I quit comics in 1988 and trained as a bus driver. I used to drive those big Greyhound coaches out of New York Port Authority and down to Princeton, New Jersey. It was, hands down, the best job I ever had, and I profoundly regret having left it. I kept that job the entire time I was on staff at DC Comics in the '90s.

Christopher Priest

Categorized in : Best Drive Time Regret

If you could access 90 percent of your brain, you'd be Charles Xavier.

Christopher Priest

your you percent brain

We - America - have to move past the ideology, the tribalism, that grips this country. As ridiculous as this sounds, I believe 'Black Panther,' the film, could help us do that if it addresses issues of tribal polarization and, by extension, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia in an entertaining, non-preachy way.

Christopher Priest

black racism believe past

I didn't want to write a 'black' book because black characters are a tough sell.

Christopher Priest

tough black want book

If I could make Panther tough, mysterious, wily, and often at odds with his 'Avengers' comrades, that was a character I'd find interesting.

Christopher Priest

find mysterious tough character

It made absolutely no sense to me why Panther would ever join a super-hero team; he's not a super-hero, and the record shows he did a whole lot of nothing most of the time.

Christopher Priest

nothing me team time

Denys Cowan and Dwayne Turner's visions of Wakanda as an ersatz African Epcot Center opened my eyes to the unexploited possibilities; these men, both of whom are African American, together with writer Peter B. Gillis, created an African Asgard of sorts, and I just went, 'Oh, my.'

Christopher Priest

american eyes together men

I think every writer is in search of the truth. We are trying to psychoanalyze ourselves.

Christopher Priest

search think truth trying

The way that I process and make writing work is I'm really telling true stories; I'm just putting them in a cape and putting an 'S' on its chest.

Christopher Priest

true work writing way

I think everybody wants to feel validated in some way, and when you're looking for leisure activities or if you're looking for escapism or things like that, you want to read about characters you can identify with.

Christopher Priest

looking feel think you

Literally everything that could be done with the 'Justice League' has been done with the 'Justice League.'

Christopher Priest

been everything done justice

'Justice' actually means different things to different people.

Christopher Priest

things different justice people

If the League were real, today, they'd most likely be sued by every person they ever saved. They'd be subpoenaed by every authority in every jurisdiction imaginable; hearings upon hearings. There'd be waves of accolades followed by tsunamis of boos from social media.

Christopher Priest

waves social-media media today

Escapism has its place. I used to write 'Conan the Barbarian' for Marvel, which takes place in an environment completely removed from the real world.

Christopher Priest

place environment real world

With all due respect to the other writers, I don't want to disparage any other writers; I don't want to have to invent a bigger villain than Deathstroke so Deathstroke can seem heroic fighting this bigger villain. I'd rather just have Deathstroke be who is, and he's kind of a bastard.

Christopher Priest

respect villain fighting want

In comics, my experience has been mostly artists whose visual storytelling chops are either weak or they're more invested in rushing to a paycheck than in doing work they can be proud of.

Christopher Priest

doing experience proud work

All people - white, black, whatever - are tribal in the sense that we relate to that which is familiar to us.

Christopher Priest

whatever black white people

I was trained in storytelling by Jim Shooter, Stan Lee, and Larry Hama. Doesn't make me a genius, and there really isn't anything fancy about the stage direction in my scripts.

Christopher Priest

direction me stage genius

Hollywood is, of course, loaded with egos, but it's amazing to see how, despite the egos, those collaborators pull together and focus on telling a story rather than butt heads and sabotage what is extremely hard work and investment just because their ego apparently demands it.

Christopher Priest

focus hard-work together work

Writing 'Deathstroke' presents a number of challenges to me. As a Christian, as a minister, it's difficult for me to write a comic book that all but glorifies violence. So my take on 'Deathstroke' has been to not so much celebrate violence but to deal with the consequences of violence.

Christopher Priest

me celebrate violence challenges

I think, personally, nothing comes from violence other than more violence.

Christopher Priest

more nothing think violence