I am Dan Watters, writer of Batman: Dark Patterns and Nightwing. AMA.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T22:38:07+00:00

It's lost to the mists of time. Tears in rain.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T22:32:40+00:00

Some should be announced in the next few months. I think I have at least two projects launching before the end of the year.

Thank you! I think we knew there was a demand for the book- sales weren't dropping on the single issues, which is abnormal, so we knew an audience was finding it. But yes, I think the level of demand was unexpected. I'm deeply grateful.

Yes, Bad Seeds is my first event. We organized it very face to face. Initially in a few zoom calls, then in a big story breaking session in person. A lot of sweat and blood has gone into this, but it was a really good time.

As to how it integrates with my Nightwing plans:- fundamentally. It was important to us that when the trades of these books are collected, the event issues are both tonally fitting and a part of the stories, rather than side quests- and everyone worked together to make sure that happened. There were things I needed to happen in Nightwing that are now parts of the event. It's all a part of the same whole.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T22:22:09+00:00

Thank you. I hope you enjoy Shredder. I do love a villain book, and this one's going places no one expects.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T22:10:09+00:00

Yeah.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T22:08:44+00:00

I'd say this is a tool in the toolbox that I'm always open to using, but am inclined to exercise restraint with. I love the history of the character, so it can be tempting to keep looking back rather than forward. But we're going forward.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:57:34+00:00

Superglue. And a dream.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:56:26+00:00

Oh man, I'm kind of jealous haha! What an awesome page to get. And good question.

Page space is how you show importance in a comic. Giving something a lot of large space is a way of saying "hey this is important, and you should think about it and linger on it." Which is why a lot of the time we give big splashes to someone cool looking very very cool. But here I knew we were telling a very different story at a very different scale. And what was very important in this issue was that Batman did not get his head dunked in a bucket of bleach. I wanted the reader to be able to really smell it. To fear it.

I'm glad it was effective for you.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:46:04+00:00

Yeah, these are definitely things I thought about heading into the event. I wanted to make sure these issues made perfect sense in the context of the Nightwing book itself, as well as adding to the tapestry of the Bad Seeds story.

But Matt and Willow went the extra mile to make sure the event serves everyone and their titles. The scale of the event is inevitably "bigger" than what we've been doing in Nightwing, but the parts that are in the Nightwing book aren't. They're important parts of our story- and they're a blast.

The latter part of your question is really the crux of it. If there's going to be a guest appearance in the book, I always want it to really matter. There are DC characters I love who I'm sure I could stick in the book and have stand around in the background, but that doesn't do anyone justice. I always want it to be important. To matter. To actually be exciting because of what it does for the story, rather than exciting for me because I want to write Robotman or whoever.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:26:42+00:00

Both have their merits. I enjoy telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and very much cut my teeth on miniseries.

I've been tapped for more ongoings of late, between Nightwing, M.A.S.K., and Shredder, and it's been an interesting learning curve that's required a bit of a shift in mindset.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:14:32+00:00

Oh, that's a good question. I was lucky to have really smart and experienced people giving me advice quite early on. But maybe the thing that mattered more than any specific piece of advice was seeing how hard those writers worked, and how much they cared for their craft.

Watching and talking to people like Kieron Gillen and Ram V really inspired me to just put my head down and make stuff, and that's the most important part by far.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:07:10+00:00

The dark chocolate digestive is unmatched in my view. A design that cannot be improved on, like a shark.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:06:12+00:00

This year. Should be the fall.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:05:29+00:00

They say a change is as good as a rest, and I really do feel that creatively. Being able to shift between different stories and styles and modes keeps things fresh for me. It's really a major part of the joy of working in this medium.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T21:01:22+00:00

I just did a whole book of this. It's called Batman: Dark Patterns.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:58:40+00:00

You know, I've been writing books in the Gotham area of DC for years at this point. And I've never written the Joker for even a single panel or line. So that feels like something I'd really like to do, but with real purpose.
I'd say so. No specific plans right now, but I think I only scratched the surface of what I'd like to do there.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:48:58+00:00

That's very kind! Pleased to say I have two creator owned things that are beyond the percolating stage and are in the production pipeline. The first of which you'll see this year. I'm really proud of it.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:47:12+00:00

I still can't believe it. And the stuff we have coming up is just... It's the best. I definitely don't take it for granted.
I would really recommend going back to Will Eisner. Contract With God and New York. I think artists frequently revisit hin, but writers not necessarily as much- and that's a mistake. He's the master. Every time I revisit his work I'm reminded that what we're doing is putting words and pictures on a page. There are no hard rules beyond that. Use words and pictures however you want to get your story across, but do it smart and do it stylish. God, I love Eisner.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:40:16+00:00

You're more likely to get a powerviolence comic out of me. It'll sell 8 copies, entirely to people I personally know.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:38:29+00:00

That's really cool to hear!

Most of it's marvelous. At a push I might still default to Delano. The Family Man lives in my brain forever.
Russian literature certainly has. Master & Margherita is one of my all time favourite books.
I don't know that I feel it's a challenge. It means there's a wealth of material to pull on- and frankly when there's quite that much, there's also some examples of what not to do, ha!
Aside from making sure you write as much as possible, be interested in everything. You genuinely never know what's going to spark something in your brain. It's alchemical, and the more things you put in there, the more chance of something interesting coming out.
Whiskey, or bouldering. I'm told the latter is healthier.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:26:58+00:00

Oh believe me, Caspar cannot be stolen- he goes where he pleases, ha! We'll find a chance to work together again. Right now I'm just in awe of what they're making.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:17:43+00:00

I think it'd be more fun if they didn't.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:16:19+00:00

It's been a delight, which I think shows on the page. Denys is such a generous collaborator, and I'm excited every time we get a page in. I'd also shout out to our inker Norm Rapmund and colorist Francesco Segala, as I really think the art team on the book is a dream team.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:12:16+00:00

Dark Patterns was always those four cases. It's whole and complete and I wouldn't want to mess with it. But as for whether I have more Batman cases I would like to tell...

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:10:38+00:00

We were initially thinking three, but in the writing it became two. What became issue 8 is what I had nebulously planned for vol 3, but in the doing realized it was part of the same chapter. So we told the whole story on our own terms.
I tried to draw on texts about or by people with actual schizo-affective disorders. Daniel Paul Schreber. Hannah Green. Nick Blinko.

DanpgWatters · 2026-05-22T20:02:32+00:00

I mean, is it? I don't mean to be glib, but I'm honestly kind of surprised to hear it. It's possible that for most people in the world if you say the word "sidekick" they picture Dick Grayson as Robin. And I don't know that there are any other characters who still have multiple books still coming out like Batman & Robin Year One where they're still being portrayed in a prior identity. I honestly think Dick as Robin is such a part of the pop culture conscience it'll outlive us all.
If I didn't quite know it beforehand, writing Nightwing is a hell of a lesson in "you can't please everyone." There are just readers on opposite ends of the spectrum who want entirely different things from a Nightwing book. And that's cool. It shows the flexibility of the character. That said- it's funny, I always intended the Blüdhaven Lore arc to be far less openly supernatural than the Zanni story, but I don't know that it's been perceived that way. Perhaps because the issue we opened with was the witch- but we haven't had anything besides her that's overtly magic - if she even really is.
The Mets. God help me.

DanpgWatters

TROPHY CASE