>I admit, I wasn't too excited by "Rising Stars" when I first heard about or
>the first 4 issues. They were good, but not exactly AMAZING like
>_WATCHMEN_. was in its first issues. Still, they are the best super-hero
>comics currently out there so I kept with it.

The first four issues were really to establish the foundation for the story,
and to create the environment. It's not your typical superhero environment, so
I really had to take some time to establish the ground rules of that, plus set
out the basic situation: issue 1, introduction; issue 2, the murders are
established; issue 3 introduces a possible motive; issue 4 gives you the
suspects.

Now it starts to kick into high gear. Each of the subsequent issues gets
faster paced for the next batch. (And if you look at Watchman's first few
issues, they also started off establishing things; it was in the later issues
that the thing really kicked into gear; people tend to forget that.)

> I think you might have at least
>achieved the distinction of a unique trick or two with this issue. The last
>page is probably the most original thing I've seen in a comic book in a
>*very* long time.
>How did Top Cow react when you handed them a script that called
>for that -- unique -- effect on the last page?
>

Initially they weren't sure it could be done. They went through a lot of trial
and error before deciding on what combination of layout, color (warm vs. cool
colors) would bleed through the best. To their credit, they never tried to
talk me out of it, and went above and beyond the call of duty to make it work.
And it's gotten tremendous response so far, which makes it worthwhile.


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)