CANADIAN FAN EXPO: GEOFF JOHNS PANEL

TORONTO -- At DC Comics' convention panels, Geoff Johns has a reputation of being farily tight-lipped, not wanting to venture into spoilers territory.

At his Comics Writing 101 panel at Canadian Fan Expo on Saturday, Johns was a regular chatterbox, answering questions from a sizable throng of writing wannabes.

Following are some highlights:

* Johns said he does cater his writing to different artists.

"With Dale Eaglesham on Justice Society (of America), I'm going to open it up a lot more and push the characters to a quirky side because he does great facial expressions," Johns said.

He noted that his Flash and Green Lantern collaborator Ethan Van Sciver legitimizes characters. "He can make everybody look important," Johns said.

* More on Justice Society: Johns said he has a "specific evolution" for Wildcat and that he is "focusing the whole story through that."

* Peter Snejbjerg is drawing a single-issue Teen Titans story featuring Kid Devil. Johns said his script was more descriptive because Snejbjerg wasn't familiar with the characters.

* Johns said he and Superman film director Richard Donner have completed their second issue as writers of Action Comics; it features a Superman vs. Bizarro fight.

He said he and Donner had talked about working together for years -- Johns used to work for Donner -- and the timing worked out perferctly, especially since they got Adam Kubert as artist.

Their fourth issue together will be in 3D.

"We want to make it more interactive," Johns said. "We're trying to have a lot of fun with it."

Johns reiterated Donner's fascination with Brainiac. "So we'll probably do a Brainiac story," he said.

* Johns said he tries to discover what about characters' powers and abilities can be reflected in their emotions and personalities. He used as an example JSA's Hourman, whom he decided to make an "adrenaline junkie."

* Johns advised not "to use splash pages just to have splash pages." He said that explosions as splash pages are "most boring."

* Marvel characters' origins are more emotional, Johns said, while DC's characters are more open to interpretation.

* Johns said he loves to include sound effects in his scripts.

* In solicitations for his books, Johns noted, he doesn't give the length of an arc, which provides him flexibility. "You'll see it's always 'Part 1' and not 'Part 1 of 5,'" he said.

* Asked about kids reading comics, Johns noted that a lot of the 3,000 friends on his myspace.com page are either in their teens or early 20s. He also surveyed the room, revealing several 15- and 16-year-olds.

* "Comics will never be dead," Johns said. "You can't kill an artform."

* Johns said he is using a character-driven approach, rather than a plot-driven approach, on Teen Titans. "I kind of like team books better," he said, comparing them to solo titles. "I like the characters bouncing off each other."