John and Carole Barrowman Talk Torchwood with The Comics Beat

In a recent interview, John and Carole Barrowman talked about the past, present, and future of Torchwood.

Carole and John Barrowman, The Comic Beat interview at San Diego Comic Con 2016 (credit: Edie Nugent)

In an interview at San Diego Comic Con with John and Carole Barrowman by Edie Nugent of The Comics Beat, the main topic of discussion was Torchwood.

The siblings told of how Carole used to hang out on the sets of both Doctor Who and Torchwood, even having been given her own “Nagging Big Sister” chair on the latter. Eight years her junior, John grew up watching Doctor Who on PBS with his sister while she was a student in college. That experience combined with Carole being a writer, it was only natural for her to actively become part of the franchise’s family after her brother was brought on board. Now, as a Torchwood novel and comic book collaborative team, they are a force with which to be reckoned — one which gives us hope for the campaign to restart production on the television show. John reiterated that he is “pushing for it” and has “been told that there are certain obstacles and little challenges that are in front of [them].” He does not, however, see such things “as a ‘no,'” but “as a way to figure out how to make it work.”

"Because — and I say this in my panels — if anyone’s gonna push hard enough to try to bring Jack back to the screen — because I know there’s a hunger for him out there — it’s gonna be me. And I will say I need your help. You need to make the comic work. You need to make things popular. I know he is already, but you gotta do it and help us because I am moving forward with it and I am starting the ball rolling."

Nugent remarked that she and her friends refer to the fourth season of Torchwood as “Torturewood” due to the main characters Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper being “depressed” most of the time. With this in mind, Nugent asked what fans can expect from the comics, which are set after the events of ‘Miracle Day.’ Beginning with a very diplomatic sentiment, Carole answered,

"Here’s the thing: That was not the Torchwood that we liked best, shall we say. And so, what happened is when we got permission to do Exodus Code — which is our Captain Jack novel — it had to go through all the powers that be at the BBC, etc., etc (John interjected, “Starz, everybody”)… But the one person that we really wanted to be ok with it was Russell Davies. He approves everything, even [the comic]. And so, Russell came back and said that, “It’s awesome. I love it.” But then he did say, he said it has to be set after ‘Miracle Day,.’ So, Exodus Code had to be set after ‘Miracle Day.’ And he said there’s certain characters you can’t do, can’t touch. And he said there’s also certain things that we don’t want to touch again. So we respected that (John interjected, “and we ran with it”). There’s a couple of little things we did — and we’re not going to give any of these spoilers — ’cause Exodus Code is an awesome book. And so, when we [created the comic series], we decided let’s take all these great characters that we put in Exodus Code — that I think really live up to Torchwood — and bring ’em forward. So, [the comic series] actually takes place after [the novel]."

John said that he and Carole are sure that fans will “love” and “connect with” the new characters because they are “real” people, as are the older Torchwood characters, rather than “Hollywood cardboard cutouts.” He reassured Nugent that it will no longer be “Torturewood” because they have brought back the humor.

Next: John and Carole Barrowman Talk Torchwood, Page 2

Carole and John Barrowman, The Comic Beat interview at San Diego Comic Con 2016 (credit: Edie Nugent)

When he cryptically mentioned the Face of Boe, Carole called out John’s hypocrisy of doing so after previously scolding her about giving spoilers. He then noted that one of the intriguing mysteries of the comics is that, to the readers, it is not yet clear who is narrating the story.

"It could be Jack. It could be somebody else. (Carole interjected, “It could be us.”)"

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As fans of Doctor Who and Torchwood, John and Carole expressed how important it is to them that the other people working with them on the Torchwood comics are fans, as well, because they put “passion” into the project. The pair pay extremely close attention to detail in what they create for the franchise, one of their favorite things being the inclusion of Easter eggs. Some of these pertain to personal aspects of their real lives, such as K9 II (which John refers to as “K9-1-1”), modeled after a dog that they once had. They talked about how there is lot of re-read value in the comics due to the many “layers” both the writing and the artwork.

The siblings are also very particular about the physicality of the characters. For the ones that have real-world counterparts, their two dimensional forms need to resemble their three dimensional ones as much as possible, taking into account their ages. The two do hours of research on the human form so that they can give specific notes to the artists. John and Carole delightedly use their work as an excuse to watch porn. He joked that Jack should have “a massive bulge.”

John and Titan Comics have also thrown around the idea of creating a comic featuring him and his husband Scott Gill as the main characters.

The following video contains the interview, which is a bit NSFW.

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What do you think about John and Carole Barrowman’s creative process? Let us know in the comments.

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