COMIC-ARTIST, WRITER AND EDITOR GARY SPENCER MILLIDGE

                                                por Jose Carlos Neves

  -First of all, in order to our readers know you better, please, give us your “curriculum” – age, education, where you grew up, marital status, sons and so on.

I was born in Hackney, London, England, in 1961. I’ve lived most of my life about forty miles east of London, in southern Essex for most of life since, apart from a four-year period during my early teenage years when I lived in southern Spain with my parents. I took my school exams at an English school in Spain and I returned to England to study for three years at Southend Art School. That didn’t lead to anything except the dole (unemployment benefit), so I ended up starting a mail order comics business which expanded into a fully-fledged comic store for a couple of years until I went bust.

I’ve never married or had children. I’ve been living with my girlfriend Mandy in a town called Leigh-on-Sea for the past couple of years.

-How did you first become interested in comics?

Apparently I was an avid reader of everything from a very early age. My parents used to give me a comic to read as a bedtime treat. These were the anthology-style british humour comics like The Beano and suchlike. I later progressed onto titles which included American reprints like Pow! And Smash! I was a big fan of the Batman TV series which was broadcast twice a week in the mid-to-late 1960s and so started picking up second-hand DC comics like Superman, Batman, World’s Finest and so on. I didn’t discover American Marvel Comics until the early 1970s, apart from what I had already seen reprinted.

I used to spend a lot of time indoors playing with my toy cars I remember. I also remember huge piles of comics everywhere and resisting my mother’s efforts to throw them out, sadly in vain. I was forced to give a lot to one of my less fortunate cousins.

I also recall being scolded by both my parents for spending my pocket money on buying some comics from a neighbour’s child as some were “too old” for me and some I already had. I guess I was a collector back then.

I also read lots of Enid Blyton children’s mystery books until I realised they were all the same. The “Famous Five” were favourites. Later, I started on pulpy Science Fiction – particularly Arthur C. Clarke – and I loved the Pan Horror anthologies too.

-When and how you begun writing and drawing and what was your main influences?

I started writing a mystery novel when I was about eleven or twelve years old and I remember my father complimenting me on my characterisation – of course I had no idea what he was talking about. But I was drawing my own version of Batman comics in yellow crayon in old, half-used ledger books that my dad used to give me when I was about four years old. By the time I was about ten, I was writing and drawing fully-fledged comics featuring Thunderbirds and Secret Squirrel.

                                                      Millidge´s brother, by Millidge

I started creating my own characters while I was a teenager – I drew about three issues of “The Exile” – a Silver Surfer knock-off when I was about 15, I guess. By the time I was at art school, back in England, I was already starting up my own fanzines. My first issue of a strip fanzine called Amon*Spek, was started up with a fellow student, photocopied, but by the second issue was properly printed with two-colour covers.

-What was the first comic by Alan Moore you read? Did it have a special impact on you? Why?              

Well, I used to buy the Sounds music paper when The Stars My Degradation was running, so that would have been the first one, although he was writing and drawing under his psuedonym Curt Vile at the time. I wasn’t really an avid 2000AD reader, but it’s likely I read his short stories for them... and I definitely read his story in Scream! #1. But the first time I really put a name to the work was with Warrior, most specifically Marvelman which was an incredibly refreshing take on superheroes at the time.

I must say here that Alan Davis has been a long-time friend of mine since he contributed to my fanzine Amon*Spek, so when Davis started getting professional work, I could hardy ignore his collaborations with Moore – D.R. & Quinch for 200AD, Captain Britain and Marvelman which Davis took over from Garry Leach.

After that, I started to pick up all Moore’s projects specifically for his writing. This was unusual for me to follow a writer’s work, as I was at the time – like most other collectors – following only artists, or writer artists. I think Alan Moore changed all that forever.

I think that Alan’s best work has got to be From Hell. I’m a strong believer in the potential for diversity in comics, and I kind of resent the way superheroes have dominated the market for so long. Watchmen was an incredible work, it changed the face of superhero comics, but it only really works in context of the history of superhero comics, as a kind of coda. I don’t believe it’s the right sort of book to try to seduce new adult readers into the comics habit.

From Hell stands in its own right as a remarkable piece of literature and research. Its complexity and depth will probably never be surpassed in comics, and I think the choice of Eddie Campbell to draw it was a remarkably, insightfully appropriate.

Having said all that, I suspect if Big Numbers had ever been completed it may have been an ever greater work. I certainly hold the two published issues in the highest regard.

I’ve been interested in Chaos Theory for a long time. I have some old TV documentaries on videotape somewhere, and they have been watched many times. I think it’s a great model for what goes on in the Universe. Like Quantum Physics, it’s a useful interpretation for us as humans to be able to grasp some of the complexity of the Universe, which is patently beyond our sphere of comprehension.

I don’t believe that Chaos Theory or whatever the current trend of scientific thinking actually explains the true nature of the Universe, so it’s a moot question to ask if a comic book can. I don’t think anyone or anything can. But a comic book is a good a place as any to try.

Brought to Light obviously shows that comics can be a political instrument, but because of the historic prejudice against comics in general in the English-speaking world, it won’t be able to reach a “large” audience, no. Again, I think comics can be, if used properly, the best vehicle for communicating complex ideas as well as narratives. It’s just that the potential mass audience is resistant to its form, which it associates with children’s reading matter, lurid sensationalism and illiteracy.             

-Movies and mainly music, can affect us deeply, rousing imprevisible emotions. So it is Poetry. They all can  transcend it´s limitations as a genre. What about comics? Could it has this quality, also?

I think comics are capable of this absolutely, but it is a very difficult form to master. Comics can be an incredibly sophisticated medium for works of poetry, or fiction, or education, but both the audience and therefore creator base needs to increase substantially in order for comics to begin to reach their potential on a more consistent basis.              

 - Returning to your comics and drawing, tell us a little bit about, them, heir’s  motivation, generation, objectives and so on.

I am committed to try to broaden the market for comics by producing work that appeals to, and is accessible to, the “general public” – by writing and drawing stories containing elements of drama, mystery, humour and horror – but not superhero. Material that requires a minimum of “comics literacy,” without the traditional shorthand language of comics in order that it can appeal to the broadest possible market. Obviously at some stage I want to broaden my horizons and develop and experiment with my work.

-What do you think is your best comics till now and why?

The only substantial comics work of mine would be Strangehaven, a comic title that I have been self-publishing since 1995. I’m a little over halfway through my projected series of four volumes – I’m working on issue sixteen right now, with six issues making up one volume. I think I’ve improved in every department over the past seven or eight years, and always my current work is my favourite. But I’m looking forward to finishing Strangehaven and perhaps starting something totally new from scratch. I still have tentative plans for Strangehaven continue in one way or other.

I couldn’t possibly begin to list all the comic creators, artists and illustrators, which have interested me or influenced me over the years. As I’ve already said, I am a big fan of all kinds of comics right across the range of comics published from George Herriman and Windsor McKay, to Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid, to Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz, Charles Burns, Chris Ware... I could go on forever.

- Do you know the comic art of  the now famous brazilian Mike Deodato?

I know Mike Deodato made a big impact when he first debuted in American superhero comics. I remember being very impressed with his work at the time.

  - What about your   homage-book "Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman ", What was your motivations? How it has been generated and whar kind of feedback are you   receiving?

The Portrait book was merely something I was asked to contribute to, and eventually asked to publish. I liked smoky man’s enthusiasm, I thought his fund-raising cause for Alzheimer’s suffers was a good and overlooked one, so I said yes. I was already considering writing a comic strip biography about Alan, so the two projects dovetailed quite nicely.

What I didn’t expect was the incredible interest from the participating creators and the speed and volume of sales. The project grew from a 32-pamphlet to a 352-page book within a few months. The book is already almost sold out of its initial printing after only two-and-a-half months. We are on course to raise a substantial amount of money for the charities with an Italian edition and a Spanish edition (see note below) scheduled for publication later this year and an on-line auction of some of the artwork from the book planned. It has been a fantastic success in every respect.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman is a great concept and full of potential for the future. I’m a big fan of Kevin O’Neill’s artwork and the two series up to now have been fantastically enjoyable.

I doubt whether the movie version will bear much resemblance to Moore’s vision – I wouldn’t really expect it to, Hollywood being Hollywood and all. I’m also sure it will have negligible impact on comics’ profile for the general public. No other comics movie has caused any lasting benefit in the comics Industry, so I don’t know why LoEG would be any different.

-We know that the man, himself, has granted a new interview to your book, could you tell us the story behind this? 

No, we didn’t actually approach Alan for a new interview for the book. We are reprinting his four-part dialogue with Dave Sim collected together in one publication for the first time; and we are publishing Omar Martini’s interview from Black Velvet’s Pocket Essential: Alan Moore book in English for the first time. It originally appeared in Italian.

However, I did speak to Alan on two occasions attempting to fill in gaps and confirm certain facts for my own 12-page comic strip biography of Moore, which appears at the front of the book.

I do know Alan from some limited correspondence way back in the early 1980s when I was publishing a fanzine called Comics News Monthly and met him at one of the legendary Westminster Comic Marts at the time. More recently I’ve been visiting him annually with Chris Staros of Top Shelf, who are publishing a number of Alan’s projects over the next few years, including Lost Girls.

-           -   Any other future projects?

I remain committed to Strangehaven for the foreseeable future. I may be tempted by one or two side projects, for example, the 14-page Simpsons comic strip for Treehouse of Horror #9 due to be published this Halloween. But my main emphasis remains Strangehaven.

-Thanks, Gary, for sharing your precious time.

-        -It was good talking to you!

M                                        MILLIDGE DRAWS THE SIMPSONS!

w    www.millidge.com

P    PORTRAIT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN GOES SPANISH