Geoff Johns holds universes in the palm of his hand. At least that’s the way it seems when reading his books. The prolific writer has tackled the biggest guns of the DC Comics Universe including Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash and everyone else in his world destroying, continuity tearing summer event, INFINITE CRISIS, and currently he’s reforming the legendary Justice Society of American while helping team up to chronicle 52 weeks in the DC Universe alongside other event-level writers, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Keith Giffen. Geoff has a way of finding the humanity in the four color heroes that reach out and massage your heart, enabling the reader to form tight bonds of friendship, joy, sadness and triumph just before introducing another element that will change everything you thought you know and everything you held dear.

A passionate, diligent and in demand writer, Geoff’s name has been appearing in the writer’s credit block for everything from the industry’s hottest comics to upcoming film and television projects. A fellow Michigander, Geoff was kind enough to put aside existence for a short awhile and tear himself from his desk to talk about writing “events” and the value of discipline.

KLEID: You’re slowly becoming what I consider an “event” writer - someone who comes in to help orchestrate something larger than a single writer, something bigger than two fists and a motive. What are the steps you take to outline and strategically map an “event” story - whether on your own as with bringing back Green Lantern, with another writer ala 52 or with an entire universe as in INFINITE CRISIS?

JOHNS: Most of the projects I work on, like THE FLASH, GREEN LANTERN and JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, are monthly books rather than “events” and the process is self-explanatory. But some of the storylines or series I’ve had the opportunity to work on are, like you said, “events” or part of a bigger universe dozens of people all have a hand in. But the process of something like 52 is vastly different from ACTION COMICS, GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH and INFINITE CRISIS. The one thing they do have in common is that I work on them because I like collaborating with the people I do a hell of a lot.

With something like 52 you better throw away any ego you have, whether it be from lack of self-confidence issues, over-sensitivity or believing any of your own hype. It’s not about you, and this shouldn’t ever be about you, it’s about story and character. With 52, it’s a close-knit group of writers with Greg, Mark, Grant, Keith and myself working on every storyline together. I’m currently scripting in the early 40’s and it’s become abundantly clear to me how much I’ve learned from writing with everyone. But mapping out and plotting a story as real time ambitious as this takes a tremendous amount of energy. Thankfully, everyone supports one another and develops ideas together and if the mutual respect and friendship that’s really grown between us hadn’t, if everyone was out for promoting themselves instead of pouring their energies into the book, we all would’ve quit long ago. Something like 52, although you can call an experimental “event”, only works for me because I’m brainstorming alongside the absolute best, professionally and personally. In other words, my strategy on 52 is to have fun with my friends.

The same can be said for ACTION COMICS working with Donner and bouncing ideas around with him for our run. We usually end up focusing on the emotional journey of the characters through action. And that goes a step further talking with Superman writer Kurt Busiek. We’ve all had a lot of discussions for where we’re going to take Superman together throughout ’07 and even ’08. Last Saturday, we were on the phone and it suddenly turned into an hours-long jamming session on Superman. Throwing ideas around and really feeling an energy and excitement for the future. Fueling one another and, in turn, getting on a call with Matt Idelson and Nachie Castro and further developing these ideas is fun. The books will tie in thematically and literally, weaving in and out for the big touchstone storylines we have coming up and parting for the separate fallout storylines that will come out of those.

GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH was simple, I was working with Pete Tomasi and Ethan Van Sciver.

INFINITE CRISIS was a massive undertaking and the planning and coordinating to do it was exhaustive for everyone on every level. But with Greg and Judd on Countdown, and Dan leading the troops with Eddie, Jeanine, Gail, Bill and Dave on the mini-series and the build-up throughout the DC Universe, it was exhilarating to be in the mix. Without Greg’s support and input, especially during INFINITE CRISIS, there would’ve been a major missed opportunity that he thankfully helped shepherd. And the best thing about it was that it led to 52, which is the place I’ve gotten to use a major revelation for the DC Universe that sparks from the series.

KLEID: Geoff, besides the thousands of comics you write, you also tug and pull at the Hollywood teat. You’ve written several screenplays, are working on the new BLADE series and are bound for more, I’ll gather. Which, in your opinion, contains the greatest creative hurdles - writing for comics, for television or film?

JOHNS: I’ve always been working in film and television, writing pilots that hadn’t gotten shot. I just don’t get vocal about things that aren’t really happening. As for hurdles, writing is writing. You have all the same challenges, plus a budget and a lot more people giving you input, which is great when it’s good. The challenge is, in the case of BLADE, writing a fight scene you’d love to see and realizing they don’t have the budget to do it the way you envisioned it. Cuts have to be made and it’s frustrating when you’re coming off of writing a book where a guy with a power ring can take on fifty Rocket Reds while they’re dog-fighting over the Caucasus Mountains in Russia. But you learn to deal and play off the strengths of what you can do. Nelson Lee, who played Shen in the BLADE series, was a fantastic actor and fighter and I played up his strength in the last episode I wrote and I thought it turned out terrific.

I’ve just signed a deal to co-write and direct a stop-motion animated film for Dimension that I’ll be doing with Robot Chicken co-creator, Matt Senreich. It’s an opportunity to create something completely different than anything I’ve ever done and we’ve really got the budget for the vision.

KLEID: I heard a rumor that you rented an apartment, fitted with a chair, a table and a word processor, lock yourself in and type from 9-5 to get rid of any and all distractions. First off, is this rumor about you or am I confusing you with someone else? Secondly, tell me how you do discipline yourself as a writer. I find my writing time is filled with distractions - not TV and family, but emails from artists that need answering, questions from publishers and more… for a writer like you it must be impossible to get any work done with all the questions you need to answer (ah, including these).

JOHNS: You are definitely confusing me with someone else because that sounds like it would suck. I do, however, share an office with my good friends Jeph and Allan in Sherman Oaks. I show up at 9 and leave around 7, but I go out and have lunch, sometimes meetings. I do have to remain diligent and focus on my schedule. Currently, while I’m finishing up 52 and some other projects in comics I’m starting on Action and Justice Society of America so for the next 7 or 8 weeks I’m at one of those awkward times where projects are ending and others are beginning. That means I get to work on the weekends! Hooray! As soon as 52 and another project wraps I’ll be back to taking the occasional day off to go see a movie or hit up Six Flags.

KLEID: First time writers get a lot of advice - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I need to be structuring my stories ala Robert McKee or Joseph Campbell. In fact, there are some big time comic book writers who swear by McKee’s book, STORY and say that if you haven’t read it and live by it, you might as well be writing fan-fiction. Thoughts on following specific structure versus finding your own groove?

JOHNS: You should educate yourself on everything you can. There’s no reason not to. And if you think you don’t need any advice or need to learn anything about story, you might as well stop writing.

There was a wannabe director in my film classes at Michigan State who would consistently break the stage line and other simple directing rules. When called out on it he’d say, “I don’t want to learn any rules. I just want to break them.” But he didn’t know what the stage line was or how to properly cross it so his “breaking” of the rule was out ignorance instead of motivation. You need to know the rules, or generally accepted rules, and understand them and then if you want to break them be properly motivated to do it.

KLEID: Writer’s Block: Myth or Cruel Horrible Demon that Taunts you at Midnight?

JOHNS: With all the friends I’ve got in this business writer’s block doesn’t really exist. It’s that stupid thing called a clock that’s the real enemy.

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