An Interview with writer Tom Peyer

 

How did you first become involved with 2099?

Tom: I'm pretty sure that Joey called and asked me to write a few Dooms. Although I don't remember the exact conversation. But he and I had known each other for yea​​rs, and we got along well. Really bright, funny guy. Has comics in his DNA.​​ We met at a party in the mid-80s, then again years later when I was hired at DC. He was working there, and he remembered me from that party. I thought that said a lot more about his kindness than about how memorable I was.

When you got the assignment of writing Doom 2099, was the idea of taking Doom back in time part of your pitch or was that plot already part of the assignment?

Tom: ​I'm certain that he was coming back in time no matter who was going to be writing it.

What recollections do you have about your artists on Doom 2099? John Buscema, Dale Eaglesham & John Royle?

Tom: ​Eaglesham and Royle were very good. Buscema, of course, was a hero, and a particularly embarrassing memory.

I didn't know who was going to be drawing his issue, so I kind of idiot-proofed the script. Explained things in too much detail, chose camera angles, that kind of thing. Because there were a lot of rookie artist coming into the field and I felt you needed to hold their hand a little.​

So Joey, bless him, gave this overwritten, over described script to one of the greatest and most experienced professionals. I was pretty embarrassed. And there were two Dooms in the story; Joey told me that John mixed them up and had to go back and redraw them. So even my overwriting was no help. After he finished the issue, John told Joey, and I paraphrase, "I don't want to do any more Dooms. They're too arduous." Gak!

What recollections do you have about working with editor Joey Cavalieri?

Tom: Like I said, he was smart, funny, and really into the work. He brought a lot of ideas to the books he worked on. The 2099 universe was his baby.

An interview you did for Marvel Vision reveals that Doom would overshoot 2099 and land in 2101. Had you made any plans for stories set in 2101 for either Doom or X-Nation?

Tom: ​I'm pretty sure I didn't. We were working pretty hard just to keep up. I don't plan too far in advance.​

How did X-Nation 2099 come about?

Tom: Joey's idea! Like I said, ​2099 was his baby. I created some characters and pinned the emotional arc to a certain point in my adolescence--I think I described it in a text page, didn't I? Attending a free school where we frustrated the adults with our lack of interest in anything to do with work? But I'm sure most of what I did, conceptually, came out of conversations with Joey. John Francis Moore was a real help, too.

What recollections do you have about working with artist Humberto Ramos?

Tom: ​Great guy, great artist. I also had the pleasure of working with him on Impulse. ​I remember calling him in Mexico and getting hit with this whopping phone charge; they would add these ridiculous rates at the border, whether you made the call or received it. I'm not proud to say it, but I didn't talk to him a whole lot after that.

The character of Dorian makes an appearance in Doom 2099, but he is in 1996. Do you recall what the explanation for how he is in both 1996 and 2099 was without seemingly to have aged?

Tom: That was his mutant power; he didn't age. Joey named him after Dorian Gray.

The Sisterhood of Howling Commandments? Where did this come from? Are you a fan of the original Howling Commandos?

Tom: I used to read them. I won't say I'm a huge fan, but they were good. I was more interested in the nun angle. I went to Catholic Elementary School during the baby boom; the teacher-to-student ratio in our school was 1:50. You read that right. One adult teaching fifty kids. Some of them seemed to feel that the only way they could teach a group that big was to bully us. Of course, it wasn't their fault--they never should have been put in that position--but it took me a long time to realize that. In the meantime, I enjoyed every chance I got to make fun of nuns.

Why did you leave Doom & X-Nation 2099?

Tom: ​Humberto and I both left at the same time, and for the same reason. Marvel trimmed its staff, and they laid Joey off. ​We had no interest in working on Joey's baby without him.
 

 


 

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