Welcome, Ben Raab!

[ComicGeek]

Thank you for writing for the most handsome GL, Kyle Rayner!

[BenjaminRaab]

See, I knew there was a reason I liked your Kyle stories more than any that had come before!

I'm a HUGE Hal Jordan/Green Lantern Corps fan, and with the exception of Morrison I never felt that we got a GL that was truly cosmic in scope. The characters and the world are so versatile, it always seemed like a waste to me that everything was so earth centric.

So it was great to see you writing a Green Lantern who was fighting sun-destroying creatures and taking on cosmic terrorist groups and fighting renegade Guardians and what not. It really made me believe again that a Green Lantern ring was in fact the most powerful weapon in the universe, not necessarily just a itty bitty trinket.

Anyway, really enjoyed your Kilowog resurrection...kind of hard to believe, for me, that anyone even REMEMBERED the hive mind aspect of Kilowog (So much of Kil's character has been totally distorted beyond recognizability since the end of Vol 2 and Emerald Dawn I/II and Vol 3).

Do you have anything in the pipeline, comics wise?

Though most of the work I've been doing lately is in New Media (check out the 2 webseries I've worked on: www.afterworld.tv and now www.geminidivision.com -- starring über-babe/fangirl Rosario Dawson), I actually do have a couple different creator-owned comic book projects in the works which I plan on releasing on the web first so I can make them available to as wide an audience as possible before printing hard copies. Soon as they're ready to roll out, I'll be sure to let everyone know...

In the meantime, if you're interested... Please check out one of the books I'm most proud of, something I came up with on the heels of my GL run. It's a four-issue miniseries called LIVING IN INFAMY about a Witness Protection town for reformed supervillains. Sort of "The Incredibles" meets "The Sopranos"... My co-writer, Deric Hughes and I published it independently through a company called Ludovico Technique back in 2005-2006. You might have heard of it, but like many people I've talked to about it, you might not have even seen it because your local retailer never ordered it.

Have no fear: you can read the entire series for FREE online right now @ www.wowio.com (or, if you want to download it, you can purchase PDFs for 99˘ each). If you dig it, please tell your friends and help spread the good word! And remember: every click counts as cash--so keep clicking! LOL!

Best,
B.

[xionice]

This stuff all sounds extremely interesting. i came on to comics just months after GL: Rebirth/GL Vol 4 started, so i've never read any of this. But I am definitely going to have to track down these back issues now

[GLJIMT]

I basically just picked up where Joe Kelly's HC left off and pitched the idea of restoring Kilowog to his former self. And yes, I tried to draw from the vol 2 continuity re: the gestalt consciousness of the people of Bolovax Vik.

very cool, I like the concept of the Hive mind in one body, you would think a ton of intresting stories could come out of that yet no one else really seems to pick up on it.

[Astro]

To be perfectly frank, I'm WAAAAAY behind on my GL reading (I know, for SHAME!) so I can't really comment on the current direction. I will say that even though I feel privileged to have written Kyle, I've always been a Hal fan at heart. Which is why I was both psyched and crushed to learn of his return. Psyched because he always was THE GL to me... but crushed because after reading about "big changes to GL in the coming year" in Wizard magazine only a month after my run began, I realized I wouldn't be the one writing his new adventures. But hey, at least I got to write one Hal/Alan Scott story for the DC 1st one-shot...

See, I knew there was a reason I liked your Kyle stories more than any that had come before!

I'm a HUGE Hal Jordan/Green Lantern Corps fan, and with the exception of Morrison I never felt that we got a GL that was truly cosmic in scope. The characters and the world are so versatile, it always seemed like a waste to me that everything was so earth centric.

So it was great to see you writing a Green Lantern who was fighting sun-destroying creatures and taking on cosmic terrorist groups and fighting renegade Guardians and what not. It really made me believe again that a Green Lantern ring was in fact the most powerful weapon in the universe, not necessarily just a itty bitty trinket.

Anyway, really enjoyed your Kilowog resurrection...kind of hard to believe, for me, that anyone even REMEMBERED the hive mind aspect of Kilowog (So much of Kil's character has been totally distorted beyond recognizability since the end of Vol 2 and Emerald Dawn I/II and Vol 3).

Do you have anything in the pipeline, comics wise?

I loved Kilowogs return. Kudos to you.

[BenjaminRaab]

Yes, I loved him drawing from Last Will & Testament in that way.

I wonder... Ben, was bringing back Kilowog dictated by DC, or was that something you brought to the table? I'm assuming you used the 80s issue of GL Vol. 2 where Kilowog carried all the life-essences of his dead planet as at least a loose reference.

I basically just picked up where Joe Kelly's HC left off and pitched the idea of restoring Kilowog to his former self. And yes, I tried to draw from the vol 2 continuity re: the gestalt consciousness of the people of Bolovax Vik.

[BenjaminRaab]

Ben just wanted to say that I loved the cast you where introducing and using during your run with Liana now MIA or with the Omega Men or something and Dark Lantern Wog those 2 where my favorites!

Thanks!

[BenjaminRaab]

What's your favorite work within your core GL run?

Another question... if you'd had the chance, where would you have taken Kyle beyond where things were left with his whole odyssey in space? In your vision, would you have ultimately gravitated him back to Earth at some point, or do you see him falling more into the traditional role of a galactic protector in space as an evolution of the character?

What do you think about where Lianna was taken in the Omega Men?

Hard to say what was my favorite. I'll have to think about that one...

As for the direction I wanted to take Kyle... Definitely further out into space. Really wanted to give the book more of a 'cosmic epic' feel... Kinda like it is now. LOL

[Andrew NDB]

Ben just wanted to say that I loved the cast you where introducing and using during your run with Liana now MIA or with the Omega Men or something and Dark Lantern Wog those 2 where my favorites!

Yes, I loved him drawing from Last Will & Testament in that way.

I wonder... Ben, was bringing back Kilowog dictated by DC, or was that something you brought to the table? I'm assuming you used the 80s issue of GL Vol. 2 where Kilowog carried all the life-essences of his dead planet as at least a loose reference.

[GLJIMT]

Ben just wanted to say that I loved the cast you where introducing and using during your run with Liana now MIA or with the Omega Men or something and Dark Lantern Wog those 2 where my favorites!

[Andrew NDB]

What's your favorite work within your core GL run?

Another question... if you'd had the chance, where would you have taken Kyle beyond where things were left with his whole odyssey in space? In your vision, would you have ultimately gravitated him back to Earth at some point, or do you see him falling more into the traditional role of a galactic protector in space as an evolution of the character?

What do you think about where Lianna was taken in the Omega Men?

[BenjaminRaab]

Well Ben, its not so much that that dangling plot hook was used just this fan thought it was for a long long time.

In the leadup to Infinite Crisis in Rann/Thannagar War and I think maybe Recharge Kyle was told he shouldn't be alive, or shouldn't exist, in IC I think it was Alexander Luthor or Superboy Prime that made some comment about how Kyle shouldn't exist, in the Ion maxi the Monitors said Kyle shouldn't exist/be alive, and in Countdown he was declared a multiversal anomaly that shouldn't exist!

I looked back at your story and thought "Well right there's when he 'should have been dead' wonder how Lianna figures into all this." But I guess I was the only one.

I guess it was just refering to how the 'world went wrong after the Crisis' and how 'Kyle was supposed to die at Rann/Thann rather than Jade' even though both IC and the actually "Rann/Thann" series seemed to assume the other would carry this part of the story, because it was implied but never shown really what the big deal with that series was.

Shame referencing back to Lianna would have made more sense.

I appreciate that you took the time to hunt that plot point down and consider it as a possible explanation. Means a lot to me. Thanks.

[BenjaminRaab]

I believe all of Kyles run is available in TPB at this point, though I do not know the name of the one containing Ben's stories.

Except for the DC 1st one-shot, none of my GL stories have been collected into a TPB as far as I know of...

[BenjaminRaab]

That's a very crummy way to find out the end was nigh...

Would you say that Hal was more or less compelling as Parallax?



That was you? That was badass.

Yeah, it sucked. But it's ancient history at this point.

Was never a fan of the whole Parallax thing. It seemed forced and artificial to me at the time.

Yeah, I did that Alan/Hal story. It was A LOT of fun. And Pete Woods did a BEAUTIFUL job on it. My favorite page is that splash shot of Alan Scott seeing the Guardians for the first time... What an awesome image! Imagine my surprise when that story wound up in the "Greatest GL Storied Ever Told" TPB! Truly an honor...