IDW Publishing recently entered into a long-term relationship with Clive Barker--we all agreed that we would be the sole comic publisher for any of the comic projects he wanted to do. This relationship started with our adaptation of THE THIEF OF ALWAYS earlier this year. Clive was extremely happy with our creepy take in his all-ages story, and the book was really well-received. And Barker's got a huge catalog of books that we'd love to adapt as comics, so I was all for us getting involved with the guy.

Barker's much more than the HELLRAISER he's primarily known for amongst the masses. Just like Stepehn King has done so much more than horror and yet, unless you're a fan you scarcely know this, so, too, has Barker tackled a wide array of projects: from fantasy to erotica to children's books to painting and more. And so many of them lend themselves well to the visual approach that comics can offer.

My first meeting with Clive took place months ago, at his studio house in Beverly Hills. The house, filled to overflowing with huge canvases and impressive paintings, is where he creates the works that eventually become his ABARAT series (a lot of other work happens there as well, but it was the hundreds of ABARAT paintings that first caught my eye). At that time, we simply agreed that we'd take on many of his upcoming projects, from movies he's developing and financing himself to THE SCARLET GOSPELS, his final Pinhead tale, to some of his back catalog as well. First among these projects that he wanted us to tackle was THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW: THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ART, his 1989 novel that looks at an impending apocalypse, life, love, Hollywood, and so much more.

An early review of the book described it thus:

Clive himself, in the book, stated it this way:

The truth of this book is that even after 800 pages, it's still widely open to interpretation. As it should be--a book that discusses the concept of the Art, which might have something to do with Creation, or Armageddon, or both, should leave the definition of that Art up to the reader.

I'd planned all along to tackle this first big Barker project myself. Better to wait until the time drew near to talk specifics with Clive, and I also wanted to get some adaptations and general comic scripts under my belt before even attempting to start this (at the time I started the firt script, I had a good dozen comic scripts done, approved and in production).

So, first, I read. I spent the summer reading the novel, and, in large doses, reading it again. It was more than 800 pages, and yet it read really quickly (we eventually plan to adapt the book's sequel, EVERVILLE: THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ART, too, yet as much as I want to read the continuing story, I don't want to blur the two in my head, so I won't look at that one until all 12 parts of this comic are done).

I had ideas about the art, and so did Clive. They very closely gibed, which was nice--at his house the first time, Clive and I talked about the final issue of Alan Moore's PROMETHEA book, and how much we loved J.K. Williams' art. (Clive went me one better, unstapling and laying out that final issue in the way it was intended to be read, as a giant mural that read front to back or back to front.) J.K., as it turns out, was signed to an exclusive contract with DC Comics. So an alternative needed to be found.

We talked a bit more about art styles during the San Diego Comic Con--for a guy who's as busy and prolific as he is, he really knows his comics, and indeed hits the shop on Wednesdays for new books. We also talked about the possibility of him painting a new cover for the first issue. His schedule won't permit that, but he did tell me he would certainly provide a cover for the inevitable trade paperback collection.

So I got to work assembling some samples to run by Clive, various art styles that I thought would work for the book. I set up a time to head back to his place, to present me as the writer and hopefully nail down an artist.

I had a half-dozen artist samples, from good new folks to established comics pros, but there was only one I wanted for this book.

When I got there, I'd brought a sampling of some of our new books, among them my SHAUN OF THE DEADs and an advance of LAND OF THE DEAD #1 (even though I don't particularly love the way that issue turned out, not compared to subsequent issues). I brought them as evidence that I could, you know, script a credible enough comic book to take on his project. Before I could even get into those, Clive mentioned that he'd recently read SHAUN #2 and really liked the way I handled a certain scene that he thought might be trouble when adapted to comic form. All unsolicited--who even knew he knew I wrote the comic?

After working on various projects with various licensors, the thing I've come to learn about Clive Barker is that he gives the people working on his stuff a level of freedom and trust that's pretty well unheard of, at least in my experience. For a guy with as strong a voice as he has in his work, and a guy who could easily be overly controlling and get away with it, he isn't. Instead, he said he loves the idea of seeing his works filtered through others' eyes. Like in the case of our THIEF OF ALWAYS adaptation, he said the writer and artist took the book in different directions than he ever would have wanted, and was very happy with the results. So to that end, he's a great, inspiring and empowering guy to be working with. I was in as the writer on this book without ever having to plead my case.

Now, the art. The important part. This book features moments in a small California town north of Los Angeles, with regular people and regular situations. It also features vague transformations, locations outside of our time and space, other lands and concepts that aren't easily defined on paper. The artist would have to be somebody who could handle both equally well.

Clive said he didn't want to be led any way on the artists. "I'm the type who walks into The Gap and knows right away if I like an outfit--I don't need to be sold." Which is the way I wanted to handle it anyway, and just hope that somehow the artist I wanted was the artist he liked.

The artist I wanted is a guy named Gabriel Rodriguez.

Gabriel (henceforth, "Gabe") is a Chilean artist who I met while he was drawing CSI for us. Gabe has drawn more pages for IDW than anyone but Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith, and yet, he'd never really had a chance to show much more than his solid likeness work. I worked with him on Steven Grant's CSI: SECRET IDENTITY miniseries. He did his usual great job on that, but the CSI books sell best to people outside of comic shops. Typical comic fans (superhero fans, really) aren't as into that book as fans of the show itself. And a police procedural never really let him stretch all that much.

So when I was deciding to write George Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD, I wanted Gabe. I thought it would be a refreshing change for him--the last thing you want to do is burn out a good artist on work that starts feeling stale. Drawing exploding heads and zombies can be a nice break from drawing crime scenes and laboratories. Gabe took to that book with zeal--the book looks amazing (helped even more by Jay Fotos's colors). That's really one of the more satisfying parts of the job, assembling a solid art team that can really pull off an assignment. And it's even more gratifying knowing I can find good teams for books I'm writing.

Here's a quick sample of Gabe's uncolored work--from issue #4 of LAND OF THE DEAD. Notice the zombie in panel four... I'm becoming the Quentin Tarantino (or Hitchcock, for any older readers) of my comics, always doing a cameo whenever an artist is willing to throw me in (other such appearances include EASY WAY #2 and SHAUN OF THE DEAD #4).

Gabriel is one of the nicer guys I've worked with since being at IDW (he was quick to donate art for a Hurricane Katrina charity auction we did, allowing me to ultimately outbid everyone and buy one of his pages, too). And he's quick, reliable, and damned good. We'd talked briefly about THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW before I presented his work to Clive. I wanted to make sure he'd be into it (he's a big Barker fan, and, as I come to find, a big fan of the band RUSH, too... we get along very well). He was. And he was the only guy I wanted to do this book with. As much as LAND OF THE DEAD is a great showcase for his work, it's still, in large part, likeness work. THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW (henceforth, "TGASS") would be far beyond that. He'd be able to design characters and lands and embody concepts that had never really had visuals assigned to them before. IF he got the gig.

I started to lay out the samples for Clive. Gabe's was first, which, I suppose, was me stacking the deck just slightly. Like when you're a kid and you hold the Old Maid card up just a tad higher in your hand, hoping to entice a more gullible player. I started to reach for the next sample when Clive said "this is our guy. I want him, and only him." I tried to hide my smile. He agreed it'd be fair to look at all the other samples, just to see if he passed someone better. He liked what others had to offer, and thought some might be good for future projects (in the middle of '06 will be DAMNATION GAME, and I've already got a good, established comic writer signed up for that one), but he never faltered in his belief that Gabe was the guy to make this project happen. He asked me which one I wanted. I told him I didn't know that I'd be comfortable doing this if he hadn't picked Gabriel.

As with all meetings with Clive, it went well and decisions were made. I had my artist. We were ready to go.

Next Time on The (Hopefully) Great and (Not-So) Secret Show: We're ready to go. Now... where do we begin?

/chris

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