Rob Williams Talks About Low Life @ Newsarama

Emperor · 29 April, 2011, 01:49:09 PM

Newsarama have a big interview with Rob Williams about Low Life, promoting the release of the Low Life: Paranoia graphic novel from Simon and Schuster:

QuoteLast week, Marvel Comics announced that writer Rob Williams was their latest exclusive creator. Not entirely surprising news, given how busy the publisher's been keeping him — he's currently writing the Skaar: King of the Savage Land miniseries, plus launching a new Ghost Rider this summer, taking over as the ongoing scribe of Daken: Dark Wolverine, penning three issues of Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force, and writing much of the upcoming The Iron Age.

But you don't just get that much work from a company like Marvel coming from nowhere. Williams has honed his craft for years in his native Great Britian, specifically the long-running anthology 2000AD. His serial Low Life, set in the same world as Judge Dredd and starring a group of quirky undercover judges (including an adult stuck in a baby's body), is seeing print in the United States for the first time with the 160-page collection Low Life: Paranoia.

To find out a good deal more about this series, Newsarama talked with Williams over email about combining bizarre humor with serious character moments, the contributions of the book's artists (Henry Flint, Simon Coleby,[ Rufus Dayglo and D'Israeli) and in what ways Deadpool is similar to Low Life's main protagonist. (It always comes to back to Deadpool, somehow.) Plus, courtesy of Rebellion, a six-page preview of Low Life: Paranoia.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/rob-williams-low-life-paranoia-110428.html

flesario · 29 April, 2011, 02:08:37 PM

I'm confused ,does this mean no more Low Life?

IndigoPrime · 29 April, 2011, 02:52:47 PM

Doesn't seem to say one way or another. Hopefully his 'exclusive' contract with Marvel effectively means 'exclusive except for 2000 AD'.

Emperor · 29 April, 2011, 02:52:58 PM

Quote from: flesario on 29 April, 2011, 02:08:37 PM
I'm confused ,does this mean no more Low Life?

I didn't see that mentioned in the interview, in fact there is another coming up later this year.

Emperor · 29 April, 2011, 02:55:30 PM

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 29 April, 2011, 02:52:47 PM
Doesn't seem to say one way or another. Hopefully his 'exclusive' contract with Marvel effectively means 'exclusive except for 2000 AD'.

Pretty much. Exclusive needn't mean you work exclusively for that company (it tends to mean you are guaranteed a certain amount of work, a higher page rate and health insurance) - Dan Abnett's exclusive at Marvel pretty much meant he could work for anyone except for DC and Rob Williams' allows him to work for 2000 AD. It is all discussed in this thread:

www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,32749.0.html

Hoagy · 29 April, 2011, 04:10:20 PM

I knew Simon Coleby'd be lapped up by American publishers. He's got an esoterica on the super hero model and action sequences that'll pave the way for new styles. Good luck to him.

Emperor · 30 April, 2011, 03:09:17 AM

Quote from: Krombasher on 29 April, 2011, 04:10:20 PM
I knew Simon Coleby'd be lapped up by American publishers. He's got an esoterica on the super hero model and action sequences that'll pave the way for new styles. Good luck to him.

It sounds like they are cooking up an interesting project there too.

O Lucky Stevie! · 30 April, 2011, 07:14:43 AM

Someone has put this very question to Rob over on Facebook:

QuoteRob Williams I can still write for 2000AD, yep

.

Colin YNWA · 30 April, 2011, 07:22:26 AM

Credit to Rob Williams and the 2000ad Bots (or Simon and Schuster Bots whoever is responsible) for linking Rob's rising star over in the states with 2000ads line over there. Well done them all I say.

Now put that Ghost Rider script away and get back to working for Tharg!

O Lucky Stevie! · 30 April, 2011, 07:35:18 AM

Ditto. Stevie can't envisage why any current Marvel reader wouldn't want to pick up Low Life: paranoia with that line-up.

flesario · 30 April, 2011, 08:38:52 AM

Phew, I saw the word 'exclusive' and felt a little sick. Thanks. Good luck Mr Williams and Coleby

The Adventurer · 01 May, 2011, 09:43:47 AM

Quote from: O Lucky Stevie! on 30 April, 2011, 07:35:18 AM
Ditto. Stevie can't envisage why any current Marvel reader wouldn't want to pick up Low Life: paranoia with that line-up.

Heh. I can come up with at least three excuses a Marvel Reader will give you for not picking up Low Life. "Its not superheroes" "Its not Marvel" "Its in Black & White".

Clowns, all of them.

I'll be picking up the collection, even though I already have the previous Mega-City Undercover GN. For two reasons, 1)More Low-Life collected, its practically a volume 2. And 2)I never sat right with me that Low Life didn't get its name on the spine of the last collection. It deserves its own collection like few others.