I recently had the pleasure of speaking with My Adventures With Superman writer Angela Entzminger. Sitting down to chat about her participation in San Diego Comic Con’s Main Character Energy: Black Female Storytellers panel, we discussed her convention experience, her work on My Adventures With Superman, her advice to up-and-coming storytellers, and what the future holds for her and DC Studios. Check out the highlights here, and for the full interview, check out our video with Angela Entzminger!
From Fan to Screenwriter: Angela Entzminger on DC, Comics, Animation, and breaking into the industry
Did you have fun at San Diego Comic Con?
Oh, I had a great time! Yeah, I love conventions… That was the second time that I’d been to San Diego. It was very fun to go, because the first time I was working a booth, and then fast-forward ten years and now I’m on a panel.
For those who didn’t get a chance to see Main Character Energy: Black Female Storytellers, would you speak on that?
The way that the panel was set up was that it was black women who had worked in either video games or television or film, and all of us had an opportunity to talk about our different experiences and how we got started… And we also got to delve a little more into, you know, what some of our favorite TV shows and movies and video games were, and who our favorite characters were, and how that influenced us both as people and then as professionals, and the kinds of stories that we wanted to tell others.
Do you feel that you and the audience got a lot out of that experience?
Oh, yes. Absolutely. It was great for me on a personal level because, you know, as writer and as an artist, I don’t often get to interact directly with people who are interested in the shows that I’m working on… You get to talk to people on Instagram and LinkedIn and that’s fun, you know, and you get nice comments from people. But Comic Con and conventions like that are great because it’s all people who are very much interested in the things that you made.
One of the things that I love about My Adventures With Superman is the acknowledgement of a multicultural Metropolis. Stepping into the writers’ room, how do you achieve the effect that you’re intending here?
That’s something from day one that has been very important for the show, and it’s something that I really admire about Jake (Wyatt) and Brendan (Clogher) is that they literally wanted everybody. Stories are for everybody, comics are for everybody, cartoons and live-action is for everybody. We have every kind of person on our show. Nobody is a token. Everyone is allowed to be themselves in a way that, sadly, not every show is like that.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists of color that didn’t get to see you at the panel, and who are now meeting you through My Adventures With Superman and Temple of Geek?
Your hopes and dreams are important, and that’s a big thing. And that’s not just for people of color. That’s for everybody, but especially for people of color. Especially right now, because the economy is really bad, and people are struggling to find work and just to do anything, and it can sometimes – and I’ve often felt this way – [feel] like I can’t spent time being creative and chasing dreams. I need to go and get, you know, a normie job…and so I want to just encourage people that even if you’re not able to do this full-time, or even part-time for a while, it is a worthy pursuit… Your stories need to be told. They need to be told by you… The world is richer for that. Everyone benefits.
Can we expect My Adventures With Superman Season 4, and may we hope you will be involved?
We would love to have a Season 4, [but] that is not up to us… It’s literally a conversation between Warner Bros., HBO Max, and Adult Swim. So if they say yes, hooray, Season 4! But we don’t have that knowledge and we don’t know when that will be, [but] I would love to come back.
I also note that you will be working with DC Studios on Starfire!
I wrote two episodes of Starfire! last year! I got to work with Josie Campbell and Brianne Drouhard and Sarah Nerboso. Josie was one of our co-producers on Seasons 1 and 2 [of My Adventures With Superman] before she went off to be the EP of Starfire! She and Brianne and Sarah brought me on… And Starfire is one of my favorite comic book characters/ She’s my favorite Teen Titan of all time… I love how the animated show and animated movies transformed her from what she was like in the comic. I really like this take on her… It’s definitely action. It’s more comedy. She’s with a bunch of other space princesses going on, like, wacky, colorful adventures. We had a really good time.
