The book has two beautiful covers. One of the covers is from Ben Templesmith and the other by menton3. Each of them characterizes the story behind it in such an evocative way. Templesmith’s warm earth tones and murky blood suggest the gore that waits. Menton3’s cover gives a sense of dread with greys, dark blacks, and blue.

Both stories beyond their respective covers are written by Steve Niles of “30 days of Night” fame. They are unique but thematically similar tales of virtue and vice. The grim tone is established from the get go. With the most intimate and disgusting tale being that of a junkie, brought to life by Templesmith.

Niles focuses on a group of drug dealers. A deal has gone wrong and Cam is responsible for cleaning it up. This story has such an unrelenting sense of lust. Every character is defined by their desires. These are not good people, and the things they desire are far from virtuous.

The story is creepy and foreboding. Cam’s ordeal is described in cringe-worthy detail. The prose evokes a sense of dread that cannot be channeled any other way. We experience the horrible things that Cam goes through in intimate first person detail.

After Niles has creeped so far under your skin, he takes things a step further. The story concludes in an agonizing fashion that leaves the reader with a certain sense of lust. It makes you think of what you want more than anything, and what would happen if it consumed you.

Ben Templesmith’s art is like the best pages of the necronomicon. So beautifully terrifying that you cannot look away. The full-page spreads evoke a sense of whimsy in regards to the human form. Pages ooze with sexuality, only to spin the sexuality on its head with horrifying imagery. What results is a fully immersive experience that drags you through the underbelly of drug culture.

Any page from this book could own the most avid art fan for several hours. The art and the story creep together like a snake about to strike. It coils around you and burrows into your skull until you are unable to do anything but accept its embrace.

Flipping over the book will take you to menton3’s half. Here Niles weaves the story of Dan. A man reeling from his recent loss of everything: his family, his home, and his initiative. Dan floats through his life without purpose. Consumed with questions, he is lost.

The story rolls on with Dan’s fascination of his environment. He attempts to paint, but is whisked away by just about everything around him. He is haunted by images of hurt women, who have their own desires.

Menton3’s incredible paintings tease the reader as the story progresses. The dark tones give a unique sense of foreboding. A different haunting woman is playfully painted in a seductive pose on every page. Menton3 makes sure to disrupt these images with demonic figures looming in darkness. The women are seductive, and timeless. Every page brings a more intimate woman than the last. Niles story compliments the art. The terrifying verses are accompanied and sometimes embodied by the demonic figures on the page.

Menton3 plays a game of peek-a-boo with your psyche. Balancing the seductive and playful side of women with the darkness that they can create. Niles story and menton3’s art hit a high point at the same time. Throwing the reader into an abyss of demonic women. Each page plays with one beside it, and the intimacy created by the art will create an experience that will devour you.

“LUST” defies conventional criticism and here I am giving it. The entire book is such a work of art that it really must be held in your hands to understand the true gravity of its contents. The exploration of vice and virtue has never quite been done like this, and may never be again. In essence “LUST” will terrify you, thrill you, and change you. I’ve read it four times, and I can’t wait to dive in again.

Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. It is everything that you could ever want, and you need to ask yourself: how hard are you willing to work to get everything you could ever want? How badly do you lust for this book? And is that a good thing?

5/5 Skulls

Reviewed by – Jimbus_Christ

The post 5 Skull Review: ‘LUST’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

San Diego, CA (July 16, 2013) – After the twisted journey of surprise indie-hit Monocyte, menton3 is ready to take a new dark path into a world that is not what it seems. The truth will be revealed this October in his newest project, The Memory Collectors.

This three-issue limited series with both story and art by menton3, follows a group of unexpected heroines as they uncover the terrifying revelation that humans have become unwillingly harvested by demonic entities for their memories. Undaunted, the group decides to fight back against their unseen enemies in this desolate new reality.

“It’s always an honor to work with IDW,” says menton3. “I feel so incredibly lucky to have their help to put out a very different kind of story from me. Working on The Memory Collectors reminded me of why I wanted to make comics.”

“Menton’s blend of fine art and storytelling produce something completely unique,” said series editor Denton J. Tipton, “He’s a pleasure to work with, and every new page he turns in finds a new way to surprise me.”

His work has appeared across IDW’s line with covers for Infestation: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mars Attacks, X-Files and more. His recent, hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for the book Lust with Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, easily exceeded its financial goal. menton3’s other recent creator-owned venture with Steve Niles, Transfusion, was both a critical and commercial success.

The Memory Collectors will be the third creator-owned project from menton3 at IDW and looks to be as dark—and captivating—as the others.

The post Menton3 Collects Your Memories At IDW! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The gang at 44 FLOOD has just launched the Kickstarter for “TOME 2: MELANCHOLIA”, and it’s already well on it’s way to being successfully funded. The book is planned to be 12×18″ and 200 pages with an inserted music CD. The list of artists involved is just insane (see it on their campaign page). As always, the backing options are wicked including original artwork and prints from the artists involved.

From the Kickstarter:

TOME is a biennial anthology in an oversized format showcasing world-class and emerging artists from diverse disciplines as they explore a single, esoteric theme. TOME is made by artists with artists for the artist within us all.

Thank you so much for your time, consideration, and support!

The post [Give It A Kickstart] 44 Flood Launches ‘TOME 2: MELANCHOLIA’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

10. Green Wake Vol. 2: Lost Children (Image Comics)

Though the series ended too soon, Kurtis J. Wiebe delivers a satisfying finale to the mysterious town and inhabitants of Green Wake. Wiebe provides explanations on the history of Green Wake and his final thoughts on the series. Riley Rossmo offers unused covers and sketches of a few panels.

9. Witchblade: Rebirth, Vol. 1: Unbalanced Pieces (Top Cow Productions)

During Top Cow’s Rebirth, Tim Seeley starts off with a fresh take, relocating Sara Pezzini, wielder of the Witchblade artifact, to the mean streets of Chicago. Artist Diego Bernard captures the snowy and icy weather, which represents Sara’s moody personality. Bernard includes a cover gallery in the bonus content.

8. Hoax Hunters Vol. 1: Murder, Death, and The Devil (Image Comics)

Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley play around with the reality TV concept, where paranormal investigators disprove actual supernatural events to the public. Artist Axel Medellin focuses on the atmosphere and character dynamics in his moody illustrations. This collection also features Issue #0, the back-up tales originally found in “Hack/Slash.”

7. Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Raise Them Bones (DC Comics)

Scott Snyder delivers a suspenseful origin tale as Dr. Alec Holland is called upon once again to become Swamp Thing. Artist Yanick Paquette delivers the gruesome imagery of The Rot and its zombie army. Paquette also offers sketches and early concepts of the cover layouts.

6. Rebel Blood (Image Comics)

Alex Link and Riley Rossmo craft an action-packed thriller about a young man, Chuck Neville, discovering the animals in the woods have turned into zombies. With no dialogue in the panels, Rossmo illustrates eerie and frightening sequences where Chuck is being chased by the infected animals. Rossmo provides early covers and concept art of the zombie animals.

5. Crawl To Me: Evil Edgar Edition (IDW Publishing)

Writer/artist Alan Robert delivers an intense psychological thriller about a married couple trapped in their house by a menacing evil spirit. The “Evil Edgar Edition” contains an introduction by comics legend Walt Simonson and a painted cover by Menton3.

4. American Vampire Vol. 4 HC (Vertigo Comics)

In “Death Race,” Scott Snyder introduces Travis Kidd, a young hunter with his own style of killing bloodsuckers. With a pair of wooden teeth, Kidd bites back and rips the throat of a vampire. Artist Rafael Albuquerque delivers a breathtaking car chase as Kidd and Skinner Sweet fight on top of his Thunderbird’s hood. Albuquerque provides a sketchbook containing character designs of Kidd and loosely drawn “American Vampire” covers.

3. The Strain Vol. 1 (Dark Horse Comics)

In this adaptation, David Lapham tightens the dialogue, focusing on the police procedural aspect as Ephraim and Nora, the disease detectives, investigate their case. Aimed at shock value, Mike Huddleston depicts the violent aftermath of the vampire attacks, where heads are squashed and brains pop out.. Also included, there is a foreword by ” The Strain” creators, Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

2. Monocyte – Black Label Menton3 Edition (IDW Publishing)

Kasra Ghanbari and Menton3 deliver a highly imaginative apocalypse with provocative and fashionable character designs. In Menton3’s artwork, primary colors are washed away, bringing only gray and black tones to the forefront. In this edition, Menton3 offers new end pages and a custom cloth cover.

1. Severed HC (Image Comics)

Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft deliver a heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale about a lost runaway searching for his missing father, while crossing paths with a demonic serial killer known as The Salesman. Attila Futaki recreates the look and feel of America in the 1900s with his beautifully-rendered illustrations. Readers are given an inside look at the artistic process as Futaki provides a cover gallery, character sketches, and photo references.

Honorable Mentions:
“Hellboy Vol. 12: The Storm And The Fury”, “The Darkness: Rebirth” Vol. 1, and “’68 Vol.1: Better Run Through The Jungle”.

By – Jorge Solis

The post [BEST & WORST ’12] Jorge Solis’ List of the Best Comics 2012! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

November 20th, 2012 (San Diego) IDW Limited today announced a deluxe limited-edition treatment of MONOCYTE from art visionary menton3 and writer/artist/entrepreneur Kasra Ghanbari. The book is now available for pre-order on the IDW Limited website (www.idwlimited.com). The special edition includes hand-drawn artwork from the book’s artist and co-creator menton3, as well as several other gallery artists, including George Pratt, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Ben Templesmith.

“We created MONOCYTE as a love letter to the medium and because it was the kind of book we wanted to see on the shelves,” said Kasra. “With IDW Limited, we had access to incredible production possibilities and direct input into every design element. What we ended up with is a true definitive edition that fully realizes the art and reading experience.”

The post ‘Monocyte’ Gets Deluxe With IDW Limited appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Recently, Ben Templesmith co-founded a company called 44FLOOD alongside Menton3, Kasra Ghanbari, and Nick Idell as a way to offer unique comic/art fusion books. Their first project, an annual anthology series called “TOME”, was launched through Kickstarter, reaching it’s goal of $18,400 in only a few hours. Over the past week, 44FLOOD has been teasing a new project called “LUST” through their facebook page that will reunite Ben Templesmith and Steve Niles (more details coming tomorrow). Templesmith sat down with Bloody-disgusting at Montreal Comiccon to discuss his return to the industry, his excitement for the future of 44FLOOD, his views on art, and plenty more.

BD: It seems a lot of the reason why you guys started 44FLOOD is as a means to represent artist by giving them the space to do what they want. Do you feel there’s been a misunderstanding of artists in comics in recent years?

Templesmith: Historically, there’s always been a lack of respect for artists in comics. I mean look at Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they’re the prime example of that aspect of comics. One guy has a lot of publicity and promotion, and the other guy, in the mainstream nobody knows his name. But everyone knows Stan Lee. We live in the age of the writer, the story is key, but the look of it comes second. It’s interesting because Hollywood is the reverse pretty much, the stories are crap but the look is stunning.

When you deal with publishers sometimes art is seen as just a labor job, but I always pick up a comic because of the art first, only after do I really get into the story. That’s what we wanted to bring it back to with TOME. It’s kind of a brotherhood or sisterhood thing as well, it’s creativity and you have to give people room to breathe, and we’re thankful for the response so far.

BD: Did you feel there was a need for a platform for artists to have that room to breathe?
Templesmith: The main reason was to give a voice to projects we thought were cool, that we would do anyway, but something most publishers wouldn’t even contemplate doing. They wouldn’t see the investment to be worthwhile because of all the time and people involved. But let’s not pre-empt things, let’s wait til the book is out! So far, everyone seems very enthused.

My problem is most of my work is popular, it’s not superstardom, but it’s popular enough for me to make a living. Most of it is rarely in print so there are not hundreds of thousands of copies out there, but when there’s a new printing it generally sells out. I’ve been gone for two years from comics, so it’s amazing that I’m still invited to cons!

BD: Why did you come back to comics?

Templesmith: It’s in my blood. I got an email from Warren Ellis, and I was like I better let people know I’m not dead. When I came back to America, I stayed with Menton3 in Chicago and being in the studio with him, I started getting creative again and I started working on my comic in a while. So eventually, it was like, why not form our own company? We have the same ideas and ethos about creativity coming first. Obviously comics, is a business, and as always, business is business but it doesn’t have to be the same old same old. We want to bring it back to comics as a movement. The medium is not the industry but the industry is not the medium. Or something like that [laughs].

BD: You’ve mentioned before that you see art as ideas. How do you see ideas becoming art?

Templesmith: Well the reason people like art is because of the idea that went into it. You can draw an amazing lamp, but its still just a lamp, you need an idea to go with it.

BD: So how do ideas translate into art?

Templesmith: I try to come up with good ones, good stories. What I meant was that the world is run by corporations who pay to get new ideas. The idea is key. Whether it’s Disney, DC, Warner, Marvel, they have back catalogs of ideas that are worth millions. If you can come up with an idea, a good one, you don’t need the corporations. If you have the wherewithal to capitalize on it yourself, you can, use the Internet, or whatever. It all starts from one simple idea.

BD: So, its’ about having the thought and then working to get it out there, to communicate?

Templesmith: Executing the idea, that’s the hard part. But that’s where we want to help with 44FLOOD, helping artists get out there to the masses on behalf of that person rather than taking their idea and running with it under the company name.

BD: Is part of 44FLOOD focusing on helping artists who are not so well known to break in?

Templesmith: That’s the ultimate goal, to bring up new artists. With TOME, if it continues year after year, we really want the upcoming artists. It’s like, make it prestigious, make it a statement and then later down the line the money that comes in from that initial push will allow us to bring in the new artists. After volume one, we’ll really try to benefit all kinds of people. I think even with this volume we’ve got a pretty good mix.

BD: You have an insane list of contributors for this edition of TOME. How did that all happen?

Templesmith: Everyone knows everyone in the industry in comics, it s a bit incestuous because it’s a small industry. We tried to draw people in from other fields as well, so there are actually a lot of fine artists in this edition. There are so many artists out there who want to do comics but they don’t know how.

BD: You’re giving 3-5 pages to each artist for a story. How did you pick that number?

Templesmith: Well it just made sense. There is some jiggle room with it, some only have one page, but all fits with the layout of the book. Its not a status thing, just how it works design wise with 200 pages to play with.

BD: The theme is vampirism this year?

Templesmith: Right vampirism, not necessarily vampires! So like corporations, exploitation, power, anything feeding parasitically on something else, or traditional vampires. There will be a lot in there.

BD: That’s a touchy subject in pop culture these days and you seem to be averse to pop culture, the current trend of it at least.

Templesmith: I think anyone with taste is probably averse to it. We are not for the Twilight people. In the real world, they’re a lot of the lowest common denominator. Twilight is some type of Mormonism romance, strange thing. We’re not interested in that demographic. But there is a whole world of people not reading comics, we want to try and grab new people.

Current publishers fail because almost every person is a potential new reader. We don’t want the existing fans. We want the new ones. Twilight fans, no. But that’s okay; we’re not after them.

BD: This is the first project that 44 FLOOD is undertaking. So what else do you guys have planned?

Templesmith: We have various other art comic fusion projects, some straight comics in the works. We have a lot of plans and we’re just starting to get the going. We play it by ear, but we don’t want to lose focus, we don’t want to lose our core brand and appeal that we’ve worked so hard to build.

We are just trying to break even first, then become sustainable later. I don’t think we’ll become a huge publisher in the comic book sense. We’re not going for the mass market, our core is to produce art for real people who we connect with, and sell direct to them. The big market is a bit broken to us, so we are going beyond that, because if that collapses tomorrow, we’ll still be okay. We’re mostly about the actual artifacts of the books, making connections, getting out sketches and the art.

BD: Kickstarter was great to you guys, are you going to go back to it?

Templesmith: At least for one or two more then hopefully we’ll be able to do what we want with some funds we’ve made. Kickstarter is a valid tool for us, almost like a pre-order system, much like Diamond, but it’s got much less cost and more work because you mail the books out yourself. It’s a great system because it empowers creative people but at the same time the creator has to learn about printing and shipping and stuff. So we know that stuff and hope we can help other artists through 44FLOOD now. I’ve been in comics for 10 years now, I’m not old, but I’m still kind of a young pup. Menton came from nowhere over the past handful of years, and he’s going to be huge.

BD: He’s a great artist, I blush at the sight of his work.

Templesmith: [laughs] Yeah, we riff on each other’s work a lot, artistically without borrowing styles. We are still very different, but we have similarities which I think people can see. We did a collaboration for TOME, where we each took half of the page and I think that turned out well. It may not be the last time we do something along those lines.

BD: Is there anything else you want people to know about 44FLOOD?

Templesmith: We’re artists for artists. We’re not anti-writer, we like writers. We just want to try to do something different that nobody else has done yet. We don’t want to compete so much with other publishers, we just want to put things out there that are original and novel. The next step for me is to actually do the comics, to be involved in the process in a curative sense; this, I think, was always going to be the next move in my career.

The post Interview: Ben Templesmith Talks 44FLOOD appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

WRITTEN BY: Steve Niles
ART BY: menton3
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: October

In a future overrun by out-of-control machines and monsters, a handful of human survivors try to fight their way back to a normal life. But what is normal in a world where both monsters and machines need human blood? And which are the real bad guys? Find out in this horrific new series by 30 Days of Night co-creator Steve Niles and menton3, the demented artist behind Monocyte!

The post Steve Niles And Menton3 Are Giving You A Bloody ‘Transfusion’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

menton3 : tropes and loci ; Book One
48 page 9.5×12 hardcover art book.
forward by Ben Templesmith

It will be the body of work I have done over the last 3-4 years.Each one will be individual numbered. The number offered will be less then 350 copies.Post pre-orders the book will retail for $25.99+ shipping.The book will ship Late August or September.

The post [Random Cool]: Menton3’s First Art Book Coming In August appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The series is set in the future, in a world devoid of life, save for two long feuding immortal races who have claimed the world as their own. The figure of Death calls upon his long forgotten necromancer, Monocyte, to put an end to immortality, and introduce death into the world once again. “Monocyte” is a grim and beautiful story unlike anything you’ve ever read before. The writing is poetic, and the artwork is simply breathtaking. You can see the details for the oversized collected edition below, as well as the preview for the final issue which hits shops May 16th, 2012 from IDW.

WRITTEN BY: Kasra Ghanbari and Menton3
ART BY: Menton3, Chris Newman, and Ben Templesmith
PUBLISHER: IDW
RELEASE:: May 16
PRICE: $3.99

The world is in in chaos. Monocyte makes his way to Azrael as the human slaves are freed! Series conclusion with art by menton3 (ZvR: Aventure, Silent Hill) and co-written by Kasra Ghanbari with an incentive cover by world-renowned fine artist Phil Hale and side stories by legendary fine artist/illustrator Barron Storey (Sandman: Endless Nights) and superstar horror writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre).

News on the oversized collected edition, which sounds amazing:

The MONOCYTE collected edition will be a 224-page oversized 9×13.5″ hardcover out in July with 60+ pages of new content. It’s in May Previews for pre-ordering (#MAY120462) and will include the series prequel that was previously only available digitally, all 4 issues, all 8 side stories, and all 12 covers. This includes art by Ashley Wood, Bill Sienkiewicz, George Pratt, Phil Hale, Barron Storey, Ben Templesmith, Riley Rossmo, Christopher Mitten, David Stoupakis, and Chris Newman.

The 60+ pages of new content will be filled in part with art contributions by some amazing comic book and fine artists/sculptors such as Scott Radke, Matthew Bone, Guillermo Rigattieri, Richard A. Kirk, Alberto Ruiz, Tim Roosen, David Stoupakis, Richard Friend, Toby Cypress, and many more.

The post Preview: …Even Death May Die In ‘Monocyte’ #4 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The creative team took the time to sit down with BD and chat about their series from IDW Publishing. With the fourth installment set for release at the end of the month, the book has almost reached its conclusion. Kasra and Menton3 offer in-depth insight into the future of the series, the creative process as a whole, the fear of immortality, plus an exclusive announ Check out the interview after the break.

For people who don’t know what Monocyte is can you give us a brief introduction?

KG: For all intensive purposes, it’s set way in the future in a world void of life in every way except for these two long fighting immortal races that have governance over the world, and human slaves that they feed off of for as their source of immortality. Due to the lack of death, the figure of Death, Azrael, has become irrelevant and reduced into a physical form, which pisses him off. He sets up a plan and calls upon a long lost, and forgotten necromancer, Monocyte, who long ago had gone to sleep to approximate death. So Azrael summons him and sends him out to destroy the power sources of these two immortal races and to bing death and balance back to the world.

I was reading some previews interviews you’ve done and you mentioned that one thing you were trying to do was reverse roles of protagonists and antagonists. What made you want to reverse these roles?

M3: too many horrible things come out of what that people say are good, and too many wonderful things come out of things deem to be evil. One example is we have a church that is supposed to be good, which it then responsible for the Spanish Inquisition. I think thematically, storytelling wise, some of the stories I gravitate towards deal with the fact that there is no good or evil, per say. For me it was interesting to base a story around this concept. I come form the idea that I want to be doing something original to myself, and there aren’t enough people out there doing what they think is cool. So to me, the juxtaposition of good and evil was a good place to start a story.

So you have these two immortal races that have been fighting for thousands of years. One race is based more in alchemy and magic while the other is more technologically based, which makes this interesting dichotomy between the synthetic and the organic. What made you want to contrast the races so drastically.

M3: The reason I make music or any art is to externalize the internal, to a point where self-realization is a forgone conclusion. Art and music are a way of pushing out crazy shit inside my head and a means to communicate with myself. When Monocyte originally came to me as an idea, it came along with this subconscious stuff that dealt with the subject matter you see in the book. It was always just kind of there. I’m not trying to indict religion, the occult, or technology. It just seems to me that this is how the story would play out, so really it fed itself.

KG: As far as world building goes, we could justify, to a point , the basis of immortality being attainted by those methodologies. So we wanted it to be as real as possible when building this world, we wanted people now to look at it and dissect it and go deeper and infer a relevance to the story. Between magic and technology, we went through the actual functions by which immortality might be attained, and eventually we got to the point where we were more than satisfied that this was something that breathed life into the world in an unusual way.

M3: I have studied the occult and alchemy since I was a young child, and Kasra built a biotech company, so we both had a lot of information on these two subjects. So if we were going to do a book about immortality, this seemed to be the way in which somebody could do it, at least within the world of the story.

You’ve also mentioned that you wanted to get across the horror of immortality. Was this something you’ve always found terrifying?

M3: Yeah, when you see plastic flower the reason it’s not as beautiful is because it’s not mortal, but a natural flower, that’s not always going to be there. If you walked up to your every day person and offered them immortality, most people would probably say, “that sounds awesome”. This book is kind of an explanation of how horrible that would be. Imagine someone like George Bush never dies, and stays in power, that would be awful.

We’re kind of in a social media flux with vampires, and glorifying the aspect of how sexy it would be to live forever, but in actuality it would be horrible to see people you love die and not die, and have this egomanifestion continue and never change into anything else. To me that is horror. To me it was a joke growing up with my friends that it was hard to scare me, I would watch movies with them and they wouldn’t scare me. What happened in Nazi Germany with genocide and making death a number was horrifying, or on the other side of things, the notion of Britney Spears never dying is what scares me.

We’ve talked about the two immortal races quite a bit. And we didn’t see much of the humans until issue 3. So how do they figure into the whole war?

M3: The human in issue three is actually Monocyte, just a really long time ago. It is there that we start to unfold the story and tell you why everything has gone on, and to reveal who he is. We spoke about antagonists vs protagonists, and monocyte is for sure the hero but he’s like the anti anti anti hero. The humans become more relevant in issue #4, as they find themselves in this horrible world where nothing dies, and as the story progress they become more and more relevant.

KG: I always say that the humans are represented in a pretty profound way in every issue so far, which goes all the way back to negotiating with IDW where we asked for all 36 pages, because rather than infusing the human story arc within the story arc we wanted to lift it out and dedicate space to them at the back of each issue so that they were present in the main story. Then in issue 3 there is a thematic shift toward more humanistic points. With the unveiling of Monocyte’s backstory, and as the series concludes, and maybe continues, you will see that the entire story was always about the humans. All the other races are beautiful eye candy but they are just representations of the potential within humanity. Just because they are now immortal doesn’t mean they weren’t human at one point. So hopefully readers will see that the humans have been on display all along.

I think Issue #3 really brings that together, there were a lot of questions left unanswered, but it all gets pieced together in issue #3.

KG: thank you very much. We knew we wanted to shift back to the humans and we needed someone with the talent of George Pratt and his story in issue #3 to help us pull that off. We love what George did, he brought a sort of emotion to the humans that people can relate to. When readers look at the back-stories in issue #3, we hope people see a shift.

You have quite a few different creators doing these back-stories. How did they get involved

KG: When Menton and I were coming up with the structure of the book we thought it would be cool to take the human story out. So we were turned on by the idea of getting a bunch of our heroes and these incredible artists to do these stories, to see how they see the world we created. I tapped into a lot of my contacts from various aspects of my life, Menton as well, and strangely enough we hand picked them for the book and it all just seemed to fall in place, they were all so willing to help. The relationship has been different with each one, but all absolutely amazing in how it worked out. We have been profoundly blessed for these people to have come on board and lend us their work.

Going back to Monocyte the character. He’s pretty daunting looking guy, he’s very powerful, yet he has this strange existential beauty and he’s poetic in his speaking. What made you choose to make such a grim figure so beautiful?

KG: The character and the design came from Menton, then we built him up on paper together.

M3: I came up with the concept because I was commissioned to do a superhero painting, and I was super excited by it. I went back and read all these old comics I had as a kid, and I realized I placed a lot of information on this hero that wasn’t there at all, somehow through the fantasy of my mind. So I started thinking, well, maybe I should write down what I thought was there and what would be a cool superhero to me as an adult. Literally within about 15 minutes, the core was all there.

Design wise, to a large extent, I didn’t fiddle with it for long. I don’t want to sound New Agey, but I just meditate it and try to translate it into something that will make sense to other people. So the character just is what he is in my psyche, and I tried to manifest that in the physical world.

KG: When it comes to personality and how they function in the world, or how they would communicate this on a comic book page, there was a lot of debate between about their voices, their intent, motivations, and history. So with issue #1 we were trying to show readers a durationless world, which was a pretty daunting task so it came to this weird cadence, and weird floaty feeling, and the lack of words in relation to time. Thinking about these characters who have been alive for so long, they probably wouldn’t be how we speak now, it would likely be a but more esteemed. We both have a love of Shakespeare, but that wasn’t quite right, but we also loved Deadwood, so somewhere between those was the point we wanted to be at. These people don’t waste words, they speak in symbols, rather than how we are now as slaves of linear word construction. We don’t know if we pulled it off fully, but that’s what we are at least attempting to do.

The writing style is very different form any other work out there right now. You have all the superhero books, which I love, but the writing is fairly similar between them. With Monocyte you get these biblical phrasings and this 17th century speech.

KG: We got to rely on Menton’s art and his storytelling.

M3: Which probably made the book fail.

KG: [Laughs]. Well a lot of what I do to preview the book on social media is to do so without the words. By the time we deal with the words, it’s highly complementary to the art, but we try to rely mostly on art to communicate. I saw the opportunity to push things, and we had some doubts with the writing at first, but we eventually we just said fuck it, let’s make the book we want to make.

M3: I hate being spoon-fed and the last thing I wanted to do as a creator was to dumb down the book. We could have done that, but we never even talked about that. We wanted to make a book that we liked, and we just hoped other people would like it too. Ultimately, we wanted to put something out that we would love, something we want to read. And this sounds pretentious on a lot of levels, but in the end some of the greatest pieces of work are not trying to cater to a certain audience. Some creator owned books want people who read X-Men to read their book, and don’t get me wrong I like X-Men as much as the next person, but that’s not why I am doing a creator owned book.

We got some really bad reviews for the first issue. People were confused. But we thought it was cool, it was what we were going for, if you’re not able to go out of your scope that’s fine, it’s not the book for you. Everyone has their own taste, and it would be more horrifying to us if we had to compensate the story just to try to get everyone to like it.

You’ve mentioned that you’ve been influenced by Dune and LOTR. Could you talk about some of your other influences?

M3: It’s hard for me to talk about influence because I’m not really influenced by other writers or artists. I mean I love Dune, that changed my life, and there are artists I really love, but legitimately, when I am in the creative process I do all I can to pull what’s internally within me out. I don’t want to steal anyone else’s style. It would bother me if I saw someone’s work and I was just like oh yeah I want to make something like that. Again, not to sound New Agey, but I do meditate a lot and try to pull out images that are inside of me. Not always do I make paintings and know what it means, but I know it is tapping into something internal. That is really the engine behind why I want to make art, to figure out who I am to myself.

KG: I feel much the same way. I don’t want to use anyone else as a crutch; I want to inform my work myself. The goal is to express the internal, as Menton described, and get to a place, through whatever means, to concentrate through confidence. My experiences writing monocyte, the things I was happiest about, I would see and be like, “who wrote this?” I separated the work from myself, like it had no point of origin within me, and that’s when I knew it was special, when I got goose bumps.

M3: yes, and we are absolutely insane. There is a state of consciousness called hypnagogia, and its right as you wake up from sleep, before you’re awake. And what I did in that state was I kind of put these characters in my head and let them talk, and that’s where the prequel comic came from. Another example is the bird skull on the back of Monocyte’s head is a separate individual with a mind of his own. I can go into my head with that character and he will respond to me, we are crazy, but it is a lot of fun and it leads to self discovery. It’s helped me with temper issues, and personal issues, because I am learning more about myself rather than relying on something else to inform me, I am informing myself as to myself.

A lot of horror right now feeds off of these trends, whether it’s zombies, vampires, or whatever else, but Monocyte is a more cerebral type of horror. Why did you choose to do stray so far and do a creator owned book?

M3: I love all those horror movies, but what pisses me off is that I want to talk to Freddy Kreuger, or whoever, and find out why he is so evil. People have reasons for what they do, and I’ve always been compelled by stuff like that. Jason Voorhees is this killer with a hockey mask, but why is he killing people? Sure some teenagers piss him off as a kid, but that doesn’t justify being an immortal dude form a lake with a machete that fucks people up. To me if you’re getting into spooky stuff, the scariest thing to me is how these people justify this stuff in their head. So allegorically turning that into a story that is compelling to read is what I wanted to do. I think vampires, and goblins, and ghosts come out of our psyche where we have these fears we don’t want to talk about. Rather than being scared of what is right in front of us, people would rather look at these movies or whatever, and be scared of that, it’s easier. So for me, if you’re writing a horror book, it has to be about what really bothers you, whatever keeps you up at night, what makes you hot and sweaty. I hate that we have standardized this to the point that we are no longer dealing with the shadow side of the psyche, but we have now this Teletubby horror.

The Monocyte album was just released recently, and it works in conjunction with the book. So how did the two art forms come together? How do they compliment each other?

M3: Can I just say something. People keep writing articles about it and about my music project as Saltillo and people keep saying I’m classically trained. I’m not fucking classically trained! I never went to one music lesson in my life. I did not go to Julliard.

I spent most of my life making music, from when I was a kid until about a few years ago. I made a conscious choice to start doing artwork and stop music about four years ago. There was an album I released called Ganglion, and there was a track on there that was my goodbye to music. I get a lot of emails asking me where my music is. Well I never planned to make music again. But when we entered the Monocyte world, we lived there for 6 months before we started writing out the comic, and this place had a certain sound, a certain feeling. So we wanted to promote it because it’s a creator owned book, and it kind of came up as an idea. I started making music again and I missed it a lot. I hadn’t recorded in so long, and I was like oh my god this is like seeing my best friend again. So it kind of all came together after all that.

My last album had over 2 milllion hits online, and it blew me away. So I was shocked by the release of this album, I charted in the top 50 electronic on iTunes, I topped the industrial chart on Amazon. It has been so humbling and amazing that people are willing to listen to my music, which has allowed me to create something in a new way. But that said, I did not intend for people to buy the sound track and listen to it while reading the book, it was more so that this is how the world sounds to me. They do connect, but they are not meant to be side by side exclusively.

I hate asking this, but do you have any favorite horror movies?

M3: I love Session 9, I love it so much. I love the grainy style, I love the scene in the hallway where the camera turns. I love City of Lost Children, which I consider to be a horror movie. I could sit here for hours talking about it. Antichrist is disturbing, and if anyone can sit through that without getting disturbed they are psychotic.

KG: I have a hard time talking about horror, because for me it has to do with an individual’s relationship with a piece of work or a subject and I feel so displaced from other people’s relationships. I don’t think what I find horror other people would. I don’t find Monoctye to be a horror story at all. To me, that just means that some of our intent hit too close to home and it touches parts of their minds that make them uncomfortable. But as far as straight up horror, it’s hard for me to just categorize it, but if I had to give you 5, they would be, in no particular order: Antichrist, Let the Right One In, The Kingdom by Lars Von Trier, Apocalypse Now, and Werckmeister Harmonies.

Anything else you guys want to add?

M3: I am not classically trained!

KG: As an exclusive to BD announcement, IDW has just agreed to give us an oversized hardcover for the Monocyte collected edition! The dimensions will be 9×13.5″ allowing for the art to really shine. The book will include the digital series prequel, all four issues, and all 12 covers, as well as 60+ pages of new content for a total of 224 pages. The new pages will be filled in part with art contributions from some amazing friends in both the fine art and comic book world such as Toby Cypress, Scott Radke, Matthew Bone, Richard A. Kirk, Tim Roosen, and many many more. Also, menton3 and I will be creating a new short story set in the Monocyte world and occurring past the end of issue #4.

M3: yeah, we are also adding extra pages in the trade at the end of the book, that will explain a lot more of what’s going on in the story. Not to scam people out of money, but I want this ending to be presented with the entirety of the story. I also really appreciate all your coverage on BD, so thank you very much for that!

Thank you both for chatting with me, I really do love the book and I hope to see more of that world in the future.

The post Interview: Menton3 And Kasra Ghanbari On ‘Monocyte’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

WRITTEN BY: Kasra Ghanbari and Menton3
ART BY: Menton3
PUBLISHER: IDW
RELEASE: March 21

The Olignostics are dying, and their fate now rests with the excommunicated Grod. Monocyte turns his attention to the Antedeluvian metropolis and their leader, the Green Man, but is confronted by the Antedeluvian elite guard, who test Monocyte against his greatest foes, light and life. Meanwhile, the liberated Olignostic slaves strike back at their former masters. Also features a cover by Ben Templesmith, an incentive cover by Eisner Award-winner George Pratt, and side stories by the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz and Pratt.

A few weeks ago, Artoffact Records released the Saltillo: MONOCYTE soundtrack album which is meant to accompany the comic mini-series. Menton3 is an incredibly talented, multifaceted, artist and this album is part of his solo music project, titled Saltillo. The man does it all! The album has been a stellar success, topping the Amazon charts for Electronica music. For more info on the MONOCYTE album, head over to the facebook page. You can checkout the BD review right here and some song clips below!

The post All Hail Monocyte #3 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.