superman is my favorite of the big three.

CW: I have to say, I'd love a chance to write Birds Of Prey, but I always feel guilty thinking that because I love Gail's run right now. I also think Batman would be fun - is fun the right word to use when discussing Batman? And I have a soft spot for Nightwing. But I'd be happy to explore Nunzio's 80's fascination with Booster, Blue Beetle, Blue Devil, etc.

ND: Editorially speaking, we'd work with any editor who'd give us more work. Ivan Cohen was great to work with. He was communicative, easy to reach and had great suggestions that enhanced the story. We'd work with him again in a heartbeat.

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