JET lag is an occupational hazard for Mark Millar. That and other hardships, like having Angelina Jolie rub suntan lotion on his face, being brought tea by Claudia Schiffer and making Jessica Alba gush happy tears.

It's all in the line of work for the globe-trotting, Coatbridge-born comic book guru whose million-selling, graphic novel Wanted has had a Hollywood £55million blockbuster treatment, going on general release tomorrow.

Having just flown back from the world premiere in LA - it was the gala opening of the Los Angeles Film Festival - he's wired yet weary after more hobnobbing with the A-list stars he can call pals.

"To see it polished and finished up on the big screen was mad," says Mark. "You were looking sideways and looking at the actors from the film which was kind of weird.

"Me and James McAvoy were just buzzing - to be the headline guy in a summer action movie, it's just not what you expect growing up.

"The two of us were just giddy about that.

"We'd just come out of the movie and I'd watched him kill 300 people and the two of us were totally charged up about it.

"The advance reviews were in that afternoon, so everyone was buzzing that it had gotten four and five stars."

Wanted is the ultra-violent film starring McAvoy as the luckless Wesley Gibson, inducted into The Fraternity, a cult of secret assassins by Fox (Angelina Jolie) and Sloan (Morgan Freeman).

Shot on location in Prague and Chicago, Mark was able to hang out on the set with the actors, chatting about Little Britain with Jolie, going out for a cast dinner with Brad Pitt and sharing a passion for good pubs and Celtic with McAvoy. Mark even landed a cameo in the film, as a screaming extra on a train.

It's also the eagerly-awaited debut English language film from cult Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, who adapted the storyline to make the central character less evil and more sympathetic to mainstream audiences.

Mark is flying the flag for the film at a charity preview tonight at the Cineworld cinema on Renfrew Street, to raise money for Glasgow University's medical faculty.

It will bring together friends and family of Mark and McAvoy, with rumours of Robbie Coltrane and Franz Ferdinand also attending.

"The capacity is about 250 and I got 104 tickets!" says Mark.

"Every now and again it strikes me. Wanted genuinely started life on a WH Smith pad that I bought in Queen Street station and I remember exactly where I was when I started jotting down ideas on a train.

"It was weird seeing it escaping from my wee pad and my wee scribbles to literally being in front of me."

Like one of his superhero creations, the 38-year-old Mark lives a curious double life. In one guise, he's the doting father taking 10-year-old daughter Emily to the flicks or walking the family's spaniel - complete with poncho and sombrero - around the streets near his South Side home.

The next he's chatting comic books with Jonathan Ross, enjoying nights out with Simon Pegg and Ben Affleck or being invited to dinner parties at the home of Mr Claudia Schiffer, film director Matthew Vaughn.

On occasion, those worlds collide, like the time when his daughter's portrait of Jessica Alba made the Fantastic Four beauty cry.

"She was totally touched by it and, interestingly, she became pregnant," he laughs. "I like to think my daughter put her in the mood for having a wean."

Daughter Emily turned 10 on the day of the premiere in LA, but was still well short of the film's 18 certificate.

Mark and wife Gill were allowed to fly a babysitter with them to LA, where they enjoyed a VIP, queue-skipping treatment at the Universal Studios theme park.

"It was cracking - like being Michael Jackson for a couple of days.

"You realise sometimes that Emily's life is odd. Here everything is normal but then every now and then she gets a touch of the madness.

"She's been at a couple of film premieres and she enjoys the Bratz thing - getting into a nice gown and walking up the red carpet."

Meanwhile, Vaughn, the director behind Layer Cake and Stardust, is directing a film adaptation of Kick Ass, another self-generated comic book created by Mark and published again on his own Millarworld imprint.

Jonathan Ross's wife Jane Goldman has written the script, but Mark won't reveal who is starring in this film for fear of jeopardising a deal with showbiz bible Variety, but assures us that it's a heart-throb to make jaws drop.

Shooting on the movie - based on an ordinary 16-year-old who makes himself a superhero - is expected to commence in 10 weeks' time, slated for an April 2009 release.

Mark hopes to have a black tie charity bash at Glasgow University next year and a UK premiere at Coatbridge Showcase for the release of Kick Ass.

Vaughn has also signed on to direct another of Mark's owner-created titles, The Chosen.

Mark began writing comics at age five-years-old, selling copies to his neighbours in Coatbridge for 5p each. He loved Spider-Man so much that he drew the webbed mask on his face in marker pen - despite his mum scrubbing at the inky scrawls, traces are visible in his First Communion photo.

The youngest of six children, his mother died when he was 14 and his semi-skilled engineer father died when Mark was 18 and a psychology student at Glasgow University.

He dropped out of uni at 19 to give writing a shot in the hope of earning enough money to pay the rent and put food in his belly.

His early work for 2000AD paved the way for time at DC Comics on The Authority, courting controversy by featuring a gay kiss between superheroes and characters on drugs, and transporting Superman from Smallville to behind the Iron Curtain in Red Son. Political activist Michael Moore liked the graphic novel so much he sent Mark a congratulatory letter.

Poached by comic book rivals Marvel, he helped turn around the fortunes of the New York-based company with big-selling storylines for Spider-Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four.

The anti-authoritarian leaning continued on setting up his own independent company Millarworld, spawning Wanted, The Chosen (about the return of Christ and Mark's self-professed sequel to the Bible), The Unfunnies and Run.

With his existing contract with Marvel expiring in a fortnight, he had hoped to devote his time solely to Millarworld, but the Marvel dollar was too strong.

"Marvel genuinely threw a bucket of money over me - I just couldn't say no in the end."

He will now divide his time between Marvel and independent projects, including a new standalone series, War Heroes, which hits comic book stores next week.

A recipient of the Stan Lee Award for services to the comic book industry, Mark intends on retiring from writing comic books at the age of 45, leaving the playing field open to younger writers.

By then, Mark should have enough interests in film and comic books - not to mention the royalties - to pursue voluntary work of some description. But in what field, he's not quite sure just yet.

"All the smart guys move on by 45," he says. "That's the time to get off.

"It is like being Simon Le Bon squeezing into your leather trousers at that point - it is a young guy's thing."