AVC: But when The New York Times Magazine did its big piece on comics recently, they singled it out for derision. Do you find it's sometimes hard for people to get past the genre elements of what you do?
BKV: I don't know. The New York Times article is weird, because they were like, "It's about crazy lesbians on motorcycles," and it's like, "You really haven't read the book if that's what you took away from it." But I don't think so. At Vertigo, for a while there was this thought that high-concept equals lowbrow, and if you just had sort of a simple Hollywood-style log-line, it automatically meant it was going to be dumb. But I've always liked a good high concept as sort of an excuse to explore a million different things. I'm sure there are some people that won't read it because it's genre. But it's interesting, I think superheroes get much more unfair derision. There are so many good superhero books being done. Science fiction is almost more reputable, I guess, at least a step up from poor superheroes. People go see post-apocalyptic movies; they love shows like Lost. So I think people have taken Y as seriously as they should, for the most part.
AVC: Did you make films at NYU?
BKV: I made some really terrible student films. They were sort of experimental, and "Let's shoot a whole film backwards," and they got a little more narrative. But it was frustrating, because it's so expensive, and the sound of the film running through that 16mm camera still gives me gas to this day, because I just picture dollar bills in a toilet-paper dispenser just rolling away. That was the appealing thing about comics: There literally is no budget in comics. You're only limited by your imagination. My student films were like failed science experiments where I had a result I was hoping to get, and it never quite matched. Comics has always been a joy. So I like collaboration, I like visual arts, but film... I quickly passed it aside in favor of comics.
AVC: Why do you think you've had success breaking new characters when it seems like no one else is having any luck?
BKV: I just don't think enough people are trying. I do think if I could do it, more people could do it as well, I just think a lot of creators are attracted to those toys they got to play with when they were young, and everyone wants to write a Superman story or a Batman story or a Spider-Man story. I don't know, if it's been successful for me, it should be successful for anyone. I think the one thing I've done is, I heard a lot of guys put out new books and they'll say, "Oh, the first issue is really good, but wait until you see number four, that's really where it kicks in." Even Neil Gaiman says that Sandman didn't really come into its zone until around issue number eight. The marketplace is so crowded and cutthroat now that you don't have the luxury of going to issue number eight or issue number four. In that first issue, you really have to convince people that this is a book they desperately need to buy, more than X-Men or whatever books they're buying. I think if I'm good at anything, it's writing a really good first issue and finding the best artist to bring that to life. "Hit the ground with your feet running" is the secret.
AVC: The first issue of Ex Machina ends with a 9/11-related twist that could have made readers angry if you'd handled it wrong. Were you concerned about that?
BKV: Yeah, I was. It's hard, because I didn't want it to be like Titanic, where I'm exploiting... Obviously not enough time has passed to exploit this tragedy, to tell a stupid love story like Titanic. It made me uncomfortable and worried, but that sort of made me want to do it more. I think that people kept saying "It's too soon," and I'd much rather be writing about something too soon than too late. It made me uncomfortable and angry. I don't know, [there was] sort of a gut instinct that it was something I really wanted to talk about, so I just did it.
AVC: Ex Machina protagonist Mitchell Hundred is a little obscure about his political beliefs, but to the degree that they've been revealed, how much do they reflect your own?
BKV: Not very much at all. I really didn't want to do a book where the guy was just a mouthpiece for my weird politics, to try and shove it down people's throats. I wanted to pick an interesting character. He's much more logical than I am. He's a civil engineer, and I can't do basic arithmetic. But I do think he's much more of a pragmatist than I am. I think I'm a bit more of an idealist, and he's not like that at all. We're the same in some respects, we differ in others, but he's really independent and I'm not.
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