The Man Behind Wednesday Comics

Mark Chiarello, the DC Comics editor behind the art series Solo, is launching one of the most ambitious and unconventional forays into superhero comics with Wednesday Comics, which debuts this week. The 12-issue weekly series features one-page stories by some of the top creators in comics on 20-by-14-inch newsprint pages. Here Chiarello explains how the project came about and how such a massive undertaking "almost killed me."

PW Comics Week: You have to be relieved, with the first issue coming out this week.

Mark Chiarello: It's been an incredible amount of work. I honestly don't think I've worked this hard on anything in my life. We have 15 writers and 15 artists, and almost as many letterers and colorists. That's why this Wednesday should be a lot of fun, to see the response.

PWCW: Did Wednesday Comics change a lot, from what you originally envisioned to what we'll see in stores?

MC:Oddly, it's exactly the way I saw it originally. I pitched it a few years ago, and I think my bosses didn't quite get the concept, so I did a full-sized mock up. I cut comic books apart and built an issue. Once Paul Levitz and Dan Didio saw that all of a sudden the light bulb went on.

PWCW: Did you have a set group of creators in mind to begin with, or did you assemble the roster as you went?

MC: I knew I had 15 slots to fill, so I made a list of 30 teams, figuring that once I start calling I'm not going to get everyone. Oddly enough, those first 15 groups said yes. It worked out really, really well. I wasn't expecting to get Neil Gaiman and Joe Kubert, or Paul Pope. It's been pretty great. There's always that saying, be careful what you wish for, because a lot of them are at the top of the heap, so scheduling them has been fun in a challenging way.

PWCW:Some of the writers are a bit unconventional. Was there some type of background you looked for when picking them?

MC:There were a couple guys I got who were more from the animation world than the comics world. I knew they would get what I was going for because it's about filling that space. It's about telling that story on a really large playing field. The writer doing Wonder Woman, Ben Caldwell, is from animation, and his story is—he's got one page that has 60 panels. You say, "Oh my god, how do you pull that off?" But he's so talented, it flows perfectly and it's a really great reading experience. Also, many of these creators are just masters of the medium. Guys like Kyle Baker and Joe Kubert. They looked at the size they can play with, they investigated what the possibilities are.

PWCW: How did you settle on the page size? Was it just the largest page you could possibly do?

MC: I did ask Alison Gil, who handles production at DC, "What's the biggest I can possibly do this?" She said 20 inches, so that's what I locked into. Because we're really taking our cue from the old Sunday funnies, which have been different sizes over the years, that 14 by 20 feels like an old Sunday comics page.

PWCW: Did you want it to be on newsprint from the beginning?

MC: Yeah, absolutely. That's how I saw it. So many of the artists said, "Mark, it's got to be newsprint or I'm not doing it. It's got to be authentic." The basic point of Wednesday Comics is a fun reading experience. It's not, "Wow, this thing is $15," or, "It's printed on the best possible paper." It's about the experience of being a kid and reading comics on the living room floor.

PWCW: Is there any concern that comic book shops will struggle to display Wednesday Comics, as it is pretty unconventional?

MC: The bottom line for comics professionals and fans and especially comics shop owners is a great reading experience. If you put out a publication that has Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman and the Flash, these characters we all love, and it's quality material ... I think that any initial worries about how to rack it are going to go by the wayside after they see the publication.

PWCW: How did the deal come about to have USA Today print the Superman stories from Wednesday Comics?

MC: David Hyde and Alex Segura worked their magic somehow. That was the best news of the year for me, just to have that wider audience.

PWCW: Do you see that as an opportunity to bring more people to the rest of the stories?

MC: I think people who were once comics fans or like the characters but never bought a comic are going to see this Superman story and get hooked in right away. I don't think you can build that like, "Let's hook some new readers." All you can do is put out as best a project as possible.

PWCW: It seems like reading Sunday comics must have been an important experience to you as a child.

Superman by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo.

MC:No, it wasn't at all. I grew up in the '70s, and all the Sunday funnies were pretty much humor based. Only through being a comics fan did I realize there was this whole other world in the '30s and '40s. I thought, maybe we could bring that vibe back to modern comics. I've only seen reproductions of Prince Valiant and Terry and the Pirates and Krazy Kat, all that really cool stuff that was before my time. Someone asked me how I came up with the idea, and I said I'm just ripping off the 1930s, that's all. Well, borrowing from the 1930s.

PWCW: Any thoughts yet on how to collect these issues?

MC: We've been talking about it, and we're trying to figure out the best way to present a repackaging. When you start shrinking pages down you lose the spectacle. How can we collect all 12 issues in an oversized publication? It's still a big challenge, but we're honing in on how to pull it off.

PWCW: Have you started thinking about your next big project yet, or are you still locked in on Wednesday Comics?

MC: I eat, sleep and drink the deadlines. It's all I can see right now. But I'm sure there's going to be another cool idea after this. My bosses are already talking about possibly doing this every summer, and this first one almost killed me.