Boxers or Briefs is a feature where we get to interview people and ask them really important questions about pants. We also get to ask less important questions about their current projects and their experience in the industry. The Panteon recently had a chance interview Adam Freeman & Marc Bernardin. Adam Freeman & Marc Bernardin are the cowriters of The Highwaymen from Wildstorm and the OGN, Monster Attack Network, from AIT-Planetlar. submit a request here if you think we should interview you.

1. Who were your major influences as a writer?

ADAM: I always have difficulty with this question. I am a fan of so many writers but I can’t say I really see any of their work in mine. Man, I wish I did. I love Bret Easton Ellis, Douglas Coupeland, Donna Tart, Jack Finney as well as comedians/performers such as Lenny Bruce, Eric Bogosian, Spalding Gray, Richard Pryor, Eddie Izzard - the list goes on and on…

MARC: Holy crap. His list will make mine look like crap. Um, Warren Ellis. Big fan. Robert E. Howard. Harlan Ellison. Stephen King. Neil Gaiman. Tom Clancy–I don’t care what you say, that dude can plot like a motherf—er. Frank Herbert. Ray Bradbury. Isaac Azimov. Orson Scott Card. Douglas Adams.

2. How did you end up working with Lee Garbett on The Highwaymen?

ADAM: We knew early on in the writing process that we needed someone that could draw faces with real character. These aren’t young, spry, generic costumed heroes. These are older guys that have been through a lot and you need to see that on their faces. We also needed someone good with guns, cars etc.. Scott Peterson from Wildstorm had his eye on Lee for a while and suggested him. Lee’s chocolate got in our peanut butter.

MARC: Wait…I thought I was chocolate. You can be the peanut butter, and Lee’s the crispy wafer.

ADAM: Why am I always the crispy wafer?

3. Is there anything your cowriter does so well that it makes you jealous?

ADAM: Hmmmm. Besides having a job where he gets all his dvd’s and comic books for free and goes to every movie screening weeks before it comes out and gets asked to host panels with hot chicks from Battlestar Galactica? No, not really.

MARC: He can play “Stairway to Heaven.” I can’t. Bastard.

4. Highwaymen has some of the best gunfight and chase scenes in comics. What are some of you favorite chase and gunfight scenes, and did any of them offer any specific influences?

ADAM: We could be here for days. I love that Seinfeld episode where George races all the old people on their scooters - major influence. I think Marc and I are such media/pop culture junkies that what ever we write becomes a big potpourri / bouillabaisse of everything we like. In no particular order: Bullit, French Connection, Butch Cassidy, Hard Boiled (gotta love the Woo), Matrix, Italian Job (original), the Bourne movies, Bond movies…I could go on and on. Oh - and you can’t beat Sonny Corleone getting gunned down on the Causeway.

MARC: I loves me some Road Warrior. Aliens, too–for my money, the best action movie ever made. The car chases in Ronin are out of this world. A big influence on some of the ground-eye stuff that’s in the book. And Gone in Sixty Seconds: that last chase is pretty ridiculous. Oh, and the opening of The Transporter. (Not the rest of it, just the opening.)

5. How did you find yourself working on The Highwaymen?

ADAM: Stalked Jim Lee until he said yes…and here we are.

MARC: Word.

6. What made you want to write comics?

ADAM: Growing up I had several dreams: play in the NBA, be a rockstar, be a stunt man and make comics. Now that one came true I can finally focus on the others. Whew…

MARC: “Okay, Adam…here’s how the Snake Canyon jump is gonna work.” What made me want to write comics? Spending ungodly hours reading them. How can you read these things and NOT want to give it a shot. I think Mark Waid said it best: “Comic writers don’t have fans…they have people who want their jobs.”

ADAM: I know I want our jobs.

7. How does your “day job” influence your comics writing, if at all?

ADAM: Being an EP in television has been perfect training to do this. Most important has to be the storytelling. I have spent years of my life in an edit bays picking the right shots and dialogue to properly tell an engaging story. How to create conflict, tension and resolution. And how to engage an audience. In TV I am hoping I structured the act break strong enough that you “come back after the break.” In comics, I am hoping I structured the issue breaks well enough that you want to read the next issue.

MARC: Being fast and punchy is the watchword at Entertainment Weekly. Make it quick and make it count. And that, oddly enough, translates directly into comics writing.

8. Does the holographic ghost of Bill Clinton still get a lot of action from other holograms?

ADAM: Only from the pudgy ones.

9. Any other projects in the works or something to follow Highwaymen?

ADAM: A bunch of smaller stuff have done over the few months that all seems to be coming out at the same time - a story in the new Grunts trade paperback, Gene Simmons House of Horrors #2, Postcards #2, a DC Horror anthology. The attention “The Highwaymen” and “Monster Attack Network” are receiving has definitely opened up some doors that were closed this time last year. We are in negotiations with a couple of different publishers on multiple projects. Cross your fingers.

MARC: Just don’t cross the streams. We don’t need lunch THAT bad.

10. What comics are you currently reading and enjoying?

ADAM: I actually took a little sabbatical from comics for a little while. I do that every ten years or so - I lose my way a bit or get frustrated when I don’t find anything good for a while. So, I am catching up on all the good stuff I missed: Y, Walking Dead, Ex Machina, I’m digging the new Green Arrow and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Pretty much anything Brian K. Vaughn and Warren Ellis do. I actually just re-bought the trade of Ronin. I haven’t read that in eons and am looking forward to diving back into that.

MARC: Loving Casanova, Fell, Fear Agent, Buffy, Iron Fist, Captain America. Slowly catching up with Civil War. Really liked Young Avengers despite myself. Scalped is pretty great, as is Green Arrow Year One. Welcome to Tranquility. Conan. I’ll stick with Zero Killer for a couple more issues.

11. If you had the ability to choose anything for your next project, what would it be?

ADAM: To write the new Godfather series from Boom! (are you reading this Ross Ritchie and Andrew Cosby?) Actually Marc and I have a few stories up our sleeves that I am dying to tell. Something really smart, unique and creator owned would be nice.

MARC: Adam can have Godfather, I want Gears of War. I’d love to do an Aliens licensed book. Or, if anyone wants to buy us the license, we’d write the shit out of a Mad Max book.

12. Is there another genre you’re dying to tackle in comics?

ADAM: Erotica. Kidding. I think we could and will do some kick ass crime comics as well as sci-fi. We are getting some pretty good reaction to the action oriented stuff we’ve done so far - and I love doing that, but I feel we are in an era where there are no limits to the kinds of stories that can be told in comics. There are also some heroes I would like to write for just so I could say I put words in Batman’s mouth or the like.

MARC: Like what Adam said…but I’m not kidding about the erotica. If Alan Moore can do it…

13. You’ve done a 5-issue mini and an original graphic novel (Monster Attack Network) - do you have a preference on serial or OGN format? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of both formats, from a writer’s perspective?

ADAM: Personally, I am digging the 22 pagers right now. It’s new to me and I’m having a blast. I also enjoy the challenge of creating an interesting overall arc while still telling individual, self contained stories. The shorter the issue, the more you have to be on your $#%&. We’ve done a few 8 pagers recently - man that is hard.

MARC: Plotting for an OGN is easier. It’s pretty much like plotting a movie. Of course, it takes longer to write. The 22-page burst is nice, though. Like an action-sitcom.

14. Give us your best “meeting a famous person” story. Bonus points if you can tie it to comics, extra bonus points if you can tie it to your comic.

ADAM: Working in television for 14 years I could write a book. Here’s one that I think comic fans will enjoy. Years ago I was doing a Hellraiser Halloween special for MTV and was working with Pinhead (Doug Bradley) in full make-up and costume. Because of scheduling I had to shoot at his hotel so I rented an adjacent suite, blacked out the whole room, hung chains and hooks from the ceiling - basically built a Hellraiser set in this hotel room. I was about to turn on the dry ice machine for a little “ambiance” when someone suggested I have the hotel kill the smoke detector. I call down and soon there is a knock at the door. Standing there is a tiny, little Latino maintenance man with his toolbox. “Come in,” I say. I see the old guy look past me, into this black abyss of a room filled with swaying meat hooks. Standing in the center of it all is…Pinhead. The guys screams, “El Diablo!” and goes running down the hallway never to be seen again. I disconnected the smoke detector myself.

MARC: A few years back, when I was editing the comics review section at EW, DC invited me to some BEA dinner they were throwing. “Some cool people would be there.” So I went, not knowing what to expect, besides a free dinner. I walk in and find, sitting at the same table, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Kyle Baker. And an open seat for me. The 19-year-old inside me exploded.

15. What are your favorite type of pants?

ADAM: Coo-lots, although skorts are a close second.

MARC: Ass-free chaps, like Prince used to rock. Sadly, I don’t have the ass for those pants.

ADAM: Wait, can I change my answer?