Q&A: Alan Grant on the War of 1812
Alan Grant lives in the Scottish village of Moniaive, in the region of Dumfries and Galloway. He’s in his 63rd year. If that conjures images of tweeds, faithful old terriers and a taste for the novels of John Buchan and Muriel Spark, banish them. Grant is a prolific writer of comic books and graphic novels, has worked at the top of the field for Marvel and DC Comics, written Batman, Robocop, Judge Dredd, The
Demon and other such thrillers and chillers. Still, he was taken slightly aback when Alexander Finbow, a partner in Renegade Arts Entertainment, asked him to write a graphic novel to commemorate the bicentennial this year of the War of 1812.
The Loxleys and the War of 1812, written by Alan Grant, will be published later this month. Q: Were you a reader of comics as a boy? A: I was a fan from childhood. My grandmother taught me to read and write — before I went to school — using British humour comics as her teaching aids. Q: How did you get into the business of writing comics? A: I started my career writing romantic fiction for female teenagers in the U.K., years before I ever wrote a comic story. But as soon as I’d written my first comic — Tarzan and the Sabre
toothed Tiger — I knew where I wanted to make my future. There’s just something about the blend of words and pictures which adds up to much more than the individual parts. Q: What was different about the War of 1812 project? A: Research of this type was a first for me, because I primarily write science fiction, superheroes and fantasy . . . and you just make up whatever you need to for them. In most of my work, imagination was always more important than historical accuracy.
Q: Did you know much about the War of 1812 before writing
The Loxleys?
A: I knew absolutely nothing about the War of 1812 prior to Alexander asking me to become involved. I didn’t even know that the song “The Battle of New Orleans” — which was a big hit in the U.K. for Lonnie Donegan, the so-called King of Skiffle, when I was a kid — was about the 1812 war. Q: So how did you bone up on the subject? A: Alexander sent me several erudite books on the war to read through before I started writing. I became fascinated by the 1812 story and took the research very seriously.
Q: What are the particular challenges in writing a graphic novel that might not occur to the layman or prose writer?
A: Writing a comic or graphic novel is perhaps closer to screenwriting than it is to writing prose. Basically, you have to imagine the story as a movie, and “freeze frame” those moments which seem most important.
Q: You’ve also adapted the comics version to a prose novel. Which form is more gratifying?
A: For me, comics will always be more gratifying than prose writing. Because reading comics utilizes both hemispheres of the brain — left hemisphere for the words, right hemisphere for the pictures. I think it’s a superior art form to books, which use mainly the left hemisphere, and Tv/movies, which use mainly the right hemisphere.
Jim Coyle