It seems like your move to DC is going to be a shift in terms of collaborators. Those Jinxworld guys you’ve been with forever, but of late your Marvel work has been drawn by the likes of Sara Pichelli and David Lopez and others who are all staying there. Have you been looking at the DC roster and saying, “Who can I match up with”?

Oh yeah. You’ve already seen it. That’s what Man of Steel is. You never in your heart go, “Oh, I’m going to work with José Luis García-López.” Because I was working at Marvel, and he never, ever, ever worked there. Him and Brian Bolland – never! So you’d never think about them. And so as soon as I came over, I started to ask, “Is he around? What is he doing?” It was super sweet because a lot of these artists I wanted were really in demand. And I didn’t want to come in like some people thought it was going to be like when I came over to DC and just grab everybody and ruin other peoples’ fun.

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Instead, a lot of things were offered to me right off the bat like “Action Comics #1000: you and Jim Lee.” Like, that’s not something I was going to ask for. [Laughter] It’s not, “Can I have the biggest of everything?” And I love Jim Lee. We’ve been talking at conventions and parties for years and years. We talked about intercompany stuff that never came together. But you could tell even from those talks that beyond his being a great artist…there was an energy to him. “I like the way you think!” That kind of thing. And now that I’ve come over, I was happy to find that he felt the same way about me. So he stopped what he was doing and drew my story in #1000. I was completely over the moon about it, and then once he turned his pages in, he said, “Okay, let’s do it again.” So we’re going to do something else together. It’s really special.

So I got Jim Lee, and I asked for José García-López. I was shocked he was available. And then from there, we started talking about Man of Steel as compared to what John Byrne did [in his ’80s reboot.] That was “The John Byrne Show,” and I thought, “I don’t want to do that. I want to come in here and express my thoughts on Superman with the help of these artists. They’ll help me get there.” And Dan was so right about this. He came in and said, “In the first issue, the person I want to put you with is Ivan Reis. I just feel that you two are going to hit it off, and he’s going to give you what you need.” He even referred to a story I’ve told about how Mark Bagley and I were put together a few years ago. Dan thought in a similar way that we’d bring out the best in each other. I thought, “Okay, I appreciate your thinking. Let’s see how nuts you are.” And he was right. Right away.

Overall, what’s the thing that no one knows about your DC deal that you’re most excited to get out and into the world?

Oh, it’s the imprint! We’ve got the imprint coming from DC later this year that Alisa, my wife, and I are curating. It’s a handful of books – some of which I’ll be doing, but I’m also bringing in creators that I love. Some of these are people I’ve never worked with before. Some of these are people who were shocked to find out I knew their name. And we’ve gotten the greenlight on the books.

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It’s an imprint that will be very different from the others at DC. It’s very different from Young Animal. That was a specific voice. Ours is going to have a specific voice but be more mainstream in a way. The artist I’m working with on that book is another person I’ve never worked with, and it’s someone where when I told people… I’ll say this: when I told Matt Fraction who was drawing this book, he went, “Shut the f—!” [Laughter] People have been talking about Superman, but this is really exciting. I know I sound like a vague, hypey person, but that’s all I can say for now.

But it all speaks to the partnership. As great as Marvel was, I never even thought about doing something like this at Marvel. It’s great that DC has this situation where certain creators can carve out a little corner and express themselves beyond their talents as creators.