Oh, so you came here to read an article, while you are trying to waste time at work? You didn’t want to read a novel’s length of interview? Well, what you are about to read it part two of the interview that started off in last week’s Notes to the Closet Dork. Head over there if you want to see part one of me interviewing Comics and Hollywood big shot, Mark Millar.
PETE: Now, let’s move onto CIVIL WAR. It has had a tremendous effect on the Modern Marvel Universe. Now that it has been two years since it has ended, are you satisfied with what the current Marvel Writers are doing with your ideas?
MILLAR: To be honest, I didn’t read it. I stopped reading, genuinely, after it [CIVIL WAR], because I wanted to focus on creator owned stuff. So, what I did was I went off and did my own thing. Because I didn’t want to hinder myself. The thing with that is, I felt I did my job, and set it up and let other people run with it.
PETE:Did the editors at Marvel or fellow writers suggest you tie in CIVIL WAR to SECRET INVASION? (Note: SECRET INVASION is a major crossover at Marvel right now, that involves an alien race of shape shifters, who have secretly -get it?- infiltrated all the major groups on earth. This storyline has been developing over the past five years)
MILLAR: I tried to make it [CIVIL WAR] as standalone was possible, that was really important to me. You could just pick up those seven issues. Because I think the thing with books now, you have to buy three hundred comics to understand the whole thing. I really wanted it, even though it did tie in with a lot of books, just to have the seven issues, to have a beginning a middle and an end.
(Now here is the thing. This was my first professional interview. I am a nervous guy in general. Interviewing one of my idols, the fact that I didn’t just speak in gibberish while I was turning beet red is a major compliment. Actually, there was one point where I pretty much said nonsense, but I am not throwing that in the interview. The reason I bring this up, is because I worded the next question poorly. Read on, and I will explain….)
PETE: What do you feel are the perks of getting into comics at this point in time, and what do you think are the disadvantages?
MILLAR: The obvious advantage is that almost anything you do as a creator-owned book, is getting turned into a film now, or certainly bought as a movie. If it is any good, it is getting turned into a film. That’s a huge advantage, because , think about it, historically, the industry doesn’t look after its older creators, you know. You can create Marvel and DC can utilize and make a lot of money from. Historically, guys have been ripped off.
We now live in a time when guys are actually making a really good living off of their own creations. Mike Mignolia could retire now, because HELLBOY could pay him off for life. They will be doing remakes of HELLBOY and future movies, based on his characters, for the next hundred years probably.
That’s the thing, because is a weird job and an unsafe job. If you are lucky, you get ten or twenty years doing it, and then you don’t anymore. But if you can keep the copyright on the characters, imagine Joe Schuster or any of those guys, or Gardner Fox, or any of the guys who created The Golden Age characters had kept the copyrights. They wouldn’t be penniless in their old age.
We are the first generation to come along and actually keep the money.
(OK, back to the Pete director’s commentary: When you say ‘get into comics’ to someone who writes comics, they think you mean start a career in comics. I was really asking Mark Millar what he thought were the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a comics fan now. Did I correct myself at the time? No, I pretty much smiled and nodded, moving this interview boat off course.)
PETE: It seems like every medium is feeding into the other, that comics are taking from television and vice versa and that films are taking from comics..
MILLAR: Well it is funny , but we all seem to work on the same things. Isn’t that interesting? The same guys who do LOST, are the same guys who work on the Ultimate [comic book] line. The same guys who do HEROES, are working in the Marvel Universe. We all cross pollinate. You know, like I will work on film stuff, as well as comics and there is also the video game thing. So it is really a small number of guys running the whole geek show.
PETE: It has been a few years since you worked on CHOSEN. What made you want to write something that was both horrific and filled with strong religious concepts?
MILLAR: Do you know the honest thing? Mel Gibson had just done this Jesus movie, and I was thinking I wouldn’t mind some of those Jesus dollars. They are making SPIDER-MAN 2 and SPIDER-MAN 3, but where is the PASSION 2 and the PASSION 3? I had written a story a couple of years ago, I had come up with an idea that was a sequel to the Bible. The very first thing I ever sold was a sequel to the Bible, and I called it Bible 2. It was my plan. I just thought wouldn’t it be nice, then we could ask “what would happen next?” That is where the initial idea came from.
Plus I like the fact that is has characters everyone knows. Like SUPERMAN and BATMAN, everybody knows them, and I think the Bible characters are kind of like that too. So CHOSEN the movie and the comic just came from that. Why? is that cynical? (laughs)
PETE: Yeah. It was an excellent story though. So, CHOSEN is going to be made into a film as well?
MILLAR: KICK ASS starts filming in three weeks. Then we finish production on KICK ASS. The final edit of it will be completed by April next year. Then we go into production on CHOSEN.
That’s it this week kiddies. For more information on Mark Millar go to Millarworld.tv, his official site. Next week, I am going to review the first three issues of KICK ASS (or how Mark Millar says in his wonderful Scottish accent, KEK ICE)
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