The Walking Dead comic book celebrated its 10th anniversary at the nerd Mecca known as San Diego Comic Con 2013. Its birthday party here featured the cast of the television show based on the long-running series as well as other Hollywood celebrities. Robert Kirkman has been popular with this comic book crowd for a long time, but thanks to the critically acclaimed and ratings champion AMC program and award-winning video games from Telltale Studios, The Walking Dead has become a mainstream phenomenon.
最近，《行尸走肉》（The Walking Dead）漫画书在堪称宅文化圣地的2013圣迭戈动漫展（San Diego Comic Con 2013）上庆祝了10周年纪念日。生日宴会播放了根据这部长篇连载漫画改编的电视剧，有多位好莱坞明星捧场。罗伯特•柯克曼长期以来受到这部漫画书迷们的拥戴。由于AMC电视台那部备受欢迎的收视冠军剧集以及Telltale Studios公司制作的获奖视频游戏，《行尸走肉》已经变成了一个主流现象。
Kirkman, 34, has moved from Richmond, Kentucky to Los Angeles. But by all appearances, he remains a humble, down-to-earth guy. A founding partner of Image Comics, in 2010 he launched his own imprint, Skybound. A producer on The Walking Dead TV series, Kirkman has a second comic-based TV series with AMC in development, Thief of Thieves. The multimedia mogul, who owns the rights to all of his creations, explains what opportunities digital technology is opening up for the comic book industry and discusses the secret to wearing multiple hats in the entertainment business in this exclusive interview.
34岁的柯克曼如今已经从肯塔基州里奇蒙德搬到了洛杉矶。从外表来看，他的谦逊务实依然没有改变。他现在是Image Comics公司的创始合伙人，2010年还创建了自己的出版公司Skybound。作为《行尸走肉》电视剧的制片人，柯克曼正在与AMC合作开发第二部根据漫画改编的电视剧《贼中大盗》（Thief of Thieves）。这位多媒体大亨拥有自己创作的所有漫画的版权。最近，柯克曼接受了我们的独家专访，阐释了数字技术为漫画产业带来了的机遇，还讨论了在娱乐行业里实现跨界发展的秘诀。
What are the challenges in creating something new that will catch on in the comic book industry today?
如今创作热门的新漫画会遇到什么挑战？
Thankfully, those challenges are going away and at a fairly quick pace. Historically, it’s been very difficult for people to try new things, but the comic medium has awoken recently to just how exciting new ideas and new concepts are. I am seeing across the board new comics, new concepts being supported wholeheartedly by the readership in droves, pretty much at equal levels with long-running Marvel and DC titles. That’s a really cool thing and I hope it keeps up. Ten years ago it was very difficult to get people to read something like The Walking Dead, a black-and-white horror comic, surrounded by the super heroes of the industry, but thankfully things are changing.
幸好那些挑战正在以相当快的速度消失。让人们尝试新东西历来都不是一件容易的事情，但漫画界最近已经意识到新想法和新观念是多么地激动人心。我看到各种各样的新漫画、新观念得到了大量读者的全力支持，与漫威（Marvel）和DC的长篇连载漫画相比也不遑多让。这种现象很好，我希望能够延续下去。10年前，很难让人们观看《行尸走肉》这样的漫画。这类黑白恐怖漫画被漫画行业里的超级英雄们重重围困。但幸好，情况正在发生变化。
What impact is digital technology having on the comic industry?
数字技术对漫画行业产生了什么影响？
It’s having a huge impact. Digital changes availability. It makes the book infinitely available to the masses and it really has replaced the newsstand model of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, where kids could go into a grocery store with their mom, see comics and pick them up. Now they can be playing a game on their iPad and then pop over and buy a comic and it’s always there. Digital is growing our readership in really great ways and is leading to an influx of new readers.
影响很大。数字技术改变了可获得性，使漫画与大众的距离无限缩短，取代了20世纪60、70和80年代的那种报摊模式。那时，孩子们和妈妈一起走进杂货店，阅读、挑选漫画书。如今，他们可以在iPad上玩游戏，然后阅读、购买漫画，而且它们总是在那个地方。数字技术极大地增加了读者数量，带来了大量的新读者。
What surprised you working on television with AMC and The Walking Dead?
你在与AMC共同制作《行尸走肉》电视剧的过程中有什么令你感到惊讶的事情吗？
There were a lot of surprises. It’s a completely new medium, so there were a lot of story processes and tricks of the trade and things that I just didn’t know. There are a lot of rules we have to follow that I wasn’t aware of so it was a really cool learning experience for me to come in and figure out exactly how this whole TV things works. It was a lot of fun. The amount of people who actually work on a television show is pretty startling. It’s a 1,000 or so people who are working on The Walking Dead show, so it’s a huge operation.
有很多令我感到惊讶的地方。这是全新的媒介，有很多故事处理手法和电视剧制作诀窍是我不知道的。有很多规则我们必须遵守，但我并不知道。因此，弄清楚电视节目这种东西到底是怎么运作的，这对我来说是非常有益的学习经历。其中有很多乐趣。为一档电视节目效力的人多得令人吃惊。《行尸走肉》电视剧的演职人员有1,000人左右，是个大制作。
What are some of the keys to maintaining a successful cross-platform franchise?
保持跨平台作品的成功有什么秘诀吗？
Making sure that everything is good. That’s the main key and I’m really proud of the fact that the television show is so good and the Telltale video game is top-notch and I think our novel series is very well received. If you start getting lazy, if you start just throwing things out there because, “Hey, The Walking Dead’s popular.” Someone will buy this. So who cares. I think that’s when things start imploding. People all too often fall into that trap. As long as we strive to make every Walking Dead thing as good as it can be, things will hopefully keep going the way they’re going.
确保所有产品的水准。这是最重要的秘诀。《行尸走肉》电视剧非常出色，Telltale的《行尸走肉》视频游戏也是拔尖之作，对此我非常自豪。我觉得，我们的《行尸走肉》小说也很受欢迎。如果你心想：“《行尸走肉》火了，不愁没人买。马虎点没事”。于是开始偷懒，随便扔出些粗制滥造的东西。我认为这就是开始走下坡路的时候。人们经常掉进这种陷阱。只要我们尽可能做好每个《行尸走肉》系列作品，事情就有希望沿着正确的道路发展下去。
What are you goals with Skybound moving forward?
Skybound的目标是什么？
Just to keep doing cool stuff. Skybound is a place where people can come into comics and find new genres and different kinds of books. Skybound is a company that works really hard to bring people comics that you wouldn’t normally get from other places. We give creators an opportunity to do what they really want, or what they’re passionate about, despite what may be deemed popular in the comic book industry. It’s a lot of fun to be able to have my own corner of Image Comics to do with what I want and shine a spotlight on some good creators that I think deserve it.
不断推出好东西。Skybound是一个地方，在那里人们可以徜徉漫画世界，找到新体裁和不同类型的漫画。Skybound是一家公司，致力于为人们带来那种通常在其他地方难以得到的漫画。我们让创作者们去做他们自己真正想做的事情，或者做他们真正热爱的事情，不管这些事情在漫画行业里是不是有人追捧。在Image Comics公司，我能够在我自己的角落里做我想做的事情，挖掘我认为优秀的漫画作者，这一点非常有意思。
What’s the secret to wearing multiple hats in the creative business?
在创意行业跨界发展的秘诀是什么？
Being able to shift your focus very quickly, or being able to work fast. The main thing would be to love what you do. I really enjoy what I do, so it doesn’t matter that I have to do it a lot. I wake up and spring out of bed every morning excited about what’s going to happen because there are various types of things I’m going to work on any given day. It’s a lot of fun. You have to really be passionate about it or it’s going to be overwhelming.
能够迅速转移焦点，或者能够迅速行动。最重要的是要热爱自己所从事的工作。我非常喜欢我所做的事情，因此工作量大也没关系。每天早晨，我醒来跳下床时，都会对即将发生的事情感到激动不已，因为每天我都会做各种各样的事情。非常有意思。必须真正热爱自己所做的事情，否则就会觉得不堪重负。
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