Paperback Reader: You've worked with Devil's Due in the past, but how did you get attached to this project?

Andrew Dabb : One word: Blackmail! Seriously though, I think Devil's Due hired me for these projects because they were familiar with my work, I had some experience writing fantasy comics (Mu, the other book I do for Studio Ice in addition to Megacity909, is a sword and sorcery book), and I was a fan of the novels and these characters.

PBR: This first mini-series covers just the first book in the trilogy, Homeland, correct? Provided this is met with a positve response, can we look forward to seeing other mini-series in the future to cover the second and third chapters?

AD: I think there is a very good chance of that, yes.

PBR: Are you a Dungeons and Dragons or a Forgotten Realms fan? I'm guessing that you've read Homeland?

AD: I am very much a Dungeons & Dragons fan, specifically of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance settings. I've probably read Homeland and the other two books in the Dark Elf Trilogy (Exile and Sojourn) at least five times. Those novels, and the Dragonlance: Chronicles trilogy, were really my gateway to the fantasy genre. I picked them up in junior high school and was immediately hooked.

PBR: I love Seeley's stuf on G.I. Joe. Have you worked with him before?

AD: Nope, this is the first time, but it's been a really good experience so far. Tim is a great guy and a great artist, you can't ask for anything more that that (well, maybe a cameo in the next Hack/Slash one-shot...)

PBR: It's got to be difficult adapting someone else's work like this. How did you determine what areas of the story to focus on over others? What was that like?

AD: The trick when you're trying to reduce a 300+ or 400+ page novel to less that 200 comic book pages is to really just focus on the book's main plot thread. What that means is that you want to do your best to capture the orginal author's voice and present his or her story in the most appealing way possible, while at the same time realizing that some tangential scenes that don't have much of an effect on the main plot will have to be shortened, or sometimes cut all together. Making those kinds of decisions is hard, especially when you have as much affection for these books as I do, but they have to be made. A direct word-for-word adaptation of Homeland or any other novel to a comic book would be almost unreadable. The two mediums are just that different.

PBR: The Dark Elf trilogy has a fairly large fan base established. What has the reaction been from existing fans to the new mini-series?

AD: So far I think it has been cautiously optimistic. The fans are excited that they are going to be seeing Drizzt, Menzoberranzan and the novel's various characters in action for the first time. But nervous because the people responsible for bringing them to life (myself, Tim, our colorist Blond, and editor Mark Powers) aren't really known qualities. Still, I think the fact that R.A. Salvatore himself is reading the scripts as they're completed gives the fans some confidence, as it should.

PBR: What do you think of Drizzt? For the uninitiated, maybe you could give us a brief synopsis of Homeland?

AD: Drizzt is a great character, a dark, cool outcast who's a killing machine and soulful philosopher all at the same time. Homeland really begins his story, as Drizzt is born into the world of the dark elves, the drow, creatures who value treachery over all else. Drizzt is essentially a good guy in a world full of bad people, and in the first novel he has to come to terms with that and, with the help of his mentor Zaknafien, decide whether he's going to give in to the darkness all around him, or rebel against it and forge his own path.

PBR: Drizzt is a pretty kickass character. What other characters or other aspects of the story did you really dig?

AD: Zaknafien, Drizzt's confidant and trainer, is a great character. He's what Drizzt could become if he makes the wrong choices; a tortured warrior who is essentially dying a little more each day that he spends in Menzoberranzan. I also really enjoy Drizzt's mother Matron Malice, a treacherous social climber who will sacrifice anything (even her own children) for power. It's great to write a character with no conscious.

PBR: You're also writing Dragonlance for Devil's Due. What's it like to write for two different books that are so similar in some ways? What's the biggest difference between the two books?

AD: I think the two are very different. I mean, they are both fantasy and, sure, both involve elves, but beyond that they're not really the same at all. Homeland is primarily a story about plotting and treachery with a small cast and very few action sequences. While Dragonlance is almost all action sequences and has a large, diverse cast. They are really at opposite ends of the spectrum as far as fantasy novels go, so it's fun to work on both of them at the same time, I get to cover all my bases.

PBR: I'm anxious to see what Devil's Due is going to do with the other properties they got through this deal like Spelljammer. Do you have the skinny on any of that stuff that you can share?

AD: I think a lot of that will depend on how this first wave of books does sales-wise. But I for one would love to see a Spelljammer comic. You can't go wrong with gnomes in space.

PBR: Thanks for agreeing to the interview! Anything else you want to tell the fans about the upcoming mini-series or anything else you're working on?

AD: I'd just like to encourage everyone, even if you've never read the novels, to pick up Homeland #1 when it ships later this month, and Chronicles #1 in August. They are both books which I am very proud of, and I think people will really enjoy them. And, hey, if you want to pick up my other ongoing series (Mu, Megacity909, Atomika, and the forthcoming Vaistron) as well, I won't stand in your way.