JAY FAERBER

JAY FAERBER
The following is an e-mail interview with JAY FAERBER, who has written titles from GENERATION X to NEW WARRIORS. This interview was conducted on February 17, 1999.
JOHN DALTON: What is your earliest comic book memory?
JAY FAERBER: That's a tough one, actually. I remember my first issue of NEW TEEN TITANS was #25 where the Titans were in space fighting Starfire's evil sister. I was ten years old, and it blew my mind that Robin was leading his own team of teenage super-heroes!
JOHN DALTON: What, in your early life, prepared you to work in comics?
JAY FAERBER: All through school I thought I wanted to DRAW comics, not write them. Problem was, I didn't have anyone to write them for me. So I wrote and drew my own, in pencil. By my freshman year in college, I realized I couldn't draw, so I dropped out of the Art program and became an English major.
JOHN DALTON: How did you get your first break in comics?
JAY FAERBER: After pestering numerous DC editors with all kinds of submissions for the better part of a year, my pal Devin Grayson convinced editor Eddie Berganza to let me write a 10-page Wonder Girl story for the SECRET ORIGINS 80-PAGE GIANT. At almost that exact same time, I struck up a friendship with Marvel editor Frank Pittarese (sparked by our common interest in the soap opera General Hospital, if you can believe it), and he asked me to write the last issue of WHAT IF, #114.
JOHN DALTON: You are writing GENERATION X and getting ready to reboot a long-time fan fave, THE NEW WARRORS. What is it you like about teen heroes?
JAY FAERBER: I guess it's just that my favorite comic, growing up, was NEW TEEN TITANS. I like the arrogance that teenagers have. And I don't mean that in a mean way. I just mean that they have a tendency to think they know it all, and that allows them a certain freedom. It's attractive. But I gotta tell you, I'm starting to feel typecast! Nearly all of my published work (WHAT IF, GenX, TITANS SECRET FILES, the upcoming YOUNG JUSTICE 80-PAGE GIANT) has been about teenage superheroes. I wanna write grown-ups, too!
JOHN DALTON: What are you most proud of that you have done in comics so far?
JAY FAERBER: Oh geez...Probably the new characters artist Gregg Schigiel and I invented for that WHAT IF issue. We invented five teenage offspring of established Marvel heroes. We nicknamed them the "Secret Warriors", and they just really "clicked." We have SO many stories in mind for those kids, if Marvel would only let us tell them.
JOHN DALTON: What is your "dream project" in comics?
JAY FAERBER: Well, a couple months ago I woulda said, "to revive NEW WARRIORS." But I guess I have to scratch that off my "to do" list, hunh? I really want to bring back the SUICIDE SQUAD. Most of my stuff so far has been pretty "light", but I really want to tackle some darker, more adult concepts, and I think I could do a killer SUICIDE SQUAD.
JOHN DALTON: As the 20th century winds down, what do you see happening in comics in the next century?
JAY FAERBER: I try not to think too much about "the state of the industry." It makes my head hurt. I just concentrate on telling the best stories I can.