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In a roundtable interview attended by CBR, Tom King breaks down how he and Greg Smallwood tackled their new 12-issue comic series, Human Target.
Len Wein and Carmine Infantino’s creation, Christopher Chance, better known in DC Comics as the Human Target, has never exactly been a household name. But, since the character’s first appearance in 1972’s Action Comics #419, he has been the star of some incredible stories — including Peter Milligan and Edvin Biukovic’s 1999 series for DC Vertigo and two seasons of a 2010 Human Target television series on Fox. This November, the bodyguard who disguises himself as his clientele to protect their lives receives another chance to step into the spotlight. DC Black Label’s Human Target drops its debut issue on Nov. 2, the first in a 12-issue limited series written by Tom King and with artwork by Greg Smallwood.
CBR attended a roundtable discussion with the Eisner-winning comic creator Tom King to discuss Human Target. King detailed his writing process as well as his goals for the DC Black Label series, which begins with Christopher Chance in grave danger. After thwarting an assassination attempt aimed at his client Lex Luthor, Chance realizes that he’s been poisoned and sets out to find the culprit for himself. His investigation puts him on a collision course with the Justice League International with promises of a “sexy pulp romance.”
King explained that his Human Target series initially started as a joke on Twitter. “People say nothing good comes from Twitter, [but] I got some work from it,” King said. He began writing the series fairly casually, taking inspiration from Len Wein’s work — but once he saw a piece of Greg Smallwood’s concept art, the project became more exciting. He said seeing Smallwood’s work made him see the project in a different light. “This could be something special,” King added. “This could be something unique in comics. Something that sort of transcends the moment.” King sees the ways in which Chance confronts his mortality as a response to the anxiety of living during a pandemic. Throughout the conversation, he was quick to point out that this series is intended to be more optimistic than some of his “angry and bitter” comics like Rorschach and Strange Adventures which he used to explore “the dark side of 2020.”
When asked about what made him interested in including the Justice League International in Human Target, King mentioned that Ice is his son’s “favorite superhero in the whole world.” So, incorporating the JLI was a great way to make his son happy. He explained that the team will play a substantial role in the series, and that “each issue is devoted to one or two of the members and in each issue, it’s my job to […] present a hero in a new light and tell you what’s interesting about this hero and what’s fundamentally flawed about them.” It seems like King is almost as fond of the heroes as his son is. He even went as far as to say that Booster Gold is his “favorite character to write in all of fiction.”
King was asked how he went about crafting the complicated mystery stories he’s become known for making. He stressed the importance of making sure that “every single issue has to be its own thing, has to stand alone” and “not being distracted by the future of the comic.” He explained that it was important to him to establish a distinct pace throughout Human Target. He also mentioned his desire to evoke a retro “super cool Saturday night TV show” aesthetic that earlier versions of the Christopher Chance character captured. King was happy to remind everyone that much of the series’ hip tone is a result of Smallwood’s wonderful art, but he also said that he drew a great deal of influence from the worlds of Mad Men, James Bond, and film noir.
The conversation eventually shifted towards Chance as a character and King’s choice to present an older, more reserved version of the outlandish character in Human Target. He responded by pointing out that despite the optimistic, fun nature of the series, he was working on it while coping with the existential dread of the pandemic. “[That] was not conducive to just doing a guy who was super fun and carefree,” King shared. Instead, he crafted a version of Chance who had lived an exciting life and was looking back with a fair amount of regrets and future trepidation.
At the end of the conversation, King was asked to discuss what he was most excited for fans to discover as the series continued. He replied by saying that even though his son inspired him to include Ice, he wasn’t likely to let him read the book any time soon because “this is a sexy comic.” King was looking forward to readers finding a “deep romance” in the pages of Human Target that he hopes will “turn some heads.” He seemed truly excited for readers to enjoy the fun, sexy nature of the heroes he’s written.
Human Target #1 goes on sale Nov. 2 from DC Black Label.
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