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CB: That was a heartbreaking page. There were two moments that really captured 9-11, in my view, in that book, and one was the photograph of Lois Lane in the wreckage, and the other was that marvelous two-page spread where one page is ash, and the other page is bright blue sky. It came across very well. Certainly, politics have really informed the direction of your cartooning – you’ve always been very political. My understanding is that your next major graphic novel is probably going to be the most overtly political of your works.

FM: Yeah.

CB: Tell me about it.

FM: My next graphic novel, I’ve inked about 120 pages of it, so it’s a work in progress, and will probably be about 200 pages long – is called “Holy Terror, Batman!”

[audience applauds]

FM: And not to put too fine a point on it, it is a piece of propaganda. Batman kicks al-Qaeda’s ass.

[audience applauds]

CB: Alright – so in calling it propaganda, how do you want your art to impact the war effort?

FM: I want us to win the war…

[very minor applause]

FM: Oh, only a couple? I know this is San Francisco, but come on! What, you want to lose?

I’m doing this mainly as an explosion from my own gut in reaction to what’s happening now, but also as a reminder to people who’ve seem to have forgotten that we’re up against an utterly ruthless existential foe who is as vile as any we’ve ever faced. I’m appalled at the equivocations, and I wish that the entertainers of our time had the spine and the focus that the ones who faced down Hitler did.

[From audience: “Amen!”, applause]

CB: Taking the opposite tact, however, why do you think it’s proper, and what impact do you hope to achieve using one of the most recognized pop-culture icons of the West as a piece of propaganda?

FM: Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That’s one of the things they’re there for. These are symbols of our people, of our country. These are our folk heroes. It just seemed to be kind of silly to be chasing around the Riddler when you’ve got al-Qaeda out there.

[applause]

CB: What can you impart to us about what we should expect from this story?

FM: Be afraid.

I don’t want to go too much into it, but it’s very pulpy. It’s quite emotional, and I think it’s the best artwork I’ve ever done.

CB: I’ll second that – I’ve seen some, and it’s great.

FM: Again, it’s a love letter to a city, because it’s about Gotham City coming under attack. So it involves a lot more dramatic, industrial landscapes than I’ve done in years. Emotionally, it’s deliberately raw. Whether it comes between a man and a woman, or a man and his city, or between a man and a guy who’s going to go out and kick al-Qaeda’s butt.

CB: You just described these characters as our folk heroes, and it’s absolutely true when you look at the World War II comics, they did use the characters to improve our national morale, to show Captain America punching a really stupid looking Hitler on the nose. That’s really not something that we’re seeing in the media, and here you are staking your claim that you’re going to take it back. So culturally, as readers, how do you think that the use of these heroes to convey these sorts of messages helps us work through the crises that we’re facing?

FM: I don’t now what the effect is, I just know that these are really good tools. The Greeks had their gods and heroes. We need to have ours. During the darkest part of the urban crime wave, up comes Dirty Harry and becomes an instant folk hero. Superman’s always stood as a real icon, but an icon of what? It’s worth a look. Is he this complicated character with eighteen relatives from Krypton living with him, who’s got some complex personal life? Is he the flag-bearer that he came to be during World War II? Is he the golem that he was in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s that dragged generals to the fronts to face each other, to face the bullets the soldiers were facing? Is he the confused guy from the ‘60s? Is he the kind of bland guy from the ‘70s? So who is Superman? Since they’ve made him more powerful than God, I figure he had all the bad guys stopped. It was a matter of converting him.

Batman, the same way, is a man who’s in love with a city. He’s not protecting a planet. It made sense that he would be protecting Gotham. So what are they there for? Are they really going to be up against Toyman in the next issue? Are they really going to be saving damn cats from damn trees? They’ve got to do something with all of these powers.

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