Lone Gunmen: One-Shot, Last Call

By Mike Jozic

The Lone Gunmen may have had their television series cancelled by FOX, but they have found new life, for a time, in the world of comic books. This July, Dark Horse Comics will release the much-delayed, and little-hyped, Lone Gunmen One-Shot featuring an all-new story by Buffy, the Vampire Slayer series writer, Jane Espenson, and artist Paul Lee.

I recently spoke with Jane, Paul and their editor, Scott Allie, about the book, and the Gunmen's possible future outside of television...

MIKE JOZIC: I know there was talk a while ago about Dark Horse getting The X-Files license, so in a way, I'm not totally surprised by the Lone Gunmen one-shot, but I am a little curious as to how DHC got the license for everybody's favourite trio of hackers, and why?

SCOTT ALLIE: We'd done a little work with Ten Thirteen before. We did those sculpts of Mulder and Scully, and there was talk for a while of an X-Files illustrated novel. Chris Carter had a story idea for it, and he and my boss, Mike Richardson, met over lunch and outlined the thing. For whatever reason, it never got off the ground. Then we were involved for a while with Millennium but that also fell apart. With Lone Gunmen, I think it was that we just finally got there early enough. Richardson is a big fan of conspiracy theories, and thought it would be fun to do a comic where you get to dig up -- and then solve -- some of the big conspiracies.

MIKE: How did the creative team come together on this book?

PAUL LEE: I had heard from Scott that there was a possibility for a Lone Gunmen comic. As a big fan, I thought this was a great idea and I whipped out a sample strip that was printed in Dark Horse Extra.

SCOTT: I was going down to LA for a Buffy meeting, and I was seeing Paul for a book he was working on. He showed me that Lone Gunmen strip, "Generations," which I think is about the funniest "audition" piece I've ever seen. I'd been wanting to work more with Paul, and so when I saw that strip, I was instantly completely committed to getting him on the book. And the Ten Thirteen crew was impressed with him, too. Dean Haglund, Langly, knew of Paul's stuff too, and he likes his work. I was talking to a couple of different writers, and we were stalled for a really long time. We kept pitching stories that kept getting shot down. Then one night I was driving home and Jane's name sort of burst into my head. She's a writer and producer on Buffy, and she'd just written the Buffy: Jonathan one-shot for me. Here I had access to the resident wit on the Buffy show, a great, funny writer, and I hadn't even thought of her, because I sort of compartmentalized her with Buffy. When I got home, I dug up her number, and called her right away. And she was into it. And they accepted her first pitch, if I remember correctly. I think they were pretty happy to have a writer from that particular show, and the story mixed adventure and humor really well -- which is what Jane and the Lone Gunmen are all about.

JANE ESPENSON: I'd enjoyed the characters of the Lone Gunmen on The X-Files, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to do some comic-book writing about non-Buffy characters. I also knew that I had a tremendous resource in Bob Harris, who is a treasure trove of information about both conspiracies and technology. This took a lot of the fear out of it for me. An extremely cool essay by Bob appears in the book.

MIKE: Was there ever any discussion about getting one of the series writers to do the book?

SCOTT: Nope. We generally do not assume that the people associated with the original material is interested in the licensed stuff. We also don't assume that they'll take to comics very well; it's a much different medium than TV, and a lot of writers can't make the transition. The Buffy writers and actors are unique in many wonderful ways.

MIKE: I know FOX has been pretty picky in the past with the X-Files book from Topps, has there been any strange requests or resistance from them in any way on the Lone Gunmen one-shot?

SCOTT: It's not Fox so much as Ten Thirteen. Chris Carter's company gets as much input as they want on all the licensed products, and they were famously difficult when Topps was doing the X-Files comic.

PAUL: One funny comment was that that though he wasn't attractive, they didn't want me to make Langley too unattractive.

SCOTT: He's gonna love that, Paul. I think they said something about lines in Frohike's forehead. Yeah, they wanted more wrinkles in Frohike's forehead. And they said Dean was very concerned that we get his widow's peak right on the cover.

JANE: That's interesting about Langly, because I believe my scripted description for him on one panel was: "Close on Langly. He looks just awful." Of course, that's when he's escaping in a dress and sun hat.

MIKE: You've all done licensed material before, so is working with other people's established characters old hand for you or is every project a new challenge?

PAUL: Though working on licensed stuff can be difficult because of likenesses and a drawn out approval process, this particular experience was pretty easy. From early on, I think I got a pretty good feel for the likenesses of the main trio. And the approval process didn't seem overly cumbersome.

SCOTT: It literally took us five months to get an approved plot, but after that Jane's script and Paul's art sailed along nicely.

JANE: As a television writer, I've spent my entire career writing for characters that were created by someone else. And, honestly, that's one of my favorite parts of the job. When the character's voice is established, you know absolutely when you've nailed the right line.

MIKE: Chris Carter once characterized the show as "Mission: Impossible on laughing gas." Is that the approach you all took when putting this story together, or were their other influences at work?

PAUL: I definitely approached it as a really fun goofy project. I had a great time doing it.

JANE: Hmm. I was trying to match the tone of the Lone Gunmen television scripts, so I guess you could say I rode piggyback on their influences. Of course, Buffy is all about the unexpected mix of tones and genres, so that is what I'm used to.

SCOTT: My two great loves are horror comics and humor comics. Doing Buffy all the time is a nice balance, but this thing was a great chance to do a really silly story. And it's neat to see someone like Paul doing real funny stuff, because people usually consider his sort of style to be more serious.

MIKE: What kind of reference material did you have access to in order to set the right tone for the book? Did you have an advance peek at episodes or scripts? Did Tom Braidwood come in to pose for his parts in the book?

PAUL: As a fan, I wish! Actually, Fox was really great about forwarding publicity stills of the cast. They also sent me a few of the episodes on tape before the show aired. I taped many of the episodes when they ran and used my computer to do screen grabs of certain things like the LGM office and their van.

JANE: I read every script I could get, but I had seen no footage when I started writing, so my mental image of the locations was very vague - I had to rely on the artist to make what I was describing fit into the physical space established on the show.

Thank you, Paul!

MIKE: Paul, Were there any characters that you found really hard to pin down, or did they all work out pretty easily for you?

PAUL: The LGM themselves were actually pretty easy to get. Their faces have so much character. The hard ones were Yves and Jimmy Bond. With the good looking people, it's hard not to make them generic good looking people.

MIKE: Paul, how much of your own personal style are you able to inject into the artwork, and how much of it is reference work?

PAUL: I think all of it reflects my personal style. On a side note, the entire issue was inked digitally and uploaded to Dark Horse. I took the opportunity on this project to try a new approach in working.

MIKE: Are any of you longtime fans of Chris Carter shows, or The Lone Gunmen, or is this a new experience working with these characters and the Ten Thirteen universe?

SCOTT: I've watched The X-Files since it's second or third season. Probably makes me a Johnny-Come-Lately to the real hardcore fans, but I've been wrapped up in the thing. I watched Millennium, and my favorite episodes of both shows are usually the funnier ones -- or the downright terrifying ones, like that inbred-family X-Files episode.

MIKE: "Home." Yeah, that seems to be a favourite with a lot of people.

PAUL: Speaking for myself, I've been a long time fan of both The X-Files and especially The Lone Gunmen. The LGM episodes of The X-Files were always my favorite.

JANE: Yeah, the LGM eps were my favorites too. Pretty much any show I watch, it's the episodes with humor that get to me.

MIKE: Who is/are your favourite Lone Gunman/Gunmen, and why?

PAUL: Definitely Frohike. He has that too cool air about him than can only be attained by the super geeky. And, he is sort of the curmudgeonly elder statesman of the bunch.

SCOTT: Langly was my favorite on The X-Files, but Frohike's my favorite on their show. He gets all the most sarcastic lines, so I appreciate that.

JANE: Langly, I think. They're all fun.

MIKE: Have you had any feedback from Chris Carter or any of the other executive producers (Vince Gilligan, Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban) regarding the one-shot?

PAUL: Not that I've heard.

MIKE: From the stars?

PAUL: Ditto.

SCOTT: Dean Haglund came by the offices a couple months ago, and like I said, he liked Paul's stuff. We showed him the cover, and he really liked that. We haven't been in touch for a while, though. I think we're gonna see him at the summer shows, so we'll get to see what he thinks of the finished product.

MIKE: How do you think Lone Gunmen fans will react to the one-shot?

PAUL: I think the fans should really dig it. It is just like an episode of the series, so if you liked the show, you'll love the comic.

SCOTT: An especially good episode of the series. My assistant is suicidal over the cancellation of the series, so I guess he qualifies as a fan. And he likes the book ...

JANE: Whoo-hoo. I haven't had any feedback, so I'm going to take that hopeful info and blow it completely out of proportion in my mind.

MIKE: It seems that there didn't seem to be a lot of press to support the book. Was that something to do with FOX licensing or just basic economics on the Dark Horse front?

SCOTT: Summer's a big time. We had a lot of books coming out. The whirlwind of attention we got around Joss Whedon's book sort of created a vacuum that other things fell into. We've highlighted Lone Gunmen in a lot of the marketing in our own books, and in our catalog, but for the most part, when someone wanted to talk about the TV to comics connection, they were asking about Joss and Fray.

MIKE: Will the shows cancellation pretty much kill any chance of a return for Langly, Byers, Frohike and Jimmy to comics, or is there a definite possibility of their adventures continuing beyond the one-shot?

PAUL: I'm sure it does, but I wouldn't mind revisiting them in the future if there is enough fan support. Maybe the LGM can find their fan base in comics where they couldn't find it on Fox!

SCOTT: If the characters go back on The X-Files, as I assume they would, I'd like to do another one. With Buffy, we're constantly doing one-shots and specials featuring supporting cast members, so maybe if we slap an X-Files logo on it we can do another one, with a guest shot from an alien baby or two.

MIKE: How spectacular would the one-shot have to perform in order to warrant another one-shot or mini, or is that ultimately up to Ten Thirteen and FOX?

SCOTT: It's really up to us, I think. Usually the licensor is happy to see more come out, since it's a paycheck to them whether it succeeds or fails. If we'd done a shitty job, they'd probably cut us off, but I think they're pretty happy with it. However, I can't put numbers on what it would take to make a new one happen.

MIKE: And how about that X-Files license? Any new dirt to dig up there? New show, new characters? It could be a goldmine.

SCOTT: Why do I still shudder at the thought of that?

	Mike Jozic has spent the last several years interviewing comic book creators and other entertainment related personalities for various publications. He has been published both online and in print, with his work appearing in The Comics Journal, FearsMag.com and Silver Bullet Comicbooks. He maintains his own website at www.meanwhile.net and currently serves as the Features Editor for SBC.

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