Comic Vine: Volume 5 of Fear Agent released this past January, is this the end? Is this your final story arc?
Rick Remender: This is definitely the end. The more I was writing it and following the original outline, going back 6 years ago I realized that this was the conclusion to that original outline. It does feel like a definitive ending to me. As for whether we will come back to it, I won't rule it out, but at this point this will be it for the foreseeable future. There's an integrity of sticking to the original story and ending it how it was originally intended.
CV: Is it a bittersweet feeling, having it come to an end?
RR: Yeah a little bit. Especially now that I am writing final dialogue of the final issue. Heath is a character I like writing, and feel at home writing. It is sad to be putting it to bed but at the same time it is nice to see something that Tony [Moore] and I cooked up back in 2004 come to it's intended conclusion. I mean, getting 32 issues out of a creator owned story in this climate is pretty good. I am just happy to get to this point in the story and feel as proud as I do of everything we have done so far leading up to it.
== TEASER ==
CV: The concept of the story, combining science fiction and western together is very unique. Where did you get the inspiration to do that and for Heath's character?
RR: At the time there wasn't any tough sci-fi in general. There wasn't anything that spoke to me in terms of a high adventure sci-fi book reminiscent of the old Wally Wood EC stuff. While I was on the phone with Tony Moore one night, we were discussing how much we loved that stuff, and the EC aesthetic. Heath himself came from a couple of personal things I was dealing with at the time. It was a few months back and forth between Tony and I trying to flesh it out, I kept re-writing outlines, trying to get a story that got me excited. I eventually hit one, the one that we told, and we worked tirelessly on it together to put out a solid story. Heath is a personal character, and I like writing tragedy. I like that I can climb into his skin and tell the crazy sci-fi stuff as well as the human aspect of the story that we have always tried really hard to maintain.
CV: What's it been like working with Tony Moore? What was the creative process like? Would you say you collaborated often? Was it a joint creative process?
RR: Tony and I go way back to '99, '00 when we both contributed on the same book. We hung out in San Diego and became buddies, so we had been friends for 4 or 5 years before we tried to get something going together. Tony was going to be leaving The Walking Dead, and so we started talking about story ideas and things we would like to do. So we cooked up the premise and tone for Fear Agent and I went off and wrote the story and put it all together. Yeah so as I write stories, I would get on the phone with Tony and Gerome and talk about what I am doing, and we would get really excited about things. I think the collaborative spirit makes everyone excited and invested in the project and results in some of our best work.
CV: Rumor has it that there will be a Fear Agent film and that it is set for release in 2010. Anything you can say about that?
RR: I am involved, but I can't really discuss it. It has not been sold to Universal, but is currently in development at Universal so things are progressing, but there really is not any news to speak of yet. I hope, if all goes well, to have more to talk about in regards to the film come San Diego.
CV: Do you have any actor in mind that would like to see play Heath on screen?
RR: There are a few guys that are at the top of our dream list. We have gone back and forth on this. Jon Hamm from Mad Men, or Aaron Eckhart who played two face in The Dark Knight Returns. Those two guys have the look, put them in the outfit, some stubble and a cigar and you've got Heath.