Steve CohenI have been a Batman fanboy for much of my life, collecting Detective Comics, Batman, Legends of the Dark Knight, and all related series. The collecti…moreI have been a Batman fanboy for much of my life, collecting Detective Comics, Batman, Legends of the Dark Knight, and all related series. The collection grew through my college years, but I eventually gave all my comics away, with the exception of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One.
Batman: Year One was ultimately the inspiration for my new 110-page graphic novel because it provides a well-rounded origin story of an existing character. I wanted to create a similar origin story for my performing character, so that visitors to Chamber Magic (my long-running NYC show) would have more depth of understanding where I "came from." In addition, people who read the graphic novel would want to come meet the Millionaires' Magician in real life.
The challenge was to seamlessly weave my real-life escapades into a compelling fictional framework so that readers would not suspect, let alone detect, the boundary between fact and fiction. I wanted them to wonder whether any of this is true, and if so, how much? (less)