| Interview with Tony Bedard |
| 1. What moment in NEGATION are you the most proud of? Hard to pick just one moment I'm most proud of. I can tell you my favorite issues were #10 (Charon tests baby Memi), the 2-parter where Kaine and Komptin are stuck on the planet of the butt-monsters and have to sacrifice Komptin's dog to get out of there, the one where Lizard Lady and Westin go scrounge a new drive unit for the shuttle, the one where Matua dies and the one where Evinlea and Charon knock boots. The Thing that I was most proud of out of all of it was what a truly collaborative effort that series was. Everyone contributed on that creative team, and I may never again experience such teamwork. 2. Do you have any regrets over things you could have done differently? There's a lot of things about CrossGen in general that I regret and wish had been done differently, but I feel pretty good about what we did on NEGATION. I feel that we were handed a pretty limited concept and made the most of the opportunity. It could've just been a spinoff of CRUX. Instead, it became the in-house favorite book at CrossGen and the best example of what the CrossGen Universe could have been. 3. Which character do you feel changed the most from how you originally conceived him/her? Javi probably underwent the biggest reversal. I didn't forsee him becoming a bad guy when we started out. And to be honest, Charon took on a life of his own. He ended up having more nuance and being more fun to write than I had anticipated. Also, Matua went from a cypher, to a very likable guy, to dead all in one issue. For a throw-away character, he had a pretty sweet death. Honestly, though, we planned out a lot of the storyline waayy in advance, and stuck to the plan pretty well. 4. NEGATION fans only got to read the first two issues of NEGATION WAR before CrossGen ceased publishing. What can you tell us about what you had planned for the NEGATION cast during and after NEGATION WAR? Most of the cast struck out on their own before NEGATION WAR. I envisioned them settling down happily on some backwater planet in Negation Space and living in peace. I figured Mercer Drake was shacking up with Shassa and Corrin while Westin and Captain Fluxor fought over Thustra, only to lost out to Monchito. Meanwhile, in the Bright Universe, Kaine and Lizard Lady recruit the Saurians, and Liz hooks up with Tchlusarud, who, although he was nicknamed "Loser", was the best character in SIGIL. Kaine and Komptin team up again when Kaine gives Komptin his Kaliman retriever puppy Chomper to replace Komptin's dead dog. The war would end when they lure Charon and Danik to that hellish corner of Negation Space known as Perdition (yes, the same Perdition from ROUTE 666). They set off Appolyon's "soul bomb", which turns Charon and Danik back into ordinary humans. Kaine then beats them both senseless with a toilet (it's part of the space debris glimpsed in NEGATION WAR after that superhero guy's world is destroyed). Kaine then leaves Danik and Charon to Komptin's tender mercies. If any publishing had resumed after the war, Kaine would've tracked down the other guys and they would've had to free Negation Space from an unleashed Appolyon. Confused yet? 5. Do you think there is a chance that you will get to finish NEGATION WAR or revisit the NEGATION universe at some point in the future? Given the opportunity to do more NEGATION, I'd probably take it, but I'm thinkin' it'll be a cold day in Perdition before that happens. 6. Could you share with us some of your favorite memories from working on the series? Getting funny suggestions from Dave Meikis which turned out to be some of the most inspired bouts of lunacy in the stories. Fighting with Pelletier over putting an intelligent torpedo in issue #3 (I lost the argument). Arguing politics with colorist James Rochelle, then learning that he hadn't even bothered to vote. Receiving every new page of pencil art and knowing that I'd been hooked up with one of the finest, hardest-working, all-around best artists and human beings in the business. I can never say enough good things about Paul Pelletier. You wanna know what he looks like? Check your dictionary. His picture will be in there, under "integrity." 7. Is there anything you would like to say to the fans of NEGATION? I'd just like to thank every one of you for reading the book. We tried never to take you for granted and to give you some suprises every month. By the way, Paul and Dave and I have a story in the December issue of X-MEN UNLIMITED. And if there is any justice in the world, we'll work together again on a monthly basis somewhere, somehow. In the meantime, please check out my upcoming run on ROGUE with Karl Moline, starting with issue #7. It's gonna be a shocker! |
| This interview was conducted in October of 2004 |