We had the chance to chat with Azzarello about what it's like to return to this gritty crime noir world and what's in store for Lono now that he's the star of the show. IGN Comics: You've never struck me as a writer who revisits old stories just for the heck of it. What made you decide it was time to revisit 100 Bullets?
Brian Azzarello: I don't consider this revisiting an old project at all. I consider 100 Bullets to be, on its own, a novel. We finished that novel. There's some threads left open for certain characters that we're revisiting. I'm not continuing 100 Bullets at all. It's over. There will be no mention of a suitcase full of bullets in this project at all. [laughs]
IGN: And I assume the benefit to that approach is that new readers will have no trouble jumping right into this without having read the old series?
Azzarello: God, yeah. You don't have to know anything about the old series. That's funny. That's something I hadn't even thought about, but there's really no connection. Other than the main character, they're completely different books.
IGN: Is the phrase "100 Bullets" even in the official title? Is it possible someone could read this without even realizing there's a 100-issue story that preceded it?
Azzarello: "100 Bullets" isn't even in the title.
IGN: The final issue of Bullets left it up in the air as to whether Lono survived his latest brush with death. Can I assume you were leaving room for a follow-up story even then?
Azzarello: I don't think the character living or dying had any impact on the story we were telling. So to leave it open like that was a natural fit. I mean, he was such a force of nature in 100 Bullets that leaving that question in the air was our responsibility.
IGN: But did you have this particular story in mind as a possibility back then, or was it more a matter of leaving an opening if you decided to come back?
Azzarello: This was something that Eduardo and I came up with a few years ago. We had already worked on Spaceman, I think, and we were discussing our next project. He mentioned that he wanted to revisit some of those characters. And I said, "Oh, okay," and I mentioned some of the characters I thought still had potential in them. There were some characters I left alive specifically to revisit. Eduardo wanted to do Lono. So we hashed out the story, and here we are.
IGN: You and Eduardo have worked on several projects since 100 Bullets wrapped up, both together and separately. Was it difficult for you at all to get back into the mindset of this world?
Azzarello: You know, man, it was like putting on a pair of old shoes. It actually is too comfortable for my liking. [laughs]
IGN: This isn't just a reunion between you and Eduardo, but the entire creative team behind 100 Bullets. Would you have had second thoughts about coming back if Dave or Trish or Clem weren't also on board?
Azzarello: Yeah. I'm not so sure we'd be doing it. It's all or nothing. We wouldn't be doing it. It was something that we all had to be excited about. Even Edith, who translates the scripts, had to be excited about it.
IGN: Lono was always the darkest character in what was a very dark story in general. Now that he's the central protagonist, are you going to be exploring other sides of his personality? Does he even have them?
Azzarello: Yes, he has them. Are you kidding? [laughs] That aspect of his personality I think was explored pretty well in the original series and what he represented in 100 Bullets. In Brother Lono, we're delving into a completely different narrative. I'm using sort of different tricks as well as different sorts of visual storytelling. If you expect 100 Bullets, you're going to be surprised. That's for sure.
IGN: Are we going to see any of his past in the story, or are you focused entirely on the present-day narrative?
Azzarello: There will be some bits of the past in the story. That's something we're exploring -- the way that character has lived his life is completely in the now. He doesn't waste much time on what he's done or the future where he's headed. That's one of the issues that we're bringing up in the story. What's it like to live that way?
IGN: You hinted a little at this already, but even though most of the main characters in 100 Bullets died by the final issue, there were a couple like Lono that survived. Are you going to be touching on any of them in this story?
Azzarello: No, it's focusing on Lono.
IGN: And you mentioned how you and Eduardo are relying on some new tricks with this series. In terms of genre, 100 Bullets is very much a gritty crime noir story. Are you sticking to the same genre with Brother Lono, or are you branching out and exploring some others in this story?
Azzarello: It's the same genre, but we're telling the story in a different way. We're exercising different muscles this time. A lot of people have equated 100 Bullets to jazz. Visually and the language has a certain rhythm to it. They mention jazz for the most part. This is punk rock mariachi.
IGN: That's an interesting combination.
Azzarello: Yeah, well, we're nothing if not interesting, you know?
IGN: One of the visual elements I liked the most about 100 Bullets was the way Eduardo would sort of dive into the world around the characters and tell these little visual stories that are unfolding around them. Is that something he's still going to be doing in this book. Or as you said, is he trying different tricks this time?
Azzarello: He's doing that, but he's also added some bits to his repertoire. I think his storytelling is really direct. The story sort of demands that kind of storytelling.
IGN: You've been pretty quiet about the actual plot of the series since it was announced. Is there anything about the conflict and what Lono is dealing with here that you can reveal?
Azzarello: He's dealing with violence, drugs, money, and God. And not necessarily in that order.
IGN: There's been talk over the years about turning 100 Bullets into a video game or a TV series. Is there any update on those fronts?
Azzarello: [laughs] I wish I could tell you something, Jesse. No. I don't know. There's still talk. The video game I don't think is going on anymore. A little too intense to get that off the ground. The television series is still up in the air. Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
