Christopher Moore and Ian Corson at Books Inc for "The Griff"
Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing Christopher Moore and Ian Corson talk about their new graphic novel, The Griff. (True story #1: Until I actually went to Books Inc., where the event was being held, I thought the book was called “The Grift”.) I went with my sidekick Jeannie and my other sidekick Seanie, the long-suffering boyfriend.
As he is a self-admitted attention whore, Chris tended to dominate the conversation, but he did his best to make sure Ian’s hard work was recognized and appreciated. The two men talked about the challenges that come with writing for a graphic novel, which was a new format for both of them. (Chris is a novelist; Ian is a screenwriter.) Chris said that the comic was created through a “packager” - that is, a company that specializes in taking a script and creating a graphic novel from it. As a result, Chris and Ian never spoke directly with the person who illustrated their story! I couldn’t believe it. The first time the authors saw the pages was when they had been completed, so it wasn’t nearly as collaborative as I would have guessed.
After discussing the book and answering some prepared questions (True story #2: The hostess of the panel thought that Ian was the illustrator, so all her prepared questions for him had to be discarded. Oops!) the floor was opened to the audience. Most of the questions were directed at Chris, since he is the more famous of the two writers. Since this is the third time I’ve seen him speak, I’ve come to realize that there are certain questions that likely ALWAYS come up at Chris’ events:
A/ Did the religious right react negatively to Lamb when it was released? No.
B/ Are any of your books likely to be made into a movie? Almost all have been optioned at one point or another; none are in danger of being made.
C/ Snarky comment referencing Twilight and Chris’ vampire books. (OK, it’s not a question, but someone in the audience always brings up sparkling vampires.)
I don't remember which question triggered this answer, but Chris said that books set in Pine Cove or San Francisco were largely written because he was too broke to go and "research" a foreign location. So whenever you see a future novel set in one of those two cities, it's because Chris needs money.
I was also very excited that a date has been set for the release of Chris’ next novel, Sacre Bleu. Alas, it won’t be available until April 3, 2012, but 19th century Impressionists a la Moore is worth waiting for. The next novel he plans to work on will center on Pocket, his protagonist in Fool . Speaking of new novels, Ian said that he’s currently negotiating the publication of his first novel, and his description of it sounded interesting. Hope we see it soon!
Me, Christopher Moore, Jeannie