Bradbury). In the 1950s there was far more acceptance of American SF in European intellectual circles than in the United States itself, where that retrospective tone spells “literature” to the
New Yorker
reader and in my view is the bane of American fiction, especially when linked to regionalism/provincialism.
Emerging from World War II into Austerity Britain, it was easy for us to see
1984
all around us. The three
New Worlds
writers generally linked in those days (and I was even then more writer than editor) were myself, Ballard, and Brian Aldiss. I’d come out of the London Blitz, Ballard from the Japanese civilian prison camps, and Aldiss from the war in Malaya, and we all had reason to welcome the A-bomb, perceiving it with far more ambiguity than most.
Post-1946 modernity was a bit on the grim side, but we felt that as writers we’d been given an amazing box of tools, an array of subjects never before available to literature, and we used those tools and subjects in ways that tended to celebrate postwar experience rather than denigrate it.
Our tastes in SF were often different. Brian liked
Astounding
, while I just couldn’t read it. Ballard liked Bradbury. I preferred good pulp like Brackett and Bester. Richard Hamilton, the pop artist, thought all three of us were damaging the kind of stuff he liked. He’d used Robby the Robot at his first important exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.
I couldn’t continue today to have the role I had then, because what we hoped would happen
has
happened. SF methods and subjects are now incorporated into modern fiction in order to deal with modern matters. Nostalgia is largely the preserve of fantasy and so-called Steampunk. (I suggested in a recent review that it really should be called Steam Opera since it has so many lords and ladies in it.)
Anyway: Then my role was to attack the old and celebrate the new. Now my role is to be careful not to discourage new writers. In my old age I carry a burden, if you like, of gravitas! This makes me a kinder critic.
An Elric film has been in the works (or not) for years. What’s the current status? Any other Hollywood interest?
The Weitz brothers and Universal had Elric under option for some time, but I have no idea what’s happening now. Michael Bassett, the English director who made
Solomon Kane
, is now interested. I’ve corresponded with him a bit, but to be honest, I don’t much care about movies and tend to show little interest when I’m approached. I suspect Bassett would be a good choice, though.
You started out writing for comics, then dropped it until the mid-1990s (and
Multiverse).
Do you still like the form? Why?
I wrote a lot of commercial comics for Fleetway as a kid, but by the 1960s I’d had enough of what I regarded as a primitive medium. I had problems with the low-level racism/stereotyping prevalent at the time and found myself at odds with my bosses— refusing to write World War II comics, for instance. I wrote a bit of picture-journalism attacking what I saw as the trend of grown-ups to elevate juvenile forms, (especially in France) such as
Barbarella
.
Of course, I’d dusted off my old comic skills to write the Jerry Cornelius material for
International Times
in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, and I’d done a Hawkwind strip with Jim Cawthorn for
FRENDZ
, another underground newspaper. I did quite a lot with the underground in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Then along came Alan Moore, and I saw that it was possible to use comics in a fun, adult way in a commercial environment—as long as you had a good collaborator, as I did. By then I was friends with Alan, and you could say it was his example, as well as meeting a bunch of very bright kids at the San Diego Comic Convention, that made me want to get back into the medium.
So when I was asked to do a comic for DC I decided to try something ambitious, running three main stories at the same time and having them link up at the end.
That was
Michael
New Yorker
reader and in my view is the bane of American fiction, especially when linked to regionalism/provincialism.
Emerging from World War II into Austerity Britain, it was easy for us to see
1984
all around us. The three
New Worlds
writers generally linked in those days (and I was even then more writer than editor) were myself, Ballard, and Brian Aldiss. I’d come out of the London Blitz, Ballard from the Japanese civilian prison camps, and Aldiss from the war in Malaya, and we all had reason to welcome the A-bomb, perceiving it with far more ambiguity than most.
Post-1946 modernity was a bit on the grim side, but we felt that as writers we’d been given an amazing box of tools, an array of subjects never before available to literature, and we used those tools and subjects in ways that tended to celebrate postwar experience rather than denigrate it.
Our tastes in SF were often different. Brian liked
Astounding
, while I just couldn’t read it. Ballard liked Bradbury. I preferred good pulp like Brackett and Bester. Richard Hamilton, the pop artist, thought all three of us were damaging the kind of stuff he liked. He’d used Robby the Robot at his first important exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.
I couldn’t continue today to have the role I had then, because what we hoped would happen
has
happened. SF methods and subjects are now incorporated into modern fiction in order to deal with modern matters. Nostalgia is largely the preserve of fantasy and so-called Steampunk. (I suggested in a recent review that it really should be called Steam Opera since it has so many lords and ladies in it.)
Anyway: Then my role was to attack the old and celebrate the new. Now my role is to be careful not to discourage new writers. In my old age I carry a burden, if you like, of gravitas! This makes me a kinder critic.
An Elric film has been in the works (or not) for years. What’s the current status? Any other Hollywood interest?
The Weitz brothers and Universal had Elric under option for some time, but I have no idea what’s happening now. Michael Bassett, the English director who made
Solomon Kane
, is now interested. I’ve corresponded with him a bit, but to be honest, I don’t much care about movies and tend to show little interest when I’m approached. I suspect Bassett would be a good choice, though.
You started out writing for comics, then dropped it until the mid-1990s (and
Multiverse).
Do you still like the form? Why?
I wrote a lot of commercial comics for Fleetway as a kid, but by the 1960s I’d had enough of what I regarded as a primitive medium. I had problems with the low-level racism/stereotyping prevalent at the time and found myself at odds with my bosses— refusing to write World War II comics, for instance. I wrote a bit of picture-journalism attacking what I saw as the trend of grown-ups to elevate juvenile forms, (especially in France) such as
Barbarella
.
Of course, I’d dusted off my old comic skills to write the Jerry Cornelius material for
International Times
in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, and I’d done a Hawkwind strip with Jim Cawthorn for
FRENDZ
, another underground newspaper. I did quite a lot with the underground in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Then along came Alan Moore, and I saw that it was possible to use comics in a fun, adult way in a commercial environment—as long as you had a good collaborator, as I did. By then I was friends with Alan, and you could say it was his example, as well as meeting a bunch of very bright kids at the San Diego Comic Convention, that made me want to get back into the medium.
So when I was asked to do a comic for DC I decided to try something ambitious, running three main stories at the same time and having them link up at the end.
That was
Michael
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