Robert Kirkman writes some of the best monthly comics on the stands today. Invincible is his take on superheroes. Invincible is Mark Grayson, a young man with flight and super strength. His father is a Superman-like character who told his son that he was part of a plot to take over Earth, chaos then ensued.
However the book that made me fall head over heels in love with Kirkmans writing is The Walking Dead. A real take on what would happen if Romero zombies walked the planet. The story follows a small group of people including their leader Rick, his wife and son. They desperately try to find a safe haven but soon they find that human nature doesnt change even in times of crisis.
Check out the official site for Robert Kirkman
Daniel Robert Epstein: How are you doing today?
Robert Kirkman: Well Id forgotten about your interview until about 15 minutes ago and have been plumb nervous about the whole talking on the phone thing. I hate phone interviews.
DRE: Why?
RK: Well, theres no chance of me making a fool of myself if I do it through email. But you guys always want to do phone interviews.
DRE: I know we do because theyre just more honest.
RK: Thats what Im afraid of.
DRE: Did you say plumb as a joke or is that really part of your vernacular?
RK: No thats actually the first time Ive said it. That was just for you.
DRE: I think this is the first time Ive called someone from Kentucky.
RK: It just seemed right to say that at the time. I might start throwing that into the vocabulary.
DRE: No one says plumb in your books. I dont read the Marvel stuff so maybe Captain America says it.
RK: Well see, Im a good enough writer that not everybody in my books talks exactly like I do.
DRE: Just to let you know, I was the guy who first interviewed Simon Pegg and asked him about your book.
RK: Oh cool.
DRE: I think Rich Johnston picked up on it and told you.
RK: Yeah, Ive actually been talking to Simon Pegg for a while now.
DRE: Simon told me you guys got to be friends or acquaintances at least.
RK: Weve termed it zombuds. Simon is awesome.
DRE: Have you had a chance to meet him in person yet?
RK: No only been email.
DRE: Did he talk to you about doing the Shaun of the Dead comic book adaptation?
RK: No its my understanding that Universal is in control of that and he really has no say. I emailed him and I was like. What the hell man? I wouldnt have been able to do it because of my Marvel contract though.
DRE: Its a pleasure to talk to you. My house is filled with Robert Kirkman books.
RK: You and me both.
DRE: I like Invincible and I really love The Walking Dead. My wife, who doesnt really read many comics, loves The Walking Dead too.
Have you thought about bringing Battle Pope back now that weve got a new pope?
RK: Were doing full color reprints of my Battle Pope series starting in June.
DRE: Thats great. You think controversy will happen this time?
RK: It didnt happen last time so hopefully well get something. I should say that we arent doing this because of the demise of the pope. We had set this in motion almost a year ago. June 2005 is the five year anniversary of the debut of Battle Pope.
DRE: Really? Oh wow I remember when it came out.
RK: Around February I was like, Oh man, I hope that Pope doesnt die.
DRE: So basically Image killed the Pope.
RK: Yeah pretty much. They were like; you know weve got to do something to sell this book.
DRE: You guys need to send the books to some Christian Fundamentalists and see what happens.
RK: The thing is Im not too into getting killed. So just depending on how fundamental they are I wouldnt want them to see the books.
DRE: I always thought if you put Preacher into the hands of the right crazy people the book would become really controversial and popular.
RK: Im all for selling books, but when guys are burning my house down, thats where I draw the line.
DRE: Thats no good.
RK: I just moved into a new neighborhood. Its kind of weird because I never lived in a neighborhood where people would have a cookout and invite everyone on the street. I dont want to talk to my neighbors. They invited us over for something the first week we were there. I was like, oh wow I guess well eat over at your house even though I dont know you. The whole neighborhood was there and they did the whole lets bow our heads and pray, thank the Lord for this wonderful feast he has bestowed upon us. Its very strange to me because I dont know many people that still say grace. If you work at SuicideGirls you shouldnt be saying grace.
DRE: And Im Jewish.
RK: There you go. So apparently I live around a bunch of religious people so Im a little worried about Battle Pope coming out and them finding out about it.
DRE: Did they ask you what you did for a living?
RK: I told them I wrote comics but usually just talk about the Marvel stuff when they ask.
DRE: Thats probably smart.
RK: Im sick of saying, Yeah, I do a book called Battle Pope and then somebody tilting their head and saying Huh?
DRE: I read you got asked about your next project at a urinal during a convention.
RK: Im pretty sure thats happened to me. It wasnt at a urinal because I dont use them but I do think it was in a bathroom. That happens to everyone though.
DRE: I always thought stuff like that was exaggerated. Like maybe it happened once to Jack Kirby twenty years ago.
RK: If youre never at your convention table and someone sees you and have been looking for you the whole day. Theyll pretty much follow you anywhere.
DRE: So you dont use urinals?
RK: Good Lord no.
DRE: Why not?
RK: I just dont believe in them. Im a stall man sir. My dad never set me down and said, son this is how you use a urinal, this is how you avoid splash back. Every time Ive used one its like peeing against a brick wall or something. Its just not wise.
DRE: But you wont wait for the stall if the stalls are all taken.
RK: I will stand and wait for the stall. I will be the awkward guy that looks over and sees three empty urinals with a line behind me. People are behind me are going, whats he doing, whats going on? Im just standing there. People just assume that I have to poop.
DRE: That could be the next plot line in Invincible. Hes very invincible except he wont use a urinal.
RK: Oh come on man, who wants to pee shoulder to shoulder with some stranger? Some of those urinals dont even have the dividing walls. Im not into all that.
DRE: I sometimes wont flush urinals when I dont see soap at the sinks. But I dont like the handles on the toilets either.
RK: Well you can kick the toilet handle.
DRE: Thats true.
RK: Youve got your own private room. If the handicapped bathroom is free its like an apartment in there.
DRE: In heaven every stall is a handicapped stall.
RK: Im telling you; when you find the ones that have their own sinks, paper towel things, their own hand dryers and all that stuff Id never leave. Sometimes I even use those little handrail things and I dont even need them.
DRE: See again, other people have touched them. I try to avoid anything in the world other people have touched. Especially in there.
RK: Weve all got penises man.
DRE: Alright, maybe theyre cleaner in Kentucky.
RK: Yeah, Ive been to New York.
DRE: Have you gotten the chance to visit zombie movie sets or anything like that? Like going to Toronto and meeting George Romero when they were shooting Land of the Dead.
RK: No, I was trying like hell to get onto the set of Land of the Dead and it was just not to be. I kept telling that to Simon Pegg, because he went up there and shot some scenes. I told him to tell them that I would fly myself up and let them do whatever they wanted to me. I was hoping there would be a shortage of guys that were ok with having pig guts thrown on their face or something.
DRE: A lot of people wanted to fly up there.
RK: I figured on that. So that never happened. I was talking to Jen Vuckovic, the editor of Rue Morgue Magazine.
DRE: Shes a member of SuicideGirls.
RK: Oh cool. She said if I flew up there she would try to get me in. But apparently they were checking IDs because they needed Canadians. If I didnt get in I would have had to sit in the car all day so it wasnt worth it.
DRE: That makes perfect sense.
RK: I have been to the Dawn of the Dead mall. Thats the closest Ive been.
DRE: The remake one?
RK: No not the remake one [snort].
DRE: Did you like the remake of Dawn of the Dead?
RK: I liked the remake; its a fantastic movie. I dont see why anybody would think it detracts from the original.
DRE: They kind of squeezed the social commentary out of it but it was still a really good movie.
RK: Im vastly entertained by it.
DRE: I think its probably the best remake there will be of any of these movies that are coming out. I just dont see how its going to be any better than that one.
RK: I think the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead by [Tom] Savini is a really good one. I think its a little better than the new Dawn of the Dead movie. The only problem I have with the new Dawn of the Dead movie is the instantly up and running and tearing through walls zombies.
DRE: Oh the running zombies?
RK: Not the running zombies, just the ones that were tearing through bathroom doors and stuff. I was just expecting them to start throwing cars around and stuff.
DRE: I didnt like how that one guy that was a jerk all of a sudden became very selfless. He was just like Ah fuck it. Lets all be friends.
RK: That was his character arc.
DRE: Yeah his character arc where nothing changed him. Thats great.
RK: Yeah.
DRE: How was the switch from artist Tony Moore to Charlie Adlard for you?
RK: I have trouble writing if I cant picture how things are going to look. So when Im starting a new book, I have artists do a bunch of sketches ahead of the time just so I can have them around. I had a little bit of issue seven left after Tony left the book and I had to write half the book knowing that it wasnt going to be drawn by Tony. That was a little weird because I really couldnt picture how things were going to turn out. But once I started getting pages from Charlie, I think it was a really seamless transition. He does a really good job with the script and the storytelling and I think one of the bonuses of him coming on the book is that Tonys art has a lot of gesture-y, cartoony type stuff in which is really good for the action type stuff. But Charlie is a lot grittier and darker and thats where I want to go with this book. There were some scenes in the first six books, like the campfire scene where everyone turns around and everybodys got Little Orphan Annie eyes. Im glad that stuffs gone.
DRE: A lot of people put social commentary on zombie movies where it may not be there. Do you always put in social commentary?
RK: I am not that deep. I just think, what can these guys do there thats interesting? Im not sitting there trying to make statements and mask my political views. Im just there to entertain people. I just read a letter where somebody went on for like four pages about how like he had heard The Walking Dead was very popular in White Power circles and how there were all kinds of racial undertones. He was curious to see if I had actually put them in the book on purpose. I printed the letter in issue 19 so when it comes out people can read it. I guess people have a lot of time on their hands to overanalyze things.
DRE: I can see where hes coming from a little bit, if you look at it at face value. If you are very stupid and look at it very simplistically, you might be able to say that because of the two black men having sex and one of them may have murdered some white people.
RK: Yeah people say stuff like that but I didnt do it on purpose. The coolest people in every zombie movie have always been the African-Americans. Night of the Living Dead cool black guy, Dawn of the Dead cool black guy, even Day of the Dead cool black guy. Im keeping that alive with Tyrese, I want him to be the coolest tough guy.
DRE: The black guy in Night of the Living Dead was wrong though. They all should have gone to the basement. He really screwed that up. I always thought that was funny. But Romero said that he cast the best actor he could find. It didnt even make a difference that he was black.
RK: He made the movie interesting. Hes the hero.
DRE: Thats true; it would have been a boring movie if he wouldnt.
RK: So were in the basement. There sure is lot of noise coming from that door there. Its funny too, because they had all that wood. They could have built so much reinforcement on that door.
DRE: I started the third Walking Dead trade without reading the first two again. I had a tiny bit of trouble following the characters at first. I went back and reread the first two and then read it again and was able to follow. People are saying that theyre having a little bit of trouble following some of the characters. What do you think about that?
RK: I dont know what to do. I was watching The Shield the other day and they have this recap at the front of every episode when they want you to remember a certain plot point. I was thinking about doing that in the book just to keep it going. But when I see that recap at the beginning of the show I expect that to be part of the story. I want to try to avoid that in my books because I dont want to give away the plot. As far as the trades go, I want to avoid how comics have captions or just really stilted dialogue at the beginning of the pages. The important information you need at the beginning of an issue. Like way they did the old Frank Miller Daredevil issues in the first five pages he always had to state his origins and how he got his powers.
DRE: Oh sure, just by tasting a pretzel he can how many grains of salt are on it.
RK: Exactly, but I do know what the problem is and Im trying to come up with some way of fixing that. But you know what, every time a new trade comes out, just pick up the trades and read them again and youll understand.
DRE: But what about new readers?
RK: Oh, new readers. When I first I picked up a new issue of Spider-Man. I didnt know who Mary Jane was and didnt know how he got his powers. He was fighting the Rhino and I didnt know what was going on but I still liked it and bought the next issue. Then over like 12 issues and I slowly picked up what was going on. Readers should still do that.
DRE: Its different as we get older and it is mostly older people that read comics now. People want to know what the hells going on. But Im glad you thought about it.
RK: Yeah, Im definitely on it. I think Walking Dead is one of the friendliest new reader type books in that every time a new trade is shipped out, a new issue is shipped out at the same time.
DRE: I read in the paper in your home state that you werent really living off the money from the Image books.
RK: That article wasnt completely accurate. It also said I was completely nocturnal, which isnt true. That guy sat down and the first question was like Can you make money off comic books? So the whole interview was geared toward telling people how much money I made.
DRE: Really?
RK: I think the guy wrote for the business/financial section. Last year I think I made more from my Image books than anywhere else. I make a lot more off the trades and Image than Marvel.
DRE: I knew it couldnt have been right, fucking local thing.
RK: The nocturnal thing really bugged me. I just said that I worked late. This guy wrote that I worked at night and slept all day.
DRE: Do Invincible and Walking Dead complement each other for you or is it just two different books?
RK: Well, its two different assistants writing them for me [laughs].
Its two different things. If Im grumpy I sure do enjoy writing The Walking Dead. If Im happy I like writing Invincible. I think Walking Dead is more of a stretch for me because Im a light hearted superhero kind of guy. Butt I dont find it difficult to switch from mode to mode. I like to think that I keep them pretty different.
DRE: From what I read it seems like you want to keep doing the books forever.
RK: Yeah definitely. If I was doing Walking Dead and Invincible ten years from now while doing little stuff on the side, Id be completely happy. I dont have endings planned like Brian K. Vaughan has for Y: The Last man or Garth Ennis had Preacher. If sales are still there and Im still having fun then Im going to keep doing it.
DRE: Could the book keep going on if Rick [the main character in The Walking Dead] died?
RK: Yeah definitely. I will say that Rick will probably die before the end of the book. Ill go ahead and put that in print. Nobodys safe. Ive almost killed him three times already.
DRE: Hes really been losing it in this last trade paperback. He drove all the way back to the original camp just to kill the zombie Shane. How are these guys going to heal themselves mentally?
RK: I cant reveal these things.
DRE: Are they going to meet a shrink or anything?
RK: Theyre just going to go crazy, man. No theyre fine. Theyre not that bad. They dont need a psychiatrist. You know what they say; the crazier they are the more interesting the book is going to be. You dont want a psychiatrist. You want these guys all crazy and nutso and doing weird things.
DRE: Are you going to leap ahead in time or anything like that? Like all of a sudden will it go ahead a couple years or something?
RK: I hate it when books do that. I do have plans for stuff that will happen years down the road and I dont know how easy it is going to be getting there. But youre not going to pick up an issue and read five years later.
DRE: I just thought it would be cool if Ricks kid, Carl would all of a sudden be a little bit older. Do you have character profiles written down for your characters?
RK: I definitely have character arcs in mind for each character unless I kill them. I have things planned for every character like what theyre doing down the road and coming to different realizations but I dont have how they overlap. I have Ricks story but I dont know how it overlaps with Alans story.
DRE: I remember reading about how Preacher was very personal for Garth Ennis. It always seemed like friendship was an important aspect like how a friend may have screwed him or something. How personal did the storyline between Rick and Shane get for you?
RK: Not at all. I know there are a lot of readers that think Ive got a very crappy marriage just because of the things going on with Rick and Lori but theres really nothing thats been like a mirror. Im just making this stuff up.
DRE: Just to talk about Invincible when you basically did the everything you know is wrong with Mark and his father, did you ever hesitate because those stories were at one point so ubiquitous?
RK: When I was developing Invincible I had the pitch written for Image and I was sitting there looking at it on the computer. It was like spaceman comes from outer space to earth and meets this woman and has this kid and he has super powers and eventually trains his son and they work together and they become super heroes and blah, blah, blah. I was looking at it and there was just no hook in it and no extra punch. I wasnt worried about Image accepting the book as it was. I just wanted it to be more interesting and have more of an edge that would make it a more compelling read. I just kind of came up with the idea that at some point he would find out that everything his father had told him was a lie and that he was evil. But apparently that was a clich in the eighties. I didnt know that. I know there were a few people that were like Oh that ruined the book.
But [Marks father] Nolan will eventually be back in the book. Theres still a lot to be done with the Nolan/Mark relationship. People will be shocked when they see where its all going.
DRE: I cant wait to see what happens with the dimension-hopping scientist thats collecting all the versions of himself.
RK: Issue 24 baby!
DRE: I cant wait.
DRE: What Kentucky-ness gets into your books?
RK: What qualifies as Kentucky-ness? Because I take offense to that [laughs]. If youll notice anytime theyre off-panel in Invincible theyre playing a banjo. Everyone likes to sit on their porch in The Walking Dead and theres whiskey stills.
DRE: I just dont know much about Kentucky.
RK: I know that the first issue of Walking Dead takes place in the town where Tony Moore and I grew up and went to high school. So I guess thats a Kentucky-ism. I try to make it sound Kentuckian but I dont like it when they make it sound that way phonetically like it. I try to throw in yalls and stuff like that.
DRE: What are you working on now?
RK: Im doing Invincible, The Walking Dead and Marvel Team-Up.
DRE: Marvel Team-Up must be fun.
RK: Thats a hoot and a holler.
DRE: Do you get to pick everyone that you team up with or is it who they want to introduce?
RK: So far its been all me. But every now and then Ive got to throw Wolverine in. When we put in X-23 that got a big jump so that was pretty cool. Other than that, its been me picking everything.
DRE: Will you pick an issue and do something like put in White Rabbit and Frogman?
RK: Yeah as you will see in issues nine and ten Sleepwalker is on a few pages.
DRE: Are you serious?
RK: Oh yeah. The thing you have to realize about Marvel Team Up is that the cover is there to lie to you. If, for instance, issue nine has Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers on the cover, you may or may not find Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers inside. But if you like Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers youll like this issue. Sleepwalker, Black Cat and Stilt-Man show up in that issue.
DRE: You ought to use more old Daredevil villains like Ramrod.
RK: I will see what I can do. Im trying to use as many obscure people as I can. Theres actually an arc coming up later in the series that I dont want to give too much away on, but its all crappy characters.
DRE: Sweet.
RK: I may even be bringing back Terror Inc and Super Pro.
DRE: I remember Terror Inc.
RK: Yeah man. He was like a zombie who could take other peoples body parts and put them on him.
DRE: I read that, that book made little to no sense.
RK: Hes a cool looking character though.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
However the book that made me fall head over heels in love with Kirkmans writing is The Walking Dead. A real take on what would happen if Romero zombies walked the planet. The story follows a small group of people including their leader Rick, his wife and son. They desperately try to find a safe haven but soon they find that human nature doesnt change even in times of crisis.
Check out the official site for Robert Kirkman
Daniel Robert Epstein: How are you doing today?
Robert Kirkman: Well Id forgotten about your interview until about 15 minutes ago and have been plumb nervous about the whole talking on the phone thing. I hate phone interviews.
DRE: Why?
RK: Well, theres no chance of me making a fool of myself if I do it through email. But you guys always want to do phone interviews.
DRE: I know we do because theyre just more honest.
RK: Thats what Im afraid of.
DRE: Did you say plumb as a joke or is that really part of your vernacular?
RK: No thats actually the first time Ive said it. That was just for you.
DRE: I think this is the first time Ive called someone from Kentucky.
RK: It just seemed right to say that at the time. I might start throwing that into the vocabulary.
DRE: No one says plumb in your books. I dont read the Marvel stuff so maybe Captain America says it.
RK: Well see, Im a good enough writer that not everybody in my books talks exactly like I do.
DRE: Just to let you know, I was the guy who first interviewed Simon Pegg and asked him about your book.
RK: Oh cool.
DRE: I think Rich Johnston picked up on it and told you.
RK: Yeah, Ive actually been talking to Simon Pegg for a while now.
DRE: Simon told me you guys got to be friends or acquaintances at least.
RK: Weve termed it zombuds. Simon is awesome.
DRE: Have you had a chance to meet him in person yet?
RK: No only been email.
DRE: Did he talk to you about doing the Shaun of the Dead comic book adaptation?
RK: No its my understanding that Universal is in control of that and he really has no say. I emailed him and I was like. What the hell man? I wouldnt have been able to do it because of my Marvel contract though.
DRE: Its a pleasure to talk to you. My house is filled with Robert Kirkman books.
RK: You and me both.
DRE: I like Invincible and I really love The Walking Dead. My wife, who doesnt really read many comics, loves The Walking Dead too.
Have you thought about bringing Battle Pope back now that weve got a new pope?
RK: Were doing full color reprints of my Battle Pope series starting in June.
DRE: Thats great. You think controversy will happen this time?
RK: It didnt happen last time so hopefully well get something. I should say that we arent doing this because of the demise of the pope. We had set this in motion almost a year ago. June 2005 is the five year anniversary of the debut of Battle Pope.
DRE: Really? Oh wow I remember when it came out.
RK: Around February I was like, Oh man, I hope that Pope doesnt die.
DRE: So basically Image killed the Pope.
RK: Yeah pretty much. They were like; you know weve got to do something to sell this book.
DRE: You guys need to send the books to some Christian Fundamentalists and see what happens.
RK: The thing is Im not too into getting killed. So just depending on how fundamental they are I wouldnt want them to see the books.
DRE: I always thought if you put Preacher into the hands of the right crazy people the book would become really controversial and popular.
RK: Im all for selling books, but when guys are burning my house down, thats where I draw the line.
DRE: Thats no good.
RK: I just moved into a new neighborhood. Its kind of weird because I never lived in a neighborhood where people would have a cookout and invite everyone on the street. I dont want to talk to my neighbors. They invited us over for something the first week we were there. I was like, oh wow I guess well eat over at your house even though I dont know you. The whole neighborhood was there and they did the whole lets bow our heads and pray, thank the Lord for this wonderful feast he has bestowed upon us. Its very strange to me because I dont know many people that still say grace. If you work at SuicideGirls you shouldnt be saying grace.
DRE: And Im Jewish.
RK: There you go. So apparently I live around a bunch of religious people so Im a little worried about Battle Pope coming out and them finding out about it.
DRE: Did they ask you what you did for a living?
RK: I told them I wrote comics but usually just talk about the Marvel stuff when they ask.
DRE: Thats probably smart.
RK: Im sick of saying, Yeah, I do a book called Battle Pope and then somebody tilting their head and saying Huh?
DRE: I read you got asked about your next project at a urinal during a convention.
RK: Im pretty sure thats happened to me. It wasnt at a urinal because I dont use them but I do think it was in a bathroom. That happens to everyone though.
DRE: I always thought stuff like that was exaggerated. Like maybe it happened once to Jack Kirby twenty years ago.
RK: If youre never at your convention table and someone sees you and have been looking for you the whole day. Theyll pretty much follow you anywhere.
DRE: So you dont use urinals?
RK: Good Lord no.
DRE: Why not?
RK: I just dont believe in them. Im a stall man sir. My dad never set me down and said, son this is how you use a urinal, this is how you avoid splash back. Every time Ive used one its like peeing against a brick wall or something. Its just not wise.
DRE: But you wont wait for the stall if the stalls are all taken.
RK: I will stand and wait for the stall. I will be the awkward guy that looks over and sees three empty urinals with a line behind me. People are behind me are going, whats he doing, whats going on? Im just standing there. People just assume that I have to poop.
DRE: That could be the next plot line in Invincible. Hes very invincible except he wont use a urinal.
RK: Oh come on man, who wants to pee shoulder to shoulder with some stranger? Some of those urinals dont even have the dividing walls. Im not into all that.
DRE: I sometimes wont flush urinals when I dont see soap at the sinks. But I dont like the handles on the toilets either.
RK: Well you can kick the toilet handle.
DRE: Thats true.
RK: Youve got your own private room. If the handicapped bathroom is free its like an apartment in there.
DRE: In heaven every stall is a handicapped stall.
RK: Im telling you; when you find the ones that have their own sinks, paper towel things, their own hand dryers and all that stuff Id never leave. Sometimes I even use those little handrail things and I dont even need them.
DRE: See again, other people have touched them. I try to avoid anything in the world other people have touched. Especially in there.
RK: Weve all got penises man.
DRE: Alright, maybe theyre cleaner in Kentucky.
RK: Yeah, Ive been to New York.
DRE: Have you gotten the chance to visit zombie movie sets or anything like that? Like going to Toronto and meeting George Romero when they were shooting Land of the Dead.
RK: No, I was trying like hell to get onto the set of Land of the Dead and it was just not to be. I kept telling that to Simon Pegg, because he went up there and shot some scenes. I told him to tell them that I would fly myself up and let them do whatever they wanted to me. I was hoping there would be a shortage of guys that were ok with having pig guts thrown on their face or something.
DRE: A lot of people wanted to fly up there.
RK: I figured on that. So that never happened. I was talking to Jen Vuckovic, the editor of Rue Morgue Magazine.
DRE: Shes a member of SuicideGirls.
RK: Oh cool. She said if I flew up there she would try to get me in. But apparently they were checking IDs because they needed Canadians. If I didnt get in I would have had to sit in the car all day so it wasnt worth it.
DRE: That makes perfect sense.
RK: I have been to the Dawn of the Dead mall. Thats the closest Ive been.
DRE: The remake one?
RK: No not the remake one [snort].
DRE: Did you like the remake of Dawn of the Dead?
RK: I liked the remake; its a fantastic movie. I dont see why anybody would think it detracts from the original.
DRE: They kind of squeezed the social commentary out of it but it was still a really good movie.
RK: Im vastly entertained by it.
DRE: I think its probably the best remake there will be of any of these movies that are coming out. I just dont see how its going to be any better than that one.
RK: I think the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead by [Tom] Savini is a really good one. I think its a little better than the new Dawn of the Dead movie. The only problem I have with the new Dawn of the Dead movie is the instantly up and running and tearing through walls zombies.
DRE: Oh the running zombies?
RK: Not the running zombies, just the ones that were tearing through bathroom doors and stuff. I was just expecting them to start throwing cars around and stuff.
DRE: I didnt like how that one guy that was a jerk all of a sudden became very selfless. He was just like Ah fuck it. Lets all be friends.
RK: That was his character arc.
DRE: Yeah his character arc where nothing changed him. Thats great.
RK: Yeah.
DRE: How was the switch from artist Tony Moore to Charlie Adlard for you?
RK: I have trouble writing if I cant picture how things are going to look. So when Im starting a new book, I have artists do a bunch of sketches ahead of the time just so I can have them around. I had a little bit of issue seven left after Tony left the book and I had to write half the book knowing that it wasnt going to be drawn by Tony. That was a little weird because I really couldnt picture how things were going to turn out. But once I started getting pages from Charlie, I think it was a really seamless transition. He does a really good job with the script and the storytelling and I think one of the bonuses of him coming on the book is that Tonys art has a lot of gesture-y, cartoony type stuff in which is really good for the action type stuff. But Charlie is a lot grittier and darker and thats where I want to go with this book. There were some scenes in the first six books, like the campfire scene where everyone turns around and everybodys got Little Orphan Annie eyes. Im glad that stuffs gone.
DRE: A lot of people put social commentary on zombie movies where it may not be there. Do you always put in social commentary?
RK: I am not that deep. I just think, what can these guys do there thats interesting? Im not sitting there trying to make statements and mask my political views. Im just there to entertain people. I just read a letter where somebody went on for like four pages about how like he had heard The Walking Dead was very popular in White Power circles and how there were all kinds of racial undertones. He was curious to see if I had actually put them in the book on purpose. I printed the letter in issue 19 so when it comes out people can read it. I guess people have a lot of time on their hands to overanalyze things.
DRE: I can see where hes coming from a little bit, if you look at it at face value. If you are very stupid and look at it very simplistically, you might be able to say that because of the two black men having sex and one of them may have murdered some white people.
RK: Yeah people say stuff like that but I didnt do it on purpose. The coolest people in every zombie movie have always been the African-Americans. Night of the Living Dead cool black guy, Dawn of the Dead cool black guy, even Day of the Dead cool black guy. Im keeping that alive with Tyrese, I want him to be the coolest tough guy.
DRE: The black guy in Night of the Living Dead was wrong though. They all should have gone to the basement. He really screwed that up. I always thought that was funny. But Romero said that he cast the best actor he could find. It didnt even make a difference that he was black.
RK: He made the movie interesting. Hes the hero.
DRE: Thats true; it would have been a boring movie if he wouldnt.
RK: So were in the basement. There sure is lot of noise coming from that door there. Its funny too, because they had all that wood. They could have built so much reinforcement on that door.
DRE: I started the third Walking Dead trade without reading the first two again. I had a tiny bit of trouble following the characters at first. I went back and reread the first two and then read it again and was able to follow. People are saying that theyre having a little bit of trouble following some of the characters. What do you think about that?
RK: I dont know what to do. I was watching The Shield the other day and they have this recap at the front of every episode when they want you to remember a certain plot point. I was thinking about doing that in the book just to keep it going. But when I see that recap at the beginning of the show I expect that to be part of the story. I want to try to avoid that in my books because I dont want to give away the plot. As far as the trades go, I want to avoid how comics have captions or just really stilted dialogue at the beginning of the pages. The important information you need at the beginning of an issue. Like way they did the old Frank Miller Daredevil issues in the first five pages he always had to state his origins and how he got his powers.
DRE: Oh sure, just by tasting a pretzel he can how many grains of salt are on it.
RK: Exactly, but I do know what the problem is and Im trying to come up with some way of fixing that. But you know what, every time a new trade comes out, just pick up the trades and read them again and youll understand.
DRE: But what about new readers?
RK: Oh, new readers. When I first I picked up a new issue of Spider-Man. I didnt know who Mary Jane was and didnt know how he got his powers. He was fighting the Rhino and I didnt know what was going on but I still liked it and bought the next issue. Then over like 12 issues and I slowly picked up what was going on. Readers should still do that.
DRE: Its different as we get older and it is mostly older people that read comics now. People want to know what the hells going on. But Im glad you thought about it.
RK: Yeah, Im definitely on it. I think Walking Dead is one of the friendliest new reader type books in that every time a new trade is shipped out, a new issue is shipped out at the same time.
DRE: I read in the paper in your home state that you werent really living off the money from the Image books.
RK: That article wasnt completely accurate. It also said I was completely nocturnal, which isnt true. That guy sat down and the first question was like Can you make money off comic books? So the whole interview was geared toward telling people how much money I made.
DRE: Really?
RK: I think the guy wrote for the business/financial section. Last year I think I made more from my Image books than anywhere else. I make a lot more off the trades and Image than Marvel.
DRE: I knew it couldnt have been right, fucking local thing.
RK: The nocturnal thing really bugged me. I just said that I worked late. This guy wrote that I worked at night and slept all day.
DRE: Do Invincible and Walking Dead complement each other for you or is it just two different books?
RK: Well, its two different assistants writing them for me [laughs].
Its two different things. If Im grumpy I sure do enjoy writing The Walking Dead. If Im happy I like writing Invincible. I think Walking Dead is more of a stretch for me because Im a light hearted superhero kind of guy. Butt I dont find it difficult to switch from mode to mode. I like to think that I keep them pretty different.
DRE: From what I read it seems like you want to keep doing the books forever.
RK: Yeah definitely. If I was doing Walking Dead and Invincible ten years from now while doing little stuff on the side, Id be completely happy. I dont have endings planned like Brian K. Vaughan has for Y: The Last man or Garth Ennis had Preacher. If sales are still there and Im still having fun then Im going to keep doing it.
DRE: Could the book keep going on if Rick [the main character in The Walking Dead] died?
RK: Yeah definitely. I will say that Rick will probably die before the end of the book. Ill go ahead and put that in print. Nobodys safe. Ive almost killed him three times already.
DRE: Hes really been losing it in this last trade paperback. He drove all the way back to the original camp just to kill the zombie Shane. How are these guys going to heal themselves mentally?
RK: I cant reveal these things.
DRE: Are they going to meet a shrink or anything?
RK: Theyre just going to go crazy, man. No theyre fine. Theyre not that bad. They dont need a psychiatrist. You know what they say; the crazier they are the more interesting the book is going to be. You dont want a psychiatrist. You want these guys all crazy and nutso and doing weird things.
DRE: Are you going to leap ahead in time or anything like that? Like all of a sudden will it go ahead a couple years or something?
RK: I hate it when books do that. I do have plans for stuff that will happen years down the road and I dont know how easy it is going to be getting there. But youre not going to pick up an issue and read five years later.
DRE: I just thought it would be cool if Ricks kid, Carl would all of a sudden be a little bit older. Do you have character profiles written down for your characters?
RK: I definitely have character arcs in mind for each character unless I kill them. I have things planned for every character like what theyre doing down the road and coming to different realizations but I dont have how they overlap. I have Ricks story but I dont know how it overlaps with Alans story.
DRE: I remember reading about how Preacher was very personal for Garth Ennis. It always seemed like friendship was an important aspect like how a friend may have screwed him or something. How personal did the storyline between Rick and Shane get for you?
RK: Not at all. I know there are a lot of readers that think Ive got a very crappy marriage just because of the things going on with Rick and Lori but theres really nothing thats been like a mirror. Im just making this stuff up.
DRE: Just to talk about Invincible when you basically did the everything you know is wrong with Mark and his father, did you ever hesitate because those stories were at one point so ubiquitous?
RK: When I was developing Invincible I had the pitch written for Image and I was sitting there looking at it on the computer. It was like spaceman comes from outer space to earth and meets this woman and has this kid and he has super powers and eventually trains his son and they work together and they become super heroes and blah, blah, blah. I was looking at it and there was just no hook in it and no extra punch. I wasnt worried about Image accepting the book as it was. I just wanted it to be more interesting and have more of an edge that would make it a more compelling read. I just kind of came up with the idea that at some point he would find out that everything his father had told him was a lie and that he was evil. But apparently that was a clich in the eighties. I didnt know that. I know there were a few people that were like Oh that ruined the book.
But [Marks father] Nolan will eventually be back in the book. Theres still a lot to be done with the Nolan/Mark relationship. People will be shocked when they see where its all going.
DRE: I cant wait to see what happens with the dimension-hopping scientist thats collecting all the versions of himself.
RK: Issue 24 baby!
DRE: I cant wait.
DRE: What Kentucky-ness gets into your books?
RK: What qualifies as Kentucky-ness? Because I take offense to that [laughs]. If youll notice anytime theyre off-panel in Invincible theyre playing a banjo. Everyone likes to sit on their porch in The Walking Dead and theres whiskey stills.
DRE: I just dont know much about Kentucky.
RK: I know that the first issue of Walking Dead takes place in the town where Tony Moore and I grew up and went to high school. So I guess thats a Kentucky-ism. I try to make it sound Kentuckian but I dont like it when they make it sound that way phonetically like it. I try to throw in yalls and stuff like that.
DRE: What are you working on now?
RK: Im doing Invincible, The Walking Dead and Marvel Team-Up.
DRE: Marvel Team-Up must be fun.
RK: Thats a hoot and a holler.
DRE: Do you get to pick everyone that you team up with or is it who they want to introduce?
RK: So far its been all me. But every now and then Ive got to throw Wolverine in. When we put in X-23 that got a big jump so that was pretty cool. Other than that, its been me picking everything.
DRE: Will you pick an issue and do something like put in White Rabbit and Frogman?
RK: Yeah as you will see in issues nine and ten Sleepwalker is on a few pages.
DRE: Are you serious?
RK: Oh yeah. The thing you have to realize about Marvel Team Up is that the cover is there to lie to you. If, for instance, issue nine has Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers on the cover, you may or may not find Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers inside. But if you like Daredevil and Luke Cage eating hamburgers youll like this issue. Sleepwalker, Black Cat and Stilt-Man show up in that issue.
DRE: You ought to use more old Daredevil villains like Ramrod.
RK: I will see what I can do. Im trying to use as many obscure people as I can. Theres actually an arc coming up later in the series that I dont want to give too much away on, but its all crappy characters.
DRE: Sweet.
RK: I may even be bringing back Terror Inc and Super Pro.
DRE: I remember Terror Inc.
RK: Yeah man. He was like a zombie who could take other peoples body parts and put them on him.
DRE: I read that, that book made little to no sense.
RK: Hes a cool looking character though.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 16 of 16 COMMENTS
AndersWolleck said:
give him a fruit basket at SDCC!!!
Yeah, but see, that doesn't count, because I'd just be saying something like, "Hey, does anyone want this last plum?"
EricStephenson said:
AndersWolleck said:
give him a fruit basket at SDCC!!!
Yeah, but see, that doesn't count, because I'd just be saying something like, "Hey, does anyone want this last plum?"
Come on. Like anyone eats fruit at San Diego.