NOIR features a couple of Dynamite favorite characters: Miss Fury and The Black Sparrow. This five issue mini-series, written by Victor Gischler, Issue #3 came out recently, and Mike Carroll (JENNIFER BLOOD) chatted with Gischler about his work on this book.
Mike Carroll: Noir is replete with the wit, drama, tone, delicious plot-twists and good-old-fashioned edge-of-the-seat thrills with which the readers of your novels will be familiar… Do you find it difficult to transcribe that atmosphere and pace from novels to comic-books?
Victor Gischler: It took me a few tries to get used to the fact 22 pages meant 22. No more no less. There needs to be a certain rhythm to fit something satisfactory into that space, but the discipline can be good too. Keeps a writer from wasting time. Sometimes now when I get a new idea, I need to sit back and really ask myself if I've come up with a comic book idea or a novel idea. Sometimes it's obvious. Other times not.
MC: Have you been following Rob Williams’ ongoing Miss Fury series? If so, has his take on the reimagined version of the character had any impact on your interpretation?
VG: Oh, yes. I mean, I actually am a bit behind in my reading right now, but I do try to capture some of the edge that Rob brings to Miss Fury. I don't think I do it as well as he does, but I am to some extent following his lead. I think she would be a fun character to team up with some of Dynamite's other pulp characters. I hope that happens.
MC: For the most part, Noir has a timelessness quality that allows it to work equally as a, say, 1940s adventure and as an up-to-the-minute tale that could be happening right now. Is this an approach you consciously chose, or just lucky happenstance?
VG: Maybe a little luck there, although I never want to mire any story so firmly into a time period that audiences can't relate. But I do really love the 1930s-40s setting. I spent a LOT of time Googling old cars and guns and clothing. I also think the old setting can complicate things for our characters in simple but helpful ways. I mean, how many jams could they get out of if they'd just had a cell phone, right? The world was a lot bigger then.
MC: Ideal world: you’re offered the chance to revamp any Golden Age comic-book character… Is there any one in particular you’d choose, and why?
VG: That's a tough one. So many to choose from. I think I'd take a shot at anything if allowed the freedom to approach it my own way. I also think it would be cool to take a character hardly anyone remembers and just re-imagine him or her. Mr. Nobody? X-9? Tex Morgan?
Make sure to check out NOIR #3 by Dynamite, which is available now at local comic shops and digital. Also, go here to check out an extended preview of this issue.