Check out this awesome conversation where Bloody-Disgusting interviews Clone creator David Schulner!
Bloody-Disgusting: I’m interested to hear what spawned the initial idea for Clone, because the idea of cloning has been a hot topic across the globe over the past few years. Is it true that the idea blossomed out of your wife being pregnant?
David Schulner: That’s right. This was seven years ago. That’s how long these things take to get off the ground. My wife was pregnant and I was like, “Holy shit I’m going to be a father!” And not because I felt immature, but because I just became a husband. And I still felt like my parent’s son. How could I become someone else? Again? Then couple this identity crisis with all the debates about embryonic stem cells and the ethics of cloning happening in the news everyday and BAM, Clone!
BD: You are a television writer and this is your first foray into the comic book world. How big was the learning curve from TV to comics and how different is it writing for each medium?
DS: Well, the truth is there’s a huge learning curve. In issue #11 (which will be the start of our 3rd trade) we do a big reset, where new readers can jump in without having read the first 10 issues. And the reason we did this was twofold. One was just practical, we want new readers! And the second reason, to be completely honest, was that I finally felt like I knew how to write an awesome comic and I didn’t want people to read those first 10 issues. But to be fair (to myself and to the amazing team that makes Clone every month) people really liked the first ten issues. But I only see what I could have done better.
And in terms of writing for the screen vs. writing for comics, I think we’ll start to hear more and more people say there isn’t much of a difference. Because a lot of us go back and forth now. One of the reasons I’m writing Clone with Aaron Ginsburg and Wade McIntyre is that I love the TV model of a writers room – a bunch of smart folks sitting around pitching ideas with the best idea always winning. Especially for a comic like ours, which eats up a ton of story and plot, it makes the heavy lifting more bearable.
