This new comic book day, we’ve got something a little different for you – an interview you have to read instead of listen to!

Novelist/comic writer/awesome dude Gregg Hurwitz has been on the show before, and we talked about all manner of cool goodness, including Vengeance of the Moon Knight, his new novel Trust No One (at the time), and the TV show V.

Nowadays, Gregg is pretty busy on tour with his new book, They’re Watching (see if he’s coming to your town here), and gearing up for production on the second season of V but, awesome guy that he is,  in the first of many interviews in the coming months on Shadowland, he spent some time chatting with us about Shadowland: Moon Knight, his new novel They’re Watching, and hints at just what may be coming up for Moon Knight.  After all, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #10 (released TODAY!) is the last issue solicited…

Read after the jump for all the awesome info!

Before we get into your current comics work, tell us a little bit about your new novel, THEY’RE WATCHING.

Patrick Davis is an average guy going through a hard time. His marriage is on the rocks. He’s growing estranged from his wife, his college sweetheart, who he still loves but can’t find his way back to. He’s an aspiring screenwriter who after years of hard work, finally had his dream fulfilled when he sold a script. But his hopes were quickly dashed when he gets into a fight on his first set with a pampered movie star and he finds himself more or less blackballed from the industry. He’s being sued by a studio. He’s got writer’s block. He’s teaching screenwriting in a college in the Valley. He’s miserable.

The book opens with Patrick waking up and grabbing his morning newspaper. And as he sits to read it, an unmarked DVD falls out into his lap. Odd. He plugs it into the player and it shows footage, shot through the blinds of his bathroom window, of him getting up in the morning, going into the bathroom, and brushing his teeth. Creepy and unsettling. He goes and looks outside the house by the window where the tripod would have rested when he was filmed, but he sees nothing.

Unsettled, he goes to work and when he gets home that night, he finds another unmarked DVD hidden in the mail. Nauseas with anticipation, he plays it. This time, the footage is shot from the neighbor’s roof and it shows Patrick, that very morning, outside his bathroom window, looking for the tripod where the first footage was shot. So they were set up to film him where he logically would search after receiving the first DVD.

Now it’s a chess game. Everywhere he goes to spy on them, they’re hiding one position farther away to film him trying to spy on them. And through a series of implicit threats and by appealing to his burning curiosity about who’s messing with him, they get him to start following mysterious instructions which they send to him via email and text message. And soon enough this will lead him onto deadly ground.

THEY’RE WATCHING has already been optioned as a film, correct?  Any word on that?

The rights were snapped up by David Dobkin (The Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Nights, Clay Pigeons) and Jeff Kleeman’s Big Kid Pictures, with an eye for Dobkin to direct. Big Kid Pictures is currently in pre-production on Jack the Giant Killer, (directed by Bryan Singer), The Change Up starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, and is developing a Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie for Warners. Jeff Kleeman oversaw and developed The Thomas Crown Affair, The Hunt for Red October, Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough. Playwright and Emmy-award winning screenwriter Craig Wright (Lost, Six Feet Under, The Pavilion) will adapt, and I’ll will produce.

Do you find your novel work influenced by your time writing comics?  If so, how?

I think so in that comics constantly challenge me to be more succinct and visual in my storytelling, so it keeps me mindful to make every image and snapshot count in my books.

Do you find that fans of your comic work find their way into your novel work, or vice versa?

There’s been a lot of movement both directions, which is great.  A lot of folks (like me) enjoy both to begin with, but I’m especially happy when I can get a novel reader interested in comics for the first time, or vice versa.

Moving into Moon Knight, this year’s a pretty big year for our favorite white-clad vigilante, isn’t it?  Were you always aware, when you started with Vengeance of the Moon Knight, that he would be joining the Secret Avengers?

No – I’ve been aware for a while now, but not back when I was beginning Shock and Awe. But the SAs came up as a possibility, I had a few creative conversations with Ed Brubaker as to how we could make it all work and…ta-da!

You’ll see some overlap there for sure, in that Jake’s mind is on the new gig, and he has new resources as his disposal and a lot of backup who can fly into the title at a moment’s notice. That said, it is also important for me to make sure that the title remains centered on our boy, since after all, those are his 22 pages a month!

There is a decidedly different feel in the Moon Knight title with the beginning of the Heroic Age.  I’ve noticed the title getting more light-hearted and humorous than the initial arc.  Is that going to be the general feel of the book going forward, or will be see a return to the darker tone?

That was because I felt that the Heroic Age gave me an opportunity – for a brief window – to have a more lighthearted approach to MK. He was at a certain peak after Shock and Awe and there was some time to play with, say, an old-fashioned team-up before we get back into a darker tone. Which will come in Shadowland. It IS called Shadowland, after all.

You’re writing the Shadowland: Moon Knight mini-series.  How does Moon Knight get involved in the events of the crossover?

Daredevil has gone off the rails, so to speak, and MK gets pulled in by the team to help confront DD. But what no one knows is that DD has also targeted MK in a fashion. But why? (Dun dun dun!!!).

Will Shadowland: Moon Knight pick up some of the plot threads you’ve established in Vengeance of the Moon Knight?

Yes, is definitely will. It’s a big event book, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t also significantly advance MK’s story.

Will we see other Shadowland characters in the mini, or will it focus primarily on Daredevil and Moon Knight?

Yes, it’s gonna be a virtual Superhero bouquet!

I notice that VENGENCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT isn’t solicited past issue 10.  Is that the final issue of the series, or will it continue after Shadowland?

We’re still figuring it out –  to be honest, we’re so focused on and excited about Shadowland that we haven’t talked much past it.

Pick up Vengeance of the Moon Knight #10 and Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Vol. 1: Shock and Awe at your comic store today!

Shadowland: Moon Knight begins this August!

To read the first chapter of They’re Watching, click here: http://gregghurwitz.net/the-books/theyre-watching/read-a-chapter/

To check out a trailer, click here: http://gregghurwitz.net/media/theyre_watching.mov