During my time and tenure at ZomBcon I got to interview some cool people about zombies, this one just happened to be local. The following was an interview with Mark Rahner about the zombie political western Rotten:
Single Bullet Theory: Rotten
has not been at all shy when it comes to expressing its opinions on modern day
politics from Terry Schivo to pedophilic priests, even Wade's own disgruntled
remarks about Hayes mirroring the same sentiments as peoples reaction to George
W Bush being re-elected... so I'm curious, what else will be mirrored in the
story?
The distinguished Mark Rahner
Mark Rahner: We’re certainly not in any danger of running out of
material these days. My god, the freaks have really been coming out like
debutants lately. But I should point out that nobody buys a comic to read an
editorial. Rotten is first and foremost horror and action, played very
straight, and we hope, unsettling.
Having said that, our character Father von Becker
in issues 10 and 11 was a lot of fun to write, as he bears a striking
resemblance to a certain despicable former Fox News personality. And he’s a
full-fledged character instead of the cameos by, say, the zombie Palins in
issue 7 who got what they deserved in a very cathartic way.
Indeed!
How did
JJ and Wade come to meet in the first place?
They were officers in the Civil War. We’ll delve
more into their past and why Wade hates the Army so intensely in future issues.
Although getting reconscripted after 12 years as a civilian after the war would
piss off anyone. Flynn, on the other hand, is a career officer, slightly older
and less fulminating with rage than Wade. He’s more willing to work the system.
The two men hadn’t seen each other for a long time when they meet in the first
issue, but they’re like brothers.
Whats
the backstory with Wade's hat?
On one level, it’s simply one of the only
indulgences that he allows himself. It’s not that Wade’s necessarily an austere
guy, but he’s extraordinarily disciplined and he’s used to having everything
taken away from him. And it’s a damn fine hat. But you’re picking up some other
breadcrumbs we’ve left, and yes: there’s more to the hat. Keep watching.
Pale rider Aubrey, the 'White Man who brings death'
When are
we going to find out more about Aubrey, the 'White Man who brings death'?
Things are going to pick up with Aubrey faster now.
He’s been very enigmatic and a little scary so far. Then he closes out the 11th
issue with a WTF moment that’ll continue to play out as we go. The series was
always planned to pick up steam slowly at first and then grab you exactly like
an HBO series, and Aubrey’s part of that. Unfortunately, the sporadic
publishing schedule has made gratification even more delayed than we intended.
If you think you know Aubrey’s deal, you don’t. He’s not a simple bad guy and
he’s more than just an adversary.
Will
President Hayes appear in person as a character?
I am forbidden to reveal that under pain of being
renditioned, water-boarded and forced to wear a diaper for no less than one
month.
What about two months in a cloth adult diaper held together with an oversized
safety pin and being waterboarded by Sarah Palin who talks incessantly about
being a maverick every time you come up for air?
If you could just add Rick Santorum talking about
gay people, I’d pray for a quick death. Whether or not you see Hayes, he’s always a presence in the story.
Wade’s hatred of him and his corruption never fades.
Moving onto favorites: What's
your favorite zombie movie?
There are a lot of good ones, and a whole lot more
bad ones. But I always go back to the three that really got me going. “Dawn of
the Dead,” “Night of the Living Dead” and Lucio Fulci’s “Zombie, which I saw in
that order. Each one made an impact and was genuinely disturbing. Everything
after them is a copy.
How
about western?
Good lord, there are so many. We make a point of
not making Rotten something just based on movies we’ve seen, and we don’t want
it to be a Tarantino-like pastiche – even though I like Tarantino. But I have
asked Dougherty to, for instance, check out Sergio Corbucci’s “The Great
Silence” for its striking, unusual snowbound look when he drew the “Frost Bite”
story. And Spaghetti Western buffs will notice I’m a fan of the eye-close-up
shot.
Anyhow, I’ll throw out some of my favorite titles,
in no order: “Django,” also by Corbucci, anything by Sergio Leone except for
maybe “Duck, You Sucker.” “The Searchers,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “High
Plains Drifter,” anything by Sam Peckinpah, particularly “The Wild Bunch” and
“Ride the High Country,” and Budd Boetticher’s masterful little movies with
Randolph Scott.
[Authors note: The next line of questions was going to be a recurring theme I wrote about entitled Dead in 60 Seconds, putting someone in a situation with 60 seconds between defending themselves and the jaws of death] So did you
ever come up with a zombie plan? I know I bugged you about this once upon a time at Crypticon
Seattle once already. Would you try and get out of the city or would you stay and fortify
your place to make a stand?
Barricade myself inside a liquor store.
Okay so
since you've chosen to barricade yourself in a liquor store:
What
label do you drink first just to get rid of it? Which bottles do you save for
last?
For
defense: do you bust heads with the bottles Old West bar-brawl style or use
molotovs to make zombie flambe and risk immolation?
You’re really not letting this go, are you? First
of all, we don’t waste perfectly good alcohol, despite what you saw in Rotten
No. 6. Second, don’t you think there are scarier things to plan for at the
moment? What’s your teabagger defense plan?
What's
your opinion on comic books being downloadable now? Is print actually dead?
Everyone in comics is still trying to figure that one out, but coming
from a career in the newspaper industry, I think I can tell you what not to do
with online material and the decline of print: everything newspapers have done.
Anyhow, my opinion’s evolving like everyone else’s. Right now, I’m
thinking that it would work for digital comics to be cheap so people can just
read ‘em, and there’s still the floppies if you want to collect and cherish and
stroke them. That sounded kind of repulsive, didn’t it?
Only if you wanted it to! Can you
give any details on Robert Horton's recent transcription of The Lost Diaryof John J. Flynn?
Yeah, it’s an all-prose book by Wade’s partner that
serves as a kind of prequel to the events in issue 1. Horton’s “transcriptions”
are very creepy and wryly funny. Do not miss this book. You’ll love it.
How did
you get your start in writing?
Jeez, I’ve been writing practically since I was in
diapers, and will until I’m in them again. Had a humor column in my high school
paper, the whole nine yards. As far as making my living as a writer, I started
doing movie reviews for a paper in Indiana while I was working on a PhD. at
Purdue and doing a radio show. One day, they asked me if I wanted to work at
the paper full-time – and if I could pass the drug test. And here we are.
You're
obviously a very busy man, aside from Rotten what other titles are you
working on presently?
I’ve got a Green Hornet annual coming out from
Dynamite – here’s the link:
He goes berserk! I’m also working on a “Warlord of
Mars” annual for them, which I’m planning to be just as over-the-top violent.
Any
chance of Rotten being opted for a TV series?
There’s been talk about that from the beginning,
but I’ve learned not to uncork the champagne until Something is actually in
progress. But it would make a damn fine show, don’t you think?
I would certainly think so! PS: One final question: Is
the term 'revenant' a subtle nod to our mutual friend Geoff Bough?
No, “revenant” came about a long time ago and much differently for us. We
figured that in the 1870s, nobody would see someone raised from the dead and
call it a zombie. They aren’t really zombies anyhow – we’ve got a Hatian
storyline coming up in the future that features some of those. If we were truly
wiping the slate clean, people wouldn’t know what to call the things. It would
be beyond their frame of reference. They’d be freaking the hell out and turning
to religion – like some of our dumber citizens have been doing since 9/11. And
that’s where the term comes from. It annoys Wade, because he has zero patience
with religious nonsense.
To conclude, an awesome piece of video and song by Fever Ray "Keep the Streets Empty For Me"... we'll follow the man in black across the desert next time in the 3rd installment of When The West Was Dead
Greeting boils and goils, creeps and creatures of the night, welcome to the first installment of a series I once had an idea for but never saw to fruition. When the West goes dead basically, the first installment comes complete with an interview with author and writer Rick Spears.
Welcome to Lazarus, a small blooming town in the Old West. Don't
expect to live long if you visit it though, the town's under a curse.
"In this town nothing stays dead for long..."
Many years
ago there was a tribe of Native Americans living where Lazarus now
stands. Everything was peaceful until one day, the white man came to
lay claim the land as their own. The Chief believes there is no way
one can "own" the land. The white men return to wipe them
all out and kill all but one, the Chief's son. With his dying words
the chief tells him to remember what took place that day.
The son
kept his promise and years after it had all been forgotten he
unleashes an ancient curse in the cemetery by taking his own life
thus bringing the dead back to life, just like old biblical Lazarus
himself.
A tall steely-eyed bounty hunter chases his mark across
the desert and into the town not knowing the danger the lies in wait.
As a result he's drawn into a Mexican standoff between his fat
mustachioed bounty who has sought refuge with a sherriff who doesn't
take kindly to bounty hunters in his town and the entire undead
population of Lazarus led by the Chief's son who is on a personal
vendetta of his own to avenge his tribe and honor their memory.
The Man With No Name faces off against the living dead
Fans of the spaghetti western and classic zombie films need to
head no further than Dead West. Dead West was written
by Rick Spears and illustrated by Rob G. Single Bullet Theory got a chance to talk with Rick Spears, author of Dead West some time ago but now it is being unearthed for your reading pleasure:
Single Bullet Theory: I loved the story, to me it played out like a Sergio Leone film
if directed by George Romero. This was one of the first times I'd
ever seen the old west turn into something out of a Saturday night
horror movie, where did you draw your inspiration for the story?
Rick Spears: Yeah, Rob and I are huge Leone and Romero fans. We had just
finished our first comic series Teenagers From Mars and were
tossing around ideas for a new project. i can't remember who said it
first but doing a Zombie Western popped up and it just sounded like
too much fun not to do. We talked a lot about style and tone with
Leone and Romero as guideposts and then just went for it. Being fans of the spaghetti western were you fans of Italian
zombie movies like Lucio Fulci's Zombie?
I'm a big fan of everything Fulci! The zombie shark fight is one
of the greatest scenes of all time! I love his horror, westerns,
and giallo films. The Beyond and Zombi and Four of
the Apocalypse are my favs.
The characters bear striking resemblance to a certain blonde
and a certain ugly fellow, was this coincidence? No, we were pretty blatant about our character influences.
And the sheriff?
The Sheriff was more of an evil Henry Fonda ala Once Upon a
Time in the West. How d'ya think the Duke woulda handled things had he rode into
the town of Lazarus instead of Blondie? D'ya think ol Rooster woulda
fared better or worse?
Well the Duke has his own style but ultimately the result would be
the same...lot's of spilled brains! What sort of movies did you grow up on as a kid?
I grew up with HBO playing all sorts of awesome movies late night.
Then every weekend was all about riding bikes to the video store and
haunting the racks in search of the goriest trash we could find. So
yeah, lots of horror, slashers, zombies, euro stuff... I love the
Universal monsters too. Can't wait to see those on Blu-Ray! Which of the Universal Monsters was your favorite? I was always
a Creature from the Black Lagoon kind of guy when I wasn't
watching monsters destroying Tokyo. Man, that's really a hard one. The Creature was always cool
because he was so original. But in all honestly it was love at first
sight with Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Most of the Universal Monsters have a certain tragedy about
them: Dracula lost his love, King Kong was brought out of his world
and into ours and Frankenstein was created out of dead tissue. Even
Godzilla was the mistaken product of nuclear testing. In your opinion
do zombies have this kind of tragedy to them as well, or do we view
them as we would a shark (just an unsympathetic killing machine born
and bred)? I think zombies have (or should have) a lot of tragedy in them.
For me, Dawn of the Dead played it best with the zombies
stumbling around the mall. "We" are what become zombies,
mindless flesh just going through the motions. Being eaten alive is a
primal fear but so is the fear that you could loose our humanity, or
individuality and become just a mindless part of the mass, just a
consumer. When played up in a zombie story that always resonates with
me. Getting eaten alive hopefully will never happen but we all could
very easily become just a worker drone mindlessly going about our
life, just another tax paying, product consuming, cog in the machine.
For me that's a terrifying tragedy.
When it comes to mixing genres, did you ever see Red Sun
with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune? Would you consider throwing
a samurai and adding a dose of Kurosawa into the mix for a potential
sequel?
Red Sun, holy hell, I've never seen it. Just watched the
trailer on YouTube and it
looks amazing. I'll have to track it down. Yeah, Samurai and westerns
have a real nature overlap. I mean A Fist Full of Dollars was
basically a remake of Yojimbo. We looked at a lot of Blade
of the Immortal comics as we were doing Dead West and that
is something I'm sure we would explore in a sequel.
Are there any plans for a sequel?
Rob and I have batted around a couple of ideas, but we're only
interested in doing a sequel if we can really bring something fresh
to the table. We're not interested in repeating ourselves. We'll see. Do you and Rob have a Z-Day plan? Rob is half zombie
already so he'd probably just blend right in. I may have a shotgun
and a "go bag" at the ready but that's all I'm saying.
Loose lips sink ships.
We'll check ya'll later on the trail when the riding gets rough and Rotten with Mark Rahner.
