Prime Time Replay:
Chris Claremont
on The X-Men
MsgId: *emedia(4)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:00:07 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Welcome to another episode of E-Media--the future of Electronic Media. Tonight's guest, however, is a legend of the print world--especially the comic book one. Chris Claremont, creator of the X-Men and of Sovereign Seven, is with us tonight. Chris, are you in the room?
MsgId: *emedia(5)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:01:45 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
I guess I am.
MsgId: *emedia(6)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:02:48 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
I think everyone under the age of 35 has heard of the X-Men in some way--and those with young kids and teenagers certainly have heard the name! How did you become a cartoonist?
MsgId: *emedia(7)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:04:39 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Firstly, I'm not a cartoonist I'm a writer. My role in terms of comic books is to craft the scenario, which is then interpreted in visuals by the pencil artist. I got started sort of by accident. My original goal in life was to be a political theorist and then an actor.
MsgId: *emedia(10)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:07:13 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Got it. But how did you go from studying political theory and acting to getting involved with Marvel and DC Comics?
MsgId: *emedia(14)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:10:49 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
I got started at Marvel as a gopher between semesters, working in the office doing what gophers do. Along the way, I wrote, I'd always written stories and before I graduated college I was fortunate enough to make my first professional sale to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. As far as acting went I did it because it was fun, the strange thing was after moving to New York to practice both professions, writing began to pay more and more often. So, I just gravitated in that direction, until one day I looked up and realized I'd been a professional writer for quite a few years.
MsgId: *emedia(15)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:11:56 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Did you ever think "The Uncanny X-Men" would be as successful as it's turned out to be?
MsgId: *emedia(9)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:06:49 EST 1996
From: guest At: 198.163.114.108
Chris, will we ever hear of Nicole Shea and the Sundowner series again? And what of the aliens that the furballs are afraid of?
MsgId: *emedia(16)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:14:44 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Nicole's saga which I call High Frontier is sort of on hiatus. DC has the option to produce it in comic book form which if you'll pardon the pun I've been trying to launch since 1989, but the climate in the comic publishing industry today is such that the odds really don't look great. As far as the next novel goes, it's on hold too because I'm working now on the last volume of my trilogy with George Lucas called Shadow Star-The Last of the Saga of the Shadow War. The second volume Shadow Dawn should be on sale within a couple of weeks in hardcover from Bantam, the first volume Shadow Moon is available in paperback also from Bantam.
MsgId: *emedia(12)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:09:21 EST 1996
From: guest At: 152.163.231.145
Good evening it seems like the x-men have been around forever, I like to know where you got the idea for Storm and the Redhead?
MsgId: *emedia(17)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:17:07 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
One of the guests has asked a question that I wanted to ask: Where did you come up with the idea for the X-Men characters?
MsgId: *emedia(18)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:21:00 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Like all writers you have an account at the idea bank. But seriously, characters come out of that ten percent of the writer that is inspiration, sometimes they come into being as fully rounded people sometimes they are just power concepts in search of a body. The thing I have found lately that drives my editors nuts is I enjoy writing the peripheral characters far more than the so-called heros because the background people have more idiosyncratic natures and real world conflicts to deal with as opposed to anything like the classic super hero must defeat super villain confrontation.
MsgId: *emedia(19)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:24:15 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Yes. It's much like "Whom Gods Destroy" book I. The emphasis is much less on Superman and more on what Lois Lane is going through, living with him.I also wanted to ask why your original plots for both novels and comic series, such as Sovereign Seven and High Frontier, have such dominant and prominent female characters. Why the emphasis on women in what seems to be a very male-oriented industry?
MsgId: *emedia(21)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:25:45 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Book Two comes out Wednesday!Basically, I started writing these kind of women characters because to a large extent in comics and science fiction and fantasy I didn't find that many that I liked or that had any reflections in the women that I knew. My mother for example has been a private pilot for more than thirty years and before that was an RAF radar operator during the battle of Britan with the War stories to prove it. My best friend regularly goes on assignment to places like Nicaragua and Bosnia and I have heard her shot at on the air, fortunately without success. Most of the women I know are strong, self-reliant vibrant dynamic moderately crewed up people , so why shouldn't they see their counterparts in comics and prose just like the guys have. And from a purely practical side of things a whole lot more read books than men do.
MsgId: *emedia(24)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:33:37 EST 1996
From: guest At: 204.83.142.66
Dear Mr. Claremont. I just wanted to say that I have enjoyed your work throughout the years and am looking forward to the new Superman/WonderWoman book. Could you inform me of any plans to do with your Huntsman character in the Image universe? I thought he was going to get his own series?
MsgId: *emedia(27)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:39:36 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Regarding Huntsman, we're still trying to get the book launched. I'm in discussions with a whole lot of people and as soon as anything gels I'll announce it. But at the moment my focus is at the Lucas Shadow War books and Sovereign Seven.
MsgId: *emedia(30)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:45:46 EST 1996
From: guest At: 204.83.142.66
that is good news...I really enjoyed his presence in WildC.A.T.s. Speaking of Soveirn Seven, where their reasons why they were not involved in Final Night (or did i miss something)? And also, if you can say at this point, will you be involving them with the new JLA(hope,hope,pray,pray).
MsgId: *emedia(31)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:48:56 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Sovereign Seven was involved in Final Night check out issue 16. They weren't involved with any DC characters because they have hardly met any. A situation that will change over the next few months. As far as the Justice League goes that's very much a possibility but the big event for the 2nd year of the book is the Team meeting Superman in issue 24.
MsgId: *emedia(22)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:31:09 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Now, about your other series of books: How did you get involved with George Lucas, in order to write the print sequel to "Willow"? Are you still working on "Star Trek" books as well, or were the books you wrote for the series a one-time deal for the 25th anniversary?
MsgId: *emedia(31)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:48:56 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
Basically, I got involved with George Lucas after Tim Zahn's Star Wars book was so successful, that Bantam asked Mr. Lucas if there was anything else he would like to do that wasn't Star Wars and he said well, there was this--which is in effect the sequel to Willow. So, he and Bantam came to an agreement and they asked me if I would be interested in writing and I thought about it for all of a split second and said hell yes. And then, the real treat was meeting with Mr. Lucas to discuss the book at Skywalker Ranch , mind you since the date of the meeting was April 1st, who knows who I met or where I even was.Star Trek Debt of Honor was a one shot for the 25th anniversary. I did sort of a sequel a year later in a DC special but I have no plans to do any more Star Trek work, I sort of put my hear my heart and soul into Debt of Honor as the Star Trek story I've carried around for years and years. One of the things I've always tried to remember from my days as an actor is to know when to get off.
MsgId: *emedia(28)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:44:12 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
April Fool's, huh? All mine just turn out to be ordinary days, quite frankly (:-( Will there be a filmed version of "Shadow Moon"?
MsgId: *emedia(33)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:49:51 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
That's not up to me, if there is a Lucas film website ask them, but I think it would be cool.
MsgId: *emedia(32)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:49:41 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Now, you'd done the X-Men for 17 years--and had great success (obviously!) with it. Why did you decide to quit writing for the series? Did you just get tired of it, or did your other projects begin to take away more time from the X-Men? And why the switch from Marvel to DC comics?
MsgId: *emedia(36)
Date: Mon Nov 11 21:55:49 EST 1996
From: Chris_Claremont At: 152.163.233.33
I left X-Men because the time had come to pursue other possibilities namely concepts and characters that were mine rather than Marvel's. The first genesis of which is Sovereign Seven, I took it to DC Comics because aside from the enthusiam and support that DC has given the book Marvel had no publishing program in place to accept a title in their mainstream universe that was creator owned. The unique thing about Sovereign that makes the relationshiop with DC so special and valuable to me is that this is the first time a major comic book publisher has accepted a title into its heartland universe that it didn't own outright. My hope then and now is that this relationship becomes the defining relationship of the future,where creators snd publishers work together as partners as they do in prose publishing, rather than employee to employer.
MsgId: *emedia(39)
Date: Mon Nov 11 22:02:18 EST 1996
From: guest At: 204.83.142.66
I must say thank you Mr. Claremont. I have always respected the writer in comic books, and you in particular. I would like to personally thank you again for answering one fans questions...keep up the good work.
MsgId: *emedia(40)
Date: Mon Nov 11 22:02:29 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33
Thank you, Chris Claremont, for coming online tonight to discuss your work for DC and for Bantam Books. I now know what to get my brother for Christmas :-)! Next week's guest will be Clark Adams, from the Internet Infidels, for cyber-theology. If God is online, which server does He use? Find out from Clark, 11/28.
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