Antony Johnston is a writer.
Not bound by any particular medium, his career started as a journalist, writing various role playing games, before being a founding editor of the now defunct comics criticism site, NinthArt. In 2001, Johnston's first novel, Frightening Curves, was released, which later won the 2002 American Independent Publishing (IPPY) "Best Horror" award. In comics, he has written several original graphic novels for Oni Press and has adapted several works of Alan Moore for Avatar and has written both the comic prequel to the hit video game Dead Space and has adapted the Alex Rider series to comic form for Walker Books. In 2007, Johnston started his fantatsic post-apocalyptic series, Wasteland, with Christopher Mitten for Oni Press. Johnston was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to speak with Forces of Geek.
FOG!: Tell me about your latest projects.
AJ: I'm co-writing Daredevil with Andy Diggle, working on a new miniseries for Marvel, and continuing to write my sci-fi epic Wasteland for Oni Press. I'm also working on several video games, graphic novels and prose books, but I can't talk about those yet.
Who or what are the biggest influences on your work and If you could pick one person to collaborate with dead or alive, who would you pick?
My influences are from all over the place. In comics, it's the usual suspects; Moore, Morrison, Gaiman, Ellis, Miller, Ennis, Rucka. Novelists would be mainly sci-fi and fantasy guys like Jeff Noon, William Gibson, Michael Moorcock, George RR Martin, John Brunner, Anthony Horowitz. My favourite movies are Blade Runner, The Usual Suspects, Seven, Dark City, Aliens, Memento. And then there's music, which has always been a huge influence on my life; mostly metal and doom like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Black Sabbath, Type O Negative, Flowing Tears, Metallica, Pantera.
As for collaboration, I've already worked with Alan Moore, which was a dream of mine since I was a teenager. If you're talking about artists, probably Philip Bond or Steve Dillon. I grew up reading their work, and they'll always be two of the greatest to me.
What is your pop culture guilty pleasure?
I don't really agree with the term "guilty pleasure" to start with, to be honest. If you enjoy something, why should you feel guilty about it? What the phrase really means is "lowbrow" entertainment, something that "people with taste" — snobs, in other words — would look down on you for enjoying. And I have no time for snobs. We'd do well to remember that the majority of the Western world looks down its collective nose at comics and video games as lowbrow media...
All that said, I'd have to go with NCIS. It's formulaic, badly written, and absurdly unrealistic. But the performances are great, and they make it watchable. Plus, any show which continues to give David McCallum work is all right by me.
If you were to have dinner with 5 fictional characters, who are they and what would you serve?
Cayce Pollard, Death of the Endless, Tyrion Lannister, Jim DiGriz, Wulf Sternhammer. I'd serve a roast vegetable pasta, because it's a dish I make pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.
I'd be much more interested in dinner with 5 of my favourite rock stars, though. I already know everything about the fictional characters, it would be quite boring.
Finish this sentence, "Geek is the new..."
Black. It's always black.
You've had several properties optioned for film. Do you feel that the frequency of comics being adapted into another medium affects how you approach writing the comics themselves?
It doesn't affect how I approach writing comics, no. Once you start doing that, you end up with a poor comic — which, ironically, lessens the chance of someone wanting to adapt it. The comic is the most important thing, to me. Make sure it's a good comic, and anything else that comes along is a bonus.
I'm aware that some creators do try to make their comics work "option-friendly", sure. We can all name comics that were blatantly put together simply to sell a movie option. But that's not for me.
Having adapted several pieces of early work by Alan Moore to comics, do you approach it as a straight adaptation or do you attempt to mimic Moore's style and approach?
They're kind of one and the same thing; if you do a "straight" adaptation of any writer's work, the original voice will shine through. And that's largely what I try to do, both with Alan's stuff and the Alex Rider graphic novels. I only do adaptations of work that I enjoy and respect, and I would hope that respect shows through in the final product.
Of course, you have to make changes here and there, because you're adapting to a different medium. That's where my own sensibilities and style come into play. But it's always done with respect for the source material.
Be sure to check out Antony's website, HERE.
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