Bestselling author Brad Meltzer was a comic-book kid growing up in South Florida, and it still informs much of his writing life, whether it’s subtle (the Superman publishing history provided a backdrop for his novel “The Book of Lies,” and check out the title and cover image of his “Heroes for My Son” ) or more overt (he’s written the landmark “Identity Crisis” miniseries for DC and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” comics for Dark Horse). Now, though, he has a new sort of success with the series “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded” on A&E’s History channel, and it speaks to a very different bookshelf — although some of the episode topics would qualify for old issues of “Weird War Tales,” and Meltzer’s team (a journalist, a mechanical engineer and a trial attorney) could be nicknamed “Challengers of the Unknown.” Our Geoff Boucher caught up with Meltzer to talk about fact and fiction.
GB: This a busy time for you with “The Inner Circle” arriving in paperback last week and the second season of “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded” beginning this Wednesday. With the show, its goal is to sift out fact from folklore, and that has considerable heritage on television, thinking back, say, to “In Search of…” but it’s also a genre that can drift into the silly and the sensational.
BM: It’s so easy to make a bad version of this show. All you have to do is say the word “Freemason” and play lots of scary music. But I think the reason so many people latched onto the show last season is that they know we’re after the true scariest story of all: the one that shows the truth. Last year, I wanted to do this story about Adolf Hitler. And the reality was, we didn’t have the budget. They told me, “No offense, but we’re not flying the cast and crew to Germany for a new show that’s totally unproven.” So with Season 2? We get the budget. And Europe. And my quest for the real-life magic item that Adolf Hitler was looking for.
more ‘Decoded’: Brad Meltzer now hunts for fact as well as fiction | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com
GB: This a busy time for you with “The Inner Circle” arriving in paperback last week and the second season of “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded” beginning this Wednesday. With the show, its goal is to sift out fact from folklore, and that has considerable heritage on television, thinking back, say, to “In Search of…” but it’s also a genre that can drift into the silly and the sensational.
BM: It’s so easy to make a bad version of this show. All you have to do is say the word “Freemason” and play lots of scary music. But I think the reason so many people latched onto the show last season is that they know we’re after the true scariest story of all: the one that shows the truth. Last year, I wanted to do this story about Adolf Hitler. And the reality was, we didn’t have the budget. They told me, “No offense, but we’re not flying the cast and crew to Germany for a new show that’s totally unproven.” So with Season 2? We get the budget. And Europe. And my quest for the real-life magic item that Adolf Hitler was looking for.
more ‘Decoded’: Brad Meltzer now hunts for fact as well as fiction | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com
