Interested a comic that’s a cross between The Hobbit and a Clint Eastwood movie? Then you’ll want to check out The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer, the debut comic from Stranger Comics. We had the chance to interview the writer and founder of Stranger Comics, Sebastian Jones, and his enthusiasm about the book–part of an entire universe the gamer has spent years creating–is infectious. Read on:
One of the most exciting new series of horror comics is Locke & Key, from Joe Hill, a relative newcomer to comics who also has a successful career as a novelist (Heart-Shaped Box) and short-story writer (The Living Dead). Locke & Key focuses on a family that, after a horrific tragedy, moves to an old family manse in New England and tries to start over. However, the kids, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, keep stumbling over magical keys–keys a malevolent being, Dodge, is determined to get. Dodge transforms himself into a seemingly normal American teenager named Zach and befriends the family, but he also appears to be the reincarnation of a high school friend of their father’s named Lucas Caravaggio.
Full of humor, pathos, and a truly unique supernatural elements, Locke & Key has been nominated for an Eisner, and two story arcs, Welcome to Lovecraft and Head Games, are available as graphic novels. The first issue of the third arc, Crown of Shadows, will be released from IDW on November 25. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be able to speak with the very enthusiastic Joe Hill and pick his brains about where Locke & Key is headed, and what he’s liking from the horror genre in general:
TFAW.com: Where did the genesis of Locke & Key come from? What inspired it?
Joe Hill: Basically, the long-form genesis of Locke & Key is, I had written three or four novels that I was never able to sell, including one that I had spent three years on, and it was a total heartbreaker. I sent it to every publisher in the US and Canada and England, big press and small press, and everyone turned it down. So I was a really unsuccessful writer, and the only thing I had had any luck with was my short stories, and there wasn’t any money in short stories, and it’s not like many people read them. But there are some passionate short story fans, and I had written some good ones and had won a couple prizes, and got in a year’s best collection.
A talent scout at Marvel Comics had spotted one of these stories and had got in touch with me and asked if I had any interest in writing about men in tights hitting each other, and I thought it sounded pretty great to me. So I wound up writing a one-shot, an 11-page Spider-Man story, that’s easily the most horrendous thing I’ve ever had published, it’s just a terrible piece of writing. Basically, I choked. I blew it. I really wanted to do well, and wound up not doing a very good job. And the funny thing is, it sold pretty well, because it was saved by the art. The late Seth Fisher did the illustrations, and he made what wasn’t funny very funny, and what wasn’t tense very suspenseful, and so he kind of saved my ass on it.
It was a strange experience, because I knew I hadn’t done a very good job, but I found the act of writing a comic script strangely addictive, and I had always had a comic book imagination. Most of my favorite writers were writers who had come out of comic books. Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman. And a lot of my most important reading experiences had been in comic books, whether it was Watchmen, or Swamp Thing, or Dark Knight Returns, or Sandman. Like a lot of men of my age, I think for a whole generation of writers, the Vertigo imprint loomed large in our imaginations. So I didn’t do a very good job with the Spider-Man story, but the hook was in, and I wanted to redeem myself and do something better and keep writing in comics, so I came up with all these pitches, and I sent them around, and nothing ever happened with them. No one was much interested.
One of the concepts was for a kind of off-kilter haunted house story called Locke & Key, which involved this family settling into an old New England home, which was full of keys with unnatural powers attached to them. And that idea wouldn’t leave me alone for years afterward. I would keep thinking about it, sometimes having new ideas about characters, and keys, and events that could happen, and eventually I had some good luck, and my first book of stories came out, and I sold my first novel, and around that time, Chris Ryall at IDW got in touch with me about maybe adapting some of my short stories into comic books, and I came back to him and said, “Wait, I think I have something better.” And that was Locke & Key.
TFAW.com: One thing that really sets Locke & Key apart from other horror comics is it’s as much a family drama as it is a horror tale. What attracted you to that combination?
JH: One thing that often happens, when people do a horror movie, or a frightening TV show, or a horror comic, one mistake which often gets made is, there’s a big focus on the supernatural element and on the bad guy, but there’s no effort made to make the main characters likeable and unique and sympathetic. A lot of times they’re just types, and this is why so many of the slasher films are such a joke, why everyone laughs at them. Cause, you know, the teenagers in a Friday the 13th movie have all the emotional power of a paper target in a shooting gallery. No one really cares about them, they’re just there to be struck down by Jason.
For me, the first step to making a successful horror story is making sure the characters matter and are emotionally real and unique. You want the reader to invest in those characters and care about them, because then, when the guy shows up in the hockey mask, they’re really frightened for the main character, as opposed to just waiting to see how they get cut down.
So my intention was always to slow the pace down a little bit and focus on character as best as possible, and try to get the reader engaged in who these people are and see them as unique human beings, as opposed to types. But I think that’s true not just in horror–that’s true in every sort of storytelling. The first key element of telling a story that people care about is engaging them, making sure that they invest emotionally in the characters in the story. Because if you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.
TFAW.com: So Dodge is the ghost or the demon form of teenager Lucas Caravaggio. What was Lucas like? Was he always evil, and was he ever actually a teenager?
JH: In one sense, Dodge is the resurrection of Lucas Caravaggio. In another sense, he’s something quite a bit more, and quite a bit different. And we’re sort of revealing his true nature in the very first issue of Crown of Shadows.
You know, I was a big X-Files fan. Loved the X-Files, and I loved the first couple of seasons of Lost, but I think one problem with ongoing series, one way they sometimes go bad is they keep piling on the mystery. They keep piling on the questions. And after awhile there’s too much mystery. They raise more questions than they could ever possibly hope to answer. And so one thing I’m committed to with Locke & Key is making sure that when I raise a question, I have an answer, instead of continuously heaping on mystery after mystery. In each arc, some of the major questions get answered, so hopefully when we come to the end of this thing, the very final page of the very final issue, it will be about tying up the story for a final emotional resolution, as opposed to cleaning up messes. That would be terrible. No one wants to be in that kind of situation.
So in the very first issue of Crown of Shadows, one of the things that will be revealed is why Dodge is the way he is, and why he’s capable of such terrible things. Especially considering that once upon a time, Lucas Caravaggio was actually a heroic figure. Not a bad guy at all, but one of the best of the good guys, which is pretty strange to think about, considering how we met him and what he’s done since we’ve got to know him. In many ways, Dodge was as likable as Kinsey or Tyler.
TFAW.com: Speaking of Kinsey, in Head Games, she literally removed her fear and her ability to cry from her brain. Would that essentially lead her down the same road that Lucas went?
JH: I’m not gonna say anything about where Kinsey’s headed as a character, looking ahead. I will say that, one of the things that I think is important when you’re telling a fantasy story or a horror story, is that it’s more satisfying for readers if that element of fantasy somehow raises bigger questions about real life.
So in the case of Kinsey losing her fear and her ability to cry, it’s an exaggerated look at what happens anyway to a lot of teenagers. At some point in high school, kids will often become very reckless, and develop a willingness to engage in very dangerous behavior, and take risks that they should probably know better about. So now we have that with Kinsey in exaggerated form, and it’s just an interesting way to look at a very common passage for most teenagers–a very common life passage.
TFAW.com: Can you tell us more about the questions that will be answered in Crown of Shadows?
JH: Let’s see. Well, we’re going to see a lot more of what makes Dodge tick. And we’re going to find out a little bit more about Sam Lesser. And we’re going to learn a little bit more about the Omega Key, which opens the black door. I don’t want to give it away–I want to avoid saying too much and telegraphing what we’re going to do. What I will say is there’s a big reveal on the last page of the last issue, and we’ll get an answer to one of the big questions that has been hanging around the story.
TFAW.com: Can you tell us whether Sam is there as an agent of Dodge or if he has his own agenda?
JH: Well, I’ll say this. When we first met Sam, Sam was being sort of manipulated by Dodge, and Sam is sort of a pathetic, frightening character, although I like to think it’s possible to have some sympathy for him, even though he’s committed terrible acts. But when we meet him again, his relationship with Dodge is going to be radically changed.
TFAW.com: I’ve heard that Locke & Key is going to be six miniseries. Do you think it could continue past that, or is that the end?
JH: Well, once I tell the story of Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, I’ll be done with that. That doesn’t necessarily mean there will never be any more Locke & Key stories, but I will have told the story I want to tell. It’s important to remember that when I started Locke & Key, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was still very green with this, I had only written three 11-page comic book stories, and when I did it, I had two notions. One was that it could be a continuing thing that would run somewhere between 36 and 48 issues. And I had a lot of the story plotted out. But I also wasn’t sure it would succeed–it could have tanked, or been a big bomb–so I also had a plan for six issues, and then if this thing had completely tanked, I had an escape hatch where I could finish the story in another six issues. And it wouldn’t have been very good, but it wouldn’t have been shameful, either.
Fortunately the comic did well, it’s been well received, it’s continued to build its readership, so I get to do the daydream, and I get to explore these stories in a very full kind of way. It’s taken me a little bit of thinking to figure out how many issues it’s going to take to tell the story, but I don’t like it when things are stretched out. So it’s possible that the series could go as many as 48 issues, but I’m aiming for 36, and I think it’s possible. I think I can tell everything I need to tell in 36. We’re going to see, though.
TFAW.com: What was it like switching from writing prose to scripting comics?
JH: I find writing comic book scripts incredibly addictive. I think it’s because the comic book form really plays to my strengths as a writer, while sort of hiding my weaknesses. It allows me to play with big, weird concepts and to build stories around dialogue and action, and I don’t have to worry about the stuff that really makes me sweat, stuff I really fret over as a novelist and short story writer–the sound of my prose, and finding a balance between description and forward motion. Because comic books are all about forward motion. Every comic book has the gas pedal pushed to the floor. As a writer and as a reader, I love that.
Another thing that attracted me to comics is I felt it would be an extension to something I had already figured out. I had already figured out how to write a pretty good short story, so I felt that comic books would offer me a chance to expand on that, maybe with a larger audience. I feel like the first really successful script I wrote was the first issue to Welcome to Lovecraft.
TFAW.com: Do you think you will stick with horror in the future, or will you branch out to other genres?
JH: I don’t know, exactly, that’s a hard one to answer. One thing is, because I do do other kinds of writing, I’ve always got a novel, I’ve always got a couple short stories I want to work on, so I try to strike a balance. I don’t think I’ll ever be carrying four or five comics at once. I’ve never been a guy who’s really hung up on cape stories. It’s been years and years since I followed the continuing adventures of super anything. I read a lot of comics–I generally read about a comic a day. But the comics I tend to read are Ed Brubaker’s Criminal and Darwyn Cooke’s Parker, Wormwood. It’s very rarely the superhero stuff. So I don’t know. But I love to write stories that have a big engine in them. I like to write stories that are suspenseful. I like the keep the gas pedal down, so I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll always write horror comics, but it’s important that there always be an element of suspense.
TFAW.com: This interview is for horror month, and there’s been a big upswing in horror lately, in movies, and TV, and things like that. What are you attracted to in horror stories in general?
JH: I like when there’s something fresh. I like going and seeing something new and unexpected. I think that what makes Zombieland such a blast of a film, is that the suspense and the action are tense and very well paced, but it also takes the audience in very startling and unexpected directions. I don’t need a rehash of something I’ve already had. So that’s one thing I look for.
And you know, it returns us to where we started our conversation: I also look for a character I can latch into. If I really care about that main character, I will read almost anything. So Zombieland was great. The remake of The Last House on the Left was pretty awesome. It’s brilliant, and very upsetting. It was cool because no one called it in. No one treated it like they were making trash. They all acted like they were in a straight drama, and it made it much more intense. So that was good.
In terms of what’s going on in comics, I like a lot of the crime stuff that’s going on right now. I really like what Ed Brubaker is doing. I think Criminal is great, and I liked Incognito a lot. He’s put together a great body of work.
TFAW.com: Well, thanks so much Joe!
JH: Bye!
If you haven’t checked out Locke & Key yet, be sure to browse Welcome to Lovecraft and Head Games, and make sure to pre-order Crown of Shadows now to get 20% off!
What’s your take on the horror genre? Any other questions we should have asked Joe Hill? Post them below!
Coming in October: Deadworld HC Vol. 03 Slaughterhouse
So if you’re a fan of zombies and comics, you probably don’t need me to tell you that Deadworld is bone-crunchingly fantastic. But on the off chance you’ve not yet heard about the title (probably because you’re holed up in preparation for the imminent zombie apocalypse), I strongly advise you to catch up on this series and quick. You’re timing couldn’t be better, as Deadworld Vol. 03: Slaughterhouse (the first volume to be offered in hardcover), is just around the corner with an October release.
Alright, so you refuse to leave your fortified refuge and go check it out? Lucky for you, the folks at Desperado Publishing are sympathetic to your fears and have made a preview trailer of the video available, which you can view right here. And if that wasn’t enough, you can go right here and preview the entire first chapter of the book for free. Oh, and if the Zombie-geddon doesn’t happen before then, keep your eyes peeled here for news about the upcoming Deadworld movie, which is being developed as a major motion picture from the producer of Coraline and David Hayter, the screenwriter of X-Men 2 and Watchmen. Enjoy.
PRE-ORDER DEADWORLD: SLAUGHTERHOUSE AND SAVE 20%!
PREVIEW THE FIRST CHAPTER FOR FREE
Questions? Practical advice for disposing of unwanted undead? Post them below!
Fans of the Eisner-winning Strangers in Paradise series mourned its conclusion in 2007, after 14 years of following the adventures–romantic and otherwise–of Katchoo, Francine, and David. Fortunately, writer, artist, and publisher Terry Moore has just released a limited-edition Strangers in Paradise Omnibus, three signed and numbered hardcover volumes that include every SiP story as well as every cover.
In addition, he’s currently publishing Echo, a sci-fi action-adventure tale of a photographer, Julie, who gets caught in the crossfire–literally–of a top-secret weapons experiment and ends up with an atomic weapon fused to her body. Read on to hear about his feelings about the conclusion of SiP, the Echo movie, and more!
TFAW.com: Hi Terry, thanks for meeting with me!
Terry Moore: Thanks for inviting me.
TFAW.com: It’s been two years since Strangers in Paradise concluded. Looking back, how do you feel about the series as a whole?
TM: I can look back on the 14 years it took to make it and know it was time well spent. I have something of value to show for my time. That’s a good feeling.
TFAW.com: Would you have done anything differently?
TM: I would have bought a full-size scanner sooner.
TFAW.com: Is there any chance we’ll see SiP, or any of the characters, in the future?
TM: Never say never. Right? In my head, they’re still young, gorgeous and having incredible days. The only difference is we’re not following them around anymore. It’s awfully tempting.
TFAW.com: Tell us about the SiP Omnibus–it’s big!
TM: Everything from the series is in the Omnibus, packed into two 1,200-page books, plus a third book that’s a cover gallery of every SiP-related cover published by me. This is the edition I will sit down and read, because I spent a long time going over every page, making corrections, fixing art and layout problems; things that bothered me. Now I can read the story without the nagging errors. I can’t wait.
TFAW.com: Will the Omnibus be printed in a trade paperback format as well?
TM: Yes, but not the cover gallery.
TFAW.com: Your new series, Echo, is pretty different from Strangers in Paradise thus far–it’s more like a superhero, woman-on-the-run adventure. What made you decide to tackle this genre?
TM: I wanted to do a sci-fi, X-Files type of story. My favorite stories growing up were sci-fi. I just wanted to try my hand at it.
TFAW.com: How have your Strangers in Paradise fans reacted to Echo?
TM: I managed to keep some SiP fans, I think. Many say they like Echo better. More often than not, though, I hear from Echo readers who say they never gave SiP a try but, on the strength of Echo, now they will.
TFAW.com: It seems like the “Echo” of the title might refer to the deceased Annie, who is somehow still part of the Battle suit that’s grafted itself to Julie. Will Annie’s presence continue to grow during the series?
TM: In a word, yes. That’s the basis for the whole thing.
TFAW.com: What kind of complications will this cause for Julie and Dillon? Do you see them ever having a romantic relationship, and how weird would that be?
TM: It would be a weird triangle, for sure. As a writer, how could I stay completely away from that?
TFAW.com: I’m interested to find out more about what went wrong between Julie and her estranged husband. What can you tell us about that?
TM: No. You have to read the story!
TFAW.com: What role will Julie’s sister, Pam, have in this story? Is she going to recover from losing her family?
TM: Pam’s journey is obviously important to the story. Why it’s relevant will become apparent later.
TFAW.com: Who is Ivy Raven? Is she good? Is she bad? She seems to be forming a special connection to Julie. Is this part of the job–tracking down someone–or is this unusual for her?
TM: Ivy is complex. She is not afraid to listen to her instincts and use all her senses in the search for answers. This can lead to a dangerous level of involvement with the “subject.” Can Ivy handle it? I’m curious to find out.
TFAW.com: Why did the company who created the battle suit kill Annie?
TM: Foster gives his reasons in issue #14!
TFAW.com: You’ve prefaced each issue with quotes from Einstein, Oppenheimer, and others. Who’s next?
TM: Paris Hilton. She inspires me so. Sigh . . .
TFAW.com: How long do you envision Echo running, as a series? (I’m hoping for many years.) Do you have the main plot finalized? Is there an end point you have in mind?
TM: I outlined the entire series before I started, laying it out in three acts spread over 30 issues. I’m on issue #15 now, which is in act two.
TFAW.com: Echo has been optioned for a movie–can you tell us more about that?
TM: Lloyd Levin, the producer of Hellboy and Watchmen, among many other great movies, has purchased the film rights to Echo. The deal made the cover of Variety, so I feel very good about working with him. He’ll get it made, and he’ll make it right.
TFAW.com: What would be your dream cast?
TM: Great actors who look like real people and love the characters.
TFAW.com: Does this open the door for a Strangers in Paradise movie or television series?
TM: I hope so. SiP is so long, getting a busy stranger to read it is impossible. I need some street cred first to get anywhere with SiP.
TFAW.com: You’ve mostly self-published SiP and Echo, although you have worked with Image, Marvel, and other publishers. What are the differences, and which do you prefer?
TM: I prefer self-publishing. The differences are like Earth and Mars; too many to list briefly. But the main diff is freedom. Oh, and nobody can fire me.
TFAW.com: Do you have any other projects coming up?
TM: Just the SiP theme park and buying out Apple. Maybe some more comics.
TFAW.com: Thanks again, Terry!
Are there any Strangers in Paradise fans who have transferred their love to Echo? Did anyone see the Strangers in Paradise Omnibus in person at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con? Post your answers below!
![Watchmen (Directors Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61eQJbaGTML._SL160_.jpg "Watchmen (Directors Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu ray]") |
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