Tue Jun 24, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Bob Greenberger on 'The Essential Batman Encyclopedia'

New Batman project finds ComicMix contributor at the helm...

I've directed you to Tom Spurgeon's "Sunday Interview" series before, but this time around, the ol' Comics Reporter has posted a special treat for ComicMix readers. Our very own Bob Greenberger, who most recently interviewed Bob Rozakis about his alternate-history project with Alter Ego and Back Issue magazines here on ComicMix, spoke with Spurgeon about his work on The Essential Batman Encyclopedia.

While Spurgeon and Greenberger chat at length about many interesting aspects of the Batman project that's currently being hyped heavily in the lead-up to the release of The Dark Knight, I'll admit that Greenberger's discussion of life at the Weekly World News office was one of my favorite elements of the interview.

SPURGEON: I've always wanted to ask someone who worked there -- what was your Weekly World News experience like?

GREENBERGER: Wild and chaotic and even more seat-of-your pants than Marvel under Bill Jemas. Our editor-in-chief Jeff Rovin would have us shoehorn in new stories the day before we were due on press. Our publishers sometimes changed their minds and wanted an entirely new cover story produced in two or three days. Yet, we got it down to a system where four of managed to edit, proof, layout and design the 48-pages every week without break too much of a sweat. The articles and columns rolled in, got scheduled and printed and we never had to stay late -- okay, maybe once or twice. We were all incredibly optimistic at the newspaper fortunes as licensing deals were getting signed and we were reshaping the magazine for new audiences and then we got canceled, largely because I don't think AMI ever understood the value of the brand until the week the news broke. It was an incredible delight and a heck of a lot of fun.

Head over to The Comics Reporter for the full interview.

On a side note, one has to wonder if Greenberger has ever tired of writing "Bat Boy" stories.

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