Wagner's reign: UnderGroundOnline talks with Matt Wagner about the 20th anniversary of Mage, the approaching 25th anniversary of Grendel, and his DC cover work:

"It's fun. I just ended my run doing Green Arrow. I came on when Kevin Smith launched the book; I only intended to stay on until Kevin was done. He finished up with number 15 and Bob Schreck decided to reach outside of comics for the next writer, Brad Meltzer. Brad happened to be coming through town promoting his latest novel, The Millionaires. We went to dinner and he gave me a very impassioned plea that I stay on as the cover artist. He gave me some ideas and I was intrigued to do those so that was six issues. Then I knew Judd Winick was taking over after that. We've been buddies for years so he gave me the puppy dog look like, 'You're not going to do my covers?' So I told him I would do his first storyline, and then I felt like I had my fill of Green Arrow. His personality is interesting, but as a superhero he's basically got one trick and for a designer and painter it's even worse because he's got one color. So I figured I had done all I could with that and I told Schreck that I wouldn't mind doing some more high-profile cover gigs, and he asked me about Batman."