Interview – Mark Miller, “Books of Blood” Motion Book

Interview conducted by Blu Gilliand.

Below is the final interview in Horror World’s three-part interview series with the creative talents behind the motion book adaptation of Clive Barker’s seminal Books of Blood.  You can view a sample here at Madefire’s website, and check out the other interviews with Christian Francis and Ben Meares.

Mark Miller is vice president of Seraphim, Clive Barker’s production company, which means he gets paid to do things like collaborate with Barker on comics, read and edit early drafts of Barker’s much-anticipated new novel The Scarlet Gospels, help in the restoration of Barker’s film Nightbreed, and….should I go on? It’s a job many horror fans would kill for, but Miller has it and he does it well. One of Miller, Barker and Seraphim’s latest projects is a motion comics adaptation of the short stories in Books of Blood. Recently, Miller took a few moments to answer some questions about that project for Horror World.

HORROR WORLD: Tell us a little bit about how this project came about. How did Madefire come to Clive’s attention?

MARK MILLER: We have a great relationship with DeviantART who has partnered with Madefire, so we were meeting at a recent comic convention when they introduced us to the brains behind the app and we were utterly blown away. Reading a Madefire book felt like being a kid again. I was instantly transported and knew that we needed to work together.

HW: What exactly is your role in putting these together?

MM: One of the many brilliant things behind Madefire is they give you creative carte blanche. They asked us what we wanted to do. And armed with the knowledge of such creative freedom, it became obvious that we had to do Books of Blood.

HW: Many of the stories from Books of Blood were previously adapted by Eclipse Comics. Was there any concern that this project would be treading much of the same ground?

MM: None at all. Yes, the stories had been published in comic form before. But this is something entirely different. It’s a brand new medium.

HW: What differentiates these adaptations from the previous comics versions – aside from the method of presentation?

MM: We’re not holding anything back. Our adaptations will be faithful to the letter. And that means we’re showing everything.

HW: How involved has Clive been in putting these adaptations together? 

MM: Clive is hands on with everything. There isn’t an aspect of our output that doesn’t go through Clive at some point. So he’s been on board from moment one, approving artists, music, layouts, etc. This is a fully in-house production.

HW: How will these stories roll out? Will all of the Books of Blood stories be adapted? How often will they be released?

MM: The plan is to release every story from the anthology. Some stories are longer than others, so they’ll be released in increments. A good example is “The Midnight Meat Train,” which will end up being three issues, all told. We’re very homegrown here, which means we’re working only at the pace that each others’ schedules will allow. The ideal is to release one issue every other month, and we hope to stay on that path for a long time.

HW: Are there any plans for adapting material outside of Books of Blood? I can see the Abarat series being an excellent candidate for a Motion Book.

MM: There certainly are. And even original stories as well. We’re currently working on something with a good friend of the company, a writer/director named Robert Parigi, who is working on something that we absolutely fell in love with. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen and can’t wait to show it to the world!

HW: What else are you working on these days?

MM: Personally, I just signed off on two new projects. One for Dark Horse, and one with Lonnie Nadler that I’m very excited about. At Seraphim, we’re also set to produce a few films this year. One, called The Entwined, is set to start shooting in Georgia in March. And of course, the long-awaited The Scarlet Gospels comes out in May. We like to keep busy.