Whose Story Is It, Anyway? by John Ostrander
In any given story, one of the primary questions that must be answered by the writer is – whose story is it? For example – in any Batman/Joker story, we assume that the story is going to be about Batman. He is the title character, after all. However, the story can be about the Joker – taken from his perspective, with the Joker as the protagonist and the Batman as his antagonist. A protagonist, after all, is not always a hero.
Sometimes, when I’m having problems with a story, I’ll go back to that simple, basic question – whose story is it? The answer sometimes surprises me. When I was writing my historical western for DC, The Kents, I assumed for a long time that the story was about Nate Kent, who was the direct ancestor of Pa Kent, Clark’s adoptive father. It was only when I was deep into the story that it occurred to me that the story was actually about Nate’s younger brother Jeb, who takes a wrong road, shoots his brother in the back at one point, becomes an outlaw, and eventually has to make things right.
The story may not always be about a person. When I wrote Gotham Nights, the focus of the story was the city itself, and the city was comprised not only of its buildings and roadways but, more importantly, the people who lived there, of whom I tried to give a cross-sampling. Batman was a part of all that because he is a part of Gotham City but the miniseries didn’t focus on him. It was Gotham City’s story.
Nothing is created in a vacuum. Though the artist may like to think that the work springs forth Zeus-like full blown from their brow, the truth is any number of different other works influence your own. The works that move and affect us as artists also teach and guide us in our own expression. 
, thus, shows that Otomo Katsuhiro’s epic comics story [[[Akira]]] is at least moderately popular, at home in Japan and here in the USA. Akira was turned into a movie and had the usual small flood of licensed goods, and it was also thought worthy of a book to document all of the odds and ends – both the bits of art from the original serialization that didn’t make it into the collections, and some records of those many ancillary products.
Obits – obituaries – are tough things to write. Their purpose is to commemorate the life of someone recently deceased, to list their accomplishments and achievements, to take note that someone has passed out of our lives. A last fanfare to the life of someone who is gone. Generally speaking, they are valedictory and complimentary.
John Gaunt is GrimJack, a hard-bitten mercenary and private detective in Cynosure, a city at the nexus of dimensions. Raised in the Pits to fight for the amusement of the public, Gaunt lives by his finely honed wits. He can and does fight demons, sharpshooters, magicians and gangsters. 
Let’s see… we need a couple of sure-fire topics of humor. How about… child labor exploitation and the deadly thievery of Big Pharmaceutical makers? I’ll bet you’re giggling just thinking about that stuff.
My friend Tony Isabella has mentioned that I give a good rant, Tony; this is about to be the rant to beat all rants!
Twenty-five years, twenty number one issues, and five jokes. Yep, it can only be Groo The Wanderer. The one, the only, the only, the one — back in a silver anniversary special from Dark Horse, who clearly have too much money coming in from Star Wars and Buffy if they feel they can spend money on Aragonés and Evanier.
Shannon Wheeler (no relation, as far as I know) is, of course, the creator of 
