Interview:
Bending the Airbender: An Interview with Alison Wilgus, Comic Book Writer and Artist

I'm sure a huge impression was made by Gargoyles, an animated series that ran on the "Disney Afternoon" from 1994-1996. I fell head over heels for that show. I couldn't believe that I was watching a fantasy show -- for kids! -- that had all the style and atmosphere of Batman: The Animated Series but used it to tell a surprisingly complex story, one that ran for 52 episodes over the course of two seasons. And it had continuity! You had to watch it in order! And one of the two main characters was a lady cop! Who wasn't white! I mean, looking back on it now, it's hard to believe that show ever got made. To my knowledge, a serial animated drama of its kind had never been produced before, and very few of them have been made since. The series was pretty inconsistent, and while some of the episodes were incredible more than a handful were almost unwatchably bad. But it was sincere and heartfelt and ambitious, and it set a precedent that shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender would later follow, pushing the envelope that much farther. Gargoyles has been off the air for 16 years, and it still has an active fanbase; there was fan-organized "Gathering of the Gargoyles" convention every year from 1997-2009. It's so rare to see a narrative that resonates with people that way. I try to watch shows like Gargoyles and ATLA and figure out what makes them work so well -- what draws people in, what keeps them invested, what drives them to want to create fanwork and tell stories of their own in that setting. I want to learn how to bring those qualities to my own work, whether it's Chronin or Zuko's Story or the New-Gen films. I want to have the same impact on the kids and teens who're out there right now that all the narratives I've talked about had on me.

Alltern8: So you're also attached to the NEW-GEN Science Fiction Super Hero franchise and A.P.N.G. Enterprises, what does your involvement with them entail?

AW: New-Gen was originally a comics miniseries distributed by Marvel, but the folks at A.P.N.G. -- J.D. and Chris and Julia particularly -- had a much larger world and narrative in mind. There's a huge story bible full of details and background information, more than they could ever fit into six issues of comics. They worked with a company called Starlight Runner, who specializes in exactly this sort of thing, to really flesh out the New-Gen universe so it could support larger, more ambitious projects in the future. One direction they had in mind was a feature film, and that's where I come in. I sat down with the original comics and the story bible, spent a lot of time in person and over the phone talking to the A.P.N.G. crew, and worked out how we wanted to adapt these comic book characters to live action, to appeal to a broader and maybe slightly older audience. Essentially, my job was to find a way to ground the story -- particularly the three protagonists, Chris and Sean and Carmen -- in as believable and realistic a world as I could. I wanted to bring the viewer into the film through the eyes of Chris and Sean, twins with powers they're only just beginning to understand, as they're torn from their average, uneventful lives and thrown into the chaos that the story's villain, Deadalus, creates.