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Charlie Adlard: Dreams of Doom
Charlie Adlard speaks with Jonathan Ellis about his dream of DOOM: Year One
One of the things that interests me most about todays top talent and
creators is what they're capable of (given the chance and resources to do so).
Namely, their dream project. It's amazing what some creators will put out when
they have the freedom to do what they want and the chance to work with some
the industry's other great talent. You hear about some of these projects
every once in a while, for instance Kieron Dwyer and Garth Ennis' SEX
DETECTIVES (which unfortunately never made it to the shelves), John Ostrander
wanting to do a WOLVERINE/ALIENS book with Leonardo Manco, Lea Hernandez's
BATGIRL idea, and Dave Taylor would love to draw, ink and letter his own project
with someone like Chris Ware, Dan Clowes or Frank Miller as writer on some
sort of 'sexy space romp' story. Even print author Douglas Rushkoff has some time
travel ideas, another about a group of kids having trouble staying in one
dimension, and he'd also like to adapt Jeff Noon's Vurt. Sometimes dreams even come true, with
the upcoming Darick Robertson BATGIRL/CATWOMAN mini-series for DC.
So that's why I ask the creators: "What's your dream
project? If you could work with any companies, characters, writers, or artists; with
no restrictions, no rules, and complete creative freedom; the ability to
crossover as many characters from as many different companies as you might
want, without any complaints, what would you do?" Now that question might be a bit long-
winded, but I love to hear the responses.
Here's one such response from Charlie Adlard, artist of NOBODY, MARS
ATTACKS, ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE, X-FILES and the current HELLFIRE CLUB
mini-series:
"The project I'm talking about is a mini series tentatively called 'Doom
Year One'.. Basically it's a highly detailed origin of Dr Doom [say' two 48
pg. prestige format books]. We go into the usual stuff about the character
BUT there is so much we don't know about his formative years... which is why
this series would be so interesting - and lets face it, Doom is one of
Marvels most interesting characters. I would KILL to do something like
this... especially since he is my own personal favourite ."
A writer for the project has already been decided, none other than Joe
Casey , and its already been pitched to FANTASTIC FOUR editor Bobby Chase.
Now Marvel has showed interest but as Joe commented "it's technically NOT
approved at the moment." The duo are hoping for a release of the mini-series
for next year, but nothing is definite as of yet.
Here's the original proposal by Charlie Adlard:
THE ORIGIN OF DR.DOOM
The basic premise of this proposal is to tell the origin of Doom but in a
much more detailed way than has ever been done before.
Why do this? Well, Doom is perhaps one of the most intriguing characters
in the Marvel Universe with a very varied and complex background. Also,
there are large chunks of story missing from his origin that could prove
equally as interesting as the already known parts. I believe the fans would
be ready for such a re-examination of such an incredible character.
These are the basic plot points that would be included in the
script....
We begin with Doom and Reed Richards at college together and establish the
basic characters of each person. We then follow Doom through the most
documented part of his story - his "accident" at college, his recovery in
hospital, his fall out with Reed Richards, his long trek to Tibet [?], and
the making of his armor by the monks. Apart from this we can also include
Doom's loss of his Mother's soul to Mephisto and his obsession to recover
it. Also we can include the troubles in his homeland of Latveria [the ethnic
cleansing of the Gypsies by the ruling forces, for instance - very
topical!]. Perhaps we can even hint at the parallel progress of Reed
Richards through all of this...
Now we come to the biggest gap in Doom's history - how he conquers Latveria
and becomes ruler. This could be one of the most exiting and interesting
parts of the story - Doom versus a whole country - especially because there
is no actual good versus evil, the lines are very blurred [the strength of
the story as a whole - a villain you can sympathize with].
Thus we come to the conclusion of our tale - with Doom as ruler of Latveria
he has his first encounter with the FF and Reed Richards. Of course it ends
in defeat but this time we see the battle through his eyes and we finish
with Doom alone in his castle obsessed with his various ghosts and plotting
his revenge.
The beauty of this story is in its circularity: it starts with Doom and
Richards as friends and finishes with them as enemies - one of the many
contradictions in Doom's character - he wants to conquer and enslave the
world yet he loves his own people in Latveria. He loves his Mother and will
do anything to free her soul yet he will destroy another human without any
thought. With a character as complex as this how can his full story NOT be
told...
So now you've heard about a possible project idea, which may or may
not make it into your hands. If you'd like to see it then here's your chance
to make some noise, let the people involved know how you feel about this
project in our message board by speaking your mind. Here's your chance to
influence a major publisher, to let them know what you think. If you want
this project to come out then damn well say so. You can't make some noise by
remaining silent, so lets hear what you think. You can vote on what you
think of this project here. So go,
now!
On behalf of PopImage I would like to thank Charlie Adlard for sharing
this project with us and with you. Remember to pick up the HELLFIRE CLUB
mini-series out in stores now. I'd also like to thank Joe Casey, Kieron
Dwyer, John Ostrander, Darick Robertson, Dave Taylor, and Douglas Rushkoff
for their comments.
DON'T
FORGET TO VOTE!
All characters, titles, images mentioned or shown are copyright and trademark their respective creators.
Jon Ellis is Editor of Interviews for PopImage.
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