You don’t know who Mark Millar is?
Mark Millar is the writer who brought me back to comics, after comics and I had gone our separate ways. Millar, originally from Scotland, is co-creator of Marvel’s super successful Ultimate Line of books, which basically took Marvel favorites like SPIDER-MAN, the X-MEN and the AVENGERS and had their mythology start from scratch in the new millennium. (ULTIMATE X-MEN is what brought me back to this $150 a month habit, along with thousands of other fans.) He is constantly on the top five of THE TOP TEN hottest writers list, in the monthly magazine, Wizard: The Guide to Comics.
Millar sat at a table, signing autographs, at The Midtown Comics in Times Square, this past Saturday. I waited nearly two hours in line with my fellow dorks, to meet him and artist Tony Harris, and to get a signed copy of their newest book WAR HEROES. Then, I waited another hour in Midtown Comics for a chance to interview the guy.
It was worth it. Millar is so successful right now in both The Comic Book Industry and in Hollywood. I actually think I became a little bit cooler just talking to him for twenty minutes. Maybe not.
I certainly didn’t look it at the time I was interviewing him. Thank God this wasn’t a video interview for YOUTUBE, then you would see my massive cranium turning a deep shade of crimson, and me tripping over my own words like Bush when he is asked about the 9/11 Report (wow, all this and political commentary).
This is the director’s cut, making me look like a legitimate reporter. Enjoy:

PETE: For people who are just starting out reading comics which one of your stories would you recommend they start out with, and why?

MILLAR: I would probably say KICK ASS , the new book I have out, just because you don’t have to have read a single comic ever to understand it. That was the plan with writing it, because my wife says to me: “You know, you have been doing this job since you were nineteen, and I’ve never been able to understand anything that you do.” And that was kind of an eye opener for me, because she hasn’t read twenty years of comic books, the way most of us have. So I try to write something, just for somebody who has never even heard of Captain America, and KICK ASS is that book. It is a superhero book for people who have never read superhero comics. So that would be my recommendation.

PETE: I haven’t gotten the third issue of that, but it is great so far.

MILLAR: Oh Cool, thanks.

PETE: I hear they are making a film for that as well.

MILLAR: Yeah, the film is going to be out next summer. It is directed by Matthew Vaughan, who is an amazing British director, married to Claudia Schiffer. Matthew and I have been working on it for almost a year. I wrote the book last summer, and we started working on the movie, right around October last year, and we start shooting in a month’s time on September the sixth. So, it’s really cool. It’s all finally coming together.

PETE: Since we are talking about movies,(the movie based on your comic) Wanted, were you pleased with the film adaptation?

MILLAR: I couldn’t have been happier, honestly. It was funny, when I sold it originally as a movie, I was quite detached from it. I just thought I done the comic, and the only way to stay sane is not to complain about anything that happens between it being a comic and a movie, and I was very detached. I just thought, “Great this is giving me money, whatever happens, you know, fingers crossed, let’s hope it turns out good.” Then I started thinking, I’d kind of like it to be good as well, because my name is on it and even though a lot of people know what I do back home, nobody has really read the stuff, so it may be their first experience with one of my stories. So, I thought it would be nice if it was good. I started to get kind of worried.
And then I met the director, about two and a half years ago, and he was showing me some of the plans, and I instantly relaxed, because I just saw how good this guy was. When I first heard it, (the director)was a Russian director, it was produced by the guys who did Legally Blonde . After all that movie was terrible, you know, and it had execs from the Fast and the Furious and the screenwriters from the Fast and the Furious, like 2 Fast 2 Furious not even the Fast and the Furious, and a Russian director, who came from the same place as Borat, Kazakhstan.

PETE: Oh God

MILLAR: And I just thought, this is going to be a disaster, you know. Then I saw some of the film and thought, Well this is actually incredible. Then I got really optimistic and I started working on it back in February. They got me doing some rewrites and I got to tweak some scenes, and I actually just loved it, by the time it came out.
Even where they made changes, I can understand why they did, because my book was so dark, a mainstream audience couldn’t accept (it). I mean I had the protagonist as a rapist, and there is all this stuff a mainstream audience of a hundred million dollar movie just wouldn’t accept. So, I thought the subtle changes they made really worked brilliantly. So, in the end, we had a great month. We flew all around the world, at the various premieres and so on, and had all these great party nights, watched the movie countless times in different countries, had an amazing experience. Because, so far, it has made about three hundred million dollars and it will make another two hundred million on DVD, it has given us (comic book creators) incredible power in Hollywood as well, so now, the next books we do, we will have much more control over. Like KICK ASS, it has just been shot, page for page, like the comic. I am a producer on that as well. The new book I am doing, War Heroes, we are going to do the same thing with that. I was very lucky to have a hit the first time out. It is life changing, really.

PETE: That’s excellent. One of the great things about most of your books is that they are standalone stories, with the exception of the Marvel (comics) and DC (comics) work..

MILLAR: Even then, I try and keep it quite self contained.

PETE: The X-men movies borrowed a lot from your Ultimate X-men ideas too.

MILLAR: Yeah, the ULTIMATES [Millar’s revisionist version of the AVENGERS] is going to be the basis for the Avengers movies. They even have Samuel L. Jackson as NICK FURY. It’s nice. It is flattering to see that. As a writer, you want your stuff to reach as many people as possible, so there is nothing more flattering

Tune in next week for part 2 of my interview with Mark Miller!!!