Dan Abnett is one of the most prolific creators in comics today with a body of work that includes the Pulp Fiction esque gun totting bounty hunters Sinister Dexter, the future warfare of The VCs and Durham Red all being published in 2000AD. In addition he has written acclaimed stories for Black Library and DC Comics including his and Andy Lanning’s popular run on the Legion and their recent story across the Superman titles. Dan agreed to take a break out of his busy schedule to answer our questions”¦
The Nexus: Thanks for agreeing to be interview by us Dan:. This year has seen the end of your run on Durham Red with the final book of the trilogy of stories that started with Scarlet Cantos. What has she meant to you over the past seven years?
Dan:: Red has been good company and great fun, and I’m glad we were able to do something significant with her. It doesn’t feel like seven years, though. From my point of view, I’ve produced comparatively little Durham Red material in that time. Mark works at a painstaking pace – and I mean that in a good way! – you can see it from his work. So there was often a year or more between me writing the scripts and seeing a section coming back.
The Nexus: Durham Red as a character had fallen into disrepair and you were charged with giving her a massive overhaul. How did you approach this task?
Dan:: Visually, she hadn’t fallen into disrepair, because Mark had been doing great work on the series long before I came along. I just think the character herself was “fuzzy”. It all seemed a bit unmotivated. I know this for a fact, because when I came on board, I had to struggle to find the “hook” that would revive the series. It was hard work, and that was why we eventually arrived at the radical overhaul, not of Red, but of her Universe. I think that was the best part of the entire project: Mark and I getting to thoroughly invent and create our own sci-fi backdrop.
The Nexus: Durham Red saw you forge a successful partnership with Mark Harrison. What’s your opinion on his artwork? What future projects do you have planned with him?
Dan:: Mark is a fine, fine artist, and he’s blessed with the most amazing imagination. He thinks cinematically, and a lot of our long, planning phone calls were more about how mood and atmosphere would work than about solid plot points. Mark actually recruited me for the job, actually. 2K had decided they wanted to bring a fresh writer in to work with him, and he suggested me. We’re looking for something else to work on together right now.
The Nexus: This year also saw the third book of the VCs, which met to a better reaction than the second book. Did the mixed reception to Book II after the successfully first book surprise you and influence your writing on the third?
Dan:: Um, actually I had no idea there was a mixed reception to Book 2, so that’s news to me. I was just carrying on in my own sweet way!
The Nexus: When can we expect to see Book Four and what do you have planned for us?
Dan:: I’ve almost finished scripting Book 4, and Ant’s about half way through drawing it, so I guess early next year. His artwork on this fourth book is AMAZING. Basically, now things have become very character driven, and there are big things to follow up for Ryx and Diderot. A little conspiracy stuff, a return to Boot Camp… and The Polity, of course.
The Nexus: The VCs had been a long dominant series until you and Henry Flint revived it in 2002. How did you get the job of updating this classic series?
Dan:: VCs was one of my favourites as a reader way back, and I couldn’t believe it had never been revived. Basically, I kept begging successive editors to let me do it until one of them cracked.
The Nexus: You seem to be a man that 2000AD turn to revive lapsed or troubled franchises. With Gordon Rennie leaving Rogue Trooper would you be interested in making a return to that series this time as solo writer?
Dan:: Hmm. Rogue is a classic character, so I’d think about it, I suppose. But if 2K is running VCs and Rogue, I think they should be in the hands of different teams or it will all become same-o-same-o. I write a lot of future war stuff, one way or another. I’d rather tackle something different.
The Nexus: This year has also seen a number of Sinister Dexter stories. 2000AD’s own dynamic duo will soon be hitting the American market in a DC published trade. What would you say to our American readers to convince them to pick it up?
Dan:: SinDex is just about my favourite thing. I know most of the stories are largely inconsequential fluff, but I love writing them. I love puns and lousy jokes, and I love the way the city is now almost as much of a character as the Sharks. I’d love US readers to check it out because it’s so different to the stuff I do everywhere else. Even in 2k itself. It’s idiosyncratic. I’d like people to look at it and go “the guy who worked on Legion wrote this?!” In a nice way, obviously.
The Nexus: Sinister Dexter are the second most prolific characters in 2000AD history, standing behind only Judge Dredd himself. What is it about them that allows them to appear in so many stories with such a variety of artists?
Dan:: They’re very versatile. They hang out in a city where anything can happen, and often does, and just get involved. I’d be hard pushed to think of a type of story you couldn’t do with SinDex. I can think of plenty you SHOULDN’T but not many you couldn’t. Also, though there have been longer stories from time to time, it’s essentially been a vignette series from day one, lots of short, sharp, self-contained pieces. I’ve got used to doing that, and it makes it easy to share them out with artists of all kinds and styles.
The Nexus: What motivated you to bring in Kal Cutter as their apprentice?
Dan:: The regular cast seemed to have thinned out, and so I just thought it might be a good idea. He seems popular, and there are lots of secrets in his past.
The Nexus: Out of all the artists you’ve worked with on Sinister Dexter who’s your favourite and if you could choose one artist to draw them who hasn’t who would it be?
Dan:: Tough question! Greg Staples, Paul Johnson and Steve Yeowell all deserve particularly honourable mentions amongst many great talents. Over all, I’d have to split it between Andy Clarke, who brings a sexy hard edge and great storytelling to the table, and Simon Davis, who, lets face it, makes them so, so real. One artist who hasn’t? I’d say Colin Wilson, whose stuff I have always, always loved. And how about Eduardo Risso?
The Nexus: Moving onto your American work, you and Andy Lanning have just started a Mr Majestic mini-series after writing an arc focused on him for the Superman books earlier this year. What do you want to achieve with him?
Dan:: Maj (as we refer to him) seems so much a Superman clone, we wanted to find out how different he could be. Defeat expectations. Basically, we get to run around the DCU a little with the Wildstorm powerhouse. It’s a lot of fun, and the art’s great (take a bow, Karl!)
The Nexus: With all your success since, do you ever still get bugged about Force Works?
Dan:: As in do I get it mentioned, remembered? Yeah, a lot. Andy and I had a lot of fun working on that, and it’s nice that people enjoyed it enough to recall it still.
The Nexus: Any plans to resurrect the critically acclaimed Resurrection Man?
Dan: Andy and I think about it from time to time. It might happen. After all, his name is…
The Nexus: Did you and Andy Lanning accomplish all you wanted to on The Legion?
Dan:: Just about. When the time came to move on, DC asked us how many more stories we wanted to do. They were very nice about it, and allowed us to stay for as long as WE wanted… just about. In the end, for reasons of schedules, we had to step down a couple of issues earlier than planned, and so there was one last (great) story we wanted to do that we never will now. It was about Cub.
The Nexus: Would the two of you have liked to have stayed on it for longer?
Dan:: See above answer. We got to write a decent end to our run, so we were happy.
The Nexus: How do you feel about Legion being re-launched again? Do you feel the re-launch dilutes your work as well as the series as a whole?
Dan:: Probably. I don’t know. I hope it works and I wish the creative team all the luck. Ironically, a relaunch was the one SINGLE thing we weren’t allowed to do during our run. We were told we could pretty much do ANYTHING to try and polish the book, as long as we stayed true to the reboot continuity. To have built it up again so successfully only to see someone come in and press reset is a little bit of a shame. On the plus side, we won’t ever have to watch someone f*cking up our Legion J
The Nexus: Was it difficult managing Legion’s infamously large cast? Were there times you wanted to pare it down but felt you couldn’t because of the history of the book?
Dan:: Yes and yes. But once you get into the flow, it becomes manageable, and you develop a knack for group choreography. Now, writing Maj or SinDex, with a cast of half a dozen, I kinda miss it.
The Nexus: Who are your favourite Legion characters? Which was your favourite update on an old character and which was your favourite character that you and Andy had created?
Dan:: Fave Legionnaires? Umbra, Saturn Girl, Brainiac, Kid Quantum. Favourite update… I’ll be controversial and say Sensor. Of ours, it has to be Shikari.
The Nexus: What was your reaction to Olivier Coipel abrupt departure from Legion?
Dan:: Sad, but we saw it coming and he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. But a lot of other great artists worked with us on the series, and I have to say I was delighted by Chris Batista’s run in the final year. Dream Crime was my all time fave story.
The Nexus: Did you enjoy the character of Iceman in the mini-series you worked on? Is it a character you’d be interested in revisiting given the opportunity?
Dan:: Iceman was fun to do (first time we’d worked with Karl, of course). But I think he works better as part of a team… unless we were allowed to do something radical with him.
The Nexus: You’ve written solo and in partnership with writers such as Andy Lanning and Steve White. Which do you prefer?
Dan:: Both. There are some things – SinDex and my BL novels, for example – that are very much just me. But collaboration is great, very inspirational. It’s terrific fun to sit down with someone like Steve and throw ideas around. And Andy and I have been working together on US books for so long now, it’s like a marriage. It stops both of us getting cabin fever.
The Nexus: If he and Andy Lanning both got hammered and belligerent in a bar, who would be the last man standing and why?
Dan:: Andy would, because he’d leave me helpless on the floor with his jokes and stories. The man should do stand up. Of course, if I managed to slip him an anchovy or two, I’d be the winner. Never seen a human being get SO sick from an allergy.
The Nexus: What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
Dan:: Majestic… the limited series and, if things go according to plan, more Majestic with Wildstorm themselves. Lots more SinDex and VCs. And the novels keep me busy, naturally. My sixteenth, Traitor General, comes out next month, and I’m working on the seventeenth, Ravenor Returned, right now. Also a bunch of short stories for the Black Library too. Oh, and a sexy, glossy art book tie in about the campaign setting of my Gaunt’s Ghosts novels. Plenty, in fact.
The Nexus: Is there anything else you would like to say before we finish?
Dan:: Gents, it’s been a real pleasure.
The Nexus: Thank you for sharing your time with us Dan.
You can read the continuing adventures of Mr. Majestic in Majestic published by DC Comics and available from all good Direct Market Comic Shops. The VCs and Sinister Dexter appear exclusively in 2000AD, available every Wednesday in all good British Newsagents and worldwide through Airmail subscription. Check Previews for American Direct Market listings.
