Ian Edginton Interviewed

by Simon Plumbe

There was some concern when Marvel took over the rights to publish Star Trek comics back in 1996, but they managed to confound the sceptics by producing a range of high quality comics with storylines to rival some of the better episodes of the show. In keeping with a trend that Marvel have adopted for many years, many of the creative team working on the comics were from the UK, including writer Ian Edginton, who worked on titles such as Star Trek: Unlimited and Star Trek: The Early Voyages who we interviewed a back in 1999...

Simon: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Ian: Well, let's see. I'm 35 and live in a small house with a fat cat and way too many books. I write for a living because I'm pretty much unemployable for anything else and I have a genetic aversion to any real-world job that requires the wearing of suits and ties. In my illustrious career I've been a journalist, editor, PR person, landscape gardener, purveyor of 1940's and 50's clothes and ephemera, poodle wrangler at a dog clipping salon and a door-to-door double glazing salesman.

Simon: How did you first get interested in writing?

Ian: I wish I could say that I'm one of those savants who began writing as soon as they were old enough to hold a pen, with ink flowing through their veins instead of blood, but I'm not. To be honest I find writing to be a pain, my really serious love is stories. I love good stories. When I was about nine or ten, some friends and I would play in our local woods on a Sunday afternoon, real Dennis the Menace meets Dennis Potter stuff. Afterwards we'd retire to our den and sit around telling stories. Horror, adventure, fantasy, they were all there, often in the same tale. It was a pure, mainline connection to our boyhood imagination. At that time, in that place, we weren't in the real world anymore, we were in the story. It was every bit as real as the real world. Right up until the point where we had to go home, take a bath and get ready for school.

I suppose my first actually stab at writing was when my best friend Sean and I started working on our own comic, filling school note books with page after page of poorly drawn superhero stories. Bad imitations of the Marvel comics we'd been reading that week. We even did crossovers where our contemporary superhero team met their 1940's predecessors. I remember we came up with this really dynamic cover of the two teams facing off and in between them was a new character we were introducing called The Blob. It sounded a great idea but the realisation was something else. It ended up with these two groups of figures just standing staring at each other, with The Blob looking more like a puddle of sick lying between them. Our lack of drawing talent couldn't keep up with our imagination. It's amazing how many other comic pro's did exactly the same thing though and created their own comics as kids.

My first real stab at writing was in my mid-twenties. I'd heard that the team behind Deadline and a bevy of their writers were going to do a signing at Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham. Deadline was the hip mag of the eighties, most notably because of Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl. It was run by 2000AD comic stalwarts, Brett Ewins and Steve (Preacher) Dillon. An artist mate of mine, Steve Pugh and I thought we'd pitch them a story, so I came up with the script and Steve drew it. It was called Downtown and for me it proved to be a turning point. We didn't have time to get it lettered - putting the speech balloons and captions on the page - so we gave them the copies of the finished artwork and then typed script. We sheepishly handed it over to Brett Ewins and ran away. They read it on the train back down to London and phoned up on their return, asking for more. We only did a couple of stories in all but it was a start. The US company Dark Horse Comics, saw the Downtown tales and reprinted them in their monthly anthology comic Dark Horse Presents. Not long after, I met their managing editor at one of the UK comic conventions and he offered me a Terminator mini-series. I thought on it... for a nanosecond then snatched their hand off! Steve had also been courted by First Comics to take up some of the art chores on Grimjack, which is worth hunting out if you get the chance.

And so I became a professional comic book writer, the trouble was there were no classes you could take that taught you the art of graphic storytelling, unlike in the US where college courses on comics have been running for years. It was a skill you had to learn and hone all on you're own and by checking out the masters like, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Alex Toth to name but a few. It was learning by trial and error in a big way. Having teeth pulled would have been less painful!

Simon: Are there any writers who have influenced you in your career, or who you particularly admire?

Ian: Oh, boy. Where to start? Well, the first books I really remember being engrossed by were the Enid Blyton Secret Seven and Famous Five novels. Great tracts of imperialist literature, perfect for the indoctrination of ripe young minds but they also happened to be cracking adventure stories. After that it was the works of Roger Lanclyn Green and his adaptation of the Greek Myths. Alongside this was Wells, Verne and John Wyndham, although I have to admit Verne did leave me cold somewhat, but at a time when I didn't quite know what science fiction was, these were all welcome crumbs to a starving man. Thinking about it, I have a great fondness for uniquely British science fiction, Welles, Wyndham and the excellent Nigel Kneale. There's something very middle-class, cardigan wearing, tea-and-biscuits about them all that makes them quite mad and surreal.

Later of course I got into comics and got hooked for life. The bizarre green and white reprints of Marvel comics stories in, I think it was Smash and Pow that ran alongside Leo Baxendale's manic Swots and the Blots. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made me the man I am today! Other big influences in later years were Alan Moore and Frank Miller. I remember that I hadn't picked up a comic for years. When puberty kicked in and my hormones hit overdrive I no longer spake as a child or did childish things. I put them aside so I could concentrate on chasing girls and getting rat-arsed! Any how, later on I happened to stroll through my local comic shop and picked up Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, which along with Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Watchmen free-based addictive new life into the comics industry. I was hooked.

While I've read a lot of comics, I've read even more books. They've all influenced me in some way. Genre or none genre they all have a part to play in defining the kind of writer I've become. Dennis Potter; Patrick McGrath; William Gibson; John Steinbeck; Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Edgar Rice Burroughs; William Burroughs; Dashiell Hammet; John Buchan; Ben Hect; Donald E. Westlake; Richard Matheson; Shirley Jackson; Tom Reamy; Harlan Ellison; Hunter S.Thompson; John Pilger; Salman Rushdie; Arthur Conan Doyle; Kim Newman, the list goes on ad infinitum.

Simon: Which is your favourite Star Trek show and why?

Ian: Ask a simple one why don't you! It's going to be tough. I have to admit, and this isn't going to win me any friends but I've been watching and reassessing the Next Generation episodes and to my mind there are quite a lot of them that don't hold up anymore. I don't deny that there are a number of absolutely exemplary episodes but there is an overall atmosphere of fey, New Ageism that permeates the show and drives me up the wall. Everyone's just so... well, nice! I know things turn a little darker and more moody as the seasons progress, ("Best Of Both Worlds"/"Family" arc are an excellent example) but I never really get the feeling that at any point the crew are ever in serious jeopardy. Even when Tasha died, there wasn't the impact or resonance there should have been. On the other hand I would have paid good money to have seen Wesley fed to a Targ.

Now Deep Space Nine is a whole other story. Gene Roddenberry must be spinning in his grave at warp speed. However the nature of survival is change, for both the Federation and the Star Trek franchise itself. I like the notion of the Federation running scared for once. The human-centric Federation has sat on it's complacent laurels for too long, there's always someone bigger, tougher and meaner that you are, just ask the Borg.

And then there's Voyager... ah, yes. To be honest, I like Voyager. It tries hard, doesn't quite make it sometimes but you can't fault it for endeavour. It's taken a while in finding it's feet but it's getting there. What's more I like the notion of Katherine Hepburn as a Starfleet Captain, although I would throw Neelix into the Targ pit straight after Wesley. I think Voyager strikes a chord in me because it reminds me of the original series in certain way and which is why after waffling on, I have to say the original series is my favourite, although I reserve the right to bottle out completely and change my mind!

The classic Trek has this huge cultural mythos built up around it, to many people, the cast are indivisible from their screen characters, which's scary but also goes to show the power of television. I have a tremendous fondness for the classic series. It was the one I grew up with and in an era when the channels shut down around eleven o'clock, when the shops shut on Wednesday afternoons and science fiction on TV was rarer than hen's teeth, Star Trek was there. Sure it's hokey, and hammy but the thing I like and that doesn't seem to be present in the Next Gen, is that you get a real sense of this being a bold new frontier. It's seat-of-the-pants space exploration, rough around the edges and where you can feel the deck plates vibrate beneath your feet. I think it was Dax in "Trials and Tribble-ations" who said that things worked differently back then, out in deep space the rules had to be bent to fit the circumstances. It was like the old west and now it's been tamed and civilised, it's boring. However there's still trouble out there if you know where to look! As for favourite episodes, how long have you got?

Simon: Do you prefer to write TV/film tie-ins such as Star Trek and your work with the Aliens/Predator lines, or in established comic series?

Ian: It depends. Star Trek, Aliens, Predator, Terminator etc, are great toys to play with. To write for something that's been a movie, TV series, or both is a great buzz. You're kind of one or two steps away from the movie or TV show itself. You're working on something that's probably got more recognition value with the public. Comics on the other hand is a bit different. If I'm writing something that's creator owned, not the property of the comics company but solely my and perhaps the artists idea, naturally I have more of a vested interest in it. It's a personal vision whereas the majority of conventional comic book work is work- for-hire. Having said that with one or two exceptions I've enjoyed the projects I've worked on. I've recently written a number of Batman issues and I'm working on a Superman one-shot right now. To add the the canon of works featuring these iconic characters is a dream but it can also be pretty daunting at first. You think, "Holy shit! I'm writing Batman!".

Simon: Do you find the restrictions placed on writers dealing with tie-ins frustrating?

Ian: No, but then again I've been lucky. With the Alien and Predator material you have to stick to certain rules. The books have an internal logic of their own carried over from the movies and that are used as a general rule of thumb. For example we never show the Predators talking in their own language whatever that may be. I don't know why this is but it's something the licenser and comic company say just is. It ruins their "mystique". Frankly I think it's mainly because certain things such as this haven't been nailed down as gospel by the film companies. If they say, "Yep, Predators tap dance" then you can put tap dancing Predators in your book but not until then. The same goes for the Alien mythos too, although certain of the Alien books have expanded on it from time to time, pushing back the boundaries of what we know about them and their universe.

The Star Trek books are another matter. The TV show continuity is king and there are executives who know more about Trek than most Trek fans ever will. I know, I've met them. One of them told me once, with a very straight face that: "Star Trek is not science fiction. Star Trek is the future." To be honest, it's not that bad. Paramount gave myself and Dan Abnett, my co-writer, a whole bag full of technical manuals, writers guides and reference books on all the shows. We went through them and picked out loose story threads or events that must have happened but no one has mentioned them yet and nurtured them into fully developed tales. For example we came up with a Next Generation story about Mister Mott, the Enterprise's Bolian barber and his time aboard an Orion pirate ship and the reason why a deadly assassin is stalking him, disabling the Enterprise in the process. Or a classic movie Trek tale about Sulu, Kang and the last days of the Gorn from the Arena episode. Once you realise what the limitations are and how to work within them, these are an absolute joy to write.

Simon: Have you ever wanted to write something in a film or TV tie-in only to have it blocked by the relevant copyright holder?

Ian: Only once and it grieves me still. It was when Dark Horse had the Indiana Jones licence and I pitched them a cracking idea, or so I thought. I figured, that given the era, what artifact would Indy be most likely to go after? The Maltese Falcon of course! And where would be most likely track it down to? Why, North Africa, Casablanca! So we have Indiana Jones, with Bogart's Richard Blaine from Casablanca and Peter Lorre's and Sidney Greenstreet's, Joel Cairo and Caspar Gutman from The Maltese Falcon, all on the relic's trail. I thought it was a golden opportunity, especially as the relevant film and novel source material were in the public domain. However, I was told that Lucasfilm like to keep the artifacts Indy pursues real and so the idea was scotched but it's time will come, I'm certain of it! Old ideas never die, they get recycled!

Simon: Have you ever written any novels or for any other format other than comics?

Ian: I wrote a couple of children's novels a few years back, about Zool, a cartoony ninja computer game character. It was real fast track work. I'm currently working on an expanded novel based on my creator owned mini-series Kingdom of the Wicked. I'm also trying to sort out writing a Trek novel, preferably from the Captain Pike era, since I've written a comic series about him and his crew I feel a kind of paternal propriety to them.

Simon: Which is your favourite medium to write for?

Ian: At the moment I'd have to say comics. I like the fact that it's very much of a visual shorthand. A movie script on an unlimited budget.

Simon: Do you find it difficult to cope with the irregularity of working as a freelancer?

Ian: It's either feast or famine. You can have too much work or not enough, it'll never pace itself just right but then again that's one of the perils of the job. That's why I'm not working in a shop or an office, although sometimes it think it might be a nice change but only for a while. I'd soon started climbing the walls. The pleasure and pain of the job is that there are times when you can be working 18 hours solid and others when you don't fancy doing anything so you don't. You just sit and catch up with your reading, although these moments are few and far between.

Simon: What piece of work are you most proud of?

Ian: Simple, the "Kingdom of the Wicked" mini-series and a short story, "Willow Warriors" that I was nominated for an Eisner award for in San Diego last year. I didn't win but I don't care! I'm proud of plenty of other stuff too. The run on Star Trek: Early Voyages, the book about Captain Pike's tenure on the Enterprise I'm really pleased with, but KOTW and Willow Warriors were personal projects and mean that much more to me.

Simon: Do you find that comic publishers approach you to ask you about writing stories for them, or do you still have to develop ideas and then try to persuade the publishers to take a look?

Ian: Both. I continually work up ideas and projects to pitch to editors, it's kind of freelancers reflex. Even when you're in work you're always preparing the next batch of ideas. You can never have enough work. Also I'll have editors call me up and ask if I fancy working on something they're editing. They may have seen my work on something else, especially if it was successful and want to add you name to their titles. If you have a reputation for selling comics and making the company money then the kudos goes to you and the editor.

Simon: Given the chance, would you like to try your hand at writing an episode of Star Trek?

Ian: I'd love to. In fact when Dan and I went to our first initial meeting with the Paramount exec's at the Marvel offices, they remarked on how many of our ideas would make good episodes, especially for Voyager. Why this didn't pan out is another story.

Simon: Other than science fiction, what other hobbies and interests do you have?

Ian: Let's see. I swim, run and work out. I read plenty. Watch good movies. Collect books, art, masks, weird objects and antique type stuff.

Simon: Do you have any advice to give any budding writers out there?

Ian: Don't give up the day job. I mean it. Write at night, on days off, on holidays. Hone your craft, but don't throw away a regular monthly paycheck on a dream. Be practical. This is a business. I've seen plenty of better writers than I, fall by the wayside and give up writing because they can't make it pay... yet. With only a few execeptions are there any instant rewards. It hurts, it's hard, especially when someone blows your masterpiece out of the water. Think, "**** 'em", then look long and hard at it and see what it was that they didn't like. You may think it's perfect but your editor doesn't and it breaks your heart to have to re-write it but bite the bullet and do it, you can improve on perfection, believe me. To be completely contrary for a second, you also have to know when to stand you ground and fight to keep from having your work changed. It's a tricky path to tread.

Read, read, read, read, read. Newspapers, novels, poetry, plays, biographies, histories, reference books, bus tickets, menus, postcards you name it. Cram them into your brain. I once got an idea for an absolutely sphincter clenching horror story from an old postcard I found being used as a bookmark in a second hand novel I bought. The editor I pitched it to didn't like it, but both postcard and synopsis are still in one of my ideas files awaiting their time. Never discard anything. Just because you don't come up with a fully formed, beginning to end idea, is no reason to dump it. Save it. Put it in a file box, a kind of literary tool box for that time (and it will come) when you need something to help move the story you're working on along.

You want to write science fiction, then don't just read science fiction. Take your sources from all over, see what ideas they spark in your head. It can be a word, a phrase, an image but that's all it takes and then you're off with the seed of an idea to be nurtured.

Many thanks must go to Ian for sparing his time to be interviewed for this web site.