Mark Millar on his 2K work - "pure shite"

[Marbles]

Mark Millar on his MillarWorld Forum here :-

http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?showtopic=91197

I had no idea what I was doing for the most part and just learning how to do very basic stuff then. Only good stuff I'd recommend would be Big Dave (which was co-written with Grant Morrison), a few Dredds, a thing called Inferno, maybe Canon Fodder and, uh, that's about it.

Honestly, the bulk of what I wrote was pure shite and I'm not being modest. I didn't really get any good until I started on Swamp Thing in my early twenties. Most of the 2000AD stuff was done when I was 18-21.

PS I didn't write anything like 18000 pages. It was more like 800 pages really. Not that much at all.

PPS Red Razors for the Megazine was pretty good and Insiders for Crisis too. But I never really read or liked 2000AD at that time and had no idea what I was doing. I got into it later when I read some great early Pat Mills stuff, but I mostly wasn't into it at all.

[TordelBack]

He's honest about it, I'll give him that.  Can't imagine what my takeover of 2000AD would have looked like if I was 18 and had never read or liked the thing...  

I'd like to have been in that editorial meeting.  "Don't like it, never read it, once I've squeezed me zits let me write most of it for what'll seem like years.  I'm not really bothered, but I'll do some of that Captain Dread thing if you'd like - I have this idera about conveyor belts I'd like to try out.  Nah John, you stick to the dinosaur thing".

[Colin_YNWA]

Wow and recommending his Dredd's. Well its all subjective I guess.

Still I enjoyed 'Silo' and 'Manic 5' too.

[JOE SOAP]

"pure shite"

That pretty much describes Mark Millar. His derisive attitude to Twoth even before he joined as a writer was despicable.

[JOE SOAP]

PPS Red Razors for the Megazine was pretty good and Insiders for Crisis too.

He's entitled to his opinion.

[uncle fester]

He has his own forum? Isn't that a bit... oh wait 

[Jim_Campbell]

The thing is, he is being modest: I think I managed to stick two issues of his Swamp Thing which was also fucking awful.

Cheers

Jim

[pauljholden]

Can't we all just pretend that the early 90s 2000AD never existed?

-pj

[JOE SOAP]

Maybe we can do it like the missing 11 days in the Gregorian calendar. Fuck the 90's into the bin forever.

Although the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in 1582 in Italy, the new calendar was not adopted in England until September 1752. By this time, another day of error (leap year, 1700) had accumulated, causing the calendars to be 11 days out of synch. Correcting this error required eliminating 11 days from September in 1752, resulting in a month that was only 19 days long.

[Colin_YNWA]

As I've said before though for every 'Inferno' and new 'Robohunter' there's a 'Firekind' and 'Metrobolis'

[Leigh S]

I dont really blame him for being rubbish - I do blame him for the spiteful little interviews he gave at the time about how great he was and how rubbish 2000AD was before he came along.  Perhaps he might have been better off reading a few of those "Great early Pat Mills" stories before attempting to write for the comic ,or at the very least before slagging Pat and John as past it grandads...

[Roger Godpleton]

I think I killed (and was killed by) him on MW 2 yesterday. Unless it was another "mark millar".

[Emperor]

But I never really read or liked 2000AD at that time and had no idea what I was doing. I got into it later when I read some great early Pat Mills stuff, but I mostly wasn't into it at all.

What I don't understand is:

a) Why he even thought about writing for a comic he had neither read nor liked - its not like conning your way in was a guarantee of riches (although it had clearly worked out very nicely for him in the long run, it can't have been some part of some evil masterplan)
b) Why anyone let him write for 2000AD

I can only assume he got in riding on Grant Morrison's coattails but unless GM had Polaroids of Tharg caught in bed with Mek-Quake after overdoing it on the polystyrene cups at the Nerve Centre Xmas party it is still baffling.

[UncleBaal]

Yeah his Robohunters were pretty much what made me stop reading about '95, which was a big sad decision to have to make!

[Colin_YNWA]

What I don't understand is:

a) Why he even thought about writing for a comic he had neither read nor liked - its not like conning your way in was a guarantee of riches (although it had clearly worked out very nicely for him in the long run, it can't have been some part of some evil masterplan)

Well he probably wasn't the first or last to use 2000ad as a springboard without having too much affection for the title. Its almost a standard entry system for UK writers trying to get noticed in America.