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Its been a rough 24 hours for everyones favorite crimson-toned paranormal investigator.
What were your conversations with director Neil Marshall like?Well, I never …
I mean, I never reallyhadmuch of a conversation with Neil.
I only met him once or twice, I guess, before filming began.
There were a lot of discussionsaboutNeil and how Neil would be great for this.
But no real conversations with Neil about what to do.
The conversations I had, other than with the producer and the writer …
I did talk to David Harbour quite a bit.
He kept texting me questions.
Really interesting questions about, What were you thinking when you created him?
What were you thinking about this?
I know we did at least one night where I was like, Man, I cant keep texting!
So that turned into a two-hour conversation about God knows what.
Everything under the sun.
Did any of that affect his performance?
Theres never been any real stop to the discussion of continuing to do more films.
Did I ever believe it would happen?
Nah, probably not.
It doesnt mean they necessarily wouldve listened to me.
Thank God we never had to have that conversation.
The best I can do with something like that is say, I dont wanna be involved.
So I was very happy that I got a chance to go in.
Especially with The Wild Hunt, which is a very complicated story.
With all my stories, theres a certain logic that … not all of it is on the page.
But you co-wrote a draft of the script, right?At one point, yeah.
Chris Golden and I … That was before it was a reboot.
Thats the way this stuff works.
Was there anything from your script that made it to the screen?Lets see.
There are some bits I had a hand in.
I mostly wrote those couple little bits.
But its such a collaborative thing that its really hard to pinpoint specific moments.
Thats one of my favorite little things I look at and Id like to think,Ooh!
I wrote that bit!
The day I was on set in Bulgaria, it was the Wild Hunt out in a field.
That was pretty surreal.
And the costume for Lobster Johnson is spot-on, or 99 percent exactly what was in the comic.
Thats taken a lot of getting used to, seeing my work so represented on screen.
So that was pretty cool.
Have you read the reviews of the movie?I have not.
You have not.Imawareof the reviews, but I have decided not toreadthe reviews.
Im anxious to hear what the fans think of the film.
I certainly want the fans to be happy.
But, no, Im gonna stay away from the reviews.
You have greater strength than me.
I think that was one of the relatively late additions to the script.
I cant remember what it used to start with.
Ive been a lucky boy.
Im not sure when that thing started cooking.
Id always wanted to do something with King Arthur.
How it turned into this story?
I honestly dont know.
I do know that, once it started …
Which Ron Perlman also did, of course.
Did you interact with Ian McShane at all?No.
I saw him from a distance.
Frankly, he scares me to death.
Nobody introduced us and I was kinda like,Im fine.
It was cool to see him walk by.
I saw him from a distance.
So its an interesting process of creating something and letting it go.
Its not really mine.
The books are mine; thats great.
But at a certain point, its like watching your kid grow up and move away.
Theyre doing shit you dont know anything about and you kinda miss when they lived in the house.
Because, at the end of the day, that stuff wasnt done until I said it was done.
Different doesnt necessarily mean worse; it just means its different.
Whats coming up next for you?Im kind of in between things right now.
Im writing several issues ofHellboy doing that today, as a matter of fact.
But every few years, I get that itch to draw comics again.
Its been way too long since I was sitting there, actually drawing comics.
And writing is no fun.
Making shit up is fun.
Sitting around, writing something for someone else to draw, is no fun at all.
Explaining to another artist what goes on in a panel is work.
And its not naturally what I do.
Id much rather be drawing than typing.
They got the Lobster into the movie!
So God only knows what he wouldve done.
And, in the comic version, theres a superhero character there, the Torch of Liberty.
I said, Lets not use the Torch of Liberty.
But had I created Lobster Johnson way back when, I wouldve put Lobster Johnson into that scene.
Im glad they checked with me instead of just putting the Torch of Liberty in.
But I said, Yeah, this is a perfect place to insert Lobster Johnson.
I just didnt have my own pulp/adventure/superhero character when I started the comic.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
