It’s the final interview of WonderCon Anaheim with Dustin Nguyen, co-writer (along with Derek Fridolfs) and artist of Li’l Gotham, one of my absolute favorite comics out there. He and I sat down at the DC booth (they have a nice leather chair seating area, now I’m just bragging) and talked about Batman, the Bat family, and Bat villains.
ComicAttack: For Li’l Gotham, did DC say you could have whoever you want, or did they give you a set of characters?
Dustin Nguyen: They let me pick who I wanted and my favorites tend to show up a lot; if you notice, I use a lot of Poison Ivy. It’s because I really like her as a villain.
CA: Was the idea of each story being holiday-themed your idea?
DN: Originally we pitched it as a calendar of small events. It’s such a weird property for DC, for me it’s normal. I thought that they’d only give us one, but if we can make it a holiday thing we can get at least a year out of it. So who knows, maybe they’ll cancel it after we get to a second Christmas, but it’s been a blast so far.
CA: What’s been your favorite story thus far?
DN: That’s hard! I’d say two issues down the road, there’s a Mother’s Day issue coming up. I swear I was reading the script and talking with Derek I saw a page and said “this is when you add in the acoustic guitar.” I don’t think a lot of people take Li’l Gotham serious, but when we write it we take it very serious, it’s got a lot of heart. The Mother’s Day issue will be a Damian and Colin story, Colin is the kid Damian befriends. He was Abuse in Streets of Gotham. He’s an orphan, like most kids in Gotham it seems. It’s a very emotional story. If I had to pick a close second, I think Derek and I would agree that it’s the Christmas story.
CA: What’s your favorite holiday?
DN: Halloween, it’s a guaranteed day. You know, on Christmas and birthdays you may get what you want, but Halloween, you’re sure to get what you want candy-wise.
CA: Who is your favorite member of the Bat family?
DN: I like Tim the most. Mostly, ’cause he’s Tim. Sadly, he’s not Robin anymore. He chose to be Robin, he’s not Robin because he wants to be Batman or the next big hero, but because he feels Batman needs Robin. I admire that.
CA: Who is your favorite villain? You mentioned Poison Ivy.
DN: Poison Ivy, definitely, but also Mr. Freeze. I like their stories and our April Showers story will be about those two.
CA: Do you have any other stuff you’re working on that’s coming up?
DN: Li’l Gotham is the bulk of my time. I am working on the back ups of Superman: Unchained with Jim Lee and Scott Snyder. One of the good things is that they’re short so I can focus on Li’l Gotham.
CA: Last question; you’re off to save the day, what dinosaur do you ride in on?
DN: Triceratops, obviously. Horns and the shield, it’s got everything.
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So there you have it! If you’re not reading Li’l Gotham go check it out. It just got released in comic shops recently and you can always get it online. WonderCon Anaheim 2013 was great, plenty of great people to see in costume, all sorts of things to see or buy, and lots of amazing people to talk to. I want to thank Dark Horse and DC for letting me get these interviews. Also thanks to Gene Yang, Bryan Q. Miller, and Dustin Nguyen for taking some time out to talk with me. Thanks to Comic Attack for the opportunity, and thank you for reading this. Hope you had fun and see you next time for another convention.
Alexander Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
