My interview with Matthew Sturges is up at Tor.com. Matt is the author of Midwinter,
as well as the comic books House of Mystery, Shadowpact, Salvation Run, Countdown to Mystery, Blue Beetle, Jack of Fables (co-written with Bill Willingham), and the forthcoming Final Crisis Aftermath: RUN!We talk about his use of magic in Midwinter, subverting fantasy tropes, the differences between comic books and prose novels, and a bit about the forthcoming Office of Shadow. Here's a taste of what he says:
I have a tendency to pick at the seams and poke around the unused closets of established story structures or genre patterns and see what kinds of stories are laying around in there. I always find myself asking questions like “Who is Superman’s lawyer, and what is his job like?” or “What did they do with all the dead orc corpses after the battle of Helm’s Deep?” In the case of Midwinter, the beginning of the story was, “What is prison like in Faery?”
4 comments:
Great interview, Midwinter was an amazing book that I'm glad I took the chance on, to be honest elves don't hold my attention very well(another point in Enge's favour, but that is by the by), but Sturges did a great job that makes me need to read the next book, and even, I should hope, shows there is life in even the oldest tropes, if you just take time to "twiddle knobs".
Yeah, I liked how he is bringing screenwriting advice and comic writing sensibilities to prose. But also, I think we are in an era of re-investigating/reinvigorating the old tropes. I think elves are back in a big way, but they aren't your parents elves...
Hey, is that a new blog you have? Nothing up but it has a great title!
I think you're on to something there, in fact there is something of the unbridled enthusiasm of say, the Depression era pulps, married to a sophisticated sense of invention, if that makes any sense. I am pretty excited about the next book in the series.
Yep, I just put it together a little bit ago, and have been tinkering with it a little, just not sure what to do with it just yet, the internet probably doesn't need even one more ranting heretic. The title is pretty great though,so I'm glad you like it. It's a phrase that popped into my head in January and seems to typify, a little bit, what we've talked about here.
I've been interested in the way James Bond works his way through fantasy these days too, though of course Sturges is taking more from Sandbaggers than Fleming. And Enge has written elsewhere about tropes that have been "My Little Pony-ed" to death". I like how you put it.
And yes, one more ranting heretic is exactly what the internet needs!
Post a Comment