Did you have a nice trip to Spain, where this series was shot?
The book is quite short so if theyd filmed that, it would have only lasted half an hour, so they had to add a lot. I was pleased with it, though. Its a fun film.
How much involvement did you have with the adaptation of RED?
Not a lot. They bought the right to adapt it so I stayed out of their way. I didnt want to sit on their shoulder saying: You cant do that, its not in the book.
Did they do anything with it you wouldnt have done yourself?
The book isnt a comedy. They changed the tone quite a lot to make it an entertaining film, so thats fine.
What are the best and worst comic book adaptations?
There are lots of comic book adaptations people dont know started as comics. Men In Black was a comic first. Road To Perdition that was a graphic novel. There have been some bloody awful Batman films, though.
Do they work better when people arent aware of the source material?
They work best when people adapt them the way they would with a book. The adaptation of 300 is really good. It takes out all the things from the graphic novel that wouldnt work in a film and adds things to make it work as a film. Watchmen, by the same director, wasnt as successful because he tried to do a frame-by-frame adaptation of a graphic novel. Youre writing dialogue to be read on a page, which has to work in a graphic way.
Is the comics writing world a cut-throat industry? Are you all deadly rivals?
I try to stay out of it. I go to America once a year. I went to the San Diego comics convention for RED last year, but
I try to keep myself away from that. Im more interested in getting the work done than the industry bulls***. I know a lot of people whod go to New York and visit comics offices quite often but none of them are working now because familiarity breeds contempt.
Is it socially acceptable to watch Green Lantern in the cinema but socially unacceptable to buy a Green Lantern comic?
There is a divide between lets go to the cinema and see the big summer blockbuster and lets go to the comic shop and buy an issue of Green Lantern. Theres still a bit of a stigma there. Which suits me, I wouldnt be caught buying a copy of Green Lantern either. But Marvel experienced an upturn in sales of Iron Man after the film came out.If its a decent film Im sure Green Lantern will become part of the cultural conversation the same way Iron Man has. Its a harder sell for DC than Iron Man was for Marvel: Building a giant robot suit to kick the s*** out of terrorists is a much easier sell than: Given a magic ring by an alien.
Are you proud of addressing any themes in comic format people might not expect you to have done?
I wrote a book called Crécy, which is about the Battle of Crécy in France in the 14th century. Its like a documentary in comic form, as narrated by one of the English archers. I had to do six months of research for it. Its about a battle that changed the course of warfare, and the working-class English slaughtering thousands of aristocrats that will appeal to a lot of people. Its also the origin of the two-fingered V sign.
Have you got any unusual writing habits?
I write from when I get up to when I go to bed. I get up around noon and go to bed around 4am. Theres no schedule. I might go to the pub, have a few ****, get some writing done there, and then come home and punch the laptop.
