The Secret Service

Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons talk about their exciting new project

In the latest issue of CLiNT we interview Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons about their eagerly anticipated collaboration The Secret Service. This taster of the interview begins with Mark and Dave explaining how tough it is to keep a lid on a project they are so excited about...

Mark Millar: My brilliant strategy to keep this a secret is simply not telling anybody about it. The publishing and movie world is very gossipy and the minute you tell one person everybody knows what's going on. So we've simply kept this to just Matthew, Dave and me, so nobody has a clue. It's pretty perfect because, in comics and cinema, you kind of know everything before your bum hits the seat. You see four trailers for any big movie now and that's after a year and a half of online pics and catching interviews on chat-shows and so on.

Dave Gibbons: Well, once you’ve made your mind up that this is going to be a secret, you can do it. It’s very hard, though, to put a cat back in a bag, once it’s been let out. We’ve known that we wanted to play our cards pretty close to our chest, so we’ve both been very careful about what we’ve actually revealed. I did an interview at a convention in Birmingham recently, and I was typically evasive by calling it ‘My Secret Project’, which I guess is kind of a hint in itself. I did drop a few hints, but in the answers to other questions, so I don’t know if anybody’s got a good enough memory or a recording of what I said, but there may have been a few very carefully selected clues. It’s difficult not to enter the area of being the annoying kid at school: “I’ve got a secret, but you can’t guess what it is!”. It’s actually good fun, trying to keep things quiet, particularly in these days of chatrooms and the internet – and phone-tapping, I expect…

You first wrote to Dave when you were 17, Mark. How does it feel to be finally working with each other?

Mark: I'm slightly mortified when I read that letter I sent to Dave when I was in Sixth Form at school. I was a massive fan and it's clear from the letter, but there's also that underlying egomania where I'm suggesting that he's lucky enough to have been selected by me for my first writing project, after working with Alan Moore, and suggesting he fits this in before he starts Give Me Liberty with Frank Miller. This is like Stuart Lipnickie asking Eva Mendes if she'd like to sleep with him. I was batting seriously out of my league there. But as you can see from his reply, Dave with incredibly kind and courteous. I was probably one of a dozen nutters who had written to him that day.

Dave: I’ve been a fan of Mark’s for a long, long time, and it’s great to be finally working with him. The script has all the things about Mark’s work that I love so much. The great moments, a lot of humour, some really unexpected twists and turns, and a real feel for character. All of which are things that I always look for.

When did you first become aware of the other’s work, and what’s your all-time favourite comic they’ve produced?

Dave: I think the first time I really became aware of Mark in his own right was the stuff that he used to write for the more juvenile – deliberately juvenile – Superman books for DC, and I think maybe some Batman books as well. Superman Adventures. He was telling very straightforward stories, but there were some really interesting twists, and probably a lot more maturity than was necessary. But my favourite comic of Mark’s, one that I was a complete and utter fanboy about, was The Ultimates, with wonderful art by Bryan Hitch.

Mark: The Green Lantern run Dave did with Len Wein was really exciting for me. The actual environments he was drawing seemed so much better than what the guys had been doing previous. It all suddenly felt very real, which I got off on at thirteen, and I remember Carol Ferris not only calling a Guardian a bastard, but she confirmed she was sleeping with Hal Jordan. At thirteen this was mind-blowing and I picked everything else up he drew. In terms of copies sold, I guess Watchmen is the biggest book that Dave's drawn, but I think his actual art has consistently improved with each project and a personal peak for me would be The Originals. Watchmen is one of my all-time favourite books and changed the way comics were done, but in terms of actual layout and drawing ability I think he's always outdone his previous work. He's like John Romita. He just constantly looks for new ways to improve, which is amazing when you're the biggest name in the room.

Read the full interview with Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons in CLiNT #12, on sale in the US and Canada on 23rd November, and hitting the UK and Ireland on 24th November.

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