Interview: Daniel Corey - The Man Pulling Moriarty's Strings

We're here with an interview with Moriarty writer Daniel Corey. I know I've been promising you all reviews for the series and I'm still working on it. In the meantime you can read this here interview and enjoy it! Also a big thank you to Gianluca Glazer for setting everything up and Daniel Corey for taking to the time to respond to my questions. You can find a First Look for the next issue of Moriarty out this week here on the site.

CB  My first question is how long does it take you to come up with a storyline forMoriarty? Also where do you start that process? Do you have your results andwork backwards?

DC)  When I first started out with THE DARK CHAMBER, it was verydifficult because I needed to build the character and the world in a way thatmade sense. There are a lot of bad ways you can go when writing a Sherlock orMoriarty story, and I probably discovered every one as I went along. So withCHAMBER, it was a matter of creating Moriarty as a guy who is usually one stepahead of everyone that has somehow fallen out of relevance with the changingworld. A lot of research and reading went into it. I spent a few years puttingit all together.

In following up with THE LAZARUS TREE, I decided to take theProfessor to Burma. So the process began again. It was little easier this time,because I knew where Moriarty would be starting from as a person. It was amatter of working out what type of mischief he'd be getting into in that part ofthat world at that time. So, more reading and research. It took around eightmonths or so to write the story.

As far as the process goes, I always start and end with thecharacter, period. Who is this guy as a person? What is the general lifequestion he is trying to answer? What will he do to go about answering it? Howwill that affect the people and situations around him?

Everything that happens in a story is a result of who thecharacter is as a person. So it's a matter of knowing what sort of person thathe/she starts off as, and how they will end up.

Regarding results, at the start of the story, we're seeingwho the person is as a result of the life they've lived up to the point thatwe're meeting them. And at the end of the story, we're seeing who the person isas a result of the life they've lived during the comic/book/movie that we'rereading/watching. Every part of the story is a part of a journey that the leadcharacter is taking, and we take it with them. So hopefully, we'll change alittle, too - for the better, I hope.

CB)  You’vereally turned Moriarty the character into an anti-hero. Was this an attempt tomake him likable, but still a villain or will we see him slowly regress 100%into a villain?

DC)  Moriarty just is who he is. He doesn't know that he's a bador evil guy. He doesn't think of himself that way. He's this extraordinary guywho does extraordinary things, and he thinks society has thrust this label ofcriminal upon him.

In the beginning, I was wondering if Moriarty is a sociopath,which would mean that he couldn’t discern the difference between right andwrong. But I've come to understand that he's more obsessive-compulsive - hencehis drive to outdo Holmes.

This compulsion makes Moriarty rather self-centered, Ithink, and so everything he does is meant to serve his personal endgame, whichis to basically just survive it all and come out on top. So he has a skewedperspective on life.

Moriarty may do good things here and there, but it's mostlyselfishly motivated. He has the perceptive abilities necessary to judge betweenright and wrong, but because of his compulsive tendencies, he doesn't much carewhich end of the spectrum he is on at any given moment.

CB)  Okayhere’s a tough question. Are you paying for the rights of Sherlock Holmes? Iask because there seems to be some debate on the characters copyright status.Especially with  Congress recently deciding that Public Domain works canbe removed from Public Domain.

DC)  No rights issues. The characters are all public domain.People talk, but that's the bottom line.

CB)  Howdoes the series sell in the U.K.?And again do you find yourself dealing with any copy right issues. Britain’scopyright laws are five times more confusing for me to read so I figured I’dask you if you had problems or not.

DC)  I don't know the UK numbers yet. I have been getting tweetsand messages from fans in Britain that enjoy the series, but I can't tell youexact figures.

And, again, I haven't had any trouble with copyrights.

CB)  Additionally,how are the sales in the US?Both your book and Green Wake came out around the same time and now Green Wakehas been cancelled. Is Moriarty here to stay?

DC)  Good question.Moriarty is taking a break after the THE LAZARUS TREE ends. He’s not going away,but going on hiatus while I am working on another new sci-fi series. There arealways more Moriarty stories to tell, but I do want to branch out a bit and seehow this new book develops.

CB)  Withthe first volume, Moriarty began to climb back up the ladder of his empire onlyto have it all taken away. Other than for the ending of the story arc, what didyou want to accomplish with this?

DC)  Moriarty didn’t think that if he defeated Gottfried,everything would be set up and easy. Besting that enemy would be the first stepin creating his empire anew. He finds himself worn out and tired at the end,but that last-minute revelation jolts him back to life.

The next arc, THE LAZARUS TREE, deals with Moriarty takingthe first real step in rebuilding his empire: resetting the timeline of hisdestiny. A standard-type thing for Moriarty, really.

CB)  It’squite brilliant to switch the roles of Holmes and Moriarty, what gave you theidea? Also can you talk about the concept having Moriarty solve mysteries tofill the hole left by Holmes.

DC)  Thanks. Basically, I’ve been a Holmes fan my entire life andI wanted to tell that type of story, but I didn’t feel like writing Holmes. Theidea of telling a Moriarty story intrigued me: getting into his imaginary head,trying to figure him out. It presented a mystery, trying to figure out whoMoriarty could be if he were real.

Having someone like Moriarty as the lead character was toogood an idea to pass up. I’m always seeing movies, books, comics, etc. thathave great concepts, and I think “Man, why didn’t I think of that?” I have tosay it was kind of nice to have other comic writers come to me and say justthat. It probably won’t happen again my entire career, but at least I’m havingthis moment.

As for Moriarty solving mysteries instead of Holmes, it justseemed natural to go that way. Holmes and Moriarty are two sides of the samecoin. Just think of that scene between Pacino and De Niro in Heat. Both guys have a job to do. Theonly difference between them is what society defines as lawful and unlawful.

CB)  After“The Lazarus Tree” storyline, what’s next for Moriarty?

DC)  A well-deserved vacation. Like I said, I’m switching focusfor a bit, but Moriarty will be back. He’ll have little more globe-trotting todo, more schemes to hatch. But first, a little rest.

CB)  I’msure someone wants to know if we’ll ever see Holmes’ face, so I’ll ask.Personally, I understand that you’re mimicking Moriarty’s role in the novelswith Holmes in the comic.

DC)  Well, that’s part of the ongoing mystery. Will we seeHolmes? Is Holmes still dead? Was he just a figment of Moriarty’s imagination?Too many questions. Why spoil it all with a straight answer?

CB)  Artist Anthony Dieciduegives the book a striking and unique look, how did you come to work with eachother?

DC)  We met through my neighbor Mario. I needed an artist for ananimatic trailer I was putting together to pitch a screenplay. Anthony did sucha nice job on that, we decided to go into the funny book biz. It was all prettystraightforward.

I was very fortunate and blessed that this guy that myneighbor introduced me to was one the best of the best around. That doesn’tjust happen every day, you know.

CB)  After Moriarty, what’snext for you? Anything that you can tell us about?

DC)  I’m writing a new comic. I actually have several new comicprojects I’d like to get off the ground over the next few years. So we’ll seewhat comes out when. Can’t announce anything quite yet.

Also, I’m returning to my first love, the theater, and writinga new project for the stage. I’ll tell you more about that later as thingsstart to come together. I’m pretty excited about it.

We'd like to thank Daniel for stopping by and look forward to hearing from him again when he's ready to talk about his future endeavors and we're looking forward to the conclusion of the Lazarus Tree out this week from Image Comics.