Century... Part Two (of Three)

By Tony Lee

So. Last week I decided to celebrate my one hundredth column, by answering one hundred questions. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. I put the word out on my Twitter, my Livejournal and my Facebook, among others. I asked for comments. I asked for emails. And the best hundred questions? I'd answer them. And then I started to write my answers.

I discovered pretty quickly however that those hundred questions? Were going to take up a ton of net real estate. My columns are usually about two thousand words. By the time I hit question 25? I was already onto four.

And so I decided that rather than skimp on answering any of these, I would instead split these questions into three parts – part one, questions 1 – 33 were last week, part two (34 -66) is this week, and the final 34 will be next week, whilst placing some of my favourite column photos over the last few years in between. And so we're into week two, and I have a lot of things to answer, and to say, this is going to be bigger than part one – so without further adieu...

July 2006 – Signing at Midtown with Mike Oeming and Neil Kleid...

034. Of all the characters you have created, which one most reflects your personality? (James Henshaw)

I'd like to think that none of them truly reflect my personality, because I hide my true self close to the chest. That said, I think there are aspects of myself, especially sense of humour and dialogue in all of my characters. I'd say there's a part of me in Midnight Kiss's Matthew Sable, there's definitely a part of the me that I'd like to be in Starship Troopers character Will Tanner, but they're the more idealised versions of what I want to be.

There's a part of my diehard romanticism in Luke, the main character of Journal, and his hatred of his PR company lifestyle is taken directly from a bad experience I had when I worked for a Birmingham PR firm a few years back. There's a bit of my anger at the world in Johnny Cool and the Flickman, from Midnight Kiss. But none of these are characters that I'd expect to be cast as. If I was in Buffy? I'd be Xander. If I was in Aliens? I'm the one yelling 'Game over! ' Or worse, I'm Burke, even though I'd want to be Bishop.

I'm the Bones McCoy rather than the Kirk, and in comics, the sidekick's usually the one we try not to aspire to. But that's how I seem to be from day to day, and character wise? I'm probably more likely to be Edmeir from Hope Falls than Michael the Angel... But of course, that leads to -

035. Which of your creations would you actually like to be? (Darren Cooke)

Probably Matt Sable from Midnight Kiss. Matt is definitely the character, the person that I wanted to be when I grew up. Sure of himself, always with a smart alec line and hell, if you could create magical guns out of nothing, face it – you would, wouldn't you. I knew it.

All this talk about Matt is of course purely to make you readers go out and buy the book.

036. Daddy or chips? (Bevis Musson)

Actually, Daddy. For those not in the know, this was a line from a successful TV ad for (you've guessed it) chips, where the young girl had to decide whether she liked chips more than her father. I won't tell you what she decided. But for me, it's a simple answer. Daddy. I even did an article about my father at the start of the year. I haven't done one on chips yet, you'll notice.

I was always a 'mother's boy' – that is, I was my mother's son more than my father's son. And for many years I barely spoke to him – in the final years of my mother's life I pretty much ignored him – not be choice, but because I needed to cram every second with my mother that I could into those times that I saw her. But when she was gone, I found that I didn't know what to say to my father. He was almost a stranger. But in the last few years I've remembered exactly why I love him so. And I've remembered so many things that we did that proved to me that I was my father's son. A few years back he wrote his memoirs and I learned so much more about him, things never even spoken of. And so if it was Daddy or a million pounds – it would still be daddy.

037. Has your scalp healed after Gallifrey? (Mette Hedin)

Yes it has, thanks for asking. Mette here was one of a double act (with her partner Bryan) who won the Gallifrey Cosplay contest with an amazing costume from Doctor Who's 'Silence In The Library'. It had skulls that flipped down and everything. And at a room party I was able to try on the helmet (the picture's on my facebook site) and slot the skull down, etc.

Unfortunately I might have had a drink, and wasn't as gentle as I should have been in getting the helmet off – I'm not talking I destroyed the costume, god no – this thing was solid – but what I did do was score a cut along my scalp with the edge of a spring or something. It wasn't a major cut and it was only a few hours later, singing karaoke at 4am that I realised my hair was a little matted with blood...

It's not a true post-con event unless you bleed a little.

April 2008 - Tony meets Bill, who reads this column. Everyone say hi to Bill....

038. How does David Tennant regenerate? We know you know! (Barnaby Edwards)

He trips over a brick. It's a very tense and emotional scene.

039. If a tree falls in a forest and kills a clown, does anyone care? (Anthony Lee)

Ah, but Anthony (not me, another Anthony Lee) – the story's not the tree falling on the clown, or whether people care – the story is why is that clown there by the falling tree in the first place! What set of events have led a simple circus clown into that forest?

040. Displacement tidying – yay or nay? (Laurie Sage)

Displacement tidying is another term for 'procrastination', I've since discovered – and I have a lot of ways to procrastinate. Going to the gym is one. I find I go to the gym more when I have a block than when I'm free flowing.

That said, there are points when I just cannot work in my room unless it is spotless. It's the same with the times that I cannot work unless there is music on, or a particular window is open. They're part procrastinations, part OCD and part superstitious ritual. But I still pay attention to them.

So, for the most? Yay.

041. You talk about lettering occasionally and you've lettered Hope Falls and Prince Of Baghdad. Why? Surely you're just making more work for yourself? (Dylan Cristopher)

Yes and no. You see, I am making more work for myself, but at the same time I'm using this as a 'final edit' – I often find myself changing lines here and there, altering the way a scene flows, because right there on that finished page? I can.

I tell all aspiring writers that seriously, if you get a chance, letter at least one page of your work. Because it's only then, when you have to be the one that sorts it, that you realise just how many letters really go in a panel. It's one thing to go 'I follow the thirty word rule' – but what if that panel has a lot of things in it that cannot be covered? What if you've placed a large panel with no dialogue next to a small panel with loads?

Lettering your own work makes you realise what you can and cannot get away with. It also shows you the places in your descriptive text that need work – only after you letter a panel where you forgot to state who was on the left and who was on the right (and guess what - the guy on the right speaks first) do you learn that this is quite important to an artist.

I also do it because a) I get to effectively see the final page, pretty much as it is when a reader reads it (which again can sometimes show me weak areas) and b) because it's incredibly therapeutic. I use Illustrator and have a template with different layers and I'll happily play with the text and make balloons – to call it mindless is an insult to letterers, it really isn't an easy skill – but I mean that it's mindless in the same way as driving down a motorway is, you can almost switch off and go into autopilot when you hit the 'zone', when you're in that moment. And it's incredibly peaceful.

I've lettered Hope Falls and Prince Of Baghdad. I lettered St Spookys too. Currently I'm lettering Journal, Dodge & Twist, Harker and I'm re-lettering The Gloom. I find it incredibly relaxing.

But seriously, writers, try it. You learn a lot.

May 2008 - Tony and Tracy at the press launch for the DFC...
042. Have you ever given one of your fans rohypnol? (Michael Robinson)

What does this say about me!!! I've NEVER given a fan a roofie. Nor have I used sleeping pills or chloroform, I leave that to Dan Boultwood to do for me.

That said, there is still a question on whether, at the 2006 Birmingham International Comic Show, someone put Ketamine in my whisky while we were in a Goth club. Seriously. My drink was definitely spiked...

043. If you were a Clint Eastwood movie, what would your title be? (Jen Contino)

The Man That Wanted To Be Liked. Or perhaps El Ca-bong.

044. Apart from MILF Magnet, what's the most wrong idea you've ever come up with? (Harnish Singh)

Okay. I get this a lot, so let's nip this in the bud. I never came up with MILF Magnet, it was all the idea of genius publisher Joe Gentile. Once I started writing it as a work for hire, I came up with characters and situations, but the whole high concept? Totally Moonstone's idea. When they came to me with it, they even told me I might like to write it under a fake name.

But as for wrong ideas? Man, Dan Boultwood and I came up with a ton of them. And over the years I've had worse. I think my current fave is one I created with Jacen Burrows a few years back, and one that one day we might even do it. Sh!tz and Giggles. Sh!tz is a ninety two year old woman with a colostomy bag, tourettes and a uzi. Giggles is a fat, multicoloured clown that happens to be a ninja, with his weapon of choice being a chainsaw.

They fight crime.

Apart from that there's Doc Dinosaur, the brain of a Harvard Scientist in a T-Rex in space (think Flash Gordon if Flash was a super-genius T-Rex that fought space Nazis and ate children.) Neill Cameron is drawing that one.

Dan and I? Well that would be telling. There have definitely been moments where we've told someone an idea for a comic and their faces have paled...

045. What is best in life? (Jake Watt)

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women on their Twitter accounts.

046. How do you motivate yourself and how did you motivate yourself before you became well known? (Corinne Sutterby)

They're the same answer, really. Money.

I want to make a career in this industry? Then I work. By wanting a career, I obviously want to be paid. And because of this, I work hard and I work fast. It helps of course to enjoy writing, which I do. A lot.

Before I was well known, I motivated myself by picking a peer and doing my best to outdo them. If I heard that they'd done well, I'd instantly pick up my game. There's a reason why marathon runners hire pace men to keep them targeted. But now? I know that if I screw up, I not only let my editors down, but I also let my readers down. And when that wasn't as important when my book sold a few hundred copies (although still quite important), now when some sell in the tens of thousands? It becomes incredibly important.

There are times that I do get depressed, think about quitting. 'Poogate' was the last time. Times when I think, "Am I really any good? Why do I even bother? " But you just have to kick yourself out of the slump. I have a lot of good friends who support me and a lovely fiancιe who listens to me, even when she hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about.

Motivation is all in the mind. Make yourself an easy to reach goal. Writing a 150,000 word book? That's a lot of words. Wow, loads. That'll take years! But, doing 2000 words a day? That's a book in under three months. Make the goals easier, but ensure that the larger goal is always there.

047. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? (Phil Barnett)

I know that one of the things I wish I could change (and I mentioned it last week) is that I wish that I hadn't quit comics when I was twenty, that I'd battled on. But that said, if I had, I wouldn't be the writer I am now – because that writer is based on the experiences that he had over that life.

If I could change one thing? I would have spend more time with my mother before she passed away. If I could change one thing in my comics life? I would probably have not taken on the Starship Troopers ongoing comic (Not the three mini series). I didn't enjoy it and it made me a sloppy writer.

048. The Doctor/Rose relationship was an important 4-year subplot even when Piper was gone. Can/should a TARDIS love story be done again? (twominutetimelord)

No. As much as it eventually worked, I never liked the who Rose / Doctor love story, because I grew up with an asexual Doctor. Even the Fifth Doctor, with Nyssa and Tegan in miniskirts wandering around him going 'ooh isn't it hot' never made me consider anything naughty was going on in the zero room.

But, it made for great viewing. I don't think it can be done again. The story that needed to be told has been. That's why it didn't work for Martha. The story was still going on, even with Rose gone. That's why the Donna / Doctor relationship, going the other way from that, worked so well.


June 2008 – Al Ewing offers free hugs for love...

049. Are there any situations which CANNOT be fixed by killing a bear? (Rich Gaunt)

No. The movie Outlanderh as shown me this. Whenever you're in trouble? Save the chieftain. Kill a bear. That's a better slogan than 'Save the cheerleader, save the world', by the way.

050. When are you and Paul (Mitchell) gonna get back together and do a reunion tour???? And any chance of putting those classic campfire songs on a cd??? (Claire Bywater)

Very unlikely, Claire. Due to distance and time, I'm lucky if I see Paul and his family more than once a year, and I've not been able to make any of the festivals and camps that he plays at, due to the fact that they usually coincide with comic conventions.

That said, I'm sure that one day, the 'Astaroth, Astaroth, Astaroth, Hey That's A Really Good Name For A Band' band will play one last reunion gig. Right before we're herded out of town...

The last gig we ever did was in Brighton in about '94 – and we actually recorded it onto a tape. I used to have it, I might actually look for it now...

051. How long till you're the first Tony Lee to pop up in the Google results? (Mario Boon)

I AM the first one. I just typed in Tony Lee (no quotations) in Google and hit go, number one is my wikipedia page, number two is a Gene Pitney tribute act, and number three is an obituary for a Jazz pianist who died in 2004. Which is quite sad, actually as I grew up knowing of the 'Tony Lee Trio' all my life, and didn't realise he'd died.

052. Sugar or Spice? (Sean O'Reilly)

Oh, I like all things nice, Daddy-o.

053. You've done something you're pleased with. Do you reward yourself? If so, what? (Kieron Gillen)

Usually I reward myself with having a break. Maybe watching some TV. My rewards are usually based around financial reckonings – i.e., when I get a nice advance on a book, I go and by a large, flat screen TV with some of it.

But rewarding myself for doing something I'm pleased with? Usually nothing past having a chocolate bar or maybe a break. Because I'm writing the best things I can possibly write, and so I'm supposed to be pleased with things I've written anyway...

That said, when I'm unhappy with something, I keep working. I'll make myself write another couple of hours just because I'm disappointed with myself. It's like I put myself on detention. And I'm my own worst critic.

May 2006 – The infamous 'Official Tony Lee Minion badges...
054. What's a typical Tony day like? Drugs and parties? Golden thrones? (Matthew Willis)

Okay. Let's create a hypothetical day for a writer. And let's base this hypothetical day around an actual day of writing, say a typical Monday for me. I get up at 8am - and yes, I can already hear the people reading this that wake up at 6am screaming 'heresy! We travel for two hours to get to work! ' but hear me out. I get up later because I don't need to commute, but this is also a curse as well as a blessing. I get up, shower and by 8:30 a.m. I'm in front of my PC or laptop ready to work. And work I will. First I go through all the news sites, to see if anything has happened over the last eight hours. I need data, to see if my personal worldview has altered – who's been fired, who's been hired, etc.

News sites done, I check my emails, replying where needed. I sometimes post on my Livejournal or on Twitter.

Now, a comic writer isn't the same as a novelist - for the months it takes to write it, that novel is pretty much their only thought. A comic writer? You're scripting one issue. You're blocking out another. You're plotting a third. You're pitching three others, minimum. You have to time-manage like crazy.

Now, the reason you check emails at the start is to set priority. Say an editor emails you in the early hours of the night before, needing some changes. Unlikely? Well, being in the UK, I work to Greenwich Mean Time. An editor in LA who has a thought while walking out the door at 6 p.m. will send me an email that I'll get at 2 a.m., LA being eight hours behind. That time zone conundrum means that often, by the time I start work - I'm already playing catch up.

So, the music goes on - I work better with something in the background and I'll spend the morning writing whichever script is most important. Currently? It's Doctor Who.

I'll work on this until it's done, or until lunch. If I finish early, I'll do something else that needs to be done. Dialogue a page, or block out a story arc. The scripting process can be a nightmare, but when you 'click', or get 'into the zone' it can be the best thing in the world. Around 1pm, maybe even 2pm, I'll break for lunch. Usually I'll stop totally and either go outside for an hour, do some chores, maybe get to the gym for half an hour (this is extremely rare though) or I'll sit and watch a television show. I'm not tuning out, I'm learning. I'll watch The Wire for plot design. West Wing for dialogue. Whatever I need to build up on, I watch.

Now, I'll also say that lunch is a luxury. Often I find myself just hammering through it. If I'm on a roll with a script, I'll keep hanging on that bucking bronco until I've exhausted myself. Often I'll work through lunch and have a break later. But in an ideal day, lunch is done properly. I say 'ideal' there. Often I've reached 4, 5 p.m., and realised that I haven't even eaten breakfast.

An hour or so after I start lunch, I'm back on the PC. I'm usually plotting and blocking at this point, going through finished pages and proofing them for a publisher or, if I really need to break the back of a story, I'm back scripting. I'll write two thousand words of a novel. And honestly? I don't stop until about 5 p.m.

Now usually, this is where people start to wind down, go home, their day of work finished - but me? I'm just starting. Because this is now late morning New York time, and various US editors are just getting settled after getting into work. Which means I start to receive emails that need to be answered. And this goes on until around 7 p.m. - when the West Coast wakes up and arrives at work. And it starts again.

Now I do have a social life, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't doing this at least three nights out of every week. My long suffering fiancιe Tracy has learned the joys of catching Tony for an evening chat only to find him still at work while he's talking. Some evenings an hour or so on the phone chatting to her is the only respite from work I get before I go to bed. And if I'm out with friends? I'm usually constantly on the iPhone, checking emails.

Around 9 p.m., a wealth of new emails arrive from editors and US creators I know who, now hitting their afternoons have more time to chat. And while I email back replies, I'm still writing. And twittering, usually. And if there's a problem, it's not unknown for me to be still emailing or phoning US editors/publishers gone midnight (after all, that's only 4 p.m. on the west coast) and waiting for replies that I'll get the following day, when I start this all over again.

And that doesn't include days where I'm on deadline, or the days where I do a school talk and then spend the evening doing catchup, or even the weekends like today (Saturday) where I've been writing since 9 a.m. with only a one hour break and it's coming up to 7 p.m.

Wow, long one there!

055. Is it true that you had to take years of speech therapy to hide your cockney accent? (Ryan Stegman)

No. But, my accent is the result of speech lessons in school – I have 'generic southern' accent as I have an Irish father and (apparently) had a very strong Irish accent as a kid. And having a strong Irish accent in West London in the seventies wasn't a good idea for a seven year old. And so my teachers taught me to speak proper like what others do, you know, innit?

But I can do the Lambeth Walk.

July 2008 – The first showing of the double page The Forgotten teaser...
056. At which convention did you get the most drunk, whose fault was it and how did you cope? (Corinne Sutterby)

It was definitely Bristol in 2006. This was the year of the infamous 'tree climbing incident' in the Ramada Plaza garden at 6am.

Dan and I had been drinking throughout the day, as I was nervous about Midnight Kiss being up for an Eagle Award. I knew it wouldn't win, it was up against some big names, but I still hoped, and drinking calmed the nerves.

The problem was is that people kept buying me drinks. And by that I mean Whisky and American. And I'd already gone through a small bottle of Jack Daniels. And in the end I just poured them all into a pint glass and just refilled as I went along.

Dan and I had dressed for the occasion. He was wearing a wedding morning suit with top hat; I was in jeans, shirt, Dinner Jacket and top hat. I dimply recall us dancing into the award ceremonies singing 'get me to the church on time'. I didn't win, and I carried on drinking.

Around five in the morning (remember, Americans – UK hotel bars often stay open until the last resident has gone to bed) Dan and I were in discussions with Kirsten and Frodo from Norway about which nation were the better tree climbers – don't ask me why, it was one of those five in the morning questions – we were out in the dawn light having a cigarette (well Dan was, I was just there with him) and then the England vs. Norway tree climbing contest was on. One by one we climbed the tree in the garden beside the bar door, seeing who could get the highest. I won, fighting for English pride and Dan would have beaten me if he hadn't drunkenly fallen out of the tree. There was a lot of laughter. We then wandered back in and carried on until about 7 a.m., when we realised that breakfast was started, and so eventually after staggering upstairs and changing, we managed to come back and stagger into the restaurant for a fry up, still having not slept. We were not well. We were totally reliant on sunglasses and were still in the restaurant, zombie like an hour later when that evil Mike Conroy took great delight in reminding us that we were on a panel in less than an hour.

It was not pretty. How did we cope? RED BULL. But it is where 'Two Drunk Guys In A Bar Productions' reached prominence. And I was never that bad again.

Honest.

057. What is the best priest-and-rabbi joke that you know? (Mike Cho)

A Catholic Priest and a Jewish Rabbi were chatting one day when the conversation turned to a discussion of job descriptions and the future.
"What position do you see yourself in a couple years from now?" asked the Rabbi to the Priest.
"Well, actually, I'm next in line for the Monsignor's job," replied the Priest.
"Yes, and then what?" ask the Rabbi.
"Well, I could become Arch-Bishop," said the Priest.
"Yes, and then?" asked the Rabbi.
"Well, if I work real hard and do a good job as Arch-Bishop, it's possible to become a full Bishop" said the Priest.
"Okay, then what?" continued the Rabbi. The Priest, beginning to be a bit exasperated replied, "With some luck and real hard work, maybe I can become a Cardinal."
"And then?" continued the Rabbi. The Priest is really starting to get frustrated, but replies, "With lots and lots of luck and some real difficult work and if I'm in the right place at the right time and play my political games just right, maybe, just maybe, I can get elected Pope."
"Yes, and then what?" continued the Rabbi.
"Good grief!" shouted the Priest, "What do you expect me to become, God?"
"Well," said the Rabbi, "One of our boys made it!"

058. If someone was just starting out in the industry what would be your top 5 pieces of advice? (Lenette Warren)

1) You're not the best thing in the world. Deal with it. You might think you're shit hot? But there are a thousand people out there who all think the exact same thing, and more importantly, some of them are better than you whether you like it or not. Deal with it. It'll make life easier for you.

2) Write for free. Seriously. Or draw for free. Get your eight page story in a small press anthology. Print it yourself. But get something solid and substantial that you can put in an editor's hand. They will not go and look at your site based on a business card and a smile. Have something, a portfolio piece that you can send them, leave with them. They'll more likely look at it, and as a writer? You'll get more editors looking at some finished work rather than reading a script. After all, reading someone else's script? Is usually quite dull. That's why we work with the pretty pictures.

3) Remember – editors are human too, and they would most likely rather that they'd found five writers who could follow orders and bring work in on (or even under) time rather than the next Grant Morrison or Neil Gaiman. That said, they'd like to find that, but their day to day job isn't about finding the next big thing, no matter how great you think you are – their day to day job is to get a variety of different books out on time. And that ticking clock will always win out against your talent.

4) If you're lucky enough to meet an editor and send them some stuff? Do not expect them to come back to you in a week or so. When I was Group Editor of Markosia, a very small (in the scale of things) press publisher, I had about seven or eight pitches / script samples a day sent to me. That's about forty, fifty a week. Now think how many times that's doubled, tripled, quadrupled even for an editor at DC or Marvel. That's right. They get more than my weekly dose every day. And that's not including the countless emails from the people they already deal with, the artists, letterers, writers, colourists, inkers, group editors, etc. Do you seriously think that your cold emailed pitch is important enough to go above those people? You do? Then fuck off out of comics, because not only is your ego too big, but you'll be utterly crushed when you realise that part one of this relates only to you.

Emailing an editor to update them on what you're doing / keep your name in their mind every month or so is usually okay. Emailing an editor repeatedly asking them if they've read your pitch yet? Smacks of dickheadedness. And we've all been guilty of this in the past when we started out. When you have only four emails to deal with a day, you have a lot of time to wait... But you just have to be patient. Spend that time instead writing.

5) And the final one. Always keep writing. If you're just starting out? You're probably not that good. But the more you write? You get better. You learn the craft. You learn the unspoken rules. Your comfort level increases. It's like one of those end of levels on a console game – you keep fighting the bad guy yet you get nowhere – and you die again and again and then suddenly one day – bam! – you get past it without thinking. And suddenly that level is actually a piece of piss. In fact, you can go through it again now without a single problem. It's the same as learning a martial art, a sport – practice makes perfect. You have to write those million words to get them out before you can start the better million words.

Keep writing. Always write. Being a writer isn't a career where you go 'I want to be a writer because I want to be rich and famous'. Being a writer is something you are. It's a need, a yearning. You have to write. And if you want to be a writer and don't have this need? Start writing. You'll soon see if you're a writer – you'll find yourself not wanting to stop, because you desperately need to know where that story is going...

July 2008 – At San Diego, surrounded by a crowd of Doctor Who Doctors...
059. Do fairys *really* steal babies? (Catherine Abbott)

Fairys don't – but Faeries do. Vicious little buggers, they are.

060. What mainstream comic book (Marvel or DC) would you like to write and which small press art team would you use? (Peter-Davis Douglas)

I hinted on this last week, but there are a few characters I'd love to write, but they're not mainstream. But if I was given any comic, any character? I'd probably like to play in the Bat-Universe, or maybe with the Occult characters. In Marvel? Bucky/Cap would be fun (although I'd do a separate comic so that Ed Brubaker could continue – I love his current run), I'd kill to do more Spider Man, and I reckon I've got a few Wolverine and Punisher stories in me.

As for art teams? There are several. Firstly of course I'd want the incredible art team of Peter-David Douglas and Neil Van Antwerpen with me – they're the guys on art duties on Harker, something I'll be showing a lot of over the coming months because it's incredible and is going to be massive – oh wait, that's you... 

Otherwise, I'd like to do more mainstream superhero with Dan Boultwood – I think he's ready for a solid Spidey tale. And of course Sam Hart on pretty much anything.

I'm incredibly lucky to be working with some of the best 'unknowns' in the business. And more than that, to be friends with them.

In a purely selfish note, I'd love to do a Spider Man story with Ryan Stegman. We're both working on / have worked on different Spider Man titles – and considering we both pretty much came to the fore with Midnight Kiss in 2005/06, I'd love to do a story again with him and Midnight Kiss colourist extraordinaire Kieran Oates. You hear that, Marvel? Make it so!

061. What are the pros and cons of facial hair? (Nicky Lawrence)

It all depends on the situation. There are far more cons with facial hair while using heavy machinery close up...

062. What (and how many of it) did you sacrifice to the Elder Gods for your success?(David Alexander McDonald)

Naughty circus midgets. A shit load of them.

063. You love comics – so why write novels? Why not write those as comics too? (Ric Capella)

Because sometimes the comic medium just doesn't feel right. For example, Conversations with My Mother was a book, but then I had an opportunity to pitch it as a Graphic Novel with Kevin Colden on art. However, although Kevin's art was stunning and the pages were great, it just didn't feel right. There were chunks of the story that were effectively removed, as you can't have a long and rambling first person narrative in a comic that really works – but in a novel, you can ramble on and on for page after page.

That said, comics and books can be interchangeable – as the many adaptations I've done can show. Recently I've considered making Crowtown a novel, and before I went with Markosia, Hope Falls was going to be a novel instead of a comic.

It's also a great 'palette cleaner' from comic scripts.

064. Why do you do the school talks when you're always busy? Surely it takes too much time away? Do you really need the money that much? (Rebecca Trass)

Actually, I have a more long term reason for doing them – when I was about eight years old I remember a children's book author coming to my school, where he did a talk about how great it was writing children's books. Annoyingly, I can't remember his name but I remember deciding even back then that I really wanted to be a writer when I grew up. And I also promised myself that if / when I ever got to that level, I would return the favour, pass it on so to speak. The fact that in every audience I speak to could be a kid who in twenty years could be the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, partly due to the words that some bedraggled comic guy spoke to him when he was eleven? That's all it takes to motivate me.

It also motivates the teachers, many of which have told me after my talks that when they went in, they had the belief that comics? They were for babies. Yet now, they could see they were a valid creative medium.

September 2008 – At a Doctor Who signing in London with the famous Gary Russell...
065. What's the best review that you've ever had? (Gene Richard)

It was by Regie Rigby of Fool Britannia, it was for The Gloom in 2005 and it's never been bettered. It said 'Seriously, I can't impress on you enough how much you need to buy this book. Sell a kidney if you have to.' And finally...

066. Have you ever regretted anything you've published? (Leena Patel)

Not in comic form, no. I'm proud of pretty much everything I've written.

And that's it again – tune in next week for the final thirty or so questions...

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And once more, lust like last week, I'm reminding you that you really need to go to your local comic store and order the Hope Falls collected edition, MAR094036: HOPE FALLS TP. This is the order code that Diamond gets, so they will see what we get ordered from them. In May, the orders that Diamond get will be filled and sent to those stores. It comes out in May. Dan and I will be doing a signing of Hope Falls in Orbital Comics in London on the 16^th May – more later.

Secondly if you're in London this coming Saturday, the 21^st of March, there's a massive 2000 A.D. event at London's Forbidden Planet Megastore to celebrate the paperback edition of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD. And as you can see below, I'm there as well.

2000FP - Thrill Power Overload!

Saturday 21 March, 2009 - 1:00PM - 2:30PM
Forbidden Planet London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR

To promote the release of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD we've gathered together writers and artists from a host of 2000AD titles - together with Matt Smith, the magazine's editor, they will be available to sign, sketch and chat! On Saturday 21st March we'll have the absolute best in British comics in store: Dan Abnett • David Bishop • Simon Davis • Rufus Dayglo • Al Ewing • Brett Ewins • Henry Flint • Frazer Irving • Robbie Morrison • Tony Lee • Matt Smith • Simon Spurrier

This is 2000FP, the second of our free-form signings - no tables, no queues. With an array of fantastic Rebellion Publishing titles on hand, this event blows away the barriers and gives readers and fans a change to really find out what goes on in 2000AD!

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Until next time, kiddies. Keep sending me questions. I might change some out if yours are good enough.

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Discuss this column at the Only A Forum forum.
© 2008, Tony Lee

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