Sterling Gates and his Comic Ideas

Tulsa World

Comic book ideas come to Sterling Gates in all kinds of places -- sometimes even the shower.

What, are the ideas supposed to wait until Gates isn't dripping wet? Nah, that's not how creativity works for the Edison High grad, who pits Supergirl against cranky supervillains in her DC Comics series, which is read by more than 34,000 fans each month.

Ideas don't wait, so Gates, who's 28 and lives in a Los Angeles suburb, steps out of the shower and picks up a telephone.

"OK, so bear with me, I just thought of this," he'll say to the person on the other end of the line, while the shower head trickles in the background.

To hear more about Gates' writing process, and more, see him live at the Tulsa Comic & Anime Expo this weekend. He speaks at 4 p.m. Saturday.

For about a year now, Gates has penned the adventures of Supergirl, the teenage cousin of Superman.

"She still is learning how to be a superhero," he said via telephone. "That's my whole take on Supergirl: She's the most powerful teenager in the universe, and she has no idea how to handle it. So every day -- every adventure -- is a learning process to teach her different things."

Beyond Supergirl, Gates is in the process of writing the DC miniseries "World's Finest," which features an array of Superman and Batman characters.

Can you imagine how cool it is for a kid, whose father owned Tulsa's Sooner Books & Comics, to grow up and write the adventures of Batman and Superman?

"I literally wake up every day and think: 'I put words in Superman's mouth,' " Gates said. "It's kind of bizarre, to be honest, but it's a lot of fun."

A lot of fun? That's like saying Supergirl is kind of pretty. And Gates' girlfriend, Christal Cody -- she went to Cascia Hall -- digs comic books, too.

"She doesn't read everything," Gates said, "but, occasionally, I will say: 'Will you read this script and make sure I'm not being too much of a boy? Make sure Supergirl seems like Supergirl.' "

Flash is back

Soon, Gates will start work on a new Kid Flash series, which focuses on the Flash's grandson.

Now, to draw a line from how a Tulsa kid goes from reading comic books to actually writing them isn't actually a straight, or short, line.

Condensed, the story goes that Gates got hooked on superheroes after seeing Tim Burton's 1989 film "Batman."

That same year, Gates' father, Shaun, started selling comic books at his Peoria Avenue shop.

Gates' comic-book love affair continued until a 12-year-old Gates discovered '90s grunge outfit Nirvana. Soon, he was obsessed with the guitar -- not comic books.

Then, when Gates was 17, his father died suddenly of a heart attack.

"Dad passed away, and we started going through the store," Gates recalled. "I started pulling out back issues of stuff and I was like, 'Oh wow, I was totally into Flash. I forgot that I loved the Flash."

Somehow, he found solace in those same comic books.

"The Flash, at that point, was a guy named Wally West. The original Flash, from the '50s, was a guy named Barry Allen. Wally was Barry's sidekick.

"So Wally West, when Barry died, took over the mantle and became the Flash, but he still had a lot of unresolved issues with being the Flash. And reading all these issues of taking on the mantle -- of 'Am I doing right by Barry's memory?' -- all this stuff, really helped me process and deal with all the grief that I was going through."

Saying goodbye

Years later, Gates moved from Oklahoma, then nabbed a once-in-a- lifetime shot from Geoff Johns, a leading comic book writer.

Eventually, after proving his talents by writing a few issues of the Green Lantern Corps, Gates took over writing Supergirl.

Not long after taking over the series, Gates channeled a bit of his own grief into the death of Supergirl's father, Zor-El. As Zor- El lay dying, Gates gave his heroine something he never had with his own father -- a chance to say goodbye.

By writing about the death of Supergirl's father, Gates said, "Hopefully, someone can kind of understand what I went through and maybe help them deal with it, too." Tulsa comic and anime expo

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