CD: Before Marvel approached you about adapting Guilty Pleasures into a comic book series, had you ever considered turning one of your novels into a graphic novel, or comic book?

LKH: We’d been approached in the past about turning some of the Anita books into comics, or graphic novels, but the deal wasn’t quite right, or the timing was bad. Then everything fell into place; timing, deal, all of it. When it’s right, you know it.

CD: What’s the process of developing the comics like?

LKH: Well, the writing is being done by Jess Rufner Booth. It’s a book, and I just have problems seeing it any other way. Once someone else has written the words and carved out the visuals from the prose then I can see it, and judge the visuals, and how it all works, but I have trouble editing down something large to something smaller. But I found that writing first draft script in my world was easy. In fact, since script both comic and movie is mostly dialogue, it was way fun, because the artist does so much of the writer’s work for them. I do the dialogue and some blocking (movement), but I don’t have to describe the room, or the clothes. The artist draws them for me. So much easier on my end. My husband, Jonathon Green, collaborated with me on First Death. I had never collaborated on anything before. Frankly, I wasn’t sure I could play well enough to share like that, but Jonathon and I worked well together. I loved the fact that I could type for awhile, then trade and have someone else type for awhile. It was nice to be able to brainstorm in the middle of writing, to have that instant sounding board was great. Also, Jonathon was more familiar with comics, and visuals, so he was better at breaking up the dialogue and story into panels and angles. One of the other biggest differences between the two mediums is that with a novel you usually have months, or years, to complete your task, with comics the deadline is always right there. There is an immediacy that novels lacks.

CD: Did you have any control over the look of the comic book, and Anita’s character design?

LKH: I approved every character study, every piece of artwork went across our desk as pencils, then as colors, then with dialogue in place. This was the first visual ever for Anita, and I wanted it just right. One of the things that made the deal right was the amount of control I got.

CD: Of your two major heroines, Merry Gentry and Anita Blake, who would you rather go out and grab a beer with?

LKH: I don’t drink, neither does Anita. I guess Merry would, but it’s just not come up. My characters are a lot like me, we don’t relax much. Or rather, not in traditional ways. Certainly, not by grabbing a beer. I’d rather go to the shooting range with Anita. I’d love to go to a traditional Yule celebration with Merry. I’d rather work out with Anita, though right now she’d be so far above my abilities, it wouldn’t be any fun for her.

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