The event at Los Angeles’ Avalon Bardot Theater dubbed Greenest Night, a celebration of Geoff Johns’ recently concluded 9-year run on Green Lantern with proceeds benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF). If you’re not familiar with the CBLDF and what they do, I highly recommend perusing their website; essentially, they help protect the first amendment rights of creators, retailers, librarians, and the comic book community at large.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein kicked things off, talking a little bit about what the organization does and offered an anecdote about their most recent battle. “Most recently our work has taken us into Chicago where we’re speaking up for the students and teachers who were deprived of using the work Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This book was removed in a way that defied due process. It was removed from classrooms where it was being used as a teaching tool to show American middle school kids what it was like for an Iranian middle school girl when she was growing up in an oppressive regime. And it was taken away without proper process. These things happen all the time, where people decide that their individual viewpoint can get in the way of everybody else’s freedom to read.” He went on to explain the CBLDF’s view that such a decision should be left up to the individual or families, not the school systems, and is a pretty good summation of what it is the CBLDF does.
Brownstein introduced Jeph Loeb, longtime friend and colleague to Johns, who offered a heartfelt introduction, reflecting on their time working for mutual mentor Richard Donner and writing comics together at DC. Loeb offered fun quips and anecdotes about that period of time, saying, “Geoff’s real gift is discipline. Something no writer has.” He told a tale about Johns’ commitment to his work, saying how he’d always try to coax Johns to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee in an effort to put off writing, but that Johns would never accept unless he was on track with his goals for the day.
Loeb reflected lovingly on their early days together as they bantered about whether the Hulk or Superman was stronger and how eventually their careers came into full swing and ultimately went different paths. Loeb joked, “While I was writing about Green Hulk and Red Hulk and Blue Hulk, Geoff had the most ORIGINAL CREATIVE SPARK! Finally, there was going to be a Green Lantern and a Red Lantern and a Blue Lantern!”
But Loeb wrapped his introduction a more serious note, describing how much their careers had changed but how they’ve remained the best of friends through it all. Finally, Loeb introduced the man of the hour, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, the only person I’ve ever met that can turn the blackest night into the brightest day: Geoff Johns.”
Johns was met with applause from the crowd as he approached the stage, quipping, “Just for the record: the Red Lanterns appeared a year before the Red Hulk!” The conversation began with CBR’s Jonah Weiland reminding Johns how the announcement of Green Lantern: Rebirth way back at Wizard World Chicago in 2004 was met with very little fanfare, and was in fact cut short because Christopher Nolan wanted to show the first footage from Batman Begins and cutting that panel short was the only timing that would work. Nine years later, Green Lantern stands tall with fans and retailers after the conclusion of Johns’ epic run.
“Back then, bringing back Hal Jordan was sort of a risky move. People were like, ‘Why are you gonna do that?’” said Johns. He added that for his entire career he’s been met with confusion as to the characters he chose to invest in. From Teen Titans to the JSA to Booster Gold to Hawkman and of course Green Lantern, he said he enjoys taking characters that people tend to underestimate and expand the world they operate in. Fittingly, Green Lantern was always at the top of the list. “I like skepticism. I thrive off of challenges like that.”
Asked what was going through his mind writing the final issue of his run – the excellent Green Lantern #20 – Johns replied, “This better be good!”
Johns talked about artist Doug Mahnke for a bit, saying that Mahnke tends to send his pages in bulk. For Green Lantern #20, Johns didn’t see any pages for months and then got 45 pages all at once. He also said that he knew around Green Lantern #3 or #4 (of the New 52 volume) that his story was coming to its end. “This whole run had been about Hal and Sinestro and that bizarre friendship. Once I knew it was going to get to a point where it broke again, there was an acknowledgement of it… my favorite line is when Sinestro calls Jordan “Hal.” It’s the first time Sinestro ever calls him by his first name. And it was that moment I knew it was over.”
The conversation moved to what Johns learned about himself through working on this character for the last decade. “It might sound goofy but I do prescribe to the notion that emotions have power,” said Johns. “We’re all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction. For me it was about recognizing my self-awareness a little bit more. The more we analyze ourselves, the nicer we are to [other] people and to ourselves.” Johns added that Hal’s journey of learning to look before he leaps and experiencing the entire emotional spectrum was a journey for himself as well.
He said that Green Lantern is perpetually relevant because exploring the idea of fear is something that can never go out of date, particularly after 9/11, which wasn’t so far removed from the start of Johns’ Green Lantern. Johns also added that introducing Simon Baz was an attempt to explore cultural fear.
As for his own personal fears, Johns said, “Every writer doubts himself every day. You procrastinate because you’re afraid to do it. But you overcome fear every day when you get out of bed. Overcoming fear isn’t going skydiving because you’re afraid of heights. Overcoming fear is every day, all day long.”
Things lightened up a little bit when Johns talked about his enormous love of cereal. He likened his tweets about the kind of cereal he likes to the feeling you get when you see a fellow comic book fan reading a comic “in the wild.” Johns said, “I feel like I can connect with people more if I share the mundane. For me Twitter was all about, ‘Do you guys like cereal? I do too!’ Anyone that I would talk to through Twitter about that was just me longing to connect with people over the mundane. If you like cereal, I like cereal, we’re cool.”
The evening wrapped as Johns recited the Green Lantern oath for the final time and the attendees erupted with appreciation, admiration, and adoration.
All will be well indeed.
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