Affable Scot Mark Millar is without a doubt one of the big names in comics around at the moment, and is rapidly getting more and more influence in the movie world too. I'm not going to call him a living legend though, because I got some flak for that in a previous post. But let's not forget that he's the writer of Kick-Ass and Wanted, as well as hugely successful comic titles like Civil War, the Ultimates, Superman: Red Son and Nemesis. So, let's agree that It's fair to say he's a potential legend-in-the-making.
Luckily, he's also ridiculously nice, talkative, insightful and interesting.
I chatted with Mark just after they closed the doors at the Kapow! Comic Con in London yesterday - we grabbed a pint together and chatted about how the inaugural event went, his involvement in it, who and what he's expecting for next year, the future of comic book movies, Kick-Ass 2 and much, much more...
INSERT PHOTO: Mark Millar
"It's a massive relief," Mark tells me as we sit down in the hotel opposite the Business Design Centre in Islington, at the end of the second and final day of Kapow! in North London "but I kind of knew it was going to be amazing, and I can say that with no ego because I did absolutely nothing! It was actually my girlfriend Lucy and her sister... If I'd been organising it, this would have been a fucking mess! But girls are amazing at organising things."
By nearly all accounts, this first experiment at a British San Diego-style con experience has been a big success (read my reports on day one and day two), and Millar's involvement has had no small part in that. While Lucy and Sarah Unwin were behind the organisation of the event itself, and did an amazing job (their secret is apparently that "they're not fan girls, they've run it straight, like a business"), Millar's willingness to open his contacts book really rocketed what could have been just another small-ish British comic and movie gathering into the big time.
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddlestone showed up on Saturday to give the audience an exclusive look at some Thor footage, there were new Green Lantern clips (including the premiere of the cartoon 'Emerald Knights'), the world premiere of Spielberg's 'Falling Skies', Duncan Jones did a Q&A about Source Code, Joe Cornish and two of the stars of 'Attack the Block' did a panel, there was a showcase from Momentum Pictures, plus the likes of Neil Marshall and Ridley Scott were spotted snooping around the stalls over the weekend too. And the comic book rosters was even more impressive: Jonathan Ross hosted an hilarious pros versus fanboys comic book quiz (he didn't ask for payment, apparently), there were panels and signings with lots of big names: John Romita jr, Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, Jock, Steve Yeowell, David Lloyd, Bryan Hitch and more.
Mark is beaming about the fact they've managed to create a real focus for the British comic scene again (there hasn't been an event quite like Kapow! on these shores since 1994) - for all the UK writers and artists, he says says it's been like a family wedding: "everyone's pleased to see each other again, but everyone's just a little bit fatter".
Millar says he doesn't do what he does for the cash: "I live in Scotland, I don't need much money. I can't drive, and this t-shirt I'm wearing now cost £3.99!" Despite that though, the investment in Kapow! has been pretty substantial, and Mark admits it was a bit of a gamble: "It cost £100,000 pounds to rent the convention centre for the two days, and we spend £50,000 on the A/V equipment. It had to be the best stuff, otherwise the Thor guys wouldn't have let us show that exclusive footage."
Mark is bursting with enthusiasm for the con, and it's rubbed off in the intimate and hugely enjoyable, positive atmosphere that ran throughout the crowds over the weekend. He says that he and his Mrs went to bed at 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, then woke up again at 3am "buzzing" and sat up for hours talking about the day. Barely have the stalls been cleared away though, and Millar's already got his mind on next year's show - "I know everything that's appearing next year - there's almost no room for anything else!...Some of the big studios - and directors - were here on Saturday, they emailed a whole load of requests asking to be included in the lineup for 2012". I put it to him that he could expand the event, if he wanted to. But he doesn't: "Five and a half thousand people through the door per day is a really nice number. It means we don't have to put in barriers between the fans and the creators... plus everyone can hang out in the pub together afterwards". He hints that there could be a different kind of expansion though: "we might also take over a bit of the surrounding area too [in Islington]...maybe some of the shops and stuff".
Mark also says that the focus of the event has been the key to much of its success. "Retailers have told me that it's literally the best money they've ever made at a show" - he figures that's because they restricted it to almost exclusively super hero, mainstream comics, and didn't diversify into the realms of Manga and so on - meaning that the people who came knew what they were going to get, and actually had some interest in buying all the kinds of things that were on offer. They didn't just walk past a lot of the stalls, as happens at some conventions.
I put it to Millar that he's one of the hardest working, busiest people on the planet - and at no point over the weekend, from early in the morning to very late at night did I see him lose one ounce of his infectious energy. "It's only when I say it out loud [that I realise I work so hard] - people say 'what are you up to' and then I spend about 10 minutes telling them...but as I'm doing it I always feel like I'm slacking off - like I'm on Twitter all the time!" He says he's always admired Frank Miller, because he'd just appear and do a great job on one line of comics or on one story, and then move on - Millar himself has tried not to stay on one single project for too long.
Answering my question about where we are with the movie of Kick-Ass 2, he says that it's an interesting position they're all in. For one thing, although the film did very well relative to it's budget (it cost $28 million, then made $100 million back, and $120 million on DVD, he says) - it didn't make as much as superhero movies can make these days. So that's one reason why a sequel hasn't been greenlit.
He tells me that they he, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman had been planning on doing 3 Kick-Ass movies pretty much in a row, but that since the film came out, all their careers have erupted ("we're actually making real money now"), and it's now quite tough to get them all into a room together. However, he says that if they don't make it within the next year, it won't happen - they don't want to wait until everyone's too old. Lionsgate are apparently very keen, but Matthew Vaughn may "do a George Lucas" and produce the sequel while someone else directs.
But Mr Millar is very comfortable with it never happening, unless everything's just right. He says there was a Wanted 2 on the cards at one point, and he's glad it never got off the drawing board "I don't want my IMDB page to have something shit on it...just because I wanted to make some quick money, you know?"
Away from that project, and under his own steam, Millar has four new comics in the pipeline, including the inevitable Hit Girl spin off, and something called 'Super Crooks' - the movie version of which is being developed (with a mystery Spanish director), at the same time as he's writing the comic. It's a heist story that he's creating with Leinil Francis Yu, in which a group of supervillains based in the US get so fed up that their plans are always being foiled by superheros, they decide to move to Madrid instead, where there aren't any superheroes, and wreak havoc there.
There's also a collaboration with Dave Gibbons on the way, though we don't have details on a title or premise yet - and a huge, 12 issue superhero epic with Frank Quitely - apparently with a cast of over 100 characters.
Before he popped to the bar to meet some more of the con attendees, and hang out with pals like Dave Gibbons, I asked Mark what he thought about the future of comic book movies. We're of course riding a wave of superhero box office gold right now - where billion dollar films starring guys in capes are becoming almost expected. Perhaps next year will be the very peak of that wave? After all, with Spider-man, Superman: Man of Steel, Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises all coming out, it can't really get much bigger, can it?
Mark tells me that inevitably the wave will break, but he doesn't see it happening just yet, partly because of the way the world is right now.
"Since 9/11 superheroes have been big - they were created in the worst possible climate - in 1938 two Jewish kids with no money made up Superman as a fantasy... and because it's a scary world now we like to retreat to our inner child. Plus it's so good visually what we can do now that it's hard to go back to a John McClane movie now. Someone with Adamantium claws [or] super breath and heat vision is much more interesting... I'd rather see that!"
He admits that, like the Western or the gangster film, superheroes will go out of fashion too, but for that to happen "there will have to be several high profile financial failures - it's inevitable that someone will put a lot of money into a shit one that doesn't work.
"All those kids who grew up in the 80s with the really great comics are now making the movies - people like Nolan, Raimi, Snyder and Singer - but eventually some shit guys will come in and there's be some catastrophes."
Mark left me with a really intriguing theory too, and I'm inclined to agree:
"You want my tip for the next big thing? Video game movies. 10 years down the line it'll be stuff like Assassin's Creed... a lot of people say 'oh but the stories in video games are crap - but they used to say that about comics...You know there's shit video game movies right now? Well in the 70s there were shit comic book movies.
"Right now there's a 15 year old Christopher Nolan and Assassin's Creed is his favourite game and he can't wait to show you what he can do with those characters. And then, after that, the kids who grew up on Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Christopher Nolan's Batman will want to make those characters their own too - so when I'm in my 60s superheroes will become fashionable again - and I'm looking forward to that - because I'll get to see all the remakes of the movies I'm making now!"
Adrian Hieatt
@adrianhieatt
