Mean comedy is not really something that I personally gravitate towards or something that I do.
I like that kind of 'straight-faced' comedy. I like to be straight-faced and outrageous.
I actually imagined 'Thunderbolts' as a straight-up comedy book in a lot of ways, like a very dark comedy book, whereas 'Red Lanterns' is more of a cosmic saga that has some jokes every once in a while.
The Green Arrow stuff that I've responded to from the past is the Mike Grell stuff. I've liked a lot of other stuff, but I think for me, the direction and the mood and the tone that I really want is something much darker and more aggressive and really fast-paced action.
I think our Batman had to be fun, light-hearted, funny, tongue-in-cheek... and I think that made kind of an homage to those earlier comic books, where Batman always had a quip or something.
I don't look at my work as being violent. 'Officer Downe' is more campy than anything. It's a comic book, so it's funny to me.
I've had ideas for romantic comedies, but it would be a much more darkly comic version than what usually sells tickets.
For me, comic scores always have to have some melancholy in the background.
[Maigret] is terribly self-contained, not that I would ever wish him to be any more comic, particularly, but in the second film we've made you see he's a little more ironic from time to time. But as I say, that's just work in progress.
To me, most comedy is dark comedy.
I think Walking Dead is more of a stretch for me because I'm a light hearted superhero kind of guy.
'Animal Man' and 'Swamp Thing' have so many commonalities in tone and mood.
I hope that 'Gambit' doesn't take ten years, but it takes a little honing to get that tone and that voice exactly right. The character has such a specific voice in the comic, in the same way that Deadpool has a specific voice in the comic, that we want to make sure that we capture that voice on the page.
You have to know you are in a comedy. You have to know that you are actually allowing the audience to participate on some level. When you go dark and mean it, then you don't let them in.
I never really considered 'Quantum & Woody' a comedic book or a funny book. I never thought of it as a satire.
The condition of the world today is such that most writers feel they cannot truthfully be "comic" about it.
The silent film has a lot of meanings. The first part of the film is comic. It represents the burlesque feel of those silent films. But I think that the second part of the film is full of tenderness and emotion.
Only after a while did it occur to me (in spite of the chilly silence which surrounded me) that my story was not of the tragic sort, but rather of the comic variety. At any rate that afforded me some comfort.
I feel more comfortable writing firmly comedic or slightly comedic stuff.
I guess I don't have much interest in writing straight drama. So whatever subject matter I choose will ultimately be dealt with in a comic way.
Oh, I'd been writing cartoonish music pretty much all along.
