Lou Anders, Editor of “Masked,” Talks Superhero Fiction

Writer, editor and regular literary renaissance man Lou Anders is someone you’re bound to hear about if you spend any time in science fiction and fantasy circles. He’s the editorial director of SF/F imprint Pyr books and is well known on his own for his anthologies, the most recent of which is Masked, an anthology of superhero fiction described by Publishers Weekly as “an ambitious collection of superhero tales that provide top-notch plots and characterizations while honoring their four-color roots.”

Lou recently took a few minutes out of his day to speak with Suvudu about Masked, and our ongoing fascination with superheroes.

Tell me a little bit about Masked. This is superhero fiction, but most people associate superheroes with comic books. Why take them in a literary direction?
Superheroes have a long history of being portrayed in other media. I grew up on the Batman television show, the Spider-Man cartoon, the Superman films. George RR Martin’s Wildcards anthology series debuted in 1987. Superheroes in other media is nothing new. What is new is the mainstream recognition that superhero storytelling can be as sophisticated as any other genre.

Are you a fan of superhero comics yourself? If so, when did you become a fan?
I’m a huge, lifelong comic book fan. I have Batman comics going back to the 50s, and my love for comics really reignited in the 80s when Dark Knight and Watchmen debuted.

I suspect that a lot of the characters in Masked are new to the readers, yet most readers now are used to characters like Batman and Superman, guys with an extensive mythology and backstory. How hard is it to get people interested in a hero that they don’t know?
I would expect that you have the opposite problem – trying to get readers interested in the same heroes that have been around for 60 years or more, finding ways to make the old stories new. But the interest shown in Masked has been overwhelming, and really, its because of the caliber of the contributors. In comics, if you are smart you follow creators, not characters.

As editor, what were you looking for in these stories?
What I wasn’t looking for, and has been done already, is an outsiders, ironic take on superheroes. I didn’t want stories that poked fun at the genre with a wink and a nudge. I wanted stories that would be recognizable and appealing to today’s sophisticated reader of contemporary comic book tales. For that I turned to writers who actually write comic books – 10 of the 15 contributors are working comics writers – as well as some of the top SF authors in the field.

Any contributors that our readers might know?
Well, the comic book reader will certainly recognize Bill Willingham, whose Fables is a multiple Eisner-winner, and Peter David, who did an 12 year run on Incredible Hulk (among other things), or NYT-bestseller Marjorie M Liu, whose Dark Wolverine is causing a splash. Chris Roberson’s I, Zombie is a hit at DC Vertigo. Matthew Sturges is the co-author of Jack of Fables and the author of titles like House of Mystery and JSA. Mike Baron created Nexus. Gail Simone is one of the most famous women in comics today. Mike Carey was the man on DC Vertigo’s Lucifer, one of the first comics to come out of Sandman. His latest, The Unwritten, is pretty awesome. As to SF readers – Ian McDonald and Stephen Baxter should ring a bell. And Stargate fans will be thrilled with Executive Producer Joseph Mallozzi’s first ever bit of prose.

What do you think keeps people interested in superheroes?
Superheroes are about power and responsibility. If that isn’t a theme for the modern age, I don’t know what is.

If you were a superhero, what would be the first real-world problem that you’d address?
Poverty.

Where can we go to find out more about Masked?
There’s a Masked page on my website, a round-up of Masked related blogs on Bowing to the Future, an io9 review, the page at Simon & Schuster, and a Largehearted Boy booknotes post dedicated to the book where the contributors were asked to each provide a song that related in some way to their story. It’s here.