Photo Courtesy of Julio Diaz

Ethan Van Sciver began his career in the comics industry in 1994, when he created Cyberfrog for Hall of Heroes. After just two issues, the book was picked up as a miniseries for Harris Comics, where Ethan was commissioned to do several other Cyberfrog-related projects as well. By 1997, DC Comics noticed his art and gave him a shot as the guest penciller for Impulse #41.

In 1998 he went over to DC Comics full-time as the regular penciller on the Impulse book, starting on issue #50, and continuing all the way through #67. Most recently, he was providing art for Grant Morrison's New X-Men before once again landing at DC - this time with an exclusive contract - and providing the visuals behind the relaunch of the year - green Lantern: Rebirth.

GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1 - SIGNED BY ARTIST ETHAN VAN SCIVER!

DF: Along with writer Geoff Johns, You're literally resurrecting an icon. Any pressure?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: Yeah, tons of pressure. But it's all about deadlines, not about the actual purpose of the project. The only thing I'm trying to live up to is my own expectations. There is no other Green Lantern book right now. We're rebuilding it, the whole thing, Geoff and I. And we're going beyond the notion of telling a neat story to longtime fans. Our attitude is sort of, "What do we think made this stuff so great to begin with, and how can we do the very best version of that?" The word 'iconic' has become such a cliche' in comics, but it's a mantra in this type of situation. "REBIRTH", literally. We're doing our best to be respectful of what's come before, at the same time spinning it in such a way as to appeal to new readers. So far, it seems to be working.

DF: How did the Green Lantern assignment come to be?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: Well, it started way before I got involved, obviously. I think it's something Dan DiDio had in his heart, you know, something he really felt needed to be done. Pete Tomasi and Geoff felt the same way.

Dan Didio came to a convention in NYC that I was attending, and stopped to chat about a Catwoman project I was working on. He invited me to come to the office the following Monday, promising that he had an ideal project for me. I wasn't planning on being in New York on Monday, but damned if that wasn't a compelling enough invitation to make me change my plans!

When he told me what it was, I was astonished. This wasn't anything I'd even have dreamt of. I'd never worked on anything Green Lantern oriented anyhow, and didn't think I'd be considered for what would undoubtedly be the biggest GL project in ten years. I went home and juggled my in-laws like a circus clown.

DF: What's your favorite Green Lantern story? Writer? Artist?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: I like the "F Sharp Bell". That was an amazing few pages of story and art. Alan Moore should come over to dinner. We'll feed him a big steak for that one. In the meantime, I put the "F Sharp Bell" on the cover to REBIRTH #2, you know. He's dead, but I didn't mean that in a bad way. Everyone's dead on that cover but Hal.

Favorite writers? Honestly, Len Wein was a lot of fun. But there aren't too many. A lot of them seemed to break the rules of the character, i.e. Incredible Willpower, lack of fear, etc. And so that ruins it for me. Not only that, but if a Green Lantern ever offers to give up his ring again because he's not sure if he wants it, I'll personally jump into the comic book, smack him, and take it from him. I want it. The fans want it. I don't want to read about anyone NOT wanting it, unless it's because he has two. Period.

Favorite artists? Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland. That applies to the other books they've worked on as well.

DF: What's next after Rebirth?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: More Green Lantern! I'll be working on the second story arc for the new series, opposite Carlos Pacheco, who ought to give me a lot of food for thought. I look forward to absorbing brilliance from him, as he's one of the finest artists working today.

DF: You've done high-profile work for the Big Two, any story/series ideas of your own in the works?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: Actually in the works? No, not really. I have a series idea, like everyone in the world does, but it's more special to me than just something to hammer out in between big DC projects. I'll get to it when the time is right. As for right now, I'm more interested in doing DCU characters.

DF: What's your dream assignment at DC? Marvel?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: At DC, my dream assignment would be for Geoff Johns and I to be given absolute control over the Wonder Woman franchise. Start from scratch. Or Flash. No, Wonder Woman. Let me get my hands on those. er, villains. Cheetah, Dr. Psycho, Giganta, Silver Swan... I'll even help create some new ones. It'd be a good year.

Eventually, I will do a Plastic Man book. That's my other dream, the more impossible dream. I'm dreaming it right now... look at my rapid eye movement. Whoops, the fact that I'm not a big enough name to sell that book right now just woke me up.

My dream project at Marvel is Aquaman.

DF: What's are you reading these days? Listening to? Watching?
ETHAN VAN SCIVER: I read a lot of conspiracy nonsense that I'm well aware is fiction, but I like the illogical logic of it. I don't read very much, truthfully, because I can't read and draw at the same time. Rarely do I even read comics. I stockpile them and think about the day when I'll get around to reading all of Adventures of Superman by Greg Rucka. That kind of thing.

People should garner a few things about me from the music and television that I watch. I am L-7. Totally uncool, totally out of whack with the rest of the world. And I can't try to be cool either, because it'd be a horrible phony mess, like Jack Paar trying to jam with Black Eyed Peas. With this in mind, understand, pretty much all I listen to is 50's and 60's pop music. And not the cool stuff, like Elvis, Beatles or Hendrix. I love the Beach Boys, Leslie Gore and Jan and Dean. The movies I watch are, quoting Geoff Johns once, his "3000th favorite", and the TV that I watch is ancient and obscure. I make terrible puns to my wife, like, "I should be a human cannonball. They'd never fire a man of my caliber" and she laughs a cold, patronizing little chuckle. But she doesn't understand or appreciate the finer aspects of The Donna Reed Show, so whatever.

Our selection of comics by Ethan can be found here and we highly recommend checking out his work on New X-Men in addition to the current smash success of Green Lantern: Rebirth.

We'll be back next week with another installment of 5 Minutes With. !