Matthew Sturges is an American writer of comics, most noted for the Eisner-award nominated Jack of Fables from DC/Vertigo. He is, also, currently writing House of Mystery and Blue Beetle. He has recently completed his run on Shadowpact and the mini-series, Salvation Run. He is also the author of a novel, Midwinter (2001), and a book of short horror fiction, Beneath the Skin and Other Stories (2000). Matt has graciously agreed to answer questions submitted by the patrons of our own Earth Beer 30 Bar.

Matthew Sturges: I like villains. They're fun to write because they have more freedom as characters; they're not limited by a moral code and they're not answerable to society. Putting on a super villain costume is essentially lifting both gloved middle fingers at society and saying, "I'm doing this my way - to hell with all of you." There's something really compelling about that. Writing Salvation Run particularly was like a smorgasbord of characters, getting to try out writing a lot of favorite characters. I really enjoyed writing Lex Luthor, quite a lot.

Rickflag1: Do you find the villains more interesting than the heroes?
Matthew Sturges: A good villain is a compelling character, but you can't fall in love with a villain in the same way that you can with a hero. There's something magical about the kind of identification you have with the hero, whether it's the commiseration you feel with Peter Parker, or the slightly-fearful awe for Batman, or the sheer wish-fulfillment that is Superman. These guys feed some kind of primal hunger that we as people have, something that tells us how to be better than ourselves. But yeah, the villains are kind of more interesting.

Matthew Sturges: The one I always wanted but could never get my hands on was Zatanna. I love Zatanna. I love that she doesn't have to change clothes when she leaves her day job. I love that she keeps doing her act even though she almost certainly doesn't need the money. But mainly I love that she fights crime in fishnet stockings and a top hat.

Csafounder: What type of drinks and beer does the Oblivion Bar serve and would they be interested in serving some of the EB30 recipes?

Matthew Sturges: The Oblivion has a pretty well-stocked bar, with booze from at least thirty of the 52 universes. But I'd recommend staying away from the premium stuff, because I know for a fact that they water it down.

Matthew Sturges: You absolutely do - you have to be some kind of sick monster to come up with that. Which is why I'm glad it was Willingham who came up with it, and not me. I don't know what this says about us, but when Bill wrote that story and turned it in, the rest of us were like, "Oh, that's a nice story. Really well done." But I can't remember any of us being grossed out by it or thinking that it was especially creepy.

Matthew Sturges: I guess that one would have to go to Alan Moore. In terms of sheer creative muscle, understanding of the medium, originality, consistency and range. When you're up-and-coming in your field, I think it's useful to find a touchstone, the level of awesomeness that you're aspiring to. Moore has always been that for me. When I look at what I've done, I can ask myself "Is this is good as it would be if Alan Moore had done it?" and the answer of course is "No", and then the follow-up is, "Well, let's do better next time." You have to aim high.

Matthew Sturges: I had the most "fun" writing the Joker, in terms of sheer amusement. Everybody's got their ideas about how these characters should be written; everybody's got "their" version of the character. I think when I wrote my Joker I pulled a little bit of everything, from the creepy Golden Age version of the character, to the wackier sixties version (with a soupcon of Caesar Romero thrown in for good measure), and a dash of the ultra-violent modern interpretation. The way I wrote him was this - in Joker's mind he's in a different comic that everyone else is. He's in a comedy, and he doesn't understand why the rest of them take it all so seriously. He is Clown as Sociopath: he doesn't see other people as anything other than props in his comedy act. That's what makes him both so funny and so terrifying.

Matthew Sturges: Hmm. We never really talked about it in those terms. We never stopped and said, "It's got to be like this particular thing or that particular thing." I'm just writing the kind of things that interest me and that I like to write. The thing is that a lot of my influences came from or through those early Vertigo books: Sandman, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man. Those were the books I picked up every month when I was in college and so of course they fed my worldview and how I see comics.

Alexziq: How much will we see Cain, Abel, and the Dreaming?

Matthew Sturges: More than is apparent, but less than some will hope.

Alexziq: Will Goldie or Destiny be showing up at all?

Matthew Sturges: That's a question I get asked a lot. The thing is that I want House of Mystery to be taken on its own as a work complete unto itself. I want people to be able to read it knowing nothing whatsoever and still get the complete impact of it. It's incredibly tempting to go for a John Constantine cameo, or beg for an opportunity to sneak Merv Pumpkinhead in, but I think when you do that it has the effect of lessening the present work. A perfect example is in the early issues of Sandman where Mister Miracle and Martian Manhunter show up, and you're thinking, "What the frack? What are these guys doing here?"

Alexziq: You've introduced us to 2 bars in your books, House of Mystery and Shadowpact. Any chance the two might have some shared patrons? Is there any special reason behind the 2 bars? We're curious since we're a virtual bar at the EB30 site!

Matthew Sturges: It may be that Willingham and I came up with the idea for House of Mystery while we were sitting in a bar. Maybe we're just that uncreative. If we'd been at a Denny's you'd be reading "Denny's of Mystery." Unfortunately, it's doubtful that you'll see characters from either bar crossing over. It Isn't Done.

Matthew Sturges: What, and get sued for libel by a bunch of drunken comic book fans? Hardly!

Matthew Sturges: I've never had a comic-book style dream. Do people have those? It seems very strange to me. I will say this, though. The one dream that always sticks with me is the one where I'm being accosted by a six-foot-tall blue Garfield, and I realize that the Garfield is actually my dad in disguise and he is judging me.

Matthew Sturges: The main things I'm focusing on right now are House of Mystery, Jack of Fables and Blue Beetle. I've got some other stuff coming up later in the year but I can't really talk about any of it right now. But that should be enough for anyone.

From Jayna10: Now, my weird questions:
I love Babe!!!! What gender is Babe? What made you decide to use Babe in that manner? Genius!!! Please keep Babe as s/he is!!!

Matthew Sturges: Babe's gender is a funny story. When we first starting writing Jack of Fables, we assumed that Babe was female, because...well, the thing is named Babe, for Chrissakes. But we later realizes that Babe is, in fact, male. And when we decided to start doing those ridiculous Babe gags, it became apparent that Babe would be a more versatile character for us to write if he were male. So we changed it, but we added an explanation for the about-face, which appears in issue seventeen, if I've got my facts right.

From Jayna10: I knew who Sam was immediately when I read the first arc of Jack of Fables. Are Fables in Jack of Fables imprisoned because they have fallen out of favor with the Mundys?

Matthew Sturges: No, it's the other way around - they get imprisoned by Mr. Revise, who then snips away at them with his magical shears until the world forgets about them, or turns its back on them. Old Sam was a particular success of Mr. Revise's because he didn't just get the Mundys to forget him - he actually got them to actively remove him from the popular consciousness.

From Jayna10: Were there any other original Fables considered for their own book?

Matthew Sturges: Yes.