Recently, I got one who said her daughter was reading a Dear Dumb Diary thing. For me, most of what I do is comedy, so every once in a while, I'll get an email from somebody. What is your favorite part about exploring this world of DC outside the continuity, specifically for an all-ages audience?īenton: I think it's because I'm so in touch with my inner jackass, so being permitted the opportunity to play that out in ink and color and share it with other people. It's been great to see the juxtaposition of what you can do with these amazing, iconic characters. Reichs: I think you can see why we've enjoyed doing these interviews together, given the two takes we just told you about. He doesn't seem to veer from that at all, even though it seems like he might be insane, but that's Ernest. It's good to share that with other people, and Ernest is completely focused on the idea of justice and always doing the right thing. It's what he's teaching other people about. Jim Benton: Ernest's fandom, his devotion to Batman, his belief in Batman, and his belief in Batman's unfailing moral compass, it's what guides everything that Ernest does in the book. You see, in the back half of the book, he gets to become this giant fish out of water, so what would happen to him when the pressure is on? Does he crumble, or does he become a diamond? That's what I was going for with the character in this book. Let's let him act the way I think most people that age would want to act and feel and would imagine, 'Oh if I only had superpowers! What I would have done,' so let's let them loose.'Īt the same time, it's a coming-of-age story. Let's imagine him as a real 14-year-old, and what would he do? Would he have this ability to control his emotions, even when he's being beat up?' I said, 'No.

The idea that I wanted to portray with the character was, 'Let's look at Clark Kent in a different way.

If I was 14 and had superpowers, would I not use them to get ahead in school and maybe impress a girl or win a game? The answer is, of course, I would. I thought it was a good idea because I was trying to capture where boys are often at age 14. What do you hope readers take away from your respective heroes?īrendan Reichs: It was very daunting pitching an idea about Clark Kent, and it was also quite a daunting process to get it all the way through because the vision I had was Clark essentially being a jerk, which was not something I thought would fly.

CBR: You are both tackling the biggest heroes in the world of comics with these books in differing ways.

All of the bad guys books