We want to give a big, warm welcome to David Lawrence, the writer of the Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson comic adaptations. As Managing Editor for Dabel Brothers Publishing, David was the writer and editor of the original graphic novel Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson: Homecoming. He is now writing the upcoming Dynamite comic adaptations of Cry Wolf and Moon Called.
DL: Thanks for the warm welcome. Where are the snacks? I was told there would be snacks And an open bar.

David began writing comics professionally in 1985. His first published work was Ex-Mutants, which curiously enough also featured smart, tough women who fought frightening monsters and gave birth to a slew of spin-offs, including New Humans, Wild Knights and Solo Ex-Mutants.
DL: And today can be found for sale in quarter bins at better cons everywhere! And trust me, they are well worth a quarter.
Later he worked on books like Lunatic Fringe, a super-hero spoof--
DL: That helped prove that nobody wants to read super-hero spoofs.
Hero Alliance, Justice Machine--
DL: Two great books that I helped kill. I also wrote the single worst comic book of all time but I'm not going to talk about it.
Overture, a humor anthology--
DL: Which either proved that comic book readers don't like humor anthologies, or that they don't like them unless they are actually funny. Take your pick.

David has kindly agreed to talk with us and, along with our new friends at Dynamite Comics, has provided some great teasers for the upcoming Patricia Briggs' graphic novels. David, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We all really appreciate you doing this.
DL: I can always talk. It's shutting me up that's the hard part.
When the changeover occurred from Dabel to Dynamite, did it affect your position with the graphic novels?
DL: At Dabel Brothers on Homecoming I was writing and editing the series. Everything was my responsibility. Directing traffic, nagging artists, finding a replacement artists when I lost one, getting the book off to the printer, all of those tasks and many more. It's simpler for me now. Dynamite has their own editors so here I'm just doing the scripting. I have a very nice man named Joe Rybandt who's in charge now. And who I can blame if anything goes wrong. But as you know, since you work with us, I still work pretty closely with Patty and with Amelia, since we've already built relationships from our experience together on Homecoming.
How difficult was it to pick up Cry Wolf and Moon Called after the extended hiatus?
DL: A long break is never ideal, but better at the beginning of a project than in the middle of it. With Cry Wolf I already had a script and a half in hand, since I'd started work on it before the doors shut at Dabel. I hadn't started on Moon Called yet but in a sense I'd been working on it for quite a while. When I was first contacted by Dabel it was to adapt Moon Called and I sat down to start planning it. Then the project became helping Patty with an original story, which became Homecoming. I think I had an easier time getting Moon Called up and running again. I'd spent a lot of time with Mercy and company already and they were like old friends. I was just getting to know Anna and Charles when we were interrupted.
Due to the changeover and the hiatus of the comics, the release dates were delayed. Now that work has started back, are you able to announce tentative release dates for both projects?
DL:The first chapter of Cry Wolf should be on the shelves this month. Moon Called # 1 has been solicited for a September release.
The Cry Wolf comics have volumes 1 and 2 with 1-4 editions each. Will Moon Called be getting the same treatment?
DL: Moon Called will proceed in the same manner. It's nice because if you like a permanent, high quality volume you don't have to wait a year for the whole eight issues to be done before you can have one.

Now that you've been working on the Mercy books for a while, do you have a favorite character that you enjoy writing about the most?

DL: Depends on the day. I like Mercy a lot. I had a lot of fun writing for Stefan, though I'm not sure I'm really into his head yet. I enjoyed coming up with an origin story, of a sort, for Medea the cat. But I've really got a soft spot for Zee. Maybe it's because we're both Pittsburgh Steeler fans. Maybe because he's the curmudgeon I'm slowly growing into. I love the scene in Homecoming where he pops out of nowhere and knocks the werewolf who's already beaten Stefan and Mercy out cold with a beer mug. Priceless.

What were the major differences you found when planning Moon Called and Cry Wolf compared to Homecoming?
DL: Homecoming there was no planning, at least on my end. It was all very seat of the pants. I didn't know what would happen each issue till I got the story from Patty. And then poor Patty had no idea what on earth I was going to do with it. Here, everything is already plotted out. I know what the beginning, middle and end are at the start.
Would you be interested in adapting any other titles by Patty? Perhaps Patty's Fantasy books?
DL: I'm very fond of Mercy and her friends and if circumstances permit I could see myself staying with them for a long time. I can't really comment on Patty's fantasy books because I haven't had time to read any of them. Maybe some day I'll actually have enough free time to check them out.
If Patty wrote a spin off series in the future with characters from the Mercy series, is there a particular character you would want to work with in a comic adaptation?
DL: I already mentioned I really like Zee. In fact, I have a tiny germ of a story in mind for him. Considering his particular skills I think it's really likely that when he first came over from Europe he may have spent some time in my hometown of Pittsburgh. After all, we used to produce more steel than anyplace in the world. And there is a legend of an mighty man of steel, Joe Magarac, who came over to work in our mills. Could there be a connection between Joe and our favorite Mettalzauber? I also think I could have some fun with Uncle Mike. I've spent many long hours mixing drinks and running bars and restaurants. They are weird enough when populated by humans. Imagine what happens at Mike's on a busy Saturday when things get a little out of control.

Does the popularity of book adaptations surprise you? It seems in the past year or so there has been an increasing number of comic adaptations based on books. Do you think this will capture a crossover audience?
DL: It seems like most successful entertainment properties these days operate across multiple platforms. If there are more adaptations now it may just be that as comic book properties have increasingly become successful in Hollywood it has raised the visibility of the medium so that more novelists are interested in seeing their work adapted in graphic novel form. I hope that we attract a crossover audience. Certainly if all of Patty's fans buy the graphic novel it will be a huge success. I also suspect that our audience may skew a bit more female than for a typical comic or graphic novel project. Which is great, since that is an audience the medium has traditionally had trouble reaching. Over the years, for whatever reason, I've had sort of a tendency to end up on projects with strong female lead characters, going back to the 1980s when it wasn't so common. I actually take a little bit of pride in that.
How hard - or easy - is it to adapt the storyline from the books into a comic, and when doing so, what key moments in the books do you go for?
DL: In some respects an adaptation is easier than an original story, since somebody else has already done so much of the work for you. On the other hand, it's somebody else's vision and you have to work hard to stay true to it. Maybe it's not so much a question of easier or harder as a question of focus. Instead of figuring out what happens I am trying to find the best way to show it. Since it's a visual medium what I'm looking for are the key images that will help me tell the story. It can be very soft and understated, like the first page of the Moon Called adaptation, or just explosive, like the 8 pages of naked Mercy fighting the werewolves at the start of Homecoming. Both, I hope, capture the eye and attention, though in very different ways.

How closely do you work with the artists? And do you all use storyboards, or is everything done on computers?

DL: I work differently with different artists. I work very closely with Amelia. That might have been created by circumstance, since I brought her aboard a project that was already half-way finished and had to help her get a feel for it and get up to speed. But now, it's just the way we are used to working together. With Jordan the relationship is more traditional. He gets the script and does the layouts and drawing without a whole lot of input from me, other than an occasional correction. Which is usually more fixing a detail that doesn't quite match Patty's story than an actual problem with the art. And of course, Joe is overseeing the whole thing. I don't want to minimize his role here. Amelia does everything digitally. There is no original art. Which, old school as I am, still kind of freaks me out. Jordan works with good old fashioned pencil and paper. Though again, computers play an important role. In the old days everything had to be done by mail and stuff just flew all over the place. The script had to be mailed to the artist. The penciled pages had to be mailed to the inker and the letterer, then to the office to be prepped for the colorist. Now the penciler scans the pages and sends them to the inker, either via e-mail or ftp, who prints and inks the scans and then scans them again to send to the colorist. The digital age has sped up and simplified the production process. In the old days you had to factor several days into a schedule just for shipping.

[From Hurog: Click the images for a behind the scenes look at the development of the upcoming Moon Called graphic novel.]

What started you writing for comic books?
DL: Reading comic books, I guess. When we were kids I would write and my brother would draw. I still have a couple of pages from way back when.
What is the best part of being a writer for comics, and how do you set things out before writing?
DL: The fame, the glory, the adoring female fans. Getting to work in my bathrobe. Seriously, it's fun to see a story come to life. Being a novelist is so solitary. I get to work with people all over the world.I've collaborated with artists in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Brazil. In an odd way it's broadened my world view.
You're in the business of comic books. Do you read them? Do you have a particular favorite?
DL: I don't really read a lot of current comics. It's so hard to just pick up a single issue of anything anymore and understand it. And time is limited. Besides writing these two books I work full time out in the real world. My father passed away a couple of months ago and I'm still dealing with the odds and ends from that. What I do have, not so much as favorite characters, are favorite creators. I'm an absolute Jack Kirby geek. I appreciate his work so much more than I did when I was young. He's probably my biggest influence in terms of how I tell a story. I've got a whole shelf full of Kirby hardcovers I've bought in the last few months and every one is a joy. I think you can make a very strong case that he is the preeminent artist of the 20th century. Not just the preeminent comic artist, mind you. I mean the single most important artist of the century. I just read the DC Archive Kamandi reprints not too long ago. I read them way back when but they never really grabbed me. Now I think they are brilliant. Only Jack Kirby could make you shed a tear for a two-ton grasshopper. I was in a room with him once in San Diego. He looked tired and I didn't want to be a bother. If I could have that moment back I would bother the heck out of him.
Is there a favorite book or movie you'd be interested in doing as a comic adaptation?
DL: I read more biography and history than fiction. I'm fascinated by Washington and Lincoln. They are such historical anomalies. Washington could have been a dictator or a king. He walked away from power voluntarily. Twice. At the end of the revolution and at the end of his presidency. Who else ever did it? When you look at the broad scope of human history Napoleon Bonaparte is a much more likely outcome. So I've always wanted to do something with those men and their eras. A few films come to mind. There's Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in America, a gangster movie set primarily in New York during the prohibition era. It's much more down to earth and less grand opera than The Godfather. It was very long and edited down to near incomprehension by the movie studio when it was first released. I never saw the full version till it was released on DVD many years later. I also think it would be a lot of fun to do the Magnificent Seven or the Seven Samurai. They are both essentially the same story, with the American western based on Kurosawa's original. Some people look down on the western but I love them both. What I won't do, however, is the time-bending Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven crossover. That would be wrong. Or would it?
What do you think of the recent trend of putting historical figures into a fantasy setting? Such as, Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter.
DL: I'd have to read them before I could fairly comment on them. I can't quite figure out when Abe Lincoln would have had time to hunt for vampires. I presume it was before 1861 because he was awfully busy from then on till the end of his life. Or did he fake his death to hunt vampires? I'm so confused.
Do you have any future projects in the works?
DL: Getting out of bed in the morning? Oh sure, always. I have a Robin Hood series that I've been floating around for a couple of years. Every body seemed to like it but sadly no takers yet. Tongue in cheek like the Errol Flynn version but with my own spin. Robin is a phony and a cad, Marion is the real hero. But even a cad might have a hero somewhere inside him. I've always longed to go back to my very first project, Ex-Mutants, and finish things up for them. They just kind of got left hanging by a bunch of legal squabbling that did nobody any good. It was kind of sad, really. I actually have a pretty good idea what they've all been up to since the last time we were all together, believe it or not.
If you could work with another Urban Fantasy author, who would they be?
DL: Well, I have worked with Jim Butcher, since I oversaw the adaptation of his first Dresden Files novel, Storm Front, while at Dabel. I didn't have the same kind or personal relationship with Jim that I do with Patty though. With Jim I worked primarily through intermediaries where Patty and I actually collaborate. I liked Harry Dresden a lot and if we hadn't already had an absolutely wonderful writer, Mark Powers, doing the scripting I might have tried to snatch it for myself. In fact, at one point when we thought Mark was going to go exclusive with another company I was penciled in to replace him on the second novel. But we were lucky enough to keep him.
If you could combine universes from any comic or book series, what would they be, and how would you play around with them?
DL: Combine universes? You mean cross-overs? Or as we used to call them in simpler times, team ups? I thought it might be fun for Mercy and Harry Dresden to meet, since I was working on both characters. And the second Dresden novel is about werewolves, so it didn't seem like much of a stretch. I'm not that into the whole concept of universes, particularly as they've developed in the world of comics. It all happened by accident really. As characters from different series began to cross paths more frequently readers expected the details of their worlds to match up. Heaven forbid Incredible Hulk #600 contradict something in Millie the Model #4. Shared universes can be fun. For instance, it might have been neat if Millie had been one of the models in Iron Man 2. And Patty's creating one now. But that's one writer with one vision and a few sets of characters, not thousands of characters and hundreds of creators for decades and decades. As I mentioned, I'm a Jack Kirby geek and I would love to work on some of his characters. But if I got the chance, I'd rather do the Newsboy Legion or Kid Cowboys of Boys Ranch than his more famous creations. Though I suddenly realize the last two collections I've read were Simon & Kirby's Newsboy Legion and Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. I think that crossover has some interesting possibilities.
And our last question: what was the single worst comic book of all time?
DL: Oh no you don't. If you really want me to talk about Untouchabots next time make sure we've got an open bar. And lots and lots of Jameson's.

[Hint: Click on images to reveal more information.]