SPINDLE: If NYC Mech or The Cross Bronx were ever optioned for film or TV adaptations, would you be comfortable losing control of the end result (ie: Wanted the movie seems very different from Wanted the comic book), or would you be looking for a Stallone/Rocky kind of deal where you retain full control?

Brandon: Well, I can't get very specific, but up til now I've been very hands-on in crafting what my books will look like in other media.  But I'm also not married to the idea that a movie has to be a faithful re-enactment of my comic... my goal if I'm working on developing a film is to look at a core concept and almost start from scratch... figure out how I'd have told that story if I'd been making a film in the first place.

But I don't sign a contract unless I'm confident that project's going down a good road.  It might be a completely different road, but that's often my intent more than anyone else's.

SPINDLE: Let's play casting call for a second. Money's no object, who would you like to see playing Nika and Rafael?

Brandon: Let's just say there are wheels in motion that unfortunately make this a rough question for me to answer.  But Oeming based Tico Velez in The Cross Bronx on me... and I've got all of my lines memorized if they call.

SPINDLE: Both volumes of NYC Mech and The Cross Bronx could be classified as gritty urban noir crime fiction. Who are some of your favorite authors in the genre and what's one novel you'd recommend to fans of your work?

Brandon: For the more urban fare, there's so much to read in true crime that fiction gets buried in the pile for me.  I'd recommend David Simon as a great entry-point into that kind of work.  For crime in general, you can never go wrong with [Raymond] Chandler, obviously... and in that vein, Ross Macdonald had a run that was comparable and to some even preferable. If I were to recommend a single novel, though, it would be David Goodis' Shoot the Piano Player.

SPINDLE: Have you ever read any Richard Price? I'm reading an advance copy of Lush Life right now and, two-thirds of the way through, it's an amazing novel that really captures the morally ambiguous essence of post-Giuliani New York City you referred to earlier. It's set on the Lower East Side and touches on the so-called "Quality of Life" initiatives, gentrification and those it leaves stranded. Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing is another NYC-centric favorite of mine; and Lawrence Block's early Matthew Scudder novels, when Scudder's still a drunk, are excellent, too.

Brandon: I haven't read any Price or much of Block... I read one about prostitution, I think, but it was a long time ago and I don't honestly remember it.  Price is definitely on the list, though... I've heard nothing but positive words about him.  I read Caught Stealing a few months ago and it was very entertaining... it's extremely odd reading a book that's based where you've lived and realizing that the fictional doctor, for example, is based on a real doctor you've been treated by.

SPINDLE: Where is the best place in New York for a writer to kick back, observe things, and get some writing done?

Brandon: Honestly, it changes every week.  NYC's got a whole new world at every other block.  The area directly below the Manhattan-Brooklyn overpass is about as unique an environment as you could want for shutting out your general routine... the neighborhood itself is immaculate, but the shade under a bridge never gets clean.

Ivan Brandon was born of Cuban immigrants in New York City in 1976.  He's held all manner of horrific employ and now writes for a number of different entertainment mediums, among them television, animation, film and video games.  He is arguably best known for his work in American comic books, where his scripts have illustrated by some of the medium's best storytellers, including Michael Avon Oeming, Andy Macdonald, Eduardo Risso, Gene Ha, Alex Maleev, Rafael Albuquerque, Mike Hawthorne & Goran Parlov among others.  His work is available around the world in different languages.

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