Describe your new book.Supergods is a personal overview and meditation on the history of superheroes and what they mean to us, beginning with Superman's first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and continuing to the present day via comic book movies and my own experiences as a writer for DC and Marvel Comics.
How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you read it?
The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker is the best book I've read in a very long time, and, like most of my favorites, I found it by chance while browsing in a bookstore. A downside of Internet shopping is that it makes fortuitous discoveries like this less likely. I read it the way a joiner might study a brilliant new book on the basics of carpentry.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I went to Paris once to loiter around the graves of Baudelaire and Apollinaire. I also made a point of drinking in the Vesuvius Café next to City Lights bookstore in San Francisco where my Beat generation heroes once hung out.
Why do you write?
I can't seem to stop.
Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin?
Kelvin, every time. It's that Glasgow connection.
Name the best television series of all time, and explain why it's the best.
The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter. It's the U.K.'s greatest TV dramatist creating his masterpiece with brilliant actors, and it makes you laugh, cry, and think.
On a clear and cold day, do you typically get outside into the sunshine or stay inside where it's warm?
I live in an old stone house with no effective heating, and it's so cold in winter the outside is generally warmer than the inside. Is this a trick question?
Dogs, cats, budgies, or turtles?
Cats, inevitably.
Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise.
Five Great Superhero Graphic Novels
Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo
Fourth World Omnibus 1-4 by Jack Kirby
Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
Astro City by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson