Articles: Interview: Larry Hama (2/5/2000)

S Kleefeld: I'd like to start with the book's genesis, if I may. As I understand it, the basic premise came from assistant editor Brian Smith. At what point did you become involved and starting running with the idea? You had a noteworthy run on G.I.Joe working, perhaps not so coincidentally, with Bobbie Chase. Did that relationship help get you on the book?

Larry Hama: I don't know anything about how my name got thrown into the mix. Brian called me one day and asked if I would write a two part limited series that was more-or-less a long, drawn out tooth-and-nail brawl between Ben Grimm and Logan done as a Cold War period piece. (It subsequently was enlarged to a three-parter.) It sounded like a fun job. I don't really think that editor/creator relationships mean all that much these days. What seems to count in the constantly declining market is any ability to generate some sales. (Which makes me wonder why they asked ME! Maybe it's because I show up with the pages on time?)

SK: Probably unbeknownst to many Fantastic Four fans, you already wrote the apparent first meeting of Logan and Ben in Wolverine -1, which also featured Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. Will you be picking up on any points raised there?

LH: A few threads. Nick Fury is in the first issue and Carol Danvers is a major character who is in all three issues. Natasha, the Black Widow, who was also in Wolverine -1 is also a major player in the LS. So, it is the character threads that will be picked up, but the plot threads of Wolverine -1 will not.

SK: In that particular story, Logan and Ben seemed to get along rather well, but Brian Smith has been noted as saying that the two will be at each others' throats for most of the new series. Do you have plans to explain that within the new story or would you rather simply not touch upon it?

LH: Well, it's not that sort of "Baggins, we hates you forever!" primal animosity at work, but more of that Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte "at each others throats but grudgingly likes" sort of thing.

SK: How about the plot itself? I've only heard thus far that Ben and Logan are thrown together for a top-secret mission. Without giving away too many details, what are the two of them going to be up to for three issues?

LH: Logan, Ben and Carol fly a Northrop Flying Wing bomber (an early stealth project) into Russia to supposedly suss out some secret installations beaming ultra-low freqency radio beams at the continental United States. But is that the real mission? Why are they seemingly betrayed? Why does Black Widow seem to know what their next moves are? There will be a prize fight in a speeding prison train through the frozen tundra, an escape from a Siberian prison camp, packs of wolves in the forest, dogfights between weird experimental aircraft, secret scientific installations, lots o' stuff blowing up, train wrecks, plane crashes, nuclear menace and some surprise cameos by other Marvel characters. Is that enough?

SK: The book strikes me as a potentially tricky one to write. While the individual characters have plenty of untouched history in that part of their lives to avoid continuity problems, Marvel seems to very interested in explaining the gap between their Timely/Atlas days and Fantastic Four #1. Roger Stern's "Monster Hunter" arc in Marvel Universe and The Lost Generations series both are very directed at resolving that 'discrepancy.' Since your story will have to fall within that period, were directed in any way towards to keep an extra-alert eye out for overall continuity? Or are Bobbie and Brian just more interested in having you tell a good story?

LH: I think a clinically anal attention to continuity has been what has driven comics to their present nadir. Conan-Doyle killed Holmes at the Reichenback Falls and he caved in to the fans and brought him back, and guess what? Nobody cared! People were just glad to have Sherlock back! This is PERIDOCIAL CONTINUITY for heaven's sake, where a character's continuity is chronicaled over a long period of time by a constantly changing stable of writers and artists. The details of occurances can't possibly be made to match up! The most important thing is the continuity of the CHARACTERIZATION.

Even Charles Dickens couldn't keep the continuity straight in most of his work, because it was done in serialized form on ridiculous deadlines. We forgive Dickens those faults because we love his characters so much. If comics are going to survive, it will be on the characterizations and NOT on the consistancy of story points.

SK: With the book scheduled to be released this May, I expect you're somewhere in the scripting process for issue #1. What do you think of Kaare Andrews' work on the book thus far? I presume, too, that you're working in the traditional Marvel house style (plot, pencils, script); how are Kaare's layouts compared to your initial plot? Personally I rather like the look of the cover, but that says little in terms of storytelling ability.

LH: This is an unfair question. Let's ignore it. I have seen about eight pages of the book so far and I like what I have seen. There are only three pencilers I have ever worked with who drew my plots exactly the way I saw them in my head and one of them is Michael Golden. I don't really know if this is a good thing or not. There have been artists I have worked with who drew the story BETTER than the way I saw it in my own head.

SK: What have you got lined up after that? Any chance you'll be on the Adventures of the Storms book as well?

LH: This is the first Marvel work I have been asked to do in about two years. I have a feeling it will be longer than that before I am asked again. I haven't been on the comic comp list for years at Marvel, so I don't know what they are publishing or what they have planned.

SK: I know that I, for one, am quite interested in seeing the finished book and I'm looking forward to its release. Thank you greatly for your time.