Other People’s Sandboxes, by John Ostrander

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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5 Responses

  1. Elayne Riggs says:

    Another wonderful column, John. I love reading about your writing process.Will there be a Villie action figure? He's my favorite of the characters you and Jan created.I must admit I really don't see Amanda Waller as a hero, and I don't know that you show her as such in the latest Suicide Squad series. But I haven't read the script to #8 yet. Nor am I likely to soon, as it's currently being hoarded at present by the guy who's pencilling the last scene…

    • Jonathan (the other says:

      Amanda Waller does seem to be a "hero", at least by her own lights. She can see the potential danger posed by metahumans to the population at large, whether the metahumans concerned mean such harm or not; she doesn't see anyone else who seems prepared to defend normal people from the cape-and-spandex crowd (most people seem to be content to leave that up to the JLA, even though they're almost all metas themselves); and so she does what she believes needs to be done for the greater good.I happen to think she's way off base, but I have to give her credit for trying…

  2. John Ostrander says:

    Already IS a Villie 'action figure", Elayne, in a two-pack with Quin Vos.I don't think Waller is "nice" but, then again, neither is John Gaunt. Maybe we should call them "protagonists" rather than "heroes"?Robin Riggs, btw, is doing STELLAR inking work on the Squad mini. Especially on issue 7 coming up. Thought I'd say so publically.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Amanda Waller and John Gaunt… You know, I just might be willing to approach DC on that one. I'm not sure who would win…Well, yes, I am. Amanda would punt Bob across the bar and John will slice her fool head right off. It could be our first-ever two page Munden's Bar story.

    • Elayne Riggs says:

      And yet you never call, you never write… :)