Artemis Fowl Confidential The Ultimate Artemis Fowl Fan Site
As you know, we recently celebrated our 10th Birthday, and Andrew Donkin has been kind enough to chat with us in honour of this great occasion!
AFC: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions from the fans. We put the question process to AFC’s users – here’s what they came up with…
Andrew: Hi guys – thanks for the great questions. First off, happy birthday to AFC – it’s a fab website.
What comics where you inspired by?
When I was a kid I read all sorts of comics and books. As many as I could get my greedy little hands on. Marvel UK were reprinting pretty much the entire Marvel universe in their Mighty World of Marvel titles and I read those avidly. There were also American monthly comics, both Marvel and DC and even Charlton comics, that you’d be delighted to suddenly stumble upon in a spinner rack at your local corner newsagent. It was always a huge dilemma as to what to buy when there are twenty-five titles to choose from and you only have enough money for two.
Can you pinpoint a moment where you decided what you wanted to do?
I remember writing a book review of a Doctor Who adaptation when I was about eight year-old and looking at Terrance Dick’s name on the spine and thinking – wow that would be cool.
Are you anything like the person you wanted to be growing up?
My eight-year old self did want to be a writer – comics and books I think. So if you’d told him that he’d grow up to sell eight million books he’d have been pretty happy I imagine.
Adapting the Artemis Fowl books for the graphic novel must have been a serious challenge. What did you enjoy most about completing this task?
You’re right, adapting the Artemis Fowl books was a challenge. Especially the first one. The main challenge of doing the first adaptation was just not to mess it up. Here was this hugely successful series of books that seemingly everyone on the entire planet loved. All we had to do was turn the first one into a graphic novel without losing any of the charm, wit, action, characters, or story. There was also the not-insignificant challenge of showing Artemis for the first time ever. Until the first graphic novel came out there had never been an official image of Artemis. Our lovely artist, Giovanni Rigano, had quite a responsibility.
The thing that I love most about doing an adaptation is that it’s a chance to take a story apart and see what makes it work. It’s fascinating. It’s like taking a motorbike apart or a high power jet engine. You have the chance to take the story apart, look at how all the pieces work, see what piece does what. See what character does what. See how all the different pieces work together. And then you put them all back together, but this time as a graphic novel. That’s the most enjoyable moment.
How challenging was it to capture the essence of the book in such a short number of pages without omitting key parts and details?
Capturing the essence of a book is probably the single most important job when you’re writing an adaptation. The original novel has great characters and a fast paced story full of twists and turns which is always a huge help. The key thing for an adaptor is to read and re-read and re-read the original book and work out what that essence really is. What the DNA of the story looks like.
How did you capture, basically, everything? From expressions to dialogues, how hard was it?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes it really is. Sometimes it’s possible to sum up a whole page of text in the original novel with just a look from one character or one line of narration combined with a great visual from Giovanni.
Is there anything you would change about your adaptation?
Less words. More pictures. That said, the whole team is pretty pleased with the end results so no one is complaining.
How was working on the AF graphic novels different from working on DC comics and other projects you have worked on?
Well, for a start you’re working closely with the original author. That doesn’t happen when you write Batman or Doctor Who comics. Secondly, you’re very aware that an awful lot of people love the original book and have got a lot of emotion invested in it.
Is there anything you would change about the Artemis Graphic Novel adaptations?
Yes. I think all four of our lovely graphic novels would be improved by putting a photograph of me on the cover. I am an internationally handsome children’s author and doing that would surely help sales. Maybe I’d be waving. Maybe I’d have a cheeky smile. I suggested the idea to the publishers several times but I think there must have been something wrong with their email those days because I never heard back.
Has there ever been any disagreements between Eoin, Giovanni and yourself?
Only over the bar bill. Eoin and I had wanted to work together for years before the first graphic novel was commissioned. So getting to create a lovely full length colour graphic novel of Artemis Fowl together was a joy. We quickly got the hang of working with Giovanni, and it’s been a very happy ship.
If you could share a flat with any character in the series, who would it be and why? Between the two of you, who would get the larger of the two bedrooms?
Mulch – because you just know that’s gonna be fun. As for the bedrooms – whose got time for sleeping when Mulch Diggums is around and ready for fun?
We know from Eoin that you are teaming up for an original Graphic Novel – can you tell us any more about this, and what other projects have you got on in the future that you’re excited about?
OK, our brand new top secret project is all about… what… really? I can’t say anything? Sorry, guys, its still under wraps I’m afraid. But not for much (not Mulch) longer. As soon as we can tell people about it you’ll read about it on Artemis Fowl: Confidential. In confidence, of course.
It has been an absolute pleasure, Andrew – thanks for your time.
Thank you very much. Brilliant questions.
Don’t forget to check out Andrew’s website, and follow him on Twitter!
