HIDDEN ROBOT

PART 3

Was the decision to take your material into the realm of children’s books a premeditated one, or more just recognizing a great fit?
DM: I loved children’s books since I was a kid. I remember reading Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland as a child and being fascinated by the fanciful imagery. And before that, reading Doctor Seuss and being inspired by the whimsical approach to storytelling and the imaginative creatures and layouts.

When I was in university, I had a Children’s Literature class. In the course of that class I created my first children’s book called My Invisible Friend. This was in 1993. I turned it in for my work in that class.

Later, in the second issue of the KABUKI: Metamorphosis volume (the story that comes right before the current KABUKI: The Alchemy series from Marvel), I incorporated the My Invisible Friend kids book inside the Kabuki story. So you see that story page by page in the context of that Kabuki issue and it kind of acts as a whimsical subtext to what the surface story is about.

Could you see yourself illustrating children’s books as well as both writing/illustrating?
DM: I could see it happening if it was a writer I really wanted to collaborate with. But that would be a big exception. Usually when I’m drawing something it is to tell a story that I’ve written. I could more easily envision writing other children’s books with other artists drawing it.

LIFE BETWEEN THE PANELS - COMICS

Miller's Daredevil, Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, Will Eisner...and a lot of GI Joe, any other specific comic-based influences?
DM: Watchmen was quite influential on me when I read it as a kid. All of Alan Moore’s and Frank Miller's work was.

What is your relationship to Frank Miller, have you ever had the off chance to discuss possible projects?
DM: I have met him a few times and he has always been kind to me in those brief encounters. The last time I spoke with him was after the Chicago con and he complimented me on my taste in women. He is a creator that I have long admired and he influenced me in my formative years and I’d be happy to do a project with him.

Is there anything in the current market that intrigues you?
DM: I like all of Paul Pope’s work. I like Ivan Brunetti. I like Dash Shaw. Powers is always tops.

Brian Michael Bendis recently talked about Daredevil: End of Days for which you will each share writing duties. He termed it, "your return to the mainstream" - following those words, why haven't we seen more of you through any number of Marvel titles?
DM: I’ve been pretty occupied writing and drawing Kabuki at Marvel. And after each issue of Kabuki, I do a few covers for books and work on writing some projects. I intend to do a lot more writing of Marvel projects that you will see when this current Kabuki storyline concludes. And I’ve been keeping up the Reflections art book series as well. And I have some other Kids book ideas on the way.

When you see other artists doing a "Mack" what is your reaction to a piece that is obviously working off of your style or even your characters?
DM: I usually can’t tell. When someone tells me they did something in what they call “my style”, most of the time it looks very foreign to me. Then I might think, “Oh, they are thinking of that thing I did nine years ago that I did as a very specific solution to a challenge to tell that particular story and they think that is my style”. It can be like looking at yourself in a fun-house mirror. When it seems to be all about something they think is a “style” rather than the best way to communicate the story, you hope it is something that is helpful to them to just break out of a mold and get that out of their system to get them to their own place.

And other times, I can see something quite good, and someone says it is their version of my approach or something they said they learned from my storytelling, and I can see that it was a bridge to get them to do something quite unique and in their own voice. And that can be very rewarding. To think that readers and artists are getting something helpful from my work that they can use as a leaping point and grow from.

Speaking of your characters, how do you feel about Echo getting a starring role on the New Avengers and moving directly to the A-List of the Marvel Universe?
DM: I trust Brian Michael Bendis as a writer and I get a big kick out of it. He let me read those scripts ahead of time and I really enjoyed them.

You offered this synopsis of Kabuki recently - "The first volume (KABUKI: Circle of Blood) is kind of a crime story/espionage story." and I'm really excerpting here - "The current volume (KABUKI: The Alchemy) from Marvel’s Icon line, is about how to turn the problems of your past, into something useful and practical for your future. How to turn your garbage into gold." What inspired such a seemingly radical shift in the themes of the story?
DM: Just natural progression. Natural evolution of the character and the story. I don’t really see the differences so much as I see the connection. I get asked what Kabuki is about so often that I recently posted a response on the FanBoy radio site. This one:

"The first volume (KABUKI: Circle of Blood) is kind of a crime story/espionage story. It was me doing a kind of updated version of a George Orwell 1984 story where the media has become a mouthpiece for corporations and government to influence the culture. The (multi-national) corporation super-cedes the nation state as the real power in the world and used the media and what we used to call the news to maintain its true interest-making money and keeping control by exerting a state of fear and constant war about something.

I wrote it in 1993 and began publishing it in 1994. I thought I would take some of what was beginning to happen in the media then and turn up the volume of it, exaggerate it, to make a point. It doesn’t feel as exaggerated when I read it now.

In the story, there is a kind of interdependence between the organized crime, corporations, government, and media. And there is a government agency that polices that interdependence. t is an agency called the Noh. The Noh also has its own television channel called Noh TV in which it exerts its influence by soft power or cultural power. With characters clothed in nationalistic iconography and cultural masks. The general populace believe these characters to be kind of media idol talking heads about the daily propoganda. But there are also rumors that the masked animations on the news are also operatives of the media that keep the scales balanced between the organized crime corporations and the political pundits if they go too far in either direction.

Kabuki is one of these media icons of channel Noh. At a certain point, her personal family obligations supercede the nationalistic propaganda that she grew up believing and she embarks on a path that puts here against the powers that she formerly served.

CONTINUE TO PART 4