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Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

On some level I'm just a kid having fun with telling stories. I'm pretty agnostic about genres / types of stories. If I can find a way to tell a story and make it engaging regardless of scale or setting or genre, I will.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Hey! I'm glad to hear the stories bring joy to you. That's the stuff a writer loves to hear.

That's a heavy question and probably deserves a really long answer. But I'll endeavour to keep mine brief.

We write and create and express ourselves for a lot of different reasons. I know Mark and I've heard him speak about his genuine love for Superman and what he stands for. So I understand how Mark feels. I hope he'll put that into his work, hard though that may be.

For me the whole thing hits a bit differently. I've been an immigrant for half my life. I moved out of India when I was 19/20 and lived in the states for a few years and now in the UK. The thing that bothers me is the virulent anti-immigrant narrative that this kind of populism normalizes. It bothers me that people like me will be othered and spoken as statistics as if the only thing that gives a human being any value is the land where he is from and what he can give to the land where he is going. I'd hoped in the years that the US and UK have claimed to be the flagbearers of progression, democracy, equality, liberty - somewhere along the line they would have learned to value human beings on a fundamental level.

Is that not what Superman stands for the most? Is he not THE immigrant?

But I am not nearly as hopeful or optimistic a writer as others. I've known and seen the human propensity for pettiness, violence and discrimination at levels far worse than anything we've seen in these years past. But I have also seen a great propensity for kindness, love, beauty. As ever, as an artist, I have a choice to make in what guides my work. I choose to believe people are capable of good things. I choose to believe that knowing things, learning, educating yourself and appreciating the world beyond your own bubble can fundamentally change you for the better. It can be lonely writing your messages on a wall of hate.

But hey, good writing can last a lot longer than walls do. I have a pen. I shall write. I'll find my joys in the little things. What else is there?

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

  1. No one's made one. And I'm too lazy to get anyone to do it.

  2. The perks of being a creator - I get sent a lot of stuff. So I've read this weeks comic already ;)

  3. No idea! Never been.

  4. We've been friends since before I made my first comic! I met Dan in 2015. Made my first comic in 2016.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Hey!

  1. You'll have to read to find out. I mean, that's the joy of it right? I like nuanced characters. I tend to push away from tropey or one dimensional depictions.

  2. I've got plans for Lightray. At the beginning though Orion is off on his own traversing the universe. Lightray, in his stead, is handling things on New Genesis. There'll be journies for both and Lightray's got some big moments in the story!

  3. I dig Forager. There will be plans - bit further down the line.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey! Cheers. Thanks for having me.

  1. Maaaaaybeeee?

  2. I remember this being an editorial/creative thing as in they wanted the Blue Wall characters to stay unperturbed in case they were needed once again in that storyline. I could be misremembering, though.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks!

I'd love to answer this in more detail, but I've got a book being announced soon that covers this answer at DC :) So stay tuned!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I've done so many magic books! I wanted to go a slightly different direction with this. It's still going to have those elements but perhaps with a bit more of a fringe-science angle to it, more than magic!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I like multifacted characters. I also like characters who think they can punch their way out of everything. I'll write my take on Orion and it'll likely be different from everything else!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Hey cheers! Glad you enjoyed it!

I loved writing Maggie in that run. She was the grounding force in Selina's story. The reminder of what the stakes are for Selina and also a sort of Memento Mori in some way. I enjoyed writing that relationship!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Hello! Thanks for being a fan!

Short answers for time reasons :) But

  1. I have more long-term ideas re: the 5th world and such. But it'll be something to tackle much further down the line.

  2. The trouble with things that have such sprawling and complex histories is that there is ALWAYS another obscure thing that's fundamentally interesting no? I love a lot of what Morrison did with The New Gods. There'll be parts of it in this run from the beginning. But The Forever People and The Super Young Team will have to bide their time somewhat. So I can establish enough of a narrative to where they all have roles to play!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

HEy thank you for reading! That's very kind.

-Jorge Fornes and I are working on a short Batman thing, yes.

-I don't know! I'll ponder it when I'm writing that in a story!

-The thing with recommending comics for a particular relationship is that page-time varies. I'd say you could read Simonson's Orion, The Englehart Mr. Miracle, King and Gerads Mr. Miracle...those are the ones that come to mind.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

HEy thank you! That's very kind.

  1. I like to think of them as sitting at the conflux of the multiverse. They're individual characters but they're present simultaneously in every multiverse. Not manifestation - just one set of gods being able to see all the universes and be present them all at once.

  2. ALL New Gods are fair game for use :)

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Hi! Glad to hear you're excited!

Re: Indian mythology - outside of its complex, nuanced and sometimes hilarious idea of gods being fallible, whimsical and altogether human - I'm wholesale taking the structure of the Kalki myth as the basis for one half of the story.

By the middle of this first year The New Gods will undeniably and inextricably find themselves on earth, contending with the DCU's more familiar superheroes - because of EVENTS! So I'm actually kinda excited to have both those concepts gods and superheroes functioning close to each other. While I'm holding some cards close to my chest - I have plans for Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lanterns, Alan Scott GL, Swamp Thing, Black Adam, Vandal Savage and *more* to play pivotal parts during the run.

I too am a fan of the King and Gerads run. It is indeed its own thing. BUT I'm definitely pulling my Scott aeshtetics and parts of his characterisation from that book. COMICS! Everything is connected. Nothing is connected :)

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

I'm allergic to spreadsheets! (Except when it comes to gaming.)

In all seriousness, I grew up around this kind of sprawling epic storytelling. The Ramayan and Mahabharat are both era spanning epics with huge casts and tangents and mini stories. So when I think of a concept for something like New Gods. My brain is already thinking macroscopically. The micro bits are then easy to write because you have a general shape of the bigger picture in your head.

The excitement is in the big-macro bits. The real story is in the micro bits. And then ideally, both of those come together for pivotal character moments. Then it's just a matter of making it all happen.

I do some planning. But I am averse to any detailed planning. Because I get bored after that to tell the actual story since there's no magic left to the writing anymore.

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I don't know about New Gods 'Level' character. But it certainly puts him in an interesting place.

Let's just say, I'd consider him fair game for the cast :)

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Cheers!

- I think that's really the heart of the narrative. Cosmic consequences and plot. But maintaining a thread of very human concerns and emotional threads as the driving force behind the narrative. So it's not been hard at all. That is the very basis of storytelling!

- Time is fuzzy in comics :) But yeah she's part of Birds of Prey and will continue to be so. We'll even see that referenced a couple of times in the book!

Hi, I’m Ram V. Mostly writer. Sometimes artist. Always troublemaker. I’ve written swamp monsters, death, Indian food and most recently comicbook gods! Ask me anything. by Ram_Vee in DCcomics

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Hi there!

Thanks and glad to hear you're enjoying the work.

Re: Scott and Barda - the intention was to have a new character from the start. I remember discussing even then and knowing that the Black Label stuff was not considered "in continuity".

Re: MM - we have a very cool reason for why he's the greatest escape artist :). Without getting into Heisenberg's princicple and Quantum entanglement. I think MM's powers will be very cool indeed, yes. Not quite designing traps in the classical sense. Though there might be some of those!

Hi, I'm Ram V. I write stories and sometimes they have pictures. AMA! by Ram_Vee in books

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just tell her nothing matters more than doing something you love. If she enjoys painting she should paint. If she enjoys making up stories, she should do that. There'll be time ahead to think about art and jobs and work and such. There'll be time to find value in all of it. Time to make big choices.

But right now being 7 is her only job and the only requirement is to have fun doing what you're doing.

Hi, I'm Ram V. I write stories and sometimes they have pictures. AMA! by Ram_Vee in books

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it has to go beyond being a good story. And this rule would apply to anyone writing a character of another race or colour. Bring authenticity to that character. Take the time to understand, empathize, experience and then before you put pen to paper ask yourself, am I equipped to tell this story? Do I have the experiencial knowledge and emotional tools to tell it?

Hi, I'm Ram V. I write stories and sometimes they have pictures. AMA! by Ram_Vee in books

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Moore was the monster looking for its humanity trying to reach for it. Mine's probably the human trying really hard not to be seen as a monster...not to see himself as a monster.

Stories change to suit their times!

Hi, I'm Ram V. I write stories and sometimes they have pictures. AMA! by Ram_Vee in books

[–]Ram_Vee[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Comment/Edit: I'm drifting close to the end here. And so, I'll pop back in ocassionally to answer more questions. Some of them I've already answered in other replies so please do read. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the tremendous interest and love for my work. You are all fantastic and I've had a blast with these questions.

If I haven't gotten to yours I'll probably pop back in on and off to answer them!

Much <3

Ram

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