Fiona Kai Avery

Top Cow's No Honor.

GW: At Comic-Con you headed up a panel discussion that circled around the comic-to-film adaptation of your hit series, NO HONOR. What can you tell us about this exciting new project? FA: We just turned in the outline to Showtime and will be hearing back from them on it this week. We hope to go to script as soon as we hear from Showtime. It's been a long road to get to this point, but the people at Showtime and Valhalla are so thrilled about the project that it keeps me going. My co-writer and the show-runner for the TV pilot / series, Brent Friedman, is also great to work with and I was fortunate to get to be put on a show with someone like him. GW: How does it feel to have what was literally your first comic venture become so sucessful for one, but also be tapped for television? FA: Like coming home after a long trip. I started in television, on series like Babylon 5, Crusade and Earth Final Conflict, so coming back this time, only as a producer on my own property, is pretty exciting but also distantly familiar.

GW: You’ve also mentioned interest in doing something resembling a sequel to your graphic novel, WITCHBLADE: OBAKEMONO. At what stage are you with that, is it just an idea at this point or are you in talks with TOP COW for a possible continuation? FA: My Editor, Renae, and I have made some preliminary comments about it being a possibility, but we'll have to see if a spot opens up for it later on in their schedule. She's all for it, and would love to do another story in that universe -- it's just a question of time and scheduling.

Top Cow's "Witchblade: Obakemono"

GW:Tell us about Cursed. FA: For Cursed, I prefer to turn the interview questions over to Tippi N. Blevins my co-writer, who really did the lion's share of detail work on the books and is the better person to ask all about it! She would actually be a great person to interview as well!

GW: Something of a personal question really, but do you happen to listen to music while writing? If so, what do you find usually makes good background music? FA: I love listening to music when I write. I prefer soundtracks. Actually, I prefer anime soundtracks, even if the lyrics are in Japanese. My favorite anime soundtrack musician / composer is Yoko Kanno of Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne and Arjuna fame. I find that writing to very epic music helps keep the dialog simple. Instead of making the dialog overblown as a way to try and heighten the moment, the music heightens the moment in my mind's eye, just like it would in a movie, and then the dialog can just serve its true function rather than become overblown.

Composer; Yoko Kanno.

GW: You’re new THUNDERCATS: HAMMERHAND’S REVENGE is due out sometime in October. Were you a big Thundercats fan in the ‘80s? FA: I was more of a G-Force girl myself. Also Transformers. Those were available on Canadian TV when I was a kid -- I didn't have access to Basic Cable TV until I was in college and what TV I did see was whatever would come in on a crappy antenna in the mountains of Washington State -- which was usually strange Canadian stuff or stuff picked up on mainstream TV signals in America.

GW: Where do you see yourself by this time next year, personally or professionally? FA: I hope to have started my own comic book company Lucky Bamboo Productions by this time next year and be well underway in creating some of my own creator-owned comics through that line. I also hope to be working with Top Cow on any new books, working with Marvel in some capacity (I have a little idea brewing for them now as a matter of fact), and again working with Wildstorm or DC. My goal is to have at least one show on the air for TV as well. Whether that's No Honor or some other show, that would be just fine with me.

GW: Here’s your chance to talk about whatever project you’re most looking forward to or perhaps a project I’ve forgotten to mention. What project is coming up that you just cannot wait to sink your teeth into? FA: I'm really looking forward to my own little corner of comics-dom where I can play with some of my own universe and characters at Lucky Bamboo Productions. Whatever it grows into will of course be a long process of picking up readership through word of mouth and I hope the caliber of the story-telling in the comics alone will pick up readers here and there. I have a few ideas for my first comic: possibly another samurai comic, or a present day tale, or a fantasy / noir cross-over comic. I'm very excited to get started on that.

GW: A random quote or piece of advice to end this with? FA: Oscar Wilde once said, "Hearts are made to be broken." I think he was talking about taking risks. It's not enough to sit behind a screen and write safe stories in a safe corner of the industry. It's important to take risks even if it means failure and it breaks your heart. Everytime your heart is torn a little bit like any muscle, it regrows stronger, so even failures are a way to strengthen you a little each time you try.