Michael Gilman: You've gotten quite a reputation as the writer of Ghost. How did you get this job?
Eric Luke: A while ago, I was casting around for a creative outlet. I'm a screenwriter, and in the film industry, you're pretty much told what to do. There's so much money involved that it can get to the point where there is absolutely no creative free dom at all. I went back to Dark Horse and they offered me Ghost.
Gilman: So you went in and said, "What have you got for me?" and they said, "Ghost." Did you have a choice, or was this the first thing they offered?
Luke: I said, "I'd love to write a comic book," which I've wanted to do ever since I was a kid. Randy Stradley said, "Well, we have this Ghost character. I'll send you a paragraph on her. See what you think." I responded to it, and they told me to go a head and write the 44-page special. I was used to the film industry, so I made a detailed proposal saying, "I want to do this and this and... " but they said, "Do whatever you want," and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable things I'd ever wr itten.
Gilman: In April, Dark Horse is releasing the second Ghost collection. The first featured all her appearances outside of the ongoing series, including the aforementioned 44-page special. What makes up this second volume?
Luke: Dark Horse is calling it Nocturnes, and it comprises the first three issues of the ongoing series, as well as issue number five. We're up to issue #9 now, and those early issues are hard to get a hold of. Dark Horse wanted to give peo ple the background in case they were interested. The reason issue four is not included here is because it links up with a much later issue and will be collected later on, where it makes more sense.
Gilman: For the benefit of anybody who may not have previously read Ghost, can you summarize briefly what has gone before?
Luke: She came to awareness one day as a ghost, with no memory of who she was when she was alive. Immediately that's a big mystery, but the problem with " big mysteries" is that they can turn into one-note stories where once she finds out the answer, the book's over. So what I've been doing is drawing up different elements from her past and playing with her on an emotional level. She finds out who she was r ight away -- an investigative reporter who got too close to a big story and got killed for it. But at the same time, she's trying to rediscover her past emotional life. She has huge feelings of rage, particularly toward men, and she doesn't know where the y come from. So there's a whole emotional landscape there to play with that has really turned into the richest area for the book. There's a big arc going on that starts with her as a completely rage-filled person who doesn't feel moral constraints because she's a ghost and she's playing by a different set of rules than the living. I'm taking her from that point and introducing more emotions -- making her more human. She opens up, becomes more vulnerable, and gets hurt by it; so it's one step forward, two steps back on her way to becoming a happy, or at least balanced, human being.
Gilman: What else do you have in mind for her future?
Luke: When I was laying a lot of groundwork for who Ghost is and what her world is like, I real ized that the next year of Ghost is going to be even more dynamic than last year. Now I'm really going to get in and mix it up.
Gilman: Can you reveal anything?
Luke: Her major villain... I was trying to come up with someone in Nocturnes who would be the "Joker" to her "Batman." I came up with this demon from her own hell -- Cameron Nemo. He's going to be back in a big way -- and a different way -- more dangerous than ever, of course. There's going to be the de ath of a major character, and all the steps that Ghost's been taking toward becoming more human and more vulnerable are going to shut down because of this death. She has to grapple with even bigger issues than in the first year... I'm trying to make th is sound as tantalizing as I can. Plus, there's a hot, new artist coming out with issue #11.
Gilman: Who's that?
Luke: His name is Dave Bullock. He's been working in animation up until now, and he's great. As far as I know, he hasn't done any previous comic-book work, but he's turning in some great stuff. I'm very excited about it.
Gilman: You've been writing this book for almost a year now. How is it working within the boundaries of the Dark Horse Heroes universe?
Luke: After the first few issues, there was a major editorial decision: "We don't want tight continuity within the Dark Horse Heroes universe. Just concentrate on your character and make the book work on its own." That was neat beca use there's a whole background to draw on if you need it, but you don't have to deal with crossovers or a storyline being dependent on someone reading another comic book. I think they figured that if people wanted that, they'd go read X-Men. Plus, that summer there were about three or four comic-book universes that appeared on the scene and burned out, so Dark Horse said, "Just do your character and concentrate on that." It was great.
Gilman: There was still a crossover with the Predator...
Luke: I think that was an early decision that was made when they wanted tighter continuity. I have no idea how successful it was -- it didn't appreciably increase the number of Ghost readers. Predator isn't really in that issue at all. It shows up and Ghost phases her gun through its faceplate and blows it away. I wanted to undercut the appearance because I knew everybody else was going to have the entire issue be a huge Predator fight.
Gilman: Have you gotten much criticism as a man trying to write a female character in a female perspective?
Luke: Oh, yeah. My favorite letter of all was one that accused me of being a man-hating woman using a male pen name. Randy [Stradley] wrote back and said, "I'm sure Eric's two daughters will be surprised to find out they have a mother instead of a father." What I try to do as a writer is put myself in Ghost's head and say, "What would really be frustrating about being a woman in today's society?" And it's pretty easy once you get into it -- there's a lot of injustice, and if you start to react to it and explore that dark side and all that rage, it's not hard to understand. Anger about injustice isn't gender specific.
Gilman: Ghost was origina lly created as part of Dark Horse Heroes. All the comic-book-reading public knew about her was that she was a woman who could phase through things, carried guns, and lived in the city of Arcadia. Is that all you knew about her as well?
Lu ke: Yes. The paragraph from Dark Horse explained her powers and a side idea that she can warp from place to place but has to pass through another dimension to do it. They said, "Use that if you want. It isn't necessary." And that -- for me -- became o ne of the most interesting ideas. The dimension is revealed to be something her mind made up so she won't go insane when she warps: her own personal hell. Now it's leaking into our world and destroying things -- which is a great metaphor for anger and rag e and how it gets out of control and starts to hurt the people around us.
Gilman: Ghost was never initially part of the recent "Bad Girl" trend, but fans of that material sort of adopted her. Once people get into Ghost through that door are they staying?
Luke: According to the numbers I've seen, they're staying. And for me, the popularity of the "Bad Girls" was sort of a happy coincidence. All of a sudden, it was this popular trend and Ghost just happened to be w earing a low-cut costume and drawn by both Adam Hughes and Matt Haley. But I think once people pick it up, they get hooked and want to come back for more. Ghost is about much more than the initial visual thrill that male readers get seeing T&A. I think if women readers pick up "Bad Girl" books, they're turned off by them while I know from letters and conventions that Ghost has a big female readership. I've tried to make Ghost very aware -- I had to come up with a reason why a woman would wear a costume that was so revealing. It works if you make it part of her attitude toward men -- she's playing on their weaknesses.
Gilman: When you're writing Ghost, do you ever ask your girlfriend, "I've got Ghost in this situation... what would you do?"
Luke: All the time. Based on our relationship, I draw on my understanding of the differences between men and women. That's one of the many great things about my girlfriend -- there's a lot of communication b etween us that helps to get me inside Ghost's head and see what makes her tick... but not quite to the point where I'm blowing people away.
Gilman: Dark Horse has had a few recent successes in the film industry, and it's common knowledge that they plan to do more movies. Is Ghost part of that plan?
Luke: I've just handed in the first draft of the screenplay.
Gilman: Well, that was my next question... if you were going to write it.
Luke: I did, and now I'm waiting to get notes. So far, what I've heard is positive.
Gilman: Do you have plans to stay on Ghost indefinitely?
Luke: Absolutely. I want Ghost to be my Swamp Thing. I want to stay on this and keep it growing and evolving... to take it as far as it can go..