While navigating the crowds of retailers, industry professionals and cosplayers at the Baltimore Comic-Con, we ran into Peter J. Tomasi, current writer of Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night: Batman, and discussed what it's like to be one of the main figureheads of the entire DC Universe. Tomasi has been directly involved with the Blackest Night landscape since "The Sinestro Corps War" and is solely responsible for making Nightwing a book worth reading again (although it was canceled due to the events of "Batman RIP"). But now that the original Robin, Dick Grayson, has strapped on the cape and cowl and assumed the mantle of the bat, Tomasi is responsible for writing one of the character's first major adventures; dealing with the resurrection of his parents in the midst of Blackest Night.

CraveOnline: Having written Nightwing for an extended period of time and now revisiting Dick Grayson in Blackest Night: Batman, do you have a strong attachment to the character, and are there plans to revisit him once Blackest Night: Batman wraps up?

Peter J. Tomasi: Right now there are no plans to revisit the character post Blackest Night: Batman. But Dick Grayson is one of those chartacters that has always had potential and I knew when I got on the book (Nightwing) I would have a lot to say and a lot to do with the character. But because of Batman dying it kind of curtailed a lot of my ideas that I planned. But at least I was able to finish it out and give the character some closure and some emotional beats that he wasn't having in some of the other books, also allowing the death of Batman to reverberate through Dick's life before he took over the mantle of the bat.

CraveOnline: If Nightwing hadn't been canceled and your run cut short, what kind of stories did you have cooked up for Dick Grayson?

Peter J. Tomasi: I can't really talk about it because I may use them down the line. So for now, I gotta keep them locked.

CraveOnline: Between us, I would love to see you pick up the reigns of Batman whenever Judd Winnick and Tony Daniel leave the book. Allowing you to continue your Dick Grayson stories.

Peter J. Tomasi: Well he is my favorite character and I'm having a great time writing Blackest Night: Batman. The Batman universe is just a natural fit for me. I love writing Green Lantern Corps, which is big epic sci-fi, but being the first character I really dug as a kid, I would love to have a nice long run on a book starring Dick Grayson.

CraveOnline: Speaking of Green Lantern Corps, how is working on Blackest Night going? Is it stressful coordinating your work between so many people?

Peter J. Tomasi: No. Honestly, Blackest Night and Green Lantern Corps has been very non-stressful. Geoff (Johns) and I have been working together for an incredibly long time and are really good friends. I actually just got back from L.A. where we both went over the beats of Blackest Night's story that we wanted to tie up and figure out before the end of it. It's a pleasure to write it. Geoff and I talk in short-hand now since we've known each other for so long. It's a great partnership in terms of working on the Green Lantern mythology.

CraveOnline: And now with Doug Mahnke stepping onto Green Lantern to draw for Geoff, and you having Patrick Gleason on Green Lantern Corps, the art between the two books really meshes up.

Peter J. Tomasi: Yea, Doug and Pat Gleason are two of the most unsung artists around. Those guys are phenomenal. And look at Patrick, he's been drawing Green Lantern Corps since GLC: Recharge. Outside someone like Mark Bagley, how many artists, in this era, can point to an extended run on a book? They usually say they will be on a book for one, two years, and they're gone after six issues.

CraveOnline: Some of the action Gleason draws in GLC is just insane. I don't know if you just overload the scripts with bombastic set pieces because you know Pat can handle it, but some of that stuff he puts out is just senses overload, there's just so much going on.

Peter J. Tomasi: Yea, Pat likes the eye candy. He puts a lot of stuff into his pages and stresses himself out over it. But Pat is a real artist's artist. He really loves drawing this stuff. He gives the fans a lot so when they open up a book they don't just gloss over the pictures. They have to put together the words and the images to get the most out of it.

CraveOnline: Well it shows. GLC has been fantastic. Switching gears, recently it was announced you would be stepping down from writing duties on Outsiders, Dan Didio, editor-in-chief of DC Comics, taking your place. How did that come about?

Peter J. Tomasi: I never planned to stay for very long. My run was just to get the book up and running again. There have been so many creative changes on Outsiders that it was important for someone to stay a while just to solidify things. But there were always plans for me to jump onto other books, so I fit in the Outsiders gig to give the book some good stories.

CraveOnline: Will Dan Didio be picking up right from where leave things?

Peter J. Tomasi: To be honest, I don't know what he has planned.

CraveOnline: Well that first issue you did on Outsiders, Batman and the Outsiders Special #1, was amazing. The scene with Alfred and Bruce's hologram message was just phenomenal.

Peter J. Tomasi: Yea, a lot of people really latched onto that Alfred scene. I got a lot of feedback about that. Alfred's a great character and nobody had really hit upon the emotional reaction a character like him would have to Bruce's death. Who, for all intensive purposes, was Bruce's father. And Outsiders was a great spot to touch on that. I could write an Alfred monthly, easily.

CraveOnline: Sold