Brian Woods first comic was Channel Zero, the story of a female freedom fighter in a repressive future America. Initially it didnt make much of an impact, but its become a cult hit, and will be rereleased in a new edition along with its sequel this spring. Wood has written a number of comics including Local, Demo, DV8, and the young adult comics The New York Four and The New York Five. His most significant work and arguably his best work has been the two series he wrote at Vertigo. DMZ is one of the great political tales of the past decade and a great story of New York, which recently concluded after a long run. Northlanders, a series of unrelated stories about vikings that are based on historical fact and take place over centuries and is one of the most innovative and interesting comics of the decade.



His two major projects right now are at Dark Horse. With his longtime collaborator Becky Cloonan, Wood is taking over Conan the Barbarian for a 25 issue run. Woods major project right nowand for years to comeis The Massive. The series just debuted in the anthology Dark Horse Presents illustrated by Kristian Donaldson and will launch as an ongoing series in June and explores a group of environmentalists coming to terms with what to do after the world has come to an end.





ALEX DUEBEN: What is The Massive?



BRIAN WOOD: The Massive is my next big, multi-year comics project, one I created and own myself.In a lot of ways its a continuation of the themes I've been writing in a lot of my recent work, but in some other ways its a huge advancement in how I write comics and present them to the audience. The basic premise is about environmentalists, activists and provocateurs, who suddenly find themselves having failed to stop the end of the world and are now adrift, literally, in a "post-crash" world. The scale of the story is, well, massive, covering the entire globe and talks about societal breakdowns and natural disasters and piracy and some core environmental issues.It's not a political book exactly, more post-political, dealing with the aftermath of the degradation of the planet.



AD: What do you mean about how its changed how youre writing and presenting the story?



BW: What I mean is taking what worked in past projectsand rejecting what didn'tand applying that to The Massive. Specifically, I'm writing The Massive is a much more compressed style, putting more story into shorter arcs and making the single issue comics a greater value as a result. I'm working on a few ideas for marketing the book, added value promotional content, thinking about digital, things like that. It's a tough market out there for original work, so I feel I have to step up my game a bit here.



All that makes the book a challenge to draw. Not just all the weather andgeographyand ship architecture and whatnot, but that compressed style means a much denser story, much to the dismay of the artist, no doubt.



AD: You worked with Kristian Donaldson on Supermarket and a few issues of DMZ. At what point in the process did he become involved in The Massive and did you do anything differently knowing you were writing for him?



BW: The book was pitched and placed at Dark Horse Comics by the time I invited him to come aboard.I've known Kristian since he was a college student, before his career in comics, when he used to email me for scripts to practice drawing from. On The Massive he's taken his craft to a new height of realism and detail, and so I don't hold back on the scripts. I give him both barrels and he's keeping up.I used to think my book DMZ was the most difficult to draw, but The Massive wins that prize.



AD: Your other big project starting up is Conan. What was it that made you interested in writing Conan?



BW: Being asked to write it.Seriously, the idea of Conan as something I could write never occurred to me until the job offer came my way.



AD: Have the years you spent working on Northlanders affected how you write Conan?



BW: It does, and not always in a good way.In writing a licensed, franchise book like Conan, especially like Conan that comes with its own rich history and fully realized world, there's a fair amount of rules to follow and I often find myself having to dial back what I learned from Northlanders, all the years of research and immersion in that history, in favor of the fictional history within Conan. Thank god for good editors.



AD: When you first started talking about the book, was Becky Cloonan attached as artist?



BW: Not at all.I think I was on the book, in whatever capacity (pitching, discussing, and writing) for well over six months before we got to the point of choosing an artist.



AD: What plans do you have for your run on Conan, besides crushing your enemies and depicting the lamentations of their women?



BW: Ah, that line is from the film, not the original novels.Well, I'm adapting one of those novels, The Queen Of The Black Coast, so that is a big part of the job. But there is some leeway there and some gaps to fill in where I can create new Conan stories and moments as I go. But the mandate will always be to tell this period of Conan's life, when he's young and in love, for the first time, with this totally brutal and totally gorgeous pirate queen.



AD: Youve worked together for many years now on different projects like Jennie One and Demo. What is it that you two enjoy about working together?



BW: We know each other so well, both personally and in terms of how we work, and with that comes a lot of trust. I just don't worry about anything, really. I stay out of her way and she out of mine and we each trust the other to deliver the goods. We've worked together since 2001 and on five projects now and its been nothing but positive for me.



AD: Another artist youve worked with a few times is Ryan Kelly and recently youve done two great books back to back about a group of female NYU students, The New York Four and The New York Five. Will there be a New York Six?



BW: Probably not. Ryan Kelly and I have something else going. And in an industry so hostile to the sort of books the New York Four/Five are, I feel lucky to have gotten those out there.



AD: You have two projects listed on your website with no descriptions, Anthem and Mara, and I just wanted to weasel some information out about them?



BW: Anthem is that Ryan Kelly book, of which there is very little info to share, and Mara is a book I'm doing with Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire over at Image Comics, about a lone superpowered woman in a social dystopia of sorts. It's a mashup of Demo and something like Supergirl, lots of themes of power and politics and celebrity and conformity. We're still in the early stages of that one, I wouldn't expect to see it on stands until the end of the year.



AD: Northlanders comes to an end next month, which is sad because its one of the bets comics out there, but the cynic in me is surprised it lasted this long. What are your thoughts as the series ends and what do you think you learned about writing from the experience?



BW: That is a huge, huge question.I could spend pages and pages answering that. In one way I would agree with you, that a book like that is a tough sell. On the other hand everyone involved nearly killed themselves to make it, and its my favorite book, the one I identify most with as a creator. I put so much work and heart and myself into it, it was tough to bring it to an end. Not sure its sunk in yet.



AD: Will we ever see you write and draw a book again? Or at least a story?



BW: I can see myself maybe self-publishing a mini comic or something like that. Time is always a factor, though, and I have to wonder how many people would really care. I have nothing but respect for comic book artists. They work harder and longer than anyone else I have ever known in my life and then look and see how fast most people flip through a comic book. An entire day, sometimes more, drawing a page that a reader will spend 5 seconds looking at. It's rough.

