From The Library: Brian Wood

Posted by ElizabethGenco on Thursday, August 17 2006 at 10:26 am

From The Library is a series of 5-question interviews with some of my favorite storytellers. For last week’s SCHEHERAZADE update, click here.

Brian Wood barely needs an introduction these days. Working steadily in comics for the past ten years, his extensive credits include THE COURIERS, JENNIE ONE, POUNDED, FIGHT FOR TOMORROW, COUS COUS EXPRESS, THE TOURIST and the critically acclaimed maxi-series DEMO. He currently writes LOCAL for Oni Press, SUPERMARKET for IDW and DMZ for Vertigo. A second ongoing Vertigo series, a Viking epic called NORTHLANDERS, is forthcoming.

Not only is Brian a good friend, he’s one of my favorite people in comics. I’m thrilled to have him here in the Library’s virtual comfy chair.

So your new (just announced) project is about Vikings. Have you always had a thing for Vikings? I’ve always had a thing for Celts, personally…

Yeah.. Vikings, Celts, you name it. Since I was little. We were raised on it, it seems. I was a very early reader as a kid, and before everyone else my age caught up, I was placed in these sort of silly “advanced reading classes”, which was just me and a few of my fellow early readers sitting in the empty cafeteria for last period reading different books. I remember reading KING ARTHUR and as a counterpoint, THE MISTS OF AVALON.

Dude. Marion Zimmer Bradley!

Did you ever see that Mists of Avalon film? Kinda funny.

I have it, but I’ve never actually watched it (unfortunately, I can say that about a number of DVDs in my collection). I do try to re-read the book every now and again. I read it for the first time when I was 20 and I still remember how I reacted to the naughty bits — oo la la! This totally cracks me up now.

It’s got a great cast: Juliana Margulies, Joan Allen, Angelica Huston, Samantha Mathis… even Michael Vartan from ALIAS as Lancelot. The book doesn’t jive any more with my own interpretations of the Arthur story, but it’s still a fun read.

What were you like as a child?

Quiet. Read a lot, played in the woods. I don’t think my sort of childhood exists any more, which is sad.

I’d never thought about it like that before, but wow, so true.

We got to run around in the woods unsupervised, and we didn’t have anything high tech to entertain us. We barely watched local TV.

Did you ever build forts? I was a big forts-builder. Maine woods is good for that.

We mostly built snow forts. The plows would create these 15-foot high snow banks because we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac. Although I think that snowfall like that is also lost to the ages.

You told me once that you read over 2 hours per day. Name your last 5 books read.

PRETTIES and UGLIES and SPECIALS by Scott Westerfeld (don’t ask)
HELLBLAZER: ALL HIS ENGINES by Mike Carey and Leo Manco (all comic
should look and read this good)
THE MONKS OF WAR by Desmond Seward (research)
THE LOST MEN by Kelly Tyler-Lewis (back when men were tough)

What does your workspace look like?

It never changes. Two 6′ foot tables side by side, one for drawing, one with the computer. Wall of shelves behind me. I never have quite enough room so things are stacked, printers tucked under tables, the windowsill is another work surface. It’s cluttered but very clean and organized, I suppose. For all my dependance on the computer for aspects of my work, I use a lot of paper: paper organizers, post-its, scrap paper for longhand writing. There’s a lot of paper lying around my office.

If you had to be stranded somewhere in the world with a full wallet and all the time in the world, where would it be?

Either Scandinavia or Italy. I’d probably spent most of the money on food.

Category: From the Library

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