Max Payne is about the story of a troubled New York cop with a dark past who loses his family to organized crime. Hell-bent on vengeance and cursed forever to be alone, many friends and enemies have met death when crossing paths with Payne.
Max Payne 3 sees him as a washed up, overwieght, alcoholic who still seeks redemption for the sins he has been forced to commit in his past, and he will find it, no matter who stands in his way.
Rockstar's Dan Houser, and Remedy's Sam Lake, have answered some questions
from
Kotaku.com, regarding their interest in comics and the overall concept of their latest venture into the troubles of Max Payne. There is much more to be read of the interview, so if you wish to see more, be sure to hit the jump!
,Kotaku: What were the formative comic-book reading experiences for you both? Can you look back in your past and see stories or creators that made you want to become storytellers?
Sam Lake: I've been a big comic-book fan all my life. I used to drive my parents nuts by hauling a pile of Donald Duck comics to the dinner table when I was a kid. Then, I discovered superhero comics and became a big fan of X-Men and Chris Claremont. And after that it was Vertigo graphic novels, like Sandman by Neil Gaiman and many others. My love for comic books is definitely the reason why Max Payne used graphic novel panels as a storytelling method. And Gaiman's use of old mythologies is one of the reasons the Viking gods are present both in Max Payne and Alan Wake.
Dan Houser: I'm English, so I combined reading fairly obvious American superheroes—in particular early Batman and Spider-Man, both of which we had in our house in some compendium or other—classic horror comics from the ‘50s, along with various issues of The Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four and very early Superman. Alongside this was an array of British and European comics that I was reading obsessively from a young age - The Beano, The Dandy, Whizzer and Chips. These were all a huge influence on our game Bully. There were more: Tintin (Hergé is an undoubted visual genius), Asterix, Lucky Luke, Roy of the Rovers, (an old British soccer comic - I know - it's not very cool - but I did love it when I was 9) Dan Dare, the Commando series, Warlord (both fantastic WWII series in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s - I think Commando is still going now), Viz when it first appeared in our house when I was about 11, and, of course, 2000AD (my favorite story was Strontium Dog).
I also loved Mad Magazine when I could get hold of it but thought American Dennis the Menace was a bit wet compared to his British namesake. I loved all of them and, as some of them were pretty much my first reading experience of any kind, they were, of course, massively influential. But it is hard to say this or that influence was more or less important. They are all so iconic, and fairly typical for a British kid. Most of the culture I experienced is a weird combination of British, European and American influences. I love everything about the comics form—the art, the combination of words and pictures, the sense of place and of character—but I cannot draw at all, and for me, the heroes of this medium are the artists.
Kotaku: The new comics series takes place during the era of Max Payne 1 & 2, and will feature stories that predate those games. How far back will they go? Will we see Max walking a beat or romancing his wife? Will we see Mona Sax in these comics?
Sam Lake: The comics take you all the way back to Max's childhood. You'll finally see how far back the tragedy in his life goes and with that a lot of things will click into place.
Dan Houser: All the way back to his childhood, and through his career before and after Max 1 and Max 2, in a series of brief flashbacks. That was, originally, why I needed Sam's help! For the comic books to do their job, which was to glue this game to the old games, and fill in the blanks for people new to the series, we wanted to go back to the very beginnings of Max. To do that, I needed Sam's help and guidance to properly discuss the character's origins. I had some ideas, and plenty of questions. What was very gratifying was how often my ideas and Sam's ideas aligned. It gave me confidence that my understanding of the character and his were very similar.
Max Payne 3 the game will be released May 15, 2012!