Frank Marraffino is the storyteller that Vertigo tapped to write its revival of DC’s 1960s to early 1980s Haunted Tank property. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Marraffino to talk about this new five-issue miniseries, set in modern-day Iraq. We also talked about some of his past work and influences.

Before starting the interview, here’s the core info on the Vertigo miniseries (the first issue of which went on sale on December 3): “The Haunted Tank is back in action, but this time it’s an M1 Abrams in modern-day Iraq! African American tank commander Jamal Stuart has his 21st century war ride in full battle rattle and is ready for anything – anything except the whistling-Dixie combat guru ghost who shows up uninvited!

Of course, this isn’t the first time the spirit of Confederate Civil War General J.E.B. Stuart has helped guide a tank. In times of war he makes himself available to assist his descendants in battle. Jamal Stuart, meet your forefather!”

My thanks to Marraffino for his time and Vertigo’s Pamela Mullin for facilitating the interview. Issue 2 hits the stands on January 7.

Tim O’Shea: War comics only seem to see in times of war. Not to say one is exploiting the war, but did you hesitate at embarking on a project like this?

Frank Marraffino: No, not at all. It just seemed like a pretty good story with plenty of complex dimensions worth exploring. Perhaps the fact that it addresses an ongoing war effort makes it a bit more relevant, but I think everyone hopes for relevance in their work. The Iraq War is a big important event that happens to contain all sorts of fascinating material. And you know, the earliest stories, epic poems, and ballads were all about war and warriors. One of humanity’s longest traditions is the telling of tales which celebrate the heroic spirit and memorialize fallen comrades. We’ve been weaving yarns about war for as long as we’ve had wars, and that’s a fairly long time. It’s part of what makes us who we are as a people.

O’Shea: In writing a comic set in 2003 Iraq, was there something about that particular phase of the Iraq campaign that made you set the story then?

Marraffino: Yeah – that’s when the war began, which is really the beginning of this story. Sure, the back-story goes back a century or more, but for our tank crew everything before March 2003 was just the pre-game show. How our characters perform and develop during the main event is what’s really important to them, and therefore to us also. And the ghost of Jeb Stuart doesn’t usually show up to help people out during peacetime! For full clarity of the big picture, it certainly does helps that looking back from the year 2008 we have a better sense now of how everything unfolded in 2003. The date differential allows us to comment (in a way that everyone can understand) on how easily one’s expectations about a situation can change so dramatically over time.

O’Shea: Was there any hesitancy to inject the issue of race (and Jeb Stuart’s role as a soldier fighting “the Northern Aggression” [aka U.S. civil war]) from Vertigo editorial?

Marraffino: Absolutely not. In fact, I have to imagine that’s part of the reason the book got approved! Since its inception, Vertigo has been known for its envelope-pushing titles that find new ways to examine us humans and our foibles. The dynamic between Jeb and Jamal may seem like a Hollywood-style high concept full of implied dramatic tension, but in that relationship there’s a lot of room to look at the very real ways that different people live and act and regard the world around them. Race is not the only issue that separates Jeb and Jamal. Actually, now that you mention it, I can’t remember any conversation I had with editorial where we spent any time hashing out the race issue. It was just accepted as the right direction for the book. It just made sense.

O’Shea: How instrumental was editor Brandon Montclare in developing/refining the nuances of the Haunted Tank miniseries?

Marraffino: There are a ton of important things that editors do but the most crucial is making sure that the books actually happen – and this version of Haunted Tank wouldn’t exist without Brandon. He brought both Henry Flint and myself into Vertigo, paired the two of us together, and allowed us to unleash our ambitions onto the page. Brandon also continually challenged me during the formation of the pitch to nail down and refine all the various details of the concept to help insure smooth sailing through the approval process – especially important because I’m unknown. To answer your question more directly though, it was supremely important to Brandon that the book not be so completely over-nuanced that it was inaccessible. For instance, I was interested in trying to convey that characters from very different backgrounds often don’t fully understand each other, even though they might think they do. More than once Brandon had to remind me that if the characters don’t understand each other, than it was possible that the reader wouldn’t understand anyone. The most extreme example of this was my misdirected desire for an Iraqi to curse in German! Talk about too much nuance!

O’Shea: What kind of research did you do to ensure your portrayal of Iraq was accurate?

Marraffino: Hoo boy, I looked into all kinds of stuff. Regarding the country, there was the general history of the Middle East and Iraq specifically; the capabilities of the Iraqi military and other fighters who joined in the defense against American forces; the religious, sectarian, social and economic divisions inherent in the Iraqi population; and even the terrain and topography. I also wanted to get a handle on the U.S. side of things so I read up on the Operation Iraqi Freedom battle plan, tank warfare, and how different soldiers carried themselves during this war and others. With research also into the Civil War and Jeb Stuart, I had all sorts of spicy ingredients hat were useful for creating quite the pungent bouillabaisse that is Haunted Tank.

O’Shea: Did you give any thought to the fact that Jeb fought in the civil war and some folks have considered the war in Iraq to ultimately be a civil war of its own. Is there any implied juxtaposition with those shared themes?

Marraffino: Very good point. You’ve hit upon a crucial element of the series here, and this early into the release schedule, I feel I should say only that in response.

O’Shea: Was that your or Henry Flint’s idea to have the scene where the soldiers were writing messages on the munitions?

Marraffino: I had read about soldiers doing that but Henry does overflow with ideas, from the look of the characters and the paraphernalia that they carry around with them to additional emotions or actions that appear on a page. There are a number of specific items from the actual Iraqi conflict that Henry wanted to incorporate – and the story was better for it! So look out for the Iraqi Face Cards Deck and the camel spiders! It’s only because Henry mentioned them that they made it into Haunted Tank.

O’Shea: Speaking of Flint, how crucial was his artistic style and approach to this type of tale? What values or aspects do you appreciate most about Flint’s work?

Marraffino: Everything about Henry Flint is crucial to this book. He’s changed-up his style slightly to perfectly suit this book, but it really is his approach that makes every aspect work so well. No one will appreciate as much as those of us who worked with him on this just what Henry Flint means to this book. On the surface the book looks great, but it’s really the mechanical engineering that Henry is doing underneath the surface that gets Haunted Tank firing on all cylinders because Henry is a master at storytelling. I’m talking about the storytelling that he does with his visuals – the choice of page layout and panel progression; the details he includes inside the panels that convey additional elements which occurred between panels; the facial expressions of characters, especially when they’re reacting to something said off-panel; certain visual cues that connect the unspoken dots; and subtle design elements he’s chosen that subconsciously alter the entire experience. Henry has put a lot of thought into the best way to convey information to the reader. So much so that Haunted Tank is a great read when you look at his art alone!

O’Shea: DC has a rich history of war comics, do you think it’s a good harbinger for the miniseries success that Joe Kubert provides an alternate cover for the first issue?

Marraffino: Absolutely! It would be hard to imagine much of the pantheon of DC war books without Joe Kubert’s involvement. I think it’s safe to say that his contributions have lead the campaign to keep the home fires burning in the hearts of fans who after all the years still very much want to see more of these characters. But really, any book can benefit from a Joe Kubert cover – he lends class and gravitas to any project. And I might repeat that notion in regards to the other great artists who have given their unique talents over to this series. Paul Pope’s cover is a crazy dynamic explosion. Mike Kaluta’s cover is a dreamy caress. Shane Davis’ cover is deadly serious yet slyly subversive. And Henry Flint just might have them all beat with his instantly iconic image of Jeb and Jamal back-to-back and ready to go head-to-head. A good cover can really make a comic stand out. A great cover sometimes keeps the book memorable long after the story has been forgotten. With this collection of cover artists, Haunted Tank has more than a fighting chance to win both of those battles – and maybe the entire war.

O’Shea: How did you transition from writing noir/horror comedy manga to this relaunch of Haunted Tank?

Marraffino: In a way, Haunted Tank is just a different type of noir/horror comedy. War has its own horror, with humor often used to defend against it. And in Haunted Tank we do employ noir in the strictest French definition of the word… But seriously, the formats and expectations of the two different books really did dictate a lot of the approach I took with them. The Dark Goodbye may have been one of the most Western-styled books from Tokyopop, but certain manga guidelines were definitely followed, like when I was told by my editors that I was using far too many words on the page – the idea being that the 160-page experience shouldn’t be bogged down with over-weighty word balloons that would slow the reader. I think if the same approach was used on Haunted Tank then most comic fans and especially Vertigo readers would feel ripped-off. People still expect and enjoy a complete reading experience from their 22-page individual issues – what Heidi MacDonald calls the “Satisfying Chunk.” To succeed at that meant re-thinking just how much information to include in each panel, on each page, and in each issue, and how to do it in a way that still made the book feel like an effortless read.

O’Shea: Anyone that reads your earlier Dark Goodbye work and this current Haunted Tank miniseries sees a common link: your penchant for witty dialogue. What writers and/or stories have influenced your ear for this kind of dialogue?

Marraffino: More than any particular writer, I find that immersing myself completely in specific genres really helps me build not just the voice of the characters, but of the story itself. So for the hard-boiled horror of The Dark Goodbye, I drowned myself in the angry clipped staccato found in film noir and Raymond Chandler novels, and imagined that set against the indecipherable poetical hoodoo so commonly uttered by characters in H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Those two speaking styles instantly clash and as they crash together. For Haunted Tank I watched a whole bunch of video diaries by soldiers and read lots of Jeb Stuart’s letters and field reports. Guys in the modern military often have a brisk and bawdy banter going on. Juxtaposing that kind of talk against Jeb’s Southern gentlemanly pomp might immediately seem witty even without any effort on my part. But the artists play a huge role in how I get into this stuff. The Dark Goodbye was set to be a lot more serious before I saw Drew Rausch’s hilarious character design of the main character blind drunk with an eyeball in his drink. And Henry does such a good job at expressing the characters’ anger and frustrations that it would be wasteful not to have them bickering about something.

O’Shea: I’m curious if your past work as head projectionist for the Radio City Music Hall has had any influence on how you approach storytelling?

Marraffino: Yes! The most immediate effect of working in a place like Radio City is that you’re exposed to tons of incredible stories, many due to the exaggerated larger-than-life nature of the building and the shows which take place there. It’s a pretty good sampling of all the directions possible for how stories can began and build and bluster and ultimately conclude. But also, the thing about working with a bunch of gruff stagehands is that you learn quickly that as an audience they don’t have much patience for flowery over-nuanced discourse. They’ll take their stories with short declarative sentences, thank you very much. So it’s a good lesson in attention spans, or the possible lack thereof.

O’Shea: Is there anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask?

Marraffino: I’d just like to mention that the medium of comic books, at least mainstream American comic books, is very much a collaborative team effort, and it’s been amazing to find out first hand just how exciting it can be at a major publisher when the team is made up of aces who think nothing of leaving it all on the field, so to speak. I’m the rookie of this team and all the veterans in the line-up have really made me feel welcome and also excited to be suiting-up every day. Bob Schreck, who Brandon works with, made a killer suggestion about issue #1 that improved the whole issue greatly. The rendering and light-sourcing work that Lee Loughridge has done on colors has added a deep dimensionality and a rich lushness to the proceedings. Travis Lanham’s font choices and balloon placement easily endear the eye to every page. And I haven’t even begun to know all the other players who work in different departments but are crucial in fielding the team. With the talent available and willing to pitch in, you really begin to believe in all that might be possible.

Tim O’Shea: As the positive reaction to Ghost Rider has grown, how much were you surprised at the number of reactions that ran along the lines of “I’ve never found the character of interest…until now”?

Jason Aaron: It’s nice to know I’ve helped bring new readers to the fold, but Ghost Rider was already a fun character long before I came along, all the way back to when he was first written by Gary Friedrich.

O’Shea: Given how busy you are with your various writing assignments, what drives you to take on the GR letters column? (Don’t get me wrong, it makes for fun reading…)

Aaron: GHOST RIDER was my first big ongoing assignment for Marvel, and I figured a lot of the people who’d be reading the book would have never heard of me, so I thought the letters column provided a great opportunity to introduce myself to them. And yeah, it’s a blast. GHOST RIDER gets a lot of mail. In particular, we get a lot of letters from people who don’t read any comics other than GHOST RIDER. I don’t know what it is about the character, but it has a very broad appeal. From church folks to cons, we get letters from them all.

O’Shea: How is it that the Ghost Rider series has seemingly dodged the Skrull invasion?

Aaron: We talked at one point about doing a Secret Invasion crossover, and I had some cool ideas for a Super-Skrull with the powers of the Champions, but ultimately it would’ve been a distraction from the overall story I was trying to tell, and it just didn’t make sense to do it. I did get to kill plenty of Skrulls in Black Panther though, so I still got my Secret Invasion fix.

O’Shea: Speaking of the good old Skrulls, why was your three-issue run on Black Panther not longer than that? Any chance you could end up writing the character again? (I would think so, given that at least one of the issues in the run sold out) What about the books dynamics was it that attracted you to the assignment in the first place?

Aaron: I was offered the three issue Secret Invasion story on the book, and jumped at the chance. I’ve always been a big fan of Black Panther, from the old JUNGLE ACTION issues to the Priest series and now the new book. I’d love to write the character again some day, but I know Marvel and Reggie Hudlin already have big plans in the works for T’Challa and I can’t wait to see what’s coming. Plus, I’ve already got plenty of stuff on my plate to keep me busy next year.

O’Shea: Did Marvel approach you about the Punisher Christmas one-shot or was that a concept that your proposed?

Aaron: Axel Alonso asked if I wanted to write a Punisher MAX Christmas Special, and I replied, oh God yes, or something like that, and then came up with the most heartwarming holiday story I could think of. It involves three hitmen from back east and a pimp named Shepherd and Frank Castle trying to deliver a baby and… you get the picture.

O’Shea: Wolverine is a man of many miniseries–what is it about your miniseries that you feel will make it standout in the very diverse and very busy comic market?

Aaron: I’ve written Wolverine in a few different stories now, and I’ve tried to make each one distinct in tone and setting and set-up. This MANIFEST DESTINY mini-series is basically my heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema and all the Kung Fu films I spent my Saturdays watching when I was a kid. There are mystical warriors and one-armed swordsmen and aging masters and even the Sons of the Tiger.

O’Shea: In doing mainstream characters like Black Panther and Wolverine, do you hope that you’ll gain new readers for Scalped?

Aaron: Yeah, I hope that every new reader who likes my Marvel work will go out and give SCALPED a shot. I still feel like I’m trying to get my name out there to all the mainstream fans. And if any of them enjoy my work on WOLVERINE or BLACK PANTHER or GHOST RIDER, then I don’t really see it as much of a stretch that they’d enjoy SCALPED. Without SCALPED, I wouldn’t be writing for Marvel in the first place, since that’s how I got their attention.

O’Shea: Speaking of Scalped, where do you hope to take that book in 2009?

Aaron: To even darker places. 2009 is when everything really hits the fan. And then we’ll begin picking up the pieces.

O’Shea: Why is it that on the heels of your success with Scalped that you chose to do work with superheroes at Marvel instead of DC?

Aaron: Quite simply, because of Axel Alonso. He may be one of the most powerful editors at Marvel, but to me he’s still just a Vertigo guy at heart, so he and I really hit it off. Everything I’ve done at Marvel so far has come through him.

O’Shea: As much as you are a fan of University of Alabama football–would you ever consider creating a comic book series with football playing some sort of a role in the series?

Aaron: As a matter of fact, yes, I would. I’m actually already working on a graphic novel that deals with Alabama football that’ll be published by Oni. It’s still in the early stages though, so I don’t wanna spoil any details. I’ll just say that growing up in the south, football is indeed very close to my heart. I live and die by the success and failure of my beloved Crimson Tide. So it’s been a good year, what with the Tide ranked #1, and I’m excited to finally be able to combine my loves of comics and football.

O’Shea: Is there anything else you’d like to discuss about your current or upcoming work?

Aaron: It’s been a hell of a year for me, but next year is seriously shaping up to be bigger and better. I’m excited already.

Tim O’Shea: While the Beatles serve as an inspiration, did you fear using the most popular band ever as a springboard for the larger tale?

David Tischman: The Mates aren’t the Beatles. The Mates are the world’s greatest and best-loved super-team of all time. The Mates do occupy the same space in our pop-culture Hall of Fame that the Beatles have, but there was never any concern the two groups would be compared.

O’Shea: Vertigo is not typically the line for superhero tales–how did this land at Vertigo as opposed to Wildstorm?

Tischman: I look at Vertigo as a place for smart, creator-owned material. I never think about it beyond that. If the idea is good, it finds a home. “Greatest Hits” is a good idea, and it’s something Shelly Bond at Vertigo really got into. Thankfully, Karen Berger was on board when she first heard the pitch, and she and Shelly have both been incredibly supportive on the project. Vertigo does allow for mature themes, and there is a lot of adult language and drug use and some pretty heavy sex stuff in “Greatest Hits,” but all of it is part of the story — in some cases, especially in terms of the drug use by some of the characters, the adult themes were necessary for the story. And by the way, I love Wildstorm. I’m doing a creator-owned book there now, and it’s been a dream working with Scott Peterson. But that book’s not a super-hero story, so go figure.

O’Shea: How pleased are you to be able to step away from your successful writing collaboration with Howard Chaykin and definitely find you own singular writing voice in this new miniseries? What was the best lesson that Chaykin instilled in your writing?

Tischman: Howard and I haven’t written together for a while now — I think the last thing we did together was the BITE CLUB sequel, “Bite Club SVU.” And I’ve written on my own in comics before, “Fraction” at DC, and “Cable” at Marvel, and a ton of “Star Trek” stuff at IDW, so this isn’t my first time out on my own. But I do think “Greatest Hits” is the best thing I’ve written; it certainly is the project that is most what I want to be writing. On the Wildstorm project, too — I really feel like the writing is finding its way. But back to Howard. Howard taught me how to write comics, and I wouldn’t be doing this without him. The two things Howard taught me that are the most important are how to pace an issue — that the page is the unit — and the other thing is to hit a problem head-on; meaning, if you’re plotting out a story and you hit a logic problem, “if we go down street “A” it’s going to cause problem “B.” Howard taught me to embrace the problem, to actually make that problem part of the plot. That gives you some of the best character stuff, when you do that.

O’Shea: What qualities are brought to your story by having Glenn Fabry on art? And in terms of the visual tone of the tale, how was the art boosted by the addition of inker Gary Erskine in issue 3?

Tischman: How can you go wrong with Glenn Fabry? The guy is a fantastic artist. The work on “Greatest Hits” has been amazing. The great thing about Glenn is, he can make a stripper on a pole sexy as Hell, then give you an incredible action sequence. The Mates are British and so’s Glenn, so that’s an added bonus. He understands where these heroes came from, and all the period reference. It makes it all more authentic. Gary Erskine adds a fine-tuned finish to Glenn’s pencils, especially in Issue #3, when the Mates take up residence on their island headquarters. Gary’s work is terrific, it’s seamless over Glenn’s pencils and keeps a visual continuity. Take a look at #3 and let me know what you think.

O’Shea: When I think of Beatles-inspired documentary storytelling, Python fan that I am, I think of the Rutles. For your fictional documentary tale, how much did you try to go for laughs–or did you intentionally avoid such going with a comedic tone with this miniseries?

Tischman: Dirk, Stigg, Nasty and Barry — the pre-Fab Four. The Rutles are great. But they’re not the Mates, either. There are some very funny moments in “Greatest Hits.” Some of the dialogue in Issue #1, when Golem quits the team, and in the wax museum in Issue #2 and with Zipper at an AA meeting. It’s not ha-ha funny, but good, fun comedy does come out of the characters, sometimes when you least expect it.

O’Shea: In attempting to tell a tale with flashbacks, how hard is it to juggle the balance of present day narrative with a mixture of storytelling flashbacks?

Tischman: The flashbacks are hard. There’s so much I wanted to get in there, and each time you go back — is it going to be news footage, or a home movie, or something personal? Each time, the flashback needs to move the story forward, but it has to seem very casual. You can’t know how the future’s going to perceive the present, you know? It’s all just happening now, and those scenes need to feel casual.

O’Shea: Can you point to any kind of pop culture easter eggs (nods to the eras the story is set in) that have occurred in the first two issues?

Tischman: We have the meeting of the two heroes, Crusader and Solicitor, in Issue #1, which is a similar situation to how Paul and John came together to form the band. In Issue #2, we deal with the British Invasion — although most people concentrate on the Beatles landing at JFK, it really represents the entire British Invasion. You’ll see more in Issue #4 and some very funny events will seem familiar in Issue #5.

O’Shea: Was there plot and character exploration that you had to leave out, for example would you have explored Golem’s conflict between being a loyal family man versus his desire to be the hero?

Tischman: Sure. Absolutely. I really wanted to have the team hold open auditions for the rest of the team — see a ton of heroes lined-up around the block. It was a much different way of introducing Zipper. And I very much wanted to explore the Solicitor-Soul Sister relationship. There were other scenes, too, and other talking heads commenting on the action. A lot of stuff that more closely tied the story to events that happened in the music industry. At the same time, though, the good stuff is what ends up on the page — I really believe that. Like I said, this is a killer book, and I love the way it turned out. From where I sit now, I wouldn’t change a thing.

O’Shea: Am I off, or is there a MAD magazine vibe for the cover of issue 2?

Tischman: You’re wrong. The cover to Issue #2 is Glenn’s way of demonstrating the intense fan reaction to the Mates — and a way of maintaining that parallel with the music industry and how our super-heroes act like rock stars.

O’Shea: Not every comic can claim that Todd Klein did the letters–how did you land him on the book?

Tischman: Todd’s lettered some of my other projects, but snagging him for “Greatest Hits” is all Shelly Bond. That woman pays attention to details. It’s great, though, because Todd is the perfect letterer for this book. And such a nice man! Really, like the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He likes “Greatest Hits” and I think it shows — the varied styles of lettering, especially in Issue #1 — you can tell he’s having a good time and enjoying the material. We’re lucky to have him, and his eye works great with the different flashbacks and the switching scenery.

O’Shea: Do you hope this project leads to more work with Vertigo–and/or what else is on the horizon for you?

Tischman: I love it up at Vertigo, and I look forward to working with Shelly and Karen again. The Wildstorm book’s up next. And I’ve got some proposals in — a couple of OGN ideas, and some other cool stuff. I’ve got a fun job, y’know?