We had the privilege of getting to sit down and talk with Chris Claremont today about X-men Forever and a few other things. We were only supposed to do 15 minutes or so with him, but it turned into a 70 some odd minute conversation. Unfortunately, we ran out of tape at 63 minutes.
We’ve divvied this interview up into a few parts that you’ll be able to see in the coming week or so.
In this first part we (from left to right in the video, Clang! Boom! Steam!, Chris Claremont, myself, and Shannon from the Geek Show Podcast) spoke to Chris about the new book (X-Men Forever, Vol. 1, which you can pre-order the first trade of on Amazon), about his ideas for “Dark Wolverine” and how you can only raise the stakes so high in the established continuity. He also assured us that in X-men Forever, anything can and will happen. We ended off with Scott Summers’ new role in this Universe.
The audio of the whole interview will be available on the iTunes feed of the Geek Show Podcast soon. (we’ll put a link up there as soon as it’s available.)
For those of you in the Salt Lake area, Mr. Claremont will be making the following signing appearances on Saturday, August 15 at Night-Flight Comics:
Night Flight Comics @ Library Square
210 East 400 South
12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.Night Flight Comics
6222 So. State Street
5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
For those not in the Salt Lake area, support your local comic book store and support the book from there.
In doing this whole interview, the thing that was most infectious was Claremont’s unbridled enthusiasm for X-Men Forever. For those who don’t know, this alternate timeline (dubbed Marvel 161 later in this interview) picks up right where X-Men #3 left off in 1991, when Chris Claremont left Uncanny and the X-Men. (For those who are interested, ComicMix.Com did a very good rundown on the state of the Marvel Universe in 1991).
And to be honest, this sounds like some very exciting X-Men. And he’s pretty committed to keep it going as long as the sales are there and he’s very passionate about it. If this interview doesn’t make you want to check the book out, I have no idea what will.
Check back tomorrow for Part 2, and Clang! Boom! Steam! will be writing up his recollections of what happened after the tape ran out…
Stick with us!