Kingdom has been one of 2000AD's recent instant hits.  Very much old school in style, with catchphrases galore and some amazing artwork from Richard Elson, it didn't take too long for it to become a fan favourite.  We caught up with Dan Abnett to find out a little more about the strip.

If you had to describe Kingdom to a newcomer - what would you say?

It’s post-apocalypse sword and sorcery, a far future planetary romance with savage action and an odd tribal feel that people seem to really enjoy.

Kingdom has, in a short matter of years, become a fan-favourite story in 2000AD.  To what do you attribute its success?

Uhm, that it’s good? Seriously, Richard’s art is amazing. It looks great and he’s designed some amazing things. I think it’s also a very 2000Ad series, very classic in its format - the concept is simple and direct, with an easy-to-grasp yet simple action hero, and there are some decent catch phrases too. I think it fits that classic 2K mould.

How did you and Richard come to work together and do you collaborate on the designs of Them and the Auxes?

Rich and I had worked together on other series for 2K, especially Atavar, and Kingdom grew out of the fun we had working on that.  I would shoot him word sketches for the characters and beasties prior to the scripts, and then add descriptions in the strips as we went along. He’d send me back his designs. Not once did I look at an idea and punt it back for changes. The stuff was brilliant. It is brilliant.

The use of famous names for the dogs has proven very popular - how early on in the writing process did you decide on this approach? Have there been any names that haven't made the cut?  And is there any significance in Numan having a "famous" name himself?

It was built in from the start, and some haven’t made the cut YET. AS for Numan, well might be a new man, might’n he? It’s all about clone and gene techniques. Maybe he was made fresh, not woken, (maybe he thinks he was woken up) and thus named the way the auxes were named.

How hard is it to pull off Gene's and the Aux's way of speaking?  What's your favourite catchphrase so far?

“Your mouth is full of wrong”, and “muscles in your head”. Oh, and “a farm in the country”. Once I had the tone and the measure - and a source of inspiration was the way aboriginal Australains talk soemtimes - I knew how it should lick along. It’s very satisying to write, because you know when it’s “on” and when it’s “off”.

How far in the future is Kingdom set?

A few hundred years, tops.

On our forums, there is some debate about the term Xenopetra to describe "Them" - what are the origins of the term?

Well, I can quote you Wikipedia as a starting place: “Xeno- is a prefix based on the Greek word "Xenos", meaning stranger. In biology, it is often used to designate species-difference, such as xenotransplantation (transplantation between organisms of different species). In science fiction it has been used to refer to extraterrestrial life.” “Optera” is a common insect class suffix, derived from the word for wing.

So is it possible they're of alien origin?

That is indeed possible...

Would you ever consider one-off Kingdom interludes between the main series?

What a great idea!

It would seem that Kingdom is ideally suited for use in another media, either game or animation.  Would you like to see it develop this way - or have there been any discussions?

Not that I know of, but I’d love to see it as a game or a movie. That would be great - and a very easy, direct transfer, I’d say. The design is all there!

At the end of book three, Gene is on his own again - can you give us any hints of what to expect in book four?

I’m afraid I can’t... simply because I’m still deciding myself... ;)