HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE TP

PRINTING THE LEGEND...
written by Marv Wolfman
transcribed by vu

HISTORY OF THE DC UNVERSE has always been a difficult book to explain. It was originally conceived to be issues #11 and #12 of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, when CRISIS was supposed to be only ten issues instead of the twelve into which it expanded. For the trivia-minded, the CRISIS series was originally announced in a DC editorial as "The History of the DC Universe."

The story's original purpose was to be an epilogue to the Crisis. In that maxiseries we took 50 years of DC history and, depending on your point of view, either destroyed DC completely or gave it a new beginning. Thankfully, since fans and professionals alike voted the Crisis the 2nd best comic-book story of the 20th century, I'd like to think we helped birth DC's next 50 years, not bury it. Once the Crisis was done, I knew we'd need to tell readers which heroes and worlds still lived and which were consigned to the double-bagged depths of their collection. But how to do that was the question.

As a kid I used to love the Time-Life series of books, whether on the old west, World War II, or as they explained the superstitions of the world. They were art books with just enough text to give you a basic knowledge of a subject without overwhelming you. In many ways they were text books for the eyes, not the mind. Since I wanted, first and foremost, a beautiful book to look at, I thought this approach would be perfect for an overview of the new DC Universe. To that end there was only one person to draw it.

George Pérez was still illustrating CRISIS when I suggested making HISTORY a stand-alone book. After drawing seventy-nine panels a page in CRISIS, illustrating two or three scenes on each HISTORY page would be an appreciative thank-you to George. And, after the tight plotting that went into the Crisis, writing a few words here or there for the History would be my gift to myself.

At least that was the plan.

HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE was a nightmare to write, possibly the hardest project I'd ever worked on.

We'll ignore the five years of detailed research that made this book possible and get to the sordid gossip I know you'd prefer reading about. The day after I finished writing the Crisis I took off for a long vacation in Europe. When I got back I'd start writing the History.

Again, that was the plan.

I don't remember the reasons why, but George needed to start the History sooner than expected, which meant instead of writing a full script as planned, I had to write a plot-style version of the story. George would draw it and I would then dialogue it. No problem, I thought. That's the way we created the New Teen Titans and the Crisis.

I returned from vacation and decided to move from New York to sunny Los Angeles, just in time to miss the winter snow. So, as George performed his usual magic, I found myself sitting alone on the floor in a furniture-less house (the truck hadn't arrived yet), leaning against the wall, typing away on my laptop computer. Still, that was merely an uncomfortable inconvenience, not the stuff on nightmares.

Since the History was a history book, it was vital to write the specific information needed and then let George draw around the already typeset words.

Remember, that was the plan.

What I didn't take into consideration was if George drew the pages first, I'd have to write DC's very complex history in whatever space was left open for me. That meant I'd sometimes need to write more copy than desired - to fill a large open area - or figured out how to write paragraphs of information in a space that only let me write a maximum of, say, ten words.

Fortunately, 90 % of the time George guessed right and left me exactly the space I needed. But sometimes I'd be sitting on the floor, translating inches into picas and calculating exactly how many letters would fit into a space one inch high by three inches wide, then trying to say what I had to in that space, making it not only informative, but, I hoped, readable and fun. The History wasn't so much about writing as about tortuous advanced typesetting.

Still, when I saw the finished results, I knew we had done the job. For good or bad, my writing said what it needed to, and George's art, was, as always, magnificent.

HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE was published in 1986. Rightfully so, DC's history didn't stop being written after this book came out. It's continued to change and evolve. Much of what was written then is no longer valid, but it was DC's history at certain point in time and still stands as an achievement which, like the Crisis that made it necessary, has yet to be duplicated. I may not have always enjoyed the process of writing it, but I think you will enjoy reading it.

- Marv Wolfman
November 7, 2001