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MARK MILLAR Q&A from Wizard World Chicago By Bruce MacIntosh
Mark Miller visited with a crowded room of fans on Friday, August 10th, 2007, at Wizard World Chicago. The charming accent of the writer from Glasgow proved not to be a barrier to understanding his hysterical stories of practical jokes and plans for a busy year in comics coming up. Here are some things he discussed:
Mark's health is much better since he took ill last summer. He recalled that he got very "fit and trim", but it fell apart recently.
Although he loves it when people pronounce his name "mil-LAR" in America, in Scottish it is really pronounced "Miller".
Now that Ultimates has wrapped up, he has actually been "working like a dog" because he was ill and essentially took 2007 off. But he will have several new series coming out soon. The one for Marvel will be announced at Saturday's Civil War: Remembrance panel. Stay tuned to the Pulse for that announcement this weekend.
Millar's Kick Ass will be a "realistic superheroes" book that will be coming out in February. That book won't take the same angle as Dark Knight and Watchmen. A serious book about two guys just going out and trying it and looking for trouble." "You're dressed in that stupid outfit, and what do you do" if you saw a robbery? All my life I've always wanted to do this: Put on a costume and go out and see what happens." Takes place when the superheroes were off the planet back in 1984 for Secret Wars.
The movie based on the comic he wrote, called Wanted with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McEvoy (Last King of Scotland), will be coming out next spring. It will be rated R. He realized that "there hasn't been a really violent superhero movie yet." But this will take that tone. "I can't wait to see it myself." The story comes directly from his comic of the same name, and at least the first half stays "faithful to the way J.G. Jones drew it." They did "take out the superhero costumes", and the Downs Syndrome character was eliminated. It is firmly set in the superhero universe, however.
He cited the difference between writing a movie and comics is that there isn't the same kind of budget with comics, so that is very freeing. "There is no one looking over your shoulder," with comics saying that it can't be done, and there are no special effects limitations.
With Civil War, he originally pitched an idea of a more militaristic Marvel Universe, post 9-11. He wanted to unmask somebody, but the idea of Spider-Man was someone else's. It was originally supposed to be 12 issues, "but Marvel quite wisely cut it down to seven." He is pleased with the shape of Marvel's sales since Civil War.
Given the choice, there are some main characters he would like to eventually write, such as Superman and Batman at DC. There are also some main characters that he wants to write at Marvel and will be getting to do so. Unfortunately, that will be announced on Saturday.
He will be doing a title called War Heroes with Tony Harris, coming out from Image in Summer 2008.
Questions from the audience:
When asked what he thinks of his prior work in retrospect, "I've never re-read anything I've ever done." He added that he might go back and read some of it when he's "really old. I hope it's good."
He cites Lonnie David as his favorite author, and Mark applies his method of plotting to his own stories.
Best prank on Brian Michael Bendis: Bendis is obsessed with David Mamet, the playwrite. Mark made up an email address and got in touch with Bendis, pretending to be Mamet. "Can we work together some time." Within "a nanosecond, Bendis emailed back." Bendis emailed back that Mamet could do any project at Marvel he wanted. So, Millar (as Mamet) suggested the worst ideas he could think of, such as Space Spider-Man, Spider Caveman. Bendis eventually realized it was Millar and emailed back a terse expletive.
What happened to the 36-issue X-Men arc that was planned? The plan was "to follow The Ultimates and re-vamp the X-Men line" in a similar way. He read every single X-Men comic over a year, and it "destroyed every synapse in my brain." They put it off, and it has now turned into a 12-issue project that will again be announced in the Civil War: Remembrance panel on Saturday.
How was working with Grant Morrison? "Exactly as you'd expect" a very positive experience, especially since Mark admires Grant's work so much. He had met Grant already in the 1990's, while interviewing him for a fanzine, and hung out with him and Frank Quitely in the Nineties. He learned a lot from Grant in that association.
He said that he was pleased that Jeph Loeb and Joe Madeiura will be doing Ultimates 3, because he and Bryan Hitch promised themselves that they would only do Ultimates 3 if it was going to be better than Ultimates 2, "and it wasn't". When asked, he said that he was not worried that they will change the title, (such as adding Wolverine to the Ultimates, as it looked from some of the promotional images from San Diego Comic-Con.)
Will you ever do X-Men with Hitch? He would: "I've got a good plan for it but I'd like to go for some creator-owned properties first."
Who thought of Ultimate Nick Fury looking like Samuel Jackson? "I really felt that it had to be a cool black guy." Samuel L. Jackson is a huge Avengers fan, and liked the series.
He will be having about 40 books out next year, which will need some promoting so he will be attending some more conventions.
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