Ghost World's Daniel Clowes Gives A Status Update On The Death-Ray Movie

The Death-Ray will be in stores as a hardcover graphic novel in Fall 2011. It is the story of the teen outcast Andy, an orphaned nobody with only one friend, the obnoxious-but-loyal Louie. They roam school halls and city streets, invisible to everyone but bullies and tormentors, until the glorious day when Andy takes his first puff on a cigarette. That night he wakes, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, and finds himself suddenly overcome with the peculiar notion that he can do anything. Indeed, he can and as he learns the extent of his new powers, he discovers a terrible and seductive gadget – a hideous compliment to his seething rage – that forever changes everything. The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre – origin, costume, ray-gun. sidekick, fight scene – reconfiguring them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery and an obvious affection for the bold Pop Art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the the darkness of the human psyche. - blog.midtowncomics.com

The motion-picture rights to The Death-Ray are in development with Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite Productions, and Chris Milk had been rumored to be attached to direct. Chris Milk seems like an odd choice if true since he has only made short films, and music videos. His music videos are highly acclaimed and he has worked with some of biggest stars in the music industry.

Ghost World is one of those movies you either love or you hate, it's hard not to have an opinion either way. Best thing about the movie for me was watching a young Scarlett Johansson before she blossomed into a full grown hottie. The funniest thing in all this is that Clowes for years said he'd never make a superhero comic book. Once again that goes to show you, never say never.

Q: The Death-Ray is still with Jack Black’s production company. What is its status as a film project?

Clowes: I just finished a rewrite of it, and we’re talking to a director right now that we’re interested in. It’s still very much alive. I hate to even talk about film projects because they go through so many weird permutations along the way, and either they get made or they don’t. This one still looks like it has a very solid chance.

Q: The Death-Ray echoes films that we’ve seen recently like Wanted and Kick-Ass, except that this kid’s powers are a curse rather than power that is ultimately wanted.

Clowes: I’ve never read any of those, and I will point out that they all came after the original publication of The Death-Ray [in his comic book series, Eightball--ed.]. I have to say the idea of a real guy getting superpowers -- that kind of story is totally uninteresting to me. And maybe it’s hypocritical since that’s what I did, but that’s not something I would ever seek out in comics.

Q: You’ve said for years that your work is the opposite of superheroes. But now, here we are. So, explain.

Clowes: You know, that’s a good question. I realized that was a way to explain what I do to people who had no idea of what was going on in comics, the various different subgroups of comics that were happening. I realized, as a shorthand, I would say, “Well, most mainstream comics are superheroes, but what I do is something very different. It’s usually more the kind of stories that you would see in movies or television or novels and not about superheroes.”

But I realized that that really wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t just that it was not about superheroes, it’s a whole different approach to the way I was doing stories. So, it always nagged at me that I’d cut myself off from the possibility of doing superheroes by trying to give a glib, concise answer in interviews. So, I kept thinking, after I’d finished the book, I’d see and was looking for something new to do, and what would be the least likely thing I would ever do?

And I thought, to do a superhero story would be sort of unlikely, but I could imagine doing an ironic parody kind of superhero story. But I thought to do one that’s actually very earnest, that has no sense of irony to it and is not commenting on itself, that would be both the last thing I would ever do and possibly the worst idea I could ever have. That just made it seem like such a challenge. I felt like that was what I had to do.