The Griff: A Graphic Novel

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Christopher Moore & Ian Corson Discuss The Griff Q: Is there a specific reason you decided to make The Griff a comic book instead of a novel? Chris: The story came to me, partially, in a dream, and it was so visual and action-based that I didn’t think it was appropriate for a novel. Most of my novels are character based, and with The Griff, the characters were going to be secondary to the bigger action. Initially I thought it would be appropriate for a film, which is where Ian came in. Ian: After we’d written the original screenplay, Chris and I talked about the idea of one day turning this into a graphic novel. Soon after, the comic book publishers reached out to Chris to write for them, so then The Griff graphic novel became a possibility. Q: What was the process like working with each other? Chris: We work together pretty well, I think. I think we both have a very practical approach to the work and can just get it done without infinite discussion of details. I’ve been in the room when other screenwriters are working together and it seems like they waste a lot of time hashing out every single element of the script, every line, and it’s excruciating. With Ian and me it’s like, “Okay, you kill all these sons-a-bitches, and I’ll write the next scene where they clean the blood off their hands.” Then we just do the work. Ian did most of the liaison with the artist because I was on deadline for my next novel, Sacre Bleu, although we consulted on the changes we asked for nearly every day by phone. Ian: Before I met Chris, I was a big fan of his work. When he wanted to collaborate it was a little intimidating at first. I kinda felt like Danny DeVito stepping onto the basketball court with Michael Jordan. Luckily, those inhibitions disappeared pretty quickly and Chris and I fell into a comfortable work relationship. It was a lot of fun and I’m proud of the end result. Q: Who is your favorite character from The Griff? Chris: My favorite character is Mo (short for Maureen), who is sort of a punky/gothy 20-something computer game designer with a snarky attitude. I like that even though she’s never been in a life-and-death combat situation before, she understands strategy and weapons and she’s not really afraid of anything. She’s a great ad-hoc leader for the survivors and really was sort of the precursor for similar characters I would create for my vampire books and my novel, A Dirty Job, which is a comedy about Death. Ian: I like Mo, too. It was a lot of fun to write for her, especially when she put Steve in his place. Steve is also a favorite character since he's a well-meaning doofus. It's probably a little too much information, but I can relate to him on some level. Plus we named him after Chris' goldfish at the time. Q: As long as we're talking about comic books, if you could have any super power, what would it be? Chris: I wouldn’t mind Wolverine healing. And if you only had the healing thing, you wouldn’t really be obligated to fight crime and stuff. Someone would be, “Hey Chris, there’s a super-villain on the Golden Gate bridge!” And I’d be like, “Good luck with that, I can’t even bench-press my weight. I’m going to the library, where I have no fear at all of getting paper cuts.” Ian: Not sure about super powers, but Batman has some pretty awesome toys. He kinda wins in the car, boat and cave departments. He’s also pretty good at kicking ass and apparently has no fear of heights. I wouldn’t mind any of that but I’d hate having to apply black makeup around my eyes for the . Guess you gotta give up something. Parts of this conversation were taken from Comic Impact and Romantic Times. A Look Inside The Griff Click on the images below to open larger versions.