It's a Droids Life: Rob Williams

[Wake]

Rob Williams is the writer and co-creator of  Asylum, Family, Low Life, Breathing Space and The Ten-Seconders. He has also written a number of one-offs and two recent Judge Dredd stories: the Biographer and Ownership.

Rob has agreed to follow and participate in this thread, so if you have any questions for him, or comments that you would like him to read, please post them here.

So, who'd like to start...?

[Byron Virgo]

How did you find your way to working at 2000AD?

[Rob1971]

Let the great online droid sacrifice begin!

Hello all. Right, first answer - I'd worked as a freelance journalist and directed and wrote corporate videos (lots of sewage treatment plants visited, don't ask) for about five years prior to trying my hand at comics writing. I wrote a spec script for a political superhero series called Cla$$war and have it to Com.X at one of the early Bristol cons. They liked it and published it with Trev Hairsine on art. Andy Diggle read Cla$$war and asked me to pitch for 2000AD. So it's partly his fault.

[Proudhuff]

hello Rob, can I just apologise for any offence this thread may cause ;p

I do have a question: gulp, in ownership, I felt it wasn't too clear Dredd's involvement in the appearence of the second missive, was I just being thick and miss a pointer (this happens a lot!) or was Dredd not involved and it was genuine?

Confused of Morningside    

[Rio De Fideldo]

Hi Rob

Did you read 2000ad as a child? If so which classic 2000ad character/story would you like to write if given the chance?

[WoD]

How long does it take you write (for example 6 pages)?  Do you tend to have to rework much of what you write?

Any chance of seeing an example script?  We have a few up on the FutureQuake site, and it's something that gets occasionally asked on scriptdroids, so it could be of interest to wanna-be writers.

WoD.

[Dark Jimbo]

Any plans for a third book of the Ten Seconders? I largely loved this second book, but it felt more like a bridge to something else rather than a story in and of itself, unlike the first book. I'd mainly just like to see them go back to a post-apocalyptic Britain. :-)

Also, what necessitated the artist changes?



(Great idea, Wake, by the way.)

[Rob1971]

Proudhuff. I'm a bit wary of explaining that one as I wanted a slightly ambiguous ending, even though I felt it was pretty clear (maybe not), so me coming on the board and saying what actually happened goes against the choice I made there.

There's always a balance between trying to not be too on the nose and being too exposition heavy in the dialogue and making things clear to the reader.

[Rob1971]

Richard. I think I started reading 2000ad around about the block mania/apocalypse war period, so I can't claim to have been there from the start, although I had a few early Christmas anuals (I miss them). From Block mania on I read tooth every week until I dropped out for about five years in the early nineties.

What character to write? Gah. Dredd's the obvious one, although I've written him a few times now. I've always fancied having a go at ABC Warriors, but that's not going to happen ;)

[Matt Timson]

I'm taking that as 'Dredd was invloved'...

[Matt Timson]

Not that there's any such word as 'invloved'- but you get the message.

[Rob1971]

WoD. Depends on my mood, the weather, how inspired/feckless I am. I'd say writing three pages a day is probably some form of average. I've written a lot more some days and I've written bugger all and been consumed by self-loathing and computer games MANY other days.

Also, much of the initial work goes in generating he pitch, breaking down the plot before you even get to the scripting. Scripting's the easy bit. The dialogue's the fun, the nuts and bolts of the story are the hard work.

I tend to rework all the time when I'm writing. Usually I'll finish something, go away and give it a day's space, then come back to it, that helps.

Personal message me your email addy and I'll send on a sample script for the website it you like.

[WoD]

Dredd was clearly invloved (probably).

[Wake]

My reading of the prog 1588 episode is this:

Dredd goes back out on the streets, and while out there spends time thinking...coming to the conclusion that he is the law. He asks to speak to Chilton and then we have our resolution. The implication is that Dredd encouraged Chilton to forge the document, but there is no proof that he did. He could equally have told Chilton not to rest until he'd found a loophole.

[Gavin_Leahy_Block]

this is so cool,

big fan of Low life so i have to ask who do you prefer writing Aimee Nixon or Dirty Frank?