bullock

Mike Bullock

(left: Mike Bullock's Phantom comic)

What sparked an interest in writing for you?

Mike: I've always had an overactive imagination. As a child, my brother and two cousins could all draw, but I couldn't. My aunt, noticing how this bothered me, told me "A picture is worth a thousand words. If you can't draw the picture, you better learn to write the thousand words." I took her seriously and several days later had multiple stories in the works. It's actually a pretty neat exercise, to describe a visual image in a thousand words…

How long have you been doing it?

Mike: I've been writing as entertainment for myself since I was four or five years old. As entertainment for others, by the time I hit seventh grade. Professionally, since I was in my early twenties.

What is your background…educational and professional experience?

Mike: I attended college for journalism and wrote columns for several music magazines, as well as writing for and running my own fanzine in my twenties. My first published fiction work appeared in 1988. My first published non-fiction appeared in 2004. During that time, I also spent roughly ten years as a touring and recording musician.

Which writers have influenced or inspired you? What do you read?

Mike: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard have most likely been the biggest influences on me, along with C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allen Poe, Alan Dean Foster and George Lucas.

I'll read just about anything I can get my hands on, from Time Magazine to DC Com ics' Birds of Prey. Right now, I'm immersed in reading The Bible, multiple comic book titles and the ABADAZAD book series, along with Phantom newspaper stories.

How did you get hooked up with Moonstone?

Mike: Joe and I have been friends for several years and have always talked about working together. I approached him in 2005 in the hopes of getting a friend of mine a gig writing Kolchak, and at the end of the conversation, Joe asked me what I wanted to write for them. Without a millisecond of hesitation, I said The Phantom. He had me script a fill-in story to give Ben Raab some breathing space and not long after, Ben stepped down as the regular writer. Moonstone and the folks at King Features liked what I'd done with the fill-in issue, and asked me to come on board full time.

Could you roughly outline your approach to creating a story?

Mike: Normally, I spend several days thinking about it. I start with a spark of an idea and slowly turn it round and round in my mind before settling on a rough structure. Then, I sit down at the computer and type out a plot. Once that's done, I break the plot down into however many comic pages I feel it needs (twenty two for a one-issue story, forty four for a two-issue story, etc) and once I have it broken down into pages, I go back and script out each page. When I finish, I go back over it once or twice and then send it off to my editor.

How much of Lee Falk's work have you read? What is your favorite Falk time period?

Mike: So far, I think I've read about half of his stories. As for a favorite, I'm torn between the very early stuff, and what he was doing in the late '80s. The early stuff had a great pulp adventure feel to it that really just fires up my imagination. However, the stuff he was doing in the late '80s seemed to meld that with a great sense of the times and the turmoil our world was going through then. Ultimately, I'd like my work to carry shades of each period.

How is the approach for modern day comics different from Lee's work or Tony DePaul's work on a newspaper?

Mike: I've only done one newspaper story, that was a Lions, Tiger and Bears ten-parter, but I basically laid it out in the same manner as I do a standard comic story, but with an altered structure as dictated by the different medium.

How and why is Moonstone different from foreign Phantom comics?

Mike: I haven't read much of the foreign stuff, but from what I gather, each publisher strives to appeal to their local market, which is just plain smart business. It wouldn't make much sense to try and sell hamburgers to people who only want sushi, just as it wouldn't make much sense to sell European themed entertainment to Americans.

What is your take on the character?

Mike: The Phantom is the last of the true heroes. He isn't jaded, or gritty. He carries no emotional baggage nor does he allow his personal feelings to distort his vision of what he's sworn to do. The Phantom is the dictionary definition of "hero."

How did you come to develop Lions, Tigers and Bears?

Mike: Several years ago, a friend of mine was preparing to launch a magazine and asked me if I'd contribute an ongoing, all-ages prose story for each issue. I dusted off an old idea I had, remolded it into something more all-ages friendly and pretty soon I had what would grow to become Lions, Tigers and Bears. The magazine, sadly, never got off the ground, so I took what I had and pitched it to the first series artist, Jack Lawrence. Jack loved it and since I absolutely adored his work, we teamed up to create the first LTB mini series. Jack has since moved on to bigger and better things and Paul "Gutz" Gutierrez has taken over the art duties, along with colorist Bob Pedroza, a man many Phantom Phans will recognize from his work in the on-going series beginning with issue 14.

I understand the movie rights have been purchased. Will you have anything to do with the script? At what stage of development is the project?

Mike: Nothing has been purchased yet. The movie rights have been optioned, however, and the property is currently in development for a live action/CGI hybrid film in the vein of " The Chronicles of Narnia." A director was just attached to it and the screenwriter should be named by the springtime. While I won't write the actual script, I do have final say on how it all comes together.

What would you like to see in a second Phantom film?

Mike: A better villain. Billy Zane did a great job as The Ghost Who Walks in the first film, but the story really lacked a juxtaposed character of the same magnitude. Bring that to the table and I think it would far surpass the original film, which was rather enjoyable in its own right.

What kind of reaction have you received from US fans?

Mike: The reaction from US fans has been rather positive. While not as overwhelming as the response to Lions, Tigers and Bears , it's still been satisfying to know so many people are enjoying what I'm doing. Couples that with the fact that I know my upcoming stories are far better than what I've already put out and it really keeps me energized to continue creating Phantom tales.

Do you collect Phantom memorabilia? If so, what is your most prized Phantom possession?

Mike: I don't currently have the financial wherewithal to collect much; however, I do have a gorgeous Skull Ring given to me by Pete Klaus that I cherish. Along with that, I have an official movie poster, several pages of original artwork and some older Gold Key comics, a beautiful key ring, and several sketches that I'm rather fond of owning.

Which social concerns and story plots do you plan to address in future stories?

Mike: Issues 17-19 will have the Phantom take on a fictional Warlord loosely based on a real life villain in modern day Africa. This man, whose very name leaves a rancid taste in my mouth, kidnaps children from their homes at night and tortures them physically, mentally and spiritually until they submit to conscription into his armies.

Anyone who harms a child deserves the worst of fates. This man deserves it a thousand fold. While I can't do much about it in real life, The Phantom can see that justice is done in the pages of Moonstone's books. I hope that along the way these stories will spread awareness of this man's atrocities and bring them to an end.

What other projects are you working on?

Mike: Right now I'm working on a chapter book series, two new creator owned comic book series, a new character for Moonstone, and a Phantom mini-series that will stand apart from the regular, ongoing series. On top of that, I'm growing several seeds into full-blown properties and preparing to build an addition on my house.

What advice or encouragement can you give to aspiring writers?

Mike: I get asked this a lot, which is rather ironic since I still feel full of aspirations myself. My stock answer is: make sure you do it because you love it. If you don't, you'll never succeed. To add something not so stock to it, make sure you enjoy it to the fullest, because you never know when the sentence you're crafting may be the last one you ever write. Always recognize how wonderful it is to be able to spend time doing something you enjoy.