Scott Snyder

Monsters can be scary, and they're great, but they're only really scary when they're reflections of us and they show you the things you're scared of might be true about your own nature.

I don't know if this is the same for everybody, but for me, sometimes I get depressed, where I wake up and I can feel a change. Something went wrong, and it's almost like you feel tingly in a way where you know something is off, and from that point forward, this anxiety kicks in where you just worry and worry... this cyclical, terrible nature.

The secret to 'Year One' is that it's a Jim Gordon story. It's a great Bruce Wayne story, don't get me wrong, but Jim Gordon is the focus of that book. To me, that's the stronger emotional arc. It's not that the Bruce Wayne stuff isn't masterful, because it is, but it's Jim's book.

With 'Batman,' I actually had a really bad period when we started 'Zero Year,' right at the beginning, I just wasn't taking care of myself at all. I was up too late all the time, I was working too hard. I wasn't exercising.

With books like 'AD: After Death' and 'Wytches,' a lot of those things are inspired by reading things that terrify me.

The thing that really interests me is characters facing challenges that are emblematic of the things they are most frightened of about themselves.

I use a lot of narration; I have a very prosaic style. I like to get you invested in the character first and do a lot of work in the first pages of each issue to try to re-establish things and keep the symbolism of a story very tucked beneath the surface.

I'm a difficult person, sometimes, to work with because I'm so intense about this stuff sometimes, and I get focused in ways that I think can be overwhelming for me and also the people I work with, where I'll get so about every little bug in the thing, every little line.