Eric Trautmen Interview

Eric Trautmen first caught my attention when he helped Greg Rucka with the last few arcs of his Checkmate series. Since then, Eric has gained a good deal of fanboy support for his work on DC's espionage title, and has certainly left me wanting to read more from him in the future.

In hopes of getting to ask Eric some questions before he skyrocketed to the highest heights of comic-creator fame, I shot him a few questions and he was kind enough to sit down and reply.

Without further ado, I'll let the interview speack for itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My favorite arc of the entire Checkmate run was the Mademoiselle Marie story that immediately followed the Fall of the Wall arc. At this point, your name was a regular in the book's credits and so I'd like to ask you about what I think was the best scene in that arc, and by extension in that series. It's a two-page spread depicting various Mademoiselle Marie's throughout history. How did that page come about?

Greg had the idea for doing various scenes of "Maries through the ages." That specific sequence is one he wrote, but I think the notion of the crypt and the ceremony itself wherein Tautin is inducted into the ranks of Maries past might have been derived from some harebrained notion I tossed into the mix during one of our frequent story calls.

During the writing process, I know Greg asked me occasionally to help him track down references on the Maquis and stuff, but I'm pretty sure that two-page spread was pure Rucka.

Was there a good deal of research involved for the Marie back-story? If so, what were your sources?

I know Greg researched it pretty thoroughly, and I dug up online sources to help with some of the World War II stuff. Beyond that, I'm not sure where Greg pulled it from.

Was the Marie character one that you and Greg were able to flesh out mostly on your own?

We really never got much in the way of resistance from our editor, Joan Hilty, on really anything we wanted to do. As long as we weren't blatantly going out of our way to contradict the existing Marie "lore," we were free to come up with all sorts of material.

Continuing the last question, Sgt. Rock and The Unknown Soldier, probably my two favorite DC characters (at least from their concept) are featured on missions with a Marie. I was just curious if you've read any of the old Rock and Unknown Soldier stories, and what your thoughts on them are.

Heh. Of course I have! I'm the guy who brought back the G.I. Robot!

I LOVE the old DC war comics. Enemy Ace is a favorite, as was Sgt. Rock. One of the first comics I remember reading was an old 1970s era "Brave & The Bold" which featured the Golden Age Batman and the Unknown Soldier. I don't remember the specifics of the issue (beyond some kind of Nazi infiltrator doing something dastardly at the Lincoln Memorial) but what I do recall, I recall fondly.

I feel like the best kept secret of the DC publishing catalogue of the past year was the The Question: Five Books of Blood trade, which contained, along with the awesome miniseries by Greg Rucka and various artists, this vast dossier putatively composed by Renee Montoya. From what I can gather, you did most of the design work for the faux documents included within.

How much work did the project turn out to be?

Not as much as you might think, but WAY more than we intended. Is that a helpful answer, or what?

How much extra research did you have to do for the DCU brands? (were you the first to come up with a DCU AIM client?)

Really not a lot. Pulled most of that out of my own head. It just seemed reasonable.

I did have to track down the Ferris logo to do the airline ticket; that's probably the most "research" I had to do. Most of the research I did was visual: what does a police report look like, what does a toe-tag look like, etc.

Were you clued in on the details of Final Crisis for incorporating the "Darkseid's Bitch" aspects of the meta-story?

In very, very, very vague terms, yes. Mostly we knew that "Grant's doing something big, and it involves the New Gods, and Apokolips." Little else (though I suspect Greg knew a great deal more than I did--and do, or likely ever will--about the project).

We knew some of the ways that the Crime Bible specifically tied into Apokolips, and the DSB thing -- ably abetted by VicSage.com guru Eric Newsom -- actually grew organically out of that.

You and Brandon Jerwa collaborated on a short story for the second volume of Image's Popgun Anthology. How was that collaboration compared to the one you had with Rucka?

For one, I'm taller than Brandon. :)

It's actually pretty similar; Greg and I tend to spend a lot of time bouncing ideas around, and getting excited about esoteric little nuggets that will probably end up never seeing the light of day. Brandon and I tend to have that same kind of enthusiasm; both have been very, very fertile collaborations.

Could you talk a little bit about that comic for the readers, give a basic summary.

Sure. PopGun is an anthology book--something like 400 pages--filled with short works by all kinds of established creators and folks you might not have heard of.

Our contribution (along with artists David Messina and Mirco Pierfedirici) was called "Wide Awake: Beyond the Wall of Sleep". It's a supernatural/adventure tale, which introduces Amanda Carter, a young girl who is tormented by horrible nightmares of monsters and apocalypse.

She also has learned, at very young age that she has an unusual gift--bringing unfinished business (aka MONSTERS) from her dreams into the waking world.

And, she believes, a demonic entity called The Messenger is attempting to get her to dream the end of the world, in order to make it real...

Anyone interested can find the whole 9-pager online at Comic Book Resources, and a "director's commentary" version on Brandon Jerwa's "Anything Goes" column on Comics Waiting Room.

(And if you enjoy it, Brandon and I are currently hard at work on on original graphic novel for DC/Vertigo, which I can't wait to be able to talk about.)

So far, you and Greg have made Cinnamon the Cowgirl and Snapper Carr into complete bad-asses. Is there any character that you can't make awesome by turning them into a Checkmate agent?

Brother Power, The Geek.

But he's awesome in his own way.

And to be fair: Keith Giffen established that Snapper was a Checkmate agent in his "52 Aftermath: Four Horsemen" series, and Jen Van Meter brought the Cinnamon awesomeness in "Cinnamon: El Ciclo" some years back. Credit where credit's due. :)

Final Crisis: Resist really seems to be the book that actually gives the heroes some hope of success with the activation of the O.M.A.C.s, was that plot point something that Grant Morrison had written into his overall plot but just couldn't fit into the main book?

I'm not sure where the OMAC thing came from. I never spoke to Grant during the writing of Resist -- Greg and Grant (and Eddie Berganza, and Dan DiDio, and undoubtedly a cast of thousands) had chewed it all over prior to my being brought on board. My job was to sort of absorb what I'd been told, and try not to have blood come shooting out of my ears as I realized the full and terrifying scope of Grant's effort.

Final Crisis #3 had some really great scenes with the six "Watchtowers" all across the world. Why did you and Greg focus on the Antarctica base when there were other pockets of "resistance"?

Partially to cut down on instances of continuity overkill (it's tough to coordinate it all, frankly), but mostly because we were going for that isolated, "five guys in a lifeboat" sort of feel. And, well, Mr. Rucka has had some small success setting stories in Antarctica...

(Though, I have to say, I'm disappointed no one has teased us for the Justice League: Antarctica joke yet.)

Did any of Greg's insane levels of research for the Whiteout series come into play as you guys crafted a story set on the icy continent?

I'm sure it did. I sorta deferred all that stuff to him--he's the expert. I tended to be the guy playing with the Gideon-II/Thinker stuff, and coming up with Darkseid's creepy "garden" project.

What comics are you reading right now? What has you excited about the medium?

My wife and I own a comics shop -- Olympic Cards and Comics in Lacey, WA -- so I try to at least glance at whatever is coming in every week (though I'm SO far behind in my comics writing, it's pathetic.)

I dig Invincible, Walking Dead, any of the Hellboy and BPRD stuff; Dark Horse is doing great stuff with the Robert E. Howard titles -- Kull, Conan, Solomon Kane. I'm a pulp junkie, so I'm almost genetically predisposed to enjoy that stuff.

I'm enjoying Final Crisis, of course.

Probably my favorite book of the last year was the Garth Ennis/Howard Chaykin "War is Hell" title, and of course, I read "The Boys" religiously.

I've been really intrigued by the Marvel literary adaptations -- The Stand, in particular, is really, really good. Oh, and the Euro comics they've been doing under the Soleil imprint. "Universal War One" knocked my socks off.

What about games/movies/prose, Is there anything that you've played/watched/read recently that you really enjoyed?

Kung Fu Panda?

I don't get out to the movies much.

I stared reading "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi, and that's been entertaining as hell. Mostly, I read nonfiction for research purposes. I rarely get a chance to read fiction just for the pure fun of it.

I did get a chance to peruse a draft of Greg Rucka's next Attitcus Kodiak novel, "Walking Dead," and enjoyed that immensely.

And finally, is there anything that you can say about your upcoming Vertigo project?

Yes. I can say that I'm not allowed to say anything yet. Also, not being able to say anything yet is causing me physical pain.

When you think that we'll find out about it?

If I don't stop typing here and get back to finishing up act I by tomorrow, I'll be able to announce that DC fired my ass. :P

No idea, sorry.

---------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Eric for sitting down and answering my inane questions! Be sure to watch Newsarama or whatever your news site of choice is for information on his upcoming projects... And then buy them!