GCD Exclusive Interview: Max Brooks

Master chronicler of the undead turns attention to live subject matter

Max Brooks, best known as a master chronicler of the undead thanks to World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide (and yes, he is Mel Brooks’ son, too), is turning his attention to live subject matter. In this case, he’s teaming up with artists Howard Chaykin and Antonio Fuso for IDW’s G.I. JOE: Hearts & Minds, a five-issue mini-series launching today.

GCD: How did you get involved with this new G.I. Joe project?
Brooks: Through Christos Gage. A couple of years ago, he mentioned he was writing for G.I. Joe and I said I would love to write for G.I. Joe, but I meant it more in terms of, “Yeah, I would also like to have sex with Jane Seymour in Battlestar Galactica”—I didn't think it was an actual possibility. So through Christos, I met [editor] Andy Schmidt at IDW. I wrote a sample story and he said, “We like it so much we'd like to expand it into an ongoing or a limited series of your own.”

This is still your most current reference: Jane Seymour? No offense to her, she's a beautiful woman.
Yeah, that's as hip as I get is Jane Seymour circa 1978…

How is this limited series unique?
The other series are continuous story arcs. These are more day-in-the-life or back-stories, and each issue is two stories. It would be as if I were a reporter literally sitting down with the Joes and saying, “Tell me about yourself.”

Which character do you feel gets the biggest sort of reveal/insight?
Maybe Major Bludd. There are plenty of guys who are soldiers for money and not all of them are just greedy scumbags. I wanted go give him a whole other dimension, the idea of men in his family who have lost their manhood because they couldn't take care of their families. He's not gonna become one of those forgotten heroes on a street corner with a cardboard sign, ya know?

What was your early exposure to G.I. Joe? Did you have action figures?
I had a lot of them. What I didn't have was Firefly, the saboteur. Firefly never got a lot of love. Firefly only got one episode that I remember of the G.I. Joe cartoon as far as I know so that was the sample story that I turned into IDW.

What’s the status of the film version of World War Z, your zombie epic?
It's been optioned again from Paramount, for a third time. I'm very hopeful because [screenwriter] Matt Carnahan is slaving away and he's under a tremendous amount of pressure, I can't imagine. The worst days I ever had working for SNL were cakewalks compared to the kind of pressure that Carnahan is under.

Are you concerned about the glut of zombie stuff out there now?
I'm just excited that they're making World War Z. I've never been afraid that another story is gonna take the wind out of its sails. Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead is very focused on a small group of people, the same way all the Romero movies are. I mean, all those zombie stories are the exact reason I wrote World War Z.

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