Guest Kami Garcia talks new crime thriller 'Joker/Harley' and profiling serial killers like Joker

THE NEWS:

1. James Tynion is taking over Batman with #86 through #100
2. Marvel solicitations revealed!
3. DC’s Birds of Prey Cancelled, Re-solicited as Mature Title
4. DC ends Co-Op Advertising Program
5. Archie Comics buys Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership

TOP BOOKS OF LAST WEEK:

• Dave
  1. Absolute Carnage #3 (W: Donny Cates, A: Ryan Stegman)
  2. Lex Luthor Year of the Villain (W: Jason Latour, A: Bryan Hitch)
     1. Hitch’s art gives this an event feel while the story is fun in ways only comics can achieve thanks to Latour’s imaginative ideas.
• Forrest
  1. House of X #5 (W: Jonathan Hickman, A: Pepe Larraz)
  2. Absolute Carnage #3 (W: Donny Cates, A: Ryan Stegman)
     1. Scary, subversive and surprisingly silly this is the strongest Marvel event in years.

TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEK:

• Dave: The White Trees #2 (W: Chip Zdarsky, A: Kris Anka)
• Forrest: The Plot #1 (W: Michael Moreci, Tim Daniel, A: Josh Hixson)
   

JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.:

• Dave: Powers of X #5 (Mike Huddleston)
• Forrest: New Mutants: War Children #1 (Bill Sienkiewicz)

Segment: JOKER/HARLEY Interview - Kami Garcia - ARTISTS MIKE MAYHEW AND MICO SUAYAN October 9th - Joker/Harley: CRIMINAL SANITY

• First off, I got a glimpse at the first issue and it’s stunning. The art is of course, but also the depiction of Harley Quinn. She isn’t silly or offbeat, but deadly serious about her work. What went into writing Harley in this way?
• This series is largely about serial killers and about the why what in what they do, I’m curious, why are we so fascinated with the most evil of people?
• When profiling a character like Joker do you tend to think of serial killers, say someone like Ted Bundy, and combine them, or do you develop it in a different way?
• Harley takes on different roles we’ve never seen for her, like being a professor. What went into building on Harley and what we’ve seen before?
• When writing a crime series as this do you ever have to get into the headspace of a killer? I ponder whether a ritualistic murder might be 100% getting in the head of a killer, or maybe if it was researched?
• I can’t help but make connections between Joker/Harley and The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos since both delve into the early days of a character. Here it’s Harley of course, but with the novel, it was Fox Mulder.
• Can you talk a bit about splitting the art between Mayew and Suayan?

Off topic top shelf: Kami Garcia talks Mindhunters and cooking.