Dat Fabian Nicieza niet iemand is
die graag stilzit, is gebleken uit het eerste deel van dit
interview. Nadat hij aan het begin van zijn carrière
wat comics voor Marvel had geschreven, brak hij door met zijn
werk voor de serie New Warriors. Daarna bleven de aanbiedingen
binnenstromen, met als ongekend hoogtepunt een positie als
de schrijver van X-Men, één van de populairste
comics van de afgelopen decennia.
Financieel liep alles op rolletjes,
maar creatieve vrijheid had hij niet. Een uitstapje naar Acclaim
Comics volgde, waar hij niet alleen een paar series schreef
maar tevens hoofdredacteur werd. De goede wil en de leuke
plannen waren er. Toch ging het avontuur bij Acclaim mis en
eind jaren negentig stond Nicieza op straat. Dat is het punt
waar het eerste deel van het interview mee eindigde en dit
tweede deel pakt de draad op, van Nicieza's werk voor Gambit
tot de projecten waar hij momenteel mee bezig is.
q&a
interview :: deel 2
weeklydose.com:
We're talking the second half of the nineties when you did
some work for DC and returned to Marvel to write Gambit and
Thunderbolts. Taking Gambit first, were you reluctant to jump
back into the X-continuity?
fabian
nicieza: I was offered Gambit days after I
had resigned as President of Acclaim. I walked out of the
doors of Acclaim with absolutely no work in front of me except
for a consulting fee to continue some things with Acclaim.
Taking Gambit and getting to work
with Steve Skroce was an easy decision to make. I liked the
character, I liked the artist, I wanted to get back into the
swing of freelance life.
weeklydose.com:
After a wonderful start, I quickly lost interest in Gambit.
It almost looked as if you were making up the storylines as
you went along. Is that true or did you have a rough outline
for the long term?
fabian
nicieza: Well, I had a very tight two-year
plan that got derailed in year two because of other things
that were out of my control. Overall, I give myself a B+ for
year one and a D+ for year two.
weeklydose.com:
More in general, how much do you plan ahead? Knowing you will
not stay on a title forever, do you feel you have to wrap
up all your subplots yourself?
fabian
nicieza: Well, no one writes a title thinking
they're going to quit or get fired unless it's a specifically
agreed upon story arc. I wrote Gambit the same way I have
tried to write most of my monthly books. On-going stories
told in single, two or three part stories with subplots that
create a year long arc and two year planning to those subplot
arcs so that you know how your 'first big bang' will carry
over into your next one.
weeklydose.com:
You got fired from the book without being given a proper reason.
The Powers That Be wanted to take the title in a new direction,
yet less than half a year later, Gambit has fallen victim
to the cancellation axe. What are your thoughts on this?
fabian
nicieza: It would have been cancelled whether
I was writing it or not.
weeklydose.com:
But did you know that at the time? And in retrospect, wouldn't
you have preferred to wrap up the series yourself?
fabian
nicieza: I didn't. The cancellation decision
was from Joe Quesada's editorial regime, not Bob Harras's,
and I was fired under Bob's watch.
I was able to wrap up most of what
I needed to under the parameters of my firing. I would have
liked to have written #25, but whatever... it's already ancient
history for me.
weeklydose.com:
Let's talk about Thunderbolts. Taking over after Kurt Busiek
on that book must have been as daunting a task as taking over
after Chris Claremont on X-Men.
fabian
nicieza: Not at all. It was very easy because
I saw many similarities in Kurt's work and overall thematic
story structure to New Warriors.
If Kurt had written Thunderbolts for
seventeen years, then maybe I would have been a bit more intimidated,
but I felt confident that I could continue the style of book
Kurt had created while still making it clearly my work.
weeklydose.com:
Was it a book you wanted to write or was it a job you took
simply because you were offered to write it?
fabian
nicieza: Well, it was a book I was enjoying
as a reader, with an artist I love and an editor I respect,
so when it was offered to me, I was pleasantly surprised but
very excited about accepting the job.
weeklydose.com:
It seems you have adapted your writing style to resemble Kurt
Busiek's style, right up to the point of almost over-writing
it. Is this a conscious decision or something that is required
by the nature of the book, with so many subplots on the loose?
fabian
nicieza: A combination of both, actually!
I do acknowledge that I am writing
a lot in Thunderbolts-- although nearly all of the captions
and dialogue are meant to further develop story or character
points, as opposed to my definition of 'over-writing' wherein
action clearly shown in the art is then described in narrative.
It's Mark Bagley's curse that he knows
how to tell a story and lay out a panel so well that it provides
writers with lots of room to write!
weeklydose.com:
Speaking of subplots, with everything coming together for
Thunderbolts #50, what do you have planned for the team?
fabian
nicieza: Stuff.
weeklydose.com:
After all, with Patrick Zircher taking over the artwork, it
seems a perfect time for a complete change of direction.
fabian
nicieza: Yes and no.
weeklydose.com:
I know there's an information blackout, but can't you give
a few subtle hints at what is in store for the Thunderbolts?
fabian
nicieza: I love that people call the concept
of not giving away any important story information in sales
solicitations so as to maximize reader surprise and enjoyment
an 'information blackout.'
You know what we called an 'information
blackout' when I grew up reading before the direct market?
We called them monthly comics!
As for hints, well, Hawkeye is in
jail, but he may not be for long, Moonstone has a new patient
who's asking for her unique psychological skills, Mach-2 and
Songbird are trying to adjust to 'normal' life; one will have
no problems, the other will! Atlas is still dead, but maybe
not for long-- the question is not if he returns, but when
and how and who? Fixer, Jolt and Charcoal are coping with
being government flunkies for the Redeemers.
Captain America is coping with leading
the Redeemers, something he'd rather not be doing, but feels
obligated to 'atone' for Hawkeye's mistakes. On top of that,
while rescuing Dallas Riordan from Latveria in #51-52, he
has to deal with some mistakes from his own past-- mistakes
he doesn't remember, since they occurred on the Heroes Reborn
world! Charcoal is gonna get a visit from his dear old dad
in #53. And oh yeah, by issue #54, we'll reveal who is inside
the secret biocontainment chamber!
So much for an 'information blackout,'
huh?
"You
know what we called an 'information blackout' when I grew
up reading before the direct market? We called them monthly
comics!"
- fabian nicieza
weeklydose.com:
Moving on to the miniseries you are and have been working
on, Marvel is publishing so many miniseries these days and
half of them are probably not even necessary.
fabian
nicieza: Define 'necessary?'
From a business standpoint? Well,
companies have operating budgets that they need to fulfill
and in order to do that they need to create and sell a certain
amount of product. Miniseries serve a vital function in meeting
those budgetary needs.
Creatively? There are many creators
who can't commit to a monthly book (or who are excellent creators
that the company won't commit a monthly book to) and the only
way to get the excellence of an Art Adams, Steve Rude or Frank
Miller out there is via miniseries of characters like Spider-Man,
Dardevil, etc.
Also, there are plenty of characters--
new and old-- that have vast story potential, but that potential
needs to be floated by the marketplace and the best way to
allocate financial resources for that is via a miniseries.
weeklydose.com:
Why is the Citizen V miniseries different? What does it have
to add and what were your reasons for pitching this idea?
fabian
nicieza: Citizen V and the V-Battalion is
a very interesting concept that is different than much of
what Marvel (or the industry) currently has. It is a little
bit G.I. Joe and a little bit Justice Society of America.
It is a book about older soldiers
giving way to younger ones. Old wounds trying to heal as new
ones are opened. It is about hardened veterans of a covert
war facing their impending deaths terrified that their lives
made little or no difference. And it is about the decisions
people make when they have nothing left to lose.
Its cast of characters is more morally
shaded and motivationally complex than those of most other
mainstream Marvel books and far, far less cartoonish in its
depiction of those conflicts than the Marvel books that claim
to 'skirt the edges of coolness.'
weeklydose.com:
Same question goes for Spider-Man: Lifelines and X-Men Forever.
What is their added value?
fabian
nicieza: They fall under the 'budgetary needs'
and 'creators who can't handle a monthly book but whose work
people still want to see' categories.
The former, at the request of the
artist and editor, was meant to be a fun, nostalgic story.
The latter was meant to spotlight characters who-- at the
time of the proposal-- were not being used very much in the
core book while resolving a few dangling plot threads and
setting up character potential for years to come.
weeklydose.com:
Both are projects you really wanted to do for fun but is there
room for such books in today's shrinking market?
fabian
nicieza: That's not for me to decide. It's
funny, I spent an hour with a retailer last week who was complaining
that the major companies aren't releasing enough material!
X-Men Forever and Spider-Man: Lifelines
both made money for the company. If they are creatively satisfying
to the customer and financially beneficial to the company,
then that answers your question right there.
weeklydose.com:
You are very critical of your own work, yet you have to come
up with something new every month. How do you deal with a
writer's block?
fabian
nicieza: I have honestly never had writer's
block in my life and hope to never suffer through it (knock
on wood).
weeklydose.com:
Miniseries or regular series, have you ever reached a point
where you didn't know where to take the story and how did
you solve that?
fabian
nicieza: Sometimes, and especially in miniseries,
where I often box myself into a corner when the conclusion
is not as strong as the set-up. On monthly titles, I tend
to have a confident hand on what I want to do and more importantly,
why.
weeklydose.com:
Miniseries like the ones discussed above probably would not
have seen print five years ago. Is this another sign of Marvel's
cultural revolution since Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada were
appointed?
fabian
nicieza: Your question is inaccurate. If you
are referring to X-Men Forever and Spider-Man: Lifelines,
well, both were approved and begun while Bob Harras was EIC.
weeklydose.com:
Point taken, but with 'miniseries like the ones discussed
above' I meant miniseries that seem to border on being vanity
projects. Joe Quesada recently said about the upcoming mature
readers line that, unlike DC's Vertigo, Marvel would not have
room for vanity projects. On the other hand, there are books
coming out of the Marvel offices that most likely never would
have been considered a decade ago. Marvel seems to be broadening
its horizons. What is your take on this? Is Joe doing a good
job or should he still take care not to go only for the big
name creators?
fabian
nicieza: I think Joe has done a very good
job in getting new, unique creative personnel to create mainstream
Marvel characters, but I think that 'broadening its horizons'
is a load of crap. Every single editorial regime since the
seventies has tried to do the same thing in one way or another.
From monster comics and black and
white magazines of the early seventies to the miniseries,
trade paperbacks, hardcover books and graphic novels of the
early to mid-eighties, to 'let's just throw everything up
against the wall from westerns to knock-off superheroes of
other knock-off superheroes' of the late eighties and early
nineties, every regime has tried to do things.
Harras approved Blaze of Glory, a
gritty 'realistic' western. He tried to launch a more mature
line; it was only administrative higher-ups who botched the
launch. How is anything Joe is doing all that different from
those examples except for one incredibly important point--
he has the enthusiastic support thus far of the 'administration'
(Jemas, Cuneo, etc)?
This is not to downplay what Joe has
done-- namely get some really cool people to agree to do comics
for Marvel, but praising that shouldn't be at the expense
or belittlement of what every single EIC has tried to do in
one way or another for the last 30 years!
And while every single reader gets
older and pat themselves on their backs for reading 'cool
comics' (which are usually nothing more than superhero comics
that are 'cool' because they're geared for them), what those
readers and Marvel have failed to try in a long time is material
for younger readers.
Some might say that is what the Ultimate
line is all about, but until we see wider distribution to
places where kids and parents might be buying, I don't think
it could be qualified as a legitimate program for new or younger
readers (I'm sorry, two rack space slots in mainstream magazine
racks alongside Video Game magazines is not the single answer).
Getting more 40-year olds to pick
up an issue of X-Men isn't the solution. It's just patching
up the leaky boat. Getting more 10-year olds reading is the
only thing that's going to keep the industry afloat for the
future.
weeklydose.com:
Has anything changed for you now that Joe is EIC?
fabian
nicieza: Well, I'm getting less work now,
but I don't think that has anything to do with Joe!
Just that I must be an old, unhip,
bald writer and the editorial vogue is to hire young, cool,
bald writers.
"Getting
more 40-year olds to pick up X-Men isn't the solution.
It's just patching up the leaky boat. Getting more 10-year
olds reading is the only thing that's going to keep the
industry afloat for the future."
- fabian nicieza
weeklydose.com:
Not everybody may know you were editing a number of comics
in the early days of your career. Do you think this experience
has helped you in your freelance writing career and in dealing
with your editors?
fabian
nicieza: Well, if anything, I think my experience
has hurt me in my ability to foster relationships with most
current editors. I have done their jobs (and many others they
haven't) and the same line of bullshit they might use on someone
with less experience usually doesn't work on me. And to be
fair to them, I come across like I know I've done their job
(and many others they haven't), and in their defense, who
really needs to put up with that kind of arrogance?
Editors are rather indifferent to
my existence lately and I attribute it to one or all of the
following: 1) they are intimidated by me, 2) their perception
of my work is negative, 3) they lack of awareness of my current
work and base that on X-Men and X-Force, 4) my overall charming,
off-putting arrogance!
weeklydose.com:
What else can we expect from you? Will you keep writing superhero
books or do you see yourself getting bored with that soon?
fabian
nicieza: I would like to continue writing
comic books, though not to the exclusion of other creative
opportunities. I have been involved in a lot of non-comics
opportunities over the last few years, none of which panned
out, but all of which were enjoyable learning experiences.
I prefer to do it under the internet
'Here's My Own Website' radar of public awareness. I continue
in those endeavors and most of my week is currently spent
on non-comic pursuits.
weeklydose.com:
Furthermore, have you considered doing creator-owned material,
like Kurt Busiek has been doing with Astro City?
fabian
nicieza: I've thought about it, but the stars
never seemed to align properly. Hopefully in the future.
weeklydose.com:
In closing, do you still have time to read comics yourself?
fabian
nicieza: Yup. Mostly to keep up with mainstream
titles. Sometimes I'll pick up a trade paperback of well-regarded
material like Powers or Liberty Meadows, but my comic time
and interest is relatively low, so I stick to the work-related
continuity.
weeklydose.com:
What titles are you reading and what books do you count among
your favorites?
fabian
nicieza: They change depending on creators
and story arcs. Currently the on-going titles that consistently
entertain me are Avengers, Nightwing and Black Panther. I
also like Planetary, Justice League, Justice Society and Peter
Parker, Spider-Man.
Oh yeah, and Thunderbolts!
Daarmee is het eerste exclusieve
weeklydose.com interview afgerond. Wat begon als een lijstje
vragen is uitgegroeid tot iets veel groters en desondanks
heeft Fabian Nicieza de tijd genomen en alle vragen uitgebreid
beantwoord.
q&a
interview - fabian nicieza, deel 2 feeddate:
02.04.01