Messages

Lord running clam. I'm not sure a literal adaptation of a novel would appeal too much. I can see why an artist would be interested, to visualise something that's such a personal mind's eye vision, but I'd just be 'translating' the dialogue etc. If I was given free reign to add my own voice to it, in the same way that a screenplay from a book can sometimes be quite different, then yes.

Possibly something like Libra by Don Delillo, about Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy Assassination. That's a great book. Someone like Laurence Campbell or Michael Lark would be great on that.

Woolly. Occasionally a character matches hat I have in mind, but it's rare. The best artists will add visual hooks you may not have thought of. Henry gave Aimee Nixon the broken nose in Low Life and that absolutely nailed her character. You know you're on the right lines with an artist when what they draw pretty much matches your panel descriptions in terms of 'camera' angles etc. If they do something completely different you quickly get the hint that you're not on the same page.

LOADS of artists I'd love to write for. Kevin Nowlan (his Batman black and white short is probably my favourite comic art), Bryan Hitch, David Mazzucchelli, Guy Davis. They'd do for a start.

Mike. I'm icon dyslexic. Probably Opus the big nosed penguin from Bloom County. I've always felt a certain kinship with him for no apparent big nosed reason.

Mechanix81. Don't know how to answer that one. Even the strips that, in retrospect, I'm not overly happy with have been good experiences - I'm not a huge fan of some of my writing on Asylum and Family but working with Boo and Si Fraser was great and something I wouldn't have missed - and you learn from your mistakes. Of course you'd like to be able to never slip up but no-one's at their best all the time, despite good intentions.

Bad Andy. Arsenal's invincibles, obviously. Although my Under-12s YMCA team were pretty handy in '83. I think we deserve a mention. We got to the Rhondda cup final that year (didn't win).

Scutfink. I would ask me why I'm so great. I would be unable to answer, but would have a warm inner glow that would temporarily cover my innate insecurity.

lborl. I don't think there is a house style for 2000ad, which is one of the great things about it. The variety of stories and styles make it what it is.

Jared. Depends. Sometimes a character's first, and I generate a plot around them. Sometimes it's just a scene. Sometimes, very rarely, a fully formed story will just turn up out of the blue. Wish that happened more often. Life would be easier.

I've changed my mind completely on this. I used to believe that not planning your writing before you start was the way to go because then you had the spontanaety of "go where the story takes you." I now realise that's a disaster waiting to happen. You have to know your ending before you start if you want a cohesive story. Then, once you have the ending you can work backwards and tweak your story so that it gets you to that point. And there's still  room for spontanaety within that structure.

Jim. Thanks. That story was written because I'd just had a baby and was completely frazzled and sleep deprived, so I poured my rancour into that. It's that five in the morning thing when you're up with screaming little 'un and you look at him and go "he might be a nazi, you know."

WoD. Miskin is posher, yes. You have a manor and everything. Also a big tescos.

Lord running clam. I usually leave it to artists to create the look. I'll give them my general description but, from that point, they usually do their own thing. They're the visual wizards after all.

It depends on the artist when it comes to level of collaboration. With some it's lots of dialogue back and fore. With others you hear nothing until the comic's in the shops. The better ones usually want some form of collaboration, I think.

favourite God? I like The SCientist. He's clever. Although Hero's line in Book one "I'm bored. I might destroy Cleveland." Got a soft spot for that.

Art. I don't screenplay format my scripts. Dark Horse ask for their scripts to be handed in in a certain format, so I try and stick to that these days.

Jon. There's lots of things I'd change, yep. For one I'd have one artist on the entire run - probably Ben as I think he suited the tone best (no offence to Dom, that, as I absolutely love his work on Cabs, but I'm not sure my scripts on ten-seconders suited him that well). Also, I'd have made sure there was enough time for Ben to colour the final episode properly, which wasn't the case. I think I'd use a narrator to do away with any "who's this character?" confusion and, looking back, I think the structure could've done with tinkering. They were in Baltimore too lone at the start of series two. Should've got on the road quicker.

So, yes, always self critical.

UKdane. 1) It looks fantastic - great pages by Steve Scott with some very cool character likeness', you can see some examples on my website www.robwilliamscomics.co.uk - and hopefully it's got all the aspects that made Raiders such a fun movie. That's the kind of template and tone we're
going for. If you like Raiders I'm hoping you'll like Tomb Of The Gods (ends whoring session).

2) Not sure which I'm more proud of. Depends on the end quality of the story. I'm probably as proud of writing the Dredd one-off The Biographer as I am of anything else I've done, because I was just incredibly pleased with how it turned out. In terms of inner child thrill, writing Star Wars is big for me because I loved Star ars so much as a kid.

3) Star Wars Rebellion 15 & 16 are by me, coming out this summer. And Indy and the Tomb Of The Gods, of course.

Byron Virgo. TA, as he's known (a mate interviewed him and chatted to his wife beforehand and she calls him TA) was a great Arsenal captain and an excellent defender and just the type of player the Arse could do with now. However, he's a bit of an Alan Partridge-like arrogant eedjit these days. Still, a hero.

Football talk breaks out on comics message board shocker.