Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, darick robertson, eccc, prequel, the boys

Darick Robertson Writes And Draws "Before The Boys"

Jeffrey Whitelaw attended ECCC for Bleeding Cool. Amongst other websites…

I initially approached Darick Robertson so that I could get some quotes for an article on The Boys I'm working on for another site [Bastard – Rich]. As the conversation progressed he said some fantastic things that I had to share with Bleeding Cool readers. [Oh, okay them, as you were – Rich]

Jeff Whitelaw: The first thing I'm curious about is: how much input did you have in the creation of the story? Any?

Darick Robertson: Not so much, in the creation of the characters I have a little bit of back and forth. It was my idea to make The Female Japanese. I thought it would mix up the team ethnic-wise, a little bit. There was nobody Asian on the team, and I thought that would be cool. She clicked and I started stretching her out.

JW: That character… I mean, she's The Female.

DR: Yeah, it just works. With Mother's Milk, that was before I ever really even knew what Garth's concept was. That was an idea I had: what if we had a superhero who got his powers from a radioactive mom? What if he was born with 'em, and they came through the breastfeeding? My wife was breastfeeding at the time, and my son was a baby when we started working, and Garth really liked that, and worked it into Mother's Milk.

That stuff is where I kind of contributed to the story. Other than that, I really wanted to make it into a book that's about Garth's vision. He clearly knows what he wants, and I thought it was my duty to bring that to the ultimate Garth Ennis book.

JW: How do you feel about the end? Do you think he did a good job?

DR: Oh, yeah he had the ending worked out when he started the book. I'm drawing the last issue…

(This was where I got very, very excited. It was easily my favorite moment of the entire con.)

JW: You're drawing the last issue?

DR:The final issue. My issue's more of an epilogue, but it still wraps thing up. I'm working on it right now. As a result, I kind of wanted to take a year, and do Butcher, and regain my strength.

JW: Can you tell me what else you're doing right now? I know you probably can't say anything about the Grant Morrison thing…

DR: Right, the less you know the better. Its four issues, it'll be out in September. It's different, and it's funny, and it's got a twist. If you go into it cold, and with your curiosity peaked you won't be disappointed. If you know a lot about it, it won't be as much fun so we're going to kind of keep it under wraps until it debuts. It's called Happy, it's a tight story, a scripted story. I'll tell you that. I'm really happy to be working with Grant Morrison

I'm working and developing some back stories for some of the Boys characters for after the series ends that I'll write and draw. I'm working on an A-train miniseries. It's a story about how he got into the Seven, It's called A-Train: Here Comes The A-Train, the guy who killed Hughie's girlfriend, and the whole series will lead up to that moment.

JW: You're writing it?

DR: Yeah I'm gonna write and draw some stuff. It's a prequel, so it'll be honoring what Garth's done without any conflict.

JW: Is this your first writing gig?

DR: No, I wrote Conan: Weight of the Crown, and a three part Conan thing for Dark Horse Presents last year, a little over a year ago. I did a couple of Marvel stories. My very first job in comics was writing and drawing Space Beaver. I'm not saying that was good stuff, but I got experience. I'm a better writer than I was then, and I've worked with a lot of great writers, and I got experience from them.

I'm working on it, but I'm taking my time with it because I want it to be really good. Anything I bring and contribute to The Boys' storyline I want it to be necessary and I want it to be worthy. So, I'm going to take my time, and make sure it's really good. But, you know, Garth's given his blessing, and I've got the miniseries mapped out, and I'm reworking the first script, and hopefully sometime in 2013 you'll see it.

JW: Okay. Is there anything you would like to add?

DR: Yeah, I got a book coming out with Christos Gage, I co-created, that I've been working on for a while, and it's finally getting some traction because I've had some more time. It's called Power of Attorney and it'll be out sometime this year. We're excited about it; it's an original superhero universe with a twist.

JW: Great, thank you so much.

DR: You're welcome.

Again, thanks to the ever gracious Darick Robertson for the fantastic interview.

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