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IDW Get Infected With Scott Sigler

Alasdair Stuart writes for Bleeding Cool;
IDW Get Infected With Scott Sigler

A frankly intimidating amount of time ago, Warren Ellis described 2000AD as 'Comics with guitars'. It's a lovely analogy, and it works, marrying the crackly energy of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic (So great in fact it's now twelve years past it's titular date and doesn't seem needlessly retro) with the punky intensity of the indie music scene. Comics with guitars, stories with meat to them and, often a tremendous amount of punching. It's the sort of pulp that 2000AD at it's best excels at.,

It's also where Scott Sigler lives. Sigler is a genuine game changer, an author who, when his publishing deal fell through, decided to podcast his first novel, Earthcore. The end result was 10,000 listeners, a built in audience and a publishing deal that stuck. Now, seven books in Sigler has made a name for himself as an author fond of big ideas, bigger violence and the bloody knuckled playground that 2000AD and the like call home. Sigler's work takes in everything from a queasy piece of alien invasion body horror (Infected), to a trilogy of novels about American football in a dystopian future. His work is big, brash and full of power chords and I've always been surprised he's never got into comics. Now, with IDW announcing a six issue adaptation of Infected that's changed and Sigler is all set to take a new medium by storm. He took a few minutes out from the promo tour for his latest book, Nocturnal, to talk to me about Infected and how he got into comics.

What inspired Infected?

The study of parasites and their ability to modify host behavior, right up to levels that at upon first glance could be called "mind control." I wanted to explore what a parasite might do to a human host. If that host happens to be a 6-foot-5, 255-pound bruiser with rage control issues, all the better.

What led you to a comic adaptation of it?

I was approached by artist Chad Minshew, who liked the story and wanted to do an adaptation of it. He showed me some of his drawings of Infected, and I knew, instantly, that I had to see this project happen.  I'm working with Chad… and IDW Publishing, which is an amazing company to work with. The book is planned for six issues.

Are you talking about doing any other adaptations?

I think IDW will want to see how INFECTED does first. If it does well, I imagine they'd want to do the sequel, CONTAGIOUS, and hopefully the third book in the series, PANDEMIC. PANDEMIC is out as a novel in the Summer of 2013.

I'm very interested in more comic work. I have several prose projects to finish up, but hopefully in the future I can pen some original comic tales.

When's the comic out?

It's out this summer, although I don't have an official release date yet. Here's an early teaser image.

Sigler's books are available through numerous venues, but Podiobooks is a good place to start. I can recommend Infected, but, trust me, you're going to squirm at the words 'chicken scissors' for a long time once you're done…


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