As quickly as it began, it ended. America’s Best Comics’ Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom by Peter Hogan and Chris Sprouse has wrapped, leaving behind a solid entry in the Tom Strong universe that began in 1999 by co-creators Sprouse and Alan Moore. Before issue #1 came out, I had a chance to talk with the creative forces of Robots of Doom about the project (read Chris Sprouse & Peter Hogan Talk Tom Strong), and thought it only appropriate that we check in for an exit interview of sorts.
Peter Hogan was nice enough to talk with us about wrapping up Robots of Doom, the future of the ABC characters with the closure of WildStorm, and of course, the next Tom Strong series (insert nerdgasm).
CraveOnline: The last time we talked, you mentioned that the Tom Strong characters are emotionally believable, and I think the resolution between Tom and Albrecht in issue #6 is incredibly resonant and true to the character. Is it difficult to find a balance to making a Nazi character sympathetic to both Tom and the readers?
Peter Hogan: Well, if you’re writing a Nazi and you want them to be more than just a two-dimensional cliché, that’s kind of hard by definition -- because much as we’d all like to think of the Nazis as monsters, they were actually human beings. I don’t know that you can actually make them sympathetic, but… on a human level the relationship between Tom and Albrecht is kind of tragic for both of them, and I hope that comes across.
CraveOnline: Something that has rung true throughout all of the Tom Strong story is that the all of the character choices are believable, logical. How do you lock down a character's decision to do one thing instead of another?
Peter Hogan: Writing comics has two aspects, really. One’s the plotting and planning side of things, where you’re standing back at a distance, and everything’s all very logical. And the other side is the actual writing, which is a lot more intuitive, and you’re much more deeply involved. For example… I’d decided right at the start to use Dr. Permafrost, but I didn’t know quite how he was going to interact with Tom until I started writing those scenes. Nor did I know that he’d be waking me up in the middle of the night to argue about his dialogue…
Ultimately, the thing you’re aiming for is that it should all ring true to the characters, and the characters themselves will tell you if you’re going wrong.
CraveOnline: How in the hell does one plot out a time travel story without one's mind exploding?
Peter Hogan: I’m sure there are those who think my mind exploded years ago! It’s just a question of thinking it all through again and again, and from every angle you can think of -- and hopefully not leaving any loopholes that leave the readers feeling cheated.
CraveOnline: The end of issue #6 confirms that the Strong family will indeed be returning... any hints you can give us as to when or if you'll be involved? What about Chris Sprouse?
Peter Hogan: Yes, Chris and I will continue to be the creative team on Tom Strong until hell freezes over, if we have our way. The next series is called Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril, and it’s well underway – all the scripts are written, and Chris is working on the first issue. As to when it’s coming out, the answer is probably ‘as soon as we can manage it’. I’m hoping it’ll be towards the end of next year, but I might be being over-optimistic.
But beyond that, hopefully we can carry on producing a new Tom Strong mini-series every year.
CraveOnline: That’s amazing news. You’ve made this fan very happy [laughs]. I'm not sure if this is something you have an answer for, but will the ABC imprint continue under DC Comics, or has that gone away with the closure of WildStorm?
Peter Hogan: I honestly don’t know. I think it’d be nice if they kept it, just for a sense of continuity and heritage, but ultimately I have no say in the matter. Right now I’m just pleased that we’re still going, and that we’ll have the same editor.
CraveOnline: Tom Strong and the ABC characters operate in their own very unique little universe; DC has teased the main WildStorm Universe characters being integrated into the DCU in some way in the future. Do you think the ABC characters could co-exist in a world like that (ignoring any creator-owned issues), but more importantly: would you want to see them in that environment?
Peter Hogan: Well, as you say, Tom’s Earth is very definitely not the DC Earth. Since they’ve brought the multiverse back, I suppose the logic would be that Tom’s world is one of those 52 parallel Earths – and of course Terra Obscura is in the same universe as Tom’s.
In other words, if they wanted to do an occasional crossover where Tom teamed up with say, Superman or Captain Marvel, I could probably make that work as a one-off quite easily. But if they wanted to put Tom on the DC Earth, it’d kill the character stone dead. It just wouldn’t work.
CraveOnline: Is there anything else you'd like to add about your work on Robots of Doom, or what's coming up next for you?
Peter Hogan: I’m very pleased with Robots of Doom, and I think it reads much better in one chunk, so I hope the trade will get some attention when it comes out.
Not much I can say about new stuff right now. I’m trying to get a couple of projects off the ground, and also trying to map out where Tom might be going after Planet of Peril, for the third series. Stay tuned.
CraveOnline: Peter, thanks so much for your time, and we’ll be waiting in high anticipation for more Tom Strong, believe me.
