In yet another New York Comic Con Artist Alley interview, we caught up with the creative team behind the upcoming miniseries, A.K.A.

Don’t ask me why, but it’s always surprising to meet someone who’s never been to New York before. It just seems like one of those place everyone should have already visited at least once in their lifetime. But as it happens, Image writer Kurtis Wiebe found himself in NYC for the first time this past weekend, and we took a few minutes to talk about his book, Green Wake, and some other projects he’s got going on in the coming months.

New York Comic Con 2011: Artist Alley Intervew – Kurtis Wiebe from Popcultureshock on Vimeo.

For more Info on Steven Walters check out Ourobor.com.

The events of “Escape” also set up the action involving Zod, the Kandorians, and Checkmate that will carry through to the end of the season. Of course, speculation has centered around whether or not the endgame of season nine would ultimately be the run up to a series finale. That mystery was answered, however, when it was recently announced that Smallville would be returning for an unprecedented tenth season. Which begs the question: will season 10 be the last one?

Last week, I had a few minutes with Kelly Souders, one-half of the showrunning team, to find out.

Wow, ten seasons, huh? Congratulations on reaching such a milestone! Now that we know you’re coming back, I think the one thing everyone wants to know is if it’s the final season.
It’s funny because over each of the last few seasons, people have speculated “oh this must be the last season!” So I’ve learned to never ever bet against Smallville.

Most genre shows rarely go beyond six or seven seasons, if that. Superhero shows usually fare much worse even. What do you think attributes to this kind of longevity? I mean, Tom Welling has already played Clark Kent longer than any other actor in history.
That’s true. Everybody on our crew and in our cast approaches every season like it needs to be the best season of Smallville. And because of that passion, I think that’s why we’re still on the air. Nobody comes in thinking, “oh this is the last season, I don’t need to work that hard.” Otherwise, we would’ve ended the show years ago. But I also think 10 is a nice round number and everybody feels very thrilled and privileged to get this far, so I definitely wouldn’t assume it’s not the end just because we’ve had an incredible run.

The converse of that, though, is that instead of saying “this is the end, let’s not work that hard,” you could do what the folks over at Lost have done and say “this is it; we’re going to throw everything out there and build toward the ending.”
Yes. Definitely

And in the case of Smallville, we all know what that ending is. Speaking of which, do you already have an endgame planned? And if so, how similar or dissimilar is it to what the show’s creators—Al Gough and Miles Millar—envisioned?
Whenever the final episode airs—whenever that is—there are moments that Al and Miles always talked about, and those are moments that we want to use to preserve their vision. They’re really great steps to getting into the full Superman mythos. So what will be a part of that episode, whenever it is, will be their vision. And every season, we think of more moments that would be really cool in the final episode. So we’ve been gathering these jewels along the way each year.

How many more jewels do you guys have up your sleeves? Because I have to admit, these last two seasons have been jam-packed with iconic Superman moments. For example, fans have long speculated that the final, final scene of the series would be Clark ripping open his shirt and revealing the iconic S-symbol underneath. The thing is, you already did that this season in the episode “Warrior!” So doesn’t that just up the ante for what we can expect in the series finale? How do you walk the line between giving fans what they want without showing your hand too much too early?
That’s what’s so great about Superman. There’s always something down the road. You never really run out of things to play with!

Speaking of upping the ante, February’s “Absolute Justice” was a landmark episode for the series. Not only did it mark your first ever two-hour movie, it did phenomenally well for you. I can only assume that the eventual series finale kind of has to be a similar extended event.
Yeah. We try to up the ante every year and challenge ourselves to do something new. We’re always looking for an aspect of the show that fans haven’t seen. So [“Absolute Justice”] brought in a new level of integration of the DC world and characters [into Smallville].

That episode also set up the whole Checkmate storyline that will play out the rest of this season. And I must say there’s pretty much a consensus that believes Pam Grier as Amanda Waller is genius casting!
She’s been so much fun! I love her Amanda Waller. You never know exactly what she’s going to do. She makes her unpredictable and wonderful.

Geoff Johns was such a big part of why “Absolute Justice” worked so well, and he’s done a lot when it comes to introducing the DCU into Smallville. During your hiatus, it was announced that Geoff was named Chief Creative Officer of the newly restructured DC Entertainment. Since Geoff is part of the Smallville extended family, what will his new role mean for the show?
It’s funny because we just came from lunch with Geoff! We’ve known Geoff a long time and absolutely love working with him. It’s just been a really great working experience. He’s always been completely supportive of Smallville. Every year we work with him to try to bring in some new characters. So certainly next year won’t be an exception. We’ll definitely be taking a new step towards the goal of expanding the DC world and hopefully everybody will like what we come up with!

From what I understand, DC Entertainment was formed to act as a liaison between the comics and Hollywood.
I think that what they’re doing is trying to expand the DC Comics’ reach even further. Obviously, having Smallville on for close to a decade has shown how viable television is as far as expanding DC’s world. Now with Human Target‘s success, that’s going to be a focus for them as well as the features side. We just expect that world to keep going because it’s filled with great characters and great stories that fans love seeing in multiple formats.

In the past, it seemed as if the features side of Warner always had restrictions on what you could and couldn’t show on Smallville. For example, certain characters are barred from ever appearing because of movie developments and so on. Has that changed? Will that change at all?
What’s important to the people at DC, just like any company that’s trying to oversee multiple properties, is to make sure everything lines up properly. To make sure that if something’s developing on the feature side that there isn’t a conflict somewhere else. With a lot more focus on DC, things will probably be happening that will allow for some of that. But it’s kind of complicated because we don’t really know just how things are going change that much. But I think it’s just going to be people making sure properties are protected and used in the best way.

I’ve never really understood the movie vs. television conflict anyway. I mean, Warner was able to develop, produce and release a Superman film while you guys were on the air. Now, it looks like the studio and Christopher Nolan are putting into motion another Superman feature. Will this new movie have any effect on what you do on the show?
Nobody’s called over [from the movie side] to say “hey, you can’t do that, we’re doing this over here.” You know, we’ve been on for so long that I think everybody sort of sees Smallville as its own little universe. But certainly, everyone’s big idea is to sort of string everything together.

Sorry for the brief tangent, but in talking about the Superman movies, it always frustrates me whenever I read an article about the failure of Superman as a film franchise, the writer usually bemoans the fact that as a character, Superman is inherently unrelatable to 21st century audiences. And I’m like, what about Smallville? They’ve been making Superman relate-able and appealing forever!
I find Superman to be incredibly easy to relate to. I mean, he’s alienated, he feels alone, he’s not sure he fits in. Everybody’s experienced that so for us, that’s definitely not an issue that we run in to.

Sorry for the rant. Going back to the show, and this season in particular, Tom Welling has spent considerable amount of time in the director’s chair over the last few seasons. Any more plans for Tom to direct this season or next?
Definitely. Tom’s a really great director. With his background, he really knows a lot about the other actors and finding the right motivation for a scene. And he’s really had some wonderful material to work with.

Speaking of directors, one of the show’s originals is coming back in the form of Greg Beeman. Other familiar faces returning this season include Michael McKean as Perry White and Annette O’Toole as Martha. Can you talk about what it’s like having these old school alums back in Smallville?
It’s been a blast. Brian and I have always enjoyed working with Annette. Obviously, Michael’s version of Perry White is unforgettable. He’s really brings a lot of energy and life to that character. And Greg had a lot to do with the production for many years. And while we’re not saying whether or not it’s the end, everybody knows the show is definitely in its homestretch, so it’s nice to see some familiar faces again.

Speaking of familiar faces, any chances Laura Vandervoort will be coming back as Kara? Last we saw her, she was searching for Kandor and the Kandorians have been such a major plot point this season.
Well, Laura’s on V so she’s been a little busy. But her name does come up a lot so you never know.

Fair enough. How about Clark’s glasses? Are we going to see them return? Ever since Clark showed them to Lois in “Crossfire,” they’ve kind of gone missing. Are there plans to address the iconic Clark Kent disguise?
We definitely inch a little bit closer to that every year. So without a doubt, next year we’ll take maybe more than an inch or two towards that famous Clark Kent look.

So if you do plan to incorporate Clark’s “disguise,” do you have a plan to address how no one recognizes Clark in the glasses?
That’s really the great question of all time, isn’t it? How does someone not recognize someone behind a pair of glasses? For us, it’s more about the double identity to be honest, about getting both images together.

Of course, the other disguise people are clamoring for is another one for Clark’s superhero persona. Back in San Diego, I believe Brian mentioned that the black trenchcoat look was just the first prototype. Are there others along the way before we get to the iconic Superman costume?
I think we all know that what he’s wearing now is just the interim to what he eventually wears. We’re about to get into this discussion over the next couple weeks over hiatus! So stay tuned, I guess.

What about the final Superman costume? Will we ever see Tom don the iconic red and blue?
Now that I can’t answer! People have been asking us that for years! I can’t blow it now!

Touche. So, finally, how do you maintain the balance of the original intent of Smallville without making it a full blown Superman show?
Each year, it’s a different challenge because we don’t want him to completely stall. We always want him to keep making progress and move toward becoming Superman. So at the beginning of each season, we sit down and talk about Clark psychologically. What’s going on with him, why he hasn’t put on the outfit, the lessons he has to learn. So each year, we look over what the final stages are that he has to get through being Superman 100%. You know, not just going around saving people, but actually embracing his persona and being that symbol of hope.
——-

Keith is the Editor-at-Large of the groundbreaking graphic novel anthology SECRET IDENTITIES and Outreach Director for SIUniverse Media. Visit the official Secret Identities blog to keep up with Keith and the rest of the SI team.

While at Emerald City ComiCon this year, we bumped into Chew’s John Layman (literally! in the elevator! and he recognized us from our videos!), who very graciously agreed to a video interview. Here, he talks about Chew’s next story arc, “Just Desserts,” the return of Mason Savoy, the awesome fold-out, poster-sized cover of Chew #15 (his description is hilarious), and what it’s like having the biggest “sleeper” hit of the year:

Kudos to Josh, who has loved and supported Chew from the beginning–just check out his reviews and previous interviews! Haven’t tried this awesome comic yet? Now you can buy Chew #1 for just $.80!

BUY CHEW COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS!

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Questions? Comments? Post them below!

But wait! There’s more! Next week’s raffle item is a copy of Chew Vol. 1: Taster’s Choice, signed by Layman himself! To enter, head to one of our three Oregon locations between March 29 and April 4, and you’ll receive a raffle ticket with any purchase. Or, if you live outside the Portland, Oregon area, you can sign up for our weekly Newsletter instead!

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Chew, you’re missing out on one of the funniest, quirkiest, most surprising titles of the past year. You can check out our past videos, as well as an early interview by Josh, right here on our blog!

But remember, for the latest news, come back Monday and get the full scoop–you’ll be glad you did!

Questions? Comments? Post them below!

Most people, of course, know you from starring in Better Luck Tomorrow. Can you talk about how you got the part?
It just was a normal audition. I missed the first round of improvisations and then heard about the audition through a fellow actor who had just gone through it. I contacted Justin [Lin, the director] and off the bat was lucky enough to be paired with Karin Anna Cheung who eventually wound up playing Stephanie, the female lead. And we had this great chemistry and I recall thinking to myself, “If this girl isn’t one of Justin’s final choices, he’s nuts.”

Karin and I went in together and knocked it out of the park. We were doing the New Year’s scene where she’s supposed to kiss me, and she just kinda stopped and I whispered, “you’re supposed to kiss me
right now” and she yells, “I’m supposed to WHAT!?” The charm, awkwardness and playfulness that Ben and Stephanie were supposed to have was all there.

Even though Karin and I wound up being his final choices, Justin still kept on casting for three more months to see everyone he could. And it was agonizing hearing all the actors confirmed as the cast. I’ve known all these guys for years, and I’d be like, “Roger Fan as Daric? That’s so perfect!” or “Jason Tobin as Virgil? Of course!” Agh! Why is everybody in this movie except me?!

Three months after the callback, I finally got a call from Justin offering me the lead role of Ben. I was the last actor cast on the film.

That movie marked such a watershed moment in modern Asian American cinema. And it launched the careers of so many talented Asian Americans in Hollywood. How does it feel to be part of something like
that?
Extremely blessed. The cast members and I were pounding the pavement as actors for six years before BLT came along. So we knew how special this project could be if it came together the right way.
We all put our careers and pilot seasons on hold to do this project for deferred payment–which means getting paid $0 until the movie makes money. Which usually means $0. We were willing to do that because we knew even if we did book a TV series, we’d probably be playing the quirky, asexual best friend with an accent. And we had enough of that.

What types of things did you pass up?
I mean one day during shooting, my agents informed me that Woody Allen wanted to fly me out to read for a part in his next film! But there was no way I could leave set–I was pretty much in every scene. My agents wanted me to abandon the BLT. But I had to tell them, “Look, you guys have to trust me, this project is different–it’s special.” Of course, the whole agency was cursing me out under their breaths at the time, but in the end, one of the agents later admitted, “You were right.”

Wait you passed up a chance to audition for Woody Allen?!
Well, my agents were able to logistically make the meeting work. Basically, I left the set on the red eye from California to New York for the meeting and then flew back onto set the next day. I think I was in NYC for about four hours total. It was for the film Hollywood Ending, but I didn’t get the part. Soon-Yi was there to watch me audition for Woody, though!

Even though you didn’t get the part for Woody Allen, I’m assuming you would’ve killed to act for him. Are there any other directors on your wishlist?
Just the usual suspects: Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderberg, JJ Abrams, James Cameron, Zack Synder, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Jonze, Robert Rodriguez, Ang Lee, Jason Reitman, and Christopher Nolan.

Just to name a few? Ha!
Actually, I learned an interesting thing when I was directed by Forrest Whitaker on First Daughter. I was prepared to just absorb all of this guy’s information and obey with whatever he had to say, but when it came time to shoot, I was taken aback when he asked me what I thought about a scene or how my character would deal with a [particular] situation. And it was really nice to be trusted and to give input like that, making it a real collaboration. Sung Kang conveyed a similar notion to me when he was directed by Denzel Washington in Antwone Fisher. So that de-mystification was a really empowering lesson–that although these great directors had a wealth of knowledge that I could learn from, I still couldn’t discount what I, as an actor, could also bring to the table.

Back in 2006, when we first put out a call for story submissions for Secret Identities, you were one of the first people to respond. So how did Jeff, Jerry, and I sucker you into becoming part of the editorial team?
As a comic geek and actor looking to create engaging APA characters, I thought the project was a no-brainer for me. But to this day, I really have no idea how I became part of the editorial team! I basically just approached you guys to submit an idea for a story I had–which wound up being “The Hibakusha” [in the book]. And during one conference call one day, Jeff just tossed me the responsibility of replying to anyone who submitted [stories]. Then that somehow turned into “write all the rejection letters.” Then that became “set up the deadlines for the contributors.” And so it went.

The first time we met in person was in Jeff Yang’s living room in Brooklyn in the fall of 2006 or so. It’s hard to believe that Secret Identities has been a part of our lives for the last three-plus years. What has been the best part of the SI experience for you?
I can’t count the number of best parts, actually. There are so many:
All of us in Jeff’s living room and looking at art samples on Jeff’s big screen TV. Jumping on the daily emails, going back and forth on new stories and artwork even though I was always three hours behind you guys on the east coast. Slowly getting different celebs to contribute and getting awesome pull quotes. Making the animated videos for some of the stories. Selling close to 80 copies at ECAASU, even though we had no actual book out yet. Making friendships with creators and artists that I’ve admired for years. Getting my personal box of books in the mail like George McFly in Back to the Future, while handing a copy to my daughter and telling her, “You can do anything if you put your mind to it!” Biff Tannen walking in to tell me he’s finished with the “second” coat of wax on the car. Wait, that last part didn’t happen.

Were there any not-so-great moments for you?
Really, the only worst part was the last week before we went to press and had to deal with artists and writers dropping out at the last minute and figuring out how to still complete the book. Oh, and that I hardly made any money acting-wise during that period because I was more focused on getting the book done than booking auditions. But just like BLT, if I truly believe in something I will drop everything–much to the dismay of my wife.

Right before the book came out, you wrote an impassioned letter on your blog about the importance of the community to support the book that echoed a similar open letter you wrote before the premiere of BLT. How does your experience putting out Secret Identities compare to the whirlwind surrounding Better Luck Tomorrow back in 2002?
Well with SI, there was a lot less mainstream fanfare. I mean, I got into People Magazine with BLT! But in terms of the importance, I think it’s right up there. It’s something that needed to exist and be available to address images and issues of the APA experience. The response was also very similar–you could literally see folks that have been waiting for something like this for years. And the grassroots marketing rang very familiar. The press, book tour, pull quotes we got were entirely obtained by our doing. As great as The New Press was, they just didn’t have the resources. I’m extremely proud of the work that we all did to pull this book together from scratch and to be actively integral in the sales that led to a third printing and being one of the publisher’s best selling books in 2009.

You were responsible for most of the “motion comics” that we put out ahead of the pub date. A task you pretty much put upon yourself. And I can attest, since I cut the trailer for my story, that it’s a grueling process. You even documented it (and look dogtired while doing it) in a YouTube “making of” video for Gene and Sonny’s story. So, what was the motivation for doing the motion comic trailers? What was the experience like? And would you wanna do that again?
I told someone that SI was my next project, and he said, “Well too bad–a book’s not going to play as easily as BLT did on the college circuit.”

It was a harmless comment and true to some extent but it kinda pissed me off that he was already writing off something I was planning to commit several years of my life automatically as some “failure.” So it made me think about how and why the buzz for BLT got to such a high level on college campuses. I figured a lot of it was due in large part to Evan Leong‘s documentary BLT Genesis, where he followed us while we were making the movie. His 30-minute documentary was mailed to all the campuses before the movie came out and really help create an awareness. And in thinking of how I could create a similar video to do that for Secret Identities, I suddenly realized, “Duh, all these stories are basically storyboards! The work is already done. All I need to do is to add voices.” And at that point in my career, I was beginning to delve into the world of voiceovers and playing around with audio–so all I had to do was to call up my actor friends and invite them to play on my microphone. And the
movies have come in handy to just shoot out via email to schools, play during a book appearance in lieu of a traditional reading, and making the stories quickly digestible in a three-minute trailer.

It was probably where I felt the most comfortable in the process of what I could personally contribute to the project. Because the world of publishing was and is still new to me. I had a lot of catching up to do: learning about verso and recto pages, creating a book map, using Illustrator and Photoshop. Besides my organizational skills and storytelling/dialogue sensibilities–I was pretty much useless with anything that had to do with the publishing aspect, which is why I think our editorial team’s skills complemented each other so well. But when the idea of creating a video [component] to help with the marketing of the book came about–that was within my comfort zone and skill set, and I immediately knew what needed to be done for that.

In fact, it’s a lot easier than shooting a video because I don’t have to worry about shooting the footage, getting the right angles, or the right lightning. The image is the image. All I need to do is work on pacing it to fit the tone of the story, adding the voices and the foley sounds, which I think was the most fun part of the process.

Now that SI is out of the way, you’ve been keeping pretty busy doing non-comic book stuff. For instance, you recently appeared on an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles. What was that experience like? Is there any chance the role could be recurring?
Yes, since I realized that I couldn’t pay the mortgage solely with signed copies of Secret Identities, I decided it was best that I start acting again. With NCIS:LA, the director and I were trying to find a unique and memorable voice and trait to stick out from the existing cast members. We came upon a snarky personality to give him. I hope to get a few more chances in the future to work Ty out.

By the way, this means you have starred alongside both LL Cool J in NCIS and Kool Moe Dee in The New Guy–who famously beefed back in the 80s, which in my mind, makes you the coolest guy I know.
Well, what I think is even cooler is that I got my ass kicked by Vanilla Ice in The New Guy and then I got to know MC Hammer since he was an investor on BLT. In fact, Hammer was even going to be the pastor that married my wife and me. Those two guys used to go head to head back in the day. But just so you know, most guys think I’m cool because I got to make out with Zooey Deschanel at the end of The New Guy.

Ah yes, kissing Zooey. Color me jealous. Speaking of which, she makes a cameo in the BLT “deleted scene” in which you propose to your future wife. Have you seen the YouTube vid of “Jeff and Erin’s wedding announcement?”
I have, and it is very cool. Although it is technically superior in terms of production value… Jeff and Erin weren’t really in any of those films. By editing my proposal video into a movie I was actually in, I think I trump Jeff and Erin. Heck, my wife thought it was really a part of the movie and thought my character was proposing to Stephanie!

Speaking of BLT deleted scenes when are we gonna get a BLT Blu-ray?! And if it ever happens what special features would you like to see on it?
There was so much behind-the-scenes footage that we have. From Roger Ebert defending our film at Sundance to a real time split-screen showing how Justin made 20 extras look like 100 partygoers by simply
reusing them and changing their clothes all in one shot. Maybe even the marriage proposal video. Who knows? We’re only three years away from the 10th anniversary. That might be a good time to put out a Blu-ray. Loads of fun, yes?

You also recently wrapped Hatchet 2–wait, what? Didn’t your character kind of, you know, die last time around? What gives?
Well in [the first] Hatchet, my character mentioned he had a brother, so voila, enter “Justin”–incidentally named after Justin Lin, Shawn’s more competent twin brother who heads into the swamp in search of his brother.

Hatchet 2 is another in a long string of horror movies on your resume. I mean, you’ve been in so many horror flicks, the fansite Pretty/Scary named you “Mr December 2008,” a fact that Jerry and I will never tire of, by the way. Are you a big fan of the genre?
I’m just a fan of movies, be it any genre. As long as there is a story to be told and provides some escapism, I’m game. Being in one genre film tends to get you noticed and appreciated by more creators, producers and writers of the same genre. That’s why I seem to have done more films in that particular area than any other. But I do enjoy genre films because the fantastical circumstances really help give you great aspects to jump off of. Like, I think my character in Hatchet is some of the strongest character stuff I’ve ever done. Doing just a pared down character in a straight drama is at times more difficult because it’s just you. But the greatest challenge, particularly in a genre film, is that a slew of other elements need to come together as well.

What was it like on the set of Hatchet 2? How is the set of a horror flick different, if at all, from other sets you’ve been on?
What sets a horror set apart from a traditional one are the days a character is set to be killed. All of a sudden, the special effects crew eagerly emerges with gusto from their secret lab on set with fake blood, hot glue sprayers to create spiderwebs, rubber prosthetic wounds to attach to faces, severed appendages for the camera to cut to. It’s really the one special time this crew gets to finally see their creations come to fruition in the grand scheme of the storytelling. And everybody cheers when a head explodes the right way. It’s kind of surreal but you definitely get into it when you’re in that environment.

Your stunt double on Hatchet is Steven Ho, who most people nowadays know as “the guy who kicks Conan O’Brien’s ass once in a while”. So I gotta ask, you were Team CoCo all the way, right?
I have been a fan of Conan since he first debuted 16 years ago. His bizarre and absurd humor just made sense to me. But I have to admit, as more people discovered Conan, I kinda watched it less and less. It’s like that indie band that all of a sudden everybody loves after you’ve been following them for years. But I am and always will be on Team CoCo.

You also did some mo-cap work on a top secret video game project recently. What can you reveal about the game and your part in it?
It’ll be Activision’s largest game to date. It’s a reboot of the “True Crime” series simply called, TRUE CRIME. It’s about an undercover cop delving into the underworld of Hong Kong. I play Winston, the boss he befriends. There are a lot of big names in this: Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Hu, Will Yun Lee, Tom Wilkinson.

What’s it like to act in a skintight bodysuit with little plastic balls sticking out everywhere? (Personally, I think it sounds kinda kinky.) Is it a different kind of acting than what you were used to?

I felt like I was in the Spider-Man costume. Honestly, if I could only do that kind of acting, I would. I mean, I can do the most menacing voice and the animators can come up with an appropriate body for that character. It’s really like what James Cameron said about Avatar–technology opens up new possibilities for actors. I didn’t have to worry about makeup, projecting, opening up to the cameras or staying in my light because a tiny camera and mic was always fixed in front of my face. All there is left to do is act. And if a stunt is required, a guy like Steven Ho would just slip into my suit and the audience would be none the wiser. The downside is there are no residuals with video games. So I can’t really make a living on solely that.

Are there any other projects on the horizon?
I’ll be directing and co-producing an animated web series called “The Kid’s Table,” based on Keiko Agena’s original Mango Pop characters. It’s about a group of four 12-year old girls who have different personalities and are forced to eat at the kids table every week when their parents get together to play poker.

Sounds fun. I’m going to be talking to Keiko about that soon, actually. What other projects are you working on?
I’ve also been writing a comedy script for the past two years that I’m looking to get made. Our friend [and fellow SI partner-in-crime] Jerry is helping me with storyboards right now, and we’re tossing around the possibly of making it into a graphic novel adaptation first. I think that might very well be my next baby that I drop everything for… that is unless we get rolling on SI Volume II.

Recently, you finally decided to join the rest of the world and launched your own Twitter account. What prompted that decision? I seem to recall you being reluctant to join before.
Honestly, it was purely for the sake of convenience during a website update. I only update every six months or so, and I was simply planning ahead. I wanted my webmaster to put up icon links for my Facebook and MySpace pages–and then I figured, “What the hell, might as well get this Twitter thing up there and get it out of the way.”

I am still leery if the 14 followers I have really care what I am doing on a day-to-day basis. But it is pretty cool that there is a character count limit that forces you to pare it down to the essentials. Because, as you can see from my answers, I can go on for awhile. This entire interview would probably be about 85 Twitter posts.
—-

Actually, I did the math, and this interview would probably take up 25 tweets. Anyway, True Crime drops in September 2010, and Hatchet 2 starts slaying moviegoers the next month in October, just in time for Halloween.


Keith is the Editor-at-Large of the groundbreaking graphic novel anthology SECRET IDENTITIES and Outreach Director for SIUniverse Media. Visit the official Secret Identities blog to keep up with Keith and the rest of the SI team

ON EXTRACT’S STORY AND CHARACTERS

While so many other comedies tend to shoot for these big company stories, you tend to reside in settings with small town folks as the main characters (King of the Hill, Office Space and now Extract) what draws you to these small town stories?

Mike Judge: I would say my stuff resides in suburbs of big towns also, or small towns that are near big towns. I guess that’s because I’ve mostly lived in places like that — Albuquerque NM, Richardson TX, etc. I think that a lot of writers in film and TV in the past have tended to come from NY or big east-coast cities, and there have also been great stuff written about really small hick towns, and so I feel like I can maybe bring a different perspective on things with a suburban setting.

Did you always have Jason Bateman in mind for the lead role?

MJ: I started writing this a long time ago – I think it was shortly after Office Space came out. I originally wasn’t thinking of any actor in particular, just writing it. Jason had done King of the Hill and I always liked him, but when I saw him in Arrested Development, I thought he would be perfect for this, and when I rewrote it and finished it, I was imagining him as the lead. It’s a similar character to what he did in AD, but I think Joel is a little less slick or something. Jason was the first actor I gave the script to and he said he liked it and wanted to do it, so it was him from the get go.

Even with all of the pressures Joel faces at home and at work what is it that makes him a successful boss?

MJ: I think what ultimately makes Joel a successful boss is that he genuinely likes making extract. For me, I enjoy directing movies, making animated TV shows, and in order to do that, you sometimes have to tell people to do things they don’t want to do, or make choices that people don’t agree with. And I really don’t enjoy telling people to do things they don’t want to do, but it goes with the territory. I think there are some bosses out there – and these would be bad bosses in my opinion – that are in it because they actually get off on telling people to do things they don’t want to do; they get some kind of weird pleasure out of making people do things for the sake of making them do things. They get off on the power of it all or something. I think Joel really likes making extract and seeing it get out there in stores and restaurants, and that informs all the decisions he makes, so it’s always coming from the right place. I think that’s how to be a good boss.

From the special features Jason and Ben talk about their long dialogue. How much did you let them improv or is it all from the page?

MJ: I like to let the actors feel like they can be loose with the script up to a point because I want them to feel comfortable and when they really get the character and what’s happening in the scene, then the improv wouldn’t drift too far anyway. I’m not really precious about my writing, but I usually find that in the editing room we end up pretty close to what was on the page. I think if you write good dialogue, it sounds like people spontaneously talking, so audiences think it’s improvised, which is a good thing I think. I would say in this movie, the most improv that would up in the movie came from Ben Affleck. He threw some stuff in there that I just loved and it wasn’t in the script.

Did Ben Afleck find it liberating to play a quirky supporting player for a change? He was great in the film–

MJ: You would have to ask him if he found it liberating, but it sure seemed like he did. I think he had a lot of fun doing it, and it was a blast for me to work with him on it. I really liked what he did. I had never met him before this and when I heard he wanted to do it, I was surprised at first – pleasantly so – and then when I met with him, he started telling me about a guy he knew growing up in Boston and he started imitating him and I just thought it was great. We did a read through of the script early on and I just loved watching him and Jason do these scenes and play off each other.

Was there instant chemistry when the actors began working together or did it take some time for them to gel?

MJ: For the most part it was instant. And most of them had already worked together or knew each other, so it all gelled nicely.

Was it your idea to cast rocker Gene Simmons as bench lawyer Joe Adler?

MJ: Yeah, I had originally described the character as looking like Gene Simmons with a pony tail and a suit and tie. I was kind of naive though, in that I thought no one would recognize him without the Kiss makeup on. I didn’t realize how huge the reality show was. The only time I had ever seen him without the makeup was on Politically Incorrect about 9 years ago and thought he would be great playing an agent or high-powered attorney.

One of the enjoyable performances was from Clifton Collins Jr. as Step. He’s been incredibly diverse this year, can you talk a little about him as an actor and what he brought to the film?

MJ: I love Clifton and have wanted to work with him for a while. I just never had a part that was right for him. I actually hadn’t thought of him for this part either. He usually plays a chicano gangster or a serial killer, so I hadn’t thought of him, but then he walked into the room with a trucker hat on, and suddenly he went from looking like a chicano gangster to Festus from Gunsmoke. I love him as a redneck. He also makes a great Romulan. He’s a true chameleon. And now he’s a big award-winning country music video director also, with Zack Brown Band.

Watching the special features on “Extract”, Mila Kunis mentioned that she may have been based on an actual person you know but curious, were the characters based off people you actually knew. And if so, how would you personally deal with a person so intrusive like Nathan?

MJ: No one is based specifically on one person, but I think most writers base characters on people they have known. The character of Nathan wasn’t any one specific person, but I did have a neighbor – a woman – who was a nightmare. It was in a gated community, so there was only one way out, and she would flag you down and just park herself in your window and just start talking. She would basically make it so you had a choice of either listening to her forever, or being rude and interrupting her, or even worse, pulling away while her arms were rested on your window.

There’s a dignity to the characters – and the work itself – in your film. Talk about establishing that element while at the same time finding the humor in the colorful characters.

MJ: That’s pretty important to me because I’ve worked these kinds of jobs, and I remember feeling like Hollywood was sometimes out of touch with us, and always appreciating it when it felt like a movie or TV show got something right – like there was someone out there in Hollywood who understood what most of us go through. I also used to feel like a lot of characters in movies and TV seemed to have endless cash and free time and you either didn’t know much about their job or they didn’t seem to have to have one. Finding the humor while still having some dignity to the characters is something that is also important to me. I don’t think about it that much; I’d like to think it comes naturally. To me it’s just like when I would sit around with my friends telling stories about people I work with and doing imitations of them and that sort of thing.

ON WRITING AND DIRECTING

In your previous films you’ve had a hand in directing, writing and producing. Which is your so-called labor of love out of the three?

MJ: I mostly like the writing and the editing, and I like when it’s over.

Animation or live action – which do you prefer, and why?

MJ: I think they’re more similar than you might think from the the point of a writer/director. I liked animation when I was just doing short films myself – doing everything myself. That was really satisfying work – making a film one frame at a time, getting it back from the lab and watching it for the first time. That was about as good as it gets I think.
Would you ever do a live action TV series or a another feature-length animated film?
Mike Judge: I would definitely like to do a live action TV series. I don’t know that I would do another feature-length animated film any time soon. Unless maybe it was a CG project.

How different in approach is your storytelling when it comes to animation and live action? Do you bank ideas that were too cinematic when you were working on HILL and GOODE FAMILY and save them for your feature work?

MJ: Actually they are pretty similar approaches. And you can actually get pretty cinematic in TV animation I think, as the Simpsons has done. I think I never got too cinematic with King of the Hill just because of the nature of the show and the characters, not really because it was animated.

Has the gradual embracing of your first two live-action movies made it easier to be patient for a film like “Extract” to find its audience and a fan following?

MJ: Yes. Also keeping the budget low on this has helped.

Did you shoot the film digitally? If so, how did you like/dislike the process of working in digital?

MJ: I shot it on all on film. In fact, we didn’t even do what’s called a “D.I.” which is how most films are finished nowadays. So if you saw it in the theater, you saw a print that was struck right off a negative. I actually like what happens to the look of film when you put it through that process.

What were the challenges of filming in a fully functional working factory?

MJ: Because we were on a tight budget, we had to shoot a lot of stuff while they were still working – they were really bottling. A lot of the background that you see in the movie is actually real people working – not extras. It was loud enough in there that they couldn’t hear us yelling “action” and “cut” and they just kind of got used to us being there, so I got some pretty natural acting in the background because they weren’t acting like they were working; they were really working.

I noticed in Extract that you were mostly able to stay away from pop culture references (outside of Dancing with the Stars), how difficult is it to write a story that doesn’t entail some of that dated material?

MJ: Well, when I first wrote the script, that reference was Will and Grace. That shows you how long ago I wrote it. I’m not big on pop culture references in general – probably because I’m pretty out of it lately, and I’m not great at doing that kind of comedy anyway. I also wrote it back when only a small percentage of the population had cell phones. That’s why there’s all this stuff in there with landlines, pay phones, busy signals, call waiting, etc. I was a little worried about that, but no one seems to have been bothered by it.

Have you enjoyed the resurgence of rated R comedies and has that opened up any other doors for you given that your material has a bit of an edge to it, or has it inspired you to go even edgier than what you’ve done previously?

MJ: I think there have been some great R comedies in the past couple years – The Hangover, Superbad, etc., but for me it’s not ever about edgy or not edgy. Something is either funny or interesting or it’s not, and sometimes something funny falls into the R rated territory, but not always. Some people are surprised to hear that Office Space is R rated, because it doesn’t seem that edgy I guess. I think anytime anyone has ever tried to be deliberately edgy, or to “push the envelope,” it’s usually sucked and lost money. I think there are a lot of movies that are hard-R rated that are really good and made money, but it’s because they are good, inspired movies.

Where does your fascination with groin jokes come from?

MJ: I do find it fascinating that a guy getting hit in the nuts always gets a laugh in movies – even from me – and I’m also not above using that for a cheap laugh myself. At some point, an evolutionary biologist should try to figure out why we laugh at that. I think if they figure out why a sense of humor and laughing even evolved in the first place – how that could possibly have contributed to survival of the species – then one of the first things they should figure out is why getting hit in the nuts always gets a laugh in movies and cartoons. I could go on about this for hours, but I won’t. I actually talked about this with Pulitzer Prize winning author Jared Diamond.

Would you ever consider doing a sequel to “Office Space”?

MJ: I kind of feel like this movie is sort of a follow up to Office Space. I based Office Space on my own experiences working in the cubicle world, and I based a lot of this on my experience being a boss and running what was basically an animation factory on Beavis and Butt-Head. I think when you go from complaining about the man keeping you down, to becoming the man, you realize that being the man is no picnic either. At one point a while back I considered doing a sequel to Office Space, but I wouldn’t do one now. Since that movie came out there have been two great TV shows – the British Office and the American one – and dozens of commercials set in cubicles, so I kind of feel like I wouldn’t want to go back to it at this point.

Thanks goes to Mike Judge, Miramax and Click Communications. Here is a full PCS review of the Extract Blu-Ray.

With this in mind, a group of trailblazing comics creators founded Indy Comic Book Week, an event in which indy creators can get their books into comic shops across the nation. (We’re also participating here at TFAW.com, and creators have ONE WEEK LEFT to submit–click here to learn how to send us your comics!)

We were able to conduct an email interview with three of the founders: Matthew Warlick, Vinh-Luan Luu, and Jake Ekiss. Read on to learn what inspired them and get their perspective on where indy comics fit into the industry as a whole:

TFAW.com: Hi guys, thanks for sitting down and answering a few questions!

Matthew Warlick: Anytime, thanks for having us.

Vinh-Luan Luu: Not a problem; I have been really looking forward to it.

Jake Ekiss: Anytime!

TFAW.com: Why don’t you start by introducing yourselves? Tell us a little bit about who you are, your history with comics, etc.

MW: I’m Matthew Warlick. I’m an “independent” comic creator as well as freelance illustrator and art director. I’ve been in love with comics since I was about 10, when a friend let me borrow his New Mutants #93.

VVL: I’m Vinh-Luan Luu; I just go by Luan though. Confusing, I know. I’m a freelance graphic designer/illustrator by day and a comic book creator by night. Because of my experience and efficiencies, I’m mostly on the production end of things at Space-Gun Studios. I’ve been into comics since about the second grade; collecting my first issues with Jim Lee’s X-Men run.

JE: I’m Jake Ekiss, and I’ve been working on indy comics and webcomics for about 7 or 8 years now. My first big project was working with Vinh-Luan Luu on the webcomic Space-Gun. It was a gag-a-day strip that updated twice a week and ran for three years, roughly. Since then he and I founded Space-Gun Studios and joined other artists Paul Milligan, Evan Bryce, and Matthew Warlick. Our first big studio project was to put together the Synesthetic anthology. Since that I’ve done a number of indy and for-hire comic projects. My book for ICBW is the first full-length comic book that I’ve done solo as an indy creator.

TFAW.com: What inspired you to found Indy Comic Book Week?

MW: We were directly inspired by Kyle Latino’s “Deadline 09″ challenge, which made its way to us through some blog posts and online discussions. We thought it was a great idea and started brainstorming ways to hop on board. I came up with the snarky idea of calling it “No Comic Book Week,” and Luan came up with the much better “Indy Comic Book Week.” From there I set up the website and we started posting about it on Twitter, and it took off and became the beast it is today.

VVL: Paul Milligan came to us with a flyer/posting he got from his friend Edward Priddy, who in turn got it from Kyle Latino like Matt said. Oddly enough, I was in California at the time when I got this so what happened next all happened via emails, blogs, and tweets. Within two weeks, we go from the original email, to “No Comic Book Week,” which becomes “Indy Comic Book Week,” and my original blog post about it. The website and the twitter hashtag [#indycomicbookweek] soon followed; before we knew it we had emails from across the nation and even a few overseas. What started as a local Dallas-Fort Worth event turned into something massive; it has been really interesting to see the development happen through the twitters and blogs.

JE: Originally there was an article by Kyle Latino circulated that described both the Diamond Skip week and referred to it as “Deadline 09,” a time when Indy creators would have their works put on the shelves in place of the usual mainstream books. We had the idea at the studio to take the whole thing a bit further, and Matt went ahead and purchased the webspace for indycomicbookweek.com. We decided to turn the website and accompanying blog into a sort of hub for the event. People can go there to preview their work, find recourses for promotion, and find what retailers are supporting the event.

TFAW.com: Can you tell us a little bit about what Indy Comic Book Week involves?

MW: Originally it was going to be just a local Dallas event showcasing books by local talent. More than anything it was a good motivating force in the sense of having a hard deadline to produce some quality work. Once the website went up and a few local retailers hopped on board and started promoting, it really took off. It’s quickly become a nationwide platform for creators to promote their books and independent comics in general.

VVL: Indy Comic Book Week is about taking advantage of an opportunity. UPS is closing for an extra day, due to where the holidays land this year. So instead of dealing with the shipping fiasco of getting new books to shops on Wednesday after Christmas, Diamond decided to forgo the shipping and just have a “No Ship Week.” So we are taking advantage of that shipping loophole to fill in those gaps on the new release shelves that would usually hold Spider-Man or Superman.

TFAW.com: How long has Indy Comic Book Week been around?

MW: At this point it’s been around less than six months, since about late August. It’s really exceeded all of our expectations in terms of exposure and support.

JE: This will be our first year, though there is already talk of making it an annual event.

TFAW.com: What has the response been like so far this year?

MW: Overwhelming. The support from creators, retailers, and fans has been amazing.

VVL: Yeah, pretty overwhelming. What started out small where we could just call up creators or walk into a local comic shop has become a huge ordeal of coordinating information across the nation. Jake had to call up shops himself and figure out who’s in charge and if they’d like to participate. Nothing really difficult to do, but there’s a lot of shops and creators that wanted to jump on board.

JE: Thus far the response has been very positive. There’s been some hiccups just trying to get a solid system in place what with the brutally quick turnaround, but otherwise people have been universally supportive. Retailers to fans, we’ve gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback.

TFAW.com: How can creators participate?

MW: The “official submissions” are closed, unfortunately. With the event less than month away, we’ve had to stop adding creators to the site to focus on promoting our own books and the event in general. Creators can still talk to shops about carrying their books, and there’s a list of participating retailers on the site for just that reason. Creators can also promote their books through the Twitter hashtag “#indycomicbookweek.”

VVL: Yeah, with what Matt said, we are in what we dubbed “Phase Four” of ICBW. It is in these final weeks where we should be promoting the event to fans. At this point, creators should have their books done and are corresponding with retailers about carrying their books. Now we need to let the fans know about the event. Its about letting them know what’s going on, where to find these books, and why it’s a rocking event with things like in-store signings, specials deals on the day, live art events, and so forth. We the creators know why this is such a great event; we need to share that enthusiasm with the fans.

JE: The best way is to check the website out and get signed up on the blog. At this point it’s virtually impossible for people to put out new books, but folks who have books that were already coming out in December could always hop on board. Likewise, we’ve capped the official website for listing new people on the site proper, but the blog is still open for anyone who wants to sign up and show previews of books that will be on store shelves the week of the 30th.

TFAW.com: How can the average person get involved this year?

MW: By promoting the event and the site, by visiting the blog, and most importantly by going into shops on December 30th and checking out all the great independent books that they might not see otherwise. And if you find something you like, let your money do the talking, and be sure to let the retailers know you appreciate the chance to read indy books.

VVL: The size and reach of Indy Comic Book Week was really created via social networks like Facebook, Blogger, livejournal, and twitter. And we need to use those same methods to spread the news. We have a Facebook event up and the twitter hashtag #indycomicbookweek is really active. And of course come in on December 30th to your local shop and pick up a few great comics.

JE: The best thing people can do is spread the word about the event. We’re on Facebook, twitter, pretty much everywhere online, but word of mouth is still the best way to spread news. The more people that hear about the event and come out to support the indy books at their local shops, the better.

TFAW.com: Where do you think independent comics fit in today’s comics landscape?

MW: I think they play a large role, larger than most people might realize. There is some really creative, intelligent, and beautiful work being created that’s really pushing the medium forward. The stories are rich and powerful, and there is often no status quo to maintain, so you get some really interesting things you wouldn’t necessarily see in a book from the big four.

VVL: The great thing about indy books is the creative freedom. It’s a place where any creator can go and try out new things and tell different stories.

JE: Comics, particularly American comics, are experiencing something of a Renaissance right now. With the Net becoming more and more a viable platform for indy books and the print-on-demand companies becoming slowly more affordable, indy books are gaining more and more prominence.

I think a lot of the more creative ideas are coming out of the indy market, and I think that will continue. It’s also a great place in the industry for new guys to cut their teeth and really get some experience on how comics are put together. Nothing teaches you better than the experience of doing it yourself, and for the first time the average Joe really can put together a book completely on their own and see what it’s like.

TFAW.com: Do you think they’re more visible then they were, say, 10 years ago?

MW: Definitely. The success of Indy Comic Book Week speaks to that, as does the number of small press books, independent creators, and webcomics out there.

VVL: Oh, much more. I think with the rise of print-on-demand, the online market as both a means of sales and distributing content, and the various conventions across the nation, an indy creator can really make a viable home in that wide landscape. There is no need to wait for someone to get back to you; you can do it yourself, rock the market, and let them come to you.

JE: Definitely. The Web has been a big part of that. Combine the Web’s ability to give unlimited access with POD production, and it’s never been easier to produce an indy book. That means there’s a lot more indy work out there, and gradually it’s finding its way more and more onto store shelves.

TFAW.com: Do you think the rise of webcomics have helped get more eyes on independent comics, or are they something else entirely?

MW: I think webcomics are the best of both worlds. Those creators that succeed not only have an understanding of comics but also of the online world in general. They have a direct line to their audience and take a huge stake in their creations, and also prove that niche content can be very successful, if done right.

VVL: Of course they’ve helped. That’s because webcomics are independent comics, just in a different format. They have to create a story on a regular basis, find their fanbase, and figure out how to sustain themselves financially. At the core that is no different than any of the indy books out there on shelves. I think people see webcomics as different because the more successful ones right now are more strip-style comics; but there are webcomics out there that do a long-format story telling very well and those will start gathering more momentum soon.

JE: I think the two are like cousins in the same family. Webcomics tend to be a different format (although not always), but their rise has certainly paved the way for indy comic books. I think the two are entwined if not entirely representative of each other. Long-term indy comic books will have different challenges to face, but there’s no doubt the webcomic scene has affected them positively.

TFAW.com: Are any of you comic creators yourselves?

MW: I suppose I’m an “independent” comic creator, meaning I don’t have a Marvel or DC exclusive. Yet. I’ve done art and colors for some small press books, but mostly work on my own stuff while doing freelance design and art direction to pay the bills.

VVL: Yeah, I would consider myself a creator; though I am in more of a support role for the studio.

JE: In fact we all are, and several of us will have books out for ICBW. Mine is Solomon Azua, a sci-fi epic with cool spaceships, deadly aliens, and wicked tech.

TFAW.com: What do you like most about independent comics?

MW: I like the variety. If you can think of it, there is probably a creator out there doing it. Or trying to, at least.

VVL: The creative freedom they give creators who may want to tell a different story than what would be the norm.

JE: I think the best thing is the freedom and the responsibility. Doing a book on your own carries with it a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and knowing that you are in charge of it from start to finish means you have a lot of control over the quality and the little details that can make or break a book.

TFAW.com: What are your plans for future Indy Comic Book Weeks?

MW: I think we’ll see how this one goes first then revisit it. We’ve talked to some local retailers who are interested in helping grow the event for next year, so that’s a possibility. I think it all depends on how well everything goes come December 30th.

VVL: There has been talks about having this become an annual event. We have to see how this year’s event goes before addressing next year; there have been a few bumps here and there, so we have to figure out if those can be paved over or if we’d have to find another route.

JE: Right now we’re still focused on this year, but with so much enthusiasm I think it’s safe to say this idea will carry on somehow. What with the POD companies starting up their own distribution as well, it may become a much larger event the next time we do it.

TFAW.com: Apart from your own work (of course) what other independent creators would you recommend the novice indy reader check out?

MW: I’m definitely looking forward to the stuff from my studio mates Jake Ekiss and Paul Milligan. Green Monk looks awesome, and I’ll definitely be picking up a copy. Omnitarium looks great, as well.

VVL: I’ve gotten to see most of the studios’ books so far, and I think people will love them. One Night Stand looks to be pretty awesome.

JE: I’m really looking forward to the book Omnitarium myself. And of course I’ll recommend anything from the local Dallas crew. David Hopkins has a book called One Night Stand that’s geared towards the more mature reader that I’m really excited about.

TFAW.com: Thanks again!

MW: Thank you!

VVL: No problem! It was fun!

JE: Anytime!

Have you submitted your independent comic to TFAW.com yet? There’s just one week left! Are you planning to participate in Indy Comic Book Week and try some new comics? Post your comments below!

From the very beginning, Jericho has had dedicated, active fans–so much so that they convinced CBS to bring the canceled show back for a second season! Now Jericho’s beloved Rangers are back for a third season in comic book form. Read on to learn more!

TFAW.com: We are here with show writer/producer Dan Shotz and series editor Cody DeMatteis–thanks for taking the time to answer some questions, guys!

Dan Shotz: Our pleasure . . . we are so thrilled that Jericho Season 3: Civil War is finally here. We love seeing the Jericho story continue in comic book form, and we have a feeling the fans will be very pleased with what we’ve put out. The whole Jericho team from the show is involved in the creation of this comic book series and we are having a blast working with Devil’s Due Publishing to give the fans something truly special.

TFAW.com: Jericho was much loved by fans–so much so that they were able to bring it back to CBS for a second season after cancellation. What made you decide to bring it back as a comic?

DS: This has always been about the fans. They are so passionate and have inspired us to keep the story going. They made history when they brought the show back for a second season and we, the writers and producers of the series, wanted to continue the story for them in different ways. This story is very close to our hearts and we feel like we have so much more to tell.

TFAW.com: Where does Jericho Season 3 pick up, storywise? Of course, this series has “Civil War” right in the title. Can you tell us about that?

DS: We left Season 2 with a Civil War looming between the East and the West. And now we have the opportunity to show it. The first group of books will deal with the Civil War on the verge of breaking out and the repercussions of living in a potential war zone. Jake and Hawkins will be directly involved with the outcome of the war itself, while the Jericho citizens will be fighting a resistance from within the new Allied States.

TFAW.com: Dan, what was it like adapting Jericho from television to comics? Were there any particular challenges?

DS: As the writers of the first issue, Robert Levine and I found it very freeing. The comic book form allows us to go big without restrictions. When you are working on a TV series, we are limited by budget and time concerns. When you want a tank to arrive on set, it costs serious money. With a great artist, we can fill a base with a dozen tanks free of charge.

TFAW.com: Cody, were you a fan of Jericho before you started editing the comics? What things do you keep in mind to make sure the comics have the same “feel” of the series?

Cody DeMatties: I had been a fan of the series, right up until the cancellation. Given that the cliffhanger we were left with I was more than excited to be involved with this project. There are plenty of factors to making sure that the comic retains the same overall feel of the original show, but Dan has been a massive help in guiding the voice of the comic. He’s the one that ensures when fans pick up a copy of Jericho #1, they’re going to be more than satisfied.

TFAW.com: How well do you think this comic has recreated the characters and world of the TV series? For fans, will this be like getting a “real” Season 3?

CDe: As Dan noted earlier, with the comics, fans are going to be getting a bigger story. The scope of the Jericho world isn’t tied to budget anymore . . . the sky is the limit for where this can go. I feel that people are going to find the same dynamic, character-driven stories they’ve come to expect from Jericho, but with the freedom of the comics medium allowing for the exploration of aspects not possible on screen.

TFAW.com: How would you describe this comic to readers who’ve never seen the show?

DS: Jericho is a story about a world turned upside down by a coordinated terrorist attack that wiped out 23 American cities. As America is slowly trying to rebuild itself, the country we once knew is now split into different factions and they are each vying for control. But at the heart of the story, Jericho is about the citizens of a small town, who are making a difference on a grand scale. They are fighting back for what is true and right and will risk their lives to save their home.

TFAW.com: How did you choose the artist, Alejandro Giralbo? In the preview pages I’ve seen, it looks like he’s captured the likenesses of the actors really well.

CDe: I connected with Alejandro through Nutopia Agency. We got samples from a variety of artists, but he really nailed the feel we were going for with an added sense of realism. He’s a very talented guy . . . I feel we’ll be seeing more from him in the future.

TFAW.com: Are there going to be any relationship developments in Jericho Season 3, or is this mostly an action tale?

DS: When the writers of the series got together to break the story, we made sure that the book would feel like the show. While the show had high-quality action set pieces, it also had rich characters with strong emotional beats. We didn’t want to lose that multi-layered texture of the Jericho story. I think we found a good mix of exciting adventure with the deeply personal.

TFAW.com: Are there any surprises in store for fans that you can reveal?

DS: We have so many juicy pieces of candy in there for the fans. Don’t want to reveal too much. But I will say that all of the Jericho characters, the fan-favorites, make their way into the book.

TFAW.com: Jericho has such a committed, passionate fanbase–why do you think they relate to the show so strongly?

DS: While the show started with an enormous premise, a post-apocalyptic devastation, it’s connected with audiences because of the individual characters who were forced to realize who they were under the most extreme circumstances. The “what if?” scenario can be very powerful and emotional when you try to see yourself in that position. That concept is where this whole ride began . . . to create a community of citizens that would face adversity on every level and continue to survive. This idea continues to inspire us.

TFAW.com: After this six-issue miniseries has ended, are more story arcs planned?

CDe: We are in the process of discussing what is up next for DDP & Jericho . . . a few exciting ideas being passed around. We should have details soon. We want to keep telling stories in the Jericho universe as long as the fans will allow!

TFAW.com: Thanks again for you time–I’m looking forward to reading the comic!

Dan and Cody: Thank you very much.

Jericho Season 3: Civil War premieres today–make sure to pick up issue #1 now and pre-order issues #2-4 right now!

What do you think of the latest comic book adaptations of television series? Which others would you like to see? Post now or forever hold your peace!

TFAW.com: Hi Nick, thanks for talking with us.

Nick Percival: No problem–thanks for the opportunity.

TFAW.com: What can you tell us about Legends: The Enchanted’s premise?

NP: The book is set in a violent and decayed creature-infested world where strange technology, nature, and dark magic are in constant conflict. The story runs with the premise that many of the classic characters from folklore and fairytales have always existed. Known as the Enchanted, these people are now well into adulthood.

Feared and loathed by many, they spend their fractured existence as outlaws, vigilantes, bounty hunters and such, living their lives independently in an increasingly hostile world. The majority of these Enchanted have a mystic protective “charm” that allows them to sustain vast amounts of deadly physical damage yet still fully recover–they are virtually impossible to kill.

When the mutilated body of Pinocchio, (a huge supernatural “warrior man” made from bionics and wood) is discovered, they realize something or someone has found a way to break their charm and is now after them.

I really wanted the book to be a hard-as-nails, urban action-fantasy tale starting with a murder mystery and escalating into an ongoing battle for the very survival of the whole Enchanted.

Goldilocks and Bear

TFAW.com: What inspired you to create this graphic novel?

NP: Well, I’ve always been a massive fan of traditional folklore, and I originally came up with the story late 2002, all the time since then creating prototype character paintings and fleshing out the world and storyline as I worked on other projects. I loved how these characters’ origins and classic tales are dripping with dark subtext, violence, horror, dubious moral themes and bizarre conclusions.

Visually, it’s a genre that I’ve wanted to explore and felt I could bring a fresh spin on these well-known characters, giving them a gritty edge and emphasizing the conflicts they have between each other. They don’t all get on, and the idea of an action tale, set in this weird world along with the themes of warped technology and magic, are what inspired me to finally get stuck in and fully commit to the project.

As Radical became involved later down the line, we were looking at various formats for the story and decided an original graphic novel would be best, but with a preview issue #0 first, so people can get a good idea of what it’s all about and see the style of the book, the characters, and their world.

TFAW.com: What differentiates Legends from other series that center on similar subject matter, like Fables?

NP: It’s a good question, and one I’m sure will constantly come up. To be honest with you, I’ve never actually read Fables. Obviously, I’m aware of the series, and from what I have seen in various comic book mags and websites, on a purely visual level at least, Legends is massively different. I’m fully painting the whole story with very detailed artwork–my background is in painted comic books and cover artwork (2000 AD, Judge Dredd, Slaine, Marvel’s Dead of Night, etc.), and I also worked as a computer animation director for video games and TV, so I wanted to create a unique high-end slick look to Legends with the artwork, very cinematic in lighting but also taking advantage of what is unique to the comic book medium with certain storytelling devices, and so on.

Hansel

TFAW.com: Why did you choose a steampunk look for this book?

NP: There are certain steampunk elements to the look but mainly an urban post-apocalyptic feel with nature now starting to reclaim some of the environments. So we get ruined cities, weird science labs, strange vehicles and places, with a mix of heavy-duty industrial and gothic influences. One of my favorite locations is the Bionic Woodlands where Red Hood lives with her daughter. It’s a weird mix of twisted bio-mechanical trees and bizarre organic vines and living foliage–a very harsh-looking place.

TFAW.com: What are some of your favorite characters in this book?

NP: Wow. Probably too many to mention. The cast ranges from my version of Rapunzel, who can control her long unbreakable hair to strangle her enemies and in some cases rip their damn heads off. Hansel and Gretel are Paranormal Exterminators, Jack the Giantkiller is a kind of hero for hire–only works at dispatching Ogres, etc. for the right price. He swallows Magic Beans that each give him different powers for a limited amount of time. He’s a bit of a rogue and rides a souped-up motorcycle that uses Giant’s blood for fuel, so he’s quite cool. Humpty Dumpty is a crime gang lord who runs a seedy nightclub. We have the wolf creature hunter, Red Hood, whose relationship with her young daughter is a major, major part of the story.

TFAW.com: Which aspects of Legends do you think will surprise readers the most?

NP: I don’t think it looks like any other comic book on the market, so I’m quite pleased about that and I think readers will be pleasantly surprised at the take on these classic fairytale characters we’re all familiar with. I felt there was a lot of room to take the characters and really go to the extremes of what they could be, using their well-known back stories as great source material and weave some of that into the big plot of Legends but twisting those tales, ripping them apart and then stitching them back together again with a rusty needle and an added dose of visual steroids.

Jack the Giant Killer

TFAW.com: What are some of the major storylines you’ll pursue?

NP: We have the threat to the Enchanted, and the fact that they realize they can now be killed, which is obviously a very big deal for them and the result in that they have to work together for the first time as team, resolving any past conflicts and disputes they have. We’ll also see the larger picture and structure of their world and how it changes as a result of what is happening around them. Add to that a healthy mix of punk-rock Giants, twisted science, dark magic, big guns, cool motorcycles, super-powered magic beans, trolls, love, violence, tragedy, chainsaws, wild nature, booze, horror, telepathy, werewolves, strange nightclubs, beanstalks, cyber-witches, dumb monsters, explosions and bio-mechanical fairies. Hopefully, it’s like no fairytale you’ve ever seen.

TFAW.com: What will readers see in the #0 issue?

NP: It basically amounts to what would be the first chapter. We see the murder of Pinocchio and will be introduced to about two thirds of the cast. It also gives you a good look at the world they inhabit and the dangers they face. I’m hoping folks will at least give it a shot (hey, it’s only a buck!) and feel excited and intrigued enough to then pick up the graphic novel to get the full story.

TFAW.com: Is this a stand-alone graphic novel, or do you anticipate telling more Legends stories in the future?

NP: The graphic novel is a complete story, but it sets the scene for many future tales, which I’ve started to map out. Relationships change, and not every character makes it to the end of the book, while some evil elements still remain, so there are areas that would be ready for a sequel and more further down the line.

Pinocchio

TFAW.com: Where does Legends fit into your body of work?

NP: I started the book while I was still working on various comic book covers, collectible card artwork, and film concept and production art, but now that I’m in the later stages of the project, I’m working on it full time to get it finished. It’s definitely the best body of work I’ve done and the first thing I’ve solely created, written, and illustrated, which is great.

TFAW.com: What other projects are you excited about right now?

NP: After Legends, I’m developing a project with a very established Hollywood screenwriter and will see where that leads, as well as dabbling in another original project I’ve got cooking, and–hopefully, if all does well–more Legends material. I’ll probably continue with cover work and film stuff alongside that, but if I did return to non-creator-owned comics, I have a cool idea for a very dark, horror-themed Hulk story, so who knows . . . ?

TFAW.com: Thanks again!

NP: Cheers!

What do you think about incorporating steampunk, fairytales, and comics? Are you curious enough to check out Legends: The Enchanted #0? Post your comments and opinions below!

Having discovered the Logan’s Run novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson back in high school, I was pretty psyched to hear about this adaptation. It looks like this adaptation will stay true to the novel, rather than the 1976 movie starring Michael York.

I had the chance to interview William F. Nolan about the new adaptation, his plans for other series with Bluewater, and the state of a new Logan’s Run movie:

TFAW.com: It is nice to (virtually) meet you, Mr. Nolan.

William F. Nolan: Thanks, glad to (virtually) be here!

TFAW.com: We were really excited to hear about Logan’s Run: Last Day, the new comic book adaptation of your novel. How did the comic come about?

Nolan: My good friend and author/filmmaker Jason V. Brock (Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man) and his wife Sunni saw an article about Bluewater in the local Vancouver, WA paper. Jason does some agenting on my behalf and contacted Darren G. Davis, the president of Bluewater.

We scheduled a meeting at their offices in Vancouver, and they were very excited about the Logan property. Jason (who is also an artist and the Art Director/Managing Editor of Dark Discoveries magazine) and I assisted in working on the designs and costumes for some of the characters, which they are using in the final comic. Also, Jason had come up with a great storyline for a new Logan book we are outlining that uses the original book and expands on the backstory, updating it significantly.

That’s where Paul J. Salamoff comes in: he was chosen to adapt the novels into comic format, but none of us really wanted a “straight” adaptation of the books–it’s been done by MGM, Marvel, Malibu Graphics, and so on. It was time for a fresh take on Logan. Paul was perfect for the job. Not to mention that the four of us–Darren, Paul, Jason, and myself–all work well together and have gotten to be friends.

TFAW.com: Logan’s Run isn’t a stranger to comics. Other publishers have done mini-series adaptations over the years. Is there something special in today’s world that prompted you to move forward with an adaptation?

Nolan: I was not happy with Marvel or Malibu’s versions. I very much disliked the art in the Malibu edition, though they were faithful to the books. As far as the Marvel version, it was just too “superhero”: Logan is a real character, not a superheroic one, and I was never that pleased with it. In addition, they were really adapting the MGM movie, which is flawed, not the book that I wrote with George Clayton Johnson.

Given the current trend of Hollywood getting interested in comic book works, I feel that this is the perfect time to get a really great version of Logan out there . . . and this is the one.

TFAW.com: To what degree are you involved with the Bluewater Productions adaptation of Logan’s Run?

Nolan: I have final creative say-so over the artwork and storyline, as well as writing for some of the other titles we have planned.

TFAW.com: Will Paul Salamoff be staying pretty close to the original story or have you given him some freedom to move about in the world you’ve created?

Nolan: Paul is working off the outline that we provided, but has added a couple of elements. He is actually being faithful to the first two books (Logan’s Run and Logan’s World) at the start of the series. All of us are excited about the directions that we could go after these first six or so issues.

TFAW.com: What has Daniel Gete brought to the table in terms of art for Last Day?

Nolan: His work is very good. Jason and I both like his rendering and layouts a lot. His vision is in concert with ours: strong and direct–perfect for Logan.

TFAW.com: For someone who might only be familiar with the 1976 film version of Logan’s Run, what differences can they expect to see in the comic?

Nolan: We wanted as many things as possible to be different from the film, for legal and artistic reasons. We went back to the source material as much as possible, and built on that. You’ll see very soon!

TFAW.com: Awhile back, I heard that the series was scheduled for 24 issues. Is that still the case?

Nolan: Yes, 24 issues is correct. We have a lot planned for the series.

TFAW.com: Are you planning on working with Bluewater Productions on any other series?

Nolan: Yes. I signed on to do have an adaptation done of Sam Space, my future-noir character, for a run of four to six issues, and Dark Universe, a run of six issues utilizing my horror stories as source material. I am slated to adapt at least two of these, and Jason Brock has been tapped to adapt three of my stories.

TFAW.com: There have been whispers of a remake of the Logan’s Run movie. Are there any plans to move forward on a film project?

Nolan: It’s more than a whisper–it’s been in “pre-production” for 13 years! Joel Silver is involved, as well as Bryan Singer, among others. They still plan on making it, but when . . . that is the question. We’re hoping that the direction that we plan on taking the comics will light a little fire under Hollywood, as well as give them a bit of direction for a possible way of doing justice to the spirit of the books. It is a great candidate for a remake, as the technology has improved dramatically since 1976 and they could really do a lot with it.

TFAW.com: One last question: At TFAW.com, we’re always looking for ways to go above and beyond for our customers . . .

Nolan: I think I know what you mean . . . would you like some signed copies of the comics? I’m sure Darren would be happy to supply some for you guys, and I love to sign for fans! How about 15 or so copies for you guys?

TFAW.com: Absolutely. I think our readers would like that very much. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us about Logan’s Run: Last Day, and thanks for signing some books for us!

Nolan: No problem: any time!

—————-

You heard what the man said, we’re getting 15 signed books, and we’re offering them up to 15 random people who pre-order any Logan’s Run: Last Day issue by 1/24/10. Winners will be announced in the TFAW.com Newsletter on 1/28/10!

In the meantime, check out the four-page first look and whet your appetite. ;0)

TFAW.com: Hi Sebastian, thanks for talking with us!

Sebastian Jones: Hi, it is nice to be spoken to!

TFAW.com: Tell us the story of The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer.

SJ: Our tale takes place in the hellhole Town of Oasis. It’s a one-horse haven for killers and thieves hidden in the Desert of the Dying Tree, all within the vast and volatile world of Asunda.

Asunda is a brutal fantasy universe of epic proportions I have spent twenty-some years creating. Even though Asunda is inhabited with Elves, Dwarfs, and Sorcerers, I wanted to have my “Hobbit” be a simple, yet dark and gritty tale of atonement for past sins by any means necessary.

Here’s the pitch: The initial story line revolves around a lone Stranger, taking that “Clint Eastwood” drifter’s walk across the sweeping desert towards the Town of Oasis. Ten years ago he ran the town with malice and harshness. As his wife and child were on the verge of turning him [toward good], they were murdered, and so was he.

This Stranger is then offered a deal to get out of hell. He is granted seven days to reap seven souls and gain a chance at revenge. Conflict arises as a young girl reminds him of his murdered daughter. She acts as his conscience and becomes his only hope for salvation.

TFAW.com: What inspired this comic?

SJ: I mentioned Clint Eastwood, but I could easily have said Toshiro Mifune. I have always been inspired by these classic films, where our anti-heroes are uncompromising but often flawed men. So I really try and bring that mood and atmosphere to the storytelling, which art director Darrell May and artist Peter Bergting convey so well.

Peter’s stunning and vivid paintings draw you into each panel like a Sam Peckinpah or Sergio Leone frame. You can smell the blood and liquor that lingers in the air, and feel the sand sting your eyes. Peter Bergting is a master and I am honored to work with him. Plus he’s a damn good cook!

However, the true inspiration for the tale is my son, and wanting to be a better father. Always. I think most men can relate. Because I am a gamer, and a dreamer, it was easy for me to set the story within Asunda. Our tales will focus on the raw condition of man and woman, as opposed to the classic fantasy tales of questing for magic rings. (Although we do have magic rings!)

And finally, I always thought how cool would it be to see two dudes with swords in cloaks square off like gunfighters. Now that rocks!

TFAW.com: Who are the Kraven?

SJ: The Kraven are a rogue’s guild of vicious mercenaries that pass for law in the Town of Oasis. They’re comprised of wicked men, tainted Galemren (Wild Elves), and a mute Grachukk (Orc) named Kersheg. Again, if we were watching a Leone flick, the villains would be a mix of whitey gringos, banditos, and perhaps a turncoat Native Indian.

They are the Sopranos of the town, and when the Stranger was alive, he was the Tony Soprano. When you dive into the story, this savage bunch is led by Phylax and Lariel. The former is Stranger’s jealous older brother, whereas Lariel is his jealous mistress. Trouble.

TFAW.com: Where does Niobe fit into the story?

SJ: The ultimate question! She is the soul of our story. Her purity offers the Stranger a second chance at being a good man. Her innocence cleaves through the darkness, and the thorns that shroud the Stranger’s heart.

There is a lot to discover about Niobe that I don’t want to spoil, but she radiates a destiny that represents everything good in the world.

TFAW.com: Is your protagonist good, bad, or both? Why is he so set on revenge?

SJ: He and his family were murdered. I’m sure that would tick off most folk

To me, the Stranger is the raw epitome of man with all his flaws and redeeming qualities on maximum volume for all to see and judge. We will love him or hate him for his deeds, and sometime both. He is so driven and focused to avenge his family’s death, he is willing to do bad things. It is the journey he takes that will open his vision to salvation. We hope he makes the right choice.

I am sick of the prototypical good guy, and even the supposed gray-area anti-heroes of today, with their waxed eyebrows and perfect weaves. I was raised on Woody Strode and Robert Mitchum. William Holden and Ernest Borgnine in The Wild Bunch.

Imagine dudes like that with swords instead of six shooters. And being born and raised in England, if I hear one more affected England accent in a fantasy flick I am going to chop my own foot off and beat someone with it!

TFAW.com: If he escapes Hell, what then?

SJ: The sequel. Essessa, our beautiful and murderous Vorkas Vampire, might just come calling. Can’t say too much more about Essessa, except she is our smoking hot Darth Vader.

TFAW.com: What has been the most surprising part of founding a comic book publisher?

SJ: It is expensive! Perhaps, just a tad more than I realized. And, as we are a green company, the recycled paper we print on costs a lot more. Unbelievable!

The workload is brutal. I work seven days (for seven souls) a week, mornings through night. My family sacrifices more than anyone so they deserve the credit for our company, which is attempting to bloom in a very harsh climate.

However, it is ultimately rewarding to share our books with the people on the street. Sounds cliché, but that feeling rocks! And the feedback has been tremendous.

TFAW.com: What kind of books will Stranger Comics specialize in?

SJ: We have three brands under our banner. The aforementioned Asunda, (our fantasy universe); Arcane Imagination (children’s stories/folklore/faerie tales); and Black Eye Dog Studios (tales for film/and other worlds).

TFAW.com: What comics do you read? What are your influences?

SJ: And I still go back to Kingdom Come and Watchmen . . . mmmnnn . . . Jack Kirby is my biggest influence. “This Man This Monster,” probably inspired me more than any other comic book. The depth of emotion and sacrifice to this piece spoke volumes to me.

Other books, writers, and artists include Stan Lee, Sal Buscema, Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, Afua Richardson, and our own Peter Bergting, Steph Stamb, and Hyoung Taek Nam. Plus, keep a look out for Darrell May, Christopher Garner, Sheldon Mitchell, and Tomo. These cats keep me inspired.

TFAW.com: How many issues with The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer be?

SJ: Seven issues. Seven days. Seven souls.

We hope to have our stuff animated like issue #1 [check out the preview below, directed by Sebastian and produced by Ken Locsmandi (The Matrix/Fight Club) and Filmworksx (Apocalypto/Zohan)].

TFAW.com: Thanks again!

SJ: Thank you!

Make sure to check out our First Look of The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer #1. You can also enter to win one of three sets of issues #1 and #2, plus the variant of issue #1, each signed by Sebastian Jones and artist Peter Bergting right here.

So what do you think of the premise of The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer? Are you excited to see what comes next from Stranger Comics? Post your comments below!

If you’ve been keeping an eye on comic news lately, you’ve probably heard whispers (and shouts) about 45, an intriguing title from Com.X that hits shelves on December 23rd. And if you’re anything like me, you read the praise for this title, such as in the November 2009 issue of Wizard where 45 is listed at #17 on the list of “Top 50 Things You Need To Buy,” and you started to get more than a little excited.

First off, there’s the premise–a journalist expecting his first child, who may or may not be super-powered, interviews 45 super-powered individuals from every walk of life to get an idea of what he might expect. And then things begin to get complicated. But beyond this intriguing idea, there is something else that sets 45 apart. Each and every vignette is illustrated by a different artist, for a total of 45 artists, including seasoned industry veterans and hotshot up-and-comers, contributing to one book.

Are you starting to see why we’re so excited? Well then, here’s the coup de grace: we have an exclusive interview with Andi Ewington, writer of 45 (his debut title, if you can believe it), giving TFAW.com’s viewers the lowdown on what we can expect and a hint to the mysterious identity of the 45th artist.

Want to win a copy of the book signed by the writer and many of the artists? Of course you do! Just leave your guess as to the identity of the mystery artist in our comments, and you’re entered to win. We’ll choose one winner (at random) from the correct answers. Watch and enjoy.

CHECK OUT 45

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

What do you think about this title? Any guesses regarding the mystery artist? Post them below!

TFAW.com recently had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Erika Moen, a local Portland cartoonist who recently self-published DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary Volume 1, a collection of her web comic, DAR. Packed full of the details of her life, from the mundane–working in data entry to support her art–to the controversial–a self-identified “queer” woman, she married a man last year–to the downright gross (farting!), DAR is hilarious, endearing, and always fascinating, as is Moen herself:

CHECK OUT DAR: A SUPER GIRLY TOP SECRET COMIC DIARY

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Questions? Comments? Post them below!

Full of humor, pathos, and a truly unique supernatural elements, Locke & Key has been nominated for an Eisner, and two story arcs, Welcome to Lovecraft and Head Games, are available as graphic novels. The first issue of the third arc, Crown of Shadows, will be released from IDW on November 25. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be able to speak with the very enthusiastic Joe Hill and pick his brains about where Locke & Key is headed, and what he’s liking from the horror genre in general:

TFAW.com: Where did the genesis of Locke & Key come from? What inspired it?

Joe Hill: Basically, the long-form genesis of Locke & Key is, I had written three or four novels that I was never able to sell, including one that I had spent three years on, and it was a total heartbreaker. I sent it to every publisher in the US and Canada and England, big press and small press, and everyone turned it down. So I was a really unsuccessful writer, and the only thing I had had any luck with was my short stories, and there wasn’t any money in short stories, and it’s not like many people read them. But there are some passionate short story fans, and I had written some good ones and had won a couple prizes, and got in a year’s best collection.

A talent scout at Marvel Comics had spotted one of these stories and had got in touch with me and asked if I had any interest in writing about men in tights hitting each other, and I thought it sounded pretty great to me. So I wound up writing a one-shot, an 11-page Spider-Man story, that’s easily the most horrendous thing I’ve ever had published, it’s just a terrible piece of writing. Basically, I choked. I blew it. I really wanted to do well, and wound up not doing a very good job. And the funny thing is, it sold pretty well, because it was saved by the art. The late Seth Fisher did the illustrations, and he made what wasn’t funny very funny, and what wasn’t tense very suspenseful, and so he kind of saved my ass on it.

It was a strange experience, because I knew I hadn’t done a very good job, but I found the act of writing a comic script strangely addictive, and I had always had a comic book imagination. Most of my favorite writers were writers who had come out of comic books. Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman. And a lot of my most important reading experiences had been in comic books, whether it was Watchmen, or Swamp Thing, or Dark Knight Returns, or Sandman. Like a lot of men of my age, I think for a whole generation of writers, the Vertigo imprint loomed large in our imaginations. So I didn’t do a very good job with the Spider-Man story, but the hook was in, and I wanted to redeem myself and do something better and keep writing in comics, so I came up with all these pitches, and I sent them around, and nothing ever happened with them. No one was much interested.

One of the concepts was for a kind of off-kilter haunted house story called Locke & Key, which involved this family settling into an old New England home, which was full of keys with unnatural powers attached to them. And that idea wouldn’t leave me alone for years afterward. I would keep thinking about it, sometimes having new ideas about characters, and keys, and events that could happen, and eventually I had some good luck, and my first book of stories came out, and I sold my first novel, and around that time, Chris Ryall at IDW got in touch with me about maybe adapting some of my short stories into comic books, and I came back to him and said, “Wait, I think I have something better.” And that was Locke & Key.

TFAW.com: One thing that really sets Locke & Key apart from other horror comics is it’s as much a family drama as it is a horror tale. What attracted you to that combination?

JH: One thing that often happens, when people do a horror movie, or a frightening TV show, or a horror comic, one mistake which often gets made is, there’s a big focus on the supernatural element and on the bad guy, but there’s no effort made to make the main characters likeable and unique and sympathetic. A lot of times they’re just types, and this is why so many of the slasher films are such a joke, why everyone laughs at them. Cause, you know, the teenagers in a Friday the 13th movie have all the emotional power of a paper target in a shooting gallery. No one really cares about them, they’re just there to be struck down by Jason.

For me, the first step to making a successful horror story is making sure the characters matter and are emotionally real and unique. You want the reader to invest in those characters and care about them, because then, when the guy shows up in the hockey mask, they’re really frightened for the main character, as opposed to just waiting to see how they get cut down.

So my intention was always to slow the pace down a little bit and focus on character as best as possible, and try to get the reader engaged in who these people are and see them as unique human beings, as opposed to types. But I think that’s true not just in horror–that’s true in every sort of storytelling. The first key element of telling a story that people care about is engaging them, making sure that they invest emotionally in the characters in the story. Because if you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.

TFAW.com: So Dodge is the ghost or the demon form of teenager Lucas Caravaggio. What was Lucas like? Was he always evil, and was he ever actually a teenager?

JH: In one sense, Dodge is the resurrection of Lucas Caravaggio. In another sense, he’s something quite a bit more, and quite a bit different. And we’re sort of revealing his true nature in the very first issue of Crown of Shadows.

You know, I was a big X-Files fan. Loved the X-Files, and I loved the first couple of seasons of Lost, but I think one problem with ongoing series, one way they sometimes go bad is they keep piling on the mystery. They keep piling on the questions. And after awhile there’s too much mystery. They raise more questions than they could ever possibly hope to answer. And so one thing I’m committed to with Locke & Key is making sure that when I raise a question, I have an answer, instead of continuously heaping on mystery after mystery. In each arc, some of the major questions get answered, so hopefully when we come to the end of this thing, the very final page of the very final issue, it will be about tying up the story for a final emotional resolution, as opposed to cleaning up messes. That would be terrible. No one wants to be in that kind of situation.

So in the very first issue of Crown of Shadows, one of the things that will be revealed is why Dodge is the way he is, and why he’s capable of such terrible things. Especially considering that once upon a time, Lucas Caravaggio was actually a heroic figure. Not a bad guy at all, but one of the best of the good guys, which is pretty strange to think about, considering how we met him and what he’s done since we’ve got to know him. In many ways, Dodge was as likable as Kinsey or Tyler.

TFAW.com: Speaking of Kinsey, in Head Games, she literally removed her fear and her ability to cry from her brain. Would that essentially lead her down the same road that Lucas went?

JH: I’m not gonna say anything about where Kinsey’s headed as a character, looking ahead. I will say that, one of the things that I think is important when you’re telling a fantasy story or a horror story, is that it’s more satisfying for readers if that element of fantasy somehow raises bigger questions about real life.

So in the case of Kinsey losing her fear and her ability to cry, it’s an exaggerated look at what happens anyway to a lot of teenagers. At some point in high school, kids will often become very reckless, and develop a willingness to engage in very dangerous behavior, and take risks that they should probably know better about. So now we have that with Kinsey in exaggerated form, and it’s just an interesting way to look at a very common passage for most teenagers–a very common life passage.

TFAW.com: Can you tell us more about the questions that will be answered in Crown of Shadows?

JH: Let’s see. Well, we’re going to see a lot more of what makes Dodge tick. And we’re going to find out a little bit more about Sam Lesser. And we’re going to learn a little bit more about the Omega Key, which opens the black door. I don’t want to give it away–I want to avoid saying too much and telegraphing what we’re going to do. What I will say is there’s a big reveal on the last page of the last issue, and we’ll get an answer to one of the big questions that has been hanging around the story.

TFAW.com: Can you tell us whether Sam is there as an agent of Dodge or if he has his own agenda?

JH: Well, I’ll say this. When we first met Sam, Sam was being sort of manipulated by Dodge, and Sam is sort of a pathetic, frightening character, although I like to think it’s possible to have some sympathy for him, even though he’s committed terrible acts. But when we meet him again, his relationship with Dodge is going to be radically changed.

TFAW.com: I’ve heard that Locke & Key is going to be six miniseries. Do you think it could continue past that, or is that the end?

JH: Well, once I tell the story of Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, I’ll be done with that. That doesn’t necessarily mean there will never be any more Locke & Key stories, but I will have told the story I want to tell. It’s important to remember that when I started Locke & Key, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was still very green with this, I had only written three 11-page comic book stories, and when I did it, I had two notions. One was that it could be a continuing thing that would run somewhere between 36 and 48 issues. And I had a lot of the story plotted out. But I also wasn’t sure it would succeed–it could have tanked, or been a big bomb–so I also had a plan for six issues, and then if this thing had completely tanked, I had an escape hatch where I could finish the story in another six issues. And it wouldn’t have been very good, but it wouldn’t have been shameful, either.

Fortunately the comic did well, it’s been well received, it’s continued to build its readership, so I get to do the daydream, and I get to explore these stories in a very full kind of way. It’s taken me a little bit of thinking to figure out how many issues it’s going to take to tell the story, but I don’t like it when things are stretched out. So it’s possible that the series could go as many as 48 issues, but I’m aiming for 36, and I think it’s possible. I think I can tell everything I need to tell in 36. We’re going to see, though.

TFAW.com: What was it like switching from writing prose to scripting comics?

JH: I find writing comic book scripts incredibly addictive. I think it’s because the comic book form really plays to my strengths as a writer, while sort of hiding my weaknesses. It allows me to play with big, weird concepts and to build stories around dialogue and action, and I don’t have to worry about the stuff that really makes me sweat, stuff I really fret over as a novelist and short story writer–the sound of my prose, and finding a balance between description and forward motion. Because comic books are all about forward motion. Every comic book has the gas pedal pushed to the floor. As a writer and as a reader, I love that.

Another thing that attracted me to comics is I felt it would be an extension to something I had already figured out. I had already figured out how to write a pretty good short story, so I felt that comic books would offer me a chance to expand on that, maybe with a larger audience. I feel like the first really successful script I wrote was the first issue to Welcome to Lovecraft.

TFAW.com: Do you think you will stick with horror in the future, or will you branch out to other genres?

JH: I don’t know, exactly, that’s a hard one to answer. One thing is, because I do do other kinds of writing, I’ve always got a novel, I’ve always got a couple short stories I want to work on, so I try to strike a balance. I don’t think I’ll ever be carrying four or five comics at once. I’ve never been a guy who’s really hung up on cape stories. It’s been years and years since I followed the continuing adventures of super anything. I read a lot of comics–I generally read about a comic a day. But the comics I tend to read are Ed Brubaker’s Criminal and Darwyn Cooke’s Parker, Wormwood. It’s very rarely the superhero stuff. So I don’t know. But I love to write stories that have a big engine in them. I like to write stories that are suspenseful. I like the keep the gas pedal down, so I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll always write horror comics, but it’s important that there always be an element of suspense.

TFAW.com: This interview is for horror month, and there’s been a big upswing in horror lately, in movies, and TV, and things like that. What are you attracted to in horror stories in general?

JH: I like when there’s something fresh. I like going and seeing something new and unexpected. I think that what makes Zombieland such a blast of a film, is that the suspense and the action are tense and very well paced, but it also takes the audience in very startling and unexpected directions. I don’t need a rehash of something I’ve already had. So that’s one thing I look for.

And you know, it returns us to where we started our conversation: I also look for a character I can latch into. If I really care about that main character, I will read almost anything. So Zombieland was great. The remake of The Last House on the Left was pretty awesome. It’s brilliant, and very upsetting. It was cool because no one called it in. No one treated it like they were making trash. They all acted like they were in a straight drama, and it made it much more intense. So that was good.

In terms of what’s going on in comics, I like a lot of the crime stuff that’s going on right now. I really like what Ed Brubaker is doing. I think Criminal is great, and I liked Incognito a lot. He’s put together a great body of work.

TFAW.com: Well, thanks so much Joe!

JH: Bye!

If you haven’t checked out Locke & Key yet, be sure to browse Welcome to Lovecraft and Head Games, and make sure to pre-order Crown of Shadows now to get 20% off!

What’s your take on the horror genre? Any other questions we should have asked Joe Hill? Post them below!

You’ve seen Part 1–now enjoy Part 2 of our interview with Andrew Migliore, founder of Portland, Oregon’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Here, he talks about some of his notable guests from the past, and what he hopes to accomplish with the festival in the future:

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We’ve had some excellent footage from the 2009 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulucon, an annual celebration of classic horror, movies, comics, literature, and more in Portland, Oregon. Now we have the first of a two-part interview with fest founder Andrew Migliore of Lurker Films! He talks about the genesis of the festival 14 years ago and what he has planned for the future:

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In honor of Horror Month, artist Todd Herman sat down with us and talked about his upcoming trade paperback, Fall of Cthulhu: Nemesis, out October 28. Herman has been working in comics for years, popping up in high-profile horror projects like Cut, written by Dark Horse Comics’ publisher, Mike Richardson, and The Fog, with his fellow horror aficionado Scott Allie.

While he’s been a working cartoonist for a long time–with forays into animation at Will Vinton Studios–he has really ramped up this year with several projects with Boom! Studios, including the pirate-western Galveston and the latest chapter of the popular Fall of Cthulhu series. Watch the video below to eavesdrop on our conversation about essential elements of horror and how Herman went from a comics fan to a working artist:

Here, Todd talks about his favorite horror movies, including John Carpenter’s The Fog and Spielberg’s Poltergeist, as well as offer tips for aspiring artists:

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The always-entertaining Willingham took us through his journey to Angel, why he thought the TV series ended perfectly, and what’s coming up for Fabletown. Read on!

TFAW.com: Hi Bill, thanks for talking to us. What attracted you to Angel at IDW?

Bill Willingham: Well, he’s a handsome man! No, at this point in my career, it’s more about finding people I want to work with, and there are some decent blokes over there, including Mariah Huehner, who used to be Shelly Bond’s assistant when we started Fables. So I’d worked with Mariah before in the past and I found out a couple of years ago that she’d gone out to San Diego and was now at IDW, and we’d spoken about, “Someday let’s do something together again,” and with her and with IDW and with some other publishers, those “Somedays” kept piling up, to where I thought that maybe I should let my DC exclusive go for a year or so, and start to retire some of those “Someday we’ll do something” obligations that had been hanging over my head forever. And so when I got my freedom back from DC, she and Chris Ryall called up, and they said, “Why don’t you write Angel for awhile?”

Now I love some of the work that Joss Whedon had done–Buffy and Angel, and Firefly in particular–and the idea of coming to play in his sandbox for awhile, courtesy of folks I’d wanted to work with anyway, was a nice combination. Too nice a combination to pass up.

TFAW.com: Had you been a fan of the Angel TV show before you took the job?

BW: Yeah, and that was actually a conflict, because Buffy was good, and it ended well, but the Angel series ended as perfectly as any of that kind of show should end. They’ve finally finished off the big baddie, at some great sacrifice, and they meet in an alley, and they find an entire army of ghoulies that they’re going to have to deal with that they couldn’t possibly survive.

And the implication is, of course, that these guys went out fighting. Kind of a Viking-esque tone to it, in the sense of, “Let me die with a sword in my hand.” And that was it; that was the end of the series: “Okay, let’s get to work.” And I thought that was just a marvelous, marvelous way to end it. So there was a part of me that was conflicted, because after a moment like that, you can puncture it by trying to tell what happened next.

Had I been offered the Angel book right from that moment, I would have turned it down. There was just no way to tell that story in any kind of satisfying way. But someone else had done it, some time had passed, and now you kind of take it with, “Okay the characters have gotten to this point, it’s done, regardless, so why not go ahead and pick it up?”

TFAW.com: Now that Angel and company are back from Hell, the book and the team seem to be in a period of rebuilding. What’s going to happen with “The Crown Prince Syndrome”?

BW: Well, for one thing, that’s the title of just that first issue only. It’s titled “The Crown Prince Syndrome” because one of the unreasonable demands I made, in return for considering doing this, was there were certain things to stay away from. One of the things that I was determined not to do was have the character of Connor betray his dad again, because he just did it so often. Maybe we should have him finally start growing up, say, “Okay, I keep doing things, I keep dropping my dad to the bottom of the sea, or turning him over to his worst enemy, or having an affair with the demon goddess who’s trying to destroy the world just to spite my dad.”

At some point in the growing-up process, you go through a time of acting out, but eventually, you want to grow up and become a more wise and contributing member of society, or you continue to be that kind of tantrum-y fellow–in which case, you’re a psychopath who belongs in prison, or worse. I wanted to go the other way, in that he’s wised up.

The whole idea of “The Crown Prince Syndrome” is, Connor is the crown prince of Angel Enterprises. Angel is the guy, and if he were to disappear, Connor is the next guy in line. So that’s what I did. The story arc in which this takes place is called “Immortality for Dummies.” It’s all about how in the wake of this whole return from Hell thing, in which the universe was kind of reset, but everyone still has their memories: everyone knows what they did in an alternate reality. They know that their next-door neighbor turned out to be a complete s#!t who sold his own children to the devil, or all of these bad things that happened.

So, what you have is a paranoid and suspicious city. I mean, imagine, if you will, being able to look at anyone you know, and know what their deepest, darkest thoughts were–what they’re capable of. When the chips are down, here’s what their character will reveal. And everyone knows this about everyone! And so that’s an interesting place to set the story.

I think LA, with that as a premise, is much more hellish than actually being in Hell. If you’re actually in Hell, you can say, “This is really bad, but let’s band together and make the most of it, and try to get out of it.” But if you have this sort of situation, where no one has actually done anything, but you know what everyone can, or will, or under certain circumstances would have done, that’s a pretty dire setting. So that appealed to me. And Angel is famous now; everyone knows that he’s a vampire.

The “Immortality for Dummies” thing comes from the fact that this is also LA/Hollywood land: a vampire is immortal, and his looks are never going to fade. LA is full of stars and starlets that want 300-year movie careers, and so someone kidnaps Angel to have him work for them as a living immortality factory, producing vampires. Now this story has kind of been done before, but we’re doing a new twist on it, and I don’t want to give it all away, but the company that does this, Immortality Incorporated, is cognizant of that fact that if you just make a vampire out of someone, then they have no soul and they turn into a monster-demon.

One of the benefits of knowing all this stuff about Hell is they know how all of this works. So they set up a situation where they’re going to recreate the whole Angel thing and create vampires with guaranteed, bonafide souls. And there’s a lot of gobbledegook, but the upshot is, that’s why they specifically need Angel to do the turning; no other vampire would quite work. And so, they kidnap him, and they do it in such a way that the rest of Angel Investigations, the team, doesn’t know it happened. Being Angel, they assume that he just met some new girl and he’s off with her for a week or so, being all typically morose and pouty, and, “We can never be together because of this tragic person I am,” so they’re not worried.

But Connor steps up, and says, “Okay, it’s my Dad’s company, he’s away, and I’m going to run the business,” and we’re going to see how that works out. So we have to two storylines: how’s Angel going to get out of his little problem of creating a world of rich and celebrity vampires, and how is Connor going to do running the show.

TFAW.com: Are Kate, Dez, and Gwen still part of the team?

BW: I think I’ve got the whole team there. We have Gunn, we have Illyria, not Fred–that’s the other thing. You might as well let the readers know, because this is sort of burned in, that we are not having the return of Fred. Illyria the demon is in that shape, but Fred’s gone and not coming back.

But yeah, it’s Gunn, it’s Illyria, it’s Spike, it’s Dez, James–the sort of half-fallen angel–and Kate, and George, the telepathic fish. I think I’ve got them all in there. Pretty much the whole gang. We’ll have it shake out. They’ve got a lot of Angel projects going, so in the main series I wanted to keep the cast as big as possible, so when characters are leached off for various miniseries and solo adventures, it doesn’t completely gut the core cast for the regular book.

TFAW.com: Are you going to deal with the fractured relationship between Gwen and Connor?

BW: Right out of the box, no, because Gwen is off doing something else, but she will probably get folded back into the cast. But there is going to be a little thing between Angel’s son and possibly everyone else, that they realize that Connor has this problem of picking up dad’s girls.

It may just be a running joke: when Angel gets involved with someone, asking Connor, “Can you leave this one alone, son?” We’re going to have a little fun with stuff like that. If it was all just going out and fighting monsters, that would get a little bit tedious, so you have the fun and personal relationships, and hopefully in the kind of quirky, acerbic, slightly distorted worldview that the Whedonverse is so capable of doing.

TFAW.com: With Gunn back on the team, does that mean he’s redeemed? What’s his relationship going to be like with the other members?

BW: Strained. If there’s a theme behind the whole group, it’s that they’re all broken, fallen characters. And there was this lovely, funny story arc in the Drew Carey Show, where it was done as a complete comedy and farce, where Drew and his misfit friends were actually sentenced by a judge to only be friends with each other, because the rest of society is protected, because those guys are a thing unto their own. That’s almost how I look at it, in that these people only deserve each other, in the sense that they’re all broken, they’re all, in many ways, a reflection of Angel himself: trying to be a decent person with lots and lots of baggage to overcome. So yes, Gunn fits in just perfectly on that point, doesn’t he?

TFAW.com: Yes! So, is Joss himself involved in this story arc?

BW: No. I mean, I don’t speak to him at all after that incident that one time . . .

TFAW.com: What incident?

BW: I’m making it up. I assume at some point he becomes aware of this, and if I’m going too far off the beaten track, that he might mention something, but so far, it seems to be smooth sailing.

TFAW.com: What’s it like working with Brian Denham? I haven’t seen any of his artwork for Angel yet.

BW: Brian and I have known each other since our respective careers began, when we were both just wannabe hot young turks breaking into the business. I have wanted to work with him for as long as I’ve known him, and I knew him from just when he started getting work, when he was working in a comic shop, and after 20-plus years, it’s finally worked out that we get to.

He draws like a dream and he does the one thing that in a comic like this is essential: he’s drawing Angel and the various characters on model, so you can recognize the likenesses that they came from, but he doesn’t do that thing where you’re working from publicity photos, where there’s this very cartoony style, and then there’s this very well-rendered, real person’s head stuck on these bodies. That’s always a story-disengagement problem when you have it.

What he does is with a few deft lines, he gets the essence of the character, but it fits right into his style, so there aren’t these glaring instances of, “Oh, there’s David Boreanaz’s head on that body!” He’s just note-perfect at that. So I’ll call attention to that. The readers are going to find various other reasons to just love his work when they start seeing it. I’m pretty happy with how the first issues we’re doing are turning out.

TFAW.com: Moving on to Fables, that has also taken a horror bent, with the recent story arc, “The Dark Ages,” and Mister Dark. What’s going to be happening with Mister Dark?

BW: Well, Mister Dark is not a nice fellow, I think we’ve established that. Boy, I sure hope so. If not, my skills in this funnybook business need serious reconsideration. He’s going to be the villain for awhile, it’s not going to be an easy fix. Indirectly or directly, he’s caused more calamity to the Fables than The Adversary did, in the sense that The Adversary was sort of responsible for creating Fabletown, that these were all sort of individual refugees that kind of came together, and Mister Dark, just by virtue of showing up, destroyed it in an afternoon. He did in one day what it took The Adversary centuries to accomplish.

So hopefully that sets a tone that they have quite a challenge ahead of them. And also, not by design but by the virtue in how his arrival worked, he took away all of the good stuff the Fables had going for them: all the magic, all the gold, the residence–everything! So they’re left not only homeless and on the run again, but homeless and on the run with an empty wallet and no resources whatsoever. Took all their crutches away.

And the reason to do that of course is to see what these characters are made out of. Character is revealed out of adversity, etc. etc. And so Mister Dark is going to be a lot of fun in that he’s done all that to them. That said, we’re going to have all sorts of fun stuff coming up. Some stories directly involving their attempts to defeat him, and of course, before they do that, they have to understand him. And even the very act of gathering information on this character is going to be fraught with danger.

TFAW.com: Is Mister Dark actually going to go after the Fables directly, or are they going to come into conflict with him trying to retake Fabletown?

BW: Well, that’s a good question. So far, he’s after the Fables, because he’s stated pretty clearly that he’s going to punish them for having the temerity to borrow his powers to make the Witching Well and the Witching Cloak, and things like that, and even though the Fables didn’t understand what they were doing, that’s kind of no excuse. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

So he intends to do it, but it’s sort of like, there are two types of hunting: you can go tramping through the woods, stalking your prey, or you can set up a nice place where you know the prey is likely to come by some day, and wait for them to show up and take care of them that way. And he seems to be a pretty patient fellow, because right now, he seems to be content to sit in the ruins of Fabletown and let the Fables finally come back to him. We’ll see if that is a completely static situation, or if other circumstances warrant him taking a more active role.

TFAW.com: So what is the future of the Farm? They’re already cash strapped, they’re vulnerable to the real world for the first time. Are they going to be able to become a self-sustaining farm, or are they going to lose that as well?

BW: We don’t know, do we? I think part of doing this is as a writer, asking myself, “What are the worst things I can possibly do to these characters I love?” I think being a writer is like being an abusive husband, in the sense that the speech is like, “Oh honey, if you wouldn’t act that way, I wouldn’t have to hit you so much. It’s because I love you that I have to treat you this way!” Which is a terrible, terrible thing to do in real life. But as an author, to characters, I think that’s exactly the kind of personality you have to be. The ones you love most, you have to put through the cauldron most, because that’s where fun stories can be created.

TFAW.com: Well that brings me to Rose Red. Is she finally going to pull it together, or is she going to continue her downward spiral?

BW: Without saying particularly, let me say that the next arc following the “Witches” arc is called “Rose Red.” And it’s I think five issues long, I’ll have to check. Most of the arcs are either four, five, or six issues. But anyway, if all she’s going to do during these five issues is stay in bed and be depressed, it’s going to be a pretty boring arc. So with that said, maybe that situation we’ve set up will come to some sort of head. Either she’s going to sink further, or maybe find a way to rally and rise up out of it. No promises either way.

TFAW.com: What’s coming up with the “Witches” arc? In the last issue I read, Frau Totenkinder had regained her youth and stepped away to parts unknown.

BW: Yes. Pretty exciting. I love these moments when the readers are clued into that fact that we are not afraid to make some pretty dramatic changes to the status quo. The one we did with Frau Totenkinder in this latest issue is one we’ve been looking forward to for some time, Bucky, Shelly, and I.

We plan these things so far in advance, there’s always this little bit of frustration, that “Oh my goodness, we’re a year away from being able to do this wonderful thing,” and occasionally you get the joy of finally getting to those moments where you know the readers could be knocked over with a feather, like “Oh my god, what are they doing?”

And we’re at one now, so I’m not going to tell you what’s in the next issue, other than hopefully it will be pretty cool. What will happen is, we’ll get to meet some of the other characters of the 13th Floor, and I think that’s pretty fun. Some of them are going to be very interesting cast members.

TFAW.com: The other big recent revelation is that Beauty and the Beast are having a baby, which had been foreshadowed, and apparently it’s going to have many arms and legs.

BW: Unless the old witch has a more grotesque sense of humor than anyone suspects! I mean, what a great practical joke to play on someone, if indeed that’s what it turns out to be. I’ve played a few good practical jokes on my friends, but that one just takes the cake. With that said, I suspect that you’re beginning to understand that I’m not really going to comment on that on way or another.

TFAW.com: Yep! My question would be, they’ve been married for so many centuries, why now would they suddenly have a kid?

BW: That is a wonderful segue, and thank you very much for setting me up with that question. For the answer to that, for the mechanism of why pregnancies among Fables are rare, successful ones rarer still, and why you never saw, to a certain extent, too many bright and bushy-tailed kids running around, you should pick up the Peter & Max novel, because so many of the reasons behind things such as this are revealed.

TFAW.com: Peter & Max is a giant prequel, right?

BW: Well yes. A lot of it takes place in current times, but a lot of it takes place in the early history of Fabletown, and the pre-history of Fabletown, back in the Homelands, pre-invasion, in various places. So the book covers a lot of range in both time and space.

TFAW.com: I notice that the description of the novel mentions it’s going to reveal some secrets about Bo Peep. We haven’t seen much of her in the past, so I’m interested to see what that would be like.

BW: We will find out why Little Bo Peep lost her sheep, we will find out why Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper, we’ll even find out why that same Peter, because I couldn’t come up with any reason why they should be different characters, the same Peter put his wife in a pumpkin shell, and why that was, under the circumstances, the only intelligent and reasonable thing to do.

And those are all questions I used to ask as a kid. You hear those nursery rhymes, and I said, “Mom, why did he put her in a pumpkin shell?” That just seems like an odd thing to do. “Honey, we’re having marriage troubles, get inside the pumpkin and that will solve everything!”

If it works, it’s a tribute to all of the wonderful advisors I had on this project. If it turns out to not work as a story element, then it’s my fault. But yeah, we had to have good reasons for the characters to act this way–and not only intelligent reasons, but things that actually advanced the plot. And that was kind of a nice challenge.

But anyway, you’ll find out all that kind of stuff in the Peter & Max novel. You’ll find out why the Black Forest Witch, Frau Totenkinder, had a grudge against the town of Hamlin, and all kinds of things.

TFAW.com: Another project you have coming up that we’re excited about is the Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love series. What can you tell us about that?

BW: I can tell you that I just did the final approval on the first issue. This is being written with as little kvetching from me as possible by Chris Roberson, who’s a fine fellow, a terrific writer, and a good friend, and just to set the record straight, we became friends because he was so good a writer, not vice versa. It wasn’t quite nepotism in the sense of, “Well, I’ll just get my buddies to write comic books.” It’s more of a case of, we became buddies because they were such talented writers, and I just wanted to be in the company of that talent. So Chris Roberson is an accomplished novelist who has loved comics as long as he’s been aware of them, and he had this idea for a Cinderella miniseries.

TFAW.com: This interview is for horror month. What do you think about horror in general?

BW: I like it, I like being scared–I like being intelligently scared–I love great ghost stories, and terrific monster movies and things like that, in the tradition of the first version of The Haunting, the old black-and-white movie, which just scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid.

I do not like the more expansive definition of horror, which includes slasher flicks and things like that. That’s just about as boring to me as can be. As a general rule, I like stories that rise out of following the adventures of people who know how to act intelligently, and in a slasher flick, or things like that, you really need everyone always doing the stupidest possible thing at the stupidest possible moment in order for that to work, so I have a very low tolerance for that.

But scaring folks by just telling them a story that gets them worried, what an amazing skill that is! I would love to have that ability. I give a shot at it every once in a while–I think maybe the closest I’ve come is disturbing the readership every once in a while, but a really good case of the willies is the gold standard, and I don’t know if we’ve achieved that yet, but god bless those who can.

TFAW.com: Well, thanks again for talking with us!

BW: Thank you!

Make sure to pre-order Angel #28 now to catch Willingham’s debut issue, and catch up on Fables and Angel while you’re at it.

Have any burning questions for Bill Willingham that we didn’t answer? Are you looking forward to his take on Angel? Post your comments below!