Writer Zack Kaplan on writing horror, sci-fi and working with The Midnight

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NEWS

1. DC Solicitations for November 2024
   1. New 'Black Canary: Best of the Best' miniseries announced
   2. New DC All In ‘Batgirl’ series coming November 2024
   3. ‘The Question: All Along the Watchtower’ #1 announced
   4. Santa returns to DC with 'Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns' #1
2. New middle grade graphic novel ‘Transformers: Worst Bot Ever’ announced
3. EXCLUSIVE: Vault Comics acquires 1940s 'Kid Maroon' licensing rights 
4. New details on West Coast Avengers!
5. New ‘Storm’ teaser reveals issue titles
6. 'Hellverine' gets new ongoing series in December 2024
7. New York Comic Con extends schedule to Wednesday October 16
8. Harvey Awards 2024 nominees announced
9. TOP 50 COMICS - JULY 2024

Our Top Books of the Week

Dave:

1. Action Comics #1068 (Gail Simone, Eddy Barrows, Rainbow Rowell, Cian Tormey)
2. Ultimates #3 (Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri)

Nathan:

1. Ultimates #3 (Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri)
2. X-Factor #1 (Mark Russell, Bob Quinn)

Standout KAPOW moment of the week:

Nathan - Fantastic Four #23 (Ryan North, Carlos Gomez)

Dave - Hellverine #4 (Benjamin Percy, Julius Ohta)

TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEK

1. Dave: Venom War: Venomous #1 (Erica Schultz, Luciano Vecchio)
2. Nathan: Wolverine: Revenge #1 (Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo)

JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.

1. Dave: Wolverine: Revenge #1 (Mark Brooks Cover)
2. Nathan: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #30 (Jorge Jiménez)

Interview: Zack Kaplan

Beyond Real tpb out September 10; Midnight Shadows out in October 2; The Dark Empty Void #1 out September 11; Kill all Immortals #3 September 25, 2024

1. Zack Kaplan, thank you for guesting on the AIPT comics podcast! To start, The Dark empty Void is out September 11 and it’s your first horror, did you approach this any differently than you’ve done with previous projects?
2. There’s psychology in this series, how much research went into this, and do you tend to research a lot for your projects?
3. It’s obviously also about black holes, when you’re crafting stories like this do you do research on other black hole tales? 
4. Do you ever wake up and go “that’s a great idea… has someone possibly already done it?”
5. Shifting gears to Midnight Shadows, a story in collaboration with The Midnight band, themes in this work include escapism and nostalgia, what did the first outline of this look like? Tell us about your collaboration process with the band.
6. Did you find yourself listening to the music when scripting?
7. Did you ever find yourself writing and a song would come on, then suddenly you’d have to change gears in the story?
8. The art team is incredible (Stephen Thompson, Jahnoy Lindsay, Elisabetta D'Amico) with clear 80s inspirations, anything in the book that blew your expectations away?
9. Do you see this OGN as a standalone story, or something that could continue?
10. Anything else you’d like to plug today?