by Mike Collins

How did you go from editing Philly’s City Paper to becoming a novelist and now comic book writer?

The first two happened more or less simultaneously. I sold The Wheelman to St. Martin’s in August 2004, and a month later, I was offered the City Paper job. When good things happen, they tend to happen in double-barrel assaults.

The comic thing happened thanks to Ed Brubaker. A year ago I sent him an email telling him how much I dug Criminal, and it turned out that he’d read The Wheelman the week before. Ed introduced me to Warren Simons and Axel Alonso at Marvel. I sent them some of my books, and after a few weeks of thinking This will never happen, This will never happen, I was pitching ideas and receiving my first assignment.

Does working as an editor influence your fiction writing?

Oh yeah. The job forces you to pay attention to story structure and tightening language—the news hole is only so big. But this job has also exposed me to a ton of stories, pieces of which usually end up in the novels (and now, comics). David Simon, the creator of the HBO series The Wire, calls this process “stealing life.” I like that a lot.

I’d like to start out with The Blonde. What influences went into this?

The most obvious inspiration was the classic noir D.O.A. (Not the Meg Ryan remake, by the way.) But it’s also very much my version of a Cornell Woolrich “headlong through the night” story, where a cast of characters is racing against a deadline. Usually, at dawn.

The book starts out with a bang and the action doesn't stop until the final page. Was it hard structuring a story that takes place across one night?

Actually, I like restrictions—especially with time. The Wheelman takes place over one long weekend. The Blonde is one night. My next one, Severance Package, is pretty much three hours on a Saturday morning. Ultimately, I hope to write my magnum opus: a thriller that takes place in just 38 seconds.

Delving into spoiler territory for people who haven't yet read the book, The Blonde character is infected with an experimental nanotech tracking device set to explode if she gets more than ten feet from someone. It's quite a bombshell from an otherwise straight noirish story. Why did you want to add in a science fiction element?

I don’t think it’s all that science fiction-ish. I’m sure right now there’s somebody out there, funded by the Pentagon, working on something similar. In fact, I’ll bet someone is watching me type these words RIGHT NOW…

What kind of research, if any, did you do for the technological aspect of the book?

Not much beyond Wikipedia and a few pieces from New Scientist, to be honest. I suck at science.

Aside from Kelly White, The Blonde, the book features a seemingly indestructible government agent named Kowalski. How much fun was he to write?

Kowalski’s a blast to write, because he’s smart, tough, and more than a little nuts. He’s kind of my Polish Punisher. I’m eager to bring him back in another book.

Philadelphia itself is largely a character in your books. As a born and raised Philadelphian myself I still feel the inexplicable siren song to return home. Do you plan to continue using Philly as the main setting in your future novels?

Yes, unless the story begs to be set elsewhere. I have a love/hate relationship with my city (as do most Philadelphians, I think), so it’s fun to slap it around and brag about it at the same time.

I was going to toss in a question about the Eagles, but after this latest loss to the Giants I am just too bitter...is the city bordering on suicide watch?

I’m not exactly a sports guy, so I think I’d be confused if I woke up one morning and thousands of people had killed themselves overnight.

(Hey, that’s not a bad idea for a novel…)

Severance Package is your next book due out in late May. Is "Battle Royale meets Office Space" a fair description?

That’s pretty dead-on. It’s about a boss who wakes up one morning and decides to kill his employees, one by one. (I think we’ve all worked for bosses capable of this.) I’m really excited about the extras with this one—St. Martin’s went above and beyond. Tomm Coker illustrated the cover, and Dennis Calero contributed eight illustrations for the interior. All of the art is just amazing.

Moving over to comics, how did you end up writing for Marvel Comics, and how did a guy who's only written a few comics so far land the plum assignment of relaunching Cable's new monthly spinning out of Messiah Complex?

A combination of luck, timing, and a series of incriminating photos of Axel Alonso.

But really, Axel’s completely to blame. He’s great at pairing writers with their ideal material, and he had me at hello with Cable. Exactly why will become clear when the series begins this March.

You've done a Moon Knight annual, an issue of Punisher and now the upcoming Cable. Do you have any other comic projects lined up?

I do—including a one-shot featuring a wildly-popular Marvel character—but I can’t spill just yet.

Axel Alonso has a reputation for finding and developing new talent. How does it feel working with him?

I’ve never met a better story man. Axel knows how to pinpoint the logic flaws in your story as well as helping you amp up the key moments. What’s been great is that I live fairly close to New York, so it’s easy to pop in once and a month and bat around ideas with Axel. A lot of the (hopefully) surprises in Cable were cooked up over a few frosty pints around the corner from the Marvel offices.

Understanding that Messiah Complex still has a long way to go, what can you tell us about your take on Cable? What kind of stories are you looking forward to telling?

Cable’s kind of a spiritual soldier/superhero. There’s something priestly about him, yet at the same time, there’s something John Rambo about him. It’s a neat contradiction. (Then again, my best friend from high school is a Catholic priest who loves to shoots guns on weekends. So I kind of get it.)

As for what to expect: I love telling stories were the main character is screwed. From page one of issue #1, Cable’s in it up to his neck—kind of literally. From the beginning, Axel stressed the importance of making the rules of the game very clear. So once you understand Cable’s predicament, you’ll be primed for the arcs to follow.

It was cool to plan the series this way, because this is usually my m.o. when I write crime thrillers: start with someone in a really effed-up situation, then watch the character squirm until the very last page.

We know you weren't writing Cable back in the day, but we have a challenge for you regardless: Can you justify the pouches he used to sport? What would you say he was carrying in them? The many, many pouches. . .

I’m not sure what he used to keep in there, but now it’s probably baby wipes. Maybe a little diaper rash cream. And if he’s like any fathers I know, little airport-sized bottles of bourbon.

You have Ariel Olivetti as your artist on Cable. What's that relationship been like?

Really great. I can’t tell you how happy I was that Ariel came on board. I’ve been a fan of his since picking up Punisher War Journal #1 more than a year ago.

As for the working relationship: There is the language barrier thing—though Ariel’s English kicks the ass of my Spanish any day of the week. But mostly, it’s been me learning how to communicating an image to an artist, which is not necessarily the same thing as communicating an image to a reader. I try to be specific as possible without ruining Ariel’s fun.

How much interaction do you have with the other X-title writers? The X-Men have historically been difficult to manage in that there are so many books with a lot of the same characters appearing in them. Has it been a challenge so far?

At first it was a matter of getting up to speed with the seismic events of “Messiah CompleX”—I started plotting Cable while knowing just the bare bones of the story, not the finer details.

Going forward, I’m definitely going to be comparing notes with my fellow X-writers…

Can you say yet who the villains in the book will be?

I can’t—I don’t want to ruin it for you! But there’s a huge clue somewhere toward the last third of “Messiah CompleX.”

Are you on Cable for an arc or two, or are you planning on being on the book for an extended run?

I’m in it for the long haul. Axel, the boys in the X-Office (Nick Lowe, Will Panzo) and I have kicked around ideas for at least the next two years.

What can readers expect from your first issue?

Let’s see: Knives. Grenades. Beer. Bullets. Time travel. And at least one really, really messy diaper change.

For people unfamiliar with you or not a fan of Cable’s previous series, what would you say to get them to give either your novels or Cable a shot?

Argh, Mike. I’m so, so bad at the hard sell. I hate talking anybody into anything. I only lasted three days in a telemarketing job. I kept wanting to apologize.

But I will say that if you’re even the least bit curious, Cable #1’s a great place to jump into the post-“Messiah CompleX” world. And if you like fast-paced stories with plenty of violence and dark humor, my books might be worth a glance.

(Feel so dirty now. Need to shower…)