MARK MILLAR is the only person in the room without a steaming hangover. This is largely because the garrulous Glaswegian, one of Britain’s most successful comic-book writers, could not make it to the El Presidente show the night before. Although only the band’s fourth gig, the venue was crammed as the lounge-suited quintet attempted a stoned fusion of Led Zeppelin, Barry White, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and the Beach Boys. And then came the aftershow parties. All of them.
Just off Sauchiehall Street in central Glasgow lies the cosy Italian bistro run by the family of Dante Gizzi, El Presidente’s dapper frontman and songwriter. Gizzi seems a little subdued after last night’s festivities. Once bass guitarist with the early 1990s rockers Gun, he initially began his new band as a solo studio venture, then expanded it to include a Glasgow School of Art student, Dawn Zhu, on drums. Gizzi and Zhu are now the permanent band nucleus, augmented by guitarist Johnny McGlynn, bass player Thomas McNiece and keyboardist Laura Marks.
The family business allowed Gizzi the luxury of a city centre headquarters in which to plan and compose El Presidente’s forthcoming debut album. It also, grins Millar, “makes the band seem more like the Monkees”. He means it as a compliment.
Millar and Gizzi are now working together on a sleeve concept for El Presidente’s album. The way he tells it, he and Gizzi were destined to meet anyway. “Glasgow’s a small place,” Millar says. “There’s only 15 people here who’ve got a job, so word gets around fast. Anybody involved in anything slightly media-ish, you all get to know each other fairly quickly. Luckily they are good, because my name has been associated with so many bad things in the past.”
Millar is being disingenuous. In fact, his name has become a byword for innovation, wit and intelligence in comics over the past 15 years. He has re-imagined such classic icons as X-Men and Spider-Man, scripted gay superhero love affairs, and remade Superman as a Soviet cold warrior.
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Nowadays he juggles a prestigious consultancy with Marvel Comics, working on everything from video games to screenplays, while publishing more left-field stories via smaller imprints across the world.
American music, movies and comics are a shared passion for Millar and Gizzi. “Glasgow’s the 51st state,” says Millar. “We grew up steeped in American culture.”
The singer agrees. “A lot of the bands I grew up listening to, none of them was British. Everything was American, unless it was Led Zeppelin or the Bee Gees, who were loved over there. That’s what I admire about American culture, they don’t bring them down, they always support them.”
Even George Bush, Millar argues, is a blessing. “Every time there’s a dreadful president or prime minister it’s an amazing time for music and comics,” he says. “It comes out of reacting against something you disagree with.”
Millar and Gizzi also have Catholicism in common. Millar has addressed his faith in several comics, notably The Chosen, which has been optioned as a film by the Harry Potter director Chris Columbus. Millar was baffled when Columbus expected the story to be anti-religion. The 20th-century artistic tradition of lapsed Catholics mocking the Church is old hat, he says. “We’ve kind of reacted against their reaction,” he says. “I go to Mass, you know.”
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El Presidente is not Millar’s first brush with the pop world. Two years ago, after learning that Eminem was a comics fan, the writer’s US agent pitched his gritty crime comic Wanted to the superstar rapper as a potential movie vehicle after 8 Mile.
Eminem’s management turned down the project, and eventually resorted to lawyers to silence the rumours. Millar now claims this was a minor misunderstanding that got out of control. “The story went around that we had deceived Universal by saying we were coming in with Eminem,” he says. “But Eminem is signed to Universal. All they had to do was make a phone call.”