Mark Millar & Dave Gibbons Tease THE SECRET SERVICE
Mark Millar reveals his new comic with Dave Gibbons and to be made into a film by Matthew Vaughn deals with the military intelligence wing of the U.S. Government.
Announced back in October, The Secret Service, the brain child of writer Mark Millar, artist Dave Gibbons, and Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, has been promoted a lot differently than Millar's previous work. In the past, he has used all sorts of media, such as print and youtube, to promote a book up to a year before it's release. None of this has been done with The Secret Service, though the names behind the title have done a lot to push the book into the public eye. While Millar still keeps the cards close to his chest in terms of story, he has shared some information on the book's creation with CliNT, a magazine he is credited with creating, and Comic Book Resources. One of the main thrust of the books marketing was correspondence, (both letters are reprinted in the magazine) between the writer and the artist in the mid 80's, when Millar, still in school, wrote to Gibbons asking him to collaborate with him on a Shazam story. I'm slightly mortified when I read that letter I sent to Dave when I was in Sixth Form at school," the writer explained. "I was a massive fan and it's clear from the letter, but there's also that underlying egomania where I'm suggesting that he's lucky enough to have been selected by me for my first writing project, after working with Alan Moore, and suggesting he fits this in before he starts Give Me Liberty with Frank Miller. The letters are below; 
It wasn't until Millar broke into mainstream comics that talk of a collaboration became more than just a pipe dream. The two creators began talking about working together, at one point Millar suggesting Gibbons draw his current series Superior, though, as Millar says, it felt too charming for someone who was always breaking boundaries. Millar felt he needed something BIG for an artist who worked with Frank Miller and Alan Moore. To be honest, I think it was stage fright. And then we started talking about The Secret Service, which at that point was a very rough idea that Matthew Vaughn and I had been quietly talking about in the background while we worked on other stuff. Suddenly, it all just clicked and here we are. Shedding some light on the story of the book, the writer revealed it had something to do, as the title suggests, with the military intelligence wing of the U.S. Government. Ultimates was about heroes responding to the new America and the new world after the attacks on September the 11th. The Secret Service is the ramifications of that, as America is struggling on the world stage, funding is being seriously undercut to balance Speaking of working with Millar, Gibbons talked about how telling the story set my the writer was a daunting task. One of the things Im enjoying about it is how challenging it is. Its not precisely what Ive drawn before. Im having to stretch my muscles, drawing some fantastic and amazing things, but against a realistic and recognizable background. Which is good fun. I dont know if Mark wrote it specifically to stretch my brain cells, but they are certainly being stretched. Im enjoying it; I do like a challenge. For more on the creation of the book, and of Matthew Vaughn's involvement (he is set to write and direct the film, possibly as his next feature), check out issue 12 of CliNT on sale now. The Secret Service is released in February 2012.