From Psycho to Three on a Meathook, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to The Silence of the Lambs, the story of Wisconsin graverobber and murderer Ed Gein has inspired numerous noteworthy horror films over the years, each providing hints and glimpses at the killer’s actual crimes without retelling the events in any straightforward, factually accurate detail (1974’s Deranged and 2001’s Ed Gein perhaps hew the closest to the actual events). In addition to film, the case of the Plainfield Ghoul has also also been covered in print, most notably in Harold Schechter’s Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original “Psycho”, which stands as the definitive account of Gein’s life and crimes. Now, Gein’s story is being told in funnybook form with ”Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”, a 224-page graphic novel penned by Schechter and comics legend Eric Powell (The Goon), who has also illustrated the book in gorgeous grayscale black-and-white.

”Did You Hear…?” painstakingly lays out Gein’s history, covering his earliest years through his ghoulish crimes and on to his eventual death in a psychiatric hospital in 1984. Along the way, Schechter and Powell take great care in portraying the people of Plainfield and their reactions to discovering they’d unknowingly lived alongside a graverobbing murderer, their tales of Gein elevating him from pathetic madman to something approaching urban myth. As extensively researched as the Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell Jack the Ripper graphic novel From Hell, ”Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” is a masterpiece of the form, standing as the best possible dramatization of Ed Gein’s tale in any medium.

In advance of the book’s release (August 11th in comic shops, August 24th in bookstores), Bloody Disgusting was lucky enough to chat with Messrs. Schechter and Powell about the project’s origins, the nature of their collaboration, and their unique approach to this well-covered story.

Bloody Disgusting: Gentlemen, can you tell readers how it was that this project came to be? What was your collaborative process like?

Eric Powell: So I was taking a road trip through Wisconsin. Being well aware of the Gein story, it was constantly popping into my mind as we drove through these pretty rural areas. I had the idea of doing a graphic novel based on his isolation in the farmhouse. There isn’t any definitive evidence, we only have his word on what was going on inside the farmhouse, and he was known to be somewhat evasive when it came to telling the truth. So the idea bounced around in my head for a few days. And then, being a huge fan of Harold and well aware of Deviant, the quintessential work on Gein … I thought if I did a graphic novel, it would never be better or up to par with what Harold had already done. So I let the idea drop, and then started thinking, “Well, why not try to collaborate with Harold? I’m sure since he had written Deviant a few decades ago that he’s come across some more information, or maybe had some new insights on the case.”

So without much hope, I contacted his agent and did not expect them to contact me back. I would have just let the idea die there had I not heard back from them, but luckily for me, Harold turned out to be a huge comic fan and was really enthusiastic about the project.

Harold Schechter: Yeah, I was actually thrilled when I heard from my agent that Eric Powell had reached out to me. I am a lifelong comic book fan. There was a period, late 60s/early 70s, where I was a very serious collector of mostly silver age Marvel Comics and comic book art. Actually, when I was young, I aspired to be a comic book artist.

So I was well aware of Eric’s work, The Goon in particular. I always considered him to be probably the best draftsman of his generation. So yeah, it was a thrill for me when I heard that he wanted to collaborate.

As far as the process went, we initially had slightly different ideas of how we wanted to approach the story. I would turn my material into a kind of movie script format, because I’d never done anything in comic book form before. Then I would send it to Eric. He did substantial rewrites on it. We would Zoom back and forth a lot, this obviously all during the height of the pandemic. Eric actually did plan to come visit me and go over all of the research material that I had accumulated while writing Deviant years ago.

Just as he was about to make those arrangements, everything shut down. So he still hasn’t done that. [laughs] But yeah, we did a lot of back-and-forthing over Zoom. I did Xerox or scan a lot of the material and sent it to Eric. Very gradually, the concept of how we wanted to represent the story and particularly what was going on inside Gein’s head and what might really have driven him [was developed].

As Eric said, I had come up with some new theories about that. Then at some point, we came up with the final script, and then Eric did his stuff. I always say it was really an ideal collaboration as far as I was concerned, because Eric did most of the work!

BD: Mr. Schechter, you’ve tackled the Ed Gein case in your non-fiction book Deviant and the fictional sequel of sorts Outcry. What is it about the Gein case that most fascinates you, and keeps bringing you back to its events?

HS: Well, it’s clearly not just me. This case has exerted this very, very powerful fascination ever since it first came to light. What first grabbed me about it, and this is going back to the late 1980s, I was writing a book on movie special effects. You know, my day job for forty-two years until my recent retirement was as a literature professor.

But in order to supplement my meager academic income, I’d started writing commercial books and was basically writing books about whatever interested me at the moment. At one point, that happened to be movie special effects. This was before the whole CGI revolution. When I was researching the chapter on horror, I came across the fact which was unknown to me at the time, that both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which were my two favorite horror movies, had both been inspired by this real life case.

I was very fascinated by that. I began looking into the Gein case, then decided to write a book about it. So that was it in terms of what interested me, but the other part of it is, you know, there’s something about Gein … he’s like this real-life fairy-tale monster come to life. He seems like a creature out of myth and folklore, this kind of boogeyman that kids have nightmares about and are always telling folk stories about. I think that’s a great deal of what accounts for his lasting appeal.

BD: ”Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” deals with not only with Ed Gein’s history and the nature of his crimes, but also how those events impacted the community he lived in and the people involved directly and indirectly with the case, an approach which the title seems to underline. How was it that you both came to approach this well-known story in this particular way, and how important was it to you both to give a voice to the everyday men and women impacted by the fallout of Gein’s horrors?

EP: I remember about halfway through working on a book, we had the idea that the storytelling was pretty linear. If I remember right, we had the idea – a little bit from the title – to let the townspeople tell a lot of the story. So at that point, we changed the format a little bit and added the kind of jump forward in time about halfway through the book.

So you’re kind of uncovering the crimes as the townspeople are, and then hearing their voices retell it, so you kind of get some of that hearsay and exaggeration through their retelling of the story. That aspect was always a pretty big part of what we wanted to do with the book. I mean, when we start the book with the opening of Psycho and it bookends with that same kind of effect that he had on popular culture, it was always a concept that we wanted to hit on. His effect not only on the psyche of the the local people, but globally how he’s scared people to death over the years. As Harold said, he became a real life kind of a folktale boogeyman.

HS: Yeah. Again, part of the fascination with the Gein case is this incredible disparity between what was going on in his little farmhouse, and how he was perceived by the outside world. So we wanted to capture both of those things – what was going on inside his farmhouse and inside his head, but also how the community perceived him.

You know, when his crimes came to light, it was such an incredible shock. Obviously, not just on people of Plainfield, but the whole nation, and ultimately the world. That disparity between the inner world and the outer world was a large part of what we wanted to do in the book.

BD: Mr. Powell, your art is very distinctive, but can be more realistic or more stylized, depending on the project. How did you find the right approach for ”Did You Hear…?”, and could you talk a bit about your process and the decision to illustrate in grayscale?

EP: Even in The Goon I tend to alter the style of the art to match the tone of the story. If it’s a more humorous story, I tend to lean into the cartooning. Go a little more Jack Davis. If the story has a more serious tone, I tend to go a little more photorealistic. As much as I can anyway. Photorealism isn’t really what I do. It was hard for me to nail down the approach I wanted to take on the Gein book, but early on I decided it really needed to be in black and white. All of the reference material I was looking at, all of the newsreel footage was in black and white. And it was also done as a nod to Psycho. I just couldn’t picture it in color. It would have seemed garish to me.

BD: Many times in the past, whenever a take on Ed Gein has gone to the page, it was eventually adapted for the screen, and ”Did You Hear…?” surely has a cinematic feel and scope to it at times. Is there any chance that this graphic novel could be translated to film?

EP: Harold and I are open to it being adapted into a film. There would have to be some changes to the structure as I feel the approach we took works better in a graphic novel format that it would cinematically, but I think it could actually make a really good movie in the right hands.

HS: Yeah, I think it could be. Wait and see, you know. It’s obviously well within the realm of possibility that somebody might option it. Of course, as I’m sure you know, it’s a long way from optioning something to it actually being turned into a movie. But yeah, that’d be great.

Speaking of which, and I do want to stress this – whenever I’ve done recent interviews about the book, I’ve always talked about how amazing Eric’s art is. What I haven’t really emphasized, and this always strikes me when I look at the finished book, is how he structured the story. When I provided my initial script to Eric, it was pretty much straightforward, chronologically. Eric has done something really, really interesting with the way he has organized the chronology of the story.

And that was totally his. Once I saw what he was doing, I was able to make suggestions and alterations and so on. But the way he introduces very early on the evening of the killing and the discovery of Bernice Worden’s body, then goes into a flashback for the events of the day, that narrative structure which I think works brilliantly, was totally his.

BD: In addition to focusing on the townspeople and the grislier aspects of the case, I appreciated the fact that ”Did You Hear…?” humanizes Ed. He is a fairy-tale monster, he is the boogeyman. But he’s also a deeply sad figure.

HS: Well, it’s interesting. Virtually every interviewer we’ve spoken to made a similar point, about feeling sympathy on some level for Gein. Part of what I attribute that to, it’s not only the horrible conditions of his life, but … you know, people tend to talk about him as a serial killer. I don’t think of Ed Gein, strictly speaking, as a serial killer. The term “serial murder” entered our language in the late 80s/early 90s, maybe a little bit earlier than that, to specifically describe extreme sadistic sex killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy and the Hillside Strangler and so on. These were men who derived their extremely sick, sexual pleasure from torturing and then killing victims. That was not the kind of personality Gein was.

It’s true, he murdered two women. This is not at all to minimize those crimes, but the two women he murdered were very swiftly executed. He wasn’t really interested in dominating, and torturing, and making them suffer. He was just interested in gathering the raw material for these bizarre household projects. Gein was essentially a necrophile. Most of the bodies that he collected came from the grave.

So that makes it easier to feel some element of sympathy for him. I mean, it’s impossible to feel any sympathy for Bundy or Gacy or those people. As far as I’m concerned, they personified evil. Gein does not quite fit into that category. Some people are apologetic or feel slightly guilty for feeling this way, given what he did. But as you say, it’s possible to see him as very pathetic human being, which you can’t do with these other notorious serial killers.

BD: It was noted earlier by Mr. Powell that he was curious about any new theories surrounding the Gein case that you might have come up with since writing Deviant. One such element seemed to be the inclusion of the Aztec deity Xipe Totec, and what role that figure might have played in Gein’s psychopathy.

HS: That’s one of the things I’m happiest about with the book. Over the years, that is the one main insight that I’ve come up with about Gein. You know, at the time of Gein’s crimes in the 1950s, it was a heyday of psychoanalysis. So everybody, including Robert Bloch, was diagnosing Gein in terms of these traditional Freudian concepts, mostly the Oedipal Complex.

But over the years, I’ve been thinking about it and being more and more emerged in the whole world of this kind of psychopathology. Also, I should add, my background as an academic was in the depth psychology of Carl Jung. In fact, I taught a course in it for many years called Myth and Archetype.

I started to become convinced that Ed’s schizophrenia – schizophrenia meaning “a shattering of the personality” – had sort of opened up a rift somewhere in his psyche that allowed all of this archaic material to come through. I think this is part of the fascination of the case, was that – without consciously knowing he was doing it – he was really performing these primordial rituals, this kind of pagan worship of the Great Mother Goddess. Performing these rituals that were a part of some of these ancient religions, like wearing the flayed skins of sacrificial victims, and the attempt at self castration was a particular Great Mother Goddess act, for example, where the priests actually did castrate themselves.

So I think that there’s that element, in terms of what was going on with Gein that has never really been explored before, and that I felt very strongly about introducing into this book.

BD: Ultimately, I would like to leave the final word with you both by posing and paraphrasing a pointed question presented to Alfred Hitchcock after the release of Psycho, as dramatized in your graphic novel – “What moral implications do you feel this graphic novel has? I mean, what was your intent?”

EP: Well, we had to take a little more care than Hitchcock because he was adapting a fictionalized story inspired by Gein and we were adapting a sequence of actual events. We never took that part of it lightly. But with every project I do, I do it for myself first. Something about it has to entertain me and spark my interest enough to invest the time to do it. This case has fascinated, or horrified me since I was a kid. So that was my motivation. But as far as our intent, I believe we wanted to examine how the crimes of this man shook not only his small community, but the entire country. And continue to do so today. And also show the inner workings of his twisted mind in a way that hadn’t been done before. I feel like we achieved those things and I hope the readers feel so, too.

HS: My intent was to tell the best story I could possibly tell. I didn’t have any particular moral intentions. I’ve actually written a whole book about this years ago called Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment which explores how, throughout history, entertainment that is aimed at the mass audience has always contained a lot of very graphic violence.

And, in fact, it used to be a lot worse than it is today, in the sense that there were times when people were actually killed for the entertainment of audiences. I tend to feel that stories about monsters and horror stories which people read from a very early age serve a very useful social and psychological function. They allow us to ventilate a lot of our own anxieties and really to indulge safely, in a socially acceptable way, some of our own forbidden fantasies.

You know, there’s a quote from Plato that I often cite, who said “The virtuous man dreams what the wicked man does.” That’s what distinguishes one from the other. All of us have a side of ourselves that’s very dark and possessed of forbidden taboo fantasies involving sex and violence, and so on and so forth, that we need an outlet for. That’s one of the things that horror stories and stories about monsters provide.

Obviously, a book like the one Eric and I have done is not endorsing graverobbing and corpse dismemberment. It’s portraying something that has to do with the outer limits of human behavior. The more you can become familiar with who and what we are, I think the better everything is.

Special Thanks to Harold Schechter and Eric Powell for their time.

Make certain to pick up “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” at your local comic book shop on August 11th (available in bookstores everywhere on August 24th).

The post Harold Schechter and Eric Powell Dive Into a Twisted Mind With Graphic Novel ‘Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?’ [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“War is hell.”

So goes the old phrase, underscoring the horrors inherent in any conflict where arms are taken up with the express purpose of destroying the lives of others for whatever damned reason, necessary or not. War has inspired countless films, movies, television shows, and even comic books, providing a compelling backdrop for stories to showcase action, adventure, romance, comedy, tragedy, science fiction…and yes, even horror.

Hitting your local comic book shop on October 6th is OUT, a World War II-set tale of terror concerning a group of POWs coming face to face with an evil potentially greater than that of the Nazis who have captured them.

From the press release: In the waning days of World War Two, with the Allies advancing, a desperate Nazi officer unearths an ancient force of evil that he hopes will turn the tide of battle: a vampire. To test the power of his secret weapon, he unleashes the monster on an unsuspecting group of Allied POWs. It’s up to Nocona, a Comanche language expert, to communicate with the vampire to find out what it really wants.

This writer was lucky enough to read the first issue of OUT, and can confirm that it lives up to its genre-mashup premise. It’s a creepy slow-burn of a tale with well-rounded characters and a fascinating lead, which culminates in a shocking final moment which lays the groundwork for the terrifying installments to come.

To help exclusively announce the comic’s release, OUT writer Rob Williams caught up with Bloody Disgusting to discuss the comic’s origins, its story, and why it’s high time uninitiated readers give horror comics a shot.

Bloody Disgusting: How was it that you got into comics – both as a fan, and now as a creator?

Rob Williams: As a fan, I just remember them always being in the house as a kid. Marvel, DC, 2000AD, British War comics like Commando. It was a part of my childhood. As a creator, I never intended to write comics for a living. That seemed like something that you could only do if you were Stan Lee or Alan Moore. I was working as a journalist and I thought I’d try writing one comic script as an experiment, to see if I could do it. That was Cla$$war, my first published comic. That opened doors in the industry for me and twenty years later I’m still doing it.

BD: How was it that this project originated?

RW: OUT was one of those high concept ideas that just strike you as perfect. It’s The Great Escape, but there’s a vampire in the Prisoner of War camp. I mean, these characters have to escape from this place anyway – they are duty bound to try and rejoin the war – and the camp in our story is a Colditz-style castle that is impossible to get out of. But when the Nazis place a vampire in there with them and it starts eating the men one by one – now they REALLY have to escape.

Also I was fascinated by the idea of having this – I hope – rather unique protagonist for our story. Nocona is a Comanche code talker. A Native American who’s adept at languages. These men were sent into Europe during D-Day to unravel Nazi codes and to message our forces in a language the Nazis couldn’t understand. That alone makes Nocona different from his other prisoners, bringing the element of race into the story. But also he’s gay. That’s something that you don’t really see explored in terms of WW2 fiction. But it was obviously there. Nocona’s very much an outsider in his camp. But, as we’ll discover, he’s also the prisoners’ greatest hope of surviving this inhuman creature. Nocona can communicate with it…

BD: OUT deals with both the horrors of war, and the more supernatural horror lurking at the edges of the story throughout the first issue. How was it that you came to meld these genres, and will the comic continue that balance between the two?

RW: Issue one is, like any opening act, a setting up of the world and introducing our characters. In this case it’s 1944, Bavaria, and a group of Allied Prisoners of War are brought in to a castle high in the mountains. They believe it’s because they’ve all escaped from other camps and, having been recaptured, this is their punishment. A freezing cold place where, even if you do get past the walls and the guards, you have sheer cliff faces to deal with. But what they don’t realize, and our end of first issue twist, is that they’ve been brought here as an experiment. The Nazis know they’re losing the war, so one officer is desperate and has dug up an ancient evil. Now he’s going to see if he can control this creature by feeding it the prisoners.

After issue one, it’s really like a WW2 version of Alien or The Thing. The paranoia of Carpenter’s The Thing was a touchstone. These men are disappearing, is there a rat amongst them? A killer amongst them? Lots of corridors and old churches in that ancient Gothic Castle for something to come a creeping.

BD: Can you talk a bit about OUT’s artwork? Will Conrad’s art and Marco Lesko’s colors are both quite gritty and beautiful, and really suit the story that you’re telling.

RW: A prisoners of war story is, by definition, going to have a bunch of characters dressed the same, all men of a certain age. So we absolutely needed an artist who excels at characters and ‘casting’ our main players. Will’s quite brilliant at that. There are times in his pages you think you’re seeing comics greats like Brian Bolland or Travis Charest. You really feel like you’re watching this as a movie. And when the vampire comes fully into play, it’s a terrifying thing. Marco’s colors had to deliver the freezing cold of the environment and the blood splatters. He’s done that wonderfully.

BD: What are the long term plans for this title beyond its initial arc? Are there more stories to be told in this world after the first five issues?

RW: OUT is a five issue story. Start-middle-end. That appealed to us making it. It’s very much a horror story where none of the characters are safe. We want you to get attached to these characters and then see them picked off by the creature. It’s a classic monster tale in that sense.

BD: OUT is quite cinematic at times. Are there any plans to adapt the story for film or television?

RW: We’d love that to happen. No plans as yet. But all its touchstones are cinematic – Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17, The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, Alien, The Thing, Michael Mann’s The Keep. It’d make a great movie, absolutely.

BD: Ultimately, what final thought would you like to leave our readers and fellow horror fans with who might not be inclined to read comic books?

RW: There’s extraordinary work being done in comics of late with horror. Whether it’s something as genuinely horribly unnerving as Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, or AWA’s horror books like Hotell or Devil’s Highway. I should also mention Old Haunts – a book I did for AWA last year along with Ollie Masters and Laurence Campbell – that was Goodfellas meets Jacob’s Ladder, where three old gangsters were literally haunted by the ghosts of their past. There’s some amazing horror comics out there right now, full of mood and menace. Come and join us.

Special Thanks to Mr. Williams for his time.

Make certain to pick up OUT Issue 1 at your local comic book shop on October 6.

The post ‘The Great Escape’ Meets ‘The Thing’: Writer Rob Williams Unveils New Creature Comic ‘OUT’ [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Chop-Top. Ricky Caldwell. Barbara’s brother Johnnie (and the zombie he eventually became). Otis Driftwood. Luigi Largo. Mayor Buckman. The Magician. Drayton Sawyer.

Actor Bill Moseley has portrayed some fascinating freaks in his time as one of the genre’s most beloved boogeymen. Over the years, Moseley has often brought to his roles a gritty mix of edge, humor and offbeat charm, whether they were essayed for screens big or small. Now, the actor has made the leap into another medium with Cursed Cornfield, a new comic book written by Moseley and featuring his likeness in the form of Onions, a wicked and wickedly humorous scarecrow who joins not only the ranks of his own indelible characters, but those of such funnybook horror hosts as the Crypt-Keeper, Cousin Eerie, Uncle Creepy, Cain and Abel, the Vault-Keeper, and the Old Witch.

With its macabre EC Comics sense of humor and its grisly Gore Shriek aesthetic, Cursed Cornfield is a title that looks to fuse the sensibilities of those two horror anthologies, all while telling an inaugural tale that’s both modern and tinged with a bit of wonky science. The first issue’s opening salvo is “Waltzing Mathilda”, a gruesome little number that is, as the book itself describes, “a tale of perversion, cannibalism, and…syzygy.” That’s right, planetary alignment figures into this sordid story of a creepy morgue janitor, his truly alarming predilections, and the horrific comeuppance that he inevitably meets by the issue’s end. Bookending this dire ditty are appearances by Onions, who watches over the Worm Farm, the titular cornfield haunted by he and his pet bird Scowl. Onions introduces the story in comedically crass fashion and provides a suitably amusing wrap-up by the final page, cementing himself as a horror host as fun and striking as his four-color forebears.

Cursed Cornfield shows a great deal of promise in its setup, writing and art, all but guaranteeing what one imagines will be an essential horror anthology with innumerable issues to follow. Joining Bloody Disgusting to chat about this new foray into fearsome fun is Mr. Moseley himself, who was kind enough to discuss with us its origins, its stunning artwork, and the possibilities for its future on both page and screen.

Bloody Disgusting: How did this project first come about? Why tell this tale with this particular medium?

Bill Moseley: Cursed Cornfield Comics artist Szymon Kudranski and I go way back, at least twenty years ago, since before we met in person at a horror convention in Essen, Germany. Szymon has done muscled renderings of my main movie characters Otis Driftwood (Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, 3 from Hell) and Choptop Sawyer from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; an awesome fan-art poster for Werewolf Women of the SS, Rob Zombie’s fake trailer for Tarantino’s Grindhouse; sketches for my screenplay Storage Space (co-authored with Ezekiel Zabrowski), including one of Sid Haig as our “Brown Jenkin” character; and an eleven-page color treatment of my screenplay Devil Deer (co-authored with John Wentworth).

About a year ago, Syzmon messaged me that he’d like to create a comic book with me (this during the pandemic), and did I have any ideas? I’m a Midwesterner from Illinois, always thinking about corn, cornfields, scarecrows, old barns, cows, clods, haylofts and tractors. Back in the 90’s, my opus primus with guitar god Buckethead (on his Giant Robot album) was a song we co-wrote called “Onions Onleashed”, wherein I voiced the scary scarecrow, Onions (I originally called my scarecrow Shoo Bird; t’was Bucket who named him Onions). Onions had lain dormant throughout the new millennium, so I figured it was time to resurrect him, put him to work as a horror host and a role model for the younger generation (which at this point is just about everyone). The story itself just popped into my head, with a tip of the scalpel to Nacho Cerda’s Aftermath. I’m an old Omni Magazine writer and science buff so syzygy has always been near and dear to me. While brushing up on the subject, I learned about Nibiru (aka Planet X), and figured adding that to the alignment could and would surely bring the recently deceased back to life.

Why this particular medium? I’ve always loved comic books, have a sweet little collection of Star Spangled War Stories and J’onn J’onzz, Martian Manhunter, not to mention an original signed rendering of a Dr. Strange-like character from Steve Ditko (a birthday present for my brother, Dan). And when you’re friends with Szymon, one of the foremost comic book artists in the world, you say yes!

BD: How was it that you got into comics – both as a fan (presumably), and now as a creator?

Bill Moseley: As I mentioned, I grew up in the Midwest in the 50’s and 60’s. When I was a kid, one of the great (and inexpensive) pleasures of life was comic books – Marvel, DC, Charlton (the Ditko years). Comic books taught me how to read, fired my imagination, helped form my aesthetics, my storytelling. Throw in Mad Magazine, Creepy and Eerie, and ultimately R. Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, and life was good!

BD: Cursed Cornfield is surely a horror comic, though there is a nearly cosmic component to the tale that’s told in this first issue. Will the comic stay firmly planted in the horror genre, or will it potentially branch out into sci-fi, fantasy, and other genres – not unlike the various lines of EC Comics?

Bill Moseley: Not sure what direction CCC will take. Between Onions and his buddy Scowl, the crooked cops in Linoleum City, and the ‘roided roosters and pigs on the Baxter farm, we’ll stay close to horror, that’s for sure. If a little science sneaks in, so much the better!

BD: Can you talk a bit about Cursed Cornfield’s artwork? Szymon Kudranski’s art is a knockout, and the colors are gorgeous. Both seem to perfectly complement the story you’ve told.

Bill Moseley: Szymon’s artwork has always knocked my socks off! It makes my stories ten times better than what I imagined they would look like. I’m just glad the guy likes me and wants to do stuff!

BD: Can you talk a bit about Cursed Cornfield’s initial release, and the decision to sell it to fans with the “Name Your Price” option?

Bill Moseley: I know little about the business of printing/pricing/distributing comic books, so I just followed Szymon’s suggestions. The “name-your-price” option was fine with me for the digital downloads, but I’m happier with a physical book, something I can fan through and, yes, I admit it, stick my nose in and smell! Also, I do a number of horror conventions, and the fans are excited to get a signature on the cover of the book!

BD: What are the long term plans for Cursed Cornfield? Can we expect more issues soon?

Bill Moseley: It all depends on Szymon. He is a busy, busy man and needless to say, very much in demand. I’ve got a few new stories for him, so when he’s ready, let’s go!

BD: Are there any plans for Cursed Cornfield to make the leap to television or film in the future? It isn’t hard to imagine you playing Onions in a full-length anthology or TV show.

Bill Moseley: Szymon and I would love to take Cursed Cornfield Comics to the small or the big screen. I’d love to play Onions, either for a live-action or an animated series. Szymon wants to direct an episode or two, and I’m up for just about anything to do with the Cornfield!

BD: What final thought would you like to leave readers and fans with? What do you want comic fans, horror fans, and Bill Moseley fans who have maybe never picked up a comic book before to know about Cursed Cornfield?

Bill Moseley: Final thoughts about Cursed Cornfield? I’m working up a website to sell both digital downloads and hard copies. I’ll let you know the address when it’s finished. I want to spread the recognition of Szymon’s great talents and to entertain and inspire horror fans and comic book fans alike. Hell, if we can appeal to the science and Shakespeare lovers to boot, the more the merrier!

Special Thanks to Mr. Moseley for his time.

Make certain to check out cursedcornfieldcomics.com for more info on Onions and Co.!

The post ‘Cursed Cornfield’: Chatting With Bill Moseley About His New Horror Anthology Comic Book [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The lethal traps. The microcassette tapes. The gravelly voice. The pig mask. The wizard’s robe. The last minute twists.

These are all intrinsic facets of the Saw franchise, which currently sits at seven films, an in-continuity reboot [Jigsaw], and an upcoming spinoff in the form of Spiral: From the Book of Saw. On top of the series’ cinematic output, there are also two video games which play with the iconography while unraveling tales set firmly within the world of the movies. Add to that a few action figures, some Halloween masks, and a themed Las Vegas escape room, and you should have an idea as to Saw’s considerable reach and the variety with which it’s presented.

But before the series began exploring other avenues to travel down with its striking villain and thrilling concept, the Saw franchise initially widened its scope in funnybook form, with IDW’s 2005 one-shot Saw: Rebirth. Meant as both an expansion of the original film and a lead-in to the rapidly approaching first sequel, Rebirth focuses its attentions on John Kramer before he became the Jigsaw Killer, charting his downfall as a disengaged toymaker who discovers he has cancer, to his rise as the notorious serial killer we were introduced to in the original film. Along the way, the comic book provides some fun connections with that initial movie, illustrating how John selected some of the victims on display throughout his inaugural outing. But beyond the easter eggs, the comic stands as a fascinating portrait of a monster-to-be, earning our empathy for a man who is meant to eventually chill and terrify us. While the later films would disregard elements of John’s origin as presented in the comic, Rebirth nevertheless stands as essential reading for fans of the film series, or great horror comics in general.

Discussing Saw: Rebirth with us today is writer R. Eric Lieb, who crafted the one-shot comic’s story. Mr. Lieb was kind enough to speak with Bloody Disgusting about Rebirth’s origins, his approach to working within an established world, and the comic’s ultimate canonicity within the Saw franchise.

Bloody Disgusting: So, how was it that Saw: Rebirth came to be?

R. Eric Lieb: I was working at the time at Lionsgate. I had gotten there because I had been working at Artisan, which I loved. They did The Blair Witch Project, all these cool movies. When Lionsgate bought them, I transferred over to the company. By the time we released the first Saw, I was working in a couple of different departments, and this opportunity came about because they wanted to essentially do kind of a marketing piece that would help promote Saw II.

But instead of just a marketing piece, I wanted to do something that helped bridge the gap and flesh out the first movie, because the first movie was such a surprise in so many ways, right? It was a small movie, very small budget, very quick production, but it really resonated and caught fire with people. I think the movie is so clever in so many ways, and it does so many smart things. In the lead up to Saw II, when we were developing that, we knew there were some interesting ways that Saw II planned to tease out a little bit of John’s backstory. We knew then that the comic could explore things that the movie wasn’t gonna touch upon, and also connect the dots for people, such as with the traps in the first movie, and to just find out more about him as a character, too.

BD: Did you have any contact with series co-creator Leigh Whannell? I believe he’d noted that the moment where John shaves his head was something he’d intended to be filmed, but it wasn’t – and he was happy it was worked into the comic book.

REL: In terms of the story, we were mainly working from the script that was being developed for Saw II. At the time, when the first Saw came out, the second one was immediately greenlit and it was going to be a pretty quick process to turn it around. So the script was coming together pretty quickly as I recall, but a lot of the scenes that we were working with were coming out of those drafts. So I put together the story based upon the script that was being developed, and then we would send it over to Leigh and everybody else over on his team to basically make sure it aligned with the creative vision and everything else.

But that’s a good point about the head-shaving scene, because there flashbacks that were designed to be in Saw II like the car crash and the cancer diagnosis and that sort of thing that were quick shots, that were planned to be in Saw II. In the comic, we wanted to take those moments and show them, but not give anything away. We didn’t want to spoil anything, obviously. The script was under super lock and key, as you can understand because they didn’t want any leaks. So, the comic ultimately became a fun way to flesh things out.

The script was really spearheaded by my boss at the time, John Hegeman. He was at Artisan on The Blair Witch Project. He did a ton of stuff on that, and was just a really creative guy who understands the value of really being creative in how you approach anything that you do with a movie. I remember one of the things that he did on Blair Witch, they released the soundtrack for the movie which tied into the whole storyline by presenting it as the tape they found in one of the character’s cars that was abandoned before they went into the woods [Josh’s Blair Witch Mix]. It’s not just, “Oh, we’re going to release a soundtrack. Oh, we’re just going to release a comic.” It’s like, let’s do things that are additive and really make things extra touchpoints, and really just respect everything that you’re doing, too. So he was the driving force behind wanting to do it. And basically, him knowing that I’m just a huge horror and comics nerd, he put me in charge of that. So we ultimately worked with IDW and Kris Oprisko over there, who was the writer with me. I came up with a story, and he did most of the writing on it in terms of fleshing it out based upon the story that I put together.

It was essentially just intended as a one-shot. Then, once it was released as a one-shot, something else that I thought was really cool and really kind of novel for the time was the animated version that we put together. A guy by the name of Jeff Shuter directed it, and essentially took the comic art, cut it up, then added layers, soundtrack and voices to it. Really kind of interesting approach. I still catch it on YouTube every now and again, and it was on the DVDs.

Ultimately what we all did together was take the pieces, no pun intended, introduced Saw, and what was planned for Saw II, and really kind of fleshed out a story that gave Jigsaw an interesting backstory. A lot of it was retconned obviously, but a lot of it they kept in line with what we had. You know, horror falls apart when it’s just shocks-for-shocks sake. Horror is about exploring character, revealing human nature. To me, that’s why Jigsaw is such an interesting villain, because he’s not your stereotypical slasher or anything like that. I’d argue that he doesn’t even view himself as a killer. He’s trying to help people in his own way. That’s really kind of what we wanted to explore with the comic, exploring his backstory, seeing someone who lacked purpose. He lacked meaning, and ultimately through things that happened to him and what he saw around him, he found his purpose. By dedicating himself to helping people, as he sees it, that gave him the purpose and the direction that his life was lacking.

I really think he’s one of the best horror villains in a long time, because he just has a lot of layers to him. Obviously, the casting of Tobin … you just listen to him talk, just him alone, his presence. He’s just an interesting guy. It’s the perfect marriage of character and actor. I mean, that voice just brings him to life. And, you know, so much of the first film obviously hinged upon the twist. The fact that he was there the whole time is one of the most brilliant twists in a long time.

And again, that was part of the fun of exploring that story, too. What would drive a person to ultimately want to do that, to just lay in the middle of this dank room the whole time as you’re putting these people through these horrible paces?

BD: You mentioned you were working from the screenplay. Jigsaw’s ex-wife Jill makes her first appearance in the franchise in this comic, and then later on in the film franchise. Was she your creation, or was there a plan to include her in the comic before her eventual first appearance in the films?

REL: As far as I can recall, she did not have a place in the screenplay. Obviously, they fleshed her out in so many different ways in the subsequent movies. But in the comic, she was kind of introduced as a way to show where he was as a character at that point in terms of not having a direction. Her wanting more, and him lacking that purpose and meaning.

You know, she loved him. She wanted to be with him, but he just wasn’t at a place where he knew what he wanted at that point. She was introduced to help push him along the path to where he needed to be. But no, I don’t recall her being in the script, so I think her first appearance was in the comic. If she wasn’t in the screenplay, then she would’ve come up between the [Kris and I] as we were working the story. That’s one of those things where I’m almost positive she wasn’t in the script, but I just can’t call with a hundred percent fidelity at this point, but I’m pretty sure her first appearance was in the comic.

BD: I noticed that you were given sole story credit, while Kris Oprisko was given the sole writing credit. Does that accurately reflect the collaboration? What was the writing process like?

REL: That was a lot of fun. Kris is a really, really great guy to work with. You know, a lot of it in terms of coming up with the story … on the studio side, there are a lot of moving pieces, clearly. Because we’re working within a franchise, we’re working with this film that’s barreling down to just get into production so they can release it. So a lot of it in terms of coming up with a story was just making sure that we had an interesting story that really respected and honored the character, and had a cool story to tell for him in terms of his origin. And that it connected properly to the first film, but also set up the second film.

That was the framework that I created in terms of having that story in place, so that all the stakeholders going into it, between Leigh and James and everybody on the Lionsgate side, was comfortable with what would be ultimately presented out there. Then I handed that off to Kris, and then we worked together to just kind of beat out what that story could be. As he would come in with different drafts, I’d revise them and send them back. It was a very collaborative process with him because he’s just a super smart guy and he really took the story and ran with it in some unexpected directions. But yeah, it was a very, very, very good experience working with Kris.

BD: Renato Guedes’ artwork perfectly suits the story, I think. Very grim and gritty, and just nailing the features of the actors we’d seen in the first film. Could you talk a bit about that work, and did you have any input on the artistic direction of the comic?

REL: I definitely had a say in choosing the artist, because Kris and IDW presented us with a few options. Renato was, to me at least … there was no other choice. He has since gone on to do a ton of great stuff at DC, did great work on Superman. The style that he brought to it, even just the rough images that he sent were just incredible. It has that visceral, grainy quality. I think that really shows through, and part of the reason why the comic works so well. Everybody’s recognizable as themselves from the movie, but it feels so real.

The other artists were really good, but there was just that quality that Renato had that just nailed not only the likenesses, because that’s clearly important in terms of connecting it to the film, but just tonally. He nailed the look of everything. It just really felt like it was in the same world.

He took the script and really ran with it. The quote-unquote camera angles that he’d use, and just the presentation to the storytelling that he used. He’s just a phenomenal artist. We felt so fortunate to work with him at the time, because he really just brought it to life. I can’t say enough positive things about him. Just, across the board, it was a fantastic experience working with everybody on this.

BD: The events of the comic were eventually rendered non-canon with the films, beginning with parts of Jigsaw’s backstory in Saw IV. At the time you’d written the comic, was there an understanding that it was canon and would stay as such, or was it always understood that the events might eventually be rewritten by the films?

REL: In terms of its status as canon … I think there’s always kind of the main line in these types of franchises that the films are obviously the canonical ones. When we came up with it, it was just a fun way to flesh out what he was and to connect the dots in a lot of ways. But ultimately, when you do any sort of creative endeavor, it has to work as the strongest example of what that creative endeavor is, in my opinion. So you do a comic book, make it the best comic book possible. Make it a movie, then make it the best movie possible.

So by the time they got to IV, obviously they had to tell the story as it worked best in that film. It’s about making the strongest piece of work possible. And to be honest, my involvement in the franchise is really just the first and second film. I had left Lionsgate to go over to Fox by the third film.

So by the time they got to the fourth film, in terms of its canonicity … I believe he’s an engineer, and not a toymaker [as in Rebirth]. They changed some things, but a lot of it felt like they clearly were referencing [the comic], especially with the Jill of it all. It felt like the broad outlines had a similar shape to it in both, but the details obviously changed.

I think at the end of the day, it was about giving a purpose and a meaning to why Jigsaw does what he does. That is the most interesting part of his character, why he does these quote-unquote horrible things, that he probably doesn’t view as horrible things. He views it as him doing something good.

BD: How was the reception to the comic? Was it a success? Was there every any talk of doing more one-shots, or perhaps an ongoing Saw comic book?

REL: We sold out, as I recall, of every single printing that we had. But it was designed to live within that space of the buildup to the second movie coming out. So, in many ways … it was a creative piece, obviously, but it was also a marketing piece, too. But across the board, the reception was great. Again, I left the company not long after that, but it’s something that, from the horror side, I continued to do. When I got to Fox, I was in charge of a division there that started doing comic series and graphic novels for our horror properties [including 28 Days Later and The Hills Have Eyes]. But as far as I know, for IDW and Saw, there was no talk of doing more series.

BD: Would you ever be tempted to write something else again in this world? Do you imagine there’s a chance that another Saw comic could eventually be made?

REL: I mean, it was a really kind of fun place in time, both in my career and in my life. And that’s why I’m really interested and curious about Spiral coming out, because I think the series has such a purity of an idea. I know that sounds like a weird word, but it’s just a villain who does what he does for certain reasons. Again, to my earlier point about horror exploring character, and human nature … the people who get put into these situations, they have to find out something about themselves.

I think that’s why John doesn’t view himself as a killer, because the people who are put in that situation, if they survive, ultimately the idea is that they’ll improve something about themselves. So with Spiral coming out, I’m curious to see if they’ll return it to that. Because by the end of like Saw 3D or some of them, it gets to the point where you kind of need an entire team of engineers to be building some of these traps.

So, at the end of the day, yes. I would definitely be interested in playing in that sandbox again, because I think it’s fascinating. The creators behind it are all wonderful people. It’s a very, very inventive world that I think speaks to the best part of horror, the human nature of it. Be it both the quote-unquote villain, and the people who are his quote-unquote victims as well. But right now, I’m working on a horror video game, so I’m tied up for a while.

BD: Horror video game?! Tell us more!

REL: Oh, it’s really exciting. I’m beyond the moon over this one. It’s called The Callisto Protocol. Glen Schofield, who was one of the creators of Dead Space, is running the studio. It’s set in the future; we’re telling a story that focuses on a deep space prison.

Because Dead Space is one of my favorite games of all time, it perfectly masters this horror vibe … to be able to work with members of that team, it’s a dream come true. We have a teaser trailer out there, go check it out! It’ll give you a good feel of what we’re going for.

BD: All these years later, what are your final thoughts on Saw: Rebirth?

REL: I’m very proud of it. I think it’s just a really interesting addition to the Saw universe, and I think something that really kind of helped contribute to a lot of the exploration of one of the best horror villains of all time. I was just honored to be able to play in that sandbox as much as I could. As a fan, I’m looking forward to Spiral as well to see where they take it from here.

Special Thanks to Mr. Lieb for his time and insights.

The post ‘Saw: Rebirth’: Writer R. Eric Lieb Revisits the Comic That Gave Us Jigsaw’s First Origin Story [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With its sleek design, imposing height, and striking pharyngeal jaws (to say nothing of the terrifying biological process that brings it into existence), the Alien franchise’s Xenomorph is surely one of cinema’s greatest monsters. First introduced in Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror/sci-fi masterpiece and featured in several sequels, prequels, and crossover films, the iconic creature has also graced other media throughout the decades, including novels and video games. Perhaps the most noteworthy continuation of the Alien saga was carried out in comic book form, starting back in 1988 with Dark Horse Comics’ first line of books based upon the Xenomorphs and the unfortunate folks who continually cross their paths.

For years, Dark Horse printed four-color tales of the creatures, publishing numerous series, one-shots, spinoffs, and graphic adaptations of the films. However, the line eventually came to an end with the recent acquisition of Alien’s parent company 20th Century Fox by Disney, who currently owns Marvel Comics. Inevitably, a new run of Marvel-produced comics was announced in the summer of 2020.

Penned by Eisner-nominated writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Marvel Zombies: Resurrection) and featuring stunning art by Salvador Larroca (Star Wars), Marvel’s Alien begins in the year 2200 and focuses on newly-retired Weyland-Yutani company man Gabriel Cruz. The story kicks off with a horrific nightmare spurred on by memories of a past encounter with the Xenomorphs, recounted by Cruz to a character who will be very familiar to fans of the films. Shortly after, Cruz takes an early retirement, stepping down from his position as the security chief of Weyland-Yutani’s Epsilon Station, an orbital research and development installation with outwardly altruistic goals of helping humanity. Back on Earth, Cruz attempts to reconnect with his estranged son Danny, unaware that he’s an agent for a violent anti-Weyland-Yutani group. When Danny steals his father’s security card and leads a team aboard Epsilon, the would-be activists discover the shocking true nature of the station and the terrors it holds on board.

With only two issues available as of this writing, Marvel’s Alien has already proven itself to be an intense, frightening, and commendably character-driven tale. Most surprisingly, the comic manages to feel right at home in the larger franchise without ever seeming like a retread of any prior story. If you’re a fan of the films, or just horror comics in general, consider this series to be essential reading.

Discussing Alien with us today is writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, who was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to chat with Bloody Disgusting about his involvement with the comic, his approach to its story, and what his long-term plans are for everyone’s favorite biomechanical bugs.

Bloody Disgusting: How was it that this project came to be, and how did you come to it? Or how did it come to you?

Phillip Kennedy Johnson: I actually saw the announcement that Marvel had acquired the licenses to Alien and Predator along with everyone else online, and was just off-the-chain excited about it. I love the Dark Horse books too, but seeing what [Marvel] had done with the Star Wars license, and even just the promo images they put up by David Finch of the Xenomorph and the Predator, it got me so excited for what was coming. So much so that I did what I never do: I actually reached out to my editor about it. In that moment, I reached out to Jordan White, my editor on Marvel Zombies: Resurrection, and kind of kicked the door in.

I was like, “Give me this book! You don’t have any idea what a huge fan I am of this franchise. I don’t need to do any research at all, I’m good to go right now.” Now, I was half joking when I said that because I assumed they already had a team lined up for the book… the fact that they already had artwork and everything, I assumed that they had a creative team that they just hadn’t announced yet. But that was not the case. They didn’t have a team yet. And I learned later that somebody behind the scenes at Marvel was already kind of vouching for me to get that gig, which I didn’t know at the time. So when I showed so much enthusiasm, that was enough to get me a call with the editor on that book. I made my case for what I would do for the series, and the directions that we might take.

BD: How much research did you do once you’d gotten the job? Did you rewatch all of the films, or read any of the spinoff novels or comics?

PKJ: I did get back into the source material. I rewatched all of the movies, with the exception of Resurrection. I have to admit, I cannot get through that one. Honestly, I could practically recite all the others already, but I was still excited to watch them again, so I did that. And I went through a lot of [Alien designer] H.R. Giger’s non-Alien artwork, too, just because he had such a massive impact on the franchise, obviously. I wanted to look at more of his non-Alien work, so I just went through a lot of it, kind of bathed in it and let it soak in.

I did go through and reread a lot of the Dark Horse books, too. There were so many Aliens books from Dark Horse over the years that some of the details kind of run together, and I wanted those to be a little clearer in my mind, which ones succeeded creatively and why. So I did refamiliarize myself with a lot of those books. That’s pretty much what I did to prep for this.

BD: The story is steeped in the world of Alien, but it’s telling an entirely new tale set within this world, featuring a setup and character types that we haven’t quite seen before in previous takes on this franchise. How did you come to this particular approach, and was Marvel leaning on you one way or another as to whether or not you should use some of the characters from the previous films?

PKJ: No, they were actually really great about letting me do whatever I wanted to do. They trust how deep and sincere my love is for the franchise. They were great about that. They did say that they would love something kind of in the vein of the second film, and I expected that because that’s what everyone wants. That second movie is so iconic. The imagery of the Space Marine in battle with the Xenomorph, it’s such an iconic image, but I also feel like it’s been overdone a bit. Since this is the first Marvel arc, I felt like there had to be some kind of a nod to it, but I didn’t want to just do yet another “Marine vs. the Xenomorph” thing.

So even though they said they wanted a Cameron-esque take, I pushed back on that a little bit. If there was going to be a film template for the first Marvel take on Alien, I wanted it to be the first film, not the second one, but with elements of the second one in there. So I tried to capture the claustrophobia and horror of the first film, while also incorporating a bit of the military aspects from the Cameron film.

As far as the protagonists, I tried to deliberately distance them from Ripley, because Ripley is such a bad-ass, larger-than-life character. She has to be one of the Top Five horror movie heroes ever. I didn’t want to bring in another blue collar female character that would inevitably be compared to Ripley, and almost certainly would not be as iconic without the weight of the films and Weaver’s amazing portrayal behind her. And the same for the “idealistic scientist” type, because of what a great and memorable character Shaw is from Prometheus. After those two characters, I think anyone similar would inevitably be compared to those two.

Instead, I decided to show the story from the perspective of a company man for a change. We never really see much of the inner workings of Weyland-Yutani, and I thought that would be kind of cool, to get a glimpse of the malevolent bureaucracy that is that company. And to show a guy who’s not strictly a white hat, who’s more shades of gray…someone who’s done questionable things, who was kind of out of the game but is forced to get back in. I think that fits the tone of the story. Everyone knows what the Xenomorph is, everyone knows the lifecycle, everyone knows those stories, but it’s still a new beginning, and we still need a new introduction to that world again. So I thought it fit to see somebody who had a very long, checkered past with the Xenomorphs get back in the saddle. And now we can see the xenomorphs again through his eyes.

BD: You mentioned the Dark Horse comics earlier. Will any of that long-running line be accounted for in the Marvel series, or is this fully a start-from-scratch approach?

PKJ: I’m treating it very much like a start-from-scratch approach, but that doesn’t mean that none of them will come back. Like with the Star Wars license. We’ve seen beloved characters from stories that are technically now retconned, like the Thrawn trilogy … now we’ve got Admiral Thrawn coming back into Star Wars. That’s a classic example of a character who technically doesn’t exist by the Star Wars canon rules, but was so beloved and such a cool character that they worked him back into the story.

I feel like there’s gonna be other stuff like that from Star Wars lore coming in as well, and we can do that kind of thing here, too. I definitely have arcs that I really admire that we can work in somehow. I’m not sure of the nitty-gritty details as far as the rights go, but I’m pretty sure Marvel has the rights to all the old Dark Horse books. There are stories from that era that are definitely not going to be canon, because they blatantly contradict things that have come out in the films since then, things that don’t jive with Prometheus and Covenant, that definitely won’t work now.

For example, back when we thought the Space Jockey was an elephant person or whatever, and we saw guys that looked like that in the books. We’ve seen other things that are not expressly disproven in the films, but that don’t really fit tonally with the films, like the scientists who build android Xenomorphs who speak English and smoke cigars, the “royal jelly” and its attributes, things that just don’t fit in the canon that’s been established in the films.

So right now, I’m treating it like the Dark Horse stuff has been taken off the table, and we’re starting again. But there are definitely some elements from Dark Horse that I admire a lot and would love to bring back, emulate in some way, or at least pay homage to.

BD: Will the series ever deal directly with the events of the films? If so, which continuity will factor in, given that the prequels are at odds with the original sequels and AVP films?

PKJ: With Ridley Scott’s involvement in the prequels … I think those have to be regarded as canon, no question. And of course, Alien and Aliens are both above reproach. Everyone loves those. Those have to be regarded as true. The ones that, for me, are potentially on the canon chopping block are Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, and of course all the AVP stuff. I’m treating those as not canon, at least not in my own head canon as a fan. Now Alien 3 is super debatable, and I actually like that movie a lot. I think there are a lot of things about that movie that are super kickass. The big problem with it, of course, is that Newt and Hicks are killed offscreen for no reason right out of the gate.

And that sucks. We’ve learned to love those characters by that point, and then we just completely undo all of that. That makes the story revolve around Ripley, as it should, but it does really suck for the fans who learned to love those characters. And because of that perceived betrayal of the fans, you’ve got these other versions of the stories out there. One of those first comic stories show Newt and Hicks later in life, which wipes Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection off the board if you regard that comic as true. And there’s the screenplay that’s come out since then, the other version of Alien 3. So I feel like that’s where the timeline diverges, and you can kind of choose your own adventure at that point.

Honestly, this was one of the reasons why I didn’t want to refer to Alien 3 or Resurrection at all in this first arc, because I think there’s a decent chance that canon could be retconned at some point, and it’s important to me that these Marvel books always remain canon, always. One of the big advantages to the situation now is that 20th Century and Marvel are all part of the same big company. This is a chance for us to tie all the media going forward into one all-encompassing universe. And I really want to do that. I don’t want these books to get ditched down the road, the way the Dark Horse books were undone by the prequels.

BD: There is a great, nightmarish image in the first issue, which features a montage of the Xenomorphs. There is also a figure in the background who looks shockingly like Sil from the Species franchise. Might you be planning a crossover between these two H.R. Giger-designed creatures, or was it more of an easter egg, or am I entirely off-base and that’s not what that was at all?

PKJ: Well, it’s not Sil, but it is certainly inspired by the non-Xenomorph work of Giger. The Xenomorph is the perfect representation of terror on screen, in my opinion, and Giger’s visual sensibilities are a crucial part of the franchise, and I want the series to continue to find ways to incorporate his visual language. I really love the work that Giger did that was specifically devoted to Li Tobler, his late lover who killed herself when she was super young. A lot of those images from the Necronomicon and all that, they’re very iconic, very recognizable. The word ‘Li’ is in the title of some of those works, and they’re clearly based on Li Tobler’s face, but in the context of these huge, monstrous, horribly graphic images. I wanted something inspired by that, to pay homage to that. As far as what she is, what that thing is specifically, that’s a big fat spoiler I can’t get into. I will ask that fans remember: it’s just the character’s dream we’re looking at, not necessarily a memory. People really latched onto it like, “Oh, you’re jumping the shark, it’s all fucked up.” I’ve seen people online saying this is what a new Alien Queen looks like, but nobody has said that. This is literally this character’s fever dream that he’s describing in a therapy session. She’s not meaningless, and we’ll find out more about what she is later on, but readers shouldn’t assume that this is a memory, or that she’s something he saw in front of him. It’s a little more complicated than that.

BD: Can we talk a bit about the art in this comic? Salvador Larroca’s artwork is stunning, and Guru-efx’s color work is just beautiful.

PKJ: I agree, the color work is great and Salva’s work is great. I first saw Salva’s work on Iron Man many years ago, and have seen so much of his stuff since then. He’s been one of Marvel’s go-to guys for many years, and it’s an honor to work with him. He did an awesome job on the Star Wars stuff. He’s a huge Alien fan himself, and actually has a lot of Alien nerd gear, just because he’s a fan. It’s been a real pleasure to work with him. He’s super fast, man. The whole time we’re doing this book, I feel like I’m being chased! Like trying to put out script faster than he can draw it, and honestly, it’s difficult to do that. He’s just so unbelievably fast. He’s very passionate about the book and the source material. It’s an honor to work with him.

BD: What is the long term plan for this book? How long do you plan to be on it? Will there be offshoots, or will it just be this main line?

PKJ: There will be offshoots. I don’t know if there’s gonna be offshoot series or not, and the only reason I can even say that there’s going to be offshoot issues is because they already announced one the other day. They announced that Ben Percy is writing a one-shot, a 35th anniversary of Aliens, the second film. It’s a story about a return to Hadley’s Hope, and that’s coming out later this year. I want to say July, maybe.

The first issues sold very well, so I’m sure they’ll do other Alien properties or other Alien series at some point. I’m sure at some point you can expect some kind of a crossover either between Alien and Predator, or Alien and the Marvel Universe or something. That’s not a spoiler, that’s just my opinion. We haven’t talked about any of that stuff yet.

As far as my involvement with the book … man, I’m such a huge fan of the stuff, I would happily write it forever. I don’t know how long they’re going to have me on here, but I’ve got several arcs in the can already, and hope to script all of them. Even though I know there’s a TV series being made, in my mind I still see Alien as a movie franchise, and conceive of it in terms of Alien-length chapters. That’s how it looks in my mind’s eye. So we’re going to do a series of arcs that feel like standalone films, but that tie together a little more closely than they did at Dark Horse. With Dark Horse, every book that came out was a completely different creative team, all different lengths, all taking place with no connective material to the other stories, necessarily.

In my run, each arc will introduce new characters and all that, but there will also be much more connective tissue than previously, something to tie them all together. There will be subplots that continue from one story to the next, the way the films track the growth and influence of Weyland-Yutani, the development of android tech and culture, which has become a really important part of it. And the prequels, you know, there are these little subplots that pushed the story forward that weren’t even necessarily about the characters as much as the universe.

That tradition will continue in my run. The big thing is that I want these comics to feel like they belong on the shelf alongside the films. Like if you really wanted to take in all the canon stuff, you would watch the first two movies, maybe the first three movies, read my books, and then go on to the next film. I really want them to feel like they belong together. That’s the driving force in the approach I’m bringing, just to make sure they feel like the films I love so much. I don’t want to explore some crazy tangent just because I think it’s cool, unless it also fits in perfectly with the films. It has to feel like those other stories to me.

BD: Backing up for just a moment – there could be a crossover between the Xenomorphs and Marvel superheroes?!

PKJ: I think that’s a distinct possibility. Marvel even kind of told us that with those promo images, when they put up those images with the announcement. There was an image of a Xenomorph in the Guardians of the Galaxy ship, and another one of a Predator holding up Iron Man’s helmet. I think that’s kind of implied that at some point there will be an introduction to those characters or those properties into the Marvel 616 Universe.

But that was just what I took from it. They have not told me any such thing, I’m not giving any spoilers here. That’s just what I think. I think at some point we’ll see some crossovers happening. After we’ve established the universes that we’re playing with now in Alien and Predator, I feel like at some point you’re going to see some events with everything kind coming together. Whether or not they stay in-universe, or if it’s just like a one-off thing, that’s hard to say.

BD – Would that make it at all difficult for you writing your own books, if you had to take into account that these characters are now a part of something that’s maybe not as grounded in its own way as the Alien franchise?

PKJ – The universe that I’m writing now in the Alien series is not one in which superheroes exist. I mean, full stop. There’s just no room in the story that I’m telling right now for the X-Men or the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy or any of that. This is the universe from the films that we’re seeing. If there’s ever a crossover between Alien and the Marvel Universe, that story would take place in the Marvel Universe and would not affect the universe which I’m writing now. Maybe there will be xenomorphs in the Marvel Universe permanently at some point, who knows? But that world is not the world in which I’m writing this story or the arcs to come.

BD: What do you want Alien fans, comic fans, and horror fans who have maybe never picked up a comic book before to know about this comic?

PKJ: I want them to know that this is being made by the biggest fans of the film franchise. We are absolutely loyal to that vision of what Alien is, and what Aliens is. Even though it’s a mainstream Marvel Comics story, we’re pushing the envelope as far as gore, terror, language – all the things that make it feel more like the original source material.

Fans are going to get another story that feels like it’s right off the screen, that will hopefully make them enjoy those films even more.

Special Thanks to Mr. Johnson for his time.

Make certain to pick up Alien issues 1 and 2, on stands now at your local comic book shop.

The post Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson on Marvel’s ‘Alien’ and What We Can Expect from the New Comics [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Dracula.

Read that name. Say it out loud, even.

What image first comes to mind? Bela Lugosi, curling his fingers and chewing scenery with the aid of his inimitable Hungarian accent? Perhaps you imagine Christopher Lee, locked into a ferocious battle with Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing in the final moments of Horror of Dracula. You may even think of Gary Oldman’s unapologetically romantic take on the character in Francis Ford Coppola’s stunning, baroque 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Whether he be young or old, friendly or fanged, outfitted in evening wear or fur and wings, Dracula surely comes with a certain set of parameters when it comes to detailing his exploits, even for the many, many variations on the character we’ve seen on stage, screen, and the printed page.

Comic book creator Richard Davis looks to upend our expectations of the bloodthirsty Count with his new series Cult of Dracula. Set in the present day and featuring a female spin on the titular villain, Cult acts as a contemporary retelling of the events of Bram Stoker’s source novel, reimagining the tale in an American environment while placing his characters into some surprisingly different roles. Van Helsing is portrayed here as a college professor heading up a documentary film project with his graduate assistants Johnathan Harker and Mina Murray. Quincy, Holmwood and Lucy are members of the focus of Van Helsing’s documentary, Ordo Dracul – a mysterious cult headed up by a very Mansonesque R.M. Renfield. The story is framed by an investigation into a cult-involved massacre led by FBI Agent Malcolm Bram, whose journey looks to lead the fed to discovering the true nature of the “dragon” that has inspired the eponymous cult.

With its sharp writing, moody art and genuinely creepy and imaginative take on a classic story, Cult of Dracula has already cemented itself as one of the better horror comics to be currently found haunting the stands. The first issue is already available as of this writing, with five more coming to complete the first arc. Two more six issue volumes, titled Rise of Dracula and Reign of Dracula, are expected to complete this grand retelling.

On hand to discuss Cult and its origins is creator Davis, who was kind enough to chat with Bloody Disgusting about his unique take on a well-worn legend.

Bloody Disgusting: How was it that you got into comics – both as a fan, and now as a creator?

Richard Davis: Believe it or not, there was a time in my life where I hated comic books. Hard to believe now, but I hated reading in general when I was a kid. The only thing I wanted to do when I was young was play baseball and video games. My parents, being very clever and very concerned about my development as a human being wanted to get me reading more. So what they decided to do was, whenever I would do well at school or if I played well on a baseball game, they would buy me a comic book.

If I was really good for a month and did all my chores and made the honor roll at school? Mom and Dad would take me over to Bob’s Collectors Den in Cookeville [Tennessee] and would basically let me spend an afternoon there, picking out whatever comics I wanted. I was picking up, you know, like Amazing Spider-Man, I was picking up Uncanny X-Men and Batman. Always loved Superman. Picking up basically the things that all kids do.

My little kid brain didn’t realize reading comic books was the same as reading. So Mom and Dad kind of tricked me into being an avid reader by giving me comic books early on. So I graduated from comic books up to reading novels and, now to this day, I’m an avid reader. So comic books are very, very important to me becoming who I am today. They were just absolutely essential in my formation as a person.

I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to do things that other people say I can’t do. If somebody says it’s impossible, that immediately makes me want to do it. I’ve worked in radio as an on air personality, I’ve worked for two presidential campaigns and one senatorial campaign. I owned a bar, I owned a theater, I worked in the film and theater industries. And then I ended up opening up a comic book store. Now, I’m writing comics, which is pretty damned cool.

I decided to be a comic book writer because I realized things were happening in my life. My wife unfortunately became very ill with with chronic kidney disease, and we had to make some life changes. She ultimately passed away in December of last year. We had full intentions of Cult of Dracula being produced as an independent horror film. That was our goal with it, and we were all on the path to developing that. When Amber got sick, we had to make some changes and I was actually just going to give up on the project. There was actually a time when I deleted the script. I just wiped it out. I said, “This is stupid. I can’t put time or money into this because we’ve got these serious health issues to deal with. I can’t be chasing a dream, we’ve gotta be realistic here.”

Amber got so pissed at me. I don’t think she has ever been so angry at me in my life than when I deleted that script. She’s never, ever yelled at me like that before. She let me have it with both barrels. Luckily, she had a copy of the script, a PDF that I had sent her [because] she was my editor.

She made me pick it back up, and she said, “Okay. So we can’t make a movie because we don’t have the money. We don’t have the time, the resources. But you can turn this into a comic. Writing a screenplay is not so very different from writing a comic book script. The same mechanisms are in place. So that’s what we decided to do.

I began talking to my friend, Tony Todd. Tony’s a good personal friend of both myself and Amber. He’s been very, very supportive of the project. The character Malcolm Bram, the FBI agent in Cult of Dracula, was written with the idea that Tony would play him in the movie. He was very encouraging, and he helped me meet some people in the comic book industry [such as] my good friend Georges Jeanty, who was an artist on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Georges is just an amazing human being. He gave me a lot of advice and he helped me early on in developing the script into the comic book format. Ultimately, Georges connected me with Henry Martinez, who would become my artist on the first two issues. That’s kind of a long, roundabout way of letting you know how I got here. Through just not giving up and being creative in finding a way to get this story told. If I couldn’t do it one way, we were just gonna do it the other.

BD: How did Cult of Dracula first come about?

RD: That was the most natural decision for me to make, because I am a huge horror fan. I can remember very clearly being four years old in my parents’ living room, hiding behind this big leather couch and poking my head around the corner, watching episodes of Scooby-Doo. It scared me to death as a kid, but I loved it. That feeling that I get from horror – from watching a horror movie or reading a horror comic, or going to a haunted house – that feeling has never left me. I still get that rush. I’m probably the easiest person in the world to scare because I want to be scared so badly.

I discovered Anne Rice when I was way too young to be reading Anne Rice. I was probably 10, 11, 12 years old, you know. I had no business reading Anne Rice that young, but … vampires have never left me. I played White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Requiem. I will always love [vampires] because that’s just my jam.

So Cult of Dracula originally started as a stage production. We produced it at my theater in Wilmington, North Carolina called The Browncoat Pub & Theatre. This was October of 2013, and it ran an entire month of sold-out shows. It was nominated for several area theatre awards, and won a few of those. For one of those, Tony Todd was actually in the audience. This is where Tony and I actually met. From the first time he got to see the play, he was very encouraging and supportive, and wanted me to continue with it. So we just started developing it as a screenplay. Then, of course, we got to the point where the screenplay was no longer feasible. Now it’s a comic.

BD: Cult tells a remixed version of Bram Stoker’s tale, transplanting his story and characters into an entirely different time and setting. What was your reasoning for this approach, rather than doing a more traditional adaptation, or a sequel of sorts with different characters?

RD: It’s something I thought about quite a bit. I’ve always viewed Dracula as a timeless character. Vampires are primordial beings. These stories, these beings have been tucked away in the back of our brains since humans first started gathering around campfires. Every culture, every time, every place has some sort of vampire legend.

By choosing to modernize the Dracula story, I wanted to show that the character and vampires are timeless. It doesn’t matter where or when you are, every human being can relate to this story in one way or another. So, I decided that I wanted to update it to modern day and take the characters from Stoker’s original novel and kind of imagine … instead of telling a sequel to the story, instead ask – where would they be today?

So I took the characters and tried to imagine who they would be in the modern world. Renfield became a very Charles Manson-inspired figure. I love Renfield. I love every bit of his trippy, weird dialogue. But the modernization just seemed like it would make the story stand out as something a little bit different to readers, because we’ve already read the original Dracula. It’s a timeless, genre-defining classic. There’s no reason to go back to the Victorian era and try to retell Dracula there. We don’t need to go back there. What’s been lacking is a Dracula story for the modern age, for today. How would Dracula operate in a world with Twitter, where there cameras everywhere and everything is recorded?

There’s so much different about today, but there are also some similarities. We still have this fear of the Other, you know? Nowadays, the Other is not a creepy Eastern European aristocrat invading our home territory. Now the Other is a foreign terrorist from another country, or the person in the other political party. That’s the Other that we’re afraid of, but we still have that same essential fear.

So all of the themes in Stoker’s Dracula translated very well to the modern day. Once I started making the adjustments, the time period changes were probably the easiest to make.

How did you come to the decision to make Dracula a woman?

RD: I have to give credit to Georges Jeanty for that, because he challenged me pretty hardcore. I gave Georges my original draft of the comic script. He read it, got back to me and was like, “You know, it’s good. I love your dialogue, I love your pacing, I love the story that you’ve set up. But it’s really just another vampire story. It doesn’t really do anything for vampire mythology.” Then we started talking about 30 Days of Night and how, you know, answering one very simple question completely changed vampire mythology forever. “What would happen if vampires didn’t have to sleep during the day?” That was the whole premise of 30 Days, and it became an epically awesome vampire comic, and a pretty good movie later on.

So Georges said, “If you want it to be something special, you’ve got to do something special. You’ve got to change the perception of Dracula. You’ve got to add something to the vampire mythology. Right now, you’re not really doing that.” So I took that as a challenge and went back to the drawing board. I started researching vampire mythology, Dracula mythology, and that spun me out into different mythologies from around the world.

I found a really creepy children’s nursery rhyme. It’s a South American nursery rhyme that actually gets incorporated into issue three of the book. That was the big kind of changing point for me when I heard this nursery rhyme, sung by a woman like a nanny or a grandmother comforting a baby. She’s telling the baby, “Please be quiet, please be quiet, or the dark woman will come and steal you away.” That just sent chills down my spine. So I started researching creepy children’s nursery rhymes, then that spun me out into all of this other mythology. I started noticing a very common theme and a figure that appeared in mythologies just across the board. It didn’t matter if it was Native American, or if it was ancient Assyrian, or Islamic, or if it was European or South American. It didn’t matter. This figure was always there. It was always a woman, a dark woman, an outcast woman who was shunned and forced to the fringes of society.

She stalked the darkness and hunted in the shadows, and stole babies or naughty children from their beds, and survived by devouring their blood. And I got to thinking, “Wow, what if Dracula was all of these figures, and the way she manifests throughout human history is based on how people perceive her?” Suddenly, Dracula became the Wendigo. She became La Llorona, and Lady Bathory. She became Lamashtu, and the Lamia, and Medusa. All the way back to Lilith. Lilith became the lynchpin that kind of pulled everything together.

It all made sense. So, Lilith was the original vampire. The original Dracula, the original dragon. From there, I got to explore more of the the Biblical texts about the Whore of Babylon and the Great Dragon of Revelations. So I was able to link all of these mythologies together, and it became a pretty damn compelling story. Ultimately, switching genders and tying her to this mythology, it just made the story so much more interesting and also more frightening because it allowed me to explore why our society is so scared of women. It gives us a whole new perspective and point of view on the story.

BD: What were your inspirations for this tale, beyond the original novel? There are surely some heavy crime and Southern Gothic elements to be found in this telling.

RD: I’m a huge fan of Gothic literature. Obviously things like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jekyll and Hyde – but also things like Northanger Abbey. You know, Gothic literature that you don’t normally associate with horror. The Monk was another very influential book. Then, being raised in the South, Southern Gothic is just part of life here. A lot of what you see in Cult of Dracula is a much darker, much more sensationalized version of the world that I grew up in.

The cult aspect was born from watching the movie Helter Skelter as a kid, about the Manson murders. I remember to this day, I’m still haunted by that actor’s eyes. They just scare the hell out of me, along with his portrayal of Manson. So Manson became one of those quintessential horror figures in my mind. He’s not a human, he’s a monster. He’s a lot like a vampire, because Manson didn’t kill anybody. He manipulated other people. He manipulated prom queens and high school athletes and book nerds to go out and do all these horrific things in his name, which is kind of what vampires do, too. They use this power to control people’s minds and to seduce them into doing these horrible, horrible things. So the Manson story was very influential in developing this story. Um, and just a general fascination with cults in general, um, uh, you know, uh, Jonestown, uh, is, is such an incredibly interesting story. Serial killers have always been very interesting to me, too. All of that fed into Cult of Dracula. You’re definitely gonna see references to some of those things, and the influence that they have is definitely in the book.

Can you talk a bit about Henry Martinez’s art and Trevor Richardson’s colors? Both seem to perfectly suit the material – fun, but with a darkness and edge to them.

RD: I thought Henry’s art style, from the very beginning, was perfectly suited for Cult of Dracula because he has a very 70s, 80s grindhouse vibe to his art. That’s just the way his style comes across, which is exactly the way I wanted this book to read. It’s a Tobe Hooper film, it’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre. His artwork is very, very well-suited for that. He was also able to kind of teach me little tricks about when to use a splash page and when to use a certain type of layout. Henry served as a bit of a mentor to me in developing this project. I’m very excited to have worked with him.

Unfortunately, Henry was impacted by COVID last year. He and his entire family came down with COVID, and he fell several months behind and still hasn’t fully recovered. He’s still having some lingering effects, so he ultimately had to step away from the book after issue 2.

We’re bringing on Puis Calzada, an artist out of Mexico City, whose style is very similar to Henry’s. So hopefully it won’t be too disrupting to the readers. They won’t notice a massive change in art style. I’m very, very grateful for everything that Henry was able to do on the first two issues, and just on providing guidance for me.

As we developed it, we auditioned probably two dozen colorists from every corner of the internet. We looked for every stone we could roll over. We got a submission from Trevor and I sent it over to Henry. Henry has never, in all of my time of knowing him, never responded to a message faster. It was just two words: hire him. So we did! You know, colorists don’t get the credit that they deserve in developing comic books. You usually don’t know the names of the colorist, but I think that Trevor is so incredibly talented. I think he’s going to be one of those colorists that kind of crosses over. I think people are going to start to recognize his name and they’re going to start to recognize his work because he makes some very bold choices. He’s, he’s fearless in what he decides to do with his colors, but they’re so incredibly fitting for the story. He really elevates this book to a whole new level.

BD: The various covers are quite beautiful as well. Will each issue feature cover variants?

RD: Yes. This is one of those things, taking advantage of my knowledge as a retailer. I’ve owned a comic book store for many years, called Nirvana Comics in Knoxville, Tennessee. Having an understanding of where the comic book market is going, there’s always going to be the segment of people who just read comics. But then, there are the collectors. There are some people who just collect comics to collect the cover art.

It’s a very, very rapidly rising segment of the comic book community. They’re really driving the economics of comic books in a lot of ways. So being able to put that into place when I pitched the idea of bringing Cult of Dracula over to Source Point Press, I kind of brought a business plan with me.

Very early on, one of the things I told Jacob and Travis [the president and the CEO of Source Point Press, Cult’s publisher], I told them very early on – if you pick this book up, you’re not only getting my comic, but you’re getting me. What I meant by that is that they’re going to get my work ethic, my creativity, and my commitment to selling this book.

I believed, and still to this day believe, that the success of my comic was going to be directly tied to building relationships with local comic book shops. So we began reaching out to them. My wife and I, we sat down, hopped on Google and we put together a database of literally every comic book store in the United States. We got their contact information and we started reaching out to them and we started building relationships, introducing ourselves. This is before I even had a publisher. I was like, “Hey, I’m Rich Davis. I’m writing this book called Cult of Dracula. This is what it’s about. You know, I would really love it if you carried it in your store. We just started talking, and we got to know a lot of them, got to know how their store was doing. I got to know when they were having a bad day or when they had a baby. And, you know, we just built these real relationships.

So when it came time to bring the book to Source Point, I said “What I want to do is create a program where we allow a limited number of retailers to do exclusive covers for Cult of Dracula, and we’ll set minimum order requirements for them. What we need to do is get a stable of artists that are willing to do these covers. Then we just connect A, to B, to C and boom, that’s what we do.” So by having those relationships with the retailers, by providing an opportunity for them to do something really cool for their store, now their store has a unique variant of Cult of Dracula. They now have a vested interest in seeing Cult of Dracula succeed, which is why they’re promoting it.

This isn’t just my book. It’s their book as well, because they’ve been there from the beginning. So I really think that having those variant covers has helped build that community and that kind of grassroots underground support for Cult of Dracula, which took it from being an absolutely unknown property from a guy that nobody’s ever heard of before to being one of the best-selling comic books for the month of March. When the numbers break, I think I know we’re going to be a Top 50 book. We might be a Top 25 book, and it’s all because of that grassroots support from retailers, local comic book shops and horror fans.

BD: Is it true that there is a Cult of Dracula movie in the works?

RD: That is correct. Everything kind of comes full circle, which is really cool. Cult of Dracula has entered into a development agreement with a company called Sure Pictures, run by producer Jerry Carita. Jerry is well-known in the world of reality television. He’s one of the original producers and creators of Comic Book Men. He’s also worked on American Pickers. Some big, big reality shows. So he’s got really strong relationships with Netflix, AMC, and Hulu.

Jerry has wanted to kind of spin off his reality television career into doing scripted projects. He and I got the opportunity, we started talking about it. Jerry introduced me to the other members of his company, created a nice business plan, and now they’ve got a development agreement to turn a Cult of Dracula into a film project.

I think what we all have in mind is that it would work best as a miniseries. Maybe on Shudder, or Screambox, or one of the streaming services. Jerry and his team are currently developing everything. We’re very confident that sometime in the near future you’re going to be seeing Cult of Dracula on the small screen.

BD: Ultimately, what would you like to leave our readers and fellow horror fans with who haven’t yet checked out this comic, or may not be comic fans in the first place?

RD: Cult of Dracula is a comic book written by a horror fan for fans of horror. I set out from the very beginning to write something that I would be proud of as a fan of horror. We definitely pay homage to the Splat Pack type of horror that Eli Roth would be proud of. There’s the classic monster movie things that Rob Zombie would love. I love Rob Zombie because I think he kind of captures the modern Southern Gothic motif. Of course, for people who are more into the slow burn thrillers, Cult of Dracula is definitely going to be for them. I’ve read that some people have compared it to Seven. Some people have compared it to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Of course, the Manson connection makes that very easy. People have compared it to Penny Dreadful. All of those things were in the back of my mind as I was writing this book

And then, I’m an 80s, 90s child. So you’re going to see a lot of references. If you’re a fan of movies like Near Dark, Dog Soldiers, Labyrinth, things like that, you’re definitely going to see references to those hidden within the book.

I wanted to write something for people who love the genre the way that I love the genre. So Cult of Dracula is written 100% with the horror fan in mind.

Special Thanks to Mr. Davis for his time.

Make certain to pick up Cult of Dracula #1, on stands now at your local comic book shop.

The post ‘Cult of Dracula’: Richard Davis Unleashes a Female Dracula for the Modern Age [Blood/Ink/Staples] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.