Mark Millar always strikes me as a nice enough guy (never met him, mind, this impression was gathered from interviews and such), though I've wondered out loud to various folks before about the wisdom of starting internet forums with your name on them: Millarworld, and the Warren Ellis Forum before it, always struck me as breeding grounds for all kinds of strange, insular behaviour. Cliquey often, elitist occasionally. Sometimes just plain barmy.
Anyway, Millar was on network tv tonight, on Channel 4's RICHARD & JUDY SHOW, and he was terrible. He looked scared shitless, sweated profusely throughout, wore an ill-fitting shirt and barely got a word in during a round-table discussion (about upcoming sensationalist C4 docko THE CURSE OF SUPERMAN), thanks to professional talking head and comics nerd Paul Gambacinni. But it's heartwarming to see his little cultists circle the wagons and offer a big cyberspace hug for the man during the event. Bless.
I was somewhat hoping that the guy would be on beligerent top form, and Richard and Judy would end up featuring one of his graphic novels in a later iteration of their book club: preferably WANTED, RED SON (for the Superman connection) or THE ULTIMATES (rather than the God-bothering CHOSEN, anyway). For non-UK readers, R&J's bookclub has the same sort of clout in our booktrade as Oprah's in the U.S., and getting a slot on the list can turn a book into a massive popular success, and as such is hugely coveted by publishers and authors. Just the sort of thing we need to help comics go overground.