Paul: Who are you?

Edward: I'm Edward Livingston-Blade, creator and writer of the comic book The Man Who Wasn't There.

Paul: What's the storyline of The Man Who Wasn't There?

Edward: A lot of the story revolves around two mysteries -- what's going on beneath the obvious surface, and what's the truth about Mearn's (the main character's) identity and "origin story." Traditionally comics start out by telling you who their hero is and where s(he) came from. The Man Who Wasn't There ends with that.

The core MWWT (The "Man Who Wasn't There") story begins with the arc named Executive Matters. Things start off with a bang when Mearn reappears after being assumed dead for 21 years, bringing all the diverse characters in his world into proximity where they can no longer avoid each other. The energy stays peaked as these elements duel for position, trying to adjust to Mearn's reappearance.

MWWT: Spaceman and MWWT: Wives and Lovers are presently available as online freebies to preview the project. Both are set somewhat in the past and are quite a bit slower-paced than Executive Matters, but provide clues about things we'll see in the core story.

Paul: Where did you get the idea for The Man Who Wasn't There?

Edward: Mearn, his setting, and the supporting cast all seemed to come from different directions and merge together. Mearn started out in part as the idea of doing Namor the Sub-Mariner in the 50's when he was wandering the post-WWII Marvel Universe with amnesia. Mearn's setting was created to fit the demands of the story and characters -- but one notable thing I wanted to do was to bring back the Soviet Union, which was a potentially much more destructive threat than anything the U.S. faces now. So the MWWT setting has a slightly different history from our world.

In regard to the broad sweep of the story, one source I borrowed from thematically is Battlefield Earth. Something that novel did brilliantly was to start very small and end very big. In the beginning it was about a bunch of barbarians; in the end the scope had grown to galactic proportions. And when the novel was over it felt natural, never like the constantly broadening scope had been forced. I try to do something like that over the course of The Man Who Wasn't There.

Paul: Who are the characters?

Edward: Readers will probably empathize with the supporting cast more so than Mearn. Mearn remains pivotal but detached throughout the story, like a flesh and blood 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith. Things happen around him, but he remains in various ways apart from the events he triggers. There's a huge cast of supporting characters beginning in Executive Matters (Spaceman and Wives & Lovers, as short prelude stories, take place with a tighter cast). I didn't want to just have a Lex-Luthor/Superman relationship in MWWT. Instead we have an array of powerful "entities" in Mearn's world, each of whom has his or her own satellite cast, and everybody affects everybody -- there will be stories where Mearn never appears.

Marcus Weir is the leader of the resurrected Soviet Union; we'll meet a neurotic office worker named Eireen early on; Father Lucifer seems to be an important figure in a bizarre religious cult headquartered in Romania; Mr. Sand is an enigmatic enforcer who works for whoever can meet his terms; Peter is a thug trying to escape the slums in Dallas. The list goes on. I have a tendency to flesh out a characterization and light backstory for almost every minor character. I believe it gives the book a sense of depth, though it's certainly work.

The end result is that a lot of characters who started out filling minor roles in the story's early drafts grew into major characters -- basically because I or my advanced readers liked them. So the book features a very rich cast.

Paul: How'd you connect with your artists?

Edward: Both of my pencilers arrived through a series of ads I posted on comics forums and such. The core book's artist is Caio Reis, who also did the art on Spaceman. The penciler on Wives and Lovers is Federico Dallocchio. Each of the two has his own style, which is ideal because I've got a variety of different MWWT stories I want to tell. Some of those stories work best in an exotic, or "dingy," or noir style, which is something Federico does very well. Others work best in a realistic but "clean" environment more like we see in traditional superhero comics, and that's a place where Caio shines.

Paul: What gives you your creative energy?

Edward: Everything. Just life. Listening, looking, thinking about things. But I think it's necessary to provide the imagination with raw materials if it's going to keep giving back, which means a constant diet of fiction. There's a place for purely factual material too, but that doesn't teach you your craft -- only the work of other writers (and experience) does that. So I read voraciously everything from D. H. Lawrence to Don Pendleton -- watch movies both new and old -- and read comics to see what people in my specific industry are doing.

I think a mistake a lot of creators make is sticking too closely to their own field for ideas. If you're a comic book author and all you read are comics, then your work is going to read like... well, a comic book. New ideas are always emerging in other fields, and old ideas are being dusted off and made to look like new ideas, or given a 90 degree twist and presented in a way no one’s seen before (The Matrix comes to mind as an example of that last).

That's all for the good, but you have to expose yourself to other mediums to even know it's happening. MWWT is first and foremost a comic book -- I love comics, I grew up on them, they're my passion. But I'd say at least half or more of its actual content was inspired by novels I've read over the years.

Another thing I try to be aware of is what people are interested in now. Just sitting in a Starbucks and listening to people talk can be invaluable for two reasons -- first: deliberately, carefully listening to how people talk can teach you a lot about writing dialog -- and second: it lets you know what the public's thinking about (or the cross section who go to Starbucks, anyway).

Something I've noticed over the last couple years since 9/11 is that the nature of our heroes is changing again. There are people out there who are fully supportive of a figure who will simply strike down the 'bad guys' without ever worrying all that much about whether s(he) might be making an error. This might be a characteristic of wartime mentality -- it seems to have something in common with the pulps era mentality between WWI and WWII. Mearn is in part my effort to dramatize this impulse, and if MWWT pans out, it'll be because I tried to get a sense of the present era in order to feed my muse.

Paul: What movies do you like?

Edward: I've been watching Kevin Smith's movies lately. Dogma was a lot better the second time around, Chasing Amy remains an amazing movie, and Jersey Girl was just incredible. I've heard (maybe mistakenly) Jersey Girl didn't really bring in the money the way the Jay and Silent Bob movies did, but I hope that doesn't discourage Smith from continuing to try to make these kind of films -- the human movies are really what he's best at if he can get out of the box fans have put him in.

Paul: If The Man Who Wasn't There became a movie, who would play the character parts and why?

Edward: I feel like I've been caught doing something guilty. A MWWT movie is so far off that it's not even worth considering at this point, but I haven't been able to help but cast the film in my head. I guess since this is one of your interview questions, I'm not alone. For Mearn I'm liking Daniel Craig (Bond in Casino Royale). I think Thomas Haden Church (Sandman) could do it too, though it's hard to tell how well he can actually act given the material he had in Spider-Man 3.

There's a character in MWWT named Peter for whom I've just about become sold on Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (Richard Tyler in 4400). Others have caught my eye for different roles, but I haven't been making a list.

Paul: When is The Man Who Wasn't There coming out?

Edward: When Executive Matters appears will depend on too many factors to estimate. Caio is presently working on the sample pages we'll be sending off to paper-and-ink publishers. Spaceman can be read at http://www.mearnsworld.com/mwwt/ . It's a two-issue story, and the first issue is being serialized. Whether I serialize the second issue depends on fan interest (so if you like the book, let me know). Wives and Lovers is subscription-only -- you can sign up to the MWWT newsletter at http://www.mearnsworld.com/contact.html#mlist to receive links as it's serialized.

Paul: How can someone contact you?

Edward: The absolutely foolproof way is http://www.mearnsworld.com/contact.html#elb -- that address is permanent, and my current e-mail address (which changes occasionally) should always be there. At present it's barking_frog@roadrunner.com . You can also reach me on the MWWT forums at http://www.mearnsworld.com/forums/ ; and presently I'm available on most messaging software if you just want to say "hi." ICQ: 210147892, AIM: barkingfrog7hs, Windows Live: barking_frog@adelphia.net , Yahoo: barkingfrog4ep. I try not to make myself hard to get a hold of, but I can't promise instant response.

Paul: Do you have a website?

Edward: The URL is http://www.mearnsworld.com/mwwt/ . It's under construction, but there's quite a bit there and we'll be steadily adding more.

Paul: This ends the interview, any encouraging words of wisdom?

Edward: As a new writer, I cannot stress enough how important it is that we get feedback from people. Check out Spaceman. Let us know what you like and don't like -- negative comments are good too if they're constructive -- in the MWWT forums.

Thanks for interviewing us, and everybody else, thanks for reading!