With Nocterra coming out next month (March 3rd), I was lucky enough to get to spend some time chatting with Scott Snyder on the phone. If you don’t know who he is, can you really call yourself a comic fan? In the past few decades Snyder has written for Marvel, DC, Vertigo, and Image. His backlog is so enormous, I actually had a hard time figuring out what I should gush about when I got him on the phone. But I was able to pull myself together long enough to have a great chat about his history with comics and what he wants to do next.
I always want to know what your favorite thing you wrote is. Is it even possible to pick a favorite from your extensive backlog?
It’s a hard one, Like trying to pick a favorite child. When pressed he admits he’d to pick one that represents him the most, he’d pick American Vampire. It spans what he thinks is most him throughout his whole career. And has all the things he loves; history, horror, drama.
NOCTERRA marks my return to solo creator owned work, and it’s a book I’ve been dying to do for years,” said Snyder. “It mixes the horror of my indie series like Wytches and American Vampire with the high-octane stakes of my DC work to bring you something personal, twisted and big, big fun. And I couldn’t ask for a better co-creator on NOCTERRA than buddy and superstar artist Tony Daniel. His art on this book is next level, and with the amazing Tomeu Morey on colors and Deron Bennett on letters, and Will Dennis editing, we’ve got an all star team steering this wild ride. So get ready for trucks, monsters and mayhem on an epic scale…
Where did the inspiration for Nocterra come from?
He explained that he wanted to write something about the fear of the dark and how there are things there to be afraid of. He talked about how fun it was the make up the biology of the Shades and how he loves to build from scratch. It’s easier, he thinks, when you work on a property like Batman, where the mythology is known and you’re just playing in that sandbox. Nocterra meant he got to come up with the mythology. Nocterra is a high octane horror book and one of the most personal things Scott has ever written.
How is the working relationship with you and co-writer Tony S. Daniel? How do you split responsibilities?
Scott admits that they were friends for a long time. He mentioned that Tony was writing detective comics when Scott was writing Batman. To him, Tony is a mentor. Tony’s art is excitement! Muscular, widescreen, showing big emotions. That was what he wanted for this personal project. They talked every couple days as they put this together and became genuine friends as they wrote it.
Respect is important in any collaboration and they would run ideas past each other as they moved forward, making sure to talk about room for graphics, but no egos. Scott says that it was important to decide on what makes the best story. He made sure that Tony was encouraged to change anything needed.
Has the pandemic affected your writing either style or abilities?
Scott says that the pandemic made them look deeper at collaborative efforts, which is his favorite part. Comics, rather than writing prose or a screenplay invite that type of collaboration. He loves the interaction with other creators and the pandemic has reinforced it. Intensified how they work together, makes working collaborative a more regular choice.
Is there a comic property you have wanted to write for but haven’t had the chance?
He admits that lack of time is why he hasn’t worked on more Marvel properties. He’d love to have a go at Captain America (admitting that he’s been holding onto a story he’d love to pursue for a long time now) Other ideas he has are for Wolverine, Ghost Rider or Spiderman. He still loves superheroes but after 10 years at DC he wanted to focus on his own creations.
Tell me something interesting about creative process that you think readers would like to know.
His favorite advice is to be able to write stories, you gotta pick things that that are your favorite, but you HAVE to put in the work. He jokingly admitted that he wasn’t the best when he started but he just never gave up. There was no back up plan, so he just put his butt in the seat and worked at it. HE says to get through one thing at a time, even if it’s not your favorite. You get that one story line, that one page, that one issue done, and then you are gettign better and getting things done.
