Photo Credit: Sarah Jane Sanders
Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis.
With the popularity of cinematic franchises like the Marvel Universe and the upcoming Batman vs. Superman, adaptations of superhero comics into other media show no sign of slowing down. Yet with the film adaptation of Wonder Woman still more than a year off, where can a DC Comics fangirl get a female badass fix?
Enter Lois Lane.
Though Lois is often talked about as not much more than “Superman’s girlfriend,” the young adult novel series available now from Switch Press follows Lois in her new life as a high school student in Metropolis — before she meets Clark Kent, and before Superman is a name recognized everywhere.
In 2015’s FALLOUT, Lois was a brand-new transfer in a brand-new school, and her instinct for investigative journalism got her caught in the middle of a strange conspiracy born in a virtual-reality MMORPG. In the upcoming sequel DOUBLE DOWN, Lois is roped into a new round of trouble.
We had some time to speak with Gwenda Bond, author of the two books in the Lois Lane book series, before the release of DOUBLE DOWN on May 1.
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Though Clark does make his appearances, Fallout is definitely Lois’s adventure, and Double Down opens with a conflict in the friendship between Lois and Maddy. What made you choose to put Lois’s love life in the back seat?
Lois has a lot going on, obviously! So she’s certainly preoccupied by her relationship with Clark, and I think we see new threats to their relationship starting to develop over the course of this book — and also, I hope, learn more about how important it is to both of them. But yes, I definitely wanted to explore Lois’s new life and her learning curve on how to be a good friend and just how to have close friends for the first time. Tying her and Maddy’s relationship to the main plot seemed like a good way to do that, and for us to get to know her Scoop colleagues better.
Writers sometimes have to research weird, random, or even downright suspicious stuff, especially things our favorite intrepid young journalist may also need to research. Were there any especially, um, “exciting” topics you researched for Double Down?
Ha! I don’t want to give away too much. I did do some science reading for this, fringe stuff, though nothing that would raise that many eyebrows. In larger terms, I’ve had to do research on the layouts of buildings so I could figure out where to stage wires on them or between them (for Girl on a Wire, my high wire walker book). I’d imagine that would look suspicious to someone examining your search history on Google maps if they didn’t know what it was for. ;-)
Lois’s Metropolis may not be a real city, but it definitely feels like one. Did you draw on any of your own favorite cities when building Metropolis?
That’s so great to hear. Setting is an essential part of every book I write, and I very much wanted Metropolis to feel real. For Fallout, I did some research on the history of New York, which Metropolis is of course based on. And for both of the Lois Lane books I’ve employed a trusty guidebook to Metropolis I bought when I first started the project; I believe it tied into a role-playing game or something similar. I’m probably one of the only people consulting it to make sure I’ve got Metropolis’s boroughs in the right places.
Are there any other female reporters (fictional or not so) you find inspiring?
There are so, so many female journalists working today that I admire I’m afraid to start naming living people, because I’ll leave someone out and be smacking my head later. Historically speaking, Nellie Bly and Ida B. Wells are hugely inspiring. The laptop I wrote Fallout on was named Hildy, for Rosalind Russell’s character in His Girl Friday (which makes a cameo in Double Down). My new one is named Torchy for Torchy Blane, a fictional reporter who partly inspired Lois’s character. One of my own inspirations as a teenager besides Lois Lane was a Texas journalist and columnist named Molly Ivins, who I so wish was still with us.
Lois Lane has been depicted in many movies and TV shows. Which on-screen version of Lois do you like best?
There have been so many great Loises; I love them all. But my favorite has to be the one who introduced me to the character, Margot Kidder in Superman: The Movie.
Thanks so much for the interview!
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LOIS LANE: FALLOUT is available now in paperback from your local independent bookstore and other retailers. Read our review of Fallout here.
Interview conducted by Feliza Casano. Feliza edits and writes for all sections of the site. In her approximate 2.3 hours of free time each month, she loves watching anime, reading science fiction, and working on her novels-in-progress. Keep up with her antics at felizacasano.com and follow her on Twitter @FelizaCasano.
Read more in our birthday celebration here.
