by Bryan Cairns

Artist Brett Booth is like a fine wine; he just keeps getting better with age. With runs on Wildstorm’s Backlash and Wildcore, as well as Marvel’s Fantastic Four and X-Men, Booth’s visually striking style quickly established him as a fan-favorite among readers. Recently, he invaded the DC Universe with a stint on the best-selling Justice League series and will follow that up by helping DC relaunch Teen Titans. Booth spoke exclusively to Nostalgic Books and Comics about tackling the popular title and putting his own spin on the characters.

Nostalgic: From the get-go, were you a Teen Titans fan?

Brett: Kind of. I was a fan of some of the Titan characters, like Bart Allen and Tim Drake, who is my favorite Robin. I knew Superboy from watching the Young Justice cartoon. I didn’t know much about Cassie. As for the core four, it was up in the air if Scott Lobdell wanted to use Gar or Bart, but we’ll be using Gar at some other point.

Nostalgic: How did this gig come about then?

Brett: Editor Eddie Berganza emailed me and said “Hey, how about doing Teen Titans after Justice League?” That’s literally what it was. He emailed me on a Friday night, so I had to stew for the weekend.

Nostalgic: Visually, the team looks edgier and slicker than previous incarnations. Was there an overall look or goal you wanted to accomplish?

Brett: No, it was kind of weird how it happened. Originally, the only one we were going to change was Cassie. I was going to put her back in the red top with the bottom and boots. It was more of her classic look. This book is more of a reboot than most of the other ones, like Superman, where it’s more back to the beginning. Originally, Jim Lee was going to do all these designs, but then he didn’t have time with all the characters. I got an email saying “Hey, how about you doing some of the designs?” Okay. I did designs for Charcoal Girl and the Bugg character already. Scott wanted wings on Robin. I didn’t want wings, so I drew a sketch with his cape with cut-outs. It looked like wings, but he wanted “wing-wings.” Robin kept looking like Hawkman, not the current one, but the Hawkman in Justice Society with the wrestling-type mask. Then he looked like Black Condor and I don’t know who that is. They weren’t feathers, but basically blinds on a drape that are flexible and had an electric current running through them so they stiffen like in the Batman movie. He can glide on them, but can’t actually fly on them. Scott wants them to do other things as well.

Nostalgic: Can you break down some of the other teammates and how you approached them?

Brett: Superboy’s costume is not a costume, but actually just clothes he is wearing. Scott didn’t want him in the jeans. He hated the jeans and kept calling them “grandma jeans.” You can’t really see in those posted pictures, but he has combat kind of clothes, with pockets on the side. They are black. It’s more like S.W.A.T. gear. I had him in a three-quarter shirt with gloves. There was a miscommunication in an email where someone mentioned a tattoo. They were like “What about the tattoo?” and I was like “What the hell are you talking about?” So I drew a tattoo on him and gave him a muscle shirt to show it off.

Nostalgic: What about our resident speedster?

Brett: For Kid Flash, I didn’t want his costume to change at all. I actually wanted to go back to more like the original Wally. I didn’t like his boots and didn’t think they would work real well. I sent in some basic designs and that was one of the ones Jim did the design work for. I had given him some lightning boots that weren’t in his normal chest spot, so Jim took that and put them on the shoulders. He had a whole head piece which I loved, but everyone wanted to have his hair out.

Nostalgic: I understand Wonder Girl was a headache to get right.

Brett: She was such a pain! Scott didn’t want her to look anything like she did. I had to do designs based on this or that outfit, or Wonder Woman’s outfit. Jim’s design was more of a toga thing and I actually put her in something similar to that in issue #2. Cully did some designs and there was a lot of going back and forth. Eventually, Scott tells me she’s not going to have a costume at first; she’s going to have the pieces that she stole that gave her her powers. That’s why they look different, because he doesn’t want them to be like Amazon bracelets. He doesn’t want them to look the same as Wonder Woman’s because her origin is different. It’s more like the original one where she has her boots. She found these things when she was on a dig with her mom in Greece. He lasso is actually supposed to be like thorns. Scott wanted it different, maybe more like Spider-Man’s webbing. I put some thorns on it, everyone thinks it’s barbwire, but it’s not. It’s a weaving, winding mess. Because this isn’t the final version of what her costume will become: it’s more like a leotard. We used the Donna Troy stars to fill out the dark areas and then when she obtains the pieces she’s taken, it fills out the other parts. The lasso comes out of a piece on her left arm.

Nostalgic: There are a few new faces joining the team as well.

Brett: Well, that’s the bug girl. Her name is actually BUGG. It was a temporary name, but they (DC) liked BUGG, so we kept it. We might call her something better at another point, once we find out her origins. It’s changed since we originally created her. It’s supposed to be like an organic armor, so she’s almost our Cyborg character, but not.

Nostalgic: How has it been working with Scott?

Brett: It’s been interesting. Scott is a total character, and not like any other writers I’ve ever worked with. The scripts have been cool with strange stuff, but he ties things in here and there.

Nostalgic: The Titans have a rich legacy, so are there any past characters you are eager to get a crack at?

Brett: The first arc is getting the whole team together. By issue #4, everybody should be there. I’m not sure whether Superboy will have officially joined, but he’ll be in the issue. Raven would be interesting and Scott has mentioned using her at some point. I don’t want to spoil anything. He’s mentioned using Gar and I’d like to do Aqualad. I’d like to do Static too, and I’ve talked to Scott about putting in Miss Martian because I like her a lot.

TEEN TITANS #1 will be on sale September 28, 2011!