Writer Without Fear

Originally published at Fangoria.com on Apil 6, 2012

Fresh from the muck and onto newsstands, SWAMP THING #8 follows Dr. Alec Holland as he witnesses the plant elemental monster at its most terrifying and despite his best efforts, Alec can no longer run away from his green demon. At his darkest hour, he must face a greater evil and accept his true destiny. Series author Scott Snyder spoke to FANGORIA about taking the SWAMP THING title in a new and fresh direction, working with artist Yanick Paquette, and helming his latest horror comic, SEVERED.

FANGORIA: How did you become involved with this project?

SCOTT SNYDER: Swamp Thing, for me, is a character that I’ve been thinking about, talking about at DC/Vertigo since I started. I’ve been talking to Karen Berger about the possibility of bringing the character back. I asked if they were doing anything. Swamp Thing and Batman are my favorite two characters of all time. What happened was, about six or seven months ago, Geoff Johns called me up and told me they were bringing him back in BRIGHTEST DAY. He heard I was a big fan of the character, and [asked] was I interested in doing it if they liked my idea? So I said, “Of course!” I told him my idea, which involved bringing Alec Holland back as human, and dealing with the mantle of being Swamp Thing. And learn more why he was the one chosen to be Swamp Thing; why is his destiny tied to this kind of monster? Geoff really liked it and said it would really track well with what he was doing in BRIGHTEST DAY. We set it up and I’ve been working on it since then. I’m very excited!

FANGORIA: SWAMP THING was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in 1971. In the early 1980s, author Alan Moore (of WATCHMEN fame) was given free reign to revamp SWAMP THING. How did you want this reinvention, during DC Comics’ THE NEW 52, to be different?

SNYDER: They gave me free reign. It’s pretty radically different. At the same time, I’ve read every SWAMP THING book, from Len Wein all the way through to Josh Dysart stuff. I’m a huge, huge fan obviously of what Alan Moore did to the character. At the core of the character, for me personally, he is a man wrestling with monsters, both internally and externally. He is a man who is covered in plant vegetation and back from the dead, in the Len Wein carnation. He’s longing to be human again somehow. In Moore’s version, he is a vegetable copy of a man who realizes he never was human. He feels lost in the world. There’s always that sense of sadness that he’s somehow wrestling with the notion that he’s both monster and man. Fighting monsters is an extension of that inner struggle. What I really wanted to do was build on the wonderful mythology/history of the character and not change anything. That’s the same departure point we took to BATMAN. There really isn’t anything different. All the mythology/history stands as it was. But we really wanted to take stuff in a fun direction here. So for me, it really meant doing something that wouldn’t be seen as Alan Moore-lite.

I was just thinking how strange it is there really hasn’t been any story about Alec Holland as a person. He never really appears in the flesh, expect for a few pages. We really don’t know who he is or who he was before Swamp Thing. In that way, I really wanted to build on what’s already there and explore uncharted territory. I thought there’s a great story about why the Green chose him to be Swamp Thing. Is there an enemy that we haven’t seen Swamp Thing fight, something he was designed to fight against? That’s really what the core of the series is about and the direction we wanted to take.

FANG: Will long-time followers see their favorite characters, such as Matthew Cable, Swamp Thing’s daughter, Tefé, and even John Constantine?

SNYDER: Definitely! We have plans for a lot of the Swamp Thing cast. Not everyone is going to be there right away. Don’t expect to see Matthew or Tefé right off the bat. But, they’re all part of the mythology and we’re really working hard to build on that mythology. You will see some of them quickly in the series. You might see some other ones in surprising ways.

FANG: SWAMP THING is known for its combination of environment, plant life, and monsters. How did you and artist Yanick Paquette envision Swamp Thing’s world?

SNYDER: Well, what Yanick really wanted to do, when you see these issues, was bring in more than his A-game. He wanted to be incredibly bold and daring in the art, because he is a big fan of what other artists on the book have done, such as Steve Bissette and Bernie Wrightson. He really wanted to make it look different and appropriate for what the story is about. From cover to the last page, he’s experimenting with things. It’s huge fun! It’s hugely successful, in my mind, looking at it. He divided panels by uneven breaks, that almost look like branches, leaves, and veins. It really is meant to be a marriage of form and content, the way the best SWAMP THING comics are. He really has free rein. The environment, the kind of creepiness of the Green, and the opposing force of the enemy, are really there on every page.

FANG: What can readers expect from further issues of SWAMP THING?

SNYDER: Well, we really wanted to be a big, epic story. This is the story I would tell if I got my one chance to ever write SWAMP THING. It’s not little stories, not little adventures of Swamp Thing fighting with other superheroes. It’s a big Swamp Thing story that really has to do with the nature of his character. It’s this epic battle that has to deal with the fate of the planet. At its core, it’s really about a man struggling with his own destiny, and the possibility he has to give up everything he loves, in order to be the hero he’s supposed to be. Without giving too much away, you’re going to see creatures made of slaughterhouse pieces; you’ll see ancient Swamp Things through different generations; you’ll see characters that you know and love, and characters we’re introducing. You’ll see deserts blooming, forests burning and rotting! It’s going to be big and epic!

FANG: SEVERED and AMERICAN VAMPIRE share similarities, as they both take place as America is growing up and inventing itself. Tell me about your interests in early American history with these titles?

SNYDER: That’s a really, really great question! I mean that’s the theme of both series in a lot of ways. That’s the fascination on my part, on SEVERED’s part, and on my friend’s part, Scott Tuft, with certain moments in American history.

With AMERICAN VAMPIRE, it was really filtered around this notion that vampires are part of our popular culture now, but at the same time, they’ve had this foreign, exotic feel. They’ve had this sleek, modern cool otherness to them, as if we’re meant to be attracted to them because they wear black leather, sunglasses, and go to clubs. They look like they came out of THE MATRIX. My favorite vampire stories are the ones homegrown, SALEM’s LOT, NEAR DARK, and THE LOST BOYS. They have an excitedly American feel. To me, the scariest thing about vampires, the thing that makes them enduring, is that they’re essentially people you know and love, who have come back from the grave to turn you into them. They have all this knowledge of you, from being your friend, mother, or your brother, and using it against you, because they’re an evil version of themselves. So in that way, that’s really what we—me, Rafael Albuquerque, and Mark Doyle—wanted to do; make a new kind of homegrown vampire! That’s really the core of it, to try and create a vampire that speaks to American iconography. It’s not just about Skinner Sweet being born here, but the characters have become vampires as part of our imagination of American folk – cowboys and gangsters. We try to make them very real, detailed flesh and blood characters. We also try to build them out of certain icons from the American landscape.

Scott Tuft and I have been friends since we met in high school. He’s in film. This is a fun thing to collaborate on here. With SEVERED, it came from our fascination with this moment in American history, around 1916, where at home things are very optimistic. There are these new inventions changing life very quickly, from the automobiles, the railroad being built, electric lights. There’s this sense of optimism while this war is happening overseas. There’s this kind of feeling of both optimism and dread. We really wanted to tell a story that had both those things. For us, the story centers on a boy who runs away from home to find his father, who’s a traveling minstrel, a black-face performer. The other character, who is the twisted heart of the series, is a traveling salesman, who is a demon on the road. He carries a suitcase, travels the rails and roads. He’s this older guy with this really nice smile. How is he such a good salesman when he’s such a nice guy? He says, “Behind my pearly whites, I’ve got razor sharp teeth.” You laugh it off like he’s joking. You turn your back, he takes out his teeth, and eats you. It’s a series we’ve been thinking about for a very long time. I’m very proud of it and happy to do it. It’s a different kind of book. It’s a slow-burn. It’s not as high octane and fast as AMERICAN VAMPIRE. It’s a slower, creepier psychological fear that builds over time. I like them both equally in terms of that kind of horror in books and movies. I like THE SHINING, which has that slow-build. Most stories have bigger scares earlier. It’s just a different kind of method and it’s something I was really excited to experiment with. It’s a fun collaboration because it’s a little bit of both of us in it.

FANG: AMERICAN VAMPIRE won the Will Eisner Award for Best New Series. Does winning have an affect or pressure on the writing now?

SNYDER: Well, no, only just because we just have so much fun on the book. People say that but it’s really true. I talk to Rafael all the time, on Skype, AOL and Facebook chat. We just do our own thing. People just like it and gave us an award for it. It’s not so much intimidating. It’s exciting about wanting a valediction for putting in crazy ideas in the series already, and it makes us want to go even bigger, in terms of the ideas, the storylines, the action, and the art. It’s about giving people even more on what’s already there, in big fun ways. We’re just getting started on it.

FANG: What are you working on now?

SNYDER: SEVERED is finished and will be out in trade paperback on April 11th. My three big books right now are BATMAN, which I’m obviously super excited about, SWAMP THING, which I’m equally excited about, and AMERICAN VAMPIRE, which is my baby. One of the collaborators I’m working with, Rafael, is just knocking it out of the park! Greg Capullo on BATMAN is just amazing! Same thing about SWAMP THING. Yanick is just slaying it! I couldn’t be happier right now. I can’t wait to see what people think of all these books. I hope you check them out. Let me know what you think. I really want to know.

FANG: How can readers find out more about your work?

SNYDER: I’m really easy to find. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, @Ssnyder1835. That’s Elvis’ birthday. I’m a big Elvis fan. You can look me up on any social networking sites like that. My books are available on ComiXology and also in comic stores. The trades of AMERICAN VAMPIRE are available in book stores. My BATMAN work is out there too. I can’t wait to hear what people think about these books. I couldn’t be prouder of what’s out now and beyond.

Originally published at Fangoria.com on Feb. 28, 2012

In Image Comics’ ALPHA GIRL (#1 out now), a street smart punk finds herself lost in a zombie apocalypse. The year is 1984 and Judith Meyers has just watched a third-rate cosmetics company doom the entire world. The streets are littered with masses of flesh-hungry zombie women and violent men hunting after them. FANGORIA spoke with authors Jean-Paul Bonjour and Jeff Roenning about their experience working in the comic book industry, how artist Robert Love came onboard with the project, and what readers should expect from the mini-series.

FANGORIA: Tell me how the premise came about.

JEFF ROENNING: I did a horror film five or six years ago. When I was done, I wanted to do some zombie stuff. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it on film. I cranked out a draft of a story about 130 pages. I gave it to Jean-Paul, and he and I started reworking it. That’s how we got to where we are. The initial incept comes from a story out of China in 1990. I don’t remember what they were producing. The men in the factory started growing breasts!

JEAN-PAUL BONJOUR: Jeff came to me with ALPHA GIRL and we started reworking the idea. We were thinking where it would best have a home. From a different sphere of influence, I know one particular person at Image, who’s been a longtime friend of mine. She’s always been into comics. She brought me to a comic book convention in early 2010. I’ve never been in that kind of world. From that point, I kinda had an idea that this was a great place to go. With San Diego Comic Con, the popularity of comics, a story like this in the comic book genre would be a hit. I don’t know who made the suggestion; hers or mine? All of a sudden, we were landing a home with Image.

The process was a fun one too; attaching an artist, seeing that work get pre-visualized in concept art, taking the script and pitching it to Image. We put a press kit together, seeing if Image was interested in it. That’s where we got publisher Eric Stephenson involved.

FANG: Tell me about your experience with ALPHA GIRL being your first comic book.

ROENNING: It’s a lot different than I expected. I figured, we have a story hammered out, it’s super-tight. We’ll drop that off with the artist. We’ll get some stuff back! We’re good to go! It’s a lot more work! In a lot of ways, it’s been great and also interesting learning how to tell a story differently. That’s been really cool. We work with great people at Image and artist Robert Love.

BONJOUR: All of the staff members at Image have facilitated things for us, walking through the process. From my standpoint, it’s been easier. I’m surprised at how rapidly Robert Love is able to turn out pages and how open-minded he is to changes. Being a first-time creator is a high learning curve—the terminology and procedure—but it’s been a really fun process. Now, we are thirteen months into the project and going to press. That’s not bad! In the film and computer software industry, it takes four to five years for getting a release.

FANG: Tell me about setting the narrative in 1984.

ROENNING: There are a couple of reasons. We were kids in the 80s. That’s a golden era for us. I love that time period a lot. We wanted to take down the technology level a little bit. There are no cell phones, no pagers, and no internet. Back in the 80s, the information thing was TV news or print. I like that, the isolation and the lack of information. We were both sold on that.

BONJOUR: For me, when Ice-T came out with POWER in the 80s, it had Jello Biafra, of the Dead Kennedys, talking over this megaphone about the end of the world. I’m reading sections of ALPHA GIRL—where the dissemblance of government still kind of exists in this fractured world with all this chaos—and I’m hearing Biafra’s voice in my head. “Stay in your home. Do not come out.” That’s how I felt the 80′s vibe.

FANG: Tell me about Judith Meyers, who is a street punk and a survivor.

BONJOUR: You’re dealing with a young girl that was dealt a bad hand. Though she has trauma introduced early in her life, she’s not a girl who’s a victim. That’s a really important piece of this story. She’s not a victim. She has a higher purpose than just being a victim in a zombie world. That’s what you always see in these zombie things. You’ve got a group, they’re a bunch of victims, the world ends. Oh crap! What’s going to happen to them? Judith is not that kind of person. Judith is like, “I have a mission. I need to do something. All of you are just in my way.” She’s a charismatic woman. I have a five year old daughter and I want her to grow up to be a charismatic, strong-willed woman. That’s what I take away.

ROENNING: When we started the original story, Judith wasn’t really Judith. She was just a girl. Let’s make her a little bit more raw. We kept evolving the character as we were doing drafts. When we finally found her, that’s her; that’s the chick who can handle this stuff well.

FANG: This is a different take on zombies. Tell me about the look of the zombies.

ROENNING: Artist Robert Love did pretty good characterizations, where he did different takes on it. We went from there. We wanted something different than the rotting, fleshy kind of thing. These women are infected, not necessarily dead.

BONJOUR: We didn’t want to write a story where zombies were dumb and stupid. We wanted fast, hard-hitting, scary, and gory women. That’s the direction Robert went.

FANG: There is a satirical edge to the first issue. There are masses of flesh-hungry zombie women hunting men. Tell me more about the social commentary

BONJOUR: There’s so much in here. You have the battle of the sexes. It was all started by a cosmetic company. The cosmetic industry is run by a company who objectifies women. Men are running from their wives, getting away from the women. You have two opposing sides. You have a protagonist, who straddles right in the middle. She’s being chased by zombies and chased by men, because she’s the last sane women. There’s a lot going on.

ROENNING: We took the basic dynamics; cosmetic company exploits women’s insecurities to make money. We flipped it around. They accidentally made women who don’t care about anything, and just want to kill men. They totally murdered the paradigm. Always for storytelling, when you can do something like that, it’s fun and gives you millions of avenues.

FANG: How did you collaborate on the script while keeping to your visions?

ROENNING: For most of it, we have a draft of the script. We sit down, read it, and make notes. We make post-its, rearrange the story arc, we discuss how the characters and scenes were drawn out, if it affected the story. We do another draft and we come back with notes. We did that for awhile.

BONJOUR: When we’re together collaborating on this, we really want to see a full picture of the entire story arc. The story is constantly driving, going in a particular direction, that we’re not rattling anything. Visually, we put the sticky notes up on a board. We can see how the story really goes and start playing with different sections, and start moving things around.

ROENNING: When we started, we wanted to have a lot of issues mapped out. We wanted to have a script, and cover a whole bunch of stuff. We wanted our story arcs really tight and really working out. The issues work really well in the sequence of the story. That was really important to us.

FANG: Tell me about artist Robert Love.

BONJOUR: We signed a deal with Image the Christmas of last year. For a few months, we were looking for an artist who could work closely with us, convey the story we were trying to tell, and bring his own style. Robert is an easy-going, fun-loving guy. We met him in San Francisco at WonderCon. He came highly recommended from Publisher Eric Stephenson and Accounts Manager Branwyn Bigglestone from Image. We had a meeting, looked at his art. All the artists are good. It’s really a matter of the personality you’re looking for and does it gel with your group.

ROENNING: We looked at several other artists. Robert was the one who could do the job for us. He’s the most flexible, easy-going guy ever. He’s not very protective of his art and great about taking criticisms, which is uncommon. Really good guy!

FANG: What can readers expect from ALPHA GIRL after issue #1?

BONJOUR: It only gets better!

ROENNING: Issue #1 is the setup. Issue #2 is where the plotline comes together. It puts Judith on a quest. That drives a lot of the narrative of the story. You can expect to see a nice story arc over five issues.

FANG: What are you working on now?

BONJOUR: We’re both developers at Apple. We are filmmakers. This is our first entry to the comic book world. We’re goal-orientated in computer science. Jeff is a fan of comics. Day to day, we’re hammering out issue three and four for the publishers.

ROENNING: Doing the book is a full-time gig right now. For sure, there is a film project way down the future.

BONJOUR: We’re strongly leaning towards an app for the iPhone and iPad, a first-person shooter based on the comic.

FANG: Where can readers find out more about ALPHA GIRL?

BONJOUR: There’s an ALPHA GIRL website and Twitter.

ALPHA GIRL #1 is on shelves now, with #2 hitting March 21.

Orginally published at Fangoria.com on Dec. 28th, 2011

A visually spellbinding and riveting tale of loss and horror, the trade paperback of GREEN WAKE VOL. 1, is currently in stores. FANGORIA spoke with author Kurtis J. Wiebe (THE INTREPIDS) and artist Riley Rossmo (PROOF) about how the premise of GREEN WAKE was conceived, the importance of colors in the narrative, and the mystery behind the first story arc’s ending.

In the forgotten town of Green Wake, detective Morley Mack is on the search for a vicious seductress, who may or may not be behind a string of grisly murders.

FANGORIA: How did you start in the comic book industry?

KURTIS J. WIEBE: My first publication was with Red 5 Comics (Atomic Robo Fame) called BEAUTIFUL CREATURES in 2009, a supernatural action series. It wasn’t particularly successful, despite some really strong reviews. The entire team was relatively unknown, which can definitely have an effect on sales. I’d been pursuing publication for about a year prior to that, with a handful of pitches that are still sitting on my hard drive.

RILEY ROSSMO: In 2006, I did my first graphic novel, SEVEN SONS, for Ait/Planet Lar. In retrospect, it was kind of crazy. Alex Grecian and I did 120 pages on spec. I was working full time, and doing a lot of commercial work for ad agencies, and magazines. That led into Alex and I doing PROOF at Image Comics, which is what I consider my real start in comics.

FANG: How did you become involved with GREEN WAKE?

WIEBE: Riley and I have been friends since about 2009, shortly after BEAUTIFUL CREATURES came out actually. We met through a mutual friend at a pub, where Riley was celebrating the first issue of PROOF’s release. We chatted awhile and stayed in touch since then.

ROSSMO: Kurtis and I had discussed doing a backup in PROOF at one point. I did a couple paintings for it, but nothing really came out of it. A year or so later I needed another project to experiment in and we came back to GREEN WAKE, revamped the story and visuals, and pitched the project.

FANG: How did you come up with the premise?

WIEBE: GREEN WAKE originally started as a backup in PROOF. It was meant to be a series of short stories that Riley would draw as a sort of exercise, and allow for me to have my work in the more public forum, but after a few weeks of brainstorming, it became much bigger.

We decided to try for something a little grander in scale, take GREEN WAKE into a full series, but he was overextended for the following year working on both PROOF and COWBOY NINJA VIKING. Once both of those projects started to wind down, Riley was looking for a new project and decided to give my first issue script for GREEN WAKE a go. With a few covers and the first five pages from issue #1, we pitched and it was picked up a few days later by Jim Valentino at Image/Shadowline.

FANG: After illustrating such comics as COWBOY NINJA VIKING and PROOF, how did you approach illustrating GREEN WAKE and its premise?

ROSSMO: I needed to make comics that were really purely emotional reactions to the script. GREEN WAKE is all the sadness, passion and anger I experienced and poured out onto the page. PROOF was a traditional comic experience, from script, pencils, ink, colors, and lettering. I didn’t have much input on the script for COWBOY NINJA VIKING. I just handled the visuals. GREEN WAKE is more of me in terms of story and visual expression. Since I do so much of the art than anything else I’ve worked on, I think in terms of the finished page while I work on it, instead of just penciling or inking.

FANG: The forgotten town of Green Wake can be seen as Hell, Purgatory, or an entire imaginary world created from Morley Mack’s troubled mind. Tell me about how you both developed the town of Green Wake.

WIEBE: Originally, the aforementioned short story version was about a town centered on a cult that had kidnapped a young woman. The story would’ve followed a man hired to track down the woman and rescue her. All the while, he was encountering some really weird situations at the hands of the cult.

Honestly, I’m not sure how that transformed into what GREEN WAKE is now, but the weirdness is what made the cut. We wanted the town to be as much a character in the series as the people who lived there, and even if all the characters found resolution, there would be this lingering question of what the hell Green Wake was. We talked for hours about the town, establishing the rules; why it’s there, how people get there, and for what reason.

Since we worked so closely together on the development of the series, it was easy to collaborate on meshing the art and the writing, because we both intrinsically knew what worked and what didn’t.

ROSSMO: We discussed a visual vocabulary at length and I did a bunch of paintings. We watched a number of films (CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, NAKED LUNCH, and DARK CITY), but the biggest single influence in Green Wake’s creation was TWIN PEAKS, and some personal struggles we were experiencing/discussing at the time of inception. Marshall Arisman’s paintings inspired the look of the art, as well as Bill Sienkiewicz’s STRAY TOASTERS.

FANG: Since the first issue, Ariel is seen as the prime suspect of a brutal crime. She always seems to be lost. Is she a victim? Or is she a vicious killer hiding behind her long red hair? Because readers can look at her two different ways, how did you want to present her in the narrative?

WIEBE: Ariel was meant to be a wild card. I wanted her to be scary because of her brutal unpredictability. But as the story unfolded, I wanted to usher in a real sense of sympathy. That obviously hits home in issue #4, because it turns her arc on its head, and suddenly she isn’t fully to blame for what’s happened.

Ariel was also one of the only people in the first arc to carve her own path. She didn’t hide away; she violently sought a way out of the town, when everyone else stewed in their apathy. She stood out because of her determination to change her fate.

ROSSMO: I wanted her to be a symbol of passion. Ariel’s hair is a symbol of madness and violence. To me, Ariel is a victim because her emotional levees have burst and she acts out.

FANG: As a whole, the narrative centers on time displacement. Brown represents the past, purple stands for unreality, and green symbolizes the present. When these colors mixed in issue #3, the tone could stand for another metaphor. How did you and artist Riley Rossmo collaborate on the uses of color in the nonlinear storytelling?

WIEBE: It was something we decided on very early into the development of the series. It ties directly into what I was saying before about the rules and realities of Green Wake, and we wanted to be able to use the comic medium specifically to get certain points across with the art. I made the call on the use of sepia/brown for the past, but Riley really made all the color choices for everything else, although I would indicate a need for an emotional shift in the scene.

ROSSMO: Kurtis and I made the color decisions pretty early on. We had started the book with a colorist. We lost him after the first 5 pages, so I decided to take the coloring on myself. After I restarted the first 5 pages, we discussed color as a storytelling device and the palettes just grew out of that. The color decisions developed fairly organically.

FANG: In the climax of issue #4, in an unsettling sequence, a monster touches the face of Ariel’s ex-lover. Suddenly, Carl’s face is covered with blinking eyes. Then the eyeballs are popping themselves, like pimples, spewing blood into the air. How much was from the script or from the artist’s perspective?

WIEBE: I wrote it in the script about the eyes coming out of his flesh, but all the gory details were from Riley’s depraved mind. That scene in particular is a perfect example of the level of collaboration we were able to achieve in this series.

Issue #5 also had a disgusting transformation sequence in the early pages, and the script was written in the way it was illustrated. However, Riley took it in an entirely different direction than I’d imagined. He made it organic and grotesque, whereas I imagined it more of a spiritual blending. What came out on the page was a melding of both, and it’s one of the strongest sequences of the series.

ROSSMO: I’d say a lot of the more violent stuff is from my imagination. Whatever Kurtis writes, I try to take it to the farthest extreme possible. There were a couple of scenes that were too graphic that I revised. I think it’s pretty important that the violence and gore be as disturbing as possible. Kurtis gave me a lot of room to interpret his scripts.

FANG: In issue #5, rarely seen in police procedurals, the narrative focuses on what happens after Morley Mack solves the crime. What could be seen as a short story in itself, Morley faces his fears from his past. Kurtis, tell me about the narrative’s themes of loss and mourning as it veered into this coming-of-age tale? And Riley, was it difficult to keep the panels interesting, because the conclusion became dialogue-driven?

WIEBE: Wow, that’s a heavy question. I’ve never hidden the fact that GREEN WAKE dealt with the breakup of my marriage. While I was writing the series, I was beginning to understand a lot about myself and what events led to that major transition. Despite it being a positive decision for my life, I felt this lingering sense of hurt and guilt, like even though I knew I was moving in the right direction, I left a trail of suffering for others.

I really analyzed that. That theme is what pervades the first arc of GREEN WAKE and I suppose, how I really feel after looking back and gaining perspective on my life. I came to understand that regardless of the choices we make; good or bad, there are consequences and no one comes out clean. It’s whether or not we can forgive ourselves and at the end of the day, really move onto a new part of our lives.

The final page of Morley standing at the tree, as the paper blows away is the answer I found at the end of the journey. So, it was a resolution for the both of us, I suppose.

ROSSMO: Nope. I love drawing talking heads. Slow-moving dialogue is one of my favorite things to draw. The colors took longer in that scene and after spending so much time in Green Wake, the real world was a bit harder to draw than it used to be.

FANG: What can readers expect from GREEN WAKE VOL.2: LOST CHILDREN?

WIEBE: Well, I’m still a messed up guy, so just as much horror and weirdness in the first volume. The focus now is going to be on the mystery of Green Wake, what exactly the town is, and why people are there. There’s a new series of murders that are happening and on top of that, a new arrival named Micah has been taking the townspeople under his wing and preaching to them a message of hope. But, not everything is as tidy as it seems; there’s some dark purpose behind all motivations in Green Wake.

We’ll also meet familiar characters who will be given a bit more story time. No one is safe from the lurking danger. We’ll be introducing a few new characters, including a young woman named Esther, who has an interesting connection to the title: LOST CHILDREN.

ROSSMO: The introduction is the most fun I’ve had in ages drawing a page. It’s gross but more than that, it’s really surreal!

FANG: What are you working on now?

WIEBE: Lots. I recently quit my day job to focus on writing, so I’m finally able to put the time into my comic work I’ve always wanted. Alongside GREEN WAKE, which is an ongoing series, my next project is called PETER PANZERFAUST, and it comes out from Image/Shadowline in February 2012, which is also an ongoing series. I’m billing it as RED DAWN meets PETER PAN, but there will be more details about that series coming very soon.

I also have two more Image limited series coming out in April and May. The first is called GOBLINETTES, about a goblin punk band, sort of a LORD OF THE RINGS meets JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS. Following that is GRIM LEAPER, a black romantic comedy that blends QUANTAM LEAP and FINAL DESTINATION. Those are a little ways off yet, but I’m already writing the scripts for both, so it’s enough to keep me busy for quite awhile. Lastly, I have a novel coming out November 18 called BETWEEN WORLDS, from Bundoran Press, which is a modern fairy-tale noir.

ROSSMO: I’m doing a little work at Marvel. I’m hard at work on GREEN WAKE: LOST CHILDREN, and I’m working on a graphic novella for spring or summer next year called WILD CHILDREN, which will be from Image too.

FANG: Where can readers find out more about your work?

WIEBE: I constantly update my Facebook fan page with news and articles about my work. I’m also prevalent on twitter, @kurtisjwiebe, and I love talking to fans and answering questions, as well as promoting my work.

And for people who like podcasts, I host a bi-weekly podcast, with some fellow writers, that focuses on the writing method for comic writers called THE PROCESS. You can check it out here or find us on Facebook.

ROSSMO: I just made a new website, which has my art work and I keep it updated. I twitter at @rileyrossmo1 and can be found on the Image Comics forums.

Originally published at Fangoria.com on Dec 30th, 2011

This year, Clive Barker returned to his most infamous creation, with BOOM! Studios’ incredibly well received HELLRAISER series. FANGORIA spoke with co-author Christopher Monfette about how he became involved with the HELLRAISER series, how Tiffany returned to the official continuity, and what fans should expect from the next story arc. [SPOILERS ahead!]

FANGORIA: You previously worked with Clive Barker for the SEDUTH 3D comic. How did you become involved with HELLRAISER?

CHRISTOPHER MONFETTE: Clive and I have had a longstanding working relationship. I adapted two of his short stories into features, starting five or six years ago, when I tackled this little four page story from one of the BOOKS OF BLOOD, called “Down, Satan.” I did that adaptation. Hopefully, at some point in the future, somebody somewhere  will do something with that. He wanted me to adapt SON OF CELLULOID, which is a script we’re both very proud of. That collaboration led to SEDUTH, which was a wildly imaginative comic book spectacle of horror/fantasy. We had a ton of freedom to play with stylistically, but we were constrained to those twenty-four pages of that comic.

When BOOM! came to Clive, or at least when Clive may have come to BOOM! with the idea of doing HELLRAISER as an ongoing series, I had worked with Clive enough at that point for him to trust that this was a property I would be able to find the voice of, respect the source material, while bringing in my own perspective, P.O.V. and help it evolve forward and change in a way readers would find interesting. Allow the series to find a new footing.

FANG: Was there pressure jumping into this project, knowing there is a huge fanbase and many sequels?

MONFETTE: There is always pressure involved when you’re addressing a character, story, icon that people feel passionately about. People feel very passionately about Pinhead. That’s really a testament to Clive’s genius and creativity. It’s been 25-30 years after the novella and the movie came out, after having weathered six or seven terrible sequels, that get increasingly terrible as time goes on. People are still hopeful we’ll do something new and exciting for them. That is a testament to the quality of the character itself. The world is on your shoulders to do it justice. I felt confident I could honor Clive’s voice and add my own. Clive had tremendous faith and minimal changes after submitting each script. He oversaw the story, making sure his voice was there, and the story was going the right direction. Once the reviews come in and looking at message boards, we’re fortunate the fans came to love it. So there was pressure, but I never felt exhausted by it.

FANG: In the first issue, Pinhead has such eloquent, even stylish lines of dialogue. Tell me how you approached writing the dialogue to the infamous horror icon?

MONFETTE: I was running everything through the filter of Doug Bradley. I think Bradley’s performance is so iconic. When they first suggested casting another Pinhead for the latest film, HELLRAISER:REVELATIONS, it struck me as absurd. If you’re not going to put a great actor, a real thespian in that role, you’re going to lose a lot of the eloquence that Pinhead has to offer as a villain. That’s why he’s my favorite horror icon from that day and age. He has something to say, unlike Freddy Krueger, who throws whimsical quips, and Michael Myers, a silent killer. Pinhead is coming at it from elocution and introspection. He has ideas about the world. And it always struck me, especially watching those films, with the first two as our jumping-off point, that this is a character that is so fiercely curious. He maintains all the curiosity that we as humans have and that carried over to his life as a Cenobite. To me, that was important for us to play around with in a comic series, because that’s what makes any villain interesting, the human aspect. Shaping his voice was finding the dialogue that Clive used in the original HELLRAISER, watching how Bradley expanded off that, by hitting that eloquence, and having something to offer in every exchange.

FANG: The HELLRAISER issues have become an evolution of Kirsty Cotton, adapting her to present day. Tell me about how you approached bringing this character back into the mythology.

MONFETTE: One of the things I’m most grateful for, with regards for being able to write these eight issues, Clive really trusted me to pitch an angle that was important to me, that really resonated with me as a writer and fan. I came into that meeting with Clive, he put his hands on the table, and said, “Where do you think this should go?” He had ideas that he brought in, things he wanted to see reflected in the series, but he was incredibly open to other ideas.

My pitch to Clive was, “I think this needs to be about the evolution of Pinhead and Kirsty evolving into Pinhead’s role.” If you’re going to move forward, those films have not been very good, once you move past the first two. Pinhead has aged beyond ages. For twenty years, our time as the audiences, this is also Pinhead’s servitude in Hell. You can catch up with the characters and then do something that challenges Pinhead and Kirsty as characters, not just as hero and villain. In the fourth issue, Pinhead says to Kirsty, “Have you been looking for me? Or have you been looking for a doorway back to Hell? Are you trying to get back there because it defines you?” It’s been paving the way towards the conclusion in issue #8, which I feel is emotionally resonant and correct.

FANG: In issue #2, the Cenobite says, “Kirsty met the Devil, made him love.” Clive Barker has said before he never saw a romantic link between Kirsty and Pinhead. Tell me about their relationship now between them in the comic book series.

MONFETTE: I don’t think there’s necessarily a sense of romance between those two characters. But I think there is a sense, in a very strange way a sense of mutual respect. Pinhead respects Kirsty for the fight she has been waging against Hell. Pinheads wants to overthrow Kirsty as much as she does. Pinhead wants to be a leader, not the follower. Kirsty has this passion, this identity for herself that is 100 percent about taking down this person—this group of people—that have inflicted such damage to her life. This has gone beyond getting her revenge, her hunger for Pinhead. She has been enslaved by Hell in a very different way. It’s not a love relationship, in terms of a romantic love. It’s a love relationship of fascination, respect, and obsession.

FANG: In issue #7, Tiffany, from HELLRAISER 2: HELLBOUND, returns to the storyline. Tell me how you came about Tiffany, because she has no back-story and had no lines of dialogue in the movie.

MONFETTE: Tiffany is there for a couple of reasons. Yes, we are jumping off of two films, HELLRAISER and HELLBOUND. We’re creating a story, in some senses, the third film. What we start to see in issue #6 and #7 are some of the elements that are exclusive to comic books. Issues 1-5 really feel like a movie. In issues 6 and 7, we’re really exploring the series in the format it’s going to live with. Tiffany is the heroine and we’re going to see her again. It’s interesting for her because she never uttered dialogue in the second film. We can create a personality for her. I didn’t want her to be exact equivalent of what you saw in HELLBOUND, a demure, mute shrunken-in woman. I thought it would be interesting to turn it on its head. What’s worse than Kirsty, who is willing to destroy the boxes, the configurations, as recklessly as possible? This person who’s willing to kill innocent people, who may be potentially box creators in the future. Some people have complaints about it, which I take responsibility for. That character became much more sexy, a sword-wielding ninja, especially in flashbacks. It’s just a character who has embraced murder for the sake of good. Tiffany is both loved by and loves Kirsty, despite disagreeing with her philosophy of the boxes. It’s an adoptive relationship. Kirsty walks away with this girl at the end of HELLBOUND; she’s now responsible for her. If Tiffany looks more like a typical comic book character, I think that’s great. We can use that in the future in a way that really fits the medium. We’re not making a movie; we can go crazy with it. We’re doing things with the mythology what you wouldn’t be able to do if we were making a series of films.

FANG: In issue #8, Kirsty Cotton becomes the new Pinhead, with her own army of Cenobites. Tell me more about the inspiration behind this plot twist?

MONFETTE: The interesting thing about issue #8 is probably the biggest moment where Clive’s vision, as the creator of the series, and my vision, as the writer, diverged. Clive is the wheel here, the grandfather of HELLRAISER, and he always will be. The professions of the Harrowers are stereotypically specific—the prostitute, the priest, the doctor, Kirsty as the artist, and Edgar is the scholar. That was all very intentional in the beginning, so that we could evolve the HELLRAISER mythos, when those characters became Cenobites. Kirsty’s Cenobites were aspects of human nature that she, the leader, would be able to explore. Bethany addresses sexuality taboos, and the priest would speak of taboos of religion. Each were originally designed in the script to reflect that individual theme. Clive redesigned that narrative plan, that was much more animal-based. The Cenobites are more monstrous, less human and don’t follow the same pattern as the humanoid servants. I’ll be interested to see how Clive and the new writer, Anthony DiBlasi (writer/director of DREAD), will play with that. It’s very cool you have these much more monstrous Cenobites than we’ve seen in the past. I’m curious if the themes we originally talked about hold off in issues #9, #10, and beyond.

FANG: The HELLRAISER series has been illustrated by a variety of different artists – from Leonardo Manco, Stephen Thompson, and Jesús Hervás. Does the writing style change from artist to artist?

MONFETTE: No, I think you get to see where as a writer what artists get to do well. You can write to that. I think all three of those guys did phenomenal jobs. They have distinct personalities but one unifying vision. What blew me away working with Stephen was Jordie Bellaire’s coloring work. I did find myself writing to that when she came on board. Her colors are magnificent! When Clive and I had this plan to switch from the black motif to white and red, you immediately know Jordie is going to kill that. In terms of dialogue and the panel layouts, I like to leave as much room for the artists to interpret as possible. Whenever I had an opportunity to throw color in there, I would just to see what she would do with it. She is so brilliant!

FANG: What are you working on now?

MONFETTE: I’m working on a bunch of film things. I am working on an adaptation of a Stephen King story that I’ve done as a feature film that we’re trying to get off the ground. Hopefully that will happen sometime this year. I’ve got a couple of comic book pitches. One is an interesting period/superhero piece and the other one is a satirical play on fantasy archetypes. I’m working on a couple of original things, a horror script called DEEP CUTS. That’s sort of a mash-up of horror subgenres. It’s not an anthology, it’s a crazy meeting of zombie, vampire, ghosts, and slashers; everything that you identify with American horror. I hope it’s a productive one.

FANG: Tell me about leaving HELLRAISER series with issue #8?

MONFETTE: Certainly sad I won’t be carrying the torch ahead with HELLRAISER. But my time in the series has been absolutely fantastic. I really can’t thank Clive and the folks at BOOM! enough for letting me tell that story, and really supporting it 100%. They never once shied away because it’s too graphic or too intense. They let us push the envelope, which horror needs to do. I’ve been really fortunate with the opportunity to do that.

FANG: Now that Captain Elliot Spencer has become human, what should readers expect after HELLRAISER #9?

MONFETTE: The only way I can really answer that is within the framework, through the way I developed the arc. How can a Cenobite, who has taken so many lives and damned so many souls, ever be worthy of salvation? Certainly becoming a human is not sufficient. I don’t know where they’ll take it. This whole first eight issues was the first chess move to con his way into Heaven. I can say, Pinhead has created a monster that is a bigger threat than himself. He has leverage with Heaven to say, “I can use my knowledge to stop it if you let me in.” This was going to be the first piece of a larger chess game. Where will Clive and Anthony take it? I don’t know. I don’t think Elliot will be humbled by this experience. At heart, he is this cold, calculating character. I’ll be fascinated to read each issue.

I’ll give a little bit of a clue. The next arc is going to called, “Heaven’s Reply.”

FANG: How can readers find out more about your work?

MONFETTE: Follow me on Twitter, @cwmonfette, and I’ll update when I can. My voice is really as a writer. I want to give audiences great stories and solid writing. I want to give creators faithful and inventive adaptations of their material. I don’t like putting myself out there that much. I love having interviews like this where you can really dig into something. I don’t think we talk about the process enough.

Originally published at Fangoria.com on Dec. 26, 2011

Now in stores, HACK/SLASH ANNUAL 2011: HATCHET/SLASH (Image Comics) pits the biggest stars in horror comics against the biggest star in indie horror. Cassie Hack and Vlad, from Hack/Slash Inc., unexpectedly find themselves crossing paths with HATCHET’s Victor Crowley and the slasher slayers are the only ones who can stop him. FANGORIA spoke with author and HACK/SLASH creator Tim Seeley about how he and HATCHET director Adam Green conceived the project, the significance of HACK/SLASH issue #10, and what readers should expect from his run on WITCHBLADE #151.

FANGORIA: How did you and Adam get together?

TIM SEELEY: The horror industry is not very big, obviously. So, he was friends with a couple of friends of mine. I had seen HATCHET and I really liked it. I met him at a couple of shows. He was the MC at a Troma Roast that we did. He was hilarious! I thought he was really funny. So, we kind of started talking about it. It didn’t occur to me like, “Oh my God! I can do a crossover with this. The guy owns it.” It’s so much easier than having to go through a studio and get permission from marketing people and all that stuff. I emailed him and said, “Can we make this happen?” He said, “Yes, it’s real easy. We can do this easily.”

He and I met at a bar in LA. We plotted out the story. We gave it to writer Benito Cereno to translate into a script for us because we were both busy. He was working on his TV show, HOLLISTON. I was busy with the HACK/SLASH stuff. I think we made the perfect combination of HATCHET and HACK/SLASH, which is going to be the kind of gory, sorta funny, sorta scary; the way that both properties are.

FANG: In the HACK/SLASH series, Cassie and Vlad have fought against Chucky, from CHILD’S PLAY, and Dr. Herbert West, from RE-ANIMATOR. What is it about Adam Green’s Victor Crowley that interested you?

SEELEY: I learned a lot. One of the things I wanted to do with HACK/SLASH was that we could crossover into existing horror properties. The world itself of HACK/SLASH allows for that so easily. The thing I learned with trying to do a crossover with Jason Voorhees or a Freddy Kruger, they’re owned by giant corporations with a lot of red tape, which is very difficult to make that happen. When I saw HATCHET, this is a classic style of slasher character, but it’s done by an independent guy. It’s not owned by a giant corporation. I thought the vibe of the stuff was exactly what we were going for; classic fun slasher film. They’re not overly gritty. They don’t take themselves extremely seriously. They’re scary, fun, and sexy. That’s what we were trying to do. I thought it was a perfect lineup.

FANG: You and Adam Green came up with the story, with Benito Cereno taking over writing duties. Was it easier for you to let someone else write the script? Or, do you become concerned that the protagonists will act out of character?

SEELEY: I actually knew Benito for quite a few years. And he writes THE TICK comic, which is one of my favorites. I actually chose someone I knew I could trust right off the bat. It’s how I try to do everything. Instead of ever having problems, just choose the right guy for the job. He knew the characters. I knew he would get the fun and scary. I basically sent him a rough idea that Adam and I came up with. He completely did it. I had no changes. We went right to art.

FANG: Artists Daniel Leister and Kyle Strahm have done their own interpretations of Cassie and Vlad. How does artist Ariel Zucker-Brull’s version differ from theirs?

SEELEY: Ariel comes from a fashion design background. His Cassie is really slender, feral, like a wild woman. He’s got a really cool style. I actually met him at New York Comic Con last year. He was showing his portfolio around. I was looking over someone else’s shoulder, and I thought, “Oh my God! This guy’s perfect for something.” It’s an awesome job! His Cassie and Vlad are impressive, but his Victor Crowley is amazing. He really gets the crazy big monstrous savage face on him. It looks really good.

FANG: On December 7th, HACK/SLASH entered issue #10, representing a decade’s worth of issues. Tell me about the significance of these ten issues to you.

SEELEY: It’s weird. When we did the first series, we got up to issue #32 before we moved publishers. At this point, every time we do the book, we’re still here. Every month is significant I think. It’s gotta be that way. It used to be, “Oh my God! We made it to 20 issues! That’s huge!” I know how comics is such a tough business, especially doing a horror comic. Every issue is a milestone to us. At issue #25, I’ll have done basically 70/80-something HACK/SLASH comics, which is a longer run than a lot of independent books; so, I’ll feel really good about it.

FANG: Tell me what interests you about Sara Pezzini from WITCHBLADE.

SEELEY: WITCHBLADE came out when I was in high school. It was the perfect time for me, because I wasin high school and very interested in scantily-clad women. It was a really well-drawn book by Michael Turner. I picked up the book when it first came out. Then, I read it for awhile. As I got older, I started discovering college comics, indie stuff. I dropped all my books, my Marvel stuff and everything, but I came back to WITCHBLADE when Ron Marz started writing it. I know he is a really good writer, and I was really anxious to see what he had done. I actually enjoyed his run on the book. Getting a chance to follow him up as a writer is kind of intimidating. It’s also the first time I’ve done on a book where I’m coming to an existing run. I’ve done a lot of writing for different people, but it’s like a mini-series or starting a series from issue #1. So, this is me learning what most comic book writers do; drop into a book that someone else already established and issues exists. I’m really using Ron Marz’s approach as a jumping off point. It won’t be too far from what fans are already enjoying. It’ll be pretty close, but with a little twist, the way I do things.

FANG: What should readers expect with WITCHBLADE after issue #151?

SEELEY: It’ll be much keeping in tone with the character. But there are some things that happen because of the ARTIFACTS crossover. It will change fundamentally a lot of things about the character’s world. It’ll be a starting point, adding some new and exciting stuff for existing readers, and giving a nice, fresh jumping-off point for new readers. If we have done our job, it will be in line with what I think WITCHBLADE should be and what Top Cow wants it to be. It’ll basically be the same series, detective/police work, same take on the supernatural, and a new status quo for Sarah.

FANG: What are you working on now?

SEELEY: I just finished up some stuff from Marvel, drawing some SPIDER-MAN, writing WITCHHBLADE, and some HACK/SLASH stuff. I’m working on the old Extreme comics title, BLOODSTRIKE, which was a Rob Liefeld created book. It’s about a team of superheroes killed and brought back to life as zombie soldiers. We’re relaunching that. I’m writing it and an artist by the name of Francesco Gaston is drawing it. It’s black humor, science fiction, military, superhero book, in the vein of what Liefeld originally had. I’m pretty psyched about it. It’s that weird thing that people have a certain view of books from the 90s. There were some great ideas in those books, even if not all those books were great. They’re so full of crazy, original ideas.

FANG: How can readers find out more about your work?

SEELEY: I’m all over internet. I’m on Twitter at @HackinTimSeeley, my website is Tim Seeley Art, on deviantART, and Facebook. I have a hosted forum for HACK/SLASH at CBR, the Image section. I can be emailed at
cassieandvlad@gmail.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.

BLOODSTRIKE will be out in stores summer 2012.

Originally published at Fangoria.com on Dec 27, 2011

Earlier this Fall, DC Comics launched a massive overhaul, with all books reverting to #1, and while it’s been interesting to say the least, it’s also been surprising. Case in point: ANIMAL MAN, reborn as a psychedelic horror tale to behold. FANGORIA spoke with author Jeff Lemire (SWEET TOOTH) about the ANIMAL MAN relaunch during DC Comics’ THE NEW 52, depicting the gory imagery with artist Travel Foreman, and his upcoming action/horror comic, FRANKENSTEIN: AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.

FANGORIA: How did you get on board?

JEFF LEMIRE: I had written a couple of books for DC Comics at that point. DC kind of approached me, telling me they were going to be re-launching their entire line, starting everything over with first issues. The first couple of different projects they thought I might want to do. I wasn’t excited about either of them very much. I kind of pitched FRANKENSTEIN: AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E to them, and they liked that one. I asked if we could do something else and they suggested ANIMAL MAN, finally. I’m a big fan of the old ANIMAL MAN series from Vertigo, back in the 90s. I really liked the character, and I thought there was a lot of interesting stuff for me to do with it. I was really excited about it and pretty much accepted the job right away.

FANG: ANIMAL MAN was created by Dave Wood in the 1960s. In the late 1980s, he was revamped for a mature audience. How will this reinvention, during DC Comics’ THE NEW 52, be different?

LEMIRE: For me, I really liked what they did in the 90s, especially the Grant Morrison stuff. It was a lot more about him and the relationship with his family. I thought that was pretty cool. I pick up where he left off, as far in the New 52. I wanted to bring a more horror sensibility to the book. I wanted to balance the lighter more emotional stuff of the family, offset with the horrific things going on around them. I wanted to challenge them, see if they can stay together or be torn apart. For a superhero book and in the regular DC Universe, it’s really more of a horror book and a really dark take on it.