We talked to First Second editorial director Mark Siegel (with occasional comments by American Born Chinese creator Gene Luen Yang, see 'Interview with Gene Luen Yang and Mark Siegel') about the company's upcoming Prince of Persia graphic novel and the videogame and movie environment for the property.
ICv2: What are you looking forward to next spring?
Siegel: We have one very big project which is slated for Spring 2008, which is Prince of
Do you have any numbers?
They're very hard to get out of them. I know one of the recent installments was over two million [copies].
Gene Yang: It's been around awhile. I played it when I was in high school.
Siegel: I played it on a Mac system, and that's kind of how this whole thing started. I had this fond memory of the original episode, which was in 2D with fun animations and neat deaths, and it was a neat little sound effect, and the whole thing was enchanting with an Arabian Nights feel to it. I thought, 'There's a graphic novel there waiting to happen, because it's story based -- it's not a total shoot up sort of thing.'
As I was getting First Second under way, I thought 'Let's see if we can track down this Jordan Mechner,' because I remember seeing the titles come up and it was Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, 20 years ago. So I reached
Jordan Mechner is an incredible fan of European comics, and we're suddenly speaking the same language; he falls in love with First Second; and he went to Disney and renegotiated his contract to keep the graphic novel rights so that he could do it with First Second. Next thing we know, what I thought was going to be a seed for something to develop, we've got this potentially enormous project.
The reason he wanted to do it with First Second was that we would actually go for some real quality storytelling, and this would be a keystone in the whole Prince of Persia universe. So we started looking for a team to put together. I have to be very circumspect about this, but we have a writer who is an Iranian writer, Iranian-American who is also an artist and an award winning poet who just gave us one of the best scripts I'd ever read.
Can you say who it is?
Not yet, because he might be using a pen name, because it's a big family, big Iranian family, but there's a story there which I'm hoping we can break, because it will be interesting added value to the whole thing.
On the art side we have LeUyen Pham who has a flowering career in children's publishing. Her Julianne Moore picture book just came out, she illustrated that, and she's done some things with Hyperion, S&S, and with Scholastic. She's one of these chameleon artists who changes styles with every project. She was originally in Dreamworks animation with her husband, Alex Puvilland; he's still there. The two of them are doing this project; they're both very talented. She's working the characters, and he's doing the sets, the scenery. Of course, our Iranian writer is providing us really remarkable source material.
This book could have been a real sell-out tie-in. I've knocked on the Halo graphic novel, which I found disappointing. I know it did well and that's great, but I felt there was such good talent and it felt hollow to me. The beauty of Prince of Persia is that without any of the tie-ins, this really does have heart; it's a superb story and the art work is just gorgeous.
Is it based on the video game?
It's not actually. All the games and the movie come out of that universe, so it's like the overarching ...
The backstory?
Yes and no. Without giving too much away, it's got definite winks for the gamers, and it's got references into the rest of the universe, but it stands alone.
Yang: I bet it's like Ultimate Spider-Man where it's the same characters and feel but it's a different creature.
Siegel: It's going for different things. You know from the opening scene that it's about something real, but it's still a thrill ride, it's still a great tale. There are two storylines at two different times. One is the epic Persia; it's rooted in 9th century Iran. The other is 13th century, which is present day in the story, and it's just on the eve of Genghis Khan's invasion. There are really fascinating connections to the situation in the Middle East today -- but you don't have to read that part of it. These characters interact through time, and it's really gorgeous. We have a colorist working on that one as well, Hillary Sycamore, who's done a few books for us.
It's in full color?
It's in full color, yes.
So the title is going to be Prince of Persia?
Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel. It's like the heart of the legend, if that gives any clue.
Is there any similarity between the look of it and the look of the movie?
Very little. Disney is very tight-lipped about the movie, and we're not directly working with them, so the graphic novel is a separate thing. We're going to be quite ahead of the movie in terms of release dates. It's not like we're riding on anybody's coattails, but it's obviously tapping into a whole world. Fandom is still very active online and you'll see message boards that have people debating the fact that one sword has Arabic writing on it when it should really be Farsi, so it's that level of fandom. There are already some rumors about this project of ours.
The graphic novel is coming out in the spring?
Right now it's slated for Spring 2008 if all goes well.
And the movie?
I think Summer 2009.
And what's the videogame environment like?
There's a new game coming up in the Fall of 2008, and on that I have yet to learn more. Jordan Mechner is involved in everything, and he turned out to be a very skilled editor, because he's worked with teams of editors and he writes himself as well. In fact, we have a new project with him called Solomon's Thieves, that's ahead of any other tie-ins and anything else.
So that's an original project?
Yes, that he's writing himself. He turned out to be a really talented guy. I thought he might have been a clever guy and a good business man. He's more than that, because he's also got this creative drive behind what he does. I think the fans of Prince of Persia would agree there's something more about it.
