By day, David Hopkins is a mild-mannered English teacher at Arlington's Martin High School. At night, he dons a billowing cape and boldly colored spandex tights and rids the city streets of crime.

JASON JANIK/Special Contributor

OK, that last part was made up. But the 31-year-old does lead a double life of sorts. Outside the classroom, he's made a name for himself penning comic book and graphic novel scripts for indie publishers.

Your average, everyday costumed crime fighters do not occupy Hopkins' literary landscape. His characters are a bit more flesh and blood, endowed with a significant amount of wit and the occasional touch of pathos, from Karma Incorporated's motley quintet of for-hire revenge agents to the super-powered, inter-dimensional teenage hero Emily Edison.

This weekend, Hopkins will cop a squat at the Dallas Comic Con, where he'll share the spotlight with such industry luminaries as William Stout and Howard Chaykin, as well as new-school wunderkinds Kristian Donaldson and Dirk Stangely. He took some time off from grading papers and guiding plotlines to answer our questions in a recent e-mail interview.

Q: Growing up, what were some of your favorite comic books?

Q: How did you get into writing comics?

Hopkins: In 2002, my friend Aja Jones asked me to write a one-act play for her theater company. The deadline was ridiculous. I stayed up late every night for about two weeks and knocked out this story called Space to Occupy.

After opening night, I wanted to write more. However, theater was never my favorite medium. I went to a comic book shop, and purchased the only script book I could find. It was for a comic book series called Powers. I read the whole thing, then I went back and bought all the comics. I needed to get a sense for the format, and how the relationship between writer and artist worked. That was my first lesson in comic book scriptwriting.

Q: What inspires your stories?

Hopkins: Inspiration comes from lots of places. I wrote Emily Edison around the time my daughter was born. I wanted to produce something she could read and enjoy someday. With Astronaut Dad, I've always been fascinated with the astronaut mystique during the early '60s. And Karma Incorporated came from my love of con-artist stories.

Q: Are there common themes you find yourself exploring?

Hopkins: Regardless of genre, most of my stories deal with families in crisis. To me, that's much more interesting than one isolated protagonist with a problem.

Q: One of the cool things about your Web site [antiherocomics.com] is that people can read your scripts. Is this a way to market your writing, or is it intended to serve as a learning tool for aspiring comic book scribes?

Hopkins: I like learning about a person's creative process. I wish more comic book writers made their scripts available online. When writing a script, I ultimately hide behind the artist's talent. Some people might want to see my part in the process.

Q: Do you ever write with particular artists or artistic styles in mind?

Hopkins: Sometimes. The more I trust the artist, the less I think of them while writing. If they're really good, I assume they'll be able to illustrate whatever I throw their way. If I've worked with an artist long enough, we're pretty much psychically linked.

Q: Which classic comic book characters would you like to write for and why?

Hopkins: I could do some interesting stuff with Fantastic Four. Likewise, re-inventing Cloak & Dagger would be an incredible opportunity. In both cases, I find these characters to be fascinating, and I have a good concept for how their stories should unfold.

Q: What projects do you have in the works?

Hopkins: I have a short story appearing in PopGun Vol. 3. Paul Milligan and I are working on a new graphic novel called How to Lose Big. It's about small-press comics and failure.

Q: What's your favorite part of Dallas Comic Con?

Hopkins: It's just a fun event. I enjoy hanging out with the other comic book creators and the regular fans who come by my booth.All about him ...

Gig: Comic book writer

Nickname: "Mr. H" to my students.

Hometown: Mansfield

Lived here since: After college

Skill I wish I had: Playing the accordion.

Movie I've seen dozens of times: The Royal Tenenbaums

TV show I can't turn off: Freaks and Geeks

Guilty pleasure: Age of Empires III on my iMac

Song I wish I had written: Wave of Mutilation" by Pixies

My last meal would be: A cheeseburger from Lee Harvey's.

Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Richardson Civic Center, 411 W. Arapaho Road, Richardson. $10. dallascomiccon.com.

Check out Hopkins' musings on comic-book adaptations and how he'd cast his own works on the big screen. Go to blahblahblahblog.quickdfw.com.