No Heroics Creator Interviewed

Top comics podcast service Geek Syndicate has just published its interview with Drew Pearce, the creator/writer of the upcoming ITV2 superhero comedy No Heroics, the first ever original sitcom for the channel.

The six-part series is brand new for 2008 and sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day to day life, which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal – as they just can’t be bothered. Instead this group of b-listers would rather get drunk in their local superheroes-only pub, The Fortress, and commiserate at their lack of superiority.

This is a podcast first as Drew has not done any such interviews until now.

The Geek Syndicate team have also posted Drew's answers to questions posed by email, responding to many questions not asked the podcast interview.

"Put simply, [No Heroics] is a show about a bunch of mates who just happen to be off-duty superheroes, hanging out in a capes-only bar in Soho," Drew says of the new show. "It’s about loads of other stuff as well, though: friendship, being rubbish with girls, bullies, and the fact that everybody wants to be famous nowadays. Plus there’s some jokes about balls."

And will it appeal to comics as well as comedy fans? "I’m probably the wrong person to make that call, because I’ve been working on the show for about three and a half years, so I’m pretty close to it right now," says Drew, who also reveals that comics such as Grant Morrison's Zenith, which appeared in 2000AD, helped shape the show. "Having said that, it’s purposefully written to work on a non-parody level – as long as you understand the basics of a superhero universe, you can move past that pretty quickly, I think, and enjoy the comedy of a bunch of mates bickering and jostling for success.

"Having said that, there’s an entire second tier of visual imagery in the show, which we called geek detail, that’s there for me and you and the other millions of people who do actually care about the last 50 years of superhero culture."

Here's a trailer for the show, via YouTube: be warned, it includes swearing.



• Click here for the Geek Syndicate Drew Pearce Interview
• Click here for details of more interviews on Geek Syndicate
• The first episode of No Heroics screens on ITV2 on 18 September at 10.30pm. Click here for the official web page. (Read more about the new show in this earlier post)
• No Heroics Fan Site