1. What drew you to writing/working with Classical Antiquity and what challenges did you face in selecting, representing, or adapting particular myths or stories?

I had been asked by Marvel Comics to work on a series about their Hercules character. My primary contribution was the idea to work the Classical myths themselves as flashbacks into Herc’s adventures in our time. The readers really responded to this quite nicely and the series was a surprise success. Later, Osprey Publishing asked me to do a non-fiction book about Herc for their Legends series and I had quite a lot of fun doing that. 

2. Why do you think classical / ancient myths, history, and literature continue to resonate with young audiences?

They are so many touchstones for what became the modern world and the way we think about humanity. They’ve become classics simply because they’ve been retold so many times. Whether there is some special quality to these myths specifically and that’s why they’re repeated constantly or their uniqueness comes from that repetition itself I can’t say. 

3. Do you have a background in classical education (Latin or Greek at school or classes at the University?) What sources are you using? Scholarly work? Wikipedia? Are there any books that made an impact on you in this respect? 

No. I think Robert Graves' book Greek Myths was our main source material although a big inspiration was Euripides’ tragedy Heracles. 

Prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com