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First of all, I really want to thank you

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for letting me speak to TEDxGateway
in India about superheroes.

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I wish I could be there in person,
but this is the next best thing.

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I would really love to share

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some of the things
I've learned over the years

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and share them with any artists
and writers in India

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who might be wanting
to create new superheroes

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and new superhero adventures.

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India has been on my mind a lot lately
because I've been working

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with my good friend Sharad Devarajan
and with Graphic India

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to create a new Indian superhero
named Chakra The Invincible,

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who lives in Mumbai.

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My goal with Chakra was really simple.

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I wanted to bring an Eastern
concept, like the chakras,

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to the Western world of superheroes.

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And for me, superheroes
will always spark the imagination

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of people around the world
regardless of their background,

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because I think that people
are always looking for something

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that represents the ideal person
or the ideal situation.

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Almost all of us have loved fairy tales
when we were young.

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Just remember stories
of giants and witches

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and wizards and monsters

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and things that were so colorful
and bigger than life.

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But then, you get a little older
and you're too old to read fairy tales.

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But you never outgrow
your love of that type of story.

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And if you think about it,

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superheroes stories today are really
like fairy tales for grown-ups.

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The characters are bigger than life,
just like in fairy tales.

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They have the same type of superpowers:

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some can fly, some are extra-strong,
some can be invisible.

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It gives the viewer and the reader

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a chance to relive the excitement
he or she had when they were young.

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They're really reading
fairy tales for grown-ups

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when they read or when they see
superhero stories today,

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and that's why I love them so.

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To me, the human aspect of superheroes

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has always been, perhaps,
the most important part.

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By that, I mean: OK, we assume
your superhero might be extra-strong,

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or might be able to fly
or run as fast as a comet,

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but unless you care
about the superhero's personal life,

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you're just reading a shallow story.

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Just because a person has a superpower

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doesn't mean he might not
have the same personal problems

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that you or I might have.

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Maybe he doesn't have enough money,

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maybe he has a family problem,

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maybe the girl he loves doesn't love him.

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Or maybe the girl he loves doesn't want
to be involved with a superhero.

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There are so many things you can think of

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that round out the character
and the personality,

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so the superhero isn't just
one or two dimensional.

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You want a three-dimensional superhero

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who lives and breathes and worries

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and experiences things
just the way you and I do

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except for the fact
that she or he has a superpower.

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One thing I might mention, most writers -

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and I think it's an unfortunate thing -

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they try to write something

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that they think a certain
audience might enjoy.

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I've never been able to do that

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because I can't put myself
in the mind of other people.

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I only know what I enjoy,

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so every time I've written a story,

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I've always tried to write
the sort of story

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that I, myself would enjoy reading,

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a story that would interest me
while I'm writing it

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as I'm waiting to find out
what happens next.

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And I can't know what other people think,

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but I can know what I think,

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and I feel I'm not that unusual;

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if there's a type of story I like,

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there must be lots of people
who like the same type of stories.

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Therefore, I have always
written to please myself,

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not to please a certain type of audience,

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because you can't know the audience
as well as you know yourself.

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And if I write a story
that I'm enjoying while I'm writing it

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and I can't wait to see what happens next,

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then I'm hoping that a large
proportion of the public

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will feel the same way,
and they'll enjoy it too.

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So to sum it up,

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I have always tried to please
myself, not other people,

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and somehow, it seems to have worked

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because I guess I'm not
that different than other people.

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So, to wrap it up,

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what I suggest is, use your imagination,

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don't be afraid to come up
with the wildest thought in the world.

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If what you create is truly
different and colorful,

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and if it's written well,
people will enjoy it.

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Now when I say "written well,"

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what I mean is you might have
the most fantastic notion in the world,

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suddenly you have a man who
can fly faster than the speed of light.

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That could be interesting,

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but you have to make him believable,

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you have to give
the reader or the audience

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some reason to think
he really has the ability to do that.

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How did he get that power?


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Origins of superpowers
are always very interesting.

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If you get the right origin,

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like, for example, Spiderman
being bitten by a radioactive spider,

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at least, then the viewer
has something to hold on to

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and to say, "Well, it might have
happened, now I'll enjoy it."

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So even though you're writing

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what amounts to
a fairy tale for grown-ups,

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try to keep enough facts

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and try to give enough detail
that the reader or the audience will say,

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"Well, it could have happened,"

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and then your public
goes along with the fun.

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But if you make it too wild,

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and you don't give any reason
why it is as wild as it is,

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then sometimes it can be overkill.

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So what I'm trying to say is,
let your imagination flow freely,

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but always base what happens
on some sort of provable fact

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so that the reader or the viewer
will go along with it

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and enjoy it as much
as you enjoy writing it.

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So good luck to you!

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Thanks for listening
and I really enjoyed talking to you.

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Excelsior!