Next month, the online role-playing phenomenon,
World of Warcraft once again takes to the comic book market, this time as a new series published under DC Comics Wildstorm imprint. Written by Walter Simonson, with art by Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope, the new series will start with the story of a human found on the shores of Kalimdor, and stuck between the forces of the Alliance and the Horde, as it turns out that his past holds more than even he might know.
We caught up with Simonson to talk orcs, dwarves, goblins and all the rest.
Newsarama: First off Walt, how did you end up on this project? Was it just an out of the blue call, or were you nosing around DC, looking for something to work on?
Walt Simonson: Scott Dunbier, a former editor at Wildstorm and an old friend, called up out of the blue to ask me if I would be interested in writing the comic. We chatted about it for a bit and it sounded like something I would be interested in doing.
NRAMA: Initially, did you know that much about
World of Warcraft, its mythology, its fans and its culture? If not, what was your learning curve like, and how quickly did you have to "Cram" so to speak, to get it all down?
WS: Ive had to do a
lot of cramming! I knew about
Warcraft as a game but had not played it. I do play some video games but I play on game platforms like Nintendo rather than on the computer. Consequently, I am a little familiar with role-playing game structure and such. However, the
Warcraft world is so large and complex that Ive taken all the help I can get. Weezie [Simonsons wife, Louise] has been doing a ton of research for me. [laughs] Fortunately, theres a lot of information on the web about the
Warcraft world, and Blizzard themselves have been incredibly helpful answering questions and making suggestions.
NRAMA: So have you ever played the game? What was your experience when you gave it a go?
WS: I have played the game a bit and enjoyed it right from the beginning of trying to create my own character.
The problem is that playing the game is such a lengthy process that I didnt feel I was learning the stuff I needed to know as fast as I needed to know it to really construct a story on deadline. I think this is one of those deals where if Wildstorm had wanted a
Warcraft comic a year from now, then perhaps I could have accumulated enough playing experience and leveled to 70! But researching the world and the lore through all the various websites of information, books, friends who play
Warcraft, and the material that Blizzard has sent me has proven to be a pretty effective way of budgeting my time for storytelling purposes.
NRAMA: Given the length of time it's been around, as well as the experiences people have had playing it, WoW has a pretty rich backstory and continuity built-in. Is it comparable to say, coming in as a writer on a long-lived comic character, or different, due to the type of interactivity people have with it?
WS: I think the difference between working on a long-running comic and a game like
Warcraft is the difference in the nature of the creation of the two worlds. The characters I generally write in mainstream comics are the collaborative results of many, many people over a number of years. Consequently, a certain amount of variant history is present across the run of comics. And while
WoW has been around for awhile now, it seems to me to be a more coherently constructed world.
Its similar to writing a comic about a character who has been around for some time but the continuity is definitely tighter.
Another difference is that in mainstream comics, mostly you get handed a character to write who already exists within the companys universe and consequently has a characterization, a history, a life. In Warcraft, its more a matter of inventing characters and then fitting them into the universe at hand.
NRAMA: That said, what will your stories be about? Is it safe to say that, big-picture wise, you're telling stories that use
WoW as a backdrop, rather than inserting elements from the games, or will you be including them?
WS: In fact, Im used both approaches simultaneously. Im inventing a lot of stuff, characters and situations. Im also creating characters based on some upcoming action figures from
Warcraft. And I am trying to construct all these characters and use them within the (extremely large) confines of the Warcraft world. All of this means using elements from the game in profusion, locations, existing characters within the game, loreits all in the story. So essentially, Im weaving together invented material and existing material as well. If youre already familiar with
Warcraft, youll recognize some of the characters, situations, and locations. If youre new to the World, youll find all the information you need to follow the story within the comic.
NRAMA: Okay then, where did this particular story come from? Was it your pitch after you mulled over the ingredients and world, or was it something Blizzard suggested as a good starting point?
WS: Actually, it was sort of both. I did a lot of research on the
Warcraft world and came up with a possible story arc. Blizzard went over the material, and made some extremely cogent suggestions for binding my original ideas into stories and lore that already existed within the
Warcraft canon. In the end, it seems to me that the story and its direction is an indivisible combination of Simonson and Blizzard.
NRAMA: So for the few people online who've never played it or experienced it, but know you and your work, sketch out the
WoW a little in terms of its environments, creatures and inhabitants - specifically those that will be playing a role (major or background) to your story...
The
Warcraft world itself consists of several large continents set in the ocean. There are several races, humans, dwarves, orcs, elves, goblins, taurens, trolls, ogres, dragons etc. that inhabit the continents and a variety of kingdoms and smaller social structures like guilds. Those familiar with fantasy based on northern European models will recognize elements such as goblins, elves, dwarves, and so on. But there are also a lot of creations that are quite specific to the Warcraft world. The races have a long, often intertwined history that includes both conflict and collaboration. And members of all these races appear in the storyline, some only in brief appearances, some in more important roles in the tale.
The essential division of the races in Warcraft is the division between the Horde and the Alliance. Each race belongs to one division or the other. There was originally war between the two sides; now things have become more complicated. And Im not going there in a short interview!
This story also involves a fair amount of traveling across the geography of the
Warcraft world, eventually moving between continents.
NRAMA: Let's get into your story a little from the preview pages - a mystery man washes up after a shipwreck, and...? What ball starts rolling from there?
WS: Hummm. I really dont want to give anything away here, especially not before the first issue comes out but my original notion was to begin my story by creating a central human character who is a sort of
tabula rasa, much the way a gameplayer who is just starting to play Warcraft begins. Though a series of adventures and happenstances, the character grows in stature, knowledge, and power. That idea has been modified to work the character into the Warcraft lore more effectively but the idea of a mystery characterwho is in fact a mystery to himselfremains. The story arc of the character introduces him to various members of other races, some of whom befriend him, some of whom do not. Some characters from both Horde and Alliance accompany him during a part of his journey and everybody doesnt always get along swimmingly. But the central characters quest is a search for his own identity and his place in the
Warcraft world, and in this search, he is both aided and hindered by a variety of rather unique individuals.
NRAMA: On the art side, what's your working relationship with Ludo like? Do you suggest panels and/or thumbnail things out, or are you just scripting, and letting him handle the rest?
WS: Hey pal, Ludos on his own!
Actually, were working in what used to be called Marvel style. I write out a rough outline of a plot. Hank Kanalz, my editor at Wildstorm, and Mick Neilson at Blizzard and me and sometimes others usually have a long conference call to go over stuff once everybodys had a chance to digest the plot and its implication for the
Warcraft world. I take extensive notes and then work out a final plot. Thats gone over carefully, and then passed on to Ludo.
One additional notebefore doing any of the above, I worked out a general story outline for the entire series across 12 issues of six issue story arcs each. So when I say that I work out a plot, its not like Im writing it completely from scratch. Everybody has the outline so we have a pretty good idea of where were going from the beginning. There is a certain amount of serendipity involved but the overall outlines of the story have already been laid down.
But I dont have any direct contact with Ludo but work through Wildstorm. He sends back pencils and I write the script from his drawings. And were off and running. And I think hes doing great
Warcraft stuff!
NRAMA: What kind of oversight does Blizzard have on this? What kind of approvals do you have?
WS: Blizzard has been very careful to oversee the project from the beginning. And as you would expect, in terms of history and lore, they have been unstintingly helpful. I would like to give an extra tip of the hat to their historian, Evelyn, who comes down on us all like a ton of very gentle bricks when we screw something up, historically speaking. I cant even begin to imagine what her dreams must be like! Or what this project would be like without her help.
But essentially, Blizzard is with me every step of the way.
NRAMA: Have you been told so far, that anything is off limits?
WS: I dont know about anything being off limits. Once you set a story in motion, it does take on a certain life of its own, and while Blizzard is guiding us to keep the content of the comic in line with the game, there havent been any off limits problems I can think of. (There was that one scene that involved three night elves, a tauren, and two bottles of molasses but that got nixed right out of the box, darn it!)
NRAMA: Not 100%, but it sounded
dirty or wrong. Youd mentioned the format - the solicitation mentions that your first story is six issues long, and then? A related arc? A totally unconnected arc? Is there an overarching story to the series as you're writing it?
WS: The series is really going to be one overarching story, told in two six issue arcs. The first arc will be able to be read on its own. The second arc does depend on the setup from the first arc but has its own story. The final resolution will complete both the second story arc and the overarching story arc for both series.
NRAMA: Wrapping this up - sell it - what's coming up in the first arc, where are you looking to go, and why should folks, both WoW gamers and non-gamers give this a try?
WS: If youre a non-gamer,
World of Warcraft the comic is full of kick-ass action, heroic deeds, foul deception, and perhaps even a hint of romance. For gamers, besides all of the above, the comic takes as its subtext the exploration and perhaps even the revelation of some hitherto unsolved mysteries within the game itself. This is particularly true for long-time Warcraft gamers or those gamers whove really gotten into the game and learned its history. At the same time, the comic introduces new characters and situations that are an outgrowth of the wider world of the game. It aint just a Horde vs. Alliance slug-fest - but there is plenty of slugging!
More I cannot say under penalty of well, lets just say the consequences would be extremely unpleasant for me.
World of Warcraft #1 is due in stores on November 14th.
Linear Mode
