"I'm honestly as happy writing Superman Adventures as I am writing Wanted." -- Mark Millar
Mark Millar (born December 24, 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer. Millar was the highest selling British comic-book writer working in America in the 2000s. His best known works include The Authority, The Ultimates, Wanted, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, and Kick-Ass. In August 2007, he won the Stan Lee award at Wizardworld in Chicago.
"Artists, no matter how good their intentions, are always slower than they think.""At the moment, I have it planned as a six or seven year experiment, but the books will only ever appear in bursts like this every couple of years and only with the best quality artists.""Being the first to do something like this also registers a lot of attention that the line might not have gotten if all four books had just appeared from one company.""However, if I can expand this to Top Cow or Avatar I'm helping the sales, however small, on my Marvel books because I'm almost certain to pick up some new readers.""I didn't break into comics to write fairytales or crime comics.""I didn't want the headache of having a publisher reviewing everything I wrote in advance.""I don't see one as bring better or more literate than the other and there's a real buzz to not only writing about a character I love like Superman, but also writing something that kids can enjoy.""I spent as much time writing proposals in '98 and '99 as I did writing scripts.""I think American audiences are quite interesting in that they can handle almost any amount of violence, but the moment the violence becomes sexual violence it immediately becomes an issue.""I wanted to portray very, very dark subject matter and a deceptively complex story in the brightest colours and simplest lines possible to leave the readers reeling.""I'd love to do something else for Avatar after this.""It's been the most creatively liberating thing I've ever done and so I'm bringing some of that mad enthusiasm to Marvel for the next couple of years as they let me loose on some Marvel Universe titles you'll be hearing about soon.""Likewise, I see no shame in writing Captain America or Wolverine.""Marvel books also feed into the smaller publishers and the fact that this is happening in the same month we're launching Ultimate Fantastic Four is no coincidence.""The animated books pay the lowest rates at the Big Two and you can forget about royalties.""The books are all very, very different so the publishers really had to be different too.""The breadth of the potential readership is also a factor.""The trick was really finding the appropriate publisher for each of the projects I'd devised.""Their argument, and I think it's a correct one, is that they'll make more money from the trades and the hardcovers if nobody messes with the creative team.""Wanted has gone into second, third and fourth printings of the individual issues and the north American printings of Wanted #1 are now close to 100,000.""We've had really good mainstream publicity for these books and both Wanted and Chosen were snapped up as movie deals before each series even ended so I'm honestly just pinching myself."
Millar was inspired to become a comic writer after meeting Alan Moore at a signing session at AKA Books and Comics when he was a teenager in the late 1980s. However it wasn't until experiencing financial problems after his parents died that he decided to drop out of university and take up writing professionally.
His first job as a comic book writer came when he was still in high school, writing Trident's Saviour with Daniel Vallely providing art. Saviour proved to be one of Trident Comics' most popular titles. It provided a mix of postmodernist storytelling, religion, satire and superhero action Millar later became known for.
During the 1990s, Millar then worked on titles such as 2000 AD, Sonic the Comic and Crisis. In 1993, Millar, Grant Morrison and John Smith created a controversial eight-week run on 2000 AD called The Summer Offensive. It was during this run that Millar and Morrison wrote their first major story together, the highly controversial strip Big Dave.
Millar's British work brought him to the attention of DC Comics, and in 1994 he started working on his first American comic, Swamp Thing. The first four issues of Millar's run were co-written by Grant Morrison allowing Millar to settle into the title. Although his work brought some critical acclaim to the ailing title, the book's sales were still low enough to warrant cancellation by the publisher. From there, Millar spent time working on various DC titles, often co-writing with or under the patronage of Morrison (as in the cases of his work on JLA, The Flash and Aztek: The Ultimate Man), and working on unsuccessful pitches for the publisher. During this time, he was publicly talking about potentially abandoning comics and had taken to mentioning a horror series he was writing for Channel 4 called Sikeside. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization INTERVIEWS: _The Authority Sikeside was cancelled in pre-production and has recently been optioned by Crab-Apple Films for a planned theatrical release.
2000s work
In 2000, Millar received his big break by replacing Warren Ellis on The Authority for DC's Wildstorm imprint. Keeping the so-called "widescreen" aspects of Ellis's title, Millar and artist Frank Quitely added a more polemic style to the story, increasing sales and gathering many awards at home and abroad.
The title was a success for Millar and Wildstorm but suffered from self-censorship from DC, which caused friction between Millar and Warner Bros, especially DC publisher Paul Levitz. After the events of 9/11, DC became more sensitive to violence and scenes of destruction in titles such as The Authority. With shipping delays and artwork alterations, Millar became increasingly frustrated by DC's objections to his over-the-top style and story content on the title. As a result of this and receiving lucrative work from DC's main competitor Marvel Comics, he announced his resignation from DC in 2001. His acclaimed Red Son story was printed after his departure, and Millar has repeatedly stated his desire to recreate the Superman character both in comic-books and on the big screen. During his sabbatical in late 2005, he mended his fences with Levitz & DC Comics.
During 2001 Millar launched Ultimate X-Men for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel. This imprint was created to make popular Marvel characters more accessible to new readers by rebooting them, erasing their often decades-long histories and starting from scratch. The line was an enormous success, further consolidating Millar's position and quickly making him a major player at Marvel Entertainment. The writer further expanded the Ultimate line in 2002 with The Ultimates, the Ultimate version of Marvel's The Avengers title. This book proved even more successful than Ultimate X-Men outselling it from the very first issue and providing the basis of two best-selling animated adventures. X-Men 3: The Last Stand screenwriter Zak Penn has said in interviews that he plans to adapt the story into the blockbuster Avengers movie tentatively scheduled for a 2011 release.
After 33 issues, Millar left Ultimate X-Men and wrote the number one hit title Marvel Knights Spider-Man in 2004, He also co-wrote the first six issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four with Brian Michael Bendis. After the arc by Warren Ellis and Mike Carey, Millar returned to Ultimate Fantastic Four for a 12-issue run throughout 2005-2006 and returned the title to the top of the charts, creating the lucrative "Marvel Zombies" spin-off title in his first and final storylines.
In a 2005 interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Millar discussed his "dream project," teaming up with top science fiction and comic book writers to create a 21st century version of Karl Marx's book Das Kapital, with each writer tackling a different aspect of modern life. Millar said that his personal pick would be the educational system.
In 2006, Millar, joined by artist Steve McNiven, began writing Marvel's summer crossover Civil War. This maxi-series has become the biggest success of Millar's career with sales exceeding any Marvel comic since the speculator boom of the early 1990s. With Marvel continuing to offer high-profile work as well as an outlet for creator-owned work, Millar has extended his exclusive contract with Marvel to mid-2010.
Currently Millar and Bryan Hitch are having a run on Marvel's premiere Fantastic Four franchise. Their run started in February 2008 and Millar promised that they will remain on the title for at least sixteen issues. He also has new series, Marvel 1985, with artist Tommy Lee Edwards, which "is about the real world, the world we live in right now, dealing with the villains of the Marvel Universe finding us." He also wrote the "Old Man Logan" Wolverine storyline, set in an alternate future.
Millar, along with Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso and Ralph Macchio, were called on by Iron Man director Jon Favreau to give advice on the script. It was Millar who suggested dropping the Mandarin as the villain, and replacing him with Iron Monger, who was being set up for the sequels.
Millar announced a new British comics magazine anthology in early May 2010 to be launched in September with the name CLiNT. It will feature a sequel to Kick-Ass, as well as work from Jonathan Ross and Frankie Boyle.
Millarworld
In 2004 Millar launched a creator-owned line called Millarworld that was published simultaneously by four different, competing comic book companies. So far, Wanted, Chosen, The Unfunnies, Kick-Ass and War Heroes have seen print. Wanted was loosely adapted into a feature film by Universal Pictures, released on June 27, 2008, starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy. Chosen, published by Dark Horse, was described by Millar as a sequel to the Bible and has been optioned by Sony Pictures. A film adaptation of Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn, was released in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2010, and the United States on April 16. In September 2008 it was announced that War Heroes had been optioned by Sony, with Michael DeLuca as producer and Millar taking an executive producer role.
Millar has also announced that he will return to Chosen, which he revealed, was only the first part in a planned trilogy American Jesus. Moving the title to Image Comics, he will write two more miniseries to complete the story, and release a collection of the first one with the title American Jesus Volume 1: Chosen. He is also working on another creator-owned title at Icon, called Nemesis with art by Steve McNiven.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #1-6 (2003—2004). 6-issue story arc initially co-written with Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote most of the later issues of the story. Collected in trade paperback, UFF: Volume 1: The Fantastic
Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12 (with artists Terry Dodson (#1-4, 6-7 & 9-12) and Frank Cho (#5 & 8), Marvel, 2004—2005):
Down Among the Dead Men (#1-4)
Venomous (#5-8)
The Last Stand (#9-12)
Wolverine vol. 3 #20-32 (with artists John Romita Jr. (#20-31) & Kaare Andrews (#32), Marvel Comics, 2004—2005) collected as:
Wolverine: Enemy of the State (hardcover)
Wolverine: Enemy of the State Volumes 1 & 2 (paperback)
The Ultimates 2 #1-13 (with artist Bryan Hitch, Marvel Comics, 2004—2007) collected as:
The Ultimates 2, Volume 1 - Gods and Monsters
The Ultimates 2, Volume 2 - Grand Theft America
Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-32 (with artist Greg Land, Marvel Comics, 2005—2006) collected as:
Volume 5 - Crossover
Volume 6 - Frightful
Civil War #1-7 (with artist Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics, 2006—2007)
Fantastic Four #554-569 (with artist Bryan Hitch, Marvel Comics, 2008—2009)
Kick-Ass #1-present (with artist John Romita Jr., Icon, 2008—present)
Marvel 1985 (with artist Tommy Lee Edwards, 6-issue limited series, Marvel, 2008)
Wolverine vol. 3 #66-72 + Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant-Sized special (with artist Steve McNiven, Marvel, 2008—2009)
War Heroes #1-present (with artist Tony Harris, Image Comics, 2008—present)
Avengers #1-present (with artist Carlos Pacheco, Marvel, 2009—present)
Nemesis (with Steve McNiven, mini-series, Icon Comics, March 2010, forthcoming)
Superior (with Leinil Francis Yu, ongoing series, Icon Comics, Octorber 2010)
