SFX INTERVIEW SNIPPET

A brief excerpt from an interview journalist Stephen Jewell recently conducted for the excellent SFX Magazine, out today:

Q: How did you and Jim come to do Drowntown for Jonathan Cape? 

A: Cape have been producing an excellent line of graphic novels for some years now, championing the medium before it became 'trendy'. At first, we thought Drowntown might be too much of a departure for them in that it's a more commercial, genre-oriented project - mixing elements of science-fiction and crime fiction - than they're known for. If you look at their list, though, which is impressively eclectic, it's obvious that they just want to publish the best books possible.

We figured who dares wins and submitted the script and the first few pages of artwork for what became Book 1 to them via our agent. Cape Publisher Dan Franklin loved what he saw and wanted to take the book on.  

Also, as anyone familiar with the medium knows, it can take years to produce the artwork for a graphic novel, often resulting in a frustratingly long wait between books. To counter this, Cape had been considering the idea of releasing graphic novels in serialized volumes, similar to the European album format. The thriller aspects of Drowntown seemed to make it perfect for this approach and obviously Jim and I have a certain background in serial storytelling from our 2000AD days. 

And a wee bit more, as I just can't resist plugging the story:

Q: Tell us about the other characters and situations we can expect to see?

A: I don't want to drown anyone in a sea of spoilers, so won't say too much about the plot, beyond that it involves: The flooded city of London, or Drowntown as the locals know it; a young aqua-courier who learns young love can be a deadly game; a ruthless criminal haunted by the past and driven by revenge; a pair of genetically-engineered anthropomorphic assassins; an all-powerful corporation which manipulates the environment and aims to control human evolution; and, of course, Leo Noiret, who only hopes he has time for one last pint before one or all of the above gets him killed.

SFX Magazine #236 is out today. Stephen is also covering Drowntown in a longer article for the June issue of Comic Heroes. 

Drowntown Book 1 is out in the UK on June 20th. Pre-order your copy at your local book or comic shop, or at Amazon.co.uk.