CG: My penciler on Deadshot, Steven Cummings (who drew the cover of Paradox #1), has a friend named Egg Embry who is an editor at Arcana. Through them I met publisher Sean O’Reilly. I’d had the idea for Paradox for a while, but only wanted to do it as a comic if I could own it. However, self-publishing was not an option for me due to my schedule. Sean suggested an arrangement that allowed me to focus on the writing side while he focuses on the business end and putting together the package. It’s worked out great so far. I think Arcana offers a great product with dynamic full color books featuring top-notch production values that are priced competitively with anything else out there.
 

5. The art is just superb. Did Sean (Honcho of Arcana) set you up with your team (Pencils Luis Henrique Ribeiro, Colors Ian Sokoliwski) or did you bring the talent with you?

CG: Sean deserves the credit for putting together the art team. He sent me a few different pencilers’ samples, and Luis’ just jumped out at me as having the perfect blend of realism and larger than life fantasy. Ian has worked on Dark Horse’s Conan reprint books, so his qualifications are obvious. He’s really brought so much to the story…I think colorists are not appreciated enough considering how important they are.

6. Any other books on the horizon for you outside of "Paradox" or any other major news?

CG: The first week in November, my first Marvel work comes out in Spider-Man Unlimited #12. It’s a fun story featuring the return of the cheesy seventies villain The Big Wheel! Fantastic Four artist Mike McKone is doing the art, which I am thrilled about.

In 2006, I have a three-part story in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #204-206, drawn by Ron Wagner. Titled “Cold Case,” it draws on my procedural-writing background, featuring Batman in detective mode. A true-crime writer announces he’s figured out who committed Gotham’s decades-old, never solved Robinson Park Ripper murders: the late Thomas Wayne. Batman must delve into the distant past to clear his father’s name, a task complicated by a mysterious figure who is killing anyone with first-hand knowledge of the case.

There are other projects that it’s too early to talk about but will be very exciting if they come to pass.

7. What is your dream book/character to tackle in the world of comics?

CG: I think it’s no secret that my dream project is a Suicide Squad book. But as of right now I think DC has made them part of Checkmate, so that’s not in the cards for the near future, anyway. I can’t really complain, though, having recently gotten to write Deadshot, my favorite Squad character, not to mention Batman and Spider-Man.

8. What writers and illustrators have influenced you in your writing?

CG: In comics, a lot of the usual suspects…Frank Miller, Alan Moore, John Byrne, Neil Gaiman and the like. Outside comics, James Ellroy, Stephen King, J. D. Salinger, screenwriters such as David Milch (Deadwood) and David Peoples (Unforgiven), and of course people I’ve worked with like Robert Nathan (Law & Order).

9. Are you also a comic collector? If so do you remember your first book that got you hooked?

CG: Yes I am…these days I am more of a reader than a collector, but I still have my share of long boxes! I’ve been reading since age three, so I don’t recall my very first comic, but the oldest comic I bought that I still have is Amazing Spider-Man #161. Boy, it’s ragged! The storyline that got me hooked, though, would have to be Days of Future Past in Uncanny X-Men #141-142. That was it; I was in it for life.

10. Anything your fans don’t know about you that would make Detective Nault possibly break the cuffs out?

CG: These days I am pretty much a boring married guy, but I may have toyed with super-villainy in my reckless youth. My greatest run-in with the law, though, was in high school, for something I didn’t even do. I was driving home one night in my 1986 Camaro when I was boxed in by a half-dozen police cars whose occupants leaped out and shielded themselves behind their doors, weapons at the ready to blow me away. Turns out someone in a car similar to mine had fired a few shotgun rounds into a bar not long before. My guess is he got away by the time the authorities realized they had the wrong man.

Mr.A: As always I must ask...What piece of advice would you give your fans who are also writers themselves?

CG: Be smarter than me -- have a skill to fall back on if writing doesn’t work out. For me it’s either this or a lifetime of “would you like fries with that.” On a more creative note, make sure you love what you’re writing. That sounds obvious, but I’ve known people who wrote things they thought would make money, or that the market wanted, but that they really weren’t that excited about. The problem is, if you don’t love it, I don’t care how talented you are, it’s going to suck. If you love it and it doesn’t sell, at least you had the joy of creating it. Then it’s time to put that backup skill to use ;)