Pat Mills interview at Forbidden Planet

[Emperor]

This is part 1 of the interview by Matthew Badham for which he asked for questions from folks here and on the FP blog:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2011/pat-mills-unwrapped-part-1-the-godfather-of-brit-comics-talks-with-matt-badham/

[Emperor]

So much in there but I thought I'd flag this, as it'll bring a smile to certain folks around here :

But if Zarjaz is fun and an homage to the characters, why not? And I really enjoyed their 2000AD Defoe advent fan story. Excellent work.

[Colin YNWA]

As ever Mr Mills gives great interview.

Very excited about this.

I am enjoying linking Savage into the ABC Warriors early years... and there is more of this to come!

Real shame he was able to progress the post Torquemada Termight stories and says the chance has passed as those are stories I'd love to read.

[uncle fester]

Ah that's made my day. Again.

Cheers Emps, yer eminence.

[TordelBack]

So what odds will you give me that Happy Shrapnel is Tubal Cain, eh?

Another great Mills interview, he really delivers.  The Angie Kincaid stuff goes further than usual - I get that she created the template for the look of Sláine and his world (and for the record that first episode blew me away and still does), and deserves huge amounts of credit for this, but didn't she take over a year to produce those five pages, with frequent re-drawing of the whole thing?  It's obviously a seminal piece of design work, but it's hardly a template for a career as an artist in weekly comics.  No amount of editorial encouragement is going to make that page rate workable.

And poor Bishop and Diggle - "thank Grud their dark era is over".  He doesn't mince his futuroswears.   

[JOE SOAP]

but didn't she take over a year to produce those five pages, with frequent re-drawing of the whole thing? 

I believe Mick McMahon had completed his work before she was finished.

[Bolt-01]

Happy Shrapnel is coming back, then? Despite having been written off in a footnote 'many' years ago.

curious.

And it is nice to get a mention in anything courtesy of Mr Mills.

As for Slaine- McMahon produced Sky chariots in the time it took to get the opening episode 'right'

[SmallBlueThing]

Although, to be fair, mcmahon was more experienced, and wasnt under the level of close scrutiny that angie mills was, due to his not being a lady.
Ive always loved that first episode of slaine. It's beautifully drawn, contains so many elements that are still there in the strip today, and has a dinosaur. For me, it only sticks out somewhat because its the only one she did (tharg, commission her to do another!) and, in comparison to the 'bent faces' of mcmahon and bellardinelli's slaines, its the inly time in those early years that the lead character was 'handsome' in a conventional sense. Arguably he'd not be so again til bisley.

SBT

[TordelBack]

Ive always loved that first episode of slaine. It's beautifully drawn, contains so many elements that are still there in the strip today, and has a dinosaur.

Agreed, it has almost every visual element from the strip's first decade:  Drunes, skull-swords trilothons and standing stones, random bits of precisely-referenced celtic metalwork and woodwork, sorcerous time-travel, ice-age animals, and most importantly that distinctly continental European mix of costumes, landscapes and buildings.  It's just great.

[Grant Goggans]

The impression that I got was that first run of Slaine was produced in a completely odd sequence.  My understanding was that "Time Monster" and "Sky Chariots" were actually written first, with the results being such that it influenced how Mills would then script the episodes that bridged them.

I also have a long-winded theory about "The Beast in the Broch" being either pulled forward in the sequence or written at the last minute for Belardinelli to get some pages in quickly and give McMahon an extra month to finish "Warrior's Dawn" and "Beltain Giant," but you know us fans, huh?

[The Monarch]

about part 2 of the interview...

If I was the creator of 2000ad and some bastard did that to me at the millenium party I would cut the jerk

so fair play to mr Mills

[Robin Low]

This was interesting:

It was a very bad evening for me and as a result I haven't gone to similar events for many years. Later, I ask some fans if they know what the Nemesis point is (as I still didn't get it). They don't either. I pass this onto Diggle who writes back with  "Okay, you asked for it! " and sends me some readers' letters covering the same ground. So some readers have one perspective, others another. Fair enough. Not a subject for a party. Nobody seems to have picked up on it since, so it's hardly the end of the world. I have termed this deliberate and confrontational encouragement of fans — normally in letters but sometimes in person — " creator baiting".

I remember Andy Diggle asking us on the old newsgroup for letters regarding Pat Mills' stories - I sent one myself. I'm also fairly sure that Diggle said that Mills himself had asked for the feedback. Was Diggle fibbing? Jim Campbell has a knack for digging out stuff from the old group, so if you're around, Jim, is there any chance you could locate it?

As Mills said, we don't want to whitewash stuff out of comic history, so it's important to remember that the dark age for 2000AD fans was the time before Bishop took over - I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again but Bishop made the comic worth reading again. And I say that as a fan of Peter Hogan and as someone who hated Bishop's time on the Megazine and who had quite a few arguments with him on the newsgroup.

Bishop and Diggle's interpretation of events would be interesting to read.

Best part of the interview was this:

It's not about grudges

Er, who the hell do you think you're kidding? The bitterness and resentment is palpable. They may be entirely justified, of course, but grudges are there in almost every interview, whether they are directed at long-gone managers, editors, writers or fans.

Great stuff.


Regards

Robin

[Steve Green]

Anyone know what was the Nemesis thing as a matter of interest?

I'm guessing it's the time-paradox of the pre-Gothic Empire Torque being killed at the end of Book X?

Or was it something else?

Hard to know what to make of it unless you were actually there, and the background of Pat's other experiences.

[Jim_Campbell]

I remember Andy Diggle asking us on the old newsgroup for letters regarding Pat Mills' stories - I sent one myself. I'm also fairly sure that Diggle said that Mills himself had asked for the feedback. Was Diggle fibbing? Jim Campbell has a knack for digging out stuff from the old group, so if you're around, Jim, is there any chance you could locate it?

I'm assuming that would be this thread...?

Cheers

Jim

[Steve Green]

Cheers Jim,

Blimey that was a flashback...

I don't see anything particularly vitriolic in that thread...

- Steve