Also available:

Ultimate Sticker Book: The Invincible Iron Man

Celebrate the comic book origins of Tony Stark and Ironman with more than 60 colorful comic book art stickers. Location scenes in the book provide the backdrop for fans to create ultimate battles and help Iron Man fight for justice!

7 Questions with Matthew K. Manning

Matthew K. Manning, author of Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero answered a few questions for us about comics, film, and life in general; and reveals the coolest Red Hood Halloween costume known to civilized man!

1. You’re a life-long comics fan who also happens to work in the industry, what are the up-sides to this? Do you have a greatest-fanboy-at-work-moment-ever? Are there any downsides--is the coffee really terrible?

That’s one of the great things about comics. If you work in the industry, you’re probably a huge fan. There’s much more money to be made writing for film or TV, so the people that dedicate their lives to this particular medium usually have a lifelong relationship with comics and the characters in them. I find that knowing the characters inside and out makes scripting their dialog that much easier. It certainly comes in handy when writing in depth histories of their lives, as in our recent Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide the Armored Super Hero. The only downside is that it means I’m forced to share my apartment with over 40 long comic book boxes.

As far as fan moments, I’m sure we’ve all had those, too. A high point for me recently was speaking with writer Denny O’Neil at a talk for a book I wrote with Bob Greenberger, The Batman Vault. As a child, I wanted to grow up to be Denny, so it was a little intimidating sharing a panel with him. I pretty much just shut up and listened to what he had to say. No one knows Batman like Denny O’Neil, after all.


2. You (literally) wrote the book on Iron Man (and Wolverine) yet you also write for DC; do you have a dedicated loyalty in the Marvel versus DC divide? If so, when did you form your allegiance? Were there any influences (people or events) in this decision? Do you openly sneer at the opposition?

I originally started with Marvel as a kid. I was a fairly casual reader, but I was pretty taken with Spider-Man. Then the Batman movie came out and ruined my life. For the next few years, I bought only DC, and mostly Batman at that. It wasn’t until much later that I rediscovered Marvel, and thousands of comics later, I’ve built up a pretty comprehensive knowledge of both universes. Batman is still my favorite, but I’m too big of a fan of characters like Spidey, Daredevil, and Iron Man to ever stop reading Marvel.


3. You and your wife have a baby on the way, how early do you plan on introducing her to comics? Will her room be Wonder Woman or Spider-Woman themed?

It’s safe to say that Batgirl will be the heroine of choice. Until she’s old enough to choose her own role model, that is. We already have a Bat-onesie on our registry. I also saw a Punisher onesie online, so we might have to snatch that up, too. There’s something really funny about a baby Punisher with a black bow in her hair. And since we plan on reading to her all the time, she’ll be instantly introduced to the world of comics. After all, her dad has about 600 back issues to get through at some point...


4. Which series do you wish would be adapted into a movie, which do you wish had never seen the action end of a camera?

There’s plenty of comic books that I would have rather stayed on the page. Movies like Fantastic Four and Catwoman instantly spring to mind. I also wasn’t crazy about Watchmen. I thought it took a brilliant comic and dumbed it down, adding blood and violence to an already violent story. As for what I’d like to see, Green Arrow or Flash would be interesting in the hands of a good director. And I’m looking forward to seeing what Marvel does with the Avengers.


5. What is your Wednesday comic shop routine? Do you have a favorite store? What makes it special?

I still head to the shop every week. Lately I’ve been going to Bergen Street Comics here in Park Slope. They’re a great store, run by nice people. Plus, they’re situated right by a great sandwich shop, which is also part of my Wednesday ritual.


6. What are you reading now? What are you looking forward to in 2010 (in addition to the forthcoming DC Chronicle of course)?

These days I’m really enjoy Grant Morrison’s work on Batman and Robin, Matt Fraction’s Iron Man, Greg Rucka’s Detective Comics, Daniel Way’s Wolverine work, and plenty of other titles, including pretty much whatever Brian Bendis is working on. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how Morrison works his way out of this whole "dead Batman" thing.

As for me, I have several projects in the works. I’m currently putting the finishing touches on the upcoming DC Chronicle, the sequel to DK’s Marvel Chronicle. I’m writing the 1980s and 1990s of that particular volume. I’m also currently scripting a creator-owned six-issue mini-series for Wildstorm Comics, which I’m super excited about as well. I can’t talk about it too much at this point, but I’ll be posting plenty about it on my website (www.matthewkmanning.com) as well as on Twitter, which I’m newly a member of.


7. Is there a picture of you wearing the Red Hood costume and will you send it to us?

One of the perks about living in New York City is that you can wear extremely obscure Halloween costumes, and people will still know who you are. Especially if you make it a point every year to attend a party thrown by an employee of Marvel Comics. Over the last few years I’ve been the Red Hood, Dick Tracy, the Phantom Stranger, the Crimson Avenger, President Lex Luthor, Matt Murdock, and most recently, Tony Stark. check out my Red Hood costume!










Bonus Trivia:
Give us an Iron Man trivia question that even Tony would have trouble answering. (And, um, the answer...)

What was the name of Tony’s chemically-imbalanced former flame who snuck into his California mansion and shot him?

Answer: