Rucka is a dear friend, with whom I've been fortunate enough to collaborate on several DC Comics projects; he took time from his busy schedule to answer some questions about the "Whiteout" comics, their genesis, the transition to film, and what it's like to be filming murder at the bottom of the world.

MSN Movies: Greg, first: Congratulations on "Whiteout" making the leap to the movie screen.

Greg Rucka: Thank you!

"Whiteout" was your first comics work, wasn't it?

"Whiteout" was my first published comics work, yes.

Really? All right, what was your first unpublished comics work?

My first unpublished comics work was a four-issue miniseries I did with a friend of mine named Scott Nybakken, who actually now works for DC in the Collected Editions group. Scott and I grew up in the same area, and went to high school. He went to Brown and I went to Vassar and we'd both been Marvel zombies in high school.

Ah, adolescence.

(Laughs.) Yes. And by the time we got to college, he was the guy who turned me on to "Cerebus" and things like that. And he was, he is still, quite a talented artist and we decided we wanted to try and do a comic. I wrote scripts and I think he drew, I want to say all of the first issue, and maybe half of the second, and then he sort of threw up his hands and said, "I give up." (Laughs.)

But, yes, I had dabbled in the form before the opportunity to do "Whiteout" came along.

So what was this embryonic project about?

(Laughs.) Oh, it was a kind of noir-ish, hard-boiled vigilante-modern-gunslinger thing, someone dishing out hot-leaded justice on the streets of New York. And if I remember correctly, it was a strong female protagonist, too.

So you started on your "oeuvre" early, then?

I wouldn't say I started early; I'd say I never stopped.

Let's talk a bit about that, then. You're noted for strong female protagonists: Renée Montoya in "Gotham Central" and now "The Question"; Tara Chace from your "Queen & Country" novels and comics. But you struck early with Carrie Stetko, the tough, driven federal marshal protagonist of "Whiteout." Where did that come from?

The irony with Carrie is that ... she was actually a character that first came to life in a one-act play I wrote in grad school, and she was one of three characters in that play, and she was a federal Marshal in that, as well.

And then, when Jen [Van Meter, accomplished writer and Greg's wife] started at the University of Oregon in Eugene, in the English department, there was a guy there named Mike Arnzen, a horror writer. He's teaching on the East Coast now, but he was there getting his degree.

Mike had just published his first novel, and it had won the Bram Stoker Award. It was called "Grave Marking," I think. And he and I would meet at this coffee shop near the campus, and we started doing a jam novel. He would write a chapter, then I would write a chapter, and so on. His chapters were, you know, "mad serial killer" and mine were "put upon cop" and I dusted off Carrie for that. So, she actually had two iterations before I dropped her in Antarctica.

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