Within recents months it has been established that the civilian code-named "Jen-Active" has had contact with numerous individuals at the LaJolla based Wildstorm Productions facility. It has also been established that both Wildstorm Productions and "Jen-Active" have covert agendas that undermine the sanctity and integrity of national security. As such, communications between the two entities is closely monitored. The following transmission between "JenActive" and "writer" Michael Heisler was intercepted and uploaded 03.01.99 at 19:03:54 EST.

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JA: Why exactally do you think the sales in DV8 have been slipping? Is it the characters? Art? Lack of support in general from WS or what?

MH: Well, sales are slipping everywhere. Most comics fans don't have bottomless bank accounts, and if new titles are released that any particular someone wants to start following, that someone is likely to drop something else that he or she is reading. We've all been programmed to believe that our comics are "worth" less and less as the issue numbers climb, and so we tend to abandon stuff we've been reading in favor of the latest "hot" title. Hence, the longer a book runs, the longer its sales continue to slide.

The exceptions are, of course, the books that companies are willing to jump through hoops to support. Marvel's shown it will do anything to keep the X-books hot. But apart from that...I'm looking at the sales chart for February as I write this, and I see that 15 of the top 20 books are only 16 issues old or younger. Of the remaining 80 in the top 100, only 9 of those are older than 100 issues -- and 6 of THOSE are Batman or Superman titles.

But as far as whether it's the characters, or the art, or the stories that have played a part -- I don't know if I'm in a position to make any sense of it. In February, DV8 sold about as well as HITMAN #36, which, personally, I thought was a great, great book. There are other titles further down the chart that are some of my favorites, books as varied as TRANSMETROPOLITAN, SUPERMAN ADVENTURES and EIGHTBALL. I think all of these should sell better. In a saner world, they would.

And as far as support from WS goes -- well, it seems like GEN13 has had a variant cover every issue for the last year or so; I wouldn't mind getting some of that. But apart from that, I have no complaints. My editor, John Layman, is unwaveringly enthusiastic about the book, and even occasionally knows what the hell he's talking about, which is about all you can ask from an editor.

Speaking of support, I should mention that there's a petition to save the book running on the Crawlspace site. Not to give props to the competition or anything, but well, you know...http://dv8.crawlspace.com/petition.html

JA: Nah, no problems there. We already sent the ClubJen members to sign the petition and linked it up in the news section too. So, is there anything you might have done differently in hindsight?

MH: I think I would have tried to get Al Rio on the book sooner. That's not to say that I'm unhappy with any of the work that other artists have done. But I don't think that the stretch from issues 9 - 18, with its numerous musical artists, did us any good. Al's drawing #27 right now -- it's his tenth issue in a row, which is an outstanding record for DV8. But that's pretty sad for a book on its 27th (28th, really, counting #0) issue.

And that Arthrax story would only have run two issues.

JA: When DC bought WS and I said that they'd kill DV8, you said that it would actually 'save' the book. Was that just spin, were you lied to or did the sales just fall off the map?

MH: I was given the impression that we were in imminent danger of immediate cancellation in the pre-DC days. The word now is that we have until #32, which is another seven months away. So going to DC bought us close to a year. I guess. I should point out here that there has yet to be an official announcement, and that I'm not even sure who made the decision. But no, sales didn't fall off the map. In fact, in February we actually came back into the top 100 after being out of it for a few months. Which I guess means that WIZARD is wrong again.

JA: If DV8 cannot be saved, what part do you see them playing (if any) in the WS universe? Would you hope to be a part of it or, as a freelancer, would you move away from WS?

MH: If DV8 is cancelled, I would imagine that those characters would become the province of the GEN13 writer. I'd hate to see them turn up once a year or so in some "Brotherhood of Evil Gen-Actives" role. But I won't have anything to do with it. I have no interest in being a "consulting" writer.

JA: Will the conclusion of DV8 be set up so as to leave the Deviants able to appear in other comics easily or might we see a Ellis-ish bloodbath?

MH: The Deviants will survive. If Warren's ever done anything that I take serious issue with, it was killing off three-quarters of Stormwatch off-panel. I thought it was unnecessarily spiteful and wasteful.

JA: Do you think the new Gen13 writer (lets say...Scott Lobdell) will have any interest in using them?It certainly sounds as if you'd prefer they don't become the Nega-Gen13 kinda villans.

MH: I don't know what new direction is planned for GEN13.

JA: Well, that's no suprise. I don't think WS brass knows what direction they have planned for Gen13 either! Some people have suggested that one thing the WS lacks is really good villians. There is no Dr. Doom, Joker, Magneto or Lex Luthor around making lives miserable for heroes (or anti-heros). There are 70+ issues of Gen13 and DV8 combined and, aside from each other, they really haven't established any decent recurring villians (unless you want to count Helmut). Any chance this has hurt these books?

MH: Well, it's only hurt the books if that's what the readers are dying to see. Neither book has ever been about a villain-of-the-month scenario. But I do agree that the lack of good opponents is a problem. On the other hand, I think Ivana could have been one of those types, except that she was more or less given her own starring vehicle in DV8. I was working on making Threshold a Magneto-type character. And a bad guy from the early issues of DV8 does return in an upcoming issue.

JA: Do you know what Arcudi is doing with those bizzaro Keepers, Ivana and the big evil guy in the metal suit? Do you two need to consult each other or do you just do your seperate things?

MH: John and I have worked things out with Ivana so that she doesn't play such a crucial role in one book that she can't appear in the other. We read each others' stuff when it hits the stores, and then we call each other up and scream "what the #$%@ did you do THAT for?!"

Truthfully, John is a very smart, very funny guy, and I'll miss working with him.

JA: Honestly, have the parents of all the gen-actives been figured out from day one or do you just kinda make it up as you go along? I mean, Cray's wife was black, so I had 'Bite pegged as his kid (plus they have similar builds) and figured Rachel was just adopted by some Jewish family and being, like, a child of Grifter's that he never knew he had (being that he was such a he-slut). Sounds good to me.

MH: I started trying to figure it out when I took over the book. There weren't really any pre-existing plans. I've been trying to shy away from the notion that they're all children of some Team 7 guy who didn't know about it. I now have pretty good ideas about everyone, but I don't know how much of it will ever see light, even if the book ISN'T cancelled.

JA: How long before Powerhaus returns?

MH:Not before #32.

JA: Do we find out what that nasty little personality is doing inside Bliss before #32?

MH: Yep, real soon.

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