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Radiation Interrogation: Rob Williams
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Location: Blogs Atomic Fallout |
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| Posted by: Atomic Online |
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 8:26 AM |
Atomic Comics - Robocop is no doubt one of the best Sci-Fi movies to come out of the 80’s. Your new book is a direct sequel to that first movie. What can you tell us about it?
 Rob Williams - Dynamite’s new Robocop is, hopefully, the book that fans of the original Verhoeven movie will love. We ignored the sequels and the TV show and just went back to the source to find the tone. And that tone is pretty satirical and irreverent, as well as being action packed and violence-heavy. Then, once we set the scene with OCP and Old Detroit, we’ll be moving the narrative in new, different directions. I think, by issue five, people are going to know that this isn’t a Robocop you’ve seen before.
AC - How much of a fan of the movie were you going into this project?
RW - Not hugely, funnily enough. I think I’d seen the movie on VHS back in the ’80s and that was it. I saw Robocop 2 in the cinema, I remember that, although not that much about the movie. When I was asked to pitch I bought the first movie on DVD and sat through wondering if I’d like what I was watching. Fortunately, I really did. I liked it more in 2009 than I did when I was teenager first time around. It’s one of the most energetic and kinetic slices of sci-fi you’re ever likely to find. And the humour is great and very unique. It’s got a real European sensibility to it, mixed with its American setting that creates something quite unique.
AC - As a writer, do you feel any pressure to work on a character that is so well know to fans, as opposed to one you have created yourself?
RW - Not especially. If anything it’s sometimes easier. The template’s there for you to pick up and very well established. The difficulty comes from not being able to change the status quo when you’re writing a Spider-Man or a Judge Dredd. Writing stories that feel like they matter to the main players. Fortunately, the guys at Dynamite have been very cool about letting us mess with the status quo on Robocop. This is a different continuity. I don’t see how it could feel emotionally important to the main players otherwise.
AC - Dynamite is saying this book will be an ongoing series. How long to you have planned out so far?
RW - Up to issue ten. I’ve got thoughts on where we can take it beyond that, things that really broaden our knowledge of Robocop’s world, but let’s see if they still want me onboard for that long, first.
AC - Many people in the United States were first introduced to your work with the amazing book from Com.X Cla$$war. Rumor is that Com.X is making a comeback … true?
RW - Oh, Com.X is back publishing comics again. They’ve just launched a cool new original graphic novel called ‘45’ written by Andi Ewington. I’m heading to London this week to attend the launch signing. You can find them at www.comxcomics.com There’s also still a fair amount of dialogue about the potential Cla$$war movie from Mandeville Films (The Surrogates) too. We’ve all got fingers crossed on that.
AC - Is there a possibility for some more Cla$$war?
RW - It really depends on the progress of the Cla$$war movie. We’d all love to do it, and it was always intended to be a 12 issue story, but the reality of indie publishing, and our desire to maintain the art standards that were set with issues 1-6, mean that to bring it back we’d want someone of the quality of Trev Hairsine or Travel Foreman to draw the final six issues. And those guys get paid pretty well by the Marvels and DCs of this world. At the moment it’s not really financially viable to do more Cla$$war, but if the movie does get greenlit, then I’m sure we’ll finish the series.
AC - Since you’ve had a chance to write both characters, who would win in a fight, Robocop or Judge Dredd? And why?
RW - Probably Robocop, due to the whole ‘made of metal’ thing. Although, saying that, Dredd’s got longevity on his side. He’s near 60 and he’s been taking down robots and cyborgs since before you were born, sonny Jim. OK, I’ve changed my mind. Dredd. Here’s a thought, what about a crossover? Then we can find out for real. Your move, creep!
AC - Your website credits you as a comic book write and journalist … can you tell fans the coolest or scariest story of your journalistic endeavors?
RW - The very first work experience journalism job I ever did – I must’ve been about 16 – was to go out to a farm where a dog had savaged loads of sheep. We got there and the farmer had shot the dog through the head and he’d piled the bloody bodies of all the sheep and the dog up for us to see and photograph. That was a nice ‘hello’ to journalism. The scariest? I was in Dubai making a documentary on the building of the Emirates Towers, which, at the time, was the fifth tallest building in the world, I think. They sent me and a cameraman up the outside of it in a grid-mesh construction elevator that clunked badly with every floor we passed and was shaking in the wind. I was petrified. My legs went... The coolest? I’m a huge NFL fan. Last year I got to cover the NFL Draft from Radio City in New York, interviewed people like Larry Fitzgerald and Ray Lewis. Interviewing Ray Lewis – that may have been the scariest too. |
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