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Is there any genre that Al Ewing can't write well?

I first came to Ewing's work through his run on Guardians of the Galaxy, then X-Men Red, Immortal Hulk, and Immortal Thor. So imagine my surprise when I started reading Absolute Green Lantern and realized it was a cosmic horror story! I've admired the way that Ewing captured Thor as an old-timey golden retriever in Immortal Thor and The Mortal Thor, so to see the same writer tackle horrors beyond all comprehension was a delightful twist. I knew that when I had the chance to interview Al Ewing, I would have to ask him about what his process is for writing across various genres. And that's exactly what I did.  

"Each book and each character suggests a vibe," Ewing began. "I do do both [horror with Absolute Green Lantern and wonder-filled books like Immortal Thor]. I also do comedy quite a lot. And I'll blend the two a lot. With the Thor thing, it’s very much tempting, that kind of sense of wonder. With someone like Metamorpho, it’s much more of a straight-ahead humor book. By the end of that, I was getting, I think, the entirety of my sense of humor on the page, and thankfully it gelled very, very strongly with Steve [Lieber’s]. Great time. Every book suggests [a vibe]. It's like when you're making pottery. To an extent, you go in knowing roughly what you want to do. But while you're doing it, the clay will tell you how it wants to be shaped. The book will tell you how it wants to be written. That’s very true of Green Lantern." 

Ewing also stressed that while he goes into writing each series with a basic roadmap of where and when things are going to happen, there's still "a certain kind of magic" that he likes to "latch onto" when certain words and phrases come together on the page. "There's a method, but a lot of it is improvisational, a lot of it seat-of-the-pants as I go," Ewing added. 

 Absolute Green Lantern is available now in comic book shops and wherever books are sold. 

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.