Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

Can you tell me a bit about your two different roles on Heroes? :

Script Clearance Coordinator?
 Is Script Clearance checking that the script is up to NBC standards? Is it in script clearance that things like bad e.g. racist or political jokes might be taken out?

Script Clearance deals more with the legal permissions and protections of the show. Every script written gets sent to a research company. That company does a full report on the script and sends that information back to us. Stuff like names of characters in relation to real people, or how long it would really take Peter to fall eight stories off a building. Using that report I work with the writers and our lawyer, Safronia Johnson, to make sure there is nothing in the scripts that shouldn’t be there. I also work with Art Department, Props, Set Dec, Wardrobe, and Post, to make sure we have permission to use everything that goes on camera. If we don’t have permission, I try to get it. If we can’t get permission, I usually come up with fictional names for things. Costa Verde and Copy Kingdom are examples of this. That’s basically what I do. NBC Standards do their own reports which everyone on the show makes sure to follow.

Graphic Novel Writer?
Were you working for Heroes when you stated writing the novels or was this why you were chosen to work for the show?

I’m very proud to say that I’ve been on Heroes since the pilot. I was hired as an Office Production Assistant – my first job in the industry – and moved into my current position by the middle of season one. I always liked comics, and submitted stuff to Marvel, but the thought of actually writing them always seemed unlikely for some reason. Now they’re my favorite thing to do!

Super-Heroics
Whose idea was it to make this graphic novel a more comic-book costumed-hero orientated? Do you know why this idea was chosen?

It was Aron Coleite’s idea. I think we saw it as an opportunity to tell a more traditional superhero story within the Heroes Universe.

Was it fun to write something different to the normal Heroes style? I liked the idea of a jet pack instead of an evolved human ability, where did this idea come from?

Of course it was a lot of fun! I’ve always been a big fan of the Rocketeer, and I was going for something that would look like classic superhero stuff. When Peter is dreaming, he’s not dreaming of the real Heroes universe, but more of a fantastical place where people wear capes. So yeah, rocketpack…no big deal.

War Buddies, Part 5
You co-wrote this novel with Oliver Grigsby, how much came from Oliver and how much from you? Did you write half each or work together on the whole thing?

Ollie and I worked on the whole thing together. At the time we were sharing an office so it was pretty easy to get it done. He’s really great to work with, as I’m sure Zach Craley can attest to, who wrote a few comics with him this season. Let me also stop to say that Jason Badower is the man!

Will the blanked out text ever be revealed?

Yeah, if you go to *******************.com and click on ********* it’s all there.

Did you have any idea of Arthur Petrelli was going to play such a large role in season three while writing this?

I know Tim Kring and the writers have a lot of plans for a lot of things on the show. And Arthur was always one of them. We were simply telling a story about Arthur and Linderman that we knew we could never tell on the show.