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Writer and comedian Yedoye Travis sat with CBR to discuss making his very first foray into the world of comic books in Legends of the Dark Knight #8.
Writer and comedian Yedoye Travis recently achieved the dream of many comic fans: he wrote his first Batman issue for DC Comics. In DC’s Legends of the Dark Knight #8, Travis pens the story “Healing,” which depicts the Caped Crusader revisiting his life’s biggest trauma in an unusual way after a confrontation with the classic Gotham City villain the Scarecrow.
Travis sat down with CBR for a discussion about his first comic book where the writer revealed how he was tapped by DC to write the story as well as the importance of Batman in his life and his family’s lives. Travis also shared what inspired him to pen Legends of the Dark Knight #8.
CBR: I’m going to start today by just asking a question that I think is on everyone’s mind. How did you get the chance to write a Batman story for your very first comic book project?
Travis: Honestly, it came from doing a lot of unrelated work. I have a YouTube channel where I do a lot of stuff about anime and breaking down stories. [DC editor] Dave [Wielgosz] reached out through a friend of mine, or rather a mutual friend of ours, to ask if I wanted to do it. He felt that based on my output on my channel I might have a good grasp of the story. Time will tell whether he was right, but that’s pretty much it.
What are some of your earliest experiences with Batman?
Batman was an interesting character for my family because they didn’t really engage with comic book things, but they still knew all about Batman, even my mom. The early comic consumption for my family was mainly Marvel titles like X Men and Spider-Man, but there was also Batman. That’s how it’s always been as far as I can remember.
What other characters would you like to write about?
That’s an interesting question that a lot of people have asked me. As far as DC goes, Batman is the pinnacle for me, so what else do I do from here? I think the Flash would be cool, but I don’t know if I have the same passion for the Flash as I do for Batman. It’s an interesting place to start, honestly, because I don’t really know where to go from here. It’s like if Mount Everest was the first mountain you climbed. What would you do next?
What can you tell me about your story in Legends of the Dark Knight #8?
I wanted to tell a story that I thought was relatable. In our current political landscape, it can be difficult to tell a story about a billionaire and make him look good. I wanted to do a story where I strip all of that out of my mind, and just focus on the human parts of Batman, and the stuff that everybody can relate to regardless of where they are at politically.
What was the inspiration behind your story in Legends of the Dark Knight?
I think my own personal feelings of isolation, loneliness, and things like that. A lot of people that I described the story to mention the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because it has a similar plot device. After I heard that, it became that in my mind, but that’s not initially what it was.
How much of your story was derived from personal experience?
I’m a comedian, and that has informed everything I do. One of the big questions for a lot of comedians is whether or not they would still be funny if they weren’t depressed, or have trauma or mental health issues. I took that self-evaluation and extrapolated it into Batman and thought about what really makes him who he is and drives him to do what he does. Is it really just his parents being murdered? And if you took that driving force away, can you really justify what he’s doing? Does it still make sense for him to be the person that he is?
That’s a pretty heavy topic. How do you transition from comedian to Batman writer?
I think a lot of comedy is serious writing — if that makes sense. I think it’s a little cliche at this point to say that tragedy plus time equals comedy, but I think that element already exists in comedy. I also think that, to me, there isn’t really, any such thing as serious writing, or even comedy writing. I think it all is part of the same thing.
“Healing” is by Yedoye Travis, Nina Vakueva, Ivan Plascencia, and Ariana Maher. The story appears in Legends of the Dark Knight #8, on sale now from DC Comics.
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