Interview with Garth Ennis
Like a hitman, Garth Ennis is often brought in to do a job, to turn up the volume and make that character noticeable. He’s done it to Punisher, Nick Fury, and John Constantine. For his latest revival, he’s reaching back to one of England’s greatest comic book heroes with Dan Dare in a seven issue mini-series published by Virgin Comics.
This is Ennis’ return to the Virgin imprint and marks his return to the sci-fi genre since his work at 2000 AD and Judge Dredd. Ennis’ first Virgin project was Seven Brothers, whereby John Woo grabbed the headlines but it was more Ennis’ story than anything else. And now, Ennis attempts to modernize Dan Dare. Think Captain America but in space, and Dare’s creator, Frank Hampson created him out of the smoldering rubble that was the second World War. He is full of idealism and that is a major contrast to most of Ennis’ characters who he has said himself, are anything but. ” They’ve led hard lives, soaked up a lot of damage, and most of them have given up looking for a better way.” Dan Dare is a long-anticipated because it’s such a departure of Ennis’ body of work and he was nice enough to answer a few short answers about the new series and afterwards is a short review of the first issue.
PCS: Your body of work has always reflected a fondness for war stories and westerns, was the sci-fi genre something you also had a similar affection towards, and perhaps wanted to go against the grain of your past work?
Ennis: As a genre it would be a lot further down the list, but I can’t deny my affection for things like Star Wars, and later the great sci-fi flicks of the 80s- Alien (okay, ‘79), Terminator, Bladerunner, The Thing etc. 2000AD, which is my all-time favourite comic, was primarily made up of science fiction stories. That said, I don’t think you’ll find any of the sci-fi concepts I’m playing with in Dan Dare all that innovative; they’re more tried and tested concepts that form a backdrop to the characters and themes.
PCS: I found your take on Green Lantern early in the Hitman run to be hilarious. You got to reprise that relationship with your recent JLA/Hitman story. Now granted it was a different Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner instead of Hal Jordan, but Jordan was a military space pilot as well as Dan Dare, could you be softening your blows on the profession? *smiling*
Ennis: Military space pilots, sure. Once they put on the tights and start shooting green fire out of their rings, I check out (although I seem to keep checking back in, for purposes of cruel and unnecessary ridicule- as you’ll see in upcoming issues of The Boys).
PCS: Garth, much of what is remembered in your body of work are the more visual moments, the money shots, but what I think is your biggest strength is the when your characters speak to each other and how they react to one another. They are genuine moments and true to those characters. There’s real weight to stories like Hitman #34 or more with Tommy and Nat, the bond between Jesse, Cassidy and Tulip in Preacher, even The Pro and her baby; and in Dan Dare, the conversation between Jocelyn and Digby or Dare and the Prime Minister. In your writing technique, do you spend more time and effort concentrating on those moments or do you spend more on the action/visual sequences and the big pay-off? Is there one aspect that’s more difficult to craft?
Ennis: I love writing dialogue, it comes very naturally to me. It is, ultimately, the most obvious way that people relate to each other; the quickest way they reveal themselves. It’s why most stories lose me in the first few pages, because characters start talking and I just can’t believe the words that the writer has put in their mouths. Which is not to say that I don’t keep plenty of set-pieces and pay-offs at the ready, but I tend to work those out at the plotting stage, and then let the dialogue develop naturally as I write each scene.
PCS: Was the series more born out of wanting to contemporize Dan Dare, or was it more of a reaction to what both the US and England have dealt with as a result of their front offices? In other words, was this a ripe time for this version of Dan Dare? Rather than try to keep the nostalgia gained from the Eagle and 2000 AD comics?
Ennis: I think nostalgia will only ever take you so far; I once tried writing Judge Dredd on nothing but nostalgia, and failed pretty much 100%. For me to take an interest, stories have to be about something, have to matter, have to have meaning- unless we’re talking about pure farce, which has its own attractions. Capturing the feeling of any original concept is only a starting point for narrative, otherwise you’re just telling the same story with updated artwork. So in this case, yes, I’m interested in commenting on where Britain is as opposed to where it’s been, and that’s
something that continues throughout the series.
Dan Dare #1 Review
Dan Dare continues Virgin Comics’ interesting collection of modern mythology built from around the world with recognizable names. Well, they scored a big hit with Dan Dare, both reprising a British fiction hero under the direction of Garth Ennis and the sharp cinematography of Gary Eskrine and Garry Leach. A heroic space pilot is pulled out of retirement after something ominous is moving through outer space. The world around Dare has left the pilot battered, hopeless, and let down with his homeland, despite Britain becoming the #1 country in the world. But he still believes.
The first issue of Dan Dare doesn’t bog down the reader with any unnecessary recap of who the protagonist is, instead Ennis places us behind the wheel of a great adventure–but he’s steering. Whether you’ve read Dare as a child like Ennis, or you’re meeting him for the first time, you’re instantly comfortable and confident in Dare. Make no mistakes, these characters bear the familiar spit and spice of Ennis’ flavor, but without the over-the-top affair and brutality, which, after reading Punisher and the Boys on a monthly basis, both of which I enjoy–this is a good change of pace, especially from Ennis.
There is respect for all the Frank Hampson’s characters and Ennis’ knowledge of Dare’s history is vast but shown only through subtle drops; as is the sci-fi. But you can tell that this is not some childhood prance down memory lane. Instead, Dare’s world and the poignant and relevant political undertones will keep you page-turning as a larger story unfolds. Good science fiction is when you almost forget it’s science fiction and the same could be said about Dan Dare.
Idealistic characters seem to work best when the real-life political leaders are at their worst it seems. Words spoken about war these days do not ring out heroism. Perhaps that’s part of the success of Captain America, or the West Wing, or President Palmer on 24. Leaders have become villains almost overnight. We project our dreams on the hopes that our own leaders could do no wrong, or in the face of adversity, they’d be humble if not triumphant. And you get that same hope with Dare. As a newcomer to the character I have no connection to the character yet I wanted to read more, or go back to discover the Eagle strip reprints. Or just find a barstool next to Ennis and hear him reminisce about Dare and the hero he dreams him to be.
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