Dwayne McDuffie is a prolific comics and television writer. He is best known as the co-founder of Milestone Media, the company which created STATIC SHOCK, ICON, HARDWARE, AND XOMBI. He was the co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning animated series “Static Shock,” which ran for four seasons on Kids!WB. More recently, he was a producer on “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited,” which just finished up its run on Cartoon Network and may now be seen on Boomerang. He has written stories for SPIDERMAN, BATMAN, AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT, CAPTAIN MARVEL, and THE TICK. His current project is a miniseries from Marvel called BEYOND! (first issue now available in your local comic book store). Mr. McDuffie has graciously agreed to sit down with Firefox News for a chat.

Melissa Wilson

What are you working on right now?

Dwayne McDuffie

I’m finishing up a Marvel miniseries, and I am working on a new show for Nickelodeon.

Melissa

Anything you can talk about?

McDuffie

Not yet.

Melissa

Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? Where are you from? What did you study in college?

McDuffie

I’m from Detroit, Michigan, I went to the University of Michigan and NYU. I studied physics.

I decided at a certain point that I didn’t want to continue in grad school for physics, and went to NYU Film School. Then I ran out of money.

Melissa

That happens.

McDuffie

(laughs) New York’s expensive. Who knew? I took a job at a financial magazine called “Investment Dealer’s Digest” as a copy editor, hated the job. I complained to a friend of mine who was an editor at Marvel, and he said, “Hey, they’re looking for an assistant editor. If you call right away, you can probably get an interview.” I got an interview, took something like an eighty percent pay cut, *laugh* and started writing comics.

Melissa

Did you start writing off the bat, or were you doing more editing work? How long did they give you to get your feet wet?

McDuffie

I had made a couple of little short story sales, but just for fun. It never occurred to me as a job. I’d sold a few short pieces before I started editing. But once I got there, I needed the money, so I wrote a lot more.

Melissa

What were they for? What books were the stories for?

McDuffie

My first stuff for AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT, they might have changed the title of it in the middle. I think it was AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT, which was eleven-page solo stories of members of the Avengers, the Marvel super-team.