Andy Diggle

Andy, given how well you've handled Hellblazer, I'd love to see you feature a visit from the Mossy one sometime.

Mmmmmaybe. Although I've already fucked up SWAMP THING once, I'd hate to do it again.

Yeah, I suspect if Rankin's HB story happens it'll be an OGN or a mini. Looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

Andy: does the fact we've over the years pretty much seen everything hell wise (with the First getting quite a bit of his own time too boot) make it particularly challenging to write this title? How do you keep the horror fresh, in other words?

I write what scares me. Imaginary ghosts and demons don't really scare me that much; but I'm afraid of drowning, or losing my little girl, or being torn apart by attack dogs (and you can check out GAMEKEEPER # 3 to see how much fun that looks).

In the interview with Guy Ritchie in Andy Diggle's Gamekeeper issue 1, Guy was asked if he was interested in comics before working with Virgin. His reply was, "By my creative nature, I am interested in the extreme, animated world."

 

In response to other questions, he said of the comics medium, "By its design it's animated..." and "I am drawn to the arena where film meets highly animated concepts."

 

What the fuck was he talking about?

Your guess is as good as mine, mate!

I think I'll even go back and re-read your Swamp Thing and Lady Constantine issues, in fact -- clearly, I misjudged your writing

Don't worry about it; I think (I hope!) I'm a better writer now than I was back then. They say you have to write a million words to get the shit out of your system. Not sure I'm there yet, but every day I'm getting a little closer...

Questions:

 

JC: G&T or lager?

 

We going to see Johnny dress for success again?

 

May we please have the magick back? (Its a matter of WILL, not being tossed to and fro...)

All three questions will be answered in issue 232.

Andy: any plans for John to spark up in a pub now that the ban is in place?

The England smoking ban doesn't come into effect until later this summer. But yeah, I might well be addressing it in a story where JC has a Really Bad Day.

Hey Andy, here's a quick one for you.

 

Any chance will see Zatanna (minus her usual get-up) "on screen" with ConJob for a quick cameo? I know darlin "Zee" carries a bit of baggage due to the whole DCU connection - but if the Phantom Stranger and Swamp Thing can get away with it - surely she can too.

You might get an oblique reference to an old flame with fishnets and a top hat, but I really don't want to open up the whole "DC versus Vertigo continuity" can of worms.

Good work, James! :)

Hellblazer #1 & 2 weren't very good

... What?

Did anyone have Constantine drinking Guinness apart from Garth? Paul Jenkins, maybe... ?

Questions:

JC: G&T or lager?

And for you? (its my round...)

We going to see Johnny dress for success again?

May we please have the magick back? (Its a matter of WILL, not being tossed to and fro...)

I was about to give straight answers to each of your questions, but I realised it might spoil things a little. So you'll just have to wait and see.

ST: BAD SEED was supposed to be set shortly after the events in Mike's STARING AT THE WALL.

The Unnamed Beast plucked the Holland-Mind from Swampy in that story. (Swampy describes it as "Something I did not need").

Swampy was so pissed off at being manipulated by Constantine (again!) that he pretty much turned his back on humanity and went into the Earth - which is where we find him at the start of BAD SEED.

This looks pretty cool. Anyone know how well it matches up with the official timeline in Vertigo's HELLBLAZER SECRET FILES?

Sorry it's been a while. Catching up...

Andy, which 5 famous people, dead or alive do you think your vision of Constantine would invite to dinner (or a pint down the local)?

Alan Moore, Bill Hicks, Rasputin, Doctor John Dee... and David Blaine, but only so they could all piss in his beer.

Andy, have you seen Constantine (the flick) ?

‘Fraid so. I’d agree with the general consensus that the director did the best he could with a lacklustre script and some wooden casting.

I’m not going to whine about it not being the same as comic because it wasn’t supposed to be the same as the comic. It was supposed to be a film, y’know? The question is, does it stand up on its own merits? And the answer is, sadly, not really.

Controversially, I don’t have a huge problem with the principle of making JC an American. A character is a character. What difference does it make where, to paraphrase Bill Hicks, his parents fucked?

But as with so many Hollywood movies of recent years, the plot just didn’t seem to make much sense. Why the hell didn’t Gabriel just kill JC? She kills plenty of other people - why not him?

Obviously, JC wading in with a dragonfire shotgun was just a tragic fucking embarrassment. Whoever insisted on putting that in the movie should have been stripped naked and thrown down a canvas tube lined with fish-hooks.

On the other hand, I loved some of the odd little details - like entering Hell by sitting with your feet in water while you stare into a cat’s eye. That’s a lot more original than the usual hackneyed pentagram-and-candles bullshit.

And I think they deserve credit for making JC such an unlikeable, cynical bastard. That's a brave choice for a big-budget Hollywood star vehicle.

So yeah, it could have been a great little movie, but it ended up being... not.

Overall, I don’t HATE it. I just don’t like it much.

If someone gave John a psychic enema, what would be the first thing that came out?

Psychic sweetcorn.

GROUP HUG!

Andy, which 5 famous people, dead or alive do you think your vision of Constantine would invite to dinner (or a pint down the local)?

That's an interesting question. Let me think about it and get back to you.

Brian never reunited Alec Holland with his elemental side.

Are you sure? I don’t have the issue in question any more, but I’m pretty sure that in issue 18 of BKV’s run, Swampy confronts Tefe at the dam on the Yangtze river and says something along the lines of “I have been reunited with Holland’s soul”, or words to that effect, without going into detail about how it happened. Of course, I could be misremembering, in which case my bad.

I think another cause of confusion was my deliberately mixing up the terms “soul” and “Holland-mind” - another tedious piece continuity nit-pickery which had been in play since the Rick Veitch days, and which I was trying (in vain!) to lay to rest once and for all.

Which leaves a morbid question -- did the kid drop dead when that happened?

Quite possibly, yes. But since that event would have taken place over a decade before BAD SEED, and had no bearing on the story, there would have been absolutely no point in referencing it.

the Hollands' barn did not blow, as Alec visited it twice in the years after his transformation.

Yes, I know - that’s why it’s right there in the very first panel of BAD SEED.

Alec's corpse should not be in the swamp, as he dug up his remains during the Moore run and gave himself a decent burial.

Yes, I know - he gave Alec's corpse a decent burial in the swamp. He even planted a root torn from his own body to mark the grave - and in BAD SEED, that root had grown into a tree.

Then there's the question of why Tefe needed to borrow the body of a dead teenager if she already had a body of her own.

Why? Same reason Swampy uses plants to grow himself new bodies - instant transport. She was just using the flesh to grow herself a new body on the other side of the world. Instantly transporting herself from South America to Germany, just like Swampy does.

There's also the claim that Alec had slain the champions of earth, air, fire and water in order to gain their powers, but that isn't true, either.

Yes, I know. Sargon was lying.

Anything else?

Pete had to push back directing THE LOSERS when THE KINGDOM got greenlit, and he’s now just been offered some Will Smith superhero movie (*gag*choke*).

Please don't let that be Captain America....

Nah, it's some thing that's been trapped in development hell for years called Tonight, He Comes.

... I know, it sounds like a porno.

Unrelated just wondering what series or mini series have impressed you most in the last couple of years?

To be honest I don’t read many new comics these days. There’s no comic shop in my town, so pretty much all I see is the stuff that arrives in my DC comp box, i.e. impenetrable crossover stories about guys in tights agonizing about their own 50-year old continuity. No thanks.

I did just get the first issue of Jonathan Hickman’s THE NIGHTLY NEWS thanks to a kindly fan who sent me a copy. It was the first new comic I’ve seen in ages that actually caught my interest. Of course, I haven’t actually read it yet...

What I am doing is picking up trades, so I can sit back and read a whole series once it’s complete. I’m looking forward to devouring the complete collections of LUCIFER, TRANSMET, STRAY BULLETS, Y, 100 BULLETS, Y etc. It’s like watching a whole TV series on DVD instead of waiting for the weekly episodes. Much better.

Is it true that Pete Berg is attached to this? I really like that guy. All the way back from his great role in The Last Seduction.

Not any more. Pete had to push back directing THE LOSERS when THE KINGDOM got greenlit, and he’s now just been offered some Will Smith superhero movie (*gag*choke*). WB are reportedly very happy with the LOSERS screenplay which Pete co-wrote, so now he’s stepping back to just co-producing it, and WB are looking for a new director.

Concerning the Green Arrow: Year One mini-series you are writing, is it going to be grittier, as in the tone of the Mike Grell series, or more light-hearted superhero oriented?

It’s grittier than Grell.

Will it be focusing on Green Arrow's political beliefs?

Inasmuch as it’s about how Ollie Queen went from being a rich selfish prick to a rich selfless prick.

Why do you feel that you made a mistake on trying up loose ends on the Swamp Thing book? I quite liked it.

Where to begin? Bad Seed was supposed to be a 6-issue miniseries specifically designed to tie up loose plot threads left over from the Millar and Vaughan runs, and to hit the reset button on the impenetrably overly-complex continuity. I wanted to take Swampy back to the point where he was simply a plant-monster again. That way, if DC ever wanted to start a new ongoing series with a new issue number 1, it would be a nice simple starting point for new readers. Alec Holland got turned into a monster and then found out he was the last Plant Elemental - and that’s all you need to know.

However, once I was into writing it, DC decided to make it an ongoing series instead. And you don’t start an *ongoing* series by tying up loose continuity threads from old stories - it’s completely alienating to new readers. Which is why I declined to continue writing the series, and they brought in two new writers.

I don't know what Andy Diggle will reply, but probably the fact that everything Diggle brought to the book was reversed within a few months would make me regret even bothering.

One of the first things I tried to do was get rid of Abby and Tefe. One of the first things the new writers did was bring them back again. *shrug*

He wrote a Swamp Thing story that contradicted many points that had been established by previous writers (for example: the very premise of his story arc, that Alec Holland's soul was rejoined with his elemental side, completely ignored the end of the Mark Millar run, in which his soul was reincarnated in the body of a newborn, who would be close to 10 years old at this point -- what happened to the kid when Constantine brought his soul back...did he fall down dead and soulless?)

Brian K. Vaughan’s run had reunited Swampy with Alec Holland’s soul long before I got to it. If you didn’t like my story, that’s fine; but if you really want to nit-pick the minutiae of continuity, at least get it right.

See, this is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to iron out, for better or worse. The fucking C-word again...

Any chance of a Demon Constantine appearance?

Maybe, if I think of something really cool to do with him. He’s a potentially great villain, and hasn’t really been used much. On the other hand, he kinda screams “continuity”...

Will you be sticking around these boards once your run starts or will you disappear into the ether only to return after you've finished up?

I’ll stick around. I’ve been posting on and off here for years... although I can’t seem to find my old posts any more. John?

if forced to spend a month on a desert island,one equipped with electricity and housing,what would you bring if allowed the following-a never ending supply of what food?a never ending supply of what alcohol? what five films released in the past 16 years?

A month on a desert island with electricity, housing, and an unlimited supply of food and booze isn't a desert island - it's my fucking honeymoon!

what is your honest opinion of brian azzerello's hb run?

I think it created a very effective atmosphere of pervasive dread and foreboding, although for my tastes I'd have preferred less build-up and more pay-off. I liked the subtlety and understatement of John's magic use - such as the cigarrettes and the would-be shower rapists. And I think it reads much better in trades.

if hb were an hbo show and the budget could afford it who would you cast as john?

Clive Owen.

i seem to remember jock saying something about you two someday doing an aisha ogn or one shot,think that may still happen in the next few years?

If the Losers movie gets off the ground, we'd like to do a mini or one-shot. So hopefully, yeah.

Another question: if John's back in the Smoke and has lost all of his major magical connections there thanks to the business at the end of Mike's run, is any chance of a return for Det Insp Watford? I always liked him as a character and would love to see him back in the comic. Just so long as you don't try to explain where he got his name from... nothing could live up to what Ellis implied. :)

Yeah, I like Watford. But come on, aren't you at least curious to find out what happened in Watford High Street... ?

Andy: when did DC first approach you to work on the book and how long did it take you to develop your long-term plans?

The editor approached me in way back in May, although I didn’t start planning my run in detail until some time later - I had too much on my plate at the time.

And the question that always gets trotted out when a new writer comes along: if Hellblazer were to finish while you were writing the book, would you kill off John or have him walk off into the sunset?

Sunset. Definitely. Who the fuck am I to kill off John Constantine?

Will Chas continue to be somewhat set apart from Constantine (as he was in the closing parts of Carey’s run) or will he revert to amiable sidekick?

Wait and see.

First things first, Straffe's mom is already dead.

Arse biscuits. There goes the John Constantine/Straffe’s Mum team-up issue.

How do you find tackling Constantine after these monumental (and appreciated) developments in his character?

It actually ties in rather nicely with where I wanted to take John anyway, so it’s all good. I don’t think people change; not all that much. They always revert to type in the end.

How would/could that differ to the core theme of John affecting change in his life in Paul Jenkins run?

Case in point. John reverted to type there, didn’t he? Tried to get rid of all his shit and then found that he couldn’t function without it.

My run’s not going to be about John getting rid of parts of himself he doesn’t like, so much as John trying to re-assert some measure of control over his life.

He’s tired of being played; he wants to be a player again.

Is John Constantine fated to follow his family lineage or is it something he has grown into?

That's something I may well be addressing in the comic, so I'll say no more for now.

Would you consider a crossover with the DCU if they come begging for one? If so which character would you most like to have JC meet up with?

Nick O'Teen.

If you were to take one of the supporting cast for a stand-alone solo story, who would that be?

Probably Chas.

Which artists will you be working with?

Leo Manco and Lee Bermejo are staying on interiors and covers respectively. Maybe the occasional fill-in artist if and when Leo needs a breather.

Who would you most like to see drawing your rendition of John Constantine?

Well I’m thrilled to be working with Leo - his characters can really act with their eyes, which is a rare talent in comics art. I’d also love to see Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, Steve Dillon, Sean Phillips and Jock back on the book. Beyond that, off the top of my head and in no particular order - Ben Oliver, Ben Templesmith, Chris Weston, Duncan Fegredo, Ed Risso, Kilian Plunkett, Mike Mignola, Phil Hester, Tim Sale, Ryan Sook. Probably lots of other names I’m blanking on right now...