The book is creator owned does this give you more freedom with the characters and what are the various pros and cons of going down that route?

RW: The pros are complete creative freedom to do what we like without editorial notes – for all the good and bad that brings. So you’re getting far more a pure version of our story, I guess. Saying that, Matt Smith at 2000AD always allows us a huge amount of freedom on Low Life with 2000AD but that’s Dredd’s world. These are our characters and our world. We got to collaborate a bit more at the early stages. D’Israeli suggested some characters, so he’s had a hand in the writing side too. And, although I always put a lot of heart into writing Dirty Frank, I think Ordinary’s got a lot of personal things in it. You put yourself into a creator owned book in a way that, perhaps, you don’t with every work-for-hire job.

The cons are money up front and lack thereof. As with any creator owned project, the financial side largely comes on the back end. So we may see decent money for doing this or we may not, if no one buys it when the Titan edition comes out. Still, it’s refereshing to do the odd creator-owned book with people you enjoy working with. D’Israeli and I own it, and can reprint it with other publishers a few years down the line. It’s a long term investment, really.

D’Is: I’ve mostly worked for 2000AD the last few years and they give you a lot of autonomy, so there’s not really been a difference from that point of view. The main pro of creator-owned projects is that, in the long run, you get more control over where and even whether they stay in print – so there’s a fair amount of work I did for 2000AD that’s either never been reprinted, or is out of print, and I have no control over when (or even whether) they’ll be seen again. In contrast, Kingdom of the Wicked, a CO project I did back in 1992 with Ian Edginton, will be getting a new reprint next year, because Ian and I could negotiate a deal that suited us.

The main con is simple – less money upfront! That said though, the Megazine’s creator-owned deal is actually pretty damn good.

With the world of digital opening up more and more avenues for self publishing do you think we’re going through a golden age for creator owned titles? Does it give you both more flexibility when it comes to telling great stories?

RW: It does, and yes, there’s a huge array of creator-owned titles from excellent creators. There is more freedom. Working for Marvel and DC on their icon books is fun but you know the status quo will always be adhered to. Batman, Spider-Man – these characters aren’t ever truly at risk. If they do get killed off, they’ll return because they’re cash cows for the company. With creator-owned you can tell stories that don’t return to the status quo, that do offer more diversity and freedom. More personal and diverse projects.

That said, I’ve used the analogy of the Californian gold rush for the creator-owned boom currently occurring. Everyone sees Robert Kirkman Walking Dead money and shouts “there’s gold in them thar hills!” and off we all race. And a few will get rich. But the majority of creator-owned projects will leave their creators the opiate-addled toothless hobo on the streets of Deadwood, rambling about the life he left behind years before.

Realistically, you have to combine work-for-hire and creator-owned work in order to pay the bills.

D’Is: I’m not sure what shape the market will eventually take, but I think we’re seeing the start of a big shift in the balance of power in the comics industry for just those reasons. There’s already a lot of really interesting stuff out there, though so far everything seems wedded to the model of print comics – ie having distinct pages full of panels and single-thread stories. It’ll be interesting to see if the rise of tablet devices makes people less worried about producing a print product and more experimental with formatting.

In some ways I find it frustrating because my need to make a living keeps me from playing with a lot of this stuff. I should really try and produce a few things of my own,  but the paying works eats up all my time and energy right now.

The central premise is about being the only person in the world with superpowers, but if you could wake up with superpowers what would you most want to have and which would you least like to have?

RW: Most want to? It’s horribly cliched but I’d love to be able to fly (without the two hour airport check-ins beforehand).

Least like to? Everything I tried to read would instantly turn into the Daily Mail.

D’Is: Power I’d want to have: strong, hairy, prehensile breasts.

Power I’d not want to have: everything I look at turns to gristle.

Finally where do you see the book going in the next few instalments? Does it have a definitive arc or are you waiting to see how well it does? And what parts of the story are you most looking forward to readers checking out?