Geoff Johns premieres new Green Lantern in Dearborn

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2012120908034

Friday, 9/7, Johns signed autographed copies of Green Lantern #0 at Green Brain Comics. The new issue features the new 'Green Lantern' hero, "Simon Baz". Saturday, 9/8, earlier in the day, Johns hosted a workshop for area kids, where he led a 'clinic' on creating your own comics superheroes. Later in the afternoon, Johns lectured a group of mostly adults about his career; abetted by back-projected covers of the comics and other media work he's had a hand in, Johns explained his early interest in comics, his college-era interest in film, segueing into an internship and PA position in Richard Donner's production company, which led to his earliest freelance work for DC and Marvel, then his exclusive writing deal with DC, and finally his executive position today.

There was a lengthy Q & A session after his presentation. The "New 52" publishing continuity was a recurring topic. He said the lack of Arab-based heroes led to the creation of Simon Baz. Someone brought up the situation involving black characters at DC; currently the only black lead in a title is Batwing. Johns stated that recently canceled titles [[the not mentioned but alluded-to Mr. Terrific, Voodoo) were simply due to low sales, and he claims that the Batwing title is selling "very well". He also speculated that Justice League member Cyborg may get his own ongoing series "soon." When asked about the prospects of a female-earth-based greenlantern, he responded with a cryptic "keep reading the comics", which he admitted was his default response for any question he knew he couldn't give a definitive yes or no answer to.

Johns said that aspiring creatives—particularly writers-- should frequent the convention circuit and use the Internet to seek out local/up and coming artists to collaborate with, and publishing an indie project is the best way to pitch your way into working with the Big Two.

By the end of the evening, representatives of the Arab-American museum stated that a permanent part of its library will be dedicated to Geoff Johns graphicnovels/TPBs.