‘Deadly Class’ Has Turned Liam James Onto Comics

While Psych actor Liam James was not big into comics growing up, landing the role of Billy on SYFY‘s Deadly Class has turned him onto the medium.

As you might expect, James started with comics written by series creator Rick Remender, who is also the executive producer of the TV adaptation — but branched out pretty quickly.

“I haven’t been a big comic reader in my life, but as soon as I read Deadly Class, I went up and picked a lot of [Remender’s] other works, like Low, and Black Science, and Fear Agent, and Tokyo Ghost, and I read them all. I’ve just been reading and reading, and I’ve also got into other things from there. The next one I’ve been reading is, I’m on the last book of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and I really like it. I feel so fortunate to have found this medium. I really, really enjoy it. It’s kind of like having, getting to make a movie or a TV show without spending as much as we get to spend here.”

The actor also expressed relief that Deadly Class turned out to be…y’know…good. It makes his life easier, he says, being able to look to the source material with confidence and know that he signed on for a show that has a lot of solid storytelling potential ahead of it.

“I just read all of them, and I really love them all, and I’ve been reading, and reading them again and again,” James said of the Deadly Class comics. “I really feel so fortunate to actually, A, have that source material to work with, because I never had that before. The source material is great, and to know that, feel like we’re in good hands, because a lot of times, you sign onto a TV show for a seven-year contract, and you have no idea what’s going to happen for the next seven years of your life. And so, to have these, sitting there, is pretty therapeutic. It’s really great.”

Meanwhile, he will no doubt be exploring more comics. We suggest Transmetropolitan, Liam — if only for the Hunter Thompson riffs you might be familiar with from early Deadly Class.

Deadly Class will debut on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SYFY.