Assassin’s Creed Interview With Conor McCreery
Earlier this month, we shared a review of Assassin’s Creed #1 by writers Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. Conor was gracious enough to answer some of our questions.
What do you hope fans of the Assassin’s Creed video games will take from the comic story?
I hope fans take the same things from the comic as the game. I hope they feel like they have been introduced to compelling characters, get some great action, and are introduced to a fascinating historical time-period. At the same time we want to be able to use the fact that this will be an ongoing series to really go down the rabbit-hole a bit as far as character and plot are concerned. So hopefully the comic can be an even deeper narrative experience than the game.
From your blog, you were very excited to work on Assassin’s Creed. What is it about the franchise that drew you into the project and made it exciting for you?
Well, the world is just so huge. Almost anything is possible in A.C., the idea that we could dip into so many great moments in history is so appealing. For another project of ours, Kill Shakespeare, we did a lot of research by looking into the Bard’s plays, for Assassin’s Creed we also get to be research junkies, but this time we get to learn about some of the most fascinating times and people. How could you say no to that?
How did you find the experience of writing a licensed title different from a story that was entirely your own?
The biggest difference is that we have a large pool of people at Titan and Ubisoft helping us make decisions and supporting us. But beyond that it’s not too different. We’re given a lot of autonomy actually. It’s funny, we’d been warned that licensed books can sometimes be a real battle, but so far we’ve had the exact opposite experience – it’s been totally collaborative.
With the lead character of Charlotte, is her obsession with conspiracy theories something that you had fun working into the Assassin’s Creed world?
Oh, definitely. When we kicked around the idea that we could subvert the usual structure of this sort of thing – a main character knows nothing of the Assassins and has to learn all the basics, we were really excited to do so. It’s so much more fun when your main character has some knowledge at the beginning so they don’t have to ask question after question.
How do you think Charlotte differs from previous Assassin’s Creed characters?
I think her age, the fact that she’s so much a part of our modern world, and to a lesser extent her gender will make her unique in the Assassin’s Creed world. I mean this was a woman who wanted to join an NGO and studied developing economies at school – not your usual Assassin resume.
With such a large tapestry to work with from the Assassin’s Creed games, did you feel any pressure from yourselves to try to duplicate the feel of the games?
No. The game is its own thing, its own amazing thing, but comics and games are totally different mediums. The storytelling that works in one isn’t always the best choice for the other. So while we wanted to respect the games, and pay homage to them, we never felt pressure for the series to read like a game.
What do you see the bigger hurdle to jump is with this series – Getting comic fans to go try the video games or getting gamer fans to come back issue after issue?
Hmmm… interesting question. I might say gamers to comics. I feel like more comic folks are probably casual gamers than the other way around. Although, we’ve met a lot of Assassin’s fans who are super excited for this comic, even though they don’t read any other titles on the regular. Cool geeks are cool geeks, right?
“Cool geeks are cool geeks” is probably the best way to end this type of Q & A . If you’re inspired to pick up Assassin’s Creed because of Conor’s answers to our questions, then be certain to visit your local comic shop to pick up the first issue. If they’ve sold out it is available on Comixology or through mail order from the publisher.
In the interest of full disclosure, while our questions had been submitted to Titan for Conor or his co-writer Anthony to answer at the time of our interview, in no way did we consciously temper our review to gain favor. We did make the effort to pass along almost all press releases that Titan sent for this series launch, but given that they were really putting a lot of effort into promoting it, we saw that it was a s legitimate as any other press release that we’ve passed along.
All of our questions were answered, and in no way did we edit or alter Conor’s answers.