THE COTTON CLUB: GAME ON!
By Mike Cotton

COTTON: Let's talk about some of the characters. What about Doctor Strange?

GAIMAN: You know, he doesn't have his amulet yet, and he certainly doesn't have a battery of firework's magic powers, but he has a little more magic than people think he does, but a lot of it is just mind casting, and again, just an absolute delight to write and probably written in a way that I would've come close to writing Dr. Strange if I were writing him now. He reminds me a lot more of the very early Stan Lee, Steve Ditko Strange in some ways, in that he's a little unsettling in some ways to have around. You wouldn't necessarily want to hangout with him, which is very true of the early days of Dr. Strange.

COTTON: What about Matt Murdock? He seems to have something to do with 1602's Fantastic Four.

GAIMAN: We're learning the story of the Four Travelers in the bit that I'm writing right now in number five. These four people who sail away on a ship called The Fantastic and very peculiar things happen to them is one of Matt Murdock's songs. He is great fun. I decided, sometimes, I'd actually play with the character as they were, and sometimes I'd play with the character as they weren't and one of the 'Daredevils' that made the most impression on me when I was a young 'Daredevil' reader, and I always loved the idea of 'Daredevil' and I never quite liked what they did with it, and I loved the Mike Murdock episode where he brought on his twin brother, freewheeling Mike Murdock, years and years ago who was this dude who called women babe and I can't remember if he smoked or not, but if he didn't he ought to have. It was the old, pretend to be your goofy twin brother kick, your goofy sighted twin brother kick, and I decided that it'd be kind of fun to put a little of that into Murdock's personality. So, he's not our Matt Murdock, but he's this wonderful balancing act with complete sort of 'Daredevil' powers, and he's absolute delight to write. He's very funny.

THE SANDMAN VOL. II TPB: THE DOLL'S HOUSE

COTTON: What was the thinking behind teaming Peter Parker with Nick Fury?

GAIMAN: Part of it was that I wanted the story to take place before Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Various questions remain, we need to find whether the universe will be restored, either restored or destroyed before Peter Parker ever gets to become Spider-Man and I also like the idea of just someone young, innocent and blank that people could explain things to and good natured, and I thought that Peter Parker was just perfect for that.

COTTON: Is 1602 now definitely eight issues or is there the chance that it can go even more?

GAIMAN: I keep asking Joe [Quesada], I keep asking, 'Joe, can I have a double sized last issue, like I had a double sized first issue,' and he said, 'You know what, just have another issue, make it nine.' I don't know. Either way the book will come out, and it'll make everyone happy and I will look very busy. I hope that as little as possible of it comes out late. We'll have a certain amount of months from when the last first episode comes out to finish it.

Mike Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard Magazine. For all the comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.

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The Cotton Club Archive

August 7 , 2003 - HOLLYWOOD RUN DOWN July 31, 2003 - SPIDER-MAN 2 July 24, 2003 - BAG MAN July 17, 2003 - Moore or Less July 10, 2003 - Ink Test July 2, 2003 - HURRICANE WARNING June 25, 2003 - BANNER BANTER June 10, 2003 - PETER DAVID June 3 , 2003 - PAUL JENKINS May 28 , 2003 - GEOFF JOHNS May 21 , 2003 - BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS May 14 , 2003 - PHIL JIMENEZ May 9 , 2003 - Don't F[l]inch April 29 , 2003 - The X-Factors April 17 , 2003 - X2 Reviewed January 13, 2003 - Game Boy - WizKid’s HeroClix January 3, 2003- 2003 Bigger than 2002? December 20 , 2002 - Ring Bearer - A two-bit tour for ‘Two Towers’ novices December 13 , 2002 - ‘Sine of the Times December 6 , 2002 - Killer Read November 30, 2002 - Lex's World November 23, 2002 - Truth and Consequences November 15, 2002 - Triple X November 8 , 2002 - Giving the Devil his Due October 31, 2002 - Superhero DVD Preview October 25, 2002 - Mad Cow October 18 , 2002 - 80's a Go-GO October 11 , 2002 - Best Bets on Bats October 4, 2002 - Hunters & Pray September 27 , 2002 - The War Within September 19 , 2002 - Lee-Der of the pack. September 13 , 2002 - The Next Generation. September 6 , 2002 - Marvel Melee. August 30, 2002 - Breaking In. Joe Quesada reveals the ins and outs of getting work at Marvel. August 23, 2002 - Painted Into a Corner. An Interview with Greg Hildebrandt. August 16, 2002 - X-citing News on X-Men 2!