By Toney Tapia

Mark Waid was born in Hueytown, Alabama. He bought his first comic, Batman #180, at age four and has never once since entertained the notion of not buying comics. He lived all over the Deep South through his formative teenage years, though you couldn't tell it by his accent, thank God.

In his early twenties, granted only the writing skills one absorbs by living life as a copious reader, Waid began freelance reporting for the comic book trade publications Amazing Heroes and Comic Buyer's Guide. This led to a brief staff position in the mid-1980s as editor of Amazing Heroes, followed by a longer editorial tenure at DC Comics (1987-1989), where he edited Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origins, Doom Patrol and a host of one-shot titles. With writer Brian Augustyn, Waid co-created DC's extremely successful franchise of "Elseworld" stories with Gotham By Gaslight, a tale of what Batman's career might have been like had he been active during the days of Jack the Ripper.

Waid left staff in 1989 to pursue a full-time freelance career. Since then, he has written stories for every major comics publisher, including Marvel Comics (X-Men, Captain America), Archie Comics (where he served briefly as their cover-gag editor), Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics, under whose banner Waid produces most of his work. In years past, he has written every major comics character from Superman to Batman to Spider-Man.

Though he can name only 38 states, Waid possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of comics history and trivia and also serves as DC Comics' unofficial historian. Each working day, he routinely fields phone calls from DC's other writers and editors, all of whom ask questions as diverse (just to pick two from one day) as "What's the date on the giant penny in the Batcave?" (1947) and "What are the names of Lois Lane's parents?" (Sam and Ella).

DYNAMIC FORCES:  Mr. Waid, you've been through it all, including writing hit titles like Fantastic Four, Captain America, JLA, The Flash, just to name a few.  What goes on in the mind of Mark Waid when coming up with these great intense storylines?
MARK WAID: Dude, you are WAY too flattering.  What's generally going through my mind is, simply, "How can I be true to these characters and their history and personality and yet not be repetitive?"  It's really hard with the big guns to not accidentally or unconsciously repeat old plot developments or themes.  By and large, I simply sit down and ask myself, "What's the worst, most dramatic thing possible that can happen to these characters?" and go from there.  It's easier than it looks.  Tell no one.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  What brought you to the world of comics?
MARK WAID: I've just been reading 'em all my life and saw no reason, as an adult, not to turn my hobby into my job.  I'm one of the lucky ones that way.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  Do you remember the first comic that you read?
MARK WAID: Yup.  Batman #180, 1966.  Still have a copy framed over my desk to remind me why I do this.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  With all the legendary work that you have done already in comics, is there a character or team book that you haven't worked on yet that you would love to get your hands on?
MARK WAID: Someday, I still want to tackle DC's Captain Marvel.   And it would be fun, I think, to do an extended run on Superman or Batman, neither of whom I've handled very much on their own.  Someday.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  Your "RUSE" days were some of my favorite.  Let's say DC decided to bring "RUSE" back.  Would you like to take on the helms again with Simon Archard?
MARK WAID: It was a hella lot of work, but sure.  It's always fun trying to write a character who's ten times smarter than you could ever hope to be.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  I guess you're really busy with this small thing that's going on over at DC called "52" and the "One Year Later" Series.  What do you have planned for the DC Universe during this time?
MARK WAID: If only I could reveal some of the details on 52--but we're sworn to secrecy. All I can tell you is that we're already up to issue 22 in scripts and we're having a blast.  Beyond that, there's also SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES every month with Barry Kitson, and upcoming this fall, BRAVE AND BOLD with George Perez, the DC team-up book.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  On an off day from writing, what do you like to do?  Any hobbies?
MARK WAID: My number one hobby is avoiding work.   This is often accomplished by putting together insanely detailed paper models.   I used to do a lot more model-building with vehicles and figures and such, but I don't have a great work space for that in my current place, so I kinda limit myself now to what I can do with cardstock and glue.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  What about music?  What are you listening to these days?
MARK WAID: Liz Phair, for whom I would eat bees, Modest Mouse, Black Eyed Peas, and lots and lots of books on CD that betray my left-wing liberalism.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  If you were stranded on a deserted island, with a portable DVD player that had enough power to watch one last film, what would that film be and why?
MARK WAID: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for probably the millionth time, because it's just a perfect movie.  Brilliant cast, brilliant script, brilliant music, brilliant camerawork, flawless storytelling.

DYNAMIC FORCES:  Last but not least, we've told that the best advice to give someone who is beginning a writing career, is to write what you wanna write.  What do you think of that advice and what's the best advice you would give someone?
MARK WAID: I do salute that advice--the best writing is always the stuff where the writer's enthusiasm and sincerity shines through--and would add to that this advice: come to grips with the reality that a lot of times you're going to have to throw away things you've written because you'll realize you've written yourself into a dead end and need to back up and start again from the place where it last "worked."  The people who are willing to do this are writers; the ones who aren't are fans who will have their unfinished fantasy trilogy manuscript forever in their desk because it's too precious for them to edit.  

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