SE: How did you first hear about the SpyBoy project?
PD: Basically, I was approached by Dark Horse about it. I think Randy Stradley was there, and I think Phil Amara was there. They sat down with me at DragonCon last year and outlined for me the basic notions they had, what they wanted this series called SpyBoy to be. They had some basic concepts for SpyBoy, and the thing was that they were a little close to a project of my own that I'd been working on, so I wanted to do everything I could to try and steer them away from having this be the same sort of thing. Also, it had overtones of a movie called War Games, and I wanted to avoid that.
SE: How did you go about changing the concept to being somewhat closer to a series you wanted to write?
PD: What I started developing the concept into was something that played off of what I loved as a kid. When I was a kid, I loved to pretend that I was a spy. I had a really impressive fantasy life (laughs). I used to run around with my little James Bond briefcase and imagine that I was a spy and that I knew all this stuff that nobody else knew. And what I wound up with was the character of Alex Fleming--the young boy in reality is easily pushed around by bullies. He's the kid whose head gets shoved in the toilet at school, and he has fantasies of how he would handle such difficulties in an ultra-capable fashion. At first, these are fantasies, but then he comes to discover that the life which he has envisioned as being a fantasy life is in fact his real personality. And he's reached a point where he's not entirely sure what's his really personality and what isn't.
SE: How long did it take you to work through those details? Was it something you did on the spot with Phil and Randy?
PD: Well, we had some basic concepts we worked up right there at DragonCon, and from there it was a matter of me working up an outline of what I wanted to do and what I wanted the character to be. And it just sort of developed from there.
SE: Have you done work on other spy-oriented comics, or is this kind of your first shot at espionage?
PD: This is my first shot.
SE: Given your fascination with spy stuff as a kid, this has probably been kind of a fun project for you to work on.
PD: Exactly, but on the other hand, I also wanted to do something that was aimed at that young kid. SpyBoy is not exactly the most sophisticated project I've ever worked on, but then, I'm writing it for that kid that was within me.
SE: In general, what sorts of things do you consider when you're taking a writing project?
PD: Well, first and foremost, if it interests me. Then, second, if it's something I think that I can bring something to.
SE: Do you have any preconceived set of standards you use, or do you go more by instinct--like you just said, you look for what you can bring to the project?
PD: Basically, it's the latter, and kind of a combination of the two. First off, if it's something that doesn't interest me, I won't take it. I've been approached by projects before that did absolutely nothing for me, and it didn't matter if I could bring something to it or not. I didn't want to get near it because I just felt that it was something I wouldn't be interested in seeing or reading, much less writing.
SE: How about the vast number of characters in this story? While there is a core group of very active participants in SpyBoy's life, there's also a huge roster of interesting criminal types . . .
PD: Part of that came as this special thing that Dark Horse is doing, where they're having an assorted roster of villains who are being illustrated by various comic book folks. It has been fun to work them in, too. For example, the characters Judge and Jury, who I created pretty much for the Rogue's Gallery, are showing up in issue four, and there is Barbie-Q, and the dreaded Gila showed up in issue three . . . actually I think he's in issue two.
SE: A lot of people at Dark Horse have been very excited to have you attached to this project. Not only do you have admirers on the staff here, but we also think you'll be able to attract a lot of readers to it because you've got a great reputation and a lot of loyal fans--and we certainly want readers to give this one a chance . . .
PD: Well, I hope so. I think it has a lot of appeal.
SE: Me, too. But I've been curious--before you began writing comics, what did you do?
PD: How far back do you want me to go? I mean, I have a bachelor's degree in journalism, and I was going to pursue a career in reporting until I decided that wasn't my cup of tea. So I wound up drifting into sales, and I ended up working in the sales department at Marvel Comics. And while I was embarking on that, I also had a novel career going--I produced such works as Knightlife, which was released by Ace, and Howling Mad, which was recently re-released by Ace. But comics were something that I just started to slowly get into while I was working at Marvel.
SE: Before that, did you have much of an affinity for them?
PD: Well, I'd been reading comics since I was a kid, and as an adult, too. You know, working at Marvel Comics was something of a dream job.
SE: At what point in your life did you think you'd become a comics professional?
PD: Well, as soon as I started working in the Marvel sales department, I was sort of a de facto comics professional, but in terms of writing, I started writing Spiderman as a kind of sideline project. Little did I realize I'd be able to parlay that into any sort of regular gig. And then I was off of Spider Man, but I ended up acquiring The Hulk. And it was while I was writing The Hulk that I started to come to the realization that I could actually make this a full-time job.
SE: And your work on The Hulk really cemented your fanbase . . .
PD: Yep. Pretty much.
SE: And how did you become involved with Comics Buyers' Guide?
PD: You mean the column? Well, I was already reading CBG--everybody in the industry reads CBG. But with the column, essentially what happened was this: I'm sitting there in my office one day, minding my own business, and people start calling, asking, "Are you going to do that column?" And I say, "What the Hell are you talking about?" And it turns out that somebody--and I never found out who--wrote into CBG and said "I think it would be neat if Peter David wrote a weekly column." Why me, I don't know? Why anybody would want me to have a column every week is beyond me. (Laughs) My youngest child just said, "Dad, it was me. I wrote the letter." So Don and Maggie printed this letter and said "It sounds good to us. Peter?" And that's basically how it started. It was not something I was actively pursuing. I've never understood why anybody would be remotely interested in my opinions.
SE: But it must be flattering nevertheless. You know, Peter, I want to jump around a little here, so forgive me. Let's talk a little bit more about Alex. How much of young Peter David is in that character?
PD: A bit. I mean, I never had my head shoved down a toilet, but the very active fantasy life, the frustration level of not knowing how to deal with other people--that's very much me. I mean, you know, my father is not a spy to the best of my knowledge.
SE: The other main character in the story is a girl named Bombshell. She seems very enigmatic at this point. Can you explain who she is to Alex and what she represents to him?
PD: Well, basically, she's the girl who's got her act together. She's someone who dropped out of normal life, literally. She was a very depressed and destructive teenager, and what happened was, in what was supposed to be a suicide attempt, she inadvertently wound up stumbling upon a super-secret spy headquarters. The spies wound up taking her in, and managed to channel her normal proclivity for blowing things up into something a little more productive. She thinks the whole thing is a hoot, because one of the things she used to get in trouble for, she is now doing on behalf of her government.
SE: And how would you characterize the whole SpyBoy project? While it might appear to be just a bunch of fun adventure stuff and cool chases, there seem to be other underlying ideas at work here.
PD: I think I know what you're getting at. One of the things that's interesting in the dichotomy between Alex and SpyBoy is that when Alex switches over, he changes dramatically. One of things we're trying to get across with this is the notion of appreciating exactly who you are and the strengths that you might have, that you may have overlooked. When Alex is SpyBoy, he's ultra-capable--he can handle pretty much anything. But when he becomes SpyBoy, he becomes very single-minded, very focuses, and--to a certain degree--very dispassionate.
SE: And that's not how Alex would necessarily always want to live, necessarily.
PD: Right. SpyBoy would know how to handle situations, but Alex knows how to handle people. And also, Alex has a much more clear sense of morality than SpyBoy does. Because SpyBoy's attitude is, quite simply, "Let's get the bad guy." But, on the other hand, if they don't pose any immediate threat, he could care less. In one of the early stories, one of the bullies who had been beating up on Alex, ends up being taken prisoner by the bad guys. SpyBoy could not give a damn. It is, indeed, Bombshell's job, to convince spyBoy that there's more to fighting the bad guys than beating them and walking away. There are certain principles you have to stand for, which, to SpyBoy, are completely alien. He's sort of the ultimate problem solver, but anything beyond that, he simply does not have the emotional or moral tools to deal with.
SE: As readers come to know the characters and care about Alex, as I'm sure they will, I'm sure there will be many who look for there to be some sort of reconciliation between these characteristics of Alex and SpyBoy.
PD: Part of Alex's entire dilemma is that he will have to figure out how much of what he sees as his personality is Alex and how much is SpyBoy. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with.