All Millar, no filler

I never thought the Philippines would win,” confessed Mark Millar, comic book writer and creator of Kick-Ass, Wanted, and Supercrooks. “As the contest started, I thought maybe New York, Los Angeles, or London would win. I was so wrong!” What he thought would be a simple comic book signing in New York turned into a four-day event in Manila. Since Thursday last week, Millar’s schedule was packed with interviews, signings, and appearances that culminated on Sunday with an event attend by over a thousand people. Along with his Supercrooks creative team — one of them even flying from Jakarta to be at the event — fans were able to meet their idol in a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Millar’s visit was the result of a global contest, “Win Mark Millar,” an initiative he himself made. The winner would be determined by the most number of orders for Millar’s latest book: Supercrooks. To everyone’s surprise — including Millar’s — the Philippines, through the good people of National Book Store, won Mark Millar. Before one of his biggest signings to date, Millar gave his thoughts on Jesus, haters, and how to sell your comic to Hollywood.

Super friends assembles: The complete creative team of Supercrooks in one venue. Writer and co-creator Mark Millar, Penciller and co-creator Leinil Francis Yu, inker Gerry Alanguilan, and colorist Sunny Gho answers fan questions.

On choosing to write about superheroes. “I think adding superheroes to any story is interesting. If you see a guy making a cup of coffee, it wouldn’t be that interesting. But if you see a guy making a cup of coffee dressed like Green Lantern that makes it a lot more interesting! I grew up loving superheroes and getting to write them is a thrill. You can do anything with superheroes like time travel, teleportation, other dimensions, space, anything. Powers makes it so visually interesting too. Like someone moving at the speed of light is so cool. Superhero books are the ultimate expression of what comic books can do.”

On the benefits of not working for Marvel and DC. “Everything’s cyclical. We have to remember we’ve been here several times before. The 1930s and ’40s belonged to DC, the 1960s to Marvel, the ’90s belonged to Image. What we see now is a general creator-owned phenomenon. What DC is doing now is sort of giving plastic surgery to old people. Their characters are 70 years old now. People don’t want old characters looking young. They want new characters. And as creators, we need to populate comics with new characters. We need to start having sex and making babies, metaphorically speaking.”

Free comics: Millar fans got free copies of Supercrooks #1 courtesy of National Book Store and they raise it with much delight!

On having his comics turned into movies. “The secret is not to want them to become movies. That’s what I tell creators who say “I think I’ll write something that’ll become a movie.” It becomes something that Hollywood has done already. Think of the comic books that became movies like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Sin City, and Kick-Ass. These are all quite unlike any other movie we’ve seen before. Whereas you do something that has already happened, what’s the point? I never thought Kick-Ass would be a movie. There’s a little girl dropping the C-Bomb while beating drug dealers. I think that’s what interested Hollywood because it’s something that we haven’t seen before. I think the big mistake people do is they go to Hollywood and want people to love them. Just stay in the Philippines or in Scotland and do your own thing.”

On writing about Jesus. “I’ll admit my stuff tends to be quite controversial. People assumed that I would make fun of religion and that sort of stuff. I think the big surprise for readers, was when they read it (it being Chosen, his Jesus story), it was quite respectful. The thing is, if I write Spider-Man, I want Spider-Man fans to like the book. If I do Batman, I want Batman fans to like the book. So if I do a story with Jesus, I want Christians to like that book. I hate it when writers make fun of religion because it’s such an easy target. It’s a sign of a bad writer. It doesn’t offend me as a Christian but it offends me as a writer. You wouldn’t do it with Islam or Judaism. The fundamental thing of Christianity is turning the other cheek when one is slapped. So to go for a guy who’s not going to get you back is like “Really?” I wanted to do something with Jesus but do it straight.”

First in line: A Millar Fan falls in line at 8 a.m. so he could be the first to meet his idol.

On his haters. “Keep hating! Haters are actually a good sign that things are going well. So it’s cool. I actually quite enjoy it. No one’s going to hate your work if no one cares about your work.”

Fan love: Millar goes down the stage to meet fan Francis Bagunu.