| Writer and artist Brian Wood has been creating comic books professionally since 1997 and seems to have a new book on the shelves every week lately, with a diverse set of projects from various publishers that includes the subtle tales about finding a place to belong in Local to the dark future of New York City as a literal war zone in DMZ and more. Known for his unique ideas and characters as well as striking cover designs and art, Wood is creating lasting works of illustrated fiction that appeal not only to regular comic book fans, but to those who mistakenly still think comics are only about muscular brutes in spandex. Wood writes independent feeling books that can be enjoyed by anyone looking for a good story. In this edition of “Hooray For Comics,” he was kind enough to answer some of D.J. Kirkbride’s excited, though occasionally poorly-researched, questions for a quick Q & A…
 DJ: Comic fans are usually struck with the “illness” at an early age, but I've read you weren't really into comics as a kid, right?
Brian Wood: I probably read a few as a kid, but I never really got into them. When I was around 25 or so, I heard that some of my favorite commercial illustrators also worked in comics, which really surprised me. People like Kent Williams, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Dave McKean... these were all people I knew from magazines and CD covers. So I sought them out, discovered Vertigo, which really opened my eyes because up until that point I had no idea comics had progressed past how they looked in the mid-70's.
How did your schooling background in graphic design that lead to the comic book work?
My schooling background is actually in illustration, and I spent the last year and a half of art school writing and drawing my own comics, so there's no surprise there. I did take some classes in design, and after I graduated I fell into the web design world, and for a while there comics took a backseat.
Have you always enjoyed writing and drawing?
Drawing, yeah. Writing was a fairly new thing for me. I only started writing so I'd have stories to draw,
Channel Zero was the first book to you on the map, as a writer and an artist. How do you feel about it looking back?
It was my first book, period. I love it. I had zero experience, zero expectations. It's amazing, really, that Image took that chance on me, and of course I'm glad they did and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. It's a really flawed book, but pretty experimental and different from most of what else was out there at the time. I had no access into the industry at the time I was making that book. Comics were still a very new thing for me. I didn't even have any friends that were comic book fans. I was on my own.
Demo (published by AiT/Planet Lar) told twelve self-contained stories in which one of the characters possessed a "power,” though without the donning of spandex and heroics as is the norm in comics. How did that idea come about?
Demo, on one hand, was my version of a pretty standard teenage superhero book, and on the other it wasn't that at all. It quickly turned into something else, sort of related to superpowers but, depending on how any given reader interpreted it, could be something else entirely. Now that it’s all complete, I just refer to them as short stories. I find them hard to categorize as a whole.
 How did you come to collaborate with artist Becky Cloonan on the series?
I had already worked with Becky on a book called Jennie One. I found some of her comics online and emailed her, simple as that. She was gracious enough to spend the next three years working with me.
Is it fair to look at Local, your new series with artist Ryan Kelly from Oni Press, as a companion piece to Demo, sans super powers?
Local is very Demo, in almost every way. I loved the format, I liked the success of Demo, and I thought I could do better. I wanted to do Demo all over again, with a different vibe, of course, but the same structure, same format, same storytelling style. But move it away from superpowers, away from teens, more grounded, more real world, and with more mass appeal. I'm really starting to love the short story format, and I wouldn't be surprised if a third series happened after Local concludes its run. [But] I'm sure I didn't invent that publishing format… I took a lot of ideas from Warren Ellis' Global Frequency, and I wanted the same paper stock as Paul Pope's DC/Vertigo miniseries.
You also have a Vertigo book penciled by Riccardo Burchielli, and inked by yourself, called DMZ. How much of it is inspired by current events politically? Is it an ongoing?
It is an ongoing. Riccardo is inking himself, actually. I'm doing covers, and for the first five issues, I do some of the interior pages, my own pages, not with Riccardo.
It's not an overtly political book. The stories do take place in an incredibly political atmosphere, but the stories tend to be smaller, focused more on people than on the politics.
 Aside from Channel Zero, you seem to be concentrating on writing, working with such artists as Rob G on the The Couriers books or Kristian on your new book Supermarket. Do you enjoy collaboration with other artists or is it a time issue?
Yeah, of course I enjoy it. I like writing, and I like drawing, but I know that my art style isn't a match for all the story ideas I have, so, while time is always a factor, I need to pair with artists for aesthetic reasons as well. The Couriers wouldn't work without Rob G, and Demo wouldn't exist without Becky.
You have a tee shirt design company called Northern Boy and have done graphic design for various companies... Where do you find the time?
Basically, I don't have the time anymore. I haven't taken on any side jobs in ages. I still do a shirt here and there, but that's just for fun.
What comics are you excited about these days?
Scott Pilgrim and Black Hole are the two books I would recommend the most.
You've also produced a short film, called Future Imperfect. Any desire to work on more movies?
You know how people call comics "paper movies"? That is such bullshit, because anyone who makes comics and tries to make a film, even a short one with a small crew, knows its about a thousand times more complicated and expensive than making a comic. The reality is, comics and film are worlds apart in terms of execution, and while I enjoyed making that film, I'd rather stick to comics. My temperament is more suited to it.
Why Saucony shoes? I'm a Vans man myself (wide sizes for m'boats)...
Just time for a change. I was a Vans guy since I was 12.
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