Future Cla$$

By Craig Lemon

With issue three of Com.X’s Cla$$war having just been released, and sell out almost immediately, SBC sat down with writer Rob Williams and new artist Cary Nord to discuss the future direction of this satisfying take on modern superheroes.


Craig Lemon: Cary, you finally get to start work on issue four from 1st October, how do you feel about following Trevor Hairsine’s well-regarded run?

Cary Nord: I really liked what Trevor's done previously but I'm aching to put my own spin on Cla$$war. I've only read issue #3 so far (back issues are hard to come by) so I'm not too biased by what has come before.

CL: Obviously, with the change in artist, there’s a delay on the art for issues four, five and six; but what about the writing, how far ahead are you, Rob?

Rob Williams: The first six issues of Cla$$war were all written and finished by the end of last summer, months prior to issue one's release, prior to September 11th and the change in the political climate. It's strange. I thought, after the attacks on America and the way in which our leaders were suddenly portrayed as heroic figures, that maybe Cla$$war, with its cynical political view, wouldn't be relevant any more. But, a year on, Bush and Blair want to attack iraq just to get their hands on the region's oil and, despite the USA and the UK both ostensibly being democracies, they're willing to ignore public opinion in order to do so. Greed, manipulation of the public and corruption are still the order of the day.

CL: Are you making any changes as a result of discussions with Cary, or modifying the story (even if slightly) to reflect his artistic preferences?

RW: I don't have any plans to do that. That's not my intention. As far as I'm concerned I do my job, the artist does his. Trev Hairsine gave his own interpretation of the story in issue 1 to 3, Cary'll give his in issues 4 to 6. I'm not going to tell him how to draw the thing. He's a superb artist and it'll be up to him how he approaches the story. Someone recently asked if Cary will tailor his style to make his Cla$$war look like Trev's. I don't believe an artist should do that. We've hired Cary Nord to be Cary Nord, not to try and copy someone else. And he'll do a great job.

CN: I'm not much of a mimic so I'm just going to plow right into my own style. I think both our styles reflect similar interests anyway - we both like to use heavy blacks and strong contrasting shadows. I think that's enough to make it a fairly smooth transition.

CL: Rob, did you get a say in Cary's selection for the job - if so, what particularly appealed about his work?

RW: Com.X and I have a kind of gentlemen's agreement that they won't hire anyone on the book that I'm not happy with. So yes, I did have some say in Cary's appointment, although they did the work regarding getting him on board. It was the same when Trev joined the book. Eddie Deighton (the book's editor) made sure I was happy with Trev's stuff first, which is great when it's your book, your vision.

CN: I got the gig through inker extrodanaire Mark Lipka who I've been working with for the last few years. He had already been in contact with Com.X and had mentioned to them that I was looking for work. Eddie contacted me from there... which brings us to here!

RW: As for what appealed about Cary's work - he's an excellent artist, pure and simple. Trev's so good that I was concerned that after he left that people would feel that there had been a drop off in quality when the next artist came onboard, but with Cary drawing it I know that's not going to be the case. And Cary's a proven talent - he's well respected within the industry. Trev and I really created Cla$$war from scratch, and so i was sorry to see him go, but I'm now looking forward to seeing Cary's interpretation. There's some great stuff coming up in issues 4 to 6. I know that, visually, he'll make it look stunning.

CN: There is already quite a buzz about this series so I've got a built in fan base and a lot of exposure. I'm excited to see the fans’ reaction to my style. I don't want to disappoint!

CL: Cary, Trevor has already drawn the covers for issue four and five (they are on the Com.X website), will you be supplying your own covers for these issues?

CN: Hmmm. I'm not sure to be honest with you... "Eddie! What's the deal with the #@!%$!! covers?!

CL: One benefit, or opportunity to be taken, to the delay to issue four is that Com.X are going to release a bumper compendium edition of issues one through three, which is good news as they are difficult to find individually let alone as a run. For this bumper edition, is there anything you'll get the opportunity to change – say dialogue, or additional pages, or will it come through warts and all? If not, is there anything you'd like to change?

RW: It'll probably be warts and all, as it'll just be a reprint and a cynical attempt to make us all some money. It'll be a good jumping on point for new readers though, since Trev will be horrifically famous for his work on Captain America by then, we might sell a few copies off the back of his golden glow.

But yes, if I was given the chance I'd change some things. I imagine most writers will say the same about their work. When you see it in print there's things you like and things that make you cringe. I'd only change bits of dialogue here and there, though. I'm happy with how the story is progressing.

We still plan to put out a Cla$$war trade paperback collecting all six issues. If we do we'll get a load of extras in there for readers - scripts, treatments, development sketches. TPBs should be like good DVDs with lots of behind the scenes guff, in my opinion.

CL: What about beyond issue six…is there any hint of Cla$$war II on the horizon?"

RW: We hope so. It was originally intended to be a 12 issue series but we broke it up into two six issue runs - that's the plan anyway. I already know how issue twelve will end, where the story's going, who comes out alive, who doesn't. It's just a question of there being enough public interest in the book to warrant bringing it back for another six issues. Cla$$war 6 gives the initial run a definite ending but it's very much an "Empire Strikes Back" type climax - you're in no doubt that this is halfway through a story.

And, if the interest and the budget is there there's other stories I want to tell with these characters. I want to do a one-off special that explores Isaac's past with the civil rights movement in the American South in the sixties (something that was briefly touched upon in a flashback Cla$$war 3). I'd also like to do a kind of ironic, jingoistic one-off special of Enola Gay's adventures during the eighties. I'm a big fan of Mick McMahon's stuff and he would be perfect on that, if he was keen and I could get Com.X to let him do it.

I've got no shortage of ideas for these characters but there are also the realities of independent publishing to face. If we can sell a few copies of Cla$$war I'm sure Com.X would be willing to publish these books. If sales are poor, probably not.

CL: In the meantime then, what other work do you guys have coming up for publication in the next couple of months, and why should people check it out?"

RW: My first work for 2000AD starts in October. It's called Asylum, and is a nine part actioner with energetic alien art from Boo Cook. Around Christmas I have a futuristic mafia series starting in the Judge Dredd Megazine called Family, with art by Nikolai Dante's Simon Fraser - I'm writing that at the moment and I'm really pleased with it. And then, early in 2003, I have another 2000AD series called Breathing Space coming out with art by Pete Doherty - that's a whodunnit set on the Dredd universe's LUNA-1 colony. It's fun to write a whodunnit for the first time, to try and take the readers in different directions so they don't know who the killer is. That's the intention, anyway.

CN: I'm at Dark Horse right now doing Ripley's Believe or Not adaptations and I'm having a lot of fun with it. The first issue is out already and I think we're waiting on the second one, which should be out soon.