Hellooo!

I recently reviewed the very enjoyable Original Sin by Gavin Smith a giant Marvel crossover in book form that has a murder mystery on the moon and disturbing revelations about the darker side and history of the Marvel Universe. A huge amount of fun and so I was delighted to get the chance to talk to Gavin about the book, Galactus and a lot more

How do you like to booktempt Original Sin?

I'll be honest, I've not being doing this well and I think Titan would like it if I stopped referring to it as a graphic novel with the pictures removed. I suspect I'd try something like this: "Imagine an interstellar/dimensional whodunnit with all your favourite Marvel characters." Again, I probably shouldn't say this but I although there's a low bar for entry, I do think this is one for Marvel fans, though even quite casual fans.

In this case the novel is adapting a graphic novel (and huge crossover event) how did you go about adapting this? What were you allowed to change or flesh out more?

Having done a couple now I suspect the secret with novelisations is showing more of the internal working of the characters that you might not see, or be required, in more visual mediums. I have jokingly referred to them as my Russian novels.

There's varying degrees of IP protection depending on who you're working with and Marvel are pretty careful, which is understandable these characters are literally worth billions. I did try and do something that wasn't in the comic (a WW2 flashback) but Marvel weren't up for it. Rather predictably I had to remove all the swearing (apparently none of the Avengers are from Dundee). That said Sarah Singer, who worked on the editing from the Marvel side, was very easy to work with, super professional and I learned some stuff...

I think the main thing when you're working with other people's universes is it should be something that you yourself have enthusiasm for it. If you're going to be cynical about it, just look at it as another paycheque then I feel it shows on the page and it's disrespectful to the reader. I've been reading about many of these characters since I was a kid. The chance to work in this universe was amazing.

In terms of the mechanical process the biggest question was whose POV? It's a vast story told from multiple perspectives (and one of the POV's is secret!) yet there's only so much head hopping you can ask your readers to do (unless you're Frank Herbert, which I'm not). After I'd decided that, with the help of George Sandison from Titan, it became a lot easier. Though I think one or two events were moved so they made a bit more sense in prose and some bits of dialogue had to be changed, again to make more sense in prose but we tried to keep the changes small.

This story uses the shadowy side of the Marvel universe did that prove a bonus for how you approached the story?

I'm more at home, perhaps, with that side of things and it gels a lot with the type of stories I've written before. Where I enjoyed it the most, however, is in contrasting that side of things with a character like Captain America, who I feel is much more interesting than is generally given credit for.

I also suspect that one of the reasons I got the job was the scale of the story, which is similar to that of my Age of Scorpio trilogy.

That said one of my favourite characters is the Punisher (again another misunderstood character because he's become something of a political punching bag: He's not supposed to be a f***ing role model!) so it was a delight to be able to write him. It’s not something you expect to have the chance to do as a prose writer.

Thinking about it cynicism is easier to write but I question if even the most seemingly cynical 'hero' is really all that cynical because they're out there trying...

Can you please confirm your apparently very correct view of Galactus?

I'm a fan of the Ultimates Galactus trilogy by Warren Ellis. In it Galactus is a hivemind controlled swarm of world eating spaceships (sort of). I thought it was quite a clever way to do Galactus. International fan of mystery, Tade Thompson prefers classic Galactus. This resulted in a frank exchange of ideas on the hellscape that is Twitter.

However, I did a blind (and extraordinarily fair and objective) poll on Twitter. I asked what was more interesting: A hivemind controlled swarm of planet eating spaceships. Or: A large man with a vacuum cleaner (which is basically what classic Galactus is). The former was overwhelmingly thought to be more interesting, thus proving I was right empirically.  I mean you'd think that would be the last I'd hear of it but...

What else can we look forward to from you in the future and where can we find out more?

I am working on secret projects! Which I can't talk about because they're so secret! (And it makes me feel important!) I am also desperately trying to find the time to do some edits on a crime novel and we're in discussion about a few other projects. So it's all a bit vague but things are happening (I think/hope.)

I can be found on my hugely out of date and much need of love Website: www.gavingsmith.com

In the dystopia of Facebook I can be found: https://www.facebook.com/gavin.smith.378

And in the Malebolgian purgatory of Twitter I can be found: @gavingsmith

What great books have you read recently?

So I'm currently reading Frankie Boyle's Meantime, which is very funny. I'm looking forward to Kim Sherwood's Double or Nothing because I'm on a huge Bond kick at the moment (I suspect a midlife crisis). Also looking forward to Hunting Leroux by investigative journalist Elaine Sherwood because it sounds insane and it's a true story. My book of the year so far is Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner. Heat is my favourite film and Heat 2 is a worthy successor. I also enjoyed the aforementioned Tade Thompson's Jackdaw, in which we find out far more about Tade than we perhaps should (For example did you know that he was a founding member of 80s electro-pop band the Thompson Twins?*)

*Womble’s note and legal disclaimer – I am unable to confirm or deny that this is true