Mark Millar
The trick was really finding the appropriate publisher for each of the projects I'd devised.
The books are all very, very different so the publishers really had to be different too.
I didn't want the headache of having a publisher reviewing everything I wrote in advance.
Being the first to do something like this also registers a lot of attention that the line might not have gotten if all four books had just appeared from one company.
The breadth of the potential readership is also a factor.
However, if I can expand this to Top Cow or Avatar I'm helping the sales, however small, on my Marvel books because I'm almost certain to pick up some new readers.
Marvel books also feed into the smaller publishers and the fact that this is happening in the same month we're launching Ultimate Fantastic Four is no coincidence.
I wanted to portray very, very dark subject matter and a deceptively complex story in the brightest colours and simplest lines possible to leave the readers reeling.
I'd love to do something else for Avatar after this.
At the moment, I have it planned as a six or seven year experiment, but the books will only ever appear in bursts like this every couple of years and only with the best quality artists.
It's been the most creatively liberating thing I've ever done and so I'm bringing some of that mad enthusiasm to Marvel for the next couple of years as they let me loose on some Marvel Universe titles you'll be hearing about soon.
Wanted has gone into second, third and fourth printings of the individual issues and the north American printings of Wanted #1 are now close to 100,000.
We've had really good mainstream publicity for these books and both Wanted and Chosen were snapped up as movie deals before each series even ended so I'm honestly just pinching myself.
Artists, no matter how good their intentions, are always slower than they think.
Their argument, and I think it's a correct one, is that they'll make more money from the trades and the hardcovers if nobody messes with the creative team.
I think American audiences are quite interesting in that they can handle almost any amount of violence, but the moment the violence becomes sexual violence it immediately becomes an issue.
I'm honestly as happy writing Superman Adventures as I am writing Wanted.
I don't see one as bring better or more literate than the other and there's a real buzz to not only writing about a character I love like Superman, but also writing something that kids can enjoy.
The animated books pay the lowest rates at the Big Two and you can forget about royalties.
I spent as much time writing proposals in '98 and '99 as I did writing scripts.
Likewise, I see no shame in writing Captain America or Wolverine.
I didn't break into comics to write fairytales or crime comics.
We ordinary people might lack your great speed or your X-Ray vision, Superman, but never underestimate the power of the human mind. We carry the most dangerous weapon on Earth inside these thick skulls of ours.Collection: Skulls
If you don't demonstrate leadership character, your skills and your results will be discounted, if not dismissed.Collection: Character
Guess that's thirty-one pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep well, Judas.Collection: Sleep
Comic artists have always been part of my social circle. I just like hanging out with artists, and I always see them at conventions or a store signing or something. "Hey, we should do something together."Collection: Artist
Decision-making is a skill. Wisdom is a leadership trait.Collection: Skills
If you feel the need to make everyone happy, you should be a wedding planner not a leader.Collection: Leader
I'm so used to artists saying to me, "Listen, I'm going to have five pages done next week," and then three weeks later I'm phoning them, begging them for two pages. And Stuart [Immonen]is a guy who will promise you five pages and deliver six pages, and the six pages are even better than you could have ever imagined.Collection: Artist
First, believe in your ability to create the future. That's what leaders do-that is our job. Understand reality but never be imprisoned by it. Reality is a moment in time. The future has not yet been written-it is written by leaders.Collection: Jobs
I'm just running through this list of potential nannies and wondered if we should go for a superhero this time. Do you think Wolverine would be interested? He seems to be on every other team right now.Collection: Running
Organizations who win, think deeply, choose wisely, and act decisively.Collection: Winning
Would you rather see a super soldier battling Nazis or something more serious? Or lesbians down a coal mine? Generally, the films are engaging in the same way as the comics are. It's no coincidence that the biggest movies are genre-related, whether it's Lord of the Rings or comic books.Collection: Book
There probably aren't a lot of new superheroes around, so whenever one appears, it makes a bit of noise. Really, most of the people who are my friends write characters they loved as children. I get that, as well, because that's why I got into comics. But I'm also taking this massive liberation creatively, going off and doing new stuff. The first and foremost reason I do it is because I think they're fun, and I can do anything I want. I'm not constrained by continuity.Collection: Children
Pretty much all comic-book people, like all Hollywood people, for the most part, are pretty liberal. I think especially UK writers. Alan Moore is probably the most radical guy you'll ever meet. I grew up loving those guys, so my heroes, as a kid, were radical cartoonists, essentially. I couldn't help but - I grew up in a left-wing household. But I do think it's fun, writing right-wing characters. I've found it interesting, just as a writer, to get inside their heads and make them likeable.Collection: Fun
The glass is always completely full-half air and half liquid.Collection: Glasses
I was desperate to work with Stuart Immonen, who I have talked with for several years about doing a project together. So just the stars aligned. I knew that Stuart had a little break in his schedule, where he would be willing to do a project with me. So this year I've been very lucky.Collection: Stars
I just think adding superheroes to something instantly makes it more interesting. I have a friend who says every movie should either be a Spider-Man movie, or at least have Spider-Man in it. I thought it was such a brilliant quote. It kind of is true, in a weird way.Collection: Thinking
When you expect the best from people, you will often see more in them than they see in themselves.Collection: People
I've done so many superhero comics, and I've actually just been really excited about sci-fi, and Chrononauts and Starlight were both sci-fi, which I had a great time doing.Collection: Superhero
All my kids love superheroes, but my middle daughter in particular is obsessed with Wonder Woman and Batgirl.Collection: Daughter
The ultimate [act] that would be the taboo, to show how bad some villain is, was to have somebody being raped, you know? I don't really think it matters. It's the same as, like, a decapitation. It's just a horrible act to show that somebody's a bad guy.Collection: Thinking
I am as resilient as the steel that was once made here, and I am a fighter, in every sense of the word. We all are.Collection: Mma
The past is an anchor with suffering written on the rope. I don't live there now. I am cutting myself free.Collection: Cutting
Your capacity to grow determines your capacity to lead.Collection: Capacity
Cookbooks are almost a substitution for a lost sense of culture. People want some other life than the one they're living, so they buy a cookbook with pictures and imagine themselves as part of that life.Collection: People
The success [of the X-Men], I think, is for two reasons. The first is that, creatively, the book was close to perfect ... but the other reason is that it was a book about being different in a culture where, for the first time in the West, being different wasn't just accepted, but was also fashionable. I don't think it's a coincidence that gay rights, black rights, the empowerment of women and political correctness all happened over those twenty years and a book about outsiders trying to be accepted was almost the poster-boy for this era in American culture.Collection: Book
Anytime something becomes a success in this way you always get imitators. I'm an imitator of the guys I love. I imitate people like Frank Miller, who is a huge inspiration to me.Collection: Inspiration
I don't know, maybe it's just timely, or maybe it's the fact that I live in a house with four women, but I just find my thoughts kind of skewing that direction at the moment.Collection: House
Many of our leadership practices have gone from being tried and true to being tired and tarnished.Collection: Tired