All Things X

A few weeks back I went to the Bristol International Comics Expo to meet Chris Claremont a writer best known for Marvel's X Men he's returned to the characters in a book called "X Men Forever." Needless to say I'm a big fan of his work in general. Chris took time out of his busy schedule to talk about the early days of comic's fandom and all things X related...

Chris Claremont

What was the comic book industry like when you started out in terms of creating characters, fandom, etc?
It was much smaller - well, the paradox says it was larger in that we had better sales, and it was smaller then there were no conventions or public enthusiasm we have now.

In the '80s, DC Comics was coming out with stuff like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Year One. How did Marvel Comics react to that at the time?
I actually don't know how Marvel Comics officially reacted, but we had the Epic line which was creator owned material where you had slightly more mature versions of the mainstream characters. However, Marvel's attitude was always that if you're going to do Spider-Man, Avengers and X-Men, it should be always orientated to be the broadest possible readership. You don't want to do mature stories. The X-Men graphic novel "God Loves Man Kills" was more mature in terms of specific language, and that we had occasional bursts of profanity - but on the whole it was acceptable to younger readers. The only caveat was the actual themes that we were discussing, which were religious intolerance, mass murder and things of that nature. I did a number of adult stories as miniseries for Epic - it's just different approaches from different publishers.

In regards to your run on Uncanny X-Men, you are also known for creating strong female characters. Where do you think this comes from?
I know strong women and I know strong men! All of my family served in the R.A.F during the war: my mother, my father, my uncle and my aunt. It seemed a natural thing to me they were neither wallflowers, nor "scaredy-cats", to use a cliché. They did what was required of them, and to use them as an example seemed appropriate to the X Men.

If you had known Wolverine was to become so popular, would you have changed anything about him or done anything different with the character?
It wasn't my character to change or do anything with; Len Wein created him, not me, so it was out of my hands to begin with. He was already part of the Marvel pantheon. If I could change my behaviour over the past years, something I probably would not have done is quit in 1991. But then again, if I had stuck around considering what was happening with Jim Lee and the X-Men in Marvel, it might have turned out even worse.

It's like saying: "What would have you done with the Fantastic Four or the X-Men themselves?" You play the hand you dealt, and that's the hand I was dealt with. I played it to the best of my ability and I still do.

In recent years, Wolverine was given an origin. Do you reckon that was because of the films?
No, Bill Jemas wanted to give him an origin the day he walked in the door. He felt that was the "one great untold story" of Logan's life that needed to be told, and the fight was very passionate, and very intense. A number of us, myself included, felt that that was a tragic mistake.

How did the Milo Manara collaboration come about?
Panini wanted to do a project with Manara, and they felt the best Marvel project was X-Men. They also thought the best person to write the X-Men was me, and I said yes - how many chances is anyone going to get to work with Manara over the course of a lifetime?

Are there any other European artists you would like to work with - like, say, Moebius on X-Men?
You always want to work with the best! But I would rather work with a European artist on something that the artist and I own together - not something that Marvel own. I was working with Philippe Briones for a number of years on a graphic series with Panini; the first volume came out in Europe two years ago. That isn't moving swiftly as any of us would like, but that's the way it goes.

Finally, what are thoughts on your successors, ie Joss Whedon, and Warren Elis?
I admire their work. It's a lot more fun seeing great writers and great artists work on material than less great artists and writers. I know Joss's thoughts on the X-Men and I'm flattered. I don't know how Warren feels about it - that's his business - but ultimately, what happens with the X-Men when I'm not writing it is Marvel's business, not mine. I care passionately about it when I'm on the book; when I walk away I would rather not look back, because it's not going to do me any good. It's certainly not going to make any difference to Marvel's decisions or attitudes. It's a part of life - you close the chapter and move on; end of story.

Special thanks to Chris Claremont, Mike Allwood and Joe Ward.

Posted: 3/6/2010
Categories: X-men / Comics

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