Marvel’s Infinite trip to the Orient in Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted may have drawn to an epic conclusion , but if you missed out issue #1 is free to download throughout the month of December. To celebrate this fantastic opportunity for fans to get into one of the best Infinite comics of the year we got in touch with writer Jason Latour to find out more about the challenges of creating Marvel’s ultimate Infinite title.

How did you get involved with writing Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted? Did Marvel come to you or did you pitch to them? 

JL: Marvel approached us about it. Jason was a natural fit as he’s helmed Logan’s adventures for several years, but due to his schedule scripting the story wasn’t feasible. Our editor Nick Lowe felt I was a good fit to step into that role because Jason and I had a working history and I’m an artist. Given that these stories are very visual, they felt that would contribute quite a bit. Hopefully it did.

Japan’s Most Wanted is the first ongoing Marvel Infinite series did you find any particular challenges writing for this format and how does it compare to your previous print work in terms of pacing and structure?

JL: Well being that Infinite comics are more linear in terms of the depiction of events the story gains the idea of images in pure sequence, being one after another instead of always existing in the same moment. Meaning that on a print page several moments exist at once and there is a very different skill involved in in guiding a reader. Flipping through the images in sequence does seem to put the element of surprise and the illusion of time into play a bit more. That allows us to do some unique things that make the environment and pace of the comic a real part of the story. Particularly in the action sequences. For better or worse it’s a far more fluid process. I find it really challenges your sense of space and timing.

 Are you a big fan of digital comics on the iPad and did you look at other titles for inspiration or did you aim to create your own rules?

JL: I enjoy both print and digital comics, but most digital comics are just scans of the original pages and the goal was to do something that’s unique to the format. We were lucky to have Yves Bigerel involved, as he’s what you might call one of the fathers of the Infinite Comic. So I just tried to organize the story and inspire him to do storyboards that kept him excited and engaged.

How influential was artist Paco Diaz in making the book work as an Infinite title and how much input did you guys give him when it came to the flow of the book as a digital comic?

JL: Paco Diaz was the icing on our cake. I think his work was a nice draw for people who expect a certain excitement from their Wolverine comics. He mainly worked as a finisher, over Yves’ storyboards.

Any plans for you to return to Infinite books in 2014 and if so what lessons have you learnt from this first run that you’d apply to them? If not what can we see from you next?

JL: Well since this project I’ve worked with Stan Lee on an Infinite comic tie in to the The Wolverine DVD and a wrote and storyboarded a Silver Surfer story called “Infinity: Against The Tide” for Marvel’s Infinity crossover. So I’m somewhat involved in making them. I really feel it’s a growing medium that can have a mutually beneficial relationship to the print comics and I’d love to do more.

My next writing gig is the All New Marvel Now relaunch of Wolverine And The X-Men In March. You can still read Jason Aaron on that book, as he works toward concluding his great run. We’ll also be doing a crime fiction comic together called Southern Bastards for Image Comics in the Spring. I’ll be handling the art duties on that one.

Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted #1 is available for free from ComiXology or the Marvel Comics app. For more info on Jason visit his website or follow him on Twitter @jasonlatour