DCU Book Club-Girl Power! Week 53: Special Guest🌟 Sam Humphries! Harley Quinn (2016-) #45-49

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Bahaha, that probably means I am getting some skipped questions hehe I asked a LOT bahaha. So excited!

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YOOOOOOOOO everybody!!! Good morning to you all, it is I, Sam the Hammer Humphries, and I am so excited to be here with you all and tackle your hard hitting Harley questions. I am here in 85 degree sunny Burbank, California, at the studios where we shoot DC Daily. Downstairs, I just saw Hector in wardrobe and I believe Levine and Clarke are about to shoot a segment together. But get to be in the catbird seat, up here on the second floor, with Applejack herself, talking comics with you all! LET’S ROLL :black_heart::diamonds:

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IT’S HAPPENING!!! :tada:

Yay! Welcome @samhumphries

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YO msgtv!

  1. When and how did you decide you wanted to write for Harley Quinn?

I decided about one second after I got offered the job. I was at a restaurant near the DC publishing offices, having lunch with Dan DiDio. He offered, and I said yes. My only second thought was I was bummed to have left Nightwing so early, but no regrets.

  1. What was unique about the process of writing for Harley compared to other characters you have written for?

Every character has a unique process. For me, at least. Some writers may be more efficient lol. With Harley, because of the tone, I could broaden my influences.

  1. Which scene in Apokolips was the most fun to write?

Probablyyyyyyyyy…the burger stand! Or the scene in Granny’s bedroom, where I got away with a LOT lolol. :black_heart::diamonds:

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Woo hoo, I am looking forward to all the answers @samhumphries gives us. #tooexcited

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It’s like office hours on steroids oops sorry Applejacklol

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HEY harley.333!

– As a writer on a comedic title, do you feel that you can “get away” with stories which don’t tidy up every little loose end? As opposed to a straight story where readers are like, “how did Batman know the villian was allergic to wasabi? That makes no sense! There’s no way he could have known that! I hate this comic! Arrrgh!”

There’s SO many different approaches to stories out there and I’ve never been super partial to the kind of air tight clockwork stories you’re talking about. I’d get bored if that’s all I could write

–Who’s the most interesting comic creator you’ve ever talked with?

Talking with my close friends who are also creators and editors are always my favorite conversations. Every time I talk with Klaus Janson he drops some insane bit of comic book storytelling knowledge that I think about for months and years. He told me one thing years ago that I literally think about with every comic page I write. And he does it so casually and with such great humor! That smart bastard. :black_heart::diamonds:

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Hi Sam!

Thanks for doing this!

What’s been the hardest scene to write since you started work on Harley?

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HELLO HubCityQuestion, my NEMESIS!! I am so sad I did not prepare trivia questions with which to crush you on your most recent episode. NEXT TIME!

– Since Amanda and Jimmy started this series in 2014, it’s been something of an anomaly in the DC Universe. Events of the series are rarely (if ever) referred to in other comics, and while Harley enjoys a life of freedom and misadventure in Coney Island, she’s also been in incarcerated in Belle Reve with the Suicide Squad for that entire time as well.
So, my question is this. Are the events of the Harley Quinn series actually happening in conjunction with the rest of the DC Universe? Are they set in their own sub-universe (like, say, the LEGO movies) where Harley may occasionally acknowledge events in other series, but not vice versa? Has this entire comic from start to finish been a string of Harley’s own fantasies as she whiles her time away in prison? Or if it IS set on “Prime Earth,” as it were, WHEN does it take place in conjunction with other titles?
I’ve gotten some evasive jokes in response to this question in the pa st, but really would appreciate a serious answer.

(But if the only answer you can give me is “Lighten up, dude, it’s just a comic book,” I understand. That too is an answer.)

This is SUCH an Alex Jaffee question, I love it. :slight_smile: It’s also a very reasonable question, given that the comic industry, for decades, have trained readers (MYSELF INCLUDED!!!) to care SO MUCH about things like continuity and canon and what is real and what isn’t. Like continuity is stone tablets on the mountain top. The more I work behind the scenes, the more I see continuity as a sweater your grandma made you for Christmas: start tugging on a thread and the whole thing falls apart. Never has so much import been built on so much shifting sand.

So I have three answers for you. 1. There is no one canon, and the stories you love is the only canon that matters, which is your headcanon. 2. If there’s a canon that doesn’t include Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans and Giffen and DeMatteis’ Justice League, I don’t wanna be a part of it! 3. Lighten up, dude, it’s just a comic book. :)))

SEE YOU SOON ALEX MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA :black_heart::diamonds:

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HEY Batwing52 !!!
–How does your approach to writing Harley Quinn differ from that of your other work, such as Green Lanterns and Uncanny X-Force?

Harley is more exuberant, while the characters in those books were more subdued, for various reasons.

–How hard is humor to write in a comic?

Incredibly hard, because sometimes you really NEED a joke, and if you force a joke, 99% of the time it sucks. On the other hand, it’s really easy to write humor in a comic, because if you have a scene that’s too serious you just hit the DEPLOY JOKE BUTTON and all of a sudden the scene is GREAT!! :black_heart::diamonds:

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Sam Humphries: Canon Prophet of DC…love both those two series you personally want as rock bottom Canon!

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Yo AGAIN msgtv!!! :slight_smile:

–How detailed are your scripts for this?

Depends on the artist. Usually once the artist get into a groove, I end up making what appears to be a hybrid of full script and plot first. Some pages are very detailed, some pages are not detailed at all. In a case like DIAL H where Joe Quinones and I talk so much and collaborate so closely, a lot of times I find myself scripting just to let the rest of the team know what’s about to happen. “Joe, you know what to do here, but for everyone else…” That’s when you know it’s about go get good. :slight_smile:

–When you see the artwork, does your dialogue change based on how the artists have depicted Harley’s actions and expressions?

I almost always do a dialog pass after the art comes in for exactly that reason. It’s a collaboration! For a particularly fascinating example of this kind of back and forth, look into how Miller and Sienkiewicz worked on ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN. (If I recall correctly, they talk a bout it in an interview anthology called THE NEW COMICS which is long out of print but probably very cheap used.) :black_heart::diamonds:

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The Man. The Myth. The Hammer.

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His look likes “help me they are holding me hostage until I answer all these questions!”

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He’s a perfectly amicable hostage.

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Hopefully someone warned Sam H not to look too deeply into the vast black background of DCU Community 1.0008 user interface… If you peer too deeply into it, you’ll see strange creatures of the infinite flitting around in the background, as this is actually a picture of the void between galaxies!!

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HEY PrincessAmethyst!!!

–How did you get your own personal break into comics?

I self published my own books (OUR LOVE IS REAL and SACRIFICE) and that got me my first gig at Marvel, which led to my exclusive contract at Marvel, which led me to getting invited to DC for Rebirth, which led to DC Daily, which led me to sitting in a spare office with Applejack typing with you all!!!

–If we wanted to read other works from you, what titles from any company you have worked for would you suggest?

OUR LOVE IS REAL is not for the faint of heart, lololol. SACRIFICE is a time travel story about Aztecs and Joy Division. WEIRDWORLD is one of my favorite books at Marvel. JONESY is a cartoonier, funnier book about love. GREEN LANTERNS always has a special place in my heart. :eight_spoked_asterisk::eight_spoked_asterisk:

–For the Hammer Harleen arc, were you at all influenced by the previous hammer given to Harley in Countdown?

No, wasn’t aware of it.

–What made you interested in bringing the character of Tina in as a supporting character? What do you think she adds to the cast that wasn’t represented in the t itle previously?

I love a “stranger in a strange land” character, I love the Fourth World, and I love a character who doesn’t know what they’re capable of yet.

–Final question, Was all of the sisters of Tina a reference to RuPaul’s Drag Race?

YES YES YES OMG YES PrincessAmethyst shante you stayyy :black_heart::diamonds:

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Oh and PrincessAmethyst, thank you so much for your kind words on Blackbird, I really appreciate it. :purple_heart::sparkles:

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Okay, now I love @samhumphries! He just told me shante and stay! 2 loves crossing over, what is even this life? #smallheartattack

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Good morning to Jay_Kay and Jay_Kay only!

– One thing I noticed (that hasn’t been mentioned already) that I found interesting was the lettering. Palmiotti/Conner played around with this a little bit with characters like Red Tool, but this seems to top it. Instead of just words sitting in bubbles it’s like some bits of dialogue burst through the bubble and become it, in different colors and such.

What was the thought process with it, and what do you think it brings to the story and art of the book?

Dave Sharpe is a master letterer. He makes a lot of these decisions and he kills it. After working together a ton we’ve developed some chemistry and shorthand, so I know how to open spaces for him to come in and flex, but often, just like everyone else on the team, he brings his own point of view and talent and makes decisions accordingly and that’s what makes him awesome

–Also, Darkseid is…what?

Darkseid is grumpy if he doesn’t get 8 hours of sleep. :black_heart::diamonds:

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