He cites this exposure to all forms of literature – in particular The Adventures of Tintin album Explorers on the Moon and a "stash of superhero comics" – as a "pivotal event" in his young life, which clearly deeply imbued in him considerable enjoyment of such genres and titles.
The documentary featured interviews with such noteworthy individuals as Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, and William M. Gaines.
The success of the documentary inspired Askwith to expand upon some of Mann's ideas into a television magazine programme which would similarly explore areas of fan interest (comics, Science Fiction, horror, etc.)
Prisoners of Gravity ran a series of interviews with authors and creators from the science fiction and comics communities, with the host linking the subject matter together and focusing down on a specific topic for that episode.
Episodes from the first season (broadcast between August 1989 and March 1990, and now believed largely missing/wiped) reportedly focused on areas including UFOs, Star Trek and Comic book conventions.
The subsequent four seasons (preserved, and available for viewing by appointment at The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy[1] public library located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada) often featured episodes on much more specific topics.
Askwith was one of the founding producers of the channel, which was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996, and debuted on October 17, 1997, at 6:00 p.m. EST, under the ownership of CHUM Limited.
The four-part prestige-format mini-series, serialised between 1988 and 1989 has subsequently been collected in graphic novel format as Shattered Visage, still in print (since 1990) and published by DC Comics/Warner Bros. in the US, and Titan Books in the UK.
Other comics work includes: The Hugo Award-nominated novel Humans by Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, published in 2003, carries this dedication: "For Mark Askwith, Master of Multiple Universes."
[9] The title Taboo supposedly played a key part in inspiring Alan Moore (with Eddie Campbell) to write the landmark Jack the Ripper graphic novel From Hell.