I've had a chance to look into this Stuart Moore character who will be writing Firestorm. Since we readers are so fond of reminding writers that we're the ones paying their salaries, I figure I'd do what any good employer does - run a background check. I poked and prodded and searched and read until only one question remained:
How did we even survive before Google?
Anyways, here's what I found. I have no doubt that I got a thing or two wrong. If you spot a problem, drop me a note.
Stuart has done on the following:
Stuart is a long-time fan of comics, but his work started elsewhere. He had several jobs when he was younger (my favorite being the night manager of a Woolworth's curtain department). In 1984, he began his professional career with St. Martin's Press where he oversaw a large variety of books. In 1990, he answered a DC Comics job ad in Publisher's Weekly for an editor. At the time, it seems, DC wanted to move some of their titles in a more adult direction and looked to talent from traditional publishers to help with the task. Stuart was hired and worked on titles such as Swamp Thing and Hellblazer. DC spun the group off into its own line, and Vertigo was born with Stuart as one of its original editors. He had a hand in many of the well-known series such a Preacher, which he helped get off the ground.
In 1999, he left to chase the dot-com dream. He spent a few months with a startup that never actually started up. The venture may or may not have had something to do with online comic distribution - he's a bit cryptic about the details. As a dot-commer myself, I'd be interested in hearing that story some day.
Back in the market for a more traditional job, he landed at Marvel in 2000. There, he oversaw the Marvel Knights books and the MAX imprint until the summer of 2002. He structured his job at Marvel in such a way that he could pursue side projects such as Zendra. He also began writing a very interesting series of 43 bi-weekly articles for Newsarama called A Thousand Flowers which primarily covered the comics business.
There's a wide variety of experience there. From adult lines to all-ages stuff, from editor to writer to columnist, from traditional capes to western zombies, Stuart has covered a lot of ground. He has future plans, as well. He's working on a screenplay for an original SciFi movie as well as some Stargate books for Avatar Press.
Just as a side note, while looking around I found one remarkable coincidence. The issue of Vampirella that Stuart worked on contained just one other story by none other than Dan Jolley. That's almost creepy.
As far as I can tell, Firestorm editor Steve Wacker asked Stuart to pitch his take on Firestorm some time in December while looking for a new writer. The two had collaborated on Justice League Adventures, so Wacker was already familiar with his work. Despite knowing some of the controversies surrounding the title, Stuart took the book and had the first arc or so planned out by the time he was announced on January 19, 2005.
There's this little rite of passage where the new writer talks about what a huge fan he is of the series, yadda yadda, in an attempt to allay fears that he might not "get it".
To summarize, then, here are some of the reasons I feel we're in for some good stuff:
I'm one of those newer comic fans that everyone says doesn't exist, so I can't say that I was around to see much of his work. Looking around the internet, I can see that Stuart is well-respected for his work. The manager of the comic store where I shop was unhappy with some of the changes that he attributed to Stuart at Marvel, but that's the one negative reaction I've seen. I was initially concerned by some of the things on his resume, like what was basically a zombie western, but I'm mature enough to realize that a writer is not defined by his subject matter. Sometimes you take jobs to have a job or for the experience. Sometimes you do something because it is fun and different. Who knows. I do know that, given the huge range of projects he's had, I couldn't possibly pigeon hole him into one genre or another.
I've seen a little of his recent work. I have all of the Justice League Adventures issues because I read them with my kids, so it was interesting to realize that the issues he has written were ones that my children had asked to read more than once, which is a good thing. Those issues contain a good mix of humor, character moments and action. One was a little heavy-handed with "give peace a chance", but that's ultimately not a bad message to get out there. Another was long on strange (futuristic pirate cheetahs?), but those were elements from the background of the featured character, Kamandi. I just re-read that issue tonight and was reminded of a favorite part in which Flash asks a teammate "you're afraid I'm going to trip and knock myself out again?" It was a great jab at the Justice League cartoon show's writers who seemingly do exactly that every other episode.
To get an idea of what we were in for with Firestorm, I did some research and decided that PARA would be the closest parallel. I saw right away that nearly every online review of the comic was glowingly positive. I managed to find issues #1 and #2 here in town and read them. That's when I began to feel genuinely excited about Stuart's being DC's pick for the book. PARA, so far, is a great book with interesting characters. The pacing is just right for me, as is the amount of humor and mystery. Try to find an issue or two are your local store. If you like those, all of the issues are still available here at cover price.
Since I live too far away to go through his garbage, I had to comb through his columns and interviews for little pieces of information. Here's the dirt I could dig up from the little I read.
Stuart is a city boy through and through. He grew up in New Jersey and, after a brief time in California, moved to New York City. The city is like a family member to him. He lives in Brooklyn with his roommate-turned-wife. He's tidy, outspoken and driven. He occasionally tries his hand at graphic design, but it's more of a hobby.
I'll post information on his pets as soon as it becomes available.
Another thing that becomes obvious as you read his comments is that he's rabidly anti-Bush. While I'm not a huge Bush fan myself, he and I probably have a very different take on a number of things. I will say this: he is not against Bush because of any dogmatic attachment to another party or person - he has very specific gripes. In his complaints, too, you'll find genuine concern for the welfare of our country and its citizens, so he isn't the type to tear down just for the sake of it. Thankfully, through various interviews, it's clear that Stuart is very aware of boundaries when it comes to inserting political views into his work.
I'll say it again - when I heard that Dan Jolley was leaving the book I was very upset. I wrote Dan and told him so, but I also said in that letter that it was my goal not to take it out on "the new guy". I heard some updates as the search for a writer went on and had a hard time feeling enthusiastic over most of the names that I heard. I had a hard time imagining what I would say in an article such as this if I couldn't get excited about the choice. I wondered about the site itself.
I'll further admit that I didn't recognize Stuart's name when I heard the news. Chalk it up to my newness and the fact that I've stuck to a fairly narrow set of books. Now that I've had a chance to review some of his work, I'm very optimistic. DC made an excellent choice and I think we're going to see more great storytelling from #14 on.
So Stuart, welcome aboard!