I’m a big fan of both Brian Michael Bendis and David Mamet, so to see one interview the other is a great treat.

It runs tomorrow on Comic Book Resources (one of the giant, corporate entities of online comics news, so far unlike your humble and independent Big Shiny Robot!) and it will be worth checking out. The interview was done to promote Mamet’s new Graphic Novel, The Trials of Roderick Spode (The Human Ant), which you can order here.

BENDIS: This is an absolute thrill for me to talk to you, and as a lifelong David Mamet fan and a lifelong purveyour of the comic book art, the fact that I’m holding in my hand a graphic novel written and illustrated by David Mamet is surreal, to say the least. My first question: how did this come about?

MAMET: Well, I started doing cartoons about 20 years ago. My great and closest friend Shel Silverstein – we spent a lot of time together, he and I and my family – always encouraged me to draw because I like drawing. And I said, “Well, I don’t know how to draw, Shel.” And he said, “Don’t worry about that. Just draw.” So I did. I started doing cartoons and in a lot of movies, I think it’s a skill the director has to learn because the director has to be able to communicate his images to the cinematographer, to the actors, to the camera operator, etc. What you’re communicating basically is a picture, so if you can draw the picture to show the people what it looks like, you’re going to get a better chance of showing that picture in the film. Then I started doing more cartoons and political cartoons, and one thing led to another. I love to draw. I just get a huge kick out of it.

BENDIS: The book we’re talking about is The Trials of Roderick Spode (The Human Ant). And it’s a satire of the superhero genre I’d say on one level.

MAMET: I think it’s more of an homage than a satire, to my mind the difference being that it’s done with a bunch of love. When I was a kid, there was a book I’m sure you heard of called The Seduction of the Innocent that came out in the ‘50s, so the whol idea was just like Doctor Spock telling parents, ‘Comics are bad for you.’ Of course, we kids knew differently, and as an ex-kid I continue to know differently now. I have nothing but love for comic books.

BENDIS: I’ll offer this: I also struggled early in my career with writing and drawing, and what I found was that if I have an artist who’s far superior to me, then I look much better and the story is much better received. I think you coming to comics would be an amazing situation, and it would be kind of similar to the way you collaborate with a cinematographer.

MAMET: That’s an interesting way to look at it. That’s true that I do work together with the cinematographer. And also, I like doing the one-panel stuff, because I’m basically a gag writer in everything I do. So to be able to spend some of my time writing up one gag and then taking it home to show my family at night is pretty great. I spent my whole life basically skipping school, and I think like most writers, if I can skip school at all, that’s a day not wasted. That’s what drawing is for me.