EARTH PRIME TIME: CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT & COMMANDER X PREVIEW WITH JAY PISCOPOMarch 28, 2012
by CLAY FERNALD
Listen to the audio of this interview at this link.
Moonstone Books will co-publish a cross-over one shot with local publisher Nemo Publishing to rebirth the legendary golden age hero Captain Midnight in December 2012. We’re huge fans of the collaborators, Jay Piscopo (Nemo, Capt’n Eli) and Brian Augustyn (DC Comics, Gotham by Gaslight). Jay was kind enough to take us to the skies and give us a birds-eye view of what to expect!
I am here with Jay Piscopo, from Maine! Why don’t you tell us about your Captain Midnight book?
My character, Commander X is going to meet the Golden Age version of Captain Midnight. We are also including cameo appearances of the Airboy and the Airfighters.
It’s all that Brian and I have wanted to see from an aviator World War II comic. One way we describe it is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in WWII facing Nazi Super-Science. It’s a dream come true.
I’m not familiar with Captain Midnight but you were kind enough to send me some history. He first appeared nearly 75 years ago!He’s always been a favorite character of mine, and the reason I zeroed in on him was exactly what you just said, you hadn’t heard of it. A lot of fans and lovers of comics and superheroes don’t realize that these pulp heroes are where they all came from.
Recently with John Carter, we have a situation where since the story and characters are so original, and that everything was derived from these pulp stories, the audience says “I’ve already seen this before.” What I found relevant about Captain Midnight is that we are still in a world of war.
There are issues brought out by World War II about what democracy is, and what war is all about. We can talk about these issues today, using something from the past.
Captain Midnight is visually interesting to me as well. Like a lot of people I watch YouTube more than I watch TV now. I love watching BASE jumping. Looking at the wing suits they wear I said, “Wait a minute…that’s Captain Midnight!” I like the fun of having a dogfight between a Nazi jet and a guy with cloth wings between his arms as wings. I thought those scenes would be fun for a modern comics reader without being too pastiche-y. Click HERE to continue reading the interview on Dig Boston.
