Matt B talks to Andy Diggle

Thu, Mar 19, 2009

Good chum of the blog and sometime contributor Matthew Badham talked recently to writer Andy Diggle; the interview featured in the February issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine and now Matt has (with the permission of Andy, Tharg and the MC-1 Justice Department) posted up the full, un-edited transcript on his blog:

“Matt: You’re credited as having gone out of your way while at 2000 AD to cultivate new talent and to reinvigorate the comic. How far do you think you succeeded?

Andy: I did the best I could with the resources I had, but I would have liked to have been able to do a lot more. The first thing I did when I was promoted to Editor was to write a two-page “mission statement” which I sent to all the creators. Just to give everyone a clear sense of what 2000AD meant to me, the kind of old-school, thrilling cliffhanger vibe I wanted us to create for the readers, so that we’d all be heading forward in the same direction. It was a sort of call to arms, I suppose. Trying to get back to the core principles and core appeal of the comic.

In hindsight there are a few things I probably would have done differently. I was trying hard to get the comic back to those old-school values – Thrill-Power! – but I think maybe I should have left a bit more room for the occasional quirky, indie-flavoured, Deadline-style strip. There’s always room for something left-field in a five-story anthology.

Weeding through the submission pile was always grim, but you made up for that when you found the occasional ruby in the dust. Guys like Jock and Frazer Irving were sending me unsolicited submissions; now we’re not only working together, we’re good mates. A lot of great talent came out of that slush pile: Mike Carey, Ben Oliver, Si Spurrier, Boo Cook, Rob Williams, Ian Edgington, Al Ewing… ”

Matt’s been kind enough to do several interviews for us over the years and they are always interesting, so go and have a look.