Pinoy of steel

Although he doesn’t wear a cape and a skintight suit, Hank Kanalz is our man in the DC Comics Universe.

Hank, who is of Filipino descent, is senior vice president of Integrated Publishing at DC Comics where he oversees the company’s talent relations, talent development and content strategy. In other words, he finds the right talent to steer the adventures of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes who like to wear their underwear on the outside, figures out how to get those talents work and exposes those talents to the widest possible audience (I’m sure those superheroes get a lot of exposure just by wearing their underwear on the outside). 

Hank made his maiden voyage to the Philippines during the recently concluded AsiaPOP ComicCon Manila. In an exclusive interview with the STAR, Hank shares his favorite Pinoy comic book artists, whether or not we will see more Filipino characters in the DC Comics universe and which Teen Titan is secretly a Filipino.

 RJ LEDESMA: In honor of this interview, I came dressed with my underwear on the outside, but I didn’t make it past convention security. Now, just how excited are you guys working on the comics to see the upcoming slate of DC Comics movies?

HANK KANALZ: We’re very excited! We can’t wait for (Batman vs. Superman) to come out! We’ve seen the same footage that you guys have seen and it’s incredible what they’ve put together. And with the Suicide Squad coming out next year, it’s going to be a terrific year (for DC movies). But it’s only just the start of things.

DC appears to be taking a similar approach to your “Marvelous” competition in creating a singular movie universe for your characters. But how is DC approaching things differently for their movies in terms of aesthetics or storytelling?

When you speak to people who aren’t involved with the (comic book) business, they say that DC’s cinematic universe feels a little bit more “realistic” — as “realistic” as superheroes can be — while the Marvel movies are a little bit more lighthearted. However, in the comics, it has always been perceived that Marvel was more serious and realistic and DC was more lighthearted. In time, I think you’ll eventually find a little balance with all the (DC) movies, with every movie having a different tone.

Somehow I can’t picture Jason Momoa as Aquaman being lighthearted. Given that the pantheon of DC superheroes are becoming more popular with a global audience, how is DC making their comic book universe just as diverse as the readership it is gaining?  

We’ve invested a lot in the diversity of the DC universe and tried to have a better representation of the real world in the books themselves. But it doesn’t happen overnight. I think the best way to do it is if it develops naturally within the storyline and serves the purpose of the story. Now, just looking at this AsiaPOP convention, you can see the diversity of the audience — so many women and so many people from different backgrounds, which wouldn’t have been the case if the convention was held 15 years ago So we want to make sure that our comics reflect that change (in our readership). For example, we have a team book called We Are Robin (a team of “Robins” which features characters of various backgrounds and diverse ethnicities). If we put this out 25 years ago, the team would have been all-white male Robins! Today, we’ve got Midnighter (an openly gay superhero) and we’ve got Batgirl and Black Canary (strong female characters headlining books). All these books are significantly different from how they were in the past and they’ve found their audience.

I’m still waiting for Captain Carrot to get his own comic book with a tarsier as a sidekick. In the comics, DC reintroduced and reimagined an old character named Steel as a Filipino. Will we eventually see more Pinoy characters in the DC Universe?

We’ve had those kind of conversations before. If there’s an opportunity to bring a certain version of a character back, we ask ourselves, “Does it have to be white? Male? Can the character be female? Of any descent?” So, yes, we’re working on it.

If you’re coming up with a Pinoy Green Lantern, I have a picture of myself dressed in a bodysuit that your artists could use as a model. In the past few decades, many Pinoy artists have drawn or inked some of DC’s best-selling and critically acclaimed titles like Alfredo Alcala (Swamp Thing), Tony DeZuniga (Jonah Hex) and Romeo Tanghal (Teen Titans). Do you find any aesthetic sensibilities that our artists have contributed to the US comics scene?

Funny you should say that. We’ve talked about that over the years, how the overall vibe has changed over the decade. When you talk about Tony and Alfredo, they did have a certain “look”: it was a very heavier-inked line and a lot of detail. I remember meeting Romeo for the first time in a San Diego (comic book convention) and it was amazing! We talked about how he inked Donna Troy (Wonder Girl) and Starfire (from Teen Titans). Then Romeo pulled me aside and said, “Hey you’re Pinoy! You understand Starfire is a Filipino!” I said, “No, she’s an alien!” (Laughs) That’s right, he said, but when he would ink her he had a Filipina in mind. That was the beauty aesthetic he brought to the character. What he told me stuck with me for years. Whenever I see Starfire, I think “beautiful Filipina”!

I wonder which ‘80s Regal babes Romeo Tanghal was referencing for Starfire at that time.

But in recent years, it’s changed. And I think Whilce Portacio (Fil-Am artist who worked on some of Marvel’s major characters including X-Men, Punisher and Iron Man, was the creator of the X-Men character Bishop and one of the founders of Image Comics) is pretty much responsible — along with Jim Lee (co-founder of Image comics and the current co-publisher of DC Comics). The (readers) respond to their art and so the aesthetic is changing. Among the artist portfolios I’ve seen in AsiaPOP, there is a lot of high detail work and a lot of craftsmanship. Although I would say that those things are very common, there are also many diverse styles. Not as much manga influence as I would have expected, and a lot of American influences. But the great thing about the Philippines is that the arts is still respected and cultivated. In other countries, the arts have kind of been pushed to the side. So I really like that, in the Philippines, art is a viable career choice. 

Are there any Pinoy artists whose artwork has resonated with you more recently?

Whilce Portacio, Stephen Segovia (who recently drew a high-profile DC comic book mini-series called Convergence and handled art chores for Batman Arkham Knight, based on the DC video game) and Mico Suayan (who worked on Injustice and Batman: Arkham Unhinged, both based on DC video games). They take a cinematic approach in their work. They think very “big picture” and their work has a vastness to it.

You better watch out: they might start sneaking guest appearances of #AlDub into their artwork. We’ve seen a lot of Pinoy artists break into the US comics scene, but there are also a lot of great writers as well — like Budjette Tan of Trese, Paolo Chikiamco of Mythspace and Paolo Fabregas of Filipino Heroes League — who could make great contributions to the DC tapestry. How do our writers break into the industry?

It would be very similar to breaking (into the industry) in the US. If you’re a writer, my best advice is to find an artist and create comic books together. It’s much better (for editors) to see a finished product as it’s nearly impossible to get anyone to read a script. Find a good artist to partner with to make sure that the script is well represented. As a good writer, you have to show you can write a beginning, a middle and an end of a story. On top of that, you have to show that you can give art direction to your artist. You have to be able to describe a scene in a way that the artist understands it and knows what to draw. If you don’t have that — along with good characterization and good dialogue — then you won’t work as a comic book writer. You might be better off as a novelist or another (genre of writing).

Sigh… I guess that the comic book adaptation of a superhero based on my book Playing with Pink Parts will have to wait until Whilce Portacio involuntarily agrees to draw it. 

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For comments, suggestions or suggestions for a Pinoy hero in the DC Universe, email Ledesma.rj@gmail.com or visitwww.rjledesma.com. Follow @rjled on Twitter and @rjled610 on Instagram.