Michael Gilman: Concrete: Think Like a Mountain debuts in March. This marks almost ten years of Concrete in print -- didn't he first appear in August 1986?
Paul Chadwick: Yes. What a frightening thought.
Gilman: What's the premise behind Concrete: Think Like a Mountain?
Chadwick: Concrete is invited by some radical environmentalists in the Earth First! movement to observe their struggle to save an old-growth forest and to write an article about their battle. They subtly work on him to convert him to their point of view and get help with their civil disobedience and monkeywrenching.
Gilman: What is monkeywrenching?
Chadwick: It's the act of destroying equipment and roads that are being used to destroy the wilderness -- something this little Earth First! group feels Concrete would be very good at.
Gilman: Concrete doesn't want to have a part of any of that...
Chadwick: No. He's a prominent person; he's afraid of being sued; he's afraid of having to apologize for everything Earth First! does in the future. Plus his ties to the government could cause him trouble.
Gilman: You said once at one point that you felt that Concrete is the embodiment of ambivalence. What did you mean by that, and how is that illustrated in the context of this story?
Chadwick: Ron Lithgow [Concrete's former persona] started out as fairly non-confrontational and not sure of himself. He's the first to see both sides of every question. And as Concrete he lacks the normal needs and motives the rest of us have. He doesn't need to work to survive; he has very few of the normal human goals like finding a companion, marrying, and raising a family, or even pursuing a career. So, without getting highfalutin about it, he's got an existential dilemma: how to make some sense of his life... how to make it worthwhile. So he's ripe for conversion by passionate do-gooders.
Gilman: When they first approach Concrete, he's driven away. However, after a little soul-searching, he decides to honor their request.
Chadwick: Not exactly. It happens by degrees. He first only agrees to write about their struggle as an impartial observer. Of course they want more from him and will do everything to bring him around, from love-bombing to guilt-tripping to bombarding him with environmental atrocities that are going on in the world.
Gilman: You can't really force a guy like Concrete to do anything.
Chadwick: Not in a physical way, but he can be manipulated. There's ambiguity there. My heart is with these Earth First!ers, but I'm having them be just a touch manipulative.
Gilman: Like Concrete, you have positioned yourself as a "soft-core" environmentalist with the Concrete Earth Day Special and your frequent essays at the back of Concrete. Are you working from an autobigraphical experience on this series?
Chadwick: No. I have never met an Earth First! member. I should explain that Earth First! is a very disorganized movement. There are no officers or even a membership roster. Just a journal that comes out ten times a year. It's better to think of them as a tribe, or a movement, than as an organization.
Gilman: I was glad to see you included an episode of Concrete's favorite television show, "A Sky of Heads."
Chadwick: I use it in the first issue. Concrete is watching an episode. It's a way to introduce the theme of commitment and passion, which is what this story is about. Concrete is a guy with little passion who, nonetheless, means well. He's both attracted to and repelled by these people who are so committed that they'll go to jail or devote their lives to a cause. The motto of Earth First! is "No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth," and this fascinates Concrete.
Gilman: Is Concrete: Think Like a Mountain based on an actual event?
Chadwick: The forest they're trying to save in the story is ficticious. I needed room for artistic license. But there have been many such battles up here in the Northwest.
Gilman: You sometimes have Concrete interact with his environment in a particularly inventive manner. Have you used that device here? For instance, when Concrete walks through a forest, do you tell the story of the forest?
Chadwick: There are judicious dollops of that. I find natural history and the strategies organisms use to survive fascinating. In the third issue, Concrete is forced to walk underwater around Vancouver Island. Nearly the whole issue occurs underwater. We learn about the giant octopi of Puget Sound and the salmon wars between Canada and the United States... things like that. But the main action of the series is with the Earth First!ers and the loggers they confront.
Gilman: In the last Concrete series, Killer Smile, you managed to capture an intense cinematic feel. Are you striving for that level of intensity in this series?
Chadwick: I hope it will be suspenseful. It's a story quality I value. But this is more epic. There's more spectacle, there's more character interaction -- there are subplots involving betrayal and sexual tension and personality conflicts. It won't be the pure "grabbing the electrical cables" kind of suspense I evoked in Killer Smile, but it'll move.
Gilman: In 1993 you began a series of short, horrific vignettes titled 100 Horrors as a back-up feature in Concrete.
Chadwick: I like to describe them as whimsically macabre.
Gilman: Are you continuing with these?
Chadwick: Yes, they will be in each issue of Think Like a Mountain. At one Horror per issue of Concrete, I should finish with #100 in the year 2024 or so. [laughs]
Gilman: So you plan to do Concrete for quite some time?
Chadwick: Yes. I consider Concrete to be my life's work. I will probably step away from it now and then and do a special project, but I fully plan on doing Concrete into my seventies.
Gilman: Is there anything you currently have to step away to?
Chadwick: I have a tentative five-year plan. After Think Like a Mountain is finished I'm going to start immediately on a retelling and a reimagining of Concrete's origin which will tell it in more detail -- and maybe with some differences from the way it initially appeared.
Gilman: Why is this?
Chadwick: Because of the Concrete movie script. It caused me to rethink things. This won't be a strict adaptation of the movie, but I'll be using a lot of the thinking that went into the script. It will also be the first time I narrate a Concrete story with Concrete's voice. Then I plan on something rather arty and fantastical -- not Concrete -- which I prefer not to talk about just yet.
Gilman: How does writing screenplays compare to writing comics?
Chadwick: When you write a movie script, you're managed much more closely than when you write comics. You have to talk out the whole story and maybe even do a treatment before you begin writing the script proper. Once you're done, you get notes from the people you wrote it for and you rewrite it to those notes. Of course there's always room for negotiation and putting your own spin on things, but you're also very conscious of meeting the requirements of the producers.
Gilman: What's the status of the Concrete movie?
Chadwick: I've learned I must be patient. I remember that in 1978, Interview with the Vampire was being touted as a John Travolta vehicle. Sixteen years later, it finally happened -- and quite captured the spirit of the book, I felt. Concrete could take as long or -- who knows -- just never happen. But I have great faith in Mike Richardson -- his stock is very high in Hollywood after two hit movies, and he seems to have broken into the inner circle. I'm happy to have him shepherding my lamb through that wilderness.
Gilman: Any last words on Concrete: Think Like a Mountain?
Chadwick: Yes -- Geof Darrow is doing all the covers for the series. He's a pal and an artistic hero of mine, and it ought to give me a hand up in sales.
Gilman: I can only assume that the rest of the book will be printed on a recycled stock.
Chadwick: That's correct -- I wouldn't have it any other way.