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The Coldest City Declassified: An Interview with Antony Johnston

The Coldest City Declassified: An Interview with Antony Johnston

With The Coldest City signing tour set to kick off shortly, Antony Johnston took some time out to talk to me about espionage fiction, the Cold War, Berlin and how the idea for the book first took shape.

What were the inspirations for The Coldest City?

Just a love of spy fiction, really. I've loved espionage and Cold War stories since I was young, starting with British WWII fiction featuring spies, then growing up and moving to classics like John Le Carré, Len Deighton, and so on. And I've always enjoyed a good Bond movie, even though they're patently ridiculous.

But I'd never considered actually writing spy fiction, for some reason, until Greg Rucka asked me to do a "Declassified" miniseries for QUEEN & COUNTRY. Almost immediately, I realised I was having more fun writing it than almost anything I'd done before, and that kind of set me on the path. From the moment I finished that book I started planning THE COLDEST CITY.

But it didn't really come together until after I launched WASTELAND. That gave me the confidence not to second-guess what an audience might want, and to focus instead on writing a book *I* wanted to read. Which is exactly what I did.

-What does period espionage offer you as a writer that other genres don't?

Mainly, the Cold War. Not that a contemporary spy story can't also be interesting, of course. With the state of the world today, spying is more complicated and multifaceted now than ever before. But there's always been something about the atmosphere of the Cold War that, in fiction, I really like. And you can't get that atmosphere any other way.

-What do you think is next for espionage fiction?

We're seeing a bit of a resurgence in spy fiction right now, in every medium, which is great. I suspect much of that resurgence is a reaction to the complex world situation I mentioned before, and the very real sense that there are many things going on in the world about which we, the normal people, are never told, despite them supposedly being for the purpose of our safety.

That notion isn't unique to modern times, at all, but it's only in recent times that these activities have been shown, proven, demonstrated, and exposed. And even more amazing is just how deep it all goes. We live in a world where it's hard to think of a single government that isn't obsessively secretive and venally corrupt, and that's a very rich canvas for espionage fiction.

-You mentioned that the book is the first of a series, will characters continue across between the volumes?

Yes. I don't want to say who or how, because that might give away elements of THE COLDEST CITY. But characters, and of course Berlin itself, will turn up in other books.

-Cold War Berlin is a setting that's soaked in history and plot. What other historical settings have attracted you?

I'm a sucker for the Old West, it must be said. I did a "Western heist" graphic novel, THE LONG HAUL, with the late Eduardo Barreto. I tried to deal, in a lighthearted way, with how people felt about that era coming to an end. It was such a brief but unique period of history, that brought out both the best and worst of people.

Thinking about it, I suppose that's also something it has in common with THE COLDEST CITY, though they couldn't be more different in outlook and story.

-Who plays Lorraine in the TV series and why?

No comment, sorry. I'm not one of those writers who "casts" a book while writing, it doesn't help my process at all. And I don't want readers imagining a certain actor while reading the book just because I off-handedly threw out a name.

Lorraine exists in the combination of Sam's art, my words, and the reader's imagination. That's what makes comics unique, and it's enough for me.

If you want to know more about the book, take a look at the trailer and the homepage. And remember, if all else fails, default to Moscow Rules…


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