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Joe Corallo on Rachel Pollack, Doom Patrol, and Coagula, the First Trans DC Hero

Joe Corallo talks about his relationship with the late comic legend

This week, DC Comics is releasing DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack #1 honouring the late writer and her incredible work. Pollack, known for her work as an activist, science fiction writer, and expertise in Tarot cards, left an incredible mark on the comic book world with her acclaimed run on Doom Patrol introducing DC’s first ever trans hero in Coagula.

DC Comics is publishing the new DC Pride special to honor Pollack reprinting issue 70 of Doom Patrol and issue 1 of Vertigo Visions: The Geek #1 Homelands of the Dolls. The comic features a new story from Pollack’s longtime collaborator and friend Joe Corallo, illustrated by Rye Hickman. I spoke with Corallo about the new issue, his relationship with Rachel, and bringing Coagula back to star in the new adventure.

You were close with Rachel, how did you meet and what was your friendship like? She meant a lot for so many readers. How did this particular opportunity come to be?

We first started talking after I had emailed her to say how much I loved her run about 9 years ago. She responded to me within 20 minutes, and we kept in touch ever since! She resided up in Rhinebeck, NY, which is about a couple of hours from me so I would make day trips up to see her, and she would come down from time to time and we’d grab a bite, sometimes with our mutual friend Martha Thomases. We would talk about everything from current events, Philip K. Dick, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Carl Barks, Gene Colan, and all sorts of things. I feel I can say pretty confidently that I will never meet and befriend someone quite like Rachel again.

This opportunity wouldn’t have at all been possible without editorial within DC wanting to do this project. Chris Conroy and Andrea Shea, whom I worked with directly on this, as well as many other people working within DC wanted this project to happen, and Andrea very kindly asked me to contribute a new story for this one-shot. Last year they had done DC Pride: Through the Years which had featured a new story with Alan Scott, so this followed a similar format.

Coagula was obviously an incredibly important character to the landscape of comics as a whole, but her confidence plays a big part in her characterization. Why is her strength such an integral part of what makes Kate, Kate? The book was ahead of its time, but also desperately needed.

Kate’s confidence is absolutely a core characteristic of her and one that was the focus of crafting her return story here. Part of that comes from both who Rachel is as well as the inspirations for Kate Godwin’s name, Kate Borstein and Chelsea Goodwin, both trans activists at the time who are still around today. Rachel had been out since 1971, was an activist who co-authored the manifesto “Don’t Call Me Mister, You Fucking Beast” in 1972, lived abroad foryears before returning to New York, and defied the organizers of the NYC Pride march in 1991 when they weren’t comfortable having trans people visible during it and went ahead and walked with about 10 others as they held a large “Transsexuals for Change” banner. So by the time you get to 1993 when you have the creation of Kate Godwin, it only makes sense that confidence would have been a core character trait.

Cliff and Kates lives, while quite different, feature the experience of dysmorphia and the feeling of living in a wrong body. What made them such a good pair?

To expand on that briefly, Niles being a disembodied head is also supposed to play into the elements of dysmorphia and the different ways people approach it. But yes, Cliff and Kate being held up as the ideal male form and ideal female form in the Teiresias War certainly helps solidify how they’re a good pair. Cliff is the hothead, making him more impulsive, but he’s more confident and seasoned at least when it comes to being a superhero. Kate, on the other hand, is far more even-keeled and open-minded, but starts off a bit less confident strictly in terms of being a superhero. Over the course of the run, we get to see Cliff become more open-minded as Kate gains more confidence in superheroism. They’re a fantastically good pair, I think.

What made Rye Hickman the perfect artist for this book? What was it like seeing their pages come in?

To be clear, there was no other choice in my mind. As I was coming up with the story, Rye Hickman as the artist and John Workman as the letterer, who had been so on Rachel’s run, were what I had wanted to bring this story to life. Andrea Shea was able to make this happen, and was incredibly kind and supportive through the entire process.

But to answer your question, I’ve been a fan of Rye’s years now. I first became aware of their work when I was editing the Mine! anthology to benefit Planned Parenthood when they illustrated an incredible story written by Casey Gilly. I got to work with them directly on the Dead Beats: A Musical Horror Anthology and had been hoping an opportunity to work together again would come up, and this was honestly the perfect chance. I knew Rye would also see how important this project would be to honor Rachel’s legacy, and they read through Rachel’s run as we were putting this together to really get into the mindset and did some just incredible character concept work before diving in.

Seeing the pages come in was always a treat. This is always going to be special to me not just as a first opportunity to write a story for DC, but to honor a friend and mentor and to see so many of her characters again. In a way, the experience was like getting to spend more time with Rachel.

When Kate battles the false memories and encounters “the Chief,” you specifically reference a fight with the Doom Patrol against an automated tarot machine to gain the powers of the major arcana. Considering Rachel’s expertise and history with Tarot cards, how important was it to include that reference?

There were a number of stories that Rachel had thought about telling in Doom Patrol but didn’t get the opportunity to as the book had been canceled after issue #87. One such story that she had talked about in the past was about a Tarot machine that would dispense cards that would give the recipient the powers of the corresponding major arcana. In the version she would have told, Dorothy would have likely been the one to save the day in the end, but still. I think it’s a really fun idea, and I hope it gets out there in a Doom Patrol story one day in some form or another.

The callback to the Justice League famously references Kate’s first appearance where she reveals she tried to join the Justice League, but “I suspect they liked my powers but couldn’t handle me.” In this issue, she’s given the chance to do so under the disguise of the fake reality. How does the moment callback to her debut, but also show the difficulties of facing reality, starting over, and the trans experience?

For me, as I was first putting this idea together it was an element from Kate’s story I knew I wanted to tackle here. The ability to turn liquids into solids and vice versa is so incredibly powerful, it would be completely mad for a team to reject her, so I really wanted to highlight that here.

There’s certainly an element you touched on here that people could (and I imagine will) read into the subtext about how Kate is given the choice to be herself in her own mind (her and Cliff were one once, after all) and not exist in the tangible world, or to take the risks to be herself for the world to see. Ultimately it is an easy choice for her to make, but the temptation does creep in for a moment.

Superman is the only JL hero who speaks, was that a callback to Rachel’s New Gods, where she wrote the hero (but not Batman or Wonder Woman)

Good catch! Yes, Rachel had gotten to write Superman in her New Gods run, so that was an Easter Egg of sorts for those who know.

This comic features several cameos of characters - the Bandage people, FoxFur, The False Memory - how fun was it to revisit these characters through the lens of Coagula’s journey back to reality?

It was honestly the most fun! I love so many of these characters, and I knew right away that the JLA tryout and The False Memory had to be in it. Then I figured out a way to get Crowdark and Foxfur in, and as I was breaking down the pages and what would happen, it came to me where to put George and Marion. As silly as it may sound, I was getting stressed about where to perfectly put George and Marion into the story as it didn’t come to me right away, but I think they show up exactly where they need to in the story. I knew those two were just too important to not include them. For those who may not know, George and Marion are supposed to have been living in Amsterdam before being brought to the Pentagon where they got their powers, and Rachel had lived in Amsterdam for many years before moving back to New York.

The issue calls back to Doom Patrol #79, with an outfit referencing the issue where Coagula’s first time presenting as her true self - and one of the best quotes of Rachel’s run. Was that something you knew you wanted to touch on when writing? Why?

It was, yes. I knew when she was returning I wanted her to be in this outfit, illustrated originally by the incredibly talented Ted McKeever. I’ll use this as a moment to say that Ted is an incredible talent and worked on some of the most memorable stories in that run.

This was absolutely one of the best Coagula quotes from the run, I agree. I actually read the quote recently on a podcast that I recorded last week, which should be out later this month. I thought this would be the perfect outfit for Kate to be wearing when she was born of flesh again in reality. After all, she did it. She made it happen.

Are there any talents out there you’d love to see continue Coagula’s story? She’s appeared sporadically over the years, including most recently in Unstoppable Doom Patrol.

Firstly, if we get more Unstoppable Doom Patrol by Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham, I’d love to see Coagula appear in there.

I say with humility that if ever given the opportunity to join Rye and John again to tell a Coagula story, I’d take it! Richard Case had left the book early before Coagula joined the team, so I’d certainly love to see what he would have done with her. I know he’s very busy with his other work, but maybe a short of a one-shot would be possible. I know writers like Jadzia Axelrod and Michael Conrad love both Rachel and Coagula, so I’m sure they would do great. I’d certainly love seeing up-and-coming writers like Sabs Cooper getting those sort of chances. Maia Kobabe had the opportunity to illustrate a Rachel Pollack story and I’m sure would do something special with a character like Coagula too. Ultimately, as a fan, I’d want to see someone working on her who cares about and is knowledgeable of the character and can tell a good story with her.

All that said, I completely understand Kate, The False Memory, George and Marion, Codpiece, and so forth are all DC characters and it’s not my call. Anyone who works on those characters I’m wishing the best for!

What do you hope people get from the issue? It’s too bad Rachel couldn’t see the final work.

I hope that a lot of people who pick this up are unfamiliar with Rachel Pollack and her creations like Kate Godwin, fall in love with her work, and go off to discover all of the wonderful things Rachel has done. I hope people that were familiar with her Doom Patrol run, but maybe not Vertigo Visions: The Geek #1 discover that incredible story. I hope fans of Michael Allred (I’m a big fan myself) who were unaware of Rachel and this story pick it up and discover Rachel’s work. And I hope longtime fans of Rachel’s Doom Patrol run enjoy this new story Rye, John and myself put together all thanks to Andrea and all the people at DC who know how important Rachel’s legacy is. But also, holy shit Coagula is back, everybody!!

It is too bad Rachel couldn’t see this, however, she was aware that a collection like this was being worked on before her passing. She may not have thought it some years ago, but before she passed she did know that her comics meant a lot to a lot of people. So while it’s too bad Rachel couldn’t be here to physically see this, she knows.

Thank you so much to Joe Corallo for taking the time to have this conversation. DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack #1 is in comic book stores now.