Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
Posted by rj sevin in Books, Interviews, Latest News on February 15th, 2010
Written by RJ Sevin
When I first heard of Joe Hill, some five years ago, my first thought was of the dedication page in one of my favorite novels, Stephen King’s The Shining: This is for Joe Hill King, who shines on. My second thought: Nah. Probably not him.
“Pop Art,” a heart-breaking slice of magical realism about a balloon boy, was being discussed in reverential tones among those who had read it, and his short-fiction collection, 20th Century Ghosts, was, some said, a revelation. Despite the accolades, I wasn’t in a mad rush to read Hill’s writing. In small press Horror circles, high praise sometimes comes a little easier than it should, and is not always to be trusted.
“Have you read Joe Hill?” asked a friend of mine, sounding a little like a Sutter Kane convert from John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness.
I hadn’t, but he soon talked me out of that. I ordered the PS Publications edition of 20th Century Ghosts and proceeded to have my mind blown all over the damned place. It was everything they’d said it was, and more. Just like that, it seemed, Joe Hill had emerged as the most fascinating voice in Horror fiction. Within a week of receiving the book, I too was a glassy-eyed zealot telling everyone what Joe Hill could do for them.
As it turned out, Joe Hill was indeed Joseph Hillstrom King, the boy who shines on, but that really doesn’t matter: the man can write.
At 37, he’s spent years honing his craft and racking up rejection letter after rejection letter. Upon receiving another rejection for a massive fantasy novel, he asked his mother, novelist Tabitha King, what he was going to do next. Her answer was simple: write another novel. He did, and he chose the name Joe Hill (as opposed to, say, Joseph King) for a reason: to make it on his own; to guarantee that no editor was foregoing the editorial vetting process and buying his work simply because of who he was.
In February of 2007, Hill followed 20th Century Ghosts with his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, the story of Judas Coyne, aging rock star and collector of morbid curiosities. Coyne buys a supposedly haunted suit off of eBay, and gets a little more than he bargained for. Though not as stunning as Ghosts, Box is nonetheless engaging and quite frightening, and is easily one of the most impressive Horror debuts in recent memory.
Three years and one fantastic comic book series later (Locke & Key, IDW), Hill opens the gates of Hell and brings us Horns, his much-anticipated second novel.
Iggy Perrish, the son of a famous musician and the brother of a popular late-night talk show host, loses everything when the woman he loves, Merrin Williams, is raped and murdered. Though never tried, Ig is found guilty in the eyes of his friends, family, and the people of his hometown, Gideon, New Hampshire.
Following a really bad night, he crawls up from a drunken, piss-stained stupor to discover that he’s grown horns. Instead of reacting in horror, those he encounters instead open up, telling him their deepest, darkest secrets. Some of these secrets are merely sad or hurtful; others are devastating: it’s not long before Perrish discovers the identity of the person responsible for Merrin’s death, a revelation that comes surprisingly early in the narrative. Lesser authors would save this reveal for the end of the novel, but Hill knows better, and he doesn’t have just one surprise up his sleeve…
The sophomore slump be damned, Horns is the fulfillment of the promise of 20th Century Ghosts, a multi-layered and emotionally-engaging tale of love, loss, dark secrets, and blood-soaked, fiery, pitchfork-wielding revenge.
On the eve of his book-signing tour, Joe Hill was nice enough to make time in his busy schedule to chat with FM about, among other things, writing, music, and the porno stigma of the H word:
FM: Historically, horror fiction is rife with what I think of as the “comeuppance tale”– nasty guy does something terrible and, in the end, gets what he deserves, either through simple violence or by supernatural means.
Both Heart-Shaped Box and Horns honor this tradition, but in a way that’s almost invisible to the casual reader of the genre. In Box, the nasty guy (who we come to root for, despite his flaws) gets his supernatural comeuppance, but he fights and flees, and we’re taken far past the point at which these tales typically end. In Horns, there’s also the nasty guy who gets what he deserves, only we’re not reading his story — we’re reading about the devil who dishes out the just desserts.
Are you intentionally setting out to dissect classic Horror tropes and present them in a new light and from unexpected angles, or does this just naturally emerge during the writing process?
JH: When people talk about fiction, they’ll often talk about character-driven stories vs. plot-driven stories. Character-driven stories are usually thought of as literary, whereas most genre fiction is described as plot-driven. But it’s bullshit — a false duality. A writer doesn’t have to make a choice between an intriguing, knotty plot and intriguing, complicated characters. The truth is that interesting, unlikely characters will create that engaging plot.
The Haunting of Hill House doesn’t succeed because it’s got a clever idea: a group of experts on the supernatural investigate the most haunted house in the world. It succeeds because the experts in question are compelling, emotionally authentic characters who drag along a few ghosts of their own to the old house on the hill, which is all a long way of saying that it emerges naturally from the process.
Also, I like writing about people who initially seem — ah — charisma-challenged, and then seeing if I can’t lure the reader into loving them anyway. Pure good guys are boring. I’d rather write about someone unhappy, someone morally adrift, someone who has regrets, who decides to take one more chance on themselves to see if they can’t finally get it right.
FM: What kind of writing schedule do you keep, and do you listen to music while you write?
JH: I write six hours a day, two hours a day on weekends. And the music is always going, except when I’m writing dialogue, when I need things quiet so I can tune into the voices in my head.
Every story I’ve ever written has generated its own playlist, even going back to the days before iTunes and playlists. I’ll find a few songs that matter to me and that seem to connect to the story in some way, and I’ll listen to those tracks obsessively, until the story is done… and then sometimes I won’t listen to them again for years, because by then I’m thoroughly sick of them. I listened to a tune by Shawn Mullins, “Beautiful Wreck,” almost 400 times while writing a short story called “Thumbprint” and can hardly stand hearing that track now.
I was listening to a lot of KISS while I worked on Horns. When I was nine or ten I was a huge KISS fan. I had the Colorforms set, the comics, DOUBLE PLATINUM on vinyl. But by the time I was in college, I wouldn’t have been caught dead listening to “Lick it Up.” By then I was into Nirvana, wearing flannel, and trying to be unhappy.
Horns, though, was the kind of book that wanted to rock n’ roll all night, and party every day. I just went with it, popped KISS into high rotation.
I didn’t think about it at the time, but looking back, I was probably making an unconscious link between my lead character and Gene Simmons, who of course was a bright, harmless Jewish kid from New York City until the day he put on the greasepaint and black leather and remade himself as a rock n’ roll devil.
FM: The average fiction reader associates the word “Horror” with cinematic blood and gore, and will, for that reason, avoid fiction bearing that label. The result is a fringe genre populated with black spines, drippy red letters, and skulls — books that many readers wouldn’t dream of touching, no matter the quality of the stories within. Is it time for writers of the genre to drop the label in favor of, say, Dark Fantasy? Supernatural Thriller?
JH: I think the best thing a writer can do is not worry about it — keep your head down and write the best stories you can and hope it all sorts out in the wash. If you write well enough, eventually the labels slide right off. So for example, you get guys like Vonnegut or Lethem, who were considered science fiction writers, until they put together a body of work too challenging and too broad to contain it in the small box of genre. Elmore Leonard and Graham Greene did the same thing — at a certain point it became too limiting to call them crime writers and be done with them.
That said, writing horror is kind of like being in a metal band or starring in a porno. Once you’re known for horror or metal or porn, it’s the first thing people think of when they consider your work, no matter what else is on your resume. When people look at Sasha Grey, they do not first think, wow, she gave a nuanced performance in that Soderbergh film. Instead they think, hey, isn’t that the porn star who was in the Soderbergh film?
FM: Do you mind the horror tag?
JH: I don’t mind the horror tag. I love horror fiction. To me, any story of suspense pushed to its limits becomes horror. And if you aren’t pushing the limits, then you’re not trying hard enough.
FM: Before selling Heart-Shaped Box to William Morrow, you spent many, many years working your way up through the ranks of the small press, gaining readers and generating buzz. Looking at the small press today, who do you think we should be on the lookout for?
JH: I’d say Dan Chaon, but his book Await Your Reply has tremendous buzz and will probably get nominated for a few literary prizes, so he’s not exactly flying under the radar. I’m out of touch with what’s happening in the world of small press journals. I wouldn’t know who to recommend.
FM: Do you approach generating ideas for short stories differently than you do novels?
JH: No. Actually, when I start writing something, I don’t always know if I’m writing a short story or a novel. My first instinct is always to try and do a thing in its shortest possible form, but sometimes a character will demand more room to breathe and act and be themselves.
That’s what happened with Heart-Shaped Box. Originally I thought it would just be one more short story for my collection, 20th Century Ghosts. In Box, you have a heavy-metal musician, Judas Coyne, who has a collection of morbid artifacts, and who buys a supposedly haunted suit online, almost as a joke. Only the ghost turns out to be very real and very dangerous. I always thought Jude would only realize the trouble he was in when it was too late, and the ghost would eat him for breakfast by page 30. But Jude refused to die on my schedule. I underestimated him. He had a lot of fight in him — 350 pages of fight, to be exact.
FM: When writing Locke & Key, your much-acclaimed comic book series, which script-writing technique do you use? Do you do the Bendis/Moore thing and include specific panel descriptions or even thumbnails, or do you simply state what happens and let Gabriel Rodriguez surprise you?
JH: I work out what we need to see in each panel, and how many panels we’re going to see in a page. But I’m no Alan Moore. My panel-by-panel descriptions are fairly lean. I’m focused mostly on dialogue, and the overall rhythms of the piece. I’m biased, but I think Gabe stages some of the most suspenseful sequences in comics today. There’s no reason for me to get underfoot and tell him how to lay things out.
FM: What comic books are you enjoying today?
JH: Scalped is just as remarkable as The Wire, Breaking Bad, or The Sopranos; it just happens to be a comic book, not a TV show. You can really pick anything off the shelf with Ed Brubaker’s name on it — almost impossible you’ll be disappointed. I’m trailing about two years behind on Ex Machina, but Brian Vaughan is one of the best writers of his generation, working in any form, so that’s a good bet. I’m also feverishly addicted to a pair of writer-artist titles, The Goon and Echo, which impress visually and narratively, month after month.
FM: Might Heart-Shaped Box or Horns one day get the graphic novel treatment?
JH: At the moment that’s something I’ve resisted. Mostly because I haven’t wanted to adapt them myself, and I’m possessive enough to not want someone else to adapt them. It’s funny — I’m glad to let another writer redo either of those books in screenplay form, but I’m very reluctant to let someone else tackle a possible comic adaptation.
FM: In Horns, Merrin’s sister is named Regan. Is somebody being cute?
JH: Kind of hard to write about the devil without a reference to The Exorcist somewhere.
FM: Speaking of Horror films, we should squeeze in some movie talk before we wrap. What’s your favorite Horror film of all time?
JH: My favorite film is Jaws, which I consider to be horror, but at this point is probably more commonly considered ‘adventure.’ The Exorcist would be the runner-up. I saw The Exorcist when I was 17 and at that time I thought I was past the point where a movie could scare me, being a hardcore horror fan and Fangoria subscriber. And then I just about pissed myself and ran out crying for mama.
FM: Your favorite Horror film of the past decade?
JH: The best horror film of the last decade is easily The Devil’s Backbone. Nothing else is even vaguely in the same league.
FM: As Famous Monsters of Filmland prepares to make its long-awaited return to print, fans are looking back in appreciation at the magazine’s legacy. Did you read FM as a child?
JH: The golden days of FM were a little before my time, but my Dad did have a lot of the back issues, and for a budding horror film fan, it was inevitable that I’d leaf through them. But I’m afraid I didn’t do much more than leaf — so many of the articles were about actors I didn’t know reminiscing about films I hadn’t seen. Probably I should circle back and give Famous Monsters another look; I imagine I’d get a lot more out of it now.
Horns is available in stores right now and on Amazon, and gets my highest possible recommendation. Joe Hill has agreed to let us catch up with him in a few months — look for an in-depth interview, as well as a feature-article on Locke & Key, in the October issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Posted by sean in Books, Interviews, Latest News on January 16th, 2010
Devilocked horrorpunk fiends everywhere know may already know Eerie Von as longtime friend, roadie, and photographer to The Misfits, and later the first bassist for frontman Glenn Danzig’s metal bands, Samhain and Danzig. But Von’s career has continued long beyond his exit from Danzig, and that band’s later breakup, as he continues to record solo albums, as well as cultivating a longtime love of art.
Von’s latest project is a collection of his photos from the Misfits years on, entitled Misery Obscura: The Photography of Eerie Von. Having picked up and devoured the book, I was amped for a chance to sit down and spend a few minutes discussing the project, as well as his other recent endeavors.
For Misfits fans, the book is a must-have, 
a collection of long-lost publicity photos as well as backstage and behind-the-scenes shots, tied together with notes from Eerie that form an in-depth history of the band from a perspective most haven’t seen before. “Since the liner notes I wrote for the Misfits Boxset is pretty much the only real info the Fiends ever got, I think they’ll enjoy the photos and stories from back then,” he says. “I wanted to put out a book forever, just wasn’t able to – it’s not as easy as you think.”
Von’s plans for a collection of his photography and memories from a long career started coming together when the book found a home at Dark Horse. “[They’re] a very big company, and they’re really excited about it, so it was a no brainer to go with them,” he says of his publisher.
The book doesn’t stop at the breakup of The Misfits, either; the author’s photographic history continues up through his years as the bassist of Samhain, then Danzig, and for years afterward as he started to produce his solo projects. 
Today, Eerie’s music takes center stage, though he leaves himself time to indulge his interest in art, as well. “I don’t have hobbies anymore,” he admits. “Everything I do is part of my life as an Artist. I have been painting full time everyday for over 10 years, I write, record new music… any photography I do now is for the release and promo of the paintings, and my new records.”
And what do those new records sound like? “Anyone who has heard my solo records, isn’t that surprised. It’s still me, it’s still dark, it’s still not mainstream.” Von’s latest album is entitled Kinda Country, simply because, as he says, “that’s what it seems like to me.”
Indeed, Eerie’s ever-growing list of solo 
albums shows influences from across his eclectic musical interests, from Bad Brains and Minor Threat to Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley. “I was pleased to discover that a lot of fans of the old bands like a lot of different music, and they are digging it. I plan to continue to put out records, I keep doing whatever I like, and if people dig it, that would be great.”
Misery Obscura is currently available from Dark Horse Comics, and Kinda Country can be found at Ghastly Records.
Fiends can contact Eerie at: eerievon777@aol.com. He can also be found on the web at MySpace, on Facebook, and at www.eerievon.com
Posted by sean in Comics, Interviews on January 6th, 2010
When Mike Mignola created B.P.R.D. to tell stories of the eponymous organization he’d created in the pages of Hellboy, he also handed the reins over to new creative teams. It was a necessary move, as Mignola was still keeping busy with the adventures of his big, red, stone-fisted firstborn, but it must have been an unnerving move. Mignola had created these characters, and written them for years. Now, it was time to find artists and writers who could help carry the B.P.R.D. story forward while the creator moved back to a plotting/consultant role on the series. Luckily, B.P.R.D. has been blessed with a pretty constant flow of shining talents. Each writer and penciller finds a way to capture Mignola’s indelible style, while also taking the characters and mythos in a fresh, individual direction.
One of these inspired artists is Guy 
Davis. Davis has been drawing for B.P.R.D. since 2003, shortly after the inception of the series. In that time, he’s created, designed, and drawn any number of fanged, tentacled, and many-limbed hellspawn to bring about the ever-approaching apocalypse of the Hellboy universe.
When I was given the opportunity to pick Davis’ brain about his work, I jumped at the chance (if you saw my review of the latest B.P.R.D. trade, you know I’m a fan). And, I figured, what better place to start than at the beginning?
Wincing at the unavoidable cliché of it, Guy says he’s been drawing as long as he can remember. As a kid, he would turn to his pens for entertainment when there was nothing on TV. This, of course, was “back before internet, cable, or even VCRs,” he reminds me, “when kids were at the whim of network programming and had to wait for a good monster flick to come on!” So, when he couldn’t see spaceships and giant monsters on late night creature features, or after-school favorites like Ultraman and Lost In Space, the young Davis just drew them for himself.
In high school, he found an application for his hobby, in the form of a comic strip for the local paper. “Really awful stuff,” he chuckles, “but I liked telling stories sequentially. And once I graduated I decided to try and keep working at it – very starving artist, rough times ahead, but I kept at it.”
Originally planning to chase sequential storytelling in the form of storyboards or conceptual designs for film, Davis eventually found comics “a lot easier to just fall into, and that’s really how it happened.” He found that one comic job led to another, and then another, and so it’s gone for what has now become a 24-year career.
Though he’s applied his pencils to Marvel’s Fantastic 
Four, and DC’s Starman and Sandman Mystery Theatre, Guy is best known for his work with B.P.R.D., where his penchant for drawing monsters has found a very apt home. With cartoony yet dark, intimate yet dynamic style, the artist has breathed continual life into the series with an endless parade of yetis, frogmen, and various Lovecraftian nightmares.
“I don’t know, pretty much most of it just pops into my head when I’m sketching out designs – lots of organic shapes, tentacles and bones are always good to flesh out a creature drawing,” he says. “And it usually just starts with trying to find an interesting shape and form before I work it up with whatever monstrous details of claws, eyes and fleshy bits. I guess it’s like some sort of monster ‘Mr. Potato Head.’”
In 1997, Davis also became a comic book creator in his own right. “I enjoy the collaboration of working with a writer to make their script realized on the final page but I also like the freedom and self-expression that goes with drawing a book that I also write. So I’m pretty lucky that right now I get to juggle both types of jobs!”
The other job he’s “juggling” right now is The Marquis, a more “grotesque [and] obscene” book than B.P.R.D. that recently moved from original publisher Oni Press to join Davis’ Hellboy-related work at Dark Horse. “Really the only big change to the series is just that I’m doing the remaining stories as original graphic novels instead of single issues that we’d later reprint into a trade paperback,” he reassures his fans, “[which is] something I always wanted to do with it – I really like that format.”
Davis says there will be 3 more Marquis 
books following the recently released Inferno collection before he brings the series to an end. “I always had a set end plotted even before I started the first issue, and look forward to finally wrapping it all up.”
But that doesn’t mean the series is losing steam. “The next graphic novel, The Marquis and the Midwife, is definitely the darkest and probably sickest of the bunch – but I’m just telling the story I had planned for it all along and hope it’s entertaining for the reader.”
His advice for aspiring comic book writers and artists? “Just keep producing work, and learn from your mistakes along the way. Don’t rest and wait to hear back – just keep producing new work every chance you get.”
Of course, that’s easy for him to say, right? Once you’ve racked up a few Eisner awards (1997 Best Serialized Story, for Starman; 2004: Best Limited Series, for Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules; 2009: Best Penciller/Inker, for B.P.R.D.), they’ll just let you do whatever you want to do.
Won’t they?
“The Marquis actually first saw print… after they canceled Sandman Mystery Theatre because I couldn’t find… jobs doing the type of stories I wanted to do,” the artist laughs by way of rebuttal. “So it really wasn’t a case of any sort of acclaim letting me do my own projects – pretty much the opposite. Nobody was letting me do the types of stories I wanted, so I just started doing them myself. But now Mike and John [Arcudi] are definitely spoiling me with all the B.P.R.D. stories – those are just the type of stories I want to do and it’s always fun!”
And we’re glad it is – because it’s damn fun to read, too.
For more on Guy Davis, visit guydavisartworks.com or darkhorse.com.
Posted by Barrett in Interviews, Latest News on January 3rd, 2010
For those of you out there who are aspiring artists, allow me to present to you the story of Randy Martinez… With an illustrator for a father and an art teacher as a mother, one could say that Randy Martinez was destined to be an artist. At a young age, after learning the crucial lesson that drawing on the walls would only get him into trouble, Randy turned to paper and by the time he reached fourth grade he began to realize that he had some real talent.
“I loved art, and it was like breathing to me, you know something you do involuntarily, but it was such a great way for me to express myself. You never really appreciate that in the moment. But I look back and art really got me through some tough times, and let people know how I felt. I did some powerful stuff without knowing it when I was a kid.”
Although the talent came to him at a young age, Martinez’s dream was to be a professional basketball player. After 2 years of playing college ball he realized that he would probably never make it into the pros and he decided to hang up his sneakers and focus on his art, but he never regretted the time he spent on the courts.
“I needed something that was a challenge and basketball gave that to me until I was mature enough to take my art abilities seriously.”
And so, Martinez embraced his talents and became what he is today: artist, author, teacher. Now he spends his days contributing to the expression and interpretation of some of the most legendary titles and characters such as Indiana Jones, Captain Jack Sparrow, Spider-man, the X-men and the whole Star Wars crew. While he is incredibly proud of his accomplishments he never forgets how humbling it is to work on such high profile characters.
“These titles and characters are so huge and bigger than life. They have been drawn and written about by some of the greatest artists to ever walk the earth. To be a part of that legacy is just overwhelming to think about sometimes… Being able to contribute to these iconic characters is truly an honor.”
The tricky thing when working with pre-existing characters, especially such well-known and well-developed characters as these, is to stay true to the original while somehow finding a personal connection to inspire you. Martinez suggests drawing to satisfy yourself. If you can appreciate your own art and connect with it your best work will come (along with your fans approval and hopefully a paycheck!).
“I could draw anything you want me to draw, but unless I get involved with the subject matter it’s really static. It’s just a picture. The best example was when I did some art from the TV series ‘Heroes’. When I got the job I knew absolutely nothing about the show. I had plenty of reference pictures, but they meant nothing to me. So I went out and bought the first season of Heroes. I sat there for 3 days with my girlfriend and watched the whole thing before I ever put down one pencil mark… If you look at any great piece of art you will always notice that the artist is really just expressing their experience or their feelings with the subject. With Heroes, I could draw Claire, but what do I have to say about Claire, what are my feelings about her condition, her struggles, and points of view? Illustrating that is what makes my art mine, no matter what the subject is.”
In addition to these works, Martinez is also the author of Creature Features, a how-to-draw book with an alien/sci-fi/monster theme that was recently reviewed here at FM. An avid fan of monsters his entire life, he was more than willing to take on the project when Impact Books approached him with the idea. Determined to keep the process fun, Martinez developed his own teaching style in order to teach student artists in a simple and effective way while not talking down to them or coming across as bland. The result: Creature Features.
“I have loved monsters my whole life. Godzilla, The Wolfman, Clash of the Titans, and of course I got my fix from Famous Monsters of Filmland. I gained a respect for the different types of monsters and what they meant to our culture. Mythic Creatures for instance are very different than monsters like Frankenstein they played a different roll and I wanted to teach that.”
Finally, we asked Mr. Martinez what advice he could give to aspiring artists and he responded with the following:
“1) Patience. This is by far the most needed virtue any artist can have. It takes a long time to record a good year of success, business-wise, as an artist. You have to let your art grow and mature with everything you will learn on the way. Patience will keep you from getting frustrated and help keep you focused on your goals.
2) Be nice to everyone. You never know who you will meet, or who someone is related to. You’ll gain social skills as you go, and learn hotw to network, but from the start you have to be cool to people. People remember that stuff.
3) Believe in yourself. If you don’t nobody will. Simple as that.
4) Dedication. People ask me what one thing do you need to have if you don’t have the first three elements I listed? The answer is dedication. This is an extremely competitive business, and you have to be ready to sacrifice everything for it. That might sound like a lot, but if you LOVE making art, there really is no sacrifice you need to make. If you really want it, it has to be your priority in your life.”
If you have an interest in Randy Martinez’s art, you will be happy to hear of several upcoming releases including his work. February Topps Trading Cards is releasing Star Wars Galaxy Series five, a huge set in which Martinez will have 19+ cards, two of which are in the New Visions Section, two are in “The Best of Star Wars past” section, and fifteen FOIL chase cards will feature his art and signature! Then, in the spring of 2010 his new book, Sketch Card Mania, is being released by Impact Books! Once again we here at FM thank Randy Martinez for his time and advice and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. For more information head on over to his site here.
To purchase Randy Martinez’s art, including how to obtain original artwork, visit ArtInsights Animation and Film Art Gallery.
Posted by Steve in Interviews, Latest News, The Magic Lantern - Steve Weintz on December 16th, 2009
When we contacted Harry Walton and requested an interview, his reply was simple and immediate: “Sure! I grew up on Famous Monsters. When do you want to talk?” Nothing keeps us more enthused about our mission than speaking with the fanboys and –girls who grew up to become the modern mages of today’s visual effects.
Harry's buddy Rick Baker in his Frankenstein mask, West Covina, CA, 1968
Harry’s enthusiasm goes way back and deep; during our interview we spent a long time lost amongst his many scrapbooks of personal photos. A few of these may be seen on Harry’s own website. (All photos in this interview are from the Harry Walton Collection, (c) VFXmasters.)
Top Row: Davey & Goliath, Harry running an optical printer, "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids". Middle Row: the Pillsbury Doughboy, "The Golden Child," "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Bottom Row: "Land of the Lost", "RoboCop2", "James & The Giant Peach".
From a start at Gumby’s home, Clokey Productions, Harry moved on to Excelsior!, Cascade Pictures, CPC, Coast Effects, Tippett Studios, and his own effects firm. Over the last 40 years he’s worked on a tremendous variety of films and commercials, bringing to life everything from the Purina chuck wagon to the original Land of the Lost, from the Pillsbury Doughboy to The Golden Child and RoboCop. The Nightmare Before Christmas called on his traditional animation skills; later, after making the jump to digital effects, he oversaw the digital animation for the shark attack sequence for James And The Giant Peach and several videogame animations and characters.
FM: Please talk about your connections to Famous Monsters and Forrest J Ackerman.
HW: Well, I had no personal connections to Forrest, but I met him a few times. I have a hat from his 60th birthday party – that was a blast. However, Famous Monsters was a huge influence. Around 1958, when I was eight or nine years old, I walked in to a downtown drugstore in Hicksville, Long Island [seriously] , where I bought my comics, and Famous Monsters #1 was there on the rack.
I flipped on it – it was the first of its kind — and I finally had something to look at that told me what stuff was done and how it was done. It gave me a shot in the arm to my ambitions and imagination. I eventually collected the first forty or fifty issues; they got pretty ratty-looking after years of reading and storage, and I finally gave them to Bob Burns.
Funny thing, at Sony Imageworks one day I happened to look over the shoulder of a young effects artist, and saw him buying an original Famous Monsters magazine on eBay. It was the first I heard of the company, and the first thing I bought on eBay was an old FM issue!
FM: What were and are your major artistic influences?
HW: In filmmaking? Well, Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, of course, but Gene Warren and Jim Danforth were really my mentors, in stop-motion, matte painting and filmmaking. I got to work with Tex Avery at CPC and he was a wonder; I worked on George Pal’s last Puppetoon, a cute story about animated tools, at Gene Warren’s studio Excelsior!.
Pete Ellenshaw and other matte artists were big influences, and from them I grew to appreciate the Impressionists. They were the first to grasp the importance of how light is perceived, and to show how quick and rough brushwork could evoke a place and time so clearly. Traditional matte painting was very loose; I once examined one of Pete Ellenshaw’s mattes and was stunned by how loose and sketchy it was, yet when you stood back and squinted it suddenly popped with realism. The film resolution back then didn’t capture as much detail as today’s photography, and added to the leeway the great matte painters enjoyed.
FM: What are you into these days?
HW: I’m getting back into fine art; again, Jim Danforth was my inspiration. Jim has two storage sheds full of his paintings, and another two rooms in his house full of more. I’m not nearly that prolific!
I paint mostly landscapes and seascapes but I have painted several portraits of dogs, including one of Vin Diesel’s dog Roman. One recent painting is of Paradise Falls, a favorite hiking spot of ours in Thousand Oaks, California. Since 1978 I’ve worked mostly as an animation supervisor, but I still get to animate occasionally. I switched to CGI some years ago and use Maya for animation and Photoshop for matte painting. Until recently I was the animation director at Brain Zoo Studios, and now I’m involved with a small start-up company called DOE (Day Of Evil Productions).
FM: What interests you today in VFX and sci-fi/fantasy/horror filmmaking?
HW: You may not like my answer, but I don’t like most of today’s digital effects; they’re too clean, too calculated, too much, and they’re no longer amazing. The only things I really care about are good characters and a good story, and the visual effects have to move the story.
Even with the traditional pre-digital effects, some techniques worked better than others. “Dynamation”, the rear-projection/front-projection/matte process that Ray Harryhausen developed and Jim Danforth and others perfected, could beat the best blue-screen compositing in speed and quality, if handled correctly.
Stop-Motion and Rear Projection on "Willow" (1985)
On Willow ILM used blue-screen compositing for scenes where Val Kilmer’s character fights a two-headed dragon. Dennis Muren allowed a small team of us to try to get some of those shots using the Dynamation method. It worked – we got each of our shots done in five days, versus four weeks for each composite in the optical department — and George Lucas was happy. We used 35mm VistaVision plates and composited down to 4 perf 35mm format using anamorphic lenses, and the finished comps looked great.
FM: If you could resurrect or finish a lost film or TV project, which one would it be?
HW: It would probably be Tom Scherman’s Discovery Bay Chronicles. Tom was an incredible miniature maker, sadly no longer among us, who dreamed up a TV concept based upon Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo. Discovery Bay was to be Nemo’s home base, from where he and his submarine would sail off to various “steampunk” adventures. He tried to interest Disney in the idea, and worked with the legendary Harper Goff, who designed the “Nautilus” for Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, in developing the Discovery Bay version. Tom even got access to Goff’s original blueprints!
Tom Scherman, Harry Walton and the "Nautilus" (1983)
I was at Coast Effects when Tom asked me to assist him, and we wound up shooting some really good demo footage. The story was great and the production design was fantastic. There was a high-speed slow-motion shot in a water tank of the submarine surfacing, and three or four matte shots of a cityscape, a boathouse and some airships. Yeah, it would be cool to see Discovery Bay made.
FM: Thank you so much, Harry, it’s been a joy to speak with you!
HW: Thank you and good luck! I’m so pleased to see Famous Monsters back again!
Posted by Steve in Interviews, Latest News, The Magic Lantern - Steve Weintz on November 27th, 2009
Famous Monsters is immensely pleased to launch The Magic Lantern’s “Modern Mages” interview series with a conversation with Phil Tippett.
Phil Tippett, a full-in man
We met at Tippett Studios’ Main Building in a active, funky mixed-use neighborhood in Berkeley, where PR rep Lori Petrini gave me a quick but thorough tour of the various departments. What struck me while studying the many sculptures, puppets, models and sketches adorning the lobby, and later when screening the house demo reel, was the quiet ubiquity of Tippett Studio’s work.
Most of us will remember Phil’s tour-de-force from days gone by, the tauntauns and the Hoth ice battle from 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back”. A strong heritage of character animation has led the firm to deliver monsters, talking animals and zoomorphic machines in quantity to the major studios, and yet I was surprised at how rarely I connected the studio to its memorably impressive work. This is no slight but rather a testament to the old-school competence and delivery of the company, much like the “Invisible Art” practiced by the great effects people of yore.
Talking Animals, Big Bugs, Squid Sentinels, Colossal Monsters - Tippett Studio delivers
Killer drones before they were cool (or even existed) on “RoboCop?” Check. Talking pets in “Cats & Dogs?” Check. Squid robots in “The Matrix?” Check. Bugs in “Starship Troopers?” Check. Biggest. Movie. Monster. Ever. “Cloverfield.” Check. And then there’s the werewolves of “Twilight: New Moon” and the horror of “Drag Me To Hell”, just to note some current work. When we sat down to talk in a screening room, Phil Tippett seemed satisfied with his work and his team, and happy to talk shop.
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The Ackermonster in the Ackermansion
FM: Please talk about your connections to Forrest J Ackerman and “Famous Monsters of Filmland.”
PT: Well, Uncle Forry was the man, such a sweet, generous guy.
I grew up down in San Diego, where the only other guy I knew who was into sci-fi and stuff was a friend of mine named Greg Bear, who’s now a successful science-fiction author. After I graduated from art school I went to work at a little studio called Cascade Pictures, where I worked with Jim Danforth, Dennis Muren, Dave Allen and Harry Walton and others.
Cascade Pictures, 1975 - courtesy Harry Walton
We all loved Ray Harryhausen’s movies, and somehow we wound up getting invited up to the Ackermansion to meet Ray H. when he was in town, and to hang out and gawk at Forry’s amazing houseful of cool stuff. There were film fests there, and I remember meeting Richard Corben at one in the late 60’s. He showed us a tracing-paper animatic of what would become his “Den” comic.
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FM: What were and are the greatest artistic influences upon you?
PT: Stop-motion? Ray Harryhausen.
Ray Harryhausen working - courtesy "Sergio Leone & the Infield Fly Rule"
It all began with Ray and his work, and he was the most accessible of the “old masters,” well, I mean, Obie was no longer with us by then.
I’m an omnivorous consumer of culture. William R. Stromberg, an independent filmmaker, was my mentor (I helped Bill on his 16mm production of Ray Bradbury’s Sound of Thunder) and through him I met Jon Morgan, who now works with Bill’s son reconstructing motion picture scores for some of the classic Steiner & Korngold pictures. It was through John that I became interested in classical music as introduced through motion picture scores.
Reading? H. G. Wells, Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. P. Lovecraft…standard boilerplate stuff. (grins)
Jon Morgan, Anita Bonn & William T. Stromberg - courtesy "Monster Kid Online"
I collect lots and lots of periodicals — “Forensic Pathology,” “New Scientist,”"National Geographic,” “Newsweek,” “Art Forum” and so forth. At the end of the year I plow through this pile and make clippings – mostly pictures, some articles. It fills my “unconscious sandbox.” It’s a way of staying in touch. I have tons of files, and I can go back to the old ones and look across all the media. If I have time I start organizing them into collages and finding images in them; sometimes they go into scrapbooks. I also go to movies, and to art shows, but I don’t track pop trends all that much. The major studios do that.
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FM: What interests you today in SFX and sci-fi/fantasy/horror filmmaking?
PT: Well, what’s NOT being done, really. Most of the stuff being done today is pedantic and uninteresting. Like late-19th Century symphonic music; a Bruckner symphony never ends…
The potential is really terrific. The problem is, it’s no longer one guy in a dark little room. It’s huge barns full of people and millions of dollars. To justify the costs the product must have the broadest appeal, hence the most homogenized results. We’re in franchise mode for a while, I’m afraid.
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Hell Hath No Fury...from "Drag Me To Hell" (2009) - courtesy Tippett Studio
FM: I wanted to ask about a shot in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell.” A young woman is dragged down into a hellish hole between some railroad tracks. I understand that was a miniature shot rather than CGI.
PT: Yeah, I suggested that they might just as easily do the shot with a miniature as with CGI, and the old-school effects worked great. But what I thought was interesting is that they shot each element separately, rather than all at once in one take like we had to do back in the day. That seemed weird, except that now you have to shoot that way, in order for the shot to remain malleable. Nothing is locked down now; the studios, producers and directors want to be able to change everything later. And that requires lots of separate elements, barns full of people and lots of money.
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FM: If you could resurrect a lost, abandoned, never-made film project, what would it be?
PT: I’ve got drawers full of stuff that I want to make! I don’t need to go looking for any.
Werewolf Against a Hazy Sky - "Twilight: New Moon" (2009)
I love irony and black humor, but when it comes to putting up money no one knows how to sell those qualities. These days there isn’t demand for ‘just some’ effects — it’s either pedal-to-the-metal or none at all. It’s great to get an occasional “Cloverfield” job, where we can apply ourselves without blowing out the screen. In “New Moon“ we’re doing some 60 special-effects shots, mostly only the werewolves. In “Jurassic Park” 60 shots was the sum total of ALL the dinosaur effects shots, and it left the audience wanting more.
Once I’m finally forced into retirement I have some things I want to try. When I left ILM in the 1980’s I made a little film called “Prehistoric Beast” in my garage, for the educational and fan markets. The staff here are scanning and printing the old film now. In the late 80’s – early 90’s I shot some material I called “Mad God.” I’d been reading a lot of surrealist literature and this was an attempt to animate some primal myths in the odd, almost infantile mode of expression I found in those books. I abandoned the project when CGI came along, but again we’re now restoring and rescanning the original.
Concept sketches for Phil Tippett's "Mad God" - courtesy Tippett Studio
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FM: Thanks, Phil, for your time and enthusiasm.
PT: Thank you guys for bringing “Famous Monsters” back! Keep up the good work!
Posted by Dominic in Interviews, Latest News on October 13th, 2009
Special FX artist, Producer, Writer, Director, Film executive and most recently Comic Book Author, twenty year Industry veteran Paul J. Salamoff could be considered a sort of Renaissance man when it comes to the Hollywood machine. He’s also written the definitive guide to Movie Sets called, On The Set: The Hidden Rules Of Movie Making Etiquette. However, what I found to be the most compelling and sobering fact about Paul is that above all else the man is a true fanboy. Like the rest of us, his work stems from his passion for science fiction, horror and fantasy. It reaches back to his childhood and the countless hours spent watching classic films, reading, and just letting his imagination run wild over the limitless possibilities imbedded in the human psyche. Of all the interviews I’ve done over the years with relative strangers, his was the most easy going and comfortable. But, enough of my rambling, this is after all an interview.
Famous Monsters: How did you get involved writing for Bluewater Comics?
Paul Salamoff: I’m the Director of Special Events for The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Filmsas well as a Producer on the Saturn Awards. Bluewater had donated issues of Ray Harryhausen Presents comics for gift bags at the 34thSaturn Awards and I was impressed with the quality of their comics not to mention the subject matter. My Agents at APA had suggested turning some of my scripts into graphic novels and Bluewater seemed to be a good fit. I got in touch with Darren G. Davis (President of Bluewater) and he said they were looking for a writer for Roger Corman Presents Black Scorpion. I sent them a writing sample and the next week pitched them the best version of Black ScorpionI could possibly come up with. They loved it and had me write up a treatment, which they then sent to Roger Corman. He approved it and, low and behold, I was writing Black Scorpion. That was my first gig for them. It’s a four-issue arc and hits the comic book stores in November.
FM: So how did that lead to working for Bluewater on a pretty regular basis?
PS: Darren was so pleased with what I was delivering for Black Scorpion and my enthusiasm, he offered me another Roger Corman title, Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen. I was told that I could completely reinvent both properties. Having never written a Conan type fantasy I thought it was really cool challenge. So I read a bunch of Robert E. Howard and re-watched Conan to get into that mindset and came up with the craziest freakin story for Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen. It’s not your typical sword and sandals, but it’s a fun series and I hope people will give it a chance. It’s still being inked right now and will come out later next year.
FM: Is there a big difference between writing for Film & TV vs. writing comic books?
PS: I’ve always excelled at story structure in screenplays, but in comics the structure is very different Fortunately, I’ve managed to understand the mechanics of storytelling in comic books and have adapted to it quite easily. Unlike film where you have a little more breathing room, in comics you have to tell a story in the most visually efficient way possible, while keeping it cinematic and compelling. One of the most difficult aspects is the scene transition. Typically the page turn is the transition so that means you’ve got to figure out a way to create scenes that take place in total on either one, two or three pages (or more).You don’t want to find yourself with a panel or two creeping over into the next page, because generally you don’t want to have a transition in the middle of a page. It can be visually confusing. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but you want to try to avoid stuff like that. Another challenge is the economy of action. You may have a sequence that takes a page to describe in a screenplay, but if you were to draw out all the action beats might take four to five comic book pages. So you have to really decide what are the necessary beats to get the point across and still be visually dynamic.
FM: You’re adapting Logan’s Run into a comic, can you tell us about that?
PS: When I was around six years old my parents took me to a drive-in theatre in Cape Cod, MA and I saw a double feature of Star Wars and Logan’s Run and my life changed. I’ve been a lifelong fan of Logan’s Runand have read the trilogy of books (Logan’s Run, Logan’s World and Logan’s Search) a number of times. Bluewater got the license and Darren knew I was the right man for the job. I was told that we were going back to the original source material (the trilogy of books) and that William F. Nolan was going to be involved. The intention of Logan’s Run: Lastdaywas to retell Logan’s story within a six-issue arc and then explore new stories and expand the world from that point on. Collaborating with Nolan and writer Jason Brock, I came up with a storyline that focused on Logan’s transformation from near sociopathic killer for the state to someone who begins to question the system and care for others, especially Jessica. The only stumbling block we had was to update and clarify the reason why people died at the age of twenty-one. In the original book it was population control, but we felt it needed to be a little more than that for a contemporary audience to accept. William, Jason and I put our heads together to come up with a really interesting concept that has a lot of logic of how a society could conceivably get to this point. I think people who are fans of either the books or the movie (or both) are really going to like this new take on it. The artwork by Daniel Gete is amazing and it’s very dark and serious like Blade Runner. It has the stamp of approval from William F. Nolan who is one of the nicest people, just a great guy, and really enthusiastic about the new series.
FM: Can you talk ablout your process for writing comics?
PS: Even having written over 20 single-issue comics, I still have a hard time writing directly in Comic format. I’m so comfortable with traditional screenplay format that I write the comics in that format first and then adapt them into comic book format. So this of course makes it easier when I approach adapting my screenplays to comics, which I’m doing right now with my Horror/Sci-Fi script STASIS. It’s a little bizarre but it works for me. What I do is sit down with my screenplay and a pencil and I’m like, okay, page one about halfway down feels like it would fit on one comic book page. I’d then continue on through the entire screenplay, drawing lines under things and making empty boxes. Assuming that it comes out to a reasonable amount of “pages” I then start back at the beginning and draw brackets pairing up actions with dialogue and see how many panels I can squeeze each page down to. Once I know how many panels there are per page (generally you want 5-6 panels per page), then I draw out the box configuration in my rectangles trying to keep in mind that some actions need bigger panels than others. Once I have all that pre-work done, I then sit down behind my computer and I adapt it into comic book format using my scribbling as my guide. It might seem like a lot of extra work, but I’ve got very fast at doing it and it works for me and nobody’s complained yet.
FM:I know that there are many different comic book formats, what’s yours like?
PS: I tend to be overly descriptive to the point of describing panel sizes (i.e. small, medium, large, long, Splash, Tall, Insert, etc), but I always say to the artist, look, this is my interpretation; you’re the artist feel free to add or subtract panels as you see fit. I let them know that what I’m giving them is a guide and I don’t want to hinder them in any way. As long as the story I need to be told is on the page then I’m happy. Having now worked with a lot of different artists, some will follow my scripts almost to the letter while others will think out of the box. Black Scorpion is like 90% exactly what I had in my head. But the artist on Deathstalker is taking liberties that are truly amazing and really bringing an incredible other dimension to it, I love it. As a matter of fact I haven’t been disappointed by any of the artists I’ve dealt with. With the Puppy Power: Bo Obama I’m working with Emmy-award winning artist Keith Tucker (He-Man, G.I. Joe, TaleSpin, etc). This guy really knows what he’s doing and we are both very proud of the work we’ve done on this comic.
FM: Looking at your resume it seems very odd that you’ve written a children’s comic on the first dog. Can you discuss this anomaly?
PS: You know, I subscribe to the fact that “Writers write” and that’s what I am: a writer. It doesn’t matter what the genre I just like telling stories that I’m passionate about and even though I’m know for my horror and Sci-Fi I like writing comedies as well. Darren offered me this comic because I have a six year old daughter and he thought I might like the challenge. He was right. With Bo Obama I wanted to use the opportunity to tell a fun story but be educational too. So it’s told from Bo’s point of view of the White House. Within the guided tour the reader is going to learn about Portuguese water Dogs, the history of pets in the White House, as well as the history of the White House itself. Keith Tucker said he really just loves working on this because it really has something to say and it seems to have an importance to it and it’s not just a piece of fluff. Some people snicker when they realize I’ve written it, but I don’t care I’m proud of it. When it was first announced it got a lot of attention. And when it comes out (October 14th) it’s going to get a lot more. I think at the very least it’s a great opportunity to show there’s more than one side to me as a writer./
FM: I understand that you’ve set up a few of your original screenplays as Graphic Novels. Can you tell us about those?
PS: Yes. All the licensed stuff I’m doing with Bluewater opened the door for me to set up some graphic novels based on my original stories with other companies. One of them is my project STASIS. It’s a Sci-Fi/Horror similar in many ways to Aliens and The Thing. Stephen Susco (Screenwriter of The Grudge 1 & 2 and Red) is attached to the film project as a Producer. The art for the graphic novel is absolutely amazing. STASIS was very difficult to adapt. There’s a lot of action going on and it was a struggle to try to keep it around in the vicinity of a hundred page graphic novel. I thought it was going to be a breeze because the script isn’t that long, but I wound up having to sacrifice some character subplots and action in order to make it work. I really killed some of my “babies” on this one. What was helpful is that I kept reminding myself that this is the comic book medium where the story needs to be told much more efficiently. The excised stuff still exists in the screenplay and will be in the movie where it belongs. The other one DISCORD, I just set up with UK based AAM/Markosia. It’s an exciting new take on the superhero genre with art by Giuseppe D’Ella. We’re planning on a mid to late 2010 release. I wrote that to be pitched both as a graphic novel and as a movie. It got a lot of heat and I’m currently in talks with a number of production companies who are waiting to see the Graphic Novel when it’s released.
FM: You’re also President of Production for Rat Bastard Productions (DOWN FOR LIFE). How does that work with your writing?
PS: I had met Peter Holden, the CEO of Rat Bastard Prod. When I was V.P. of Production at BOLD Films (Bobby, Starship Troopers: Marauder) and they had a few projects that I really liked and tried to get going over at BOLD. When I left BOLD to focus on my writing, I stayed in touch with RBP and they read and really liked my horror Thriller Script FILTH and optioned it with me attached to Direct. The more I got to know Peter and the other “Bastards” I realized they really had their shit together and the more they spent time with me the, the more they wanted me to join the team. I told them as long as they understand writing is the most important thing for me and they let me continue to explore those avenues within reason then we don’t have a problem, I can certainly do both. So I soon became their President of Production. Our first film Down For Life world premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and is an official selection of the 2009 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. Based on a New York Times article about a 15 year old Latina girl who tried to leave a gang, it’s a truly great film and something we’re very proud of.
FM: In closing tell the FM readers a bit about your book, On The Set: The Hidden Rules of Movie Making Etiquette.
PS: I wrote On The Setas a labor of love, it’s basically everything you need to know about working on a film set. I interviewed over seventy people in the industry including Wes Craven, Gale Ann Hurd, Tom Desanto, Ron Underwood, David Grossman, etc. The book takes every department, gives you a brief overview, who’s in the department and what they do, terms you need to know for this department, the rules of etiquette and advice from experts. It also includes on set horror stories that would make even Christian Bale wince. It’s used in film schools all around the world, and I lecture at a lot of different film schools about my experiences in the industry. ON THE SET is now in its second edition. (The first edition was titled Movie Sets 101). It’s something I’m very proud of because it’s helpful.
FM: For those interested in filmmaking on any level, or simply curious in the various details that go on behind the scenes of movie making, I highly recommend ON THE SET. Head over to Amazon and get yourself a copy, it will benefit you in more ways than you can imagine. Also, head over to your local comic book stores this Wednesday, October 14th and check out Puppy Power: Bo Obama and Vincent Price Presents Volume One, with one of the four issues written by Paul. And, as always stay tuned to Famous Monsters for more of Paul’s upcoming work.
Posted by sean in Books, Interviews on August 28th, 2009
This week, FM interviews Michael Mallory, author of Universal Studios Monsters and the upcoming Marvel Expanding Universe Wall Chart.
FM: So, Michael, you are something of an authority in the field of animation.
MICHAEL MALLORY: Yeah, that was my beat… I wrote a lot for Variety and the LA Times, and it was usually around animation subjects, which kind of bled into digital effects, which ultimately bled into makeup, which is also an area of long-term interest. But that was the area that I usually stayed within
FM: And you’ve written a book on Hanna-Barbera cartoons that is an extension of that. Did that mostly just come from loving the cartoons as a kid?
MICHAEL MALLORY: Yes, definitely. I always say Huckleberry Hound changed my life. ‘Cos back then, you know, I’m of a certain age, you didn’t have non-stop animation on television. You had virtually no animation on television, and then along come these Hannah-Barbera cartoons, and they were all great, and so I was a huge fan. That book came about because I had done some articles on Hannah-Barbera throughout the years, and Warner Bros. had recently acquired Turner, which owns Hannah-Barbera. And they were talking about doing this book, and nobody at Warners really knew much about Hannah-Barbera, so my name came up in a meeting somewhere, and they contacted me about it. Called up and said, “Let’s do a book about Hannah-Barbera.” Yeah, let’s think – okay!
And that sort of got the ball rolling, that led to a few other books on comic book-related subjects, and also animation. (more…)
Posted by sean in Books, Interviews on August 19th, 2009
(Originally posted by pete)
Famous Monsters would like to welcome Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Everson. John has been making quite a splash in the literary world with the trade paperback releases of Covenant and Sacrifice. They were both originally issued as limited edition hardcovers by Delirium Books, with Covenant winning the HWA Bram Stoker Award for First Novel released in 2004.
Though it may seem that John is an overnight success, that couldn’t be farther from the truth; he has been honing his craft for many years.
His short fiction has appeared in over 50 magazines over the last 15 years, as well as in a couple dozen anthologies, most recently in The Horror Library Vol. 3, A Dark and Deadly Valley, Cold Flesh, Damned, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook. Some of his short fiction has also appeared in three short story collections, Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions (Delirium Books, 2000), Vigilantes of Love (Twilight Tales, 2003) and Needles & Sins (Necro Books, 2007). John has also edited a few anthologies; he was co-editor of the Spooks! ghost story anthology (Twilight Tales, 2004) and editor of In Delirium II (Delirium Books, 2007) and Sins of the Sirens (Dark Arts Books, 2008).
He also co-founded a publishing company in 2006, Dark Arts Books (www.darkartbooks.com) that has produced five anthologies.
John also dabbles in digital art and music. You can get samples of his fiction, art and music and read his blog and appearance schedule via his website, www.johneverson.com
FM: Welcome to Famous Monsters of Filmland John and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for the interview. I have to say that Covenant and Sacrifice were fantastic. Good old fashioned over-the-top supernatural horror, which in my opinion you can never have enough of.
John Everson: Thanks for having me! I have to agree with you about horror with the supernatural element. When I read a story, I want to be taken to someplace other than here, so for me, horror that is strictly about serial killers – which are very much day-to-day real dangers, doesn’t appeal. I want to be tantalized by ideas of something beyond…
FM: Were you a fan of Famous Monsters growing up?
John Everson: Famous Monsters, Fangoria, Starlog… Loved ‘em all, but I didn’t get to see them very often, except at a friend’s house. My parents weren’t horror fans, so I didn’t get to have much of that in the house. I did used to watch lots of the old b/w monster movies on TV though. In Chicago we had a weekend horror movie spotlight program called “Creature Features” that I loved as a kid. That’s where I saw all the old Universal movies, and probably my first couple Hammer films.
FM: You have been at this writing gig for a long time. What got you into writing and what influenced you to become a horror writer?
John Everson: Reading, ultimately, is what got me into writing. As a kid I was a voracious reader – I used to literally bring shopping bags of books home from the library during the summer. I loved the sense of wonder and fear and excitement that a good story could engage in me as a reader and I wanted to be able to have that impact on somebody else. So I decided early on that I would write; In college I went to journalism school and wrote non-fiction news at the same time as writing entertainment section opinion columns, personality interviews and poems and fiction on the side.
FM: You also have a history as a DVD reviewer and music columnist (publishing “Pop Stops” and “Sinister Cinema” in the Star Newspapers, various DVD reviews in Doorways, “NightSongs” in Wetbones, “Shadows in Stereo” in Midnight Hour and “Bug Music” in Talebones). Do you think that doing columns like these helped you become a better fiction writer and how much did you enjoy doing those?
John Everson: Writing is all about using your “voice” to engage the reader in your point of view. Whether that point of view is a fictional world, or a discussion about music isn’t as important as how you put your words together. And the more you write, hopefully, the better you get at communicating. So yes, absolutely I think those opinion columns, and all the news stories I used to write on a daily basis helped me become a better storyteller in the fiction realm. And yes, I totally loved doing the music columns for genre magazines. I wrote a weekly music column for The Star Newspapers for 20 years, so taking that side career one step further and having it intersect with my fiction publishing life, was pretty cool while it lasted.
FM: You are also involved in designing book covers and composing music. Does that take time away from your writing or do they give you a chance to pursue other creative outlets, thus giving you a break from your writing?
John Everson: The short answer is… both! I wrote music as a kid, so I’ve created songs longer than I’ve written fiction, and I find it a completely relaxing exercise that almost blanks out the conscious mind. So to the extent that it “feels” easier to work on music, that can also be a procrastinating lure: “hmmm…. I think I’ll sit here at the piano noodling instead of putting my brain to work in the office writing.” Book cover creation is similar for me, because I’m toying with Photoshop filters and experimenting half the time to come up with something that is an evocative image, not necessarily a straight-on depiction of anything in particular. I think the music and the art engage different aesthetic creative aspects of the mind, and it’s probably healthy to alternate between all three, to give one or the other a break.
FM: Do you have much time for playing your guitar anymore? It says on your site, your son seems to enjoy your playing.
John Everson: I actually haven’t done much with keyboards or my guitar (which I just really bang around some bar chords on – I had years of lessons on keys, but am rudimentarily self-taught on guitar). I’d really like to this fall, because the novel I’m finishing up right now is called Siren, and of course, a Siren lures its victims with song. So I’d like to create a kind of “soundtrack” to go with the novel when it debuts. But yeah, my son Shaun is four, and he gets a kick out of a couple simple three-chord pop songs I play on the acoustic guitar. Especially the one I wrote for him that says his name a lot!
FM: How important is your family to your success as a writer?
John Everson: That’s a difficult question to answer. In some ways, not at all, because nobody in my family, including my wife, enjoys horror fiction. So none of my immediate relatives read my stuff. My wife and my dad read Covenant, and let’s just say neither will be reading any of my other novels. Of course, at the same time, I couldn’t go on book tours to promote my novels if my wife wasn’t supportive of my avocation, if not appreciative of its content.
FM: Are you able to write full-time or do you have another job?
John Everson: I have a fairly intensive full-time job, and while the occasional extra checks from fiction sales are nice, and have allowed me over the years to do things like build a small deck on my house, buy a big screen TV or splurge on stacks of DVDs, I don’t see much hope of a future where I’m actually making a living at fiction full-time.
FM: In viewing your website, it seems you have taken to the internet age full steam ahead. You have a blog, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and your site. Do you think it is necessary for authors today to embrace modern technology to help spread the word? And how important is it for you to self promote?
John Everson: I’ve actually been an Internet geek from the start. I created my website in 1996, largely because the newspaper I worked for WASN’T online, and I wanted to have an archive available to the public of my music columns. That site expanded to include my fiction, and eventually split into two completely separate sites (the music archive stuff is at www.popstops.net now). But yes, given the state of culture today, I think it’s mandatory for a writer to have a web presence. People find their reading material as much on the web from their homes at 11 p.m. at night as they do browsing in a bookstore. And let’s face it, bookstores don’t keep the kind of backstock they used to. So increasingly, unless you’re the author of a New York Times level bestseller, you’re going to need to rely on the Internet to be exposed to readers, because you won’t have the shelf space in brick and mortar stores.
FM: How do you think the publishing industry in general is doing in keeping up with new technology and the digital age, and do you think it could be doing something different or better? And what do you think about digital books and do you think you will be releasing any of your work in that format? The Amazon Kindle seems to be quite the rage, but I personally like the feel and smell of a book.
John Everson: I have yet to meet someone who truly says they prefer reading a book on an e-reader as opposed to a piece of bendable paper. I’m sure there are some, but I’d guess it’s a minority. There ARE reasons to use an e-reader and I would presume more people will avail themselves of them. But I’ve been hearing the death knell of print now for 10 years. Will the volume of printed work shrink? Absolutely. Is print dead? No. And I don’t believe it will be in our lifetimes. E-Books and Audiobooks are alternative formats. And I fully support them. I personally can’t support the alternative formats as the MAIN vehicle for release. In my mind, a work is not really published until it has been transmuted into a non-digital format. Leisure Books is issuing its novels in Kindle format, which I think is great. Someone just the other day wrote me to say he’d bought Sacrifice for his Kindle. Frankly though, if e-book was the only vehicle for which the work was available, I’m not sure I’d bother to write. To me, and this is purely a personal, perhaps Luddite view, a book is not a book until it is printed and bound. I’m fine with people videotaping, audiotaping, PDF-ing, Kindling, whatever, ancillary versions of that final BOUND book as derivative products. But I am in this business because I love books, and want to be a part of producing them. And books are more than simply words and a story. They have covers, they are tactile. One review outlet I’m aware of gives them a “smell rating” because paper and ink do generate odor. You can’t get those things from an e-reader.
As far as whether publishing is making the most use of digital vehicles, I suppose that depends on the publisher. To me, to make a work the most successful it can be, it should be available in every possible distribution format. That, of course, takes a lot of resources, and simply isn’t feasible for many.
FM: Do you think books (all genres) are in trouble in this “information right now” driven society we live in? If so what do you think can be done if anything to reverse the tide?
John Everson: I think the horse has left the barn there… books are in trouble not so much because of the digital information-now age as much as because we have lost the ability to jury works. When everybody – literally everybody – can publish a book regardless of any inherent skill or writing talent, it makes it exceptionally difficult for the readers to sift through to find which works are good or not. That’s not to say the New York publishers always choose the most innovative or best work available to publish… but when most books funneled through “a system,” there was some sort of critical eye brought to bear, and a “cleanup machine” of copy editors etc. that helped polish work. Now there is a huge glut of published material. Whereas before, perhaps some really good stuff never got published because of restrictive lists, now there is such a glut of stuff battling for attention that it’s impossible to find the good stuff from amid the piles of bad. With freedom has come anarchy. And the more choices, the lower the profit margins on all titles, as the buying power of the public is spread out further.
FM: To many who have only recently heard of you (You can count me in that category, but thanks to Leisure I was introduced to your work with Covenant) it may seem you are an overnight success, but you have put a lot of years in to get to where you are.
John Everson: That’s true. But honestly, I’m not sorry for that. I think it goes back to the last question. I spent 15 years writing and gaining experience – my first short story magazine appearance was at the start of 1994. I wrote and published scores of short stories in the 90s, some good, some bad… but they all taught me (I think) about how to tell a good story. Getting rejected and learning from it is part of the “school” of writing. If I had simply started self-publishing everything I wrote from day one, I may never have gotten better. I think the version of Covenant that’s on the street now is a helluva lot better of a novel than the one that I started submitting to publishers in 2000 – because they all rejected it. It’s been rewritten a couple times since that first “hey look, I wrote a novel” draft. If I had ignored the rejections I got then and simply self-published it in 2000, the work would never have improved. And it still has flaws. But hopefully I am continuing to learn.
FM: From what I have been able to gather online, you started with short fiction in magazines and anthologies. Was it tough writing your first novel (Covenant) compared to your short fiction?
John Everson: Writing Covenant was one of the hardest, most drawn-out things I’ve ever done. I started the book back in 1994/5 based on an idea someone gave me from a newspaper article (about a cliff in England where people habitually jump to their deaths). My average short story at that point ran about 2,500 words and took me an afternoon to write and polish. When I started writing Covenant, and weeks went by and I had only reached a total of 20,000 words… I lost all confidence that I could finish the thing (the final version of the book was 85,000 words). I shelved the book for a couple years because I just didn’t believe I could ever write enough words to make a novel. I knew the story arc… but the journey to get to the end seemed impossible. Eventually, I obviously took the story up again, and after a couple other hiatuses, I finished a draft in 2000, just after my first short fiction collection was released from Delirium Books. Then I shopped Covenant around (back then it was titled The Cliff) and got a resounding lack of interest. A couple years went by and I did a substantial rewrite on the book, and in the process added about 10,000 words. That’s the version that Delirium published in 2004 and won the Bram Stoker Award the following summer.
FM: Can you take us through the process of what happens when you get an idea for a book or story?
John Everson: It’s really different for everything. There are some stories where I hear or see something and it triggers an image or a question in my mind (“what if that crumpled newspaper lying there on the side of the road actually hides a human foot…?”) Sometimes my subconscious comes up with an answer right away – “oh, well last night, this guy was driving along and…” Other times, I may just be stuck with that image. Something about it is intriguing to me, but I file it away until something else hits to marry it with. Most stories realistically are a composite of different ideas that somehow intersect. For me, that intersection sometimes happens all at once – an interesting image just flashes into a full-blown story arc. Those pieces, I’ll usually want to make time to start writing fairly quickly, or the energy in them may disappear. Other times it may be years before an idea finds the right framework to grow within. And sometimes I’ll forcibly decide – I’m going to MAKE that framework because I like the germ of an idea. Sometimes, the intersection happens naturally, and two years after having this image catch in my head, all of a sudden I just KNOW what the story is. There’s a piece that I wrote for my collection Needles & Sins that I’d waited literally at least five years to write. I never forgot it, I just never felt I was ready to write it. Finally, in the midst of producing that collection, I felt like I could bring the idea to fruition, and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
Anyway, I generally know the beginning and have a decent idea of the ending when I sit down to write. The middle bits are blurrier, and that’s what makes it fun to write – discovering what happens to my lead character between points A and Z.
FM: I know you have probably been asked a million times where you get your ideas but I want to take it in a little different direction. Why do you think you get your ideas? And what happens to them after you get them?
John Everson: I think a lot of my ideas come from personal questions and insecurities and conflicts. For example, I was raised a Catholic, but early on in my life, though I was afraid of what might be in the dark, I also began to doubt the existence of anything that I couldn’t see. So I’m an agnostic, ultimately. But guess what – an awful lot of my stories center around the afterlife, hell, limbo, demons… all things that according to my intellect, I don’t believe in. That’s probably in internal conflict that I’ll never resolve, and thus the conflict between what I was taught and wish was real vs. what I believe is real will keep spinning off stories exploring the idea of an afterlife of some kind.
I think that Catholic upbringing also contributed to very strong perceptions of good and evil, and the frustrating places where ethics are grey. That sort of “if you do bad you’ll be punished” aspect of my childhood is perfect for a horror writer – a genre where stories are often at their core crime and punishment exercises. You are tempted by the bosom of the fair nude maiden and stray from your vows of monogamy… only to discover that said fair nude provocative maiden has vagina dentata. Oops. Shoulda been good. Horror often ends up generating ridiculously overblown treatments of classic morality plays.
FM: When writing a novel do you use an outline, character profiles, or do you just write what comes out, then go back, and fix things later?
John Everson: Until my fourth novel, I never used an outline. I sort of “backwards outlined” – I had a rough idea of how the story would go, I began to write, and then every few chapters I’d take time to summarize what I’d written so far, so that I had a cheat sheet to look back on in later chapters (I have a lousy memory and tend to forget what I’ve already established, and where). I found in Covenant that I was always forgetting characters and names and events, so with Sacrifice and The 13th, I outlined “as I went”. All three novels were fully written before I sold them. When I was midway through writing The 13th, I met with Don D’Auria, my editor at Leisure, and talked him through my high level view of the plot, and he liked it, so I was fairly confident that he would buy it when it was done. He asked for an outline, but since I was so far into it, I went ahead and finished the book before I submitted the formal outline and proposal to him. For Siren, my fourth novel, I really didn’t want to spend months writing again without a firm contract, so for the first time I “did it right” and sat down at the front door of the process and did an extensive outline to submit to Leisure. After that was accepted, and contracted, I began writing. So only my fourth book was fully outlined prior to writing it.
FM: Covenant and Sacrifice are pretty graphic books with some gut-churning scenes. Do you ever think that you went too far in describing a particularly brutal scene? Or think ‘what is my wife and son going to think about this?’
John Everson: I used to worry a lot more about what my wife or friends would think about some of the stuff I wrote… though that never ultimately stopped me from writing the stuff I imagined. I can think of particular scenes in both books that I was definitely squeamish about writing. I’m a pretty pacifistic person, and there are pretty strong scenes of sexually related violence in both novels, as well as in my third book, The 13th, which totally goes over the top.
I don’t feel as if I went too far in any of the descriptions though. I think that you need to strike a balance between scenes that “show it all” and those that only hint at the horror… often the latter prove to me more effective since you engage the reader’s imagination. There’s a scene in The 13th where a woman is holding her infant to her breast and a killer holds a knife to the child… I didn’t go any farther. I think that image says enough, and it would be less effective to add any description of what happened next, actually.
FM: They also contain some very beautiful atmospheric scary scenes to offset the brutal ones, to me anyways. How do you decide when you are writing a particular scene that it should be described in vivid detail or left more to the reader’s imagination?
John Everson: Well, that really is the trick, isn’t it? I don’t have a really good answer for it, sadly. I just… do what feels right to me. Sometimes it feels like the right thing to do at a certain point in the plot energy to tease an image and then walk away without saying anymore. Other times, the scene demands a powerful blow-by-blow description.
FM: Being a horror writer and fan of the macabre, what scares John Everson?
John Everson: Lack of security. At my core, I really just want to live undisturbed and unthreatened in my house and left alone to drink my bourbon and play my music and not have to worry about serial killers and thieves stalking the neighborhood, or losing my job, or bank foreclosures, or unanticipated brain aneurysms…
FM: What words of advice would you give to today’s aspiring authors?
John Everson: Write for yourself first. And if other people like what you do, be glad. But never expect it. And never expect to get rich and famous at it – the publishing industry is too crowded with talented hopefuls and there are only so many slots on the New York Times bestseller list. No matter what the merits of your work are, the external battle to get it seen is far more difficult than the internal struggle to get it written.
FM: Who would you say your biggest influences are?
John Everson: My earliest literary influences were the fiction of Richard Matheson, Roald Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe… The classic macabre writers who always had a good twist to the endings of their stories. Later I’d discover Clive Barker, Stephen King and Anne Rice and really loved what they brought to the genre – they all really created amazing characters and worlds with deep, rich history behind them. More recently, I’ve become a huge fan of Edward Lee’s novels, which to me are the perfect books to read for fun. Lee creates wild, over-the-top scenarios packed with twisted sex, ridiculous amounts of blood and a narrative voice that is just phenomenal. His books are like carnival roller coaster rides – fast, furious and over too fast.
FM: What are your favorite books?
John Everson: I’ve gone through a lot of phases in my reading habits over the years, moving from science fiction to urban fantasy, to horror… Here are a few of my favorite books, many of which I’ve read more than once, in no particular order: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Hal Clement’s Needle, J.T. McIntosh’s World Out of Mind, Clifford Simak’s Way Station, Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel and Pebble in the Sky, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Lucy Taylor’s Close to the Bone, Mehitobel Wilson’s Dangerous Red, Michael Marshall Smith’s More Tomorrow and Other Stories, Charles De Lint’s The Little Country, Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour, Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game and The Great and Secret Show, Stephen King’s Night Shift and The Stand, Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s The Thread That Binds The Bones, P.D. Cacek’s Night Prayers, Edward Lee’s Infernal Angel and Flesh Gothic, Jeffrey Thomas’ Letters from Hades… I suppose I should cut this list off! It could go on and on.
FM: Since this is Famous Monsters of FILMLAND, what are your favorite horror movies?
John Everson: I’m a huge fan of Euro-horror, so even if the movies aren’t great “movies” per se, I tend to enjoy the different “feel” that they evoke – I’ll watch anything by Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava and Jean Rollin again and again. My classics there include Inferno, Phenomenon, Living Dead Girl, Daughters of Darkness, The Beyond …
I love the classic Universal monster movies, especially the bittersweet monster presented in Frankenstein, and as a kid, I never missed a showing of Gammera – I mean, how can you go wrong with a fire-breathing turtle monster in Tokyo?!
I think Alien is perhaps the best monster movie of all time, even though it’s couched as a science fiction film. Halloween, Night of the Living Dead and Psycho are, of course, classics which instill great tension without showing much blood. On the opposite extreme, the recent High Tension, The Ruins and The Descent all had me white-knuckled for most of their play, which is unusual for me (though I took issue with a couple of the endings). I think Dagon, Ginger Snaps and Final Destination are all great modern horror films, for different reasons. For pure campy gory fun, you can’t go wrong with Dead Alive, Fido and Re-Animator. I’ve got literally hundreds of horror DVDs on the shelf, so it’s hard to narrow the list!
FM: What does the future hold for John Everson and can you give us any news on upcoming projects?
John Everson: Necro Books just released a limited signed and numbered hardcover edition of my 3rd novel, The 13th. Leisure will issue the paperback edition of this book at the end of October. Right now, I’m wrapping up the final edits on my fourth novel, Siren, which I’ll turn in to Leisure in September.
On the short fiction front, Necro has also just issued Infernally Yours, a tribute anthology to Edward Lee’s Infernal world books; I was really excited to be able to contribute a piece to it. I’ve also got a short story I’m really proud of coming out in the Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry anthology from Dark Hart, which is supposed to hit the streets this month.
FM: Thank you so much John for taking the time for this interview. I’ll give you the last word.
John Everson: Hopefully, this is not the last, but only the beginning…
Posted by Peter Schwotzer in Interviews, Terror Tales with Peter D. Schwotzer on July 20th, 2009
Famous Monsters is extremely honored and happy to have with us today horror author, comic book author, playwright, and aspiring movie mogul Brian Keene.
Mr. Keene has been a fixture in the world of horror literature since his debut novel “The Rising“, and with good reason. He is a phenomenal writer.
I have been reading Mr. Keene’s books since his second novel “City Of The Dead.” When I first received that book from Dorchester Publishing I found out it was a sequel to his Bram Stoker Award winning first novel “The Rising.” So of course I ran to the store to buy it, I have been a great fan ever since.
It has been stated that Mr. Keene single handedly revived the zombie genre with these two seminal pieces, with much joy to those zombie maniacs that love all things zombie and much gnashing of teeth from critics and zombie haters. You can’t please everyone.
FM: Hi Brian and welcome to Famous Monsters of Filmland. I have been a fan of your writing since “The Rising” and have read just about everything since. My favorite book of yours is definitely “Terminal“. Though it is not a horror novel per say it really was a great book.
Brian Keene: Thanks! I’m happy to be here.
FM: Your career kind of reminds me of Bela Lugosi. He was forever pigeonholed as Dracula with his epic performance in Tod Browning’s masterpiece. You seem to be pigeonholed as “The Zombie Guy” since “The Rising” and “City of the Dead“, as your fans continually clamor for more zombies.
Brian Keene: Yeah, it’s weird. If I’d wanted to, I could have a pretty comfortable life writing nothing but zombie novels. But I don’t want to do that, you know? I’ve got other stories to tell—other monsters that I want to play with.
At the time of this interview, I’m finishing up my twenty-fourth book. Only four of those books have been zombie-related: The Rising trilogy and the stand-alone novel, Dead Sea. But a lot of folks seem to forget about those other twenty books, you know? (laughs)
That’s okay, though. I’m a zombie fan, too. I’m glad I was able to contribute something to other fans—something they seem to enjoy. That’s all that really matters. If one of my books kept someone entertained for a while, then I’ve done my job. Doesn’t matter if I did it with zombies or vampires or werewolves or giant, carnivorous worms. If I got you through study hall or your lunch break or your commute home, then that makes me happy.
FM: I follow your website and blogs and find that you tell it like it is and are very opinionated on what you believe in, which I find refreshing in this go along to get along society we live in today. This country would be a much better place if more people stood up for what they believed in and their convictions. How has how you approach things affected your writing career?
Brian Keene: It’s made things difficult, in the past. Not that writing is easy to begin with. I’m sure it seems that way—all a writer does is sit behind a computer and make up things and then get paid for it. But the reality is a lot tougher. Writing is a business. It’s a job, and just like any other job, you have to treat it as such. So these days, writing for a living and supporting my family on it, I find that I’m biting my tongue a lot more. I don’t say as much publicly as I did in the past.
But at the same time, I still have my convictions. These days, I’m just more prone to keep them to myself, and live by them privately.
FM: As you know Famous Monsters has a new owner, and is branching out into other areas besides our beloved movie monsters. Were you a fan of Famous Monsters and Uncle Forry growing up?
Brian Keene: I was indeed. I discovered the mag in the Seventies. My Dad used to take me to the newsstand with him once a week. He’d buy a paper and some chewing tobacco, and he’d buy me three or four comic books—stuff like Kamandi, The Defenders, and Man-Thing. The newsstand sold Famous Monsters of Filmland, too. The first issue I ever picked up was #139 with that great Star Wars cover. I guess that must have been around 1976 or 1977, right? I was hooked after that.
And keep in mind—that was a transition decade. We didn’t yet have VCRs (and DVD players were still science-fiction pipe dreams) and a lot of the films covered in Famous Monsters were movies that had been in theaters long before my time. It wasn’t like I had easy access to them. But what was cool was this—I’d read about, say The Legend of Hill House or Doctor Phibes, and then write them down on a list. Once a week, I’d cross-reference that list with the TV Guide. Usually, sooner or later, I could find them playing late at night on one of the local stations. The magazine was sort of my IMDB, I guess. (laughs)
FM: You have diversified yourself very much over the years. You now do comics, movies, collaborations, novels, short stories, plays, chap books, digital work, and you also have written something with your wife. How do all these different types of writing affect your approach to your craft?
Brian Keene: They keep me from getting burned out. Maybe that sounds silly. I don’t know. I guess it’s that way with any vocation.
Trying new things, different ways of telling a story, keeps me interested and recharges my creative batteries, so to speak. When you reach a certain level of success in this business, it is very easy to get burned out. Writing becomes like any other job. It’s fun, and you can’t beat the commute, but at the end of the day, it’s still a job. There are times where you’d much rather play with your son or spend some time with your wife or read a book or go fishing—but you have to go to work. You have to finish that book because the bills need paid.
Except you can’t pay those bills because your publishers haven’t sent the royalty check yet. And then you have to stop writing and play collections agent. And you can’t commiserate with your friends about this, because the truth is, you don’t have a lot of friends. Writing is a solitary act, and the other writers who understand what you’re going through? They’re busy writing and trying to pay the bills, as well.
And then, at the end of the day, you go online to check your email and that novel you just busted your ass on for six months? Somebody is online bitching about it because it doesn’t have any zombies in it. (laughs)
I’m whining, aren’t I? Sorry about that. My point is, this job, while easy in some ways, takes a lot out of you. The hours are long and your personal relationships tend to suffer as a result. It’s very easy to get burned out. So you have to find ways to make yourself fall in love with it all over again.
FM: When you started writing did you envision it this way?
Brian Keene: Hell, no. Like everyone else in my generation, I grew up on King and Koontz. I figured you wrote a novel and it got published and they handed you a check for a million dollars. I thought it was that way for everyone. When I was a young man, I figured that F. Paul Wilson and Richard Laymon and David Schow and Joe Lansdale and all these guys must be incredibly wealthy—writing one page a day and then sitting on the deck for the rest of the afternoon, drinking margaritas. Obviously, I wasn’t a very smart young man.
FM: When can we expect to see a Brian Keene feature film? I think your books would translate well into film in the right hands.
Brian Keene: Well, Dark Hollow is in development for a feature film right now, and things are looking very positive. Ghoul and Terminal are both optioned, but seem to be stalled, currently. While not a feature film, The Ties That Bind just came out on DVD.
FM: How was it to write something with your wife and how important is she to your success?
Brian Keene: She is the reason for my success. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the absolute truth. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had a lot of great mentors—authors whom I grew up reading that were willing to lend me a hand or a bit of advice early on. And I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great editors like Don D’Auria of Leisure Books and Shane Ryan Staley of Delirium Books. But my wife is the glue that holds it all together. I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade now, and she’s put up with a lot—going to bed by herself some nights because I’m staring down a deadline, the constant financial uncertainty, staying at home alone some weekends because I’m off at a book signing or a convention, dealing with the occasional crazy or overzealous fan who shows up at our home—she deals with it all, and not once has she asked me to quit. And she could. She certainly could, and I’d do it. But she doesn’t.
FM: You have a young son now. How does he affect your schedules trying to balance quality family time with what keeps the roof over your head and at what age will you let him read your work?
Brian Keene: Schedules went right out the window the day we brought him home from the hospital. Weekdays, I’m still able to write from 7am until around 5pm, but nights and weekends have become a “write five minutes here and ten minutes there” sort of thing.
I’ll let him read my work when he begins to show a genuine interest in it. It was the same with my oldest son. My parents never censored what I read as a kid. They figured if I was old enough to be genuinely curious about it, then I was old enough to read it. I’ve got the same attitude.
FM: How did it come about that you are involved in the horror field? Any particular moments in your life that shaped your love of the darker things in life?
Brian Keene: Again, I’d trace it back to that newsstand. The comics and magazines I gravitated to were the ones with monsters or dark elements. I was very much like the kid in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot—the one with all of the monster toys and models and books. In fact, as a kid, I think he was probably the first fictional character I ever truly identified with.
FM: Is there anyone person in your life that was instrumental in your chosen profession?
Brian Keene: There have been many. Above all others, though, were my parents, my wife, my high school English teacher, and Richard Laymon. All offered encouragement or advice at a certain point in my development. If they hadn’t, I’d probably still be working in a foundry or something.
FM: Since you are responsible for scaring millions of readers, what are you most afraid of?
Brian Keene: Snakes. Growing old. Flying. Cancer.
FM: As our economy continues to struggle and bad news keeps pouring out of the publishing industry are you finding it more difficult to sell your work than say 2-3 years ago?
Brian Keene: Personally, I’m not. However, I know that many, many of my peers are indeed finding it difficult to find markets. I do find it interesting that a number of horror authors, including myself, seem to be branching out into other forms and genres—be it crime novels or comic books or writing video games. Some of that is to avoid burnout, as I mentioned earlier. Some of it is financially driven. But I imagine some of it is also a covering of the bases, so to speak. “Okay, if this publisher goes out of business or slashes their budget, then I’ve still got this going over here.” Writing for a living in this economy is sort of like a juggling act. You keep at least three balls in the air at all times, and if one falls, you’ve still got two more going.
FM: How do you think the publishing industry is adapting to; first, the economy and second this internet, video game, information right now society that we now live in. And do you think there is more they should be doing to attract new readers and keep readers happy?
Brian Keene: Well, the economy is impacting everyone—not just the publishing industry. We’ll come out the other side. People will always want to read. I hear that a lot. “Kids today don’t read. In twenty years, nobody will be reading anymore.” Well, that’s ridiculous. People will always read. They just might not be reading what you think they should be reading—and they might be reading it through a different venue.
I think the future is electronic. I don’t think we’ll ever do away with hard copy books, but I do think this next generation will get most of their information and entertainment, including fiction, via the future incarnation of the internet and portable electronic media devices. We’re already seeing that with Twitter, the iPhone, Kindle, etc.
And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, either. All it means is that, as writers, we have to adapt. Adapt or die, you know? It will certainly keep things interesting.
FM: You have put out some digital work, the most recent being “Dark Hearts” with your wife I believe. You are also offering the sequel to “The Conqueror Worms” free (which is awesome in my opinion) on your site. How has the internet affected you in how your approach your writing projects?
Brian Keene: See above. (laughs)
FM: Who were/are your biggest influences in your writing career?
Brian Keene: My top six are Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Hunter S. Thompson, Steve Gerber, Joe R. Lansdale and Elmore Leonard.
FM: What are your favorite books?
Brian Keene: Let’s do top six again: The Stand by Stephen King, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, Savage by Richard Laymon, The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
FM: Since this is Famous Monsters of Filmland, what are your favorite horror movies?
Brian Keene: Top six, one last time, with feeling. Session 9, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Jacob’s Ladder, Exorcist III, Dawn of the Dead, and the Dawn of the Dead remake.
FM: Your fans are a very loyal bunch and are part of the F.U.K.U, how and why did this come about?
Brian Keene: I don’t know why they are so loyal. All I know is that I appreciate their loyalty more than they will ever know. I wish I could buy each of them a beer, but that would be impractical (not to mention expensive) at this point. The F.U.K.U. itself, which stands for Fan Uv Keene United, started as a goof. Authors Joe Nassise and Drew Williams thought it up. But damned if it didn’t stick. It’s like the KISS Army now. I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty cool. They have their own regional get-togethers and gatherings at various conventions and stuff—usually organized via my message board. I think it’s awesome that my books are allowing folks to meet other people, make new friends, and in at least a half dozen cases, get married.
FM: You seem to take to heart what your fans want you to write and really try to keep them happy. Does this tend to be overwhelming at times?
Brian Keene: Not really. They’re my employer. If they suddenly stopped buying books, I’d suddenly be out of a job. You have to give the people what they want. However, at the same time, I’m not beholden to any and all demands. If that were true, I’d be writing nothing but zombie novels. I think I’ve reached a point with my audience where they trust me to tell them a good story and I trust them to give it a chance. And that’s a rewarding and enriching experience for us both.
FM: In my eyes you are a very prolific writer. Has there been any one book that really gave you trouble?
Brian Keene: Urban Gothic was difficult, in that during the six months I wrote it, the first three were the last three months of my wife’s pregnancy and the last three were the first three months that our newborn was home. I don’t remember writing much of it. That whole time is just a daze of sleep deprivation.
Usually, I’m working on more than one project at a time, so if one does start to give me trouble, I just switch to something else until it passes.
I do have an unfinished novel called Love and Worms. It’s long. Over 100,000 words and still uncompleted. I’ve been working on it off and on for over fifteen years. In truth, I doubt I’ll ever finish it. It was started as a young man’s novel. The main character is an eighteen year old dealing with his first love. Problem is, I no longer remember what it feels like to be eighteen and in love for the first time, so the novel doesn’t really ring true anymore.
FM: What was your favorite book to write?
Brian Keene: The ones that were the most auto-biographical: Ghoul, Dark Hollow, Kill Whitey, and Terminal.
FM: Do you think you have written the book that will define your career or is that something we can look forward to?
Brian Keene: Truthfully, I don’t know if that’s for me to say. The Rising is often credited (along with 28 Days Later) as kick-starting the resurgence of zombies in pop culture. I don’t know if that’s true or not. If it is, then as a fan, I’m grateful and humbled. A lot of people have told me how Ghoul and Dark Hollow effected them personally. Those two seem to resonate with a lot of readers. A book that defines my career? I’d rather let someone else answer that after I’m gone.
FM: All your books have an underlying mythos that ties everything together. Are there plans to elaborate on that or maybe dedicate a series of books to it?
Brian Keene: There are indeed. But those plans are still a year or two off, and every time I talk about them, people get impatient, so I’ll say no more at this time. Suffice to say, readers will dig it, and long-time fans will especially enjoy it.
FM: We’ll close this interview with one final question. What doe the future hold for Brian Keene?
Brian Keene: Five minutes into the future, it holds another cup of coffee. Beyond that… I don’t know. I’ve had an interesting and varied life. I’ll be forty-two in a few months, and if there is one thing life has taught me, it’s that you can’t predict the future. As long as my loved ones are happy and healthy, and the majority of my readers are still enjoying themselves, then I’ll be content with whatever the future brings.
Although I would like one of those personal jet packs and maybe a trip to Mars. Weren’t we supposed to have those by now? This is the future, right?
I’d like to personally thank Brian for taking the time out of his busy schedule for this interview and to wish him well tomorrow.
Here is a link to Brian’s bibliography. It is much too long to publish here.
Posted by dominie in Events, Interviews on June 23rd, 2009
We’ve just updated our TheOfficialFMoF YouTube channel with more videos for your viewing pleasure. From night one at the Egyptian Theatre: Sara Karloff and actress Janet Ann Gallow hold a special Q and A prior to screening Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein, respectively.
Sara Karloff (part 2) shares with us stories regarding her father, their relationship, and her thoughts on the legacy he’s left on the movie world.
Janet Ann Gallow was only five years old when cast for the role of little Cloestine in The Ghost of Frankenstein, but she vividly recalls her experiences on the set, working with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr.
Video production and post by Ash, Constant, Ed, and Turtle.
Posted by Robert Aragon in Events, Interviews, Latest News, Movies, Robert Aragon’s Alley on May 13th, 2009
I heard from my good friend Bela jr yesterday, and Guess what?
He will be joining us at the Egyptian on May 31st for DRACULA night! Bela Lugosi jr and Carla Laemmle will be introducing his Father’s masterpiece of 1931 “DRACULA“. It shall be followed by the last Dracula film in the Universal series “HOUSE OF DRACULA“. That film shall be introduced by none other than Jane Adams, who portrayed the beautiful and sympathetic hunchback, Nina.
Of course, I do not need to inform you of the activities of Saturday May 30th, am I correct? it’s our FRANKENSTEIN night. Strange, but I also heard from Sara Karloff yesterday. In fact I spoke to alot of people yesterday. But, I digress. Sara shall be my first guest in our two day event. She shall introduce the master work of 1939 “SON OF FRANKENSTEIN” and it shall be followed by “THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN“. That film shall be hosted by none other than the monsters little friend, all grown up now, Janet Ann Gallow. This is quickly becoming the monster event I have always dreamt of.
DREAMS DO COME TRUE kiddies.
As always,
hugs and boo!
Robert Aragon
TICKETS FOR THE FAMOUS MONSTERS FILM EVENT
