Ask Pat Mills

[Emperor]

Matthew Badham is interviewing Pat for FP and they've said they'll accept questions from readers:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/ask-pat-mills/

I know no one here will be interested in asking him any questions but I thought I'd post it anyway

[ThryllSeekyr]

Where in the Slaine Chronology does the The Battle of Clontarf truly belong if it was featured twice? Once in a annual and once in Time-Killer. ( I guess it's retelling in Demon-Killer doesn't really count ).

No pressure on Pat Mills if he thinks that was worth doing twice because it seemed like good idea at that time.

[TordelBack]

Not wanting to gazzump Pat's answer TS, but surely it's his fall into the time lake in Time Killer that gets him to Clontarf?  The earlier version starts with Slaine asking the Ever-Living Ones (not the Goddess) where they're sending him, and it's his first meeting with Elfric in both versions, so it's chronologically consistent with his arrival at Dinas Emrys in Time Killer.  

My question, which I was going to ask last night at Waterstones was:  

You seem to have had great success in matching artists to your scripts to get the very best out of both, with artists frequently producing the best work of their careers.  How do you go about finding and choosing artists, and persuading editors to use them? In particular I'm thinking of Mick McMahon here - while Belardinelli was the perfect if obvious choice for a rural fantasy world, McMahon had been gritty SF all the way up to his incredible work on Sláine.  

[James Stacey]

my question would be

Greysuits. Really ? Why? Really?

[TordelBack]

Ginger Ninjas. Really ? Why? Really?

Fixed that for you.

[ThryllSeekyr]

What you tried to tell me before.

Ah, it seems so clear now.

[Kev Levell]

Recently in an interview for the megazine, you hinted that 2000AD may be bringing back a classic character... any news on that?

[Bolt-01]

Kev- you got mail.

[Rio De Fideldo]

As regards the classic character perhaps this was Ro-Jaws?


First of all thanks to Pat Mills for creating the galaxies greatest comic. Thanks Pat.

I'm afraid I have a number of quite geeky questions for the true Mighty One. I'd be interested in hearing any of his thoughts on the following.

1) In the flashbacks to the Volgan Wars in ABC Warriors recently why did you decide not to include Happy Shrapnel, the only original warrior we've never seen outside of their original run?

Was there something about the character you didn't like? He was originally killed off-screen for example.

Also was it your intention that he appeared to be self-censoring? In the early strips he makes a buzz sound every time it looks like he is about to swear.

2) I seem to recall, perhaps wrongly, that you originally planned to make a series with Joe Pineapples as a private detective in the Gothic Empire. Is this true and if it is, is it a concept you would ever consider revisiting?

3) Do you still consider your characters to take place in the same shared universe as Dredd or was the whole shared world something you wrote into scripts when you were initially editing 2000ad? If you prefer for your characters to exist in their own 'universe' is this why you tweaked the dates of the wars in your recent ABC Warriors?

4) John Wagner has started answering questions on a fan created facebook page. Is this something you could ever envision yourself doing?

5 What do we need to do to get Gerry Finlay-Day back on Rogue Trooper and back in 2000ad? I love his work and his imagination.

6 Final question. If you were still editor what would you do differently, if anything, for 2000ad and the Megazine?

[Cpt Rhodes]

Can we have more Marshal Law? I need some more cynical cape bashing to cheer me up!

[Grant Goggans]

Those are really good questions, Sinfield, particularly about Happy Shrapnel.  You should definitely post those at the FP page!

[Emperor]

I dropped in a link back here in the comments but if you do want to make sure you questions are up for consideration you should post them over there.

[Rio De Fideldo]

That serves me right for just skimming posts. I've posted that onto the blog now.

Thanks Grant.

[dweezil2]

my question would be

Greysuits. Really ? Why? Really?

Well, I really enjoyed Greysuit, so my question would be can we have some more?

Also any more Black Siddha planned?

And, what's the future for Slaine and The ABC Warriors?

[ThryllSeekyr]

CPT RHODES that s threatening avatar you have there. I almost need to duck evrytime I scroll past it.