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News: Slack Interview on Titans Tower
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"Growing Pains"
Monday, November 08, 2004 11:50:56 PM
David Slack Talks About Developing Teen Titans for TVThis interview was conducted in September 2004
(excerpt)
BW: Were you a fan of the comic book series?
NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT TP (2003) (5 Mar 2003)
David: One of the reasons they brought me on is that I'm NOT a comic book guy. I've read some -- I've read a lot, actually, now. I wasn't into comic books much though. Instead, I was reading science-fiction. I knew about the Teen Titans through their one appearance on - was it the Superfriends? - when we were much younger. Anyways, I was a big Spider-Man fan growing up. So I was pretty unfamiliar with the Titans growing up. So I dug into a huge stack of the stuff that George [Perez] and Marv [Wolfman] had done - all of which is entertaining and brilliant. Really cool to look at and really revolutionary.
My role on the show was that when Sam and Glen would get into some argument about "What Super-Adaptoid could and could not do" to sit there and go, "Guys, no one knows what you're talking about anymore." We wanted the show to appeal to a broader audience so we didn't want to get too lost in the Titans mythology of stuff. So one of the things I brought was UNfamiliarity with the property. And I think that helped bring a fresh perspective to things. "But we were able to find our way of doing it that fit our show and I think we still honored what that character of Terra was: a lost, mixed up teenage girl whose a lot stronger than she realizes."
That said, I've really enjoyed working with Marv, who's a great writer. And we've done our best at every turn to honor the spirit in which that original comic book was created. Like the stuff we did with JUDAS CONTRACT. For a lot of reasons, we couldn't do what they did in the comic book exactly. For one thing, they did it very well so what's the point in doing it again? But we were able to find our way of doing it that fit our show and I think we still honored what that character of Terra was: a lost, mixed up teenage girl whose a lot stronger than she realizes.
