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CNN Live Today

Interview With Chuck Austen

Aired June 04, 2002 - 14:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hundreds of firefighters who rushed to ground zero died there on September 11. In the months afterwards, hundreds more took part in the now finished recovery effort.

New York's firefighters became heroes in real life that day. And now they're going to be heroes in the comic books. Take a look at the new Marvel comic series, "The Call of Duty: the Brotherhood." It launches tomorrow. There you see it.

The author of that series, Chuck Austen, joins us now from Los Angeles. Hi, Chuck. Thanks for joining us. What gave you this idea?

CHUCK AUSTEN, MARVEL COMICS, "THE CALL OF DUTY": Actually, Joe Quesada, the editor in chief, came up with the idea. He and Bill Jemas had been talking for a while about bringing an old character of Joe's, a firefighter superhero that he had done years ago, into the Marvel fold.

And they called me and asked me if I'd be interested in doing it. And I leapt at the chance. It was something that I'd wanted to do for quite some time, actually. I've been interested in real life firefighters and policemen for a long time.

LIN: How does the storyline work in the series?

AUSTEN: The storyline actually was something that we had discussed early on. They wanted to show the job as it was in the first couple of issues, and then have them get involved with some kind of -- I guess we'll call it a superhero, supernatural kind of element, as the story progressed, and show what it would be like and how these real people, real characters, would get involved in something that was way beyond anything that they had ever expected to get involved with, and how they would rise to the occasion, even in that circumstance.

LIN: Is it something out of the imagination, or did you guys actually talk with some of the firefighters who were involved in 9/11?

AUSTEN: We spoke with some of the actual firefighters. A lot of it is imagination. But I spent a lot of time with some guys in Brooklyn at the 223. And I spent a lot of time talking to a retired firefighter with the name of Richard Smith, who gave me a lot of details and information and realistic material, that I was able to use within the first couple of issues of the comic. It's really much richer and much better for the help that they gave me. LIN: Really? Anything that struck you in particular that they told you?

AUSTEN: Several things, actually. One of the first stories in "The Brotherhood," the firefighters' book, is about, they are called to a crack house and they're supposed to put the fire out at a crack house. And the neighborhood isn't interested. And I told Lieutenant Smith that I had this story idea. I said, "would something like that happen?"

And he said, "oh, yes, absolutely." And he started telling me all of these incredible horror stories about what it's like to put a fire out at a crack house. About how they cut holes in the floor, and about how there are pit bulls with vocal cords cut out that they have to watch out for, jumping out of the flames.

And it was beyond everything that I had ever thought about in my own imagination. And at the same time, it made it an incredible story. So, yes, it helped a lot.

LIN: You know, we call them superheroes, but a lot of these guys would tell you, hey, we're just doing our job. And part of the charm, I think, and what really struck me just watching that recovery effort, was just how ordinary and human these guys are. Do you lose some of that by building them up to superhero status in these comic books?

AUSTEN: Well, in a sense, I think that's why we wanted to start it off with a fairly realistic approach. There is that danger, but we start off very carefully showing that these are real people who deal with real circumstances.

And what we wanted to show was that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how outrageous they are, these real people will rise to the occasion. Because that's what they do. It's their job and they're used to getting themselves into those situations. So we were very worried about it initially, but we were very careful to handle it as tactfully and as realistically as we possibly could.

LIN: Yes, pretty serious stuff, too. I mean, the kids who are going to be reading these comic books, they're not only reading about fictional characters, but it's based on something that is so horribly real.

AUSTEN: Yes. Yes, definitely. But I hope at the same time, they'll get a stronger appreciation for what it is that these guys do. It's a very dangerous job that they do day in and day out, to the point where when I first asked Lieutenant Smith to tell me some stories, he said, "Oh, we put out fires and we go home." And then...

LIN: Yes, that's all.

AUSTEN: Exactly. So, yes, it's a lot more than that. But they're so used to it, they don't think about it. They just do job and they go home. That's how they look at it.

LIN: Yes. And it's not just the firefighters, either. You're saluting some of the paramedics and the other emergency workers.

AUSTEN: Yes, we are. They all work together. It's almost like a family, in a sense. The more that I talked to Lieutenant Smith about how it worked, he said, yes, you get there to a fire and there's cops all over the place. You get to know each other, you see each other all the time. So we felt like we had to deal with all of them together.

And at the same time, to show how each of their jobs works individually, we needed to give each one of them their own separate book. So there's a firemen's book, there's a policemen's book, and there's an EMS worker's book as well.

LIN: I don't know if we've got the shot of the EMS worker, that we had a sample of, that's going to be appearing in one of your first issues. But it's a rather attractive blonde.

AUSTEN: Yes, she is. And that's part of the story, because all the way through, firemen, cops, everybody, they're always hitting on her. And it becomes a part of the concept in the story.

LIN: Well, there you go. Something that some of us don't have to worry about every day. But part of the fantasy, I guess. Thanks so much, Chuck Austen. We look forward to the series.

AUSTEN: Thank you very much.

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