WIDOW MAKER: RICHARD K. MORGAN TALKS BLACK WIDOW

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

It was recently announced in May at Wizard World Philadelphia that there would be a new Black Widow series this September, written by novelist Richard K. Morgan, and illustrated by Bill Seinkiewicz with covers by Greg Land. We caught up with writer Richard K. Morgan for a look forward into what we can expect, and what it’s like coming from the medium of novels to sequential art.

Richard K. Morgan comes to this title as a successful novelist primarily in the “future noir” genre. His first novel, Altered Carbon, won the 2003 Philip K. Dick Award for Fiction. He’s also had an extensive career as an Instructor in the English Language Teaching (ELT) Industry. This afforded him the chance to travel to many exotic locations throughout the world and have a bevy of experiences to influence him. With this sort of background, he seems like an ideal writer to script such a world-hopping spy as the Black Widow.

For continuity buffs, several women have held the title of Black Widow in Marvel’s convoluted continuity. From the original Timely version in Mystic Comics (1940), to the second and most popular Natasha Romanov, and the most recent Yelena Belova as Natasha’s replacement in a recent Black Widow mini-series. The character portrayed in this upcoming series is the popular red-haired Natasha. Although Yelena Belova is name-checked in this series, she doesn’t play a significant role. The series is edited by Jenny Lee.

Newsarama: First off, given the different takes, as well as different women that have been Black Widow over the years, how are you approaching writing the Black Widow comic book?

Richard K. Morgan: Carefully! This is the first time I’ve written a comic, and although it bears some resemblance to screenwriting, which I do have experience of, basically there’s a very steep learning curve involved. But I’ve been fortunate to have a really great editor, Jenny Lee, who’s shepherded me through the more obvious hurdles.

NRAMA: How many issues have you planned to write?

RKM: At the moment, I’ve agreed with Jenny that we’ll do six issues, to be collected into a single graphic novel, and then we’ll see how it goes after that.

NRAMA: You’re rather new to Marvel – how did you get connected in the first place?

RKM: Out of the blue, really. Jenny Lee at Marvel read my novel Altered Carbon, and off the back of that she contacted me to see if I’d be interested in doing a Marvel character for her. Obviously I was delighted, not to mention very flattered - you don’t get a much higher accolade for your work than that someone wants to hire you on the strength of it.

NRAMA: Marvel’s made it known that Black Widow is one of the characters they’re adapting for the big screen. Back in April, it was announced that David Hayter, scriptwriter for X-men and X2: United is in line to direct Black Widow with a 2006 target release date. Has the movie option had any effect on your work on the comic book?

RKM: Nope.

Okay, maybe that needs explaining. The thing is, the Black Widow series I’m writing was conceived well before there was any news of a movie deal, and I already had very clear ideas of what I wanted to do with it - the sequence is an on-going one, building on what’s already there and moving forward, whereas from what I understand the movie is likely to be more of an origin story. I suppose in theory there’s a possible convergence in the future somewhere, but certainly too far off for me to be concerned with at this stage.

NRAMA: With the extensive history that the Black Widow has in the past 40+ years, which previous stories of hers have stood out to you in your research?

RKM: Well, Abattoir had a certain something….

To be honest, I wasn’t too concerned with any individual story while I was doing the background work. What you’re looking for is an overall flavor. The new stuff has to walk and talk all on its own, it has to appeal to someone who’s never heard of the Black Widow as well as to those who already know her. So you don’t get too hung up on any one plotline, you just try and keep it all in mind for backdrop as you write.

NRAMA: You come to the comic book industry from as a successful novelist and Philip K. Dick award winner. Why did you decide to write comics, and what are the different challenges in comics than in writing a novel?

RKM: Simple answer - I was invited. It would have been pretty ungracious to refuse, and once I started looking at the possibilities, as I said above, I was hooked. Plus, it’s a whole different form for me, and it’s always good to try your hand at something new. Keeps you sharp.

I think for me the most challenging part of that learning curve has been the brevity required. For example we found, when the first issue was broken down to panel by panel, that I’d actually written two full issues without realizing it. Twenty two pages at five to six panels a page isn’t actually a lot of maneuvering room when you’re used to writing four hundred page novels - each issue is more like a very short short-story, so you have to get correspondingly economical with dialogue and plot points. For the rest, I didn’t have too many other problems - my writing is very visual and cinema influenced anyway, so I just work by imagining I’m scripting a movie, then go back and break it down.

NRAMA: Black Widow is to be illustrated by legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Can you tell us what unique traits Sienkiewicz’s artwork will bring to the book, and have been consciously or subconsciously writing the book with him in mind?

RKM: Not really, no. As I said, I’m completely new to this world. And anyway, I wouldn’t like to try and pre-empt his work. But I am extremely flattered that I’m getting such a big name to work with, and the stuff I’ve seen so far is superb. This Black Widow is going to be very dark, and it looks to me as if Sienkiewicz is going to be exactly the right guy for that.

NRAMA: In your biography on your website, you’ve professed a love for travel. Given that in the past Black Widow was a globe-trotting secret agent, have your travels impacted writing the character in any way?

RKM:Well, there’ll certainly be some exotic travel in the stories, but I think what my experiences abroad have brought to the writing above all is the sense of detachment and alienation that being a cultural exile can produce. I’ve lived and worked in a couple of different cultures to my own, and had extensive experience of about half dozen more, so I know what it’s like to not belong - and that’s a prime component of the Widow. She’s an exile from her own land, and the work she does is profoundly dehumanizing in its implications. She’s bound to feel alienated at times - and that’s territory I know well.

NRAMA: Besides your work on Black Widow and the recently completed novel, Market Forces, what else are you working on?

Currently, I’m finishing a fourth future noir novel entitledWoken Furies. This is the third in a series featuring the same central character, Takeshi Kovacs (Market Forces isn’t part of this), but as with Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, it will be a standalone.
NRAMA: Since this is your first work in comic books, what kind of research did you do for writing scripts with an artist in mind?

RKM: Well, I've always had a small, tight collection of favorite graphic novels, so just as when I started writing prose fiction, I looked to the stuff I liked to read for inspiration, so with this I'm looking at the really cool comics I've liked in the past to inspire me. As far as talking to people is concerned, my editor at Marvel, Jenny Lee, has been wonderful - she's sent me piles of archive material and has been very patient in helping me up the learning curve, and she also put me onto Mark Millar, whose a fellow denizen of Glasgow and a Zen master of comic writing from way back.

But in the end, I'm just writing the stuff and we'll see how it shapes up against the artistic demands of the form. In that sense it's very different from novel writing. A script is only ever a blueprint for the finished product – you can (and do!) go back and do quite a lot of re-working/editing.
NRAMA: Do you have any plans to do any other writing in comics?

RKM: Not as yet. To be honest, the thought of taking on more work right now is too scary. I’ve got my hands full as it is with Woken Furies and Black Widow running in parallel. Adding anything else to the load would be reckless. But in the future, well, who knows? I guess I could be tempted.

NRAMA: In a previous interview, you’ve described your upcoming novel Market Forces in terms of another famous comic - Sin City. In your words, “imagine Frank Miller’s Sin City set instead in a word of suits and corporate expense accounts.” Given this, it’s safe to assume that you’re a fan of the series. What other comic series have you read and enjoyed?

RKM: Yeah, Sin City is a favorite of mine, mainly for the total lack of compromise it displays. It was exactly the same dark, furious quality that I loved in Miller’s Dark Knight Returns when I read it back in the eighties, and to a great extent that element is what defines my other favorites too. You can probably guess what my comics bookshelf looks like from there on in - Alan Moore’s From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1 & 2, Ennis and Dillon’s Preacher, some Tank Girl, some Sandman - notably Season of Mists, which I think is the best of the bunch. I’ve also got a lot of time for Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelmann. My current favorites are Mike Carey’s stunning Lucifer series and the very brilliant Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

NRAMA: Finally, what makes Black Widow as a character interesting to you?

RKM: Well, first and foremost the fact that she’s a woman. Gender issues fascinate me, and crop up a lot in my writing - one of the reasons Jenny Lee got in touch with me in the first place was that she felt the female characters in Altered Carbon weren’t defined by their sex or sexuality - they were just people, good, bad and indifferent, getting on with their lives just like the male characters. And this is what she wanted to see coming into play with Black Widow. And immediately I looked at the set up, I could see why. Here you have this immensely tough and resourceful woman, and she always ends up being a pawn. It’s practically a metaphor for sexual oppression. What you see happen over and over again in the stories is that she gets used by all the male figures around her, whether it be her old KGB masters, her more recent SHIELD masters or just the men she ends up sleeping with. I mean, they’re never there for her when she needs them, but she still does whatever they want. For me, this was a paradox - why should a woman this tough, talented and trained allow this to happen? More importantly, what could we do to redress the balance? What about some payback? From there on in, I was hooked.

[halflingsinger]

Do we need another hot-ass-kicking-chick-espionage-thriller? Alias and Mystique haven't covered all of that ground yet?

www.halflingmusic.com

www.sequart.com

[Blind Assassin]

Truth be told, I wouldn't call 'Alias' a 'hot ass kicking chick espionage thriller'.

But, I am looking forward to this very much. I am glad to see the black widow get her own title. I enjoyed the minis that were put out a few years back, and had hoped for an ongoing.

Now I get my wish. Thanks!

[ParisCub]

Alias wasn't an espionage thriller...

[pmpknface]

They had me at Bill Seinkiewicz.......

[Vyper]

Originally posted by halflingsinger
Do we need another hot-ass-kicking-chick-espionage-thriller? Alias and Mystique haven't covered all of that ground yet?

www.halflingmusic.com

www.sequart.com

Do we need another troll?

[Hunter]

Loved Altered Carbon - can't wait to see what his comics are like.

Mike

[Bricktop]

Nothing against Bill Seinkiewicz, but why does Marvel have Greg Land doing a bunch of covers, instead of interiors? A book like Black Widow would have been perfect for him.

[OM]

Originally posted by pmpknface
They had me at Bill Seinkiewicz.......

...Not me. I gave up on his excuse for "art" back when he upchucked Stray Toasters. I still have copies of that drek, and about once every other year I try to pick that and his Electra mini up and try to read it. It's so god-awful unreadable that I give up after three pages.

Bottom Line: Extreme Abstract Art isn't worth a shit if it detracts so much from the story that you can't make out what the story's about.

[swol]

Originally posted by ParisCub
Alias wasn't an espionage thriller...

I think that halflingsinger was referring to the TV show not the Marvel series.

[swol]

Originally posted by OM
...Not me. I gave up on his excuse for "art" back when he upchucked Stray Toasters. I still have copies of that drek, and about once every other year I try to pick that and his Electra mini up and try to read it. It's so god-awful unreadable that I give up after three pages.

Bottom Line: Extreme Abstract Art isn't worth a shit if it detracts so much from the story that you can't make out what the story's about.

Amen!

I have avoided Bill Seinkiewicz books since his run on New Mutants years ago. That was the main reason I dropped that book. Reading it was painful.

[DilithiumDragon]

Originally posted by halflingsinger
Do we need another hot-ass-kicking-chick-espionage-thriller? Alias and Mystique haven't covered all of that ground yet?

www.halflingmusic.com

www.sequart.com

Oh, absolutely!

What we need is a stay-at-home soccer-mom who doubles as a secret agent. That'd be so much better.

[Vyper]

Don't feed the troll, people. Of course, I will now have to follow my own advise...

[rundownthewayup]

Everyone's got their tastes and opinions. I actually wish we had more Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave McKean, Ashley Wood, Kent Williams type artists on comics, it would bring the medium to a much more "artistic" level, NOT that it isn't already, comic artists are amazing, but "fellow man" does not view comics as art, and when Bill Sienkiewicz, etc. does something, it brings it into a more "fine art" arena. But again, some can't deal with his stylized works. He boggles my mind, he has so much talent in his little pinky, I'm in awe... I can't WAIT for this book, and his art.

And Elektra Assassin is an all time CLASSIC. :-)

[Cray_ws]

Originally posted by Bricktop
Nothing against Bill Seinkiewicz, but why does Marvel have Greg Land doing a bunch of covers, instead of interiors? A book like Black Widow would have been perfect for him.

From what I can tell from reading the article, is that Marvel has decided Bill would be better suited for Richard K. Morgan's noirish storytelling. Which won him a "Philip K. Dick Award for Fiction"

As for Greg Land, I highly doubt he'll do any sequental work for Marvel unless its a mini-series. As it looks like he has join the ranks of artist exclusively doing covers.

[halflingsinger]

i WAS referring to the Alias the TV show, but the trend is still there with the potential to grow out of control. I'm not against women in espionage, but i am against the waternig down of a genre.

And, to the easily offended, what does troll mean?

www.sequart.com

www.halflingmusic.com

[Matches Malone]

I can see how Sienkiewicz's style wouldn't be for everyone. Personally, though, I think it's great. I was bummed he wasn't doing the BATMAN arc with David Lapham, but this will be a nice substitute.

[kingofcities]

Bill is GOD. I can never get enough of him doing full interiors. Morgan sounds like he has a good feel for the character too. I am all over this book.

Kent

[gOgIver]

Interesting.

[Evan Brown]

Didn't I read that Greg Land is exclusive with Marvel?

[Kevin T. Brown]

NRAMA: How many issues have you planned to write?

RKM: At the moment, I’ve agreed with Jenny that we’ll do six issues, to be collected into a single graphic novel, and then we’ll see how it goes after that.

Why not just do the graphic novel then..? Why single issues...??

[Vyper]

Originally posted by Kevin T. Brown
Why not just do the graphic novel then..? Why single issues...??

Because some people may not be comfortable dishing out $15 for a graphic novel. It's a standard approach nowadays, and a good one at that. The single-issue vs TPB debate will go on forever.

[Doug Smith]

Originally posted by rundownthewayup
Everyone's got their tastes and opinions. I actually wish we had more Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave McKean, Ashley Wood, Kent Williams type artists on comics, it would bring the medium to a much more "artistic" level, NOT that it isn't already, comic artists are amazing, but "fellow man" does not view comics as art, and when Bill Sienkiewicz, etc. does something, it brings it into a more "fine art" arena. But again, some can't deal with his stylized works. He boggles my mind, he has so much talent in his little pinky, I'm in awe... I can't WAIT for this book, and his art.

And Elektra Assassin is an all time CLASSIC. :-)

Amen. Bill Sienkiewicz is one of the most original and unique artists working in the field of comics. If his name's attached to a project, I'm sold.

[CrazyFool]

Land is exclusive with Marvel and at Philly, Quesda said that he did have a project in the works that would be announced at a later time. Right now, Marvel's just putting him on covers as a way to get his art out there before his book debuts.

[cyclopsfan]

sounds interesting. this is the first i have heard of black widow the movie though.