DF Interview: Marc Guggenheim promises espionage intrigue in the ‘Too Dead To Die’ OGN

By Byron Brewer

In the 1980s, Simon Cross was America’s top super-spy. In Too Dead To Die, he faces down today’s very different world and a past that has come back to haunt him, forcing him out of retirement for one final adventure.

The writer/artist team of Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin (Blade, Wolverine) reunites for an original graphic novel in the forthcoming Too Dead To Die. This all-new story promises classic spy novel suspense and is set to hit shelves from Image Comics this December. Whose espionage-loving motor wouldn’t be revved by the mention of these two comics creators? I sat down with my friend Marc Guggenheim to discuss the OGN.


Byron Brewer: Marc, Coronavirus and the pandemic affected all of us in many ways. Tell readers how this was instrumental in your coming graphic novel, Too Dead To Die.



Marc Guggenheim: Well, I locked the sound mix on my first directing efforts (Legends of Tomorrow, Episode 514) and the next day was lockdown. The shutting down of all production meant that I was able to focus on writing things that I wouldn’t otherwise have had time to work on. Among those projects was a push back into creator-owned comics. I had had the idea for what became Too Dead To Die for several years, but never had the time to actually work on it. Suddenly, I did.



Byron: And before we get to the book proper (well, kinda), relate the very ironic/amusing story of how artist and frequent collaborator (Blade, Wolverine) Howard Chaykin got involved with the OGN.



Marc Guggenheim: Howard and I had worked together on four projects previously: Blade, Wolverine, a four-page story for an anti-bullying special, and an unpublished eight-page Spirit story. Like I said, what became Too Dead To Die was something I’d been kicking around in my head for a number of years. The pandemic gave me a chance to finally work on it. I just started writing the first issue. This was, obviously, before I knew it would take the form of a graphic novel. But halfway through writing those first twentysomething pages, I realized I was picturing Howard’s art in my head as I wrote. When I finished the script, I sent Howard an email -- we’ve kept in touch over the years -- and asked if he had any interest in reading it. He said he did and evidently he liked what he read, because we were suddenly off to the races.



Byron: Introduce us to Simon Cross. Who was he, who is he, what challenges does life hold for him today?



Marc Guggenheim: I like to describe Cross as a super-spy who is as close to James Bond as I could get without being sued. He’s basically America’s answer to James Bond: Like Bond, he likes women and the finer things in life, but being American, he’s more coarse. He’s less proper. He has a tendency to break the rules. I don’t think he takes orders as well as Bond does.

I’m using the present tense here, but the truth is that that’s all in the past for Cross. When we meet him, he’s in his seventies and long since retired from the field. He has a collection of medications that have been prescribed to manage all the conditions decades of hard living have left him with. His liver is a mess. His back is in shambles. He has STDs. He’s basically falling apart when we meet him.


Byron: Talk a little about Cross’ world in the 1980s. And did you or Howard do any research for the period?



Marc Guggenheim: Howard and I both lived through the Eighties, so I don’t think either of us felt an overwhelming need to do too much research on that score. In any case, the majority of the graphic novel unfolds in the 21st Century. Although there is a prose short story in the graphic novel that’s set in the Eighties which I had to do a fair amount of research for. All I can say is, thank God for Google. It’s truly amazing how many specific facts are right at your fingertips.



Byron: Can you let us know about any important characters aside from Cross in the book, maybe introduce a few of them here?



Marc Guggenheim: The most significant co-star is Cross’ daughter, Lily. As more than one character points out, it’s statistically impossible for Cross to have had sex with so many women without siring at least one child. That’s Lily. But the important thing to know about her is that she’s no damsel. She’s smart and formidable and has her own point of view on things. At the same time, I worked hard to avoid the expected cliché of her having resentment towards her father which Cross has to overcome. Their relationship is much more nuanced -- in fact, Lily’s surname is Nuance -- than that.

There’s also Olivia Goodlay, who was a former co-worker of Cross’ and, yes, a former lover. Today, however, she’s a Director at the CIA. I was interested in seeing how a two-dimensional “Bond girl” would grow and change over time. Her interactions with Cross are among my favorite in the graphic novel. She’s got his number and has no compunctions about giving him the business.


Byron: Can you give readers an elevator pitch for the book (without spoilers, of course). And what sort of difficulties does a former 1980s Cold War superspy have operating in the 21st century?



Marc Guggenheim: The elevator pitch is that Simon Cross was America’s preeminent super-spy in the 1980s. But it’s now 2022 and the world has passed him by. All his heroism and sacrifices have been forgotten. He never settled down. He lives a rather sad and lonely existence. But all that changes the day he learns that one of his many assignations produced a daughter. The fact that she’s in danger draws him out of retirement for one final adventure.



Byron: Discuss your collaboration(s) with Howard in depth. Your story about how he got with this graphic novel says a lot about you guys as a creative team.



Marc Guggenheim: When I write a comic, I’m always seeing the art in my head as I go. With Too Dead To Die, I was seeing Howard’s art in my mind’s eye, as I mentioned. What’s interesting, however, is that I often don’t see Howard’s layouts -- how the art is arranged on the page -- and that’s actually an aspect of Howard’s art that he doesn’t get enough credit for, in my opinion. The way he’ll arrange close ups or tight shots of characters’ faces in panels that are confined to the left or right side of the page -- leaving the middle of the page for wide or action shots -- is really rather ingenious. And wholly original. It’s the most quintessentially “Chaykin” thing about Howard’s art, but nobody notices because his style -- his voice as an artist -- is so wonderfully specific. When you look at a piece of Howard’s art, you have no doubt who drew it.

Also, just by the design of the cover of the OGN, I get the feeling this may NOT be the last time we see or hear of Simon Cross OR the team of Guggenheim/Chaykin. Do we have more Simon coming to our lives in the future?
Well, to quote the title of Sean Connery’s last turn as James Bond, Never Say Never Again, I’d say “never say never.” I love working with Howard and I believe the feeling is mutual. And, yes, the story is built such that there can be sequels and prequels. It all depends on the success of the OGN, to be honest. In success, all things are possible. At the moment, I’m working on the screenplay for a feature film adaptation of Too Dead To Die -- Howard and I sold the rights recently to a major Hollywood studio. In my perfect world, we’d publish a follow-up OGN -- which, I promise, will not be called 2 Dead 2 Die -- contemporaneously with the release of the movie. But you never know what fate has in store…


Byron: Marc, I know you are active in all types of media, everything from comics to the screens big and small. What projects to you have coming, inside or outside comics, that you can tell readers about?



Marc Guggenheim: “That [I] can tell readers about” is the key phrase in that question. For the past few months, I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter -- LegalDispatch -- on Substack (marcguggenheim.substack.com) and I feel like many editions are just a laundry list of project codenames because I haven’t gotten the greenlight to talk publicly about them.

In terms of television, I’m just in the development phase on several projects. These days, a show can take four years between conception and streaming, so I’ve buckled in for what I know will be a long process on all of these. It’s not like the old days where you would pitch in June, shoot the pilot in March, and be on the air in October, unfortunately.
Right now, most of my public-facing (i.e., announced) work is in the comic book space. The trade paperback edition of Last Flight Out, the pre-apocalypse father/daughter story I published through Dark Horse, hit comic book stores on November 16. The week after saw publication of the first trade collection of Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca on November 23. That same day, we dropped Star Wars: Revelations -- a really ambitious 40-page one-shot which previews events that are happening across the Star Wars line in 2023. Speaking of 2023, on January 25, we’ll release another OGN through Dark Horse called Fragmentation, which I describe as “what if Christopher Nolan directed a family drama?”
Like I said, LegalDispatch is the place to go for teases of all my heretofore unannounced projects, including Project Artery which will be animated. I also talk a lot about the state of the entertainment industry and how it’s been contracting of late -- which probably seems strange given how busy I am, but it’s a strange time…

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Marc Guggenheim for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. The Too Dead To Die OGN from Image Comics is slated to be on sale on December 14th!



For more news and up-to-date announcements, join us here at Dynamic Forces, www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/, “LIKE” us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dynamicforcesinc, and follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/dynamicforces.

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