Dylan Horrocks calls into the Talkie Hutt from his home in New Zealand to discuss his work, creator rights, online piracy, and more. Dylan is perhaps best known for his wonderful graphic novel, Hicksville, which was republished recently by Drawn & Quarterly. Following the success of Hicksville, Dylan was offered the chance to write for DC Comics, including a run on Batgirl as well as some Vertigo titles. That experience, which it sounds like wasn't wholly positive, appears to be informing his new book, The Magic Pen, which he has been serializing online.
We also get a little topical in the conversation, talking about DC's recent announcement to publish Before Watchmen, and the Gary Friedrich Ghost Rider/Marvel Comics travesty. I think this leads to a great conversation about creators rights, political action, and America's pursuit of more expansive global intellectual property protections. It was really great to hear about this stuff from a non-American perspective, and I really enjoyed talking about it. I think Dylan had post-interview remorse however, as he subsequently tweeted about ignoring everything he said on the podcast—don't listen to him. It's all really fascinating, and even when I disagree with him, I relish hearing his opinions as I know he's a very smart and very thoughtful person, who has considered all of these issues far more than most.
Also—I rarely do this, but in this case I think it's really worthwhile: Alex Robinson and I interviewed Dylan once before on The Ink Panthers Show! podcast, and we had a fascinating conversation about world-building and role-playing games that I highly recommend checking out. Listen here.
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