Exclusive: Dan Didio Talks Outsiders, Metal Men, Wednesday Comics

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Even though you’re probably best known for being DC Comics’ co-publisher, and before that, the DC Universe Executive Editor since 2004, you have a background in writing, right?

In my days in television, I worked in publicity, I worked in programming, and as a scriptwriter and story editor in animation, as well as developing animated series.

You like to get around.

I have to say, I’ve been incredibly lucky to work in areas I’ve always wanted to be involved in. If you came to me as a youngster, when I was ten years old, and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’ve wound up doing two of the three jobs I was looking for. Unfortunately, I wasn’t healthy enough to be an astronaut. [Laughs]

So what itch does writing scratch that your official duties at DC doesn’t?

There’s a real fine line you have to walk when you’re editing, which is that you want to get the story, the sensibilities, the tone, the direction down, but you have to let the people [creating] it do it in their own style, and in their own manner. You look at the outcome of the story, and as long as you achieve the outcome, you should be satisfied. But a lot of times, the way you reach that conclusion, you would tell it in a different way because that’s just inherent from different people approaching things in different ways. So, by writing it yourself, you’re able to take the direction you want and have it come to that conclusion in a way that, you hope, other people want to see.

Do you think your “day job” makes you a better writer?

I think everything makes you a better writer, honestly. Practice makes you a better writer, editing makes you a better writer, being aware of the world around you, reading makes you a better writer. You know, you always want to find experiences on which you can base your stories, because it gives it a base on which you can draw from, and yet, you want to have ideas and references and be able to grow things from things that excited you, so that you can bring things you believe other people want to read into your stories.

Does that weigh in your head, the references, being aware of what other people want to read? You talked about Metal Men including things from the original strip…

Well, there’s a lot of iconic stuff in Metal Men I wanted to attack. The self-sacrifice, the difference from how Doc Magnus perceives the Metal Men to how they perceive themselves, this incredible flirtatious relationship between Doc Magnus and Platinum where he always turns her off, but when she’s in danger, he’s extraordinarily concerned for her – He fights against his own feelings, his own emotions, he thinks, “Well, these are just robots,” but then he gets swept up in the emotional connection he has for them. Just the unabashed approach to life the Metal Men have, I think, is one of the things I like most about the series. There’s a lot of great, great heart in those characters and those stories, and the best part in Metal Men, too, is that each character has a very particular voice and a very particular style and way of speaking. What I love about Metal Men is that, you can cover up the characters and just read the word balloons, and you’ll know who is saying what, because they’re that distinctive. I think, when you have that, then you have characters that people can really relate to and understand who they are and how they behave, because they have a very distinct voice.

When you were writing the strip, were you looking to get back to the “classic” version of the characters?

For me, personally, the good thing about Wednesday Comics was that it was unattached to any level of continuity than existed within DC Comics, so you could really draw upon whatever references, whatever ideas you have about the characters you have in your mind, and not worry about what has come before and just embrace what you remember best. That is what, I think, made Wednesday Comics so enjoyable was that you had this great snapshot of what makes each of these great DC characters special. That’s what you want to see. One of the goals of Wednesday Comics was to approach the widest audience possible. So, if that’s the case, and that’s the motivation behind what we’re creating, then it’s our responsibility to go with the most iconic interpretations [of the characters]. And, since there wouldn’t be follow-through, you could really have a beginning, middle and end, so there you could give the full reading experience with that.

Did it leave you wanting to do more Metal Men?

It’s funny you ask that, because I’m writing The Outsiders right now, and I’ve just worked [Metal Men villain] Chemo into the story. Apparently, I have a leftover Chemo bug I have to deal with. [Laughs]

How’s Outsiders going for you? You’ve been doing that for a few months now.

It’s really interesting, because my time became more constricted because of my responsibilities here at the company. But I’m working with [artist] Philip Tan on the book, and he’s just an absolute pleasure to work with, and so excited and so enthusiastic that I can’t help but get excited about what we’re doing. We’re actually collaborating a lot closer than what we’d been doing, and it’s been such a wonderful experience. I just don’t want to let go of this book.

I was going to ask, with the co-publisher gig, are you going to have time to stay on the series?

We’re going to try and stay on. Actually, Philip and I have reached a point where we’re actually talking through the plots now, and he’s thumbnailing them all the way out by himself, then we work through the thumbnails on the phone and he goes off to do the full pencils and I’m dialoguing off his pencils right now. It’s been an extraordinarily collaborative process, and Philip has brought so much to the process, and his artwork has brought such a real energy to the series. It makes me just want to do more.

In the beginning, we had a rough start, because Philip got married at the start of the series, he was married in the Philippines, and had a difficulty of staying in touch with us for a two month period. But now that he’s back, and we’re settling down, we’re in a really good groove on the series and having a lot of fun.

I’m not sure how he’ll feel about you calling his marriage a rough start.

[Laughs] No, no, no, I was talking about the series, not the marriage! The marriage is great!

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