🏆Winning Daredevil
Man without Fear Anxiety
Episodes of Storymaze generally feature: writing tips or a work-in-progress; something creative I’m digging; + a quote that’s got me thinking.
FWIW, folks, I’m skipping the “Treasure Seekers” section this time: I’ve got nothing that’s really hitting me, so I’m not taking up space.
Another Q&A from Cedric Cecchinel’s interview with me in Bruce Lit.
After a few issues of JUSTICE and SOLO AVENGERS, you became the writer of SHIELD then DAREDEVIL. How did you get the title DAREDEVIL ? Did you wanted to write this series ? Are there differences about the way you write one series compared to another one ?
I think it's important to clarify that it was one single issue of Justice and one single issue of Solo Avengers, as opposed to multiples. And both were done with Margaret Clark, who I was co-writer with really at the beginning of my writing career, as I was a little too nervous to go off on my own, and found her a good foil and a good partner for me to get my skills going and my confidence up.
As for Daredevil, that was something that I never would have thought really to go after on my own. I didn't think I was at that level of writing a major Marvel character at that point. I was writing Nick Fury and writing Shield, but I sort of considered Nick Fury a James Bond experience. And having been a big James Bond fan, that was an easy in for me.
Daredevil seemed to represent the next level of where to go in terms of writing within the Marvel cast of characters. And certainly Daredevil carried a lot of extra weight to it in terms of his reputation as a character, and especially the long shadow of Frank Miller that was on top of it. So I certainly wouldn't have considered myself ready for that. But my friend, Steve Buccellato, had gotten wind of the fact that Ann Nocenti was leaving the title — and Steve thought I should make a pitch for the book.
As I said, I didn't think I was ready. I didn't think I was at that level. But Steve insisted that Ralph Macchio, the DD editor liked my work — especially Nick Fury. I think because I was respecting the character, I was respecting the history, and I was playing with certain toys from Marvel's history, which Ralph enjoyed.
Ralph liked the legacy of the Marvel universe as it were. So I got up my nerve and I asked Ralph, “I understand the book's opening up, could I pitch it?” And Ralph was generally a nice guy. And so he said, “Sure, if you want to — take a swing at it.” But I always had the impression that he was just being kind.
I was eager to move up to another level where I would get noticed more on my own. And Daredevil seemed like a brass ring that could do that if I had the nerve to do it and I had the skill to make a pitch in that way. And I made a pitch that basically Daredevil needed to stop dancing around the Kingpin and actually take the Kingpin down. And that was sort of the real crux of the pitch. It seems really simple. And in some ways, in many ways, it was.
But nobody had really gone to that level yet before. And so by putting it out there and also, I think, framing the city as a character: Daredevil being the protector of the city beyond Hell's Kitchen. Looking at all the various neighborhoods of New York as characters in their own right — something about the pitch I put out there caught Ralph's attention. And he awarded me the book, which I was floored by.
In terms of approaching Daredevil or any character differently, I think that's the essence of a good writer, a good storyteller. You have to not just bring your imprint: “I write this way. I write with these types of words. I use these types of phrases.” You have to get into the groove of the character itself.
And in doing so, you find that the character begins to speak through you. The situations that that character is going to be in begin to actualize through you. You become a living Ouija board. You sort of channel what's going on: at least that's how I always feel in the best of instances. So each character becomes something different and you research different things.
When I was writing Shield, I researched espionage and assassin's books and books about geopolitical tensions very much. When I was writing Daredevil, it was the infrastructure of New York. It was the history of New York City. It was the the noirish elements of various neighborhoods.
It was reading local New York City newspapers, looking for bits of business and crimes and characters that would maybe come to life through the stories that I would then tell through Daredevil. When I was doing Hellraiser, I read a lot of books about demons.
So you put yourself in those situations and you invest yourself in them by ingesting this creative material, which hopefully takes root, and then that in return rewards you with story material, which again you end up channeling because you have become this vessel for these stories to really come to life. At least that's the way I feel and believe.
Recently there was a story that Disney+ was putting three potential series on pause for possible redevelopment. One of those was my old friend Terror, Inc. I was shocked to learn that this was even in consideration! (The co-creator is always the last to know, it would seem.)
This businessman of many parts — the originator of the hostile takeover, as it were — was deemed by the mouse-house as worthy of guiding viewers into the shadowy corners of the Marvel U. Hopefully they find a way to resurrect him. (He’s very, very good at that.) Better still? Give me a call. Or at least invite me to the premiere.
In the meantime, I’ve dug up this love-letter/review of issue #1. I *think* it ran in Comic Shop News? (Somebody please jog my brain and help me gives proper credit.) Thanks to the writers for truly getting it. (And Terror is most decidedly an “it.”)
"Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship." - A Philip Randolph
Amazing Times
I’m D.G. Chichester. Seems pretentious to me, so if you’d rather just call me “Dan”, and have a go at the last name as Chai (like the tea) Chester (like it looks).
I earned my word-cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!
Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions — including the recent rad retro
For the moments between newsletters…