Milton Lawson asks “What If?” With His Series, Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds
Milton Lawson
Writer. "Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds" and "Thompson Heller: Detective Interstellar."
Comic books are full of “What if?” moments that take an idea and flip the story to create something entirely new.
While Marvel may have created an entire animated series based on this question, writer and native-Houstonian Milton Lawson has crafted an epic story by simply asking: What if Orson Welles’ legendary War of the Worlds radio broadcast wasn’t a dramatization?
The answer to this question lies in the 240 page graphic novel that blends history and science fiction.
Lawson took time from writing about defending earth from aliens to talk about his comic, Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds. This series follows Orson Welles as he joins a secret agency to protect Earth from aliens.
Seth A. Romo: I appreciate when creators take a seed of an idea and turn it into an expansive world. How was it creating your Orson Welles story?
Milton Lawson: This series is near and dear to my heart. I’ve been obsessed with Orson Welles for more than 30 years and a fan of science fiction since I saw Star Wars in theatres back in 1977. I can’t remember the exact genesis, but when I first had the idea for Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds, I wrote a few sentences and pitched to a friend of mine named Dave Chisholm. He simply wrote, “Tell me more.” That gave me the license to do more.
So I know there is some mythology with the history of Orson Welles having a radio drama about aliens invading earth. How did you incorporate that kind of history into your series?
There’s disputes about the real-time reaction to the radio broadcast and some of it was newspapers wanting to push negative narratives about radio as newspapers felt threatened by it. But it clearly made an impact.
When I started selling my series at convention I created a display with printouts of newspaper clippings about the day after the radio drama came out.
What are you most excited about in your series–especially when you are talking with convention attendees about it?
The book is one coherent and complete story, but also episodic by design. Each episode is meant to mirror or pay homage to a piece of Orson Welles’ career. For example, fans of the film, The Third Man, is a fun inclusion where a couple of anthropomorphic alien characters steal the show. But overall, I am very satisfied with the ending. It took a long time to get it right.
Another thing I am happy about is the broad appeal. I am completely blown away as I thought my idea would be a nice sort of thing. I assumed the demographic would skew a bit old. When I talk about my book at conventions and mention the radio drama, it’s fun when younger readers go, “Whoa, I didn’t know that really happened!” Then they get super interested in the idea.
I know that part of getting it into the hands of readers was through a successful Kickstarter campaign. How is it now that the comic is printed and readers can experience the full story
There’s two levels: the business side and the creative side. When you’re a creator who hasn’t had a lot of books it’s nice having a big fat healthy trade that readers can pick up. From a creative standpoint, I’ve been able to share my comic book with a lot of people and it’s received all sorts of praise. There’s a little bit of validation because of the good feedback.
For more about Milton Lawson, be sure to follow him on Instagram at @CitizenMilton, or visit http://orsonwellescomic.com to pick up your copy of Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds.
