Source: DailyHerald.com

Robert Aguirre-Sacasa is best known for his work with Marvel Comics; he just completed a series on “Spider-Man” and is currently finishing up the story for a series in “Dead of Night.”

“One of the characters in the book is a character named Swamp-thing,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. The character is a mutant combination: half man, half swamp vegetation.

But Aguirre-Sacasa’s first love is theater. He graduated from the Yale School of Drama and is currently in Chicago working on the world premiere of his new play, “Good Boys and True,” which opens tonight at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

“Marvel knew full well that my background was in drama writing when they hired me,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “What appealed to them was the idea that my writing would be much more character-based.”

Aguirre-Sacasa began as a devoted comic-book reader in his early teens. He also loved horror movies and novels.

“I fully embrace my pulpy roots,” he said with a laugh.

Theater, on the other hand, entered his life a little later, in his mid-20s, when Aguirre-Sacasa was living in New York City and working on a horror fan magazine, Fangoria.

“I first started seeing a lot of plays while I was in New York City,” he said. “It was ‘Angels in America,’ and that experience was amazing in so many ways.”

This dual interest explains why Aguirre-Sacasa swings effortlessly from comics to theater and back again.

“Everything feeds everything,” he said. ” ‘Good Boys and True’ began as a commissioned play for the New York-based Manhattan Theatre Club. But sometime in the process, it became clear that they were no longer interested in producing it.

“That was when we made up a list of dream theaters and sent it out,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “Lucky for us, one of my dream theaters (Steppenwolf) chose it.”

The story, about a sex scandal at an all-boys private school, draws on Aguirre-Sacasa’s own experiences attending the all-male Georgetown Prep near Washington, D.C.

“Even when I was a student there I knew I wanted to write about that world,” he said. “Stories set in boys’ private schools are their own genre.” Then he ticks off a series of books, plays and movies set in an all-male private school: “Catcher in the Rye,” “A Separate Peace,” “The Dead Poets Society.”

“I didn’t know what my story was going to be, but I knew I wanted to write something,” he said.

Aguirre-Sacasa’s inspiration came when he read a couple of articles about “sex scandals that erupted in these (as Aguirre-Sacasa puts it) bastions of privilege.”

“I thought maybe there is a play in this,” he said. “But the final play is less about the student scandal and more about that boy’s relationship with his mother.”

Interestingly Aguirre-Sacasa is also writing a comic-book series, “Angel,” set in an all-boys’ prep school.

“Some of the characters in ‘Good Boys and True’ also appear in ‘Angel,’ ” Aguirre-Sacasa said with a laugh.

“Everything feeds everything,” he said. “Good storytelling is good storytelling.”

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Source: WizardUniverse.com

Ever since baby Kal-El rocketed from Krypton, strange visitors from other planets have been a comics staple. And between earth-shattering epics like Marvel’s Annihilation: Conquest and DC’s Sinestro Corps War, alien worlds have played a major role in some of the year’s biggest story arcs. With fights and flights among the stars and their many revolving orbs permeating the sphere of comic books, Wizard takes a look at the top five alien homeworlds from the paneled page.

5. Viltrum Straight from the pages of Robert Kirkman’s indie hit Invincible comes the planet inhabited by muscled, mustachioed men and warrior women. If their Spartan, “only the strong survive” mentality didn’t set them apart, then their bloody battles and cullings of entire planets in their quest for intergalactic dominance certainly have carved out a place for Viltrum; a name earthlings under Mark Grayson’s protection may soon learn to fear.

4. Cybertron As if robots in disguise weren’t cool enough on Earth, imagine an entire planet full of the giant machine men. Permeating pop culture with a Hollywood blockbuster and its upcoming sequel, not to mention the’80s cartoon and the long-running toy line, Cybertron secures a place on this list for being chock-full of Transformers.

3. Sakaar A yearlong epic adventure for the Incredible Hulk with gladiatorial bouts and the overthrow of the Red King’s tyrannical rule earns Sakaar a spot on our list. Never before had Hulk been a viable leader and an unstoppable badass at the same time, and rarely had he ever been so much fun to read. Hulk’s time on Sakaar also paved the way for this summer’s hugely successful World War Hulk, and it isn’t through yet, as Greg Pak’s Son of Hulk series brings readers more adventures from Sakaar.

2. Oa From big and green to little and blue, the size and color of a planet’s alien denizens isn’t what counts, but their importance. Home of the Guardians of the Universe, the bitty, blue boys and girls of Oa run the entire Green Lantern Corps and with Sinestro running amok with his legion of terrifying canary-colored foes, Oa is at the center of one of DC’s biggest space epics ever.

1. Earth? After having their homeworld destroyed by the Annihilation wave, the Skrull Empire is in dire need of a new home. With Skrulls infiltrating the planet and Marvel’s Secret Invasion on the horizon for this summer, it’s going to take some serious help from Marvel’s Mightiest to keep Earth from becoming the next important alien homeworld; and because it hits so close to home, the Earth that might soon be Skrullified tops our list.

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