Peter Hogan

Last time we talked to Peter Hogan we mainly grilled him about Terra Obscura. Now on the eve of the release of his first book for ABC: The Many Worlds Of Telsa Strong, we catch up with him about Tesla and what comes next.

4COLORHEROES: What drew you to doing a follow up to the Tesla story in Tom Strong #10 as your first work for ABC?

PETER HOGAN: Alan and I were discussing various ABC characters that I could work on when Scott Dunbier suggested that I do something with Tesla. So, I re-read all of her appearances, and the ‘Too Many Teslas’ story suggested a lot of different possibilities. I’ve always loved parallel Earth stories, and this was an opportunity to do one.

4COLORHEROES: What’s the basic storyline of The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong?

HOGAN: Solomon goes missing after messing around with Tom’s Searchboard, and so Tesla has to search through the Multiverse until she finds him. This means she visits a lot of different Teslas on their different homeworlds – so we have a jungle adventure and an undersea world and so on. Some of these Teslas we’ve seen before, some we haven’t … and of course there is a villain manipulating things behind the scenes.

4COLORHEROES: The solicitation information for the Tesla book credits the story to you and Alan Moore. This isn’t correct, is it?

HOGAN: Yes and no. The story’s basically mine, but Alan did make a couple of plot suggestions, which is why they’ve given him a credit. But with TERRA OBSCURA we did collaborate properly, as I’ve explained elsewhere.

4COLORHEROES: Was it planned from the beginning that a different artist would draw each world? Did you have that particular artist in mind while writing their part in the script?

HOGAN: Yes, I thought it would be a good way of being able to use different artists, which would split the workload and also meant that we could draft in some interesting people. A lot of artists are willing to commit to doing six pages, but if you asked them for more they’d just turn you down flat, because they’re simply too busy. In some cases I knew in advance who’d be doing a specific section, but mostly I didn’t … which is fine. I’m quite used to working either way.

4COLORHEREOS: Did you have any input on picking any of the artists?

HOGAN: I did suggest some artists, but I think all of them were too busy! In the end Scott made all the art choices, and I have to say I’m delighted with the results.

4COLORHEROES: Were there any hurdles in working with so many different artists?

HOGAN: No, not really. It’s obviously a little more complicated, working with more than one artist at a time, but I think we solved most of the obvious problems.

4COLORHEROES: I can’t resist asking the loaded question: whose rendering of Tesla did you enjoy the most?

HOGAN: I couldn’t possibly comment ! Seriously, I actually did like all of them, and I’m not just saying that … though if I had to pick one page as a personal favourite, it’d probably be Art Adams’ depiction of Solomon with about a hundred other strange gorillas.

4COLORHEROES: In the story you mention a wizard from Northampton – a tip of the hat to Alan Moore, I’m guessing?

HOGAN: I’m amazed that page got seen by people, because that line actually comes from the first draft of the script and was later changed at Alan’s request. Yes, it was a tip of the hat, but I think Alan found it a little weird being discussed by his own characters !

4COLORHEROES: Do you have any interest in magic?
HOGAN: Well, it’d probably take us several hours to agree on a definition of ‘magic’. For me that word has a lot of problematic associations, so I tend to be happier with labels like ‘mysticism’ instead. But if you mean, do I think there’s more to life than meets the eye, more than can be explained by orthodox religion or orthodox science, and do I think it’s possible to actually explore this territory, then the answer is yes.

4COLORHEROES: Any chance we’ll see you writing something for Tom Strong or Terrific Tales any time soon?

HOGAN: Yes, I’ve just finished writing a fill-in issue of Tom Strong, and it now looks like I’m going to be doing another one.

4COLORHEROES: Do you write very detailed scripts like Alan?

HOGAN: Yes. Probably not quite as detailed as Alan’s, but probably not that far behind either. In my experience, most artists tend to appreciate that. It doesn’t mean they have to do everything I say, and if they can think of a better way of doing things than what I’ve suggested, that’s fine too. But by giving the artist as much information and input as possible, I at least feel I’ve done my part properly.

4COLORHEROES: Well, with Tesla almost out, and having finished writing Terra Obscura, are you currently writing anything else?

HOGAN: Apart from the Tom Strong stories, nothing I can tell you about right now. But I have a number of interesting irons in a number of interesting fires.