Gail Simone is a busy writer, but even her writing responsibilities on three different titles for three different publishers couldn’t possibly compare to her obligations at conventions. She’s in incredibly high demand, but we managed to pull her away for quick chat about how Batgirl has changed, having an effect on Lara Croft’s legacy and the freedom Red Sonja grants her.

Retcon Punch: It seems like you’re just a huge rock star around here. Has that gotten weirder?

Gail Simone: (laughs) No, it’s just amazing to see the diversity of the people coming through the line, which I think is incredible. All three projects that I’m working on right now — Red Sonja, Batgirl, and Tomb Raider — well, other than Red Sonja, the other two have a pretty wide age range of people that are coming through. Not too many real young kids are coming through here for Red Sonja. 

RP: On the topic of those three series, you’re working with three very different artists. Does your process change at all depending on who you’re working with?

GS: Well, they’re all such amazing artists and can do most anything, which makes my job pretty easy. With Walter [Geovani], the longer we work together, the more I know what he can do. I really love when he gets to design a new character. I especially love the way he does Red Sonja and all of the different costumes she has on. He’s been doing the tender moments, the funny moments, the violent moments, the darker moments, all — capturing them really, really well. People are coming up through the lines saying the panel where she says “I’m Red Sonja, I’m everyone’s type” — the facial expression Walter got for that panel — people are telling me over and over again how that’s their favorite because of the look on her face.

It’s such an important part of that moment, and he was able to capture it perfectly

Working with Fernando [Pasarin] on Batgirl, I know that he can do anything. Literally. I mean, I ask for a real world, day-in-the-life situation with real people, real body shapes, different shaped faces, amazing expressions — Fernando can do that. I can write to that, and it’s really amazing to have that confidence that I don’t have to do too much work in the dialogue or the script because Fernando’s going to be able to get those emotions across without having to put a lot of words into it. That makes a much better comic. You know? Much more textured and layered. I really love it

With Tomb Raider, we’re trying to get the feel of the game a bit, because this is the story that takes place between game one and game two.

RP: Did you get a chance to play it at all?

GS: Oh, my gosh, I played it so much! I played it on two different systems. I first turned down the offer to write her because I had heard the rumors and wasn’t really interested in what I had heard because I’m a fan of the classic Lara.

RP: And they beat her up pretty bad in that first game.

GS: Oh yeah. She’s got a lot of struggle. After playing the game the first time through, I called them back up and said “is that still available? Because that was amazing, and it would be really fun to write!” I then played it on the PS4 after and took my time —

RP: Is it that much slicker on the PS4?

GS: It’s very slick, and I was able to take my time getting the finer details and the work that Rhianna [Pratchett] had done with her scripting of the game. It’s just an amazing game, and it’s really fun to be able to take the time to get some character moments that you can’t really get in the game. I’ve just been having the best time. The artist and the coloring is set to capture the feel of the game.

RP: More of a straight-up adventure.

GS: Right, more of an adventure — if you look at the color palettes and the poses and everything — and I love it. I love the fact that it’s three comics that have strong female leads that are completely different from each other in every way. Their personalities, what they want, their art styles, the tone of the book — all of it. It makes me really excited that the market can support that.

RP: Speaking of Tomb Raider, is her history more guarded because of the association with the video games?

GS: Well, it’s like with anything, as you can imagine. I’m working with Crystal Dynamics, who publishes the game. They have the benefit of knowing what’s happening in the second game, and I don’t, so they’ve got to have an approval prior to the scripting of it most of the time, which is fine.

We’re bringing in Rhianna for the last six issues. She’s writing the second game, so she knows what we’re leading into. It’s very exciting. They’ve been great — they’ve allowed us to do some character work and get into the supporting cast more than what you can do in the game. It’s been a delight, but we all have to work together on it — Dark Horse, myself, and Crystal Dynamics.

RP: Was there a conscious choice to not start the series quite as dark as the game starts?

GS: I think the effort was that she’s off the island, so let’s start her off the island, but when you read that first comic, there’s some dark stuff happening. It’s more — she wants to find out what all this meant. Why did she go through this, and what is the end result? She knows that a lot of people were hurt by it and she wants to see if it was worth it, who was doing it, and why it’s happening. It’s an adventure story, but she has a lot of questions, a lot of mysteries that she’s looking to solve.

RP: You also have moments — like in the second issue where they’re in the library and she’s geeking out about the Book of Kells — where she’s still a nerd about those history things.

GS: Yeah, yeah. I love history and archaeology, too. That’s another reason why I’m really excited to write this book. I’ve actually seen the Book of Kells (laughs) so I’m kind of geeky about it, too. I liked putting that in there with her story. I really love the new incarnation of Lara because it’s more about the questions, the mystery, the appreciation of these artifacts, and not about stealing an artifact from another country and profiting from it or anything like that. I like that distinction between her and Indiana Jones, and I’m just really enjoying getting those layers in there. I didn’t want to do it if it wasn’t going to matter to her mythology, so when we found out it  is going to be part of her story, I was a lot more excited to do it.

RP: Moving over to Batgirl, how has your relationship with both the character and the title changed over the last year year or so?

GS: Any time I write a monthly title — or any title, actually — I get very attached to the characters, so I think the longer I write them, the more my attachment grows. I like these fully developed characters, so as I’m writing them, I’m adding more and more and more to the character. You’re not going to read the comic and have Batgirl be the same as she was, you know, at the beginning of the run, or even that issue. It’s just like being friends with someone, in a way, the more you get to know them, to like them, the more attached to them you are, the harder it is when you get in a fight or break up or whatever. Over the years, as many years as I’ve written her, I never get tired of her.

RP: She’s a great character, and it seems like you’re building this nice, healthy extended cast around her — Alysia, her family, even the villains that she’s been facing. Do you have any big stories for those characters coming up?

GS: What we have coming up with issue 31 is Ragdoll coming to Gotham. We haven’t seen him in the New 52 yet, so I’m really excited about that. Fernando’s rendition of Ragdoll is so amazing. I can’t wait for people to see it. It’s very scary and beautiful, both, and creepy — just really wonderful. Alysia gets to go on a date, so we have a little bit of a more real world thing, but she also gets on Ragdoll’s bad side, so it’s going to be a little bit rough going for her in that issue. And then in 32, 33, and 34 is a huge story where I’ve been asking for stuff since the New 52 started, and I finally get to put some of these that I’ve been asking for into the story.

It’s kind of cool, because if you’ve been reading Batgirl, she’s kind of a little bit alone in what she does. One of the things that I really love about 32, 33, and 34 is that she learns that she really does have some allies. It’s a pretty huge story, pretty exciting. She’s going through the wringer, though.

RP: It feels like there’s been a little bit of a move towards supernatural stuff happening in Gotham —

GS: Well, yeah, not to be so strict that there can’t be, because that’s been the way it’s been for years. There’s no superpowers, there’s no supernatural stuff, that kind of thing, but we’ve kind of opened those doors up a bit, so that anything can happen, which I think adds a bit of unpredictability to it. But we still have the grounded characters. (Laughs)

RP: Jumping over to Red Sonja, Sonja right now is collecting artists. What’s particularly attractive about making this barbarian interact with artists she maybe doesn’t understand?

GS: It’s just such a fun situation to put her in. She doesn’t really know how to operate in that world. She’s much more honest and forthright and wears her heart on her sleeve and impulsive and all those things — she’s not relating to people who eat for pleasure and not just survival, so you can move on to your next quest. She’s just not understanding the time and effort that people are putting into this stuff. But she does know that if she doesn’t do this for this dying emperor, 1000 slaves lives are at risk, so she’s doing the best she can. (Laughs)

RP: I also really like the nods to Paul Scheer and Scott Aukerman.

GS: Oh, yeah! Huge fans of all of them — and they were good sports. It’s not every day that you’re a cannibalistic swamp person that gets their head chopped off and served on a plate. (Laughs)

RP: How did that come to happen? Did you just decide you wanted to throw them in there?

GS: Well, I’m fans of them, and I listen to Comedy Bang Bang and Who Charted? all the time, and I’m a big fan of Paul’s. It’s just kind of funny because I put Scott and Kulap [Vilaysack], and Howard [Kramer] was like “Hey Gail, put me in” in one of his Who Charted? shows. It just kind of grew from there. Everybody is just so fun and such a good sport.

RP: It’s neat that Red Sonja affords you the opportunity to goof around like that.

GS: It’s just fun. It can be a dark book at times, but it’s also really fun. Dynamite has been amazing about listening to me about wanting to have female cover artists and female writers on Legends of Red Sonja, and trying some new tactics in terms of the creating, the writing, the advertising, things like that. It’s made it really, really fun. I think the end result has a lot of energy, which I think makes for a better book.