Charlie Jane Anders is a very big wheel in speculative fiction circles. Back in the day she was responsible, along with Annalee Newitz, for making io9 the premiere site for geek news that transcended pop culture to encompass politics, science, social commentary, and more. She’s the author of two novels, All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, plus the short story collection Six Months, Three Days, Five Others, and the novella Rock Manning Goes For Broke. She’s won a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a William H. Crawford Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Emperor Norton Award and, as she wryly notes on her Goodreads bio, she is “…probably the only person to have become a fictional character in a Star Trek novel and in one of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City books.”
What’s more, she was recently in Perth as a guest of SwanCon 2019 (as was I), where she made an indelible impression on the assembled nerderati. So, when it was announced that the multi-talented Ms Anders would be making her Marvel Comics debut with a 10 page She-Hulk story in the imminent War Of The Realms: War Scrolls #3, Chaos Pop leaped at the chance to throw a few questions her way.
Firstly, how did this come about? Did you pitch to Marvel, did they come to you – how did that play out?
I am so incredibly grateful that Wil Moss and Sarah Brunstad at Marvel have made such a great effort to bring in new writers to play in their sandbox, for some of these tie-in issues. The issue I’m in also has the comics debut of Halt and Catch Fire‘s Christopher Cantwell. I had been chatting with Wilson and Sarah for ages, and I was so stoked when they came to me with this opportunity.
What attracted you to the character of She-Hulk?
I’ve been into She-Hulk since I got a bunch of the John Byrne issues from the bargain bin, back when some comics stores sold old issues for 10 cents each and I could just get an entire run of a series for a few bucks. But I really fell in love with her through Dan Slott’s run, and rediscovered her when Charles Soule was writing her, and was blown away by Mariko Tamaki’s take on her. I love how sarcastic she is, and how big her heart is. And even with Daredevil also being in the Marvel Universe, it’s still really fresh and interesting that she’s an attorney. And I feel like She-Hulk, even more than the other Hulks, gets to become more fearless and emotionally open when she’s Hulked out, which is such a fun dynamic.
As a prose fiction writer with a strong journalism background, how did you find the formal requirements of comics scripting?
Honestly, I was really worried about this. When prose writers get into comics, often there’s a tendency to throw in too many unnecessary words. The pacing and feel of the storytelling in comics is really different, too. I felt nervous about making this switch, but I also just spent a lot of time looking at comics I liked and reading some scripts. I think it’s a huge learning curve.
You previously contributed to the anthology comic The Big Feminist BUT. How did your experience writing for Marvel differ from that?
The Big Feminist BUT was my comics writing debut—it was a small indie anthology where I contributed a story about a girl who wants to be shrunk to doll size so she’ll take up less space, sort of like that Downsizing Matt Damon movie from a couple years ago. It was a learning experience because I did try to cram too much into each page. This was very different because I was working with established characters in the middle of a larger storyline, so it was a lot more coordination – but also, I felt like I had learned a bit more about pacing and stuff.
Did you have any say in selecting artist Simone D’Armini? How did you find working with him?
Simone D’Armini’s art is so gorgeous, and I was so thrilled that he was paired with me for this story. It was a wonderful surprise when I first got to see his take on this heroic journey through Svartalfheim. The art is so mind-blowingly cool, and Federico Blee’s colors add a whole extra layer of awesome.
Was fitting your story within the framework of a big crossover event difficult? How do you facilitate that process, and what guidelines were you given?
This was another area where I was really nervous, but Wilson Moss and Sarah Brunstad were so great about giving me all the context I needed, and it was kind of a fun challenge to find the empty spot inside this larger storyline where something had been left unexplored. It’s almost like writing fanfic, in a way; you take the existing story and go, “But what happens in between this bit and this bit?” There ended up being so much to explore with She-Hulk’s state of mind at this point in the War of the Realms story, I went from being anxious about continuity to feeling as though I was just unwrapping a bunch of presents that had been left for me.
She-Hulk’s last solo series saw her Hulk incarnation being fairly explicitly used as a metaphor for unresolved trauma and PTSD – does that inform your story?
I re-read Mariko Tamaki’s issues recently, and they’re so powerful and intense, and I was able to work a couple of shout-outs to them into this story. That said, if you’ve been reading The Avengers lately, you’ll know that She-Hulk’s status quo has changed a LOT since then, and she’s now a bit more like the classic old-school Bruce Banner Hulk. Which gave me an opportunity to have a bit more fun with her. I think it’s a testament to the richness of her character that she can serve as a metaphor for so many different things.
Okay, dream casting for She-Hulk. If they were to do a movie or, even better, a Disney+ series, who do you see in the role?
Oh wow… assuming they were really casting Jen Walters, and then doing She-Hulk via mo-cap… I dunno. Maybe Aparna Nancherla? I feel like she could do Jen’s dry wit really well.
Any dream comics writing gigs for you? What books would you really love to have a crack at?
I would love to do more comics work. I have one or two creator-owned projects that I keep wanting to find a home for. Also, I have a longstanding not-so-secret dream of writing a Doctor Who comic.
Finally, what’s up next for you?
I’m hard at work on my young-adult space opera trilogy, which has a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars in its DNA, but also a ton of Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova Corps and other space comics.
You should definitely make a point of following Charlie Jane on Twitter here.
