Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, honor harrington, matt hawkins, tales of honor, top cow

Grilled By The RCN – Matt Hawkins Talks Tales Of Honor

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:00:02 -0600

When a series of novels have been around for twenty plus years, you know they have to have a strong fan base. So when I heard that David Weber's Honor Harrington books were being adapted by Top Cow I had a feeling I'd be asked to work up an interview for the site. But I've not read the books and knew I could not get enough of the universe… or Honorverse as they call it… in my head in time.

So I was talking to a friend of mine the other night who knows I work in the comic industry and he was excited. Seems his favorite novel series was being turned into a comic before becoming a film… I'm guessing you can see where this is going. Who better to ask questions about the comic than a fan of the series and a Navy man.

I turn this over to Master Seasman Daniel Arbouw, Hull Technician – Royal Canadian Navy and his interview with writer Matt Hawkins about Tales Of Honor.

DANIEL ARBOUW: This comic book series looks to begin at the In Enemy Hands point of the novel's story arc. Why was that chosen as the stepping off point for the comics?

MATT HAWKINS: We didn't want to do a pure adaptation and I wanted to have a little freedom with the project, so I pitched Evergreen and David Weber on the idea of setting the story with her in custody. She's in the cell on board the PNS Tepes and has a lot of time to reflect on her life. So the narration is told from her perspective and the story is her going through her recollections of events. Since memory is never 100% this gives me a plausible way to diverge from the novels a bit when needed. I wanted to show people some space combat and some Stilties right off the bat, so we bounce around a bit in the first issue to "show" people what's to come with the rest of Basilisk. Issues 2-5 are more linear in telling the On Basilisk Station story.

DA: The impressive character development that this series has demonstrated through its twenty year run has made all of its fans cherish with empathy and love all of the characters that David Weber has created. How hard will it be to capture these feelings into the comics so that the past comic book fans and the past novel fans will both fall in love with this Honor and her story?

MH: Well of course it's daunting to try and do a version of a character so well developed by someone else. We don't have the same luxury of space to develop characters as a novel does but we have the art to help move the story along. I don't really know how to answer this. Yes, it's difficult, but I'm working with Weber and the film people to develop it in the way they want it developed for the comic series. The most difficult part of this is that even though they are developing a film based on Honor of the Queen, they didn't have much locked concept art. So we've been sort of the tip of the spear in establishing "looks" for some of these characters.

DA: What new life are you intending to bring to the telling of her story and to the Honorverse itself?

MH: It's such a rich world! The idea of the comic is to introduce it to people that have never heard of it before. I hadn't heard of the series before being asked to write it. When I read the first book I knew I wanted to do it. The characters are great and the way he handles space combat with real inertia was awesome. My hope is that people pick up the comic and are interested enough that they go read the books.

DA: What parts, if any, of the Honorverse's lore and detail will be considered untouchable?

MH: The goal is to stay within canon for the most part. Like I said, Weber is involved in the development and feels very strongly about all these characters and how they're handled so it's good to get the author's blessing on what we're doing. Some stuff will be truncated and some stuff will be excluded. This is a more streamlined version of her direct recollections and what she may have seen from recordings or read about.

DA: What is your thoughts on Treecats?

MH: I want one!

DA: The novel series is so full of complex political, religious and personal intrigue and conflict. Having that as a template for a comic series both sounds like a blessing of new possibilities and a crush of responsibility to remain true to the concept. Given that – will there be a time when the comics will diverge substantially from the novels in the main story arc to take on a life of their own?

MH: Not any time soon, no. The way we're looking at it is from her cell she's thinking about the different chapters of her life, which line up nicely to how the novels are unveiled. The first 5 issues make up the first graphic novel and this will follow On Basilisk Station. The second 5 will be Honor of the Queen and so on if it builds enough of an audience to warrant continuation.

DA: The obvious mirror between the political make up and the military tactics of the Honorverse and our own history is unquestionable. Will the comics be able to capture these concepts as well?

MH: The interesting part of that is from talking to Weber he looks at the Havenites as being more of a mirror of the U.S. than of France…which I think is pretty cool. Questions you're asking are impossible for the writer to answer; "WILL THE COMICS BE ABLE TO CAPTURE THESE CONCEPTS AS WELL?" That's certainly the plan, but you"ll have to tell me after you've read the arcs. I think one of the reasons Evergreen came to me to write this was they read my Think Tank comic which deals with the military and geopolitics between the US and China.

DA: With artistic creativity being a large part of the comic book medium's measuring stick of success, and with technology being portrayed accurately of specific import to the novel's genre. Has it been hard to merge this artistic opportunity with the accuracy requirements, to come out with a final product that will be both pleasing to the eye and to the mind alike?

MH: The development process for the look of the technology was fairly simple on our end as Evergreen had already mapped out most of the actual ship designs (you'll see them at the end of the books).

For a preview of the first issue click here.