Matt Hawkins

Writer, physicist, social media maven and all around swell guy, he has published over 1,000 comic books in his 22 year career at Image Comics and Top Cow.

Matt Hawkins has created and/or written many comics including Think Tank, Aphrodite IX, Lady Pendragon, Tales of Honor, Wildfire, Postal,The Tithe & Symmetry. And despite producing TV series, feature films and video games still considers himself to be a comic book dude.

Matt Hawkins talks to MTVnews about Think Tank:

Geek: What’s the basic idea for the book? I mean, I know it, but fill our lovely readers in if you don’t mind.

MH: The core of it is about a slacker genius named David Loren who got seduced and recruited into military weapons research at a very young age. This story takes place 10 years after he started all this, he’s 28 now and has decided he doesn’t want to do it anymore. He realizes that there aren’t retired military Think Tank scientists. He’s never really had a relationship with a woman and very naive about certain things. He’s smarter than his peers but very lazy and this drives them fucking nuts.

Geek: What’s your science background like? What drew you to the scientific concepts you’re using in this book? And was their any concern that scientists would be all like, “Hey, wait a second!”

MH: I have a Physics degree that I don’t use for anything. I love science and my ultimate goal and what would make me proud is to have someone 10 years from now tell me they got inspired to go into science by reading my book. That may sounds egotistical but I don’t mean it that way. I want people to think science is fun and cool. Most people I know look at it as VERY boring. Not many people that I know even know a scientist. I know a lot and talk to them online daily.

Geek: In general, I’m always curious to hear how a regular person – or even a person of high intelligence – approaches writing someone who is vastly smarter than any of us…

MH: Fortunately, I’ve written David as an emotionally immature person which I can relate to very well. I almost skipped second grade but they didn’t skip me because during the interview I climbed up on the table. They felt I wasn’t mature enough even though I passed their stupid test. What I can do is relate to him as a conflicted character, something I also can relate to. I’m one of the laziest hard working guys I know. I can fake the rest, heh.

More on Matt Hawkins:

At Image comics: https://imagecomics.com/creators/view/matt-hawkins
Youtube interview: https://imagecomics.com/creators/view/matt-hawkins