Ode to Dan Jolley

For a while now, I've had this little plan in my head about how I would introduce myself to Dan at a comics convention. We've never met. I would walk up to his table with a scowl on my face and, without revealing who I was, ask him the following with just the right amount of sneer in my voice:

"So, Mr. Jolley, if Ronnie Raymond were Jesus, would you consider yourself more like the Roman soldiers, the Sanhedrin or Judas himself?"

Then, I'd stand there and enjoy his reaction. If he was tired, he might squirm a little or go into a "I understand..." talk. Most of the time, though, I think he'd see through something so obviously over-the-top and just find something on the table to throw at me. He'd probably even know exactly who I was.

Well, I won't get a chance to test that theory because I already know I don't have the poker face to say something like that without cracking up. Then there's the small matter that I've just broadcast the whole thing to the internet.

What's my point? I'm not entirely sure, but I guess it's that Dan is the kind of guy you want to kid around with and, in my own insensitive guy kind of way, I'd like to tell him that I admire him for the grief he's endured so well. It's been a rough ride for a guy who really put his heart and mind into his work on Firestorm. To show a little bit of that appreciation, I'd like to use this article to point out a few things about Dan and his time on Firestorm.

Reading Dan

I've mentioned before that I really had no idea who Dan Jolley was before I picked up Firestorm. Before that time, I had mostly stuck with DC's first and second tier characters. I came to the book because it happened to come out on a day when I wasn't buying much and I had heard that the artist was good. Those are fine reasons to pick up a #1, but not #2 and up.

I read the issue. It wasn't earth-shattering in terms of the events it depicted, but a number of things caught my attention. The structure was a little unusual. There were at least three times when we watched an event unfold that we didn't understand until a page or two later - a bit of intellectual tease. I liked that. More importantly, though, there was a tremendous amount of thought put into making this Jason guy think and act like a normal guy without painting him into any stock character corner. The conversation he had with himself in the car was absolutely brilliant. That is exactly what intelligent introverts do. From that moment on, I felt more of a connection to Jason than any other character I'd read about in comics.

Dan made him real to me.

That's not a trivial thing, nor was it a fluke based on other things I've read from Dan since that time. Generally speaking, he paints people in such a way that you completely understand where they're coming from and you know four people just like them. Since you feel you're watching a real being, you give over more of your emotions and the stories become more satisfying.

As the book marched forward, I became one of those who felt the pace was off. After learning a little bit about Dan's script ideas and his philosophies on writing, I now know that many of the decision I didn't care for were made in the Empire State, rather than the Peach State (Dan lives in Georgia). In retrospect, though, there isn't anything in those first three issues that I'd give up. For example, we had a page of Jason curled on the ground, trying to compose himself all night long because he was involved in a death for which he bore no moral responsibility. I'd take that over a big fight with a spandexed-out baddy any day. That's real drama, and it's rare in this medium.

My interest was permanently captured with #4, which demonstrated Dan's skill in writing some great humor, set up more of Jason's private life, featured a well-written visit from the JLA and introduced a new, extremely creepy baddy in Casey Krinski. Terrific issue and perhaps still my favorite. Once #5 came out, I knew it was no fluke and I started the web site. It was about this time I began getting involved in the Firestorm community interacting with Dan on his message board.

"Meeting" Dan

When the site went live, the first piece of email I received was from Dan, thanking me for the support and offering encouragement. He even kindly offered a correction, as he would a few times in the following months, but it was obvious that there was no ego involved. I could tell early on that he was the kind of creator that I'd be happy to support.

As I visited the Studio Phoenix message boards, a number of things became apparent about Dan. He's an upbeat, down-to-earth, sincere, friendly guy. He wasn't there to build his name brand - he sincerely took an interest in the people he talked to. Many critics followed him to his forums to tell him exactly what they thought of him. I lost track of times he completely disarmed those critics with a sincere expression of understanding. He might have secretly punched the wall a time or two, but you'd never know it. He was gracious to friends and critics alike.

Dan also shined as a professional. There were problems with other members of the creative team. There were internal problems at DC. Yet, when asked, Dan could only find kind words for those he worked with.

Hook, Line and Sinker

One day, I was updating a bunch of biography pages on this site. I had pulled out several issues of Bloodhound and Firestorm and began looking through issues for reference material. As I did so, I was struck by how subtle Dan is in revealing little bits of information here and there. Dan writes with a long-term plan and knows exactly how much to leave out of the picture until just the right moment, when he clubs you over the head with the full truth. I love that. I'm a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, and I see many similarities in their narrative styles.

Anyways, when I was finished with the updates, I looked at my desk. What I saw is exactly what you see in this picture. It was absolutely covered in Dan's work. That's when I realized:

Heh. This guy owns me!

And it was true. I could drop any book other than Firestorm and live with it.

Around issues 7 or 8, there was a major change in tone for the book to go along with a change in editors. I wasn't sure I was ready for the kinds of changes I was hearing about. From reading his well-reviewed JSA: The Liberty Files, I knew that Dan could handle extended action sequences, but that wasn't the book I had come to appreciate.

My fears were unjustified. Dan began writing the book to his own tastes and it started getting some well-deserved attention. My personal enthusiasm for the book grew because there was more excitement and energy in it. The job of building buzz around Firestorm became easier. The re-introduction of a bunch of legacy characters brought some interesting continuity issues with them, but those were just things that were fun to tease Dan about.

The Bad News

When I heard the news that Dan was leaving Firestorm, I was down. I just seemed obvious to me that a guy who could write the huge range of characters he's written in his career could handle just about any direction management wanted to take the book in. He also assured me that he had some great ideas for the book, of which I have no doubt. You'd better believe I'll drag those out of him some day.

To the end, Dan was gracious and philosophical about his departure. Whatever issues he might have had with other people on the project, he took them with him.

Farewell

So is Dan a god among mortals when it comes to writing comics? No, I'm not arguing that. He just does several things unusually well. To my knowledge, nobody out there has written more specific criticisms about his writing on Firestorm than I have. Still, those things don't prevent me from acknowledging that what he's done with Firestorm has made it one of the most enjoyable run of comics in memory. Remember, I didn't come into this with any attachments to names or characters. My admiration was entirely earned and I know I speak for many with similar feelings.

In short, Dan's the kind of guy you want writing your comics. He's also the kind of guy I'm proud to call a friend.

Thanks for the ride, Dan.