Mark Millar


Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on The Authority, the Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Wanted, Chrononauts, Superior and ', the latter seven of which have been, or are planned to be, adapted into feature films.
His DC Comics work includes Superman: Red Son. At Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates, selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, and described by screenwriter Zak Penn as a major inspiration for The Avengers movie. Millar also created Wolverine: Old Man Logan and Civil War, two of Marvel's biggest-selling graphic novels; the Civil War crossover storyline was the basis for the ' film and Old Man Logan was the inspiration for Fox's Logan film.
Millar has been an executive producer on all of his films, and for four years worked as a creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of films. In 2017, Netflix bought Millar's comic line, Millarworld, which Millar and his wife Lucy will continue to run; publishing new comics and adapting them for other media.

Early life

Millar was born 24 December 1969 in Coatbridge, Scotland. His parents were also born in Coatbridge, and Millar spent the first half of his life in the town's Townhead area, attending St Ambrose High. He has four older brothers, and one older sister, who are 22, 20, 18, 16 and 14 years older than him, respectively. His brother Bobby, who today works at a special needs school, introduced him to comics at age 4 while attending university by taking him to shops and purchasing them for him. Still learning to read, Millar's first comic was the seminal The Amazing Spider-Man #121, which featured the death of Gwen Stacy. He purchased a Superman comic that day as well. Black and white reprinted comics purchased by his brothers for him would follow, cementing his interest in the medium so much that Millar drew a spider web across his face with indelible marker that his parents were unable to scrub off in time for his First Communion photo a week later. Millar has named Alan Moore and Frank Miller as the two biggest influences on his career, characterizing them as "my Mum and Dad." Other writers he names as influences include Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis. More recent writers that have impressed him include Jason Aaron and Scott Snyder.
Millar's mother died of a heart attack at age 64, when Millar was 14, and his father died four years later, aged 65. Although Millar enjoyed drawing comics, he was not permitted to go to art school because his family frowned upon such endeavours as a waste of time for the academic Millar, who studied subjects like chemistry, physics and advanced maths. He initially planned to be a doctor, and subsequently decided that becoming an economist would be a viable alternate plan, but later decided that he "couldn't quite hack it" in that occupation. He attended Glasgow University to study politics and economics, but dropped out after his father's death left him without the money to pay his living expenses.

Career

1980s–1990s work

When Millar was 18, he interviewed writer Grant Morrison, who was doing his first major American work on Animal Man, for a fanzine. When he told Morrison that he wanted to be both a writer and an artist, Morrison suggested that he focus on one of those career paths, as it was very hard to be successful at both, which Millar cites as the best advice he has received.
Millar's first job as a comic book writer came when he was still in high school, writing Trident's Saviour with Daniel Vallely providing art. Saviour combined elements of religion, satire and superhero action. During the 1990s, Millar worked on titles such as 2000 AD, Sonic the Comic and Crisis. In 1993, Millar, Grant Morrison and John Smith created a controversial eight-week run on 2000 AD called The Summer Offensive. It was during this run that Millar and Morrison wrote their first major story together, Big Dave.
Millar's British work brought him to the attention of DC Comics, and in 1994 he started working on his first American comic, Swamp Thing. The first four issues of Millar's run were co-written by Grant Morrison, allowing Millar to settle into the title. Although his work brought some critical acclaim to the ailing title, the book's sales were still low enough to warrant cancellation by the publisher. From there, Millar spent time working on various DC titles, often co-writing with or under the patronage of Morrison as in the cases of his work on JLA, The Flash and Aztek: The Ultimate Man, and working on unsuccessful pitches for the publisher.

Marvel and DC career

In 2000, Millar replaced Warren Ellis on The Authority for DC's Wildstorm imprint. Millar announced his resignation from DC in 2001, though his miniseries ' was printed in 2003.
In 2001, Millar launched Ultimate X-Men for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel imprint. The following year he collaborated with illustrator Bryan Hitch on The Ultimates, the Ultimate imprint's equivalent of The Avengers. Millar's work on The Ultimates was later adapted into two Marvel Animated Features and the subsequent 2012 Hollywood box office smash Marvel's The Avengers.
In 2006, Millar, joined by artist Steve McNiven, began writing the Marvel miniseries Civil War a seven-issue limited series revolving around the passing of Superhuman Registration Act as a result of the death and destruction unintentionally caused by superheroes and turned Captain America and Iron Man onto opposing sides, the book formed the basis for the film '. In 2009 Millar wrote the dystopian "Old Man Logan" storyline, which appeared in the Wolverine series, and was set in a possible future in which Wolverine, having been traumatized by his murder of the X-Men, became a recluse, after which the United States government collapsed, and the country fell under the control of various supervillain enclaves. Needing rent money for his family's farm, Wolverine comes out of retirement when called upon by Hawkeye.
at the Big Apple Convention, 2 October 2010

Millarworld

In 2004, Millar launched a creator-owned line called Millarworld that published independently owned comic-books, with ownership split 50/50 between Millar and the collaborating artist. The first book under the Millarworld brand was Wanted, which subsequently became a Hollywood film in 2008 starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Millar created and wrote Kick-Ass in 2008, which was adapted into another Hollywood film for Millar in 2010. Other books published by Millarworld included Chosen, The Unfunnies, and War Heroes, which was distributed by different publishers.
In 2010, Millar left his Marvel work-made-for-hire contract, committing full-time to Millarworld, creating and writing Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, , Kick-Ass 2, Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass 3, Jupiter's Legacy, Jupiter's Circle, Starlight, MPH, Huck, Chrononauts, Empress, Reborn.
Millarworld enjoyed interest from Hollywood with Millar staying on as an executive producer on all adaptations. Nemesis was optioned by 20th Century Fox with Tony Scott attached to direct. Superior was optioned by Fox with Matthew Vaughn on a producer. Super Crooks and American Jesus were both optioned by Waypoint Entertainment.
Kingsman: Secret Service, starring Colin Firth, was released in 2014.
Lorenzo DiBonaventura took Jupiter's Legacy and Jupiter's Circle under his wing and started development in 2016. On July 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given a series order for a television adaptation of Jupiter's Legacy. Starlight was optioned by 20th Century Fox. Huck was picked up by Jeff Robinov's Studio 8. Chrononauts is in development at Universal.
Millarworld was purchased for an undisclosed sum by Netflix in August 2017, the first acquisition for Netflix and the third time in history, Millar noted, that a comic-book company has been purchased by a studio. Millar will also run Millarworld with his wife Lucy Millar, publishing new comics under the Netflix label, which will adapt them for film and television. Kick-Ass and Kingsman were not a part of the deal.

Awards and accolades

In August 2011, Millar appeared in his native Coatbridge to unveil a superhero-themed steel archway beside the Monkland Canal that was created by sculptor Andy Scott, with help from the students at his alma mater, St Ambrose High School. The six metre-high archway, which was inspired by Millar's work, depicts a superhero named Captain Coatbridge and two female superheroines, and was created as part of efforts to regenerate the canal.
In June 2013, Millar was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to film and literature on the Queen's Honours Birthday list.

Award nominations

Millar supports British withdrawal from the European Union.

UK publishers

Trident