Joe Harris opens up about everything you could possibly want to know about IDW’s X-Files: Season 10 & 11 comics, which managed to top the actual series at its own game as the legacy sequel that the franchise deserved
The X-Files ended its original run nearly 25 years ago, and yet it’s having a bit of a renaissance right now between Ryan Coogler’s reboot, Chris Carter’s director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and even comprehensive LEGO sets. It’s a testament to the collective power of The X-Files’ brand and its evergreen status as essential genre storytelling. Joe Harris has written for some of comics’ most coveted characters, such as Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men. However, one of Harris’ most rewarding comic contributions is when he tackled an impressive X-Files run for IDW Publishing.
X-Files comics were explored as early as 1995 and were a fun way to experience its procedural genre storytelling. What made Harris’ run on The X-Files so significant is that it was a canonical extension of the franchise that was positioned as a proper Season 10 and 11, years before FOX would officially revive the franchise with its own legacy sequel seasons. Canonical comic book continuations are hardly a new concept, and it’s been explored in everything from Smallville to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, Harris’ The X-Files: Season 10 was a bold step forward for this type of experiment. Executive produced by Chris Carter, who also contributed to the broader story, the 25-issue “season” was structured like a traditional season of The X-Files, rotating between standalone “monster-of-the-week” stories and grander mytharc episodes.
These comics, while successful, were almost taken for granted upon their release, with fans not knowing how good they had it with this extension of the foundational sci-fi/horror series. These comics featured satisfying sequels to some of The X-Files’ most beloved monsters, such as the Peacock family, the Flukeman, and the Black Oil, while also crafting a brilliant mythology that brought back crucial characters like Gibson Praise. The X-Files: Season 10 and 11 gave fans exactly what they wanted and proved that there are successful ways to bring back this series.
This makes it all the more interesting that Chris Carter’s televised Seasons 10 and 11 are such a maligned mess that doesn’t follow from the comics’ blueprint. It’s been a decade since Joe Harris’ comics ended their run, and they’ve only become more compelling since then. To celebrate Season 10 and 11’s tenth anniversary, and Harris’ exciting return to the world of for, Harris breaks down the ins and outs of these comics’ production, having practically carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with this universe, Season 11’s original dashed plans, and his endless love for these iconic characters, as he puts the truth out there.
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DREAD CENTRAL: First of all, how did you go about plotting the whole arc for these seasonal stories?
JOE HARRIS: It was essential, to me, to approximate the experience of a season of The X-Files in comics form. I wanted to use the trappings of the comics medium to approximate that experience. But we also needed to re- establish these characters and concepts after so many years following the end of The X-Files’ original run with Season 9. So I decided to go to the Watchmen trope, having our heroes retired from their crimefighting days when something catastrophic happens which drags them back into the fight. That gave me space to reestablish the characters and the universe after they’d been off the air for a decade and lay down a long- running mystery involving this group of “neo-Syndicate” members who start popping up before disintegrating into green ooze.
You really do an excellent job of shifting between “mytharc” episodes and “monsters of the week,” just like the original series. Was that an important element for you rather than it just being one giant serialized lore dump?
JH: From the beginning of the planning, I was set on having five-issue “Mytharc” stories advance our nascent, to-be-revealed “alien conspiracy” storyline, followed by shorter, what I call “Monster of the Month” stories which would be comprised of original horror concepts, sequels to beloved monster episodes, or off-beat stories that would provide a break before picking up the mythology storyline again. We tend to, in recent times at least, collect five issues as one volume pretty easily, so I was always thinking in “five parts” as a comics publishing conceit, while trying to translate the experience of watching a season of The X-Files. For the Season 10 series, Issues #1-5 would be Mytharc, #6-10 would be Monsters, etc., #11-15 would pick the Mytharc back up and advance things before #16-20 (more Monsters) leading to #21-25 which would reveal our “Big Bad” and have Mulder and Scully face off against an old friend returned as their greatest enemy.
I know that Chris Carter was executive producer on the comics and has story credits, but how involved was he in the comics’ story development? What was he handling?
JH: Not all that much, to be honest with you. Chris was a supporter of what we did with his baby. He initially steered me away from a direction I originally intended for our first series, which led to my honing in on our eventual Big Bad.
The ”Home” and “Squeeze/Tooms” sequels are extremely satisfying and the type of callbacks that fans were hoping to see in the revival seasons – were there more classic episodes and characters that you wanted to revisit but just couldn’t fit into the story?
JH: Yes. Oh, yes. I really wanted to revisit “Eve” and had a whole thing worked out, but we never found the time or space to do it.
Image courtesy of IDW Publishing
Was there anything from X-Files canon that was specifically off limits and couldn’t be touched?
JH: Honestly, not really. It was a pretty golden time, from my position, to be doing this. The show had been off the air for over ten years and we launched during The X-Files’ 20th anniversary. A moment where the comics we were announcing would be the only game in town. I was allowed to do almost everything I wanted to. Chris particularly liked the way I brought back the Smoking Man, if I recall, which would become part of the Mytharc and ongoing mystery as to what was really going on behind the Season 10 plotting.
How did the decision to incorporate Gibson Praise as the new central villain come about? It’s such a genius storytelling decision?
JH: I’d been intrigued by Gibson Praise since he debuted in the Season 5 finale, “The End.” The young man was pursued by the Syndicate for who, and what, he was: a telekinetic and telepath with alien DNA. He was so important during what was, arguably, the peak of The X-Files franchise as Season 5 gave way to the upcoming Fight the Future film. He’d go on to appear in a few more episodes and was experimented on by the Syndicate. Mulder and Scully saved him from those psychopaths, but then we all but forgot about him. He’d pop up again here and there, but Mulder and Scully would eventually get on with their lives. So I imagined that wasn’t appreciated much by Gibson, who’d suffered so much for their shared cause against their shared enemies. So I started plotting his revenge.
You also make William a major part of your story, with him being hunted by the Acolytes, being part of a prophecy, and his safety being a major throughline. This feels like such a logical progression of where Seasons 8 and 9 headed. Can you talk a little on developing all of that?
JH: Honestly, I initially wanted to use William a lot more than I did. It was Chris Carter who sort of nudged me in a new direction with his reluctance to see William used as a villain. He also had his own plans for the character, which were revealed when the show eventually returned.
I love the justice you gave to Doggett and Reyes, especially in comparison to how they were handled in the actual revival seasons. Can you talk a little on what makes these characters so special and why it was just as important to give them their flowers as Mulder and Scully?
JH: They were good soldiers for the cause who stepped into the X-Files Division during turmoil both on the show and behind the scenes. I particularly liked how the characters were written with this grounding respect, especially for Scully, all she and Mulder had been through to that point, and what they’d all go on to face, together in those later seasons. I’ve never had a fan tell me they didn’t like Doggett and Reyes while I’ve heard from a number who wished for more of them. They’re important to the franchise, and the fans remember.
It’s interesting to see how The X-Files’ revival seasons were met with a lot of hostility, particularly regarding the myth-arc episodes, whereas your comics’ Seasons 10 and 11 seemed to have the opposite response. Now that some time has passed for both projects, what are your thoughts on that and what went wrong with the TV version?
JH: I was as excited for the show to return as anybody, even if it did throw a huge monkey wrench into our own Season 11 plans. It’s just part of the state of play when dealing with licensed franchises like The X- Files. Aside from that, I don’t have much to add. I was happy to see these characters back.
Do you know if there was ever any interest in using some of the comic ideas in the new season? Did Carter approach you at all about any of that?
JH: Nah, and I didn’t expect that. He did mention the prospect of me potentially pitching them if FOX ordered more episodes, but that was early on in their Season 10 production and we never talked about it after that.
Do you think the comic may have potentially limited what the revival seasons could cover because it didn’t want to just copy the same ideas and stories and were therefore forced to do something different?
JH: I never thought about that angle, to be honest. I’ve always been of the mind and under the assumption that Chris would do what he wanted to do, no matter what.
I love that Frank Black from Millennium shows up and how that led to its own miniseries. Why was it important to incorporate Millennium into this universe and give it its due?
JH: Then Editor in Chief at IDW, Chris Ryall, had asked me what I thought about Millennium some time after our The X-Files: Season 10 series came out, and I was intrigued. I wasn’t a diehard fan of the show in its original run. It probably went over my head a bit, given my age at the time and the obvious ambition of that heady, imperfectly fascinating three-season run. There was so much to work with… the philosophical questions, the way the mythology expanded in the subsequent seasons, all of that. With Millennium, we were able to sort of “re-expand” things beyond Mulder and Scully while tapping into some core elements of both shows.
The idea of connecting Frank Black to a case that’s mentioned in the first episode of The X-Files is also such a clever way to bring him into the fold. Was that an appealing entrypoint to blend these worlds?
JH: The curious case of Monte Propps had never been explored before. Scully mentions him as the subject of a monograph Mulder completed that’s probably taught to would-be profilers at Quantico to this day. And yet… the thread was never picked up. I love those moments, honestly. When I would go shuttling through episodes, I always made notes of concepts or characters who might be interesting to flesh out beyond their brief appearance in X-Files lore. And, considering we were already intent on bringing Agent Mulder along as Frank’s sidekick, it felt like an organic and fascinating choice. It’s one of my favorite things we did in those books. I loved Frank and Mulder’s chemistry. It felt like both an X-File and a dense dilemma connected to the Millennium Group.
Did you have plans for where your story would have gone beyond Season 11 and was there more lore that you wanted to explore in a Season 12?
JH: Well, there was initially going to be 25 issues of Season 11, same as Season 10. At least I hoped there would be. But then the show came back and we were told to wind things down so we could launch a new Revival series set around the return of the show in 2016, in continuity with that. Given my druthers, I was planning to have Mulder confronted with other infamous X-Files that were never resolved in the way the surviving members of the Peacock Family were able to drive away at the end of “Home.” These would all be machinations of Gibson Praise, challenging Mulder, perhaps even trying to best him later on. I think it would have been a more satisfying way to go out. But going 25 issues on a comics series is very rare these days. I’m grateful we had the freedom to tell the Gibson Praise saga for as long as we did, and that we were able to wind it down to some conclusion.
Looking back a decade later, do you have any regrets or things that you would have done differently with this essential X-Files text?
JH: I mean, I struggle to read my stuff from yesterday, let alone years ago! When I look through the early issues, I can see the makeup, you know? The strings behind things. But I always felt we were true to the characters, their motivations and their voices. No matter which series we’re talking about, I’m pleased with how that all turned out.
I’m sure you heard that Ryan Coogler is trying to get The X-Files back in motion and has shot a pilot. What’s your level of excitement there and the potential hurdles for tackling this universe today? And would you be interested in writing more comics that are set in his version of this universe?
JH: I’m thrilled that it’s got the fans percolating. I suspect it will be awesome, assuming it’s picked up and we get to see the pilot. Look, I think The X- Files has only gotten more relevant as the years pass. Our government is fucking weird, to be kind. And I have long maintained that not exploring more X-Files in the Trump era is almost a sin against storytelling. I would love to return to the franchise.
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