I started with superhero stuff - 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man' and 'Batman' and 'Hellboy' - but I wasn't familiar with 'The Strain' until I started the show.
Any superhero, regardless of how different they are from Superman, recalls Superman in some way. They're either pushing against Superman or reflecting Superman; there's something about them that comes from Superman.
Thanks to the comic book publishers. Batman and Captain Marvel were responsible for my learning to read at least a year before I showed up at school. They got me interested in writing. Started my first novel at about eight. The title: 'The Canals of Mars.'
I loved going to superhero films growing up - you come home, and you pretend to be those people, and it ends up informing much of what you aspire to be. And that's what I will say is important about the genre.
I have six brothers, so I definitely was aware of Marvel more than I was of princesses, but once you're cast in a Joss Whedon Marvel show, you go and become even more of a bigger fan. You do your homework.
And the spirit of Superman is great to have around.
My book is very wild. But you know during the period of BATMAN, that there were thousands of Batman and Robin costumes sold and these weren't just for kids.
We grew out of the superhero comics, but we still liked comics, so we started putting our own experiences in the stories we were doing for our own amusement.
When Superman came out it galvanized the entire industry. It's just part of the American scene.
I was also an Action Comic fan when I was a young kid and those comic books affected me and Superman is - he's the one. He's the first one. He's the one. He's the one everybody is always compared to.
One of the things I like to do is people's hearts are on their sleeve, whether it's a good or a bad heart. And I think that's one of the things living in a world with Powers would do: it's too theatrical not to express yourself constantly. It would change them socially and sexually, everything would be altered because of superheroes.
Girls actually need superheroes much more than boys.
And I was going to be damned if I was older than Batman.
