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NYCC 2014: Scott Snyder And Greg Capullo On Their Evolving Partnership

By Nick Tylwalk

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Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo aren’t quite at the point where they’re finishing each other’s sentences, but after working on Batman for the better part of three years, they’re clearly in sync when you talk to both of them together.

Capullo, especially, has had a chance to define the way that both Batman and Bruce Wayne look in the New 52 DC Universe thanks to a run that’s almost unprecedented among current Big Two comic book series. His interpretation of Bruce is arguably the more important of the two, a bit younger than before Flashpoint yet a powerful figure who you can easily envision suiting up as the Dark Knight.

The veteran artist told Bam Smack Pow at New York Comic Con that even though it took a while for him to get comfortable drawing Batman in his secret identity, he’s found his groove now.

“If you look at the way I first drew Bruce Wayne to the way I draw Bruce Wayne now, it’s a little bit different, because for me the characters tell you how to do that,” Capullo said. “For me, my first books are never the best. It takes me a while to immerse myself in that environment, to get intimate with the characters, and once you get to that point, they tell you how they want to be drawn. And so it’s an evolution for me, and I feel honestly I’m drawing Bruce as Bruce is and Alfred as Alfred is. I’ve finally reached that point where, yes, Bruce Wayne is happy the way I’m drawing him.”

Snyder is quick to give the artistic half of the partnership credit for helping him realize Wayne as a fully formed character as well.

“I see him that way when I’m writing him too,” Snyder said. “I’m like, it’s our Bruce, where I know how he acts because of you, and what he’s going to look like and how he is. It’s a version that for us is entirely our own.”

Both men also point to the fact that they are constantly in contact with each other during the creative process. That allows Snyder to craft certain scenes according to Capullo’s strengths, which he knows in depth at this point, while also giving the artist a chance to give some feedback before he really starts digging in on a particular issue.

“We actually talk about it a lot on the phone now,” Capullo said. “We’ll talk about an action scene or whatever and Scott will go, I think this should happen. And I go, yeah, but maybe we change it from there and go there and then we go there. And so we try to work it out like that, because then I can play to my own strengths, because I know what I’m good at, and what’s easy or hard for me, and stuff like that. But being able to talk about it, fans are going to get the next level of Snyder/Capullo. We’ve got an evolution in our working process, so you’ll start seeing that now in “Endgame.”

Speaking of the current Batman arc, one would think that the creators would feel some pressure to have to keep topping themselves every time out. They’ve already gone epic with “Zero Year,” but their entire time on the book has been one big arc after another.

That might seem to put them in a position where they need to clear an ever-rising bar, but Snyder — who comes across in slightly self-deprecating fashion at times, in contrast to Capullo’s easygoing swagger — claims their biggest motivating forces are internal.

Fans are going to get the next level of Snyder/Capullo.

“You’re your own worst critic and your own biggest competitor all the time,” he said. “If there’s anything that you see wrong with the story, I’ve seen and criticized myself for it, so it’s more about competing with yourselves. It’s in terms of knowing what you’re capable of, and then wanting to go past that on the book for yourself, not trying to top it in sales or top it in fan reaction.”

Only Capullo will admit to some external pressure too, though it stems from wanting to maintain his spot in the pecking order of today’s top pencillers.

“As far as the pressure thing goes, like Scott said, we’re very competitive with ourselves, so obviously I’m always trying to push myself and make sure that it’s the strongest game I’ve got going at the time,” Capullo said. “And then, you know, I never want to disappoint the fans, especially since they’ve depended on us so much and they trust us so much to deliver with Batman, and so I feel a little bit of that pressure. It’s all about keeping the young, upcoming artists away from my pedestal the fans have put me on. It’s like, ‘You’re not taking this, it feels pretty good up here.’ It’s about competing with yourself first and foremost, and not letting fans down is the next factor for me.”

So far, they’ve shown no signs of doing that.

Check out Part I of our NYCC interview with Snyder and Capullo, where they talk about “Endgame” and how it celebrates everything they’ve done on Batman to date.

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