I have been a Saga trade reader for years now and during this hiatus I decided to collect all 54 back issues in anticipation of the series return, partly because everyone is always asking to borrow my trades. After checking each and every comic shop I happened upon in my travels these past couple years I am happy to report I did it, I got them all! (First prints too!) I am looking forward to jumping back into the worlds you and Fiona have created and especially the change in format to now reading monthly.
My question for you (and Jonathan too) is do you have a preference for reading formats and how does that impact the way you write your stories? There are books everyone says read better collected as one big story versus issue to issue, and I wonder how much that experience plays into the writing process and intention of the author? It seems to me like finer details can get lost waiting a month to read the next issue but cliffhangers would be far more impactful.
Hi Brian. I could ask you a million questions about your writing process and skills but if I have only one question it would be "How can a freelance non-union actor who has been working in the industry for over ten years as background get a chance to audition for one of your current or future productions?" Yes this question is for me because at this point I have nothing to lose.
Neither of you strike me as particularly spiritual people. Yet, both of you have included a number of religious themes and images in your comics, such as the Gibborim, the girls in Paper Girls attending religious schools, magic in Saga, etc. (Hickman’s list is too long to include).
At the same time, both of you seem to share a certain left politics. Maybe it’s a stretch, but both of you seem committed to a certain materialist understanding of history, politics, economics, etc.
What is the appeal of religious imagery for y’all, and how does it interact with that more materialist understanding of the world? Are the contradictions fruitful ground for story and theme, or is there another level these ideas appeal on? What is valuable (or not) of the role of the mystic, or the materialist, or the mystical-materialist, in our society today and in the future?
It's been a couple of years and at least one pandemic since you last published an ongoing comic book (though apologies if I'm overlooking something that has come out since then) - with Saga returning next year after the hiatus, have you noticed changes to the comics publishing industry and do any of these changes influence how you're approaching the medium now? Or I guess to put it broadly, how does the industry you're writing in shape the stories you write (if it shapes them)?
I guess this is a question for both Mr. Hickman and Mr. Vaughan. Both of you have been known in the past for letting the work speak for itself and not doing many interviews or having a presence on social media. However, since the pandemic started, Mr. Vaughan has been semi-active on Instagram and Mr. Hickman with some interviews (all surrounding his X-work) and of course 3W3M. Is this simply because you each had something to promote, (in BKV's case the Y: The Last Man TV show and in Mr. Hickman's case Inferno and 3W3M) or has something shifted (maybe due to the pandemic, lack of a Saga letters column as an outlet during its hiatus, or something else) that made you want to be more...I'm not sure accessible is the right word...visible?
Brian, one of the things you’re known for is your killer first issues, your issue #1s that grab the reader right from the start. What, to your mind, is the secret sauce to a good first issue?
Also, I’ve noticed that almost all your #1s are extra-sized. Do you think something about the needs of a first issue make a significantly larger page count ideal?
Hi Mr.Vaughn! In today comics, a lot of titles seems to end in a weak way, making the last issue very forgettable, yet you have two of the best last issues of a long run that i can remember like Ex Machina 50 and Y the last man 60 ( along the Invisibles 1, Animal Man 26, Daredevil 191, Daredevil 233 , FF 23 or Secret Wars 9 , Hawkeye 22 or Sex Criminals 69).
So my question is ( to you and to Hickman) : Do you have the ending in stone before you start the series? Do you have some beats or do you go along the way, changing wathever you need that fits the story?
Thank you for your time! Here waiting for Saga 55! ( And 108!)
Where do you see comics going in this crossmedial environment? I have the feeling that comics are considered cow to milk for exposure in other media. IPs more than a relevant cultural outlet. Is this an exaggeration?
Curious if you can talk about your time working on LOST, and what led to you leaving before the final season. (this is not a "PLEASE DUNK ON LOST" thing, I love that show and I loved the last season) Given how controversial it was, can you shed any light at all on the road to that last season and, in general, your takeaways from working on a show of that magnitude? Do you ever see yourself working in TV to that degree again? How does it compare to your work on Runaways, Y, and the upcoming Paper Girls? Sorry this was a lot of questioning.
Hello! Thank you both. Question for you both I guess, do you prefer to make characters first and let the world build around them or do you let you world build the characters that inhabit it, especially as you are first generating a story. Thanks!
What was the first comic/movie/novel/story/whatever where narrative structure clicked in your mind? That so called “aha” or “seeing the matrix” moment where the machinations that comprised and made the story work came into focus?
Brian: taking Saga as an example, how much of the complete story you have already planned before as an outline (the end and main deaths, I suppose? Or not necessarily?), and how much you're used to shifting plans during the writing of an issue? All the cliffhangers (so far) were precisely planned or something was part of artists' emotions taking control for a moment?
As you create, how connected or disconnected are the processes of building a conceptual world and building a narrative world? How does the individual story which you're telling inform worldbuilding as a narrative tool? How does the worlds that you imagine/build inform the creation of new stories?
Have to ask one more, Mr. Vaughn can you tell us anything about the upcoming film adaptation of Mobile Suit Gundam and what it's like to work on a non-english franchise?
Hi Brian!
I have been a Saga trade reader for years now and during this hiatus I decided to collect all 54 back issues in anticipation of the series return, partly because everyone is always asking to borrow my trades. After checking each and every comic shop I happened upon in my travels these past couple years I am happy to report I did it, I got them all! (First prints too!) I am looking forward to jumping back into the worlds you and Fiona have created and especially the change in format to now reading monthly.
My question for you (and Jonathan too) is do you have a preference for reading formats and how does that impact the way you write your stories? There are books everyone says read better collected as one big story versus issue to issue, and I wonder how much that experience plays into the writing process and intention of the author? It seems to me like finer details can get lost waiting a month to read the next issue but cliffhangers would be far more impactful.
Hi Brian. I could ask you a million questions about your writing process and skills but if I have only one question it would be "How can a freelance non-union actor who has been working in the industry for over ten years as background get a chance to audition for one of your current or future productions?" Yes this question is for me because at this point I have nothing to lose.
Misters Vaughan and Hickman,
Neither of you strike me as particularly spiritual people. Yet, both of you have included a number of religious themes and images in your comics, such as the Gibborim, the girls in Paper Girls attending religious schools, magic in Saga, etc. (Hickman’s list is too long to include).
At the same time, both of you seem to share a certain left politics. Maybe it’s a stretch, but both of you seem committed to a certain materialist understanding of history, politics, economics, etc.
What is the appeal of religious imagery for y’all, and how does it interact with that more materialist understanding of the world? Are the contradictions fruitful ground for story and theme, or is there another level these ideas appeal on? What is valuable (or not) of the role of the mystic, or the materialist, or the mystical-materialist, in our society today and in the future?
It's been a couple of years and at least one pandemic since you last published an ongoing comic book (though apologies if I'm overlooking something that has come out since then) - with Saga returning next year after the hiatus, have you noticed changes to the comics publishing industry and do any of these changes influence how you're approaching the medium now? Or I guess to put it broadly, how does the industry you're writing in shape the stories you write (if it shapes them)?
I guess this is a question for both Mr. Hickman and Mr. Vaughan. Both of you have been known in the past for letting the work speak for itself and not doing many interviews or having a presence on social media. However, since the pandemic started, Mr. Vaughan has been semi-active on Instagram and Mr. Hickman with some interviews (all surrounding his X-work) and of course 3W3M. Is this simply because you each had something to promote, (in BKV's case the Y: The Last Man TV show and in Mr. Hickman's case Inferno and 3W3M) or has something shifted (maybe due to the pandemic, lack of a Saga letters column as an outlet during its hiatus, or something else) that made you want to be more...I'm not sure accessible is the right word...visible?
Brian, one of the things you’re known for is your killer first issues, your issue #1s that grab the reader right from the start. What, to your mind, is the secret sauce to a good first issue?
Also, I’ve noticed that almost all your #1s are extra-sized. Do you think something about the needs of a first issue make a significantly larger page count ideal?
Hi Mr.Vaughn! In today comics, a lot of titles seems to end in a weak way, making the last issue very forgettable, yet you have two of the best last issues of a long run that i can remember like Ex Machina 50 and Y the last man 60 ( along the Invisibles 1, Animal Man 26, Daredevil 191, Daredevil 233 , FF 23 or Secret Wars 9 , Hawkeye 22 or Sex Criminals 69).
So my question is ( to you and to Hickman) : Do you have the ending in stone before you start the series? Do you have some beats or do you go along the way, changing wathever you need that fits the story?
Thank you for your time! Here waiting for Saga 55! ( And 108!)
Where do you see comics going in this crossmedial environment? I have the feeling that comics are considered cow to milk for exposure in other media. IPs more than a relevant cultural outlet. Is this an exaggeration?
Curious if you can talk about your time working on LOST, and what led to you leaving before the final season. (this is not a "PLEASE DUNK ON LOST" thing, I love that show and I loved the last season) Given how controversial it was, can you shed any light at all on the road to that last season and, in general, your takeaways from working on a show of that magnitude? Do you ever see yourself working in TV to that degree again? How does it compare to your work on Runaways, Y, and the upcoming Paper Girls? Sorry this was a lot of questioning.
What are the biggest lessons you've learned (both creatively and from a business perspective) from your Panel Syndicate work?
Hello! Thank you both. Question for you both I guess, do you prefer to make characters first and let the world build around them or do you let you world build the characters that inhabit it, especially as you are first generating a story. Thanks!
What was the first comic/movie/novel/story/whatever where narrative structure clicked in your mind? That so called “aha” or “seeing the matrix” moment where the machinations that comprised and made the story work came into focus?
Hey Jonathan! Hey Brian! Big fan here!
Brian: taking Saga as an example, how much of the complete story you have already planned before as an outline (the end and main deaths, I suppose? Or not necessarily?), and how much you're used to shifting plans during the writing of an issue? All the cliffhangers (so far) were precisely planned or something was part of artists' emotions taking control for a moment?
A huge THANK YOU to you and Fiona :D
As you create, how connected or disconnected are the processes of building a conceptual world and building a narrative world? How does the individual story which you're telling inform worldbuilding as a narrative tool? How does the worlds that you imagine/build inform the creation of new stories?
Have to ask one more, Mr. Vaughn can you tell us anything about the upcoming film adaptation of Mobile Suit Gundam and what it's like to work on a non-english franchise?
Are you doing okay after what's happened in Crossover?