Horror Reanimated… the home of Bloody Books

Suzi Lorraine on WON TON BABY by Alan Kelly

Won Ton Baby is nothing if not a pertinent reminder that we should never reproduce; that anyone under four feet should be shackled to a wall with a cast-iron chain and their putrescent little bodies wrapped in razor wire – The Bad Seed, carrion-eating brats, caged here in The 9th Circle of Horror Reanimated would pose less of a threat than Suzi Lorraine’s Baby Won Ton. But enough about my neighbourhood; Baby Won Ton makes the kids in my neighbourhood look like ponies! Warm milk will never pass Baby Won Ton’s lips; he is more interested in making couture out of your entrails, that is, after he has choked you with his umbilical cord.

 
Suzi Lorraine first came to my attention when I picked up a copy of the horror magazine Gorezone, which was, at that time only a demented little fledgling. Her column Diary of a Scream Queen was the reason I began picking it up and it has since grown in popularity with sales of up to 90,000 issues sold per month. I can’t help but feel Suzi had a large part to play in the success of this rag. With over 40 films under her belt, most of which are in the horror genre, her acting career has allowed her to travel all over the world, filming in Italy, Canada, London, Germany, Argentina, Amsterdam, and the British Virgin Islands. She also co-hosted The Gorezone Film Festival in London last October and was honoured by fans in Torino, Italy during ‘Suzi Lorraine Night’ at the Empire Theatre with several of her films being screened that night as part of a Suzi film retrospective. Some of the films Suzi appeared in are Claang: The Game, Sea of Dust and Bikini Girls on Ice. Won Ton… sees her working both in front and behind the camera.

 
Suzi created the story idea for (and co-produced) Won Ton Baby, collaborating with James Morgart to develop the script. Together they’ve created a fusion of comedy and horror; a riotous celebration of the perverse, the ghoulish and the zany all done in spectacular bad taste. Suzi was kind enough to brave an interview with me – she is, after all currently devising sadistic torture techniques for serial killers in Hell – and answers all my questions with great honesty. For those who want to know more, read on….

 
Alan Kelly: Hello Suzi, welcome to Horror Reanimated. Could you tell me a bit about what first inspired Won Ton Baby?

 
Suzi Lorraine: Thanks! I’m thrilled to be here at Horror Reanimated. Couldn’t think of a better place to dwell, for a spell….
 
The idea of “Won Ton Baby!” was conjured up by yours truly about 3 years ago, when I was working on a short horror film. I was playing a maid, and the director had decided on a whim that he wanted my character to speak with a “sexy accent”. So being a goofball, I decided to start speaking with a broken Chinese accent. It amused everyone on set, and I said to everyone, “one day I’m going to make a film where I keep a quirky Asian accent throughout the entire movie”. During the same film shoot, my stomach was rumbling during one of the takes, and we started joking around about me spawning a devil baby who is also Asian. One joke led to another, and the idea of “Won Ton Baby!” was “born”.
 
I further fleshed out the idea, and drew heavy inspiration from my love of 80s killer baby movies such as “It’s Alive”, “Basket Case”, and “Child’s Play”. I wanted “Won Ton Baby!” to have the same campy, tongue in cheek vibe as these movies I grew up with and loved so much.  I’m a huge fan of blending horror with black comedy.  I was also tired of the rampant CGI that is prevalent in so many films nowadays, and I wanted to go back to basics - rather than special effects, our sfx team created a devil baby made from silicone that could be puppeteered. We still have the handsome little devil, although he’s slightly the worse for wear after all of his adventures in the movie.

AK: I think humour in horror is absent nowadays. Earlier I read that Marilyn Manson is to star in a retro slasher flick called Splatter Sisters, which was described as “sexploitation-serial-killer-movie circa 1989″. Do you think horror has had its funny bone ripped out? I ask this because Won Ton Baby is hilariously OTT and you have a flair for comedy (ala Goldie Hawn, the dipsy, cute, sexy and smart character) - I watched The Human Centipede recently and it was so unrelentingly bleak, it actually left a nasty taste in my mouth (no pun intended) - do you believe horror needs to be less…nihilistic?
 
SL: I know what you mean! The vast majority of new horror movies today are straight up and serious as hell! Even more serious than Tiger Wood’s obsession with hookers. These kind of movies certainly have their place, and are the backbone of the horror industry. However, for my particular odd tastes and offbeat strangeness, there are just not enough horror films with levity. I’m so grateful to directors like Sam Raimi, who is keeping the horror/comedy torch well lit. I was quite taken by “Drag me To Hell”. I’ve always been a fan of Raimi’s, and any true horror fan knows the Evil Dead series are classics!
 
As an actor and as a writer, I have to say I’m most in my element when I’m writing something that is off colour and amusing. Plus, let me tell you, it’s much more fun to make a horror/comedy than to make a horror film. More jokes and humor, less blood and anguish. Thanks so much for the kind words about my character in “Won Ton Baby!”. Do you know, it took me over a week to kick that accent after filming?
 
You know, I can’t believe the buzz that “Human Centipede” is getting! I heard about it only a few weeks ago from a friend who was quite taken with the err…. unusual…. premise of the film. And just a couple weeks later, you must be the 6th or 7th person that’s mentioned it to me. I have got to watch this. It goes to show you how important word of mouth is, and how quickly buzz can spread, particularly in the viral video/internet obsessed society we live in.

AK: Did the Won Ton crew face many challenges to get the film completed, where you all working to meet a specific deadline - what problems did you find yourself up against, both in pre/post production?

SL: Our biggest challenge was that Baby Won Ton kept sneaking off to smoke weed and flirt with the extras. 
 
Besides that, the time constraints were the biggest issue.  For a few of the locations, mainly the restaurants, we had a very tight period of time in which we could film.  The restaurant was not available until closing each night, so we began setting up around 11pm.  Our production designer Jen Morgart worked tirelessly to convert the restaurant each night from Italian to full fledged Chinese!  We shot thru the night, and needed to be wrapped by mid-morning so that the restaurant could get ready to start serving lunch that day.
 
Once the film was completed, we were working with a firm deadline to get the film completed in time for the Gorezone International Film Festival.  The film festival committee had accepted a rough cut of the film, but we still had to work quickly to get the final cut finished in time.  We had an amazing team, including our editor Ken Yankee, compositor James Todd, and composer Mars who worked long hours to ensure we met the deadline. 

AK: That slimy, lusty little bugger. Special effects guru Ingrid Okola created Won Ton Baby and what a monstrous little fiend he turned out to be - really hope he was only flirting and not eviscerating those extras - did you have a clear idea of how you wanted Baby Won Ton to look?

SL: I really did.  I pictured baby Won Ton very vividly in my head, even before the script was complete.  I knew I wanted him to be very short and squat, almost Sumo wrestler like in appearance and girth.  I knew he would have wild and wooly black hair/fur, and that he should have a definitive Asian resemblance.  And of course speak with a gravelly Chinese accent.  I wanted his teeth and claws to be gnarly and nasty.   Ingrid Okola and Paul Mafuz of Wicked EFX did a phenomenal job creating the baby from silicone and literally bringing the li’l devil to life!

AK: Those teeth are pretty nasty! Like Emily Booth’s “Movie Massacre” you have your own sidebar w/ Gorezone magazine on serial killers. Can you tell us all a wee bit about this?

SL: I actually started the serial killer project on my own dark and twisted initiative, presented it to Gorezone, and they loved the idea! I’ve always been intrigued by serial killers - far from admiration - but simply amazed by the psychology behind what makes them do what they do. Every day people may have fantasies about killing someone, but the thought of getting caught usually stops them from following thru. But for these guys, the urge is so strong, that they readily off people with complete disregard of the personal consequences.

I decided to try something new with my Gorezone “Diary of a Scream Queen” column, and write short stories/editorials about particularly disturbed serial killers, focusing primarily on the less “famous”, less notorious whackos, such as Bob Berdella, Richard Chase, and Issei Sagawa. It’s opened up a whole new angle for me as a writer, and for the readers of Gorezone, and I think this content is entirely different than what you’d find in most horror magazines.

AK: When did the Divine Debbie Rochon come onboard?

SL: That’s an excellent question. We thought of Debbie even before the script was complete! James Morgart wrote the character of Madame Won Ton with Debbie in mind, and we hoped that she would dig the character and the script and would sign on. We got in touch with her, and were thrilled when she accepted the role. I’ve been a Debbie fan for ages, and it was a treat instead of a treatment to work with her! She’s so prepared, and she brought so much life, energy, emotion, and last but not least, comedy, to the character of Madame Won Ton.

AK: You and James Morgart both worked together to put the flesh on the bones of Won Ton Baby and you’ve both collaborated before – have you any plans for a sequel?

SL: Indeed!  

Delightfully twisted visions of “Won Ton Baby! 2″ are already dancing in our heads.  Since Won Ton baby’s baby mama is part Cherokee Indian, we’re going to make baby Won Ton a Native American Indian in the sequel.  He will have a drinking problem, a wigwam, and will own a casino.  But as is customary with all things Won Ton, the white people will be the butt of the majority of jokes.  Hey, we aim for equal opportunity political incorrectness. 

AK: From the beginning I consider Gorezone to be one of the only horror magazines (I’m including genre magazines and excluding online magazines) to consistently champion underground and indie filmmakers/writers/artists. Would I be correct in saying that GZ waves -and will continue to do so - the flag for the underdog while simultaneously shining the torch on mainstream horror? What I mean is GZ puts cult/mainstream on an equal footing.
  
SL: That’s exactly it. The goal of the magazine is to help fans discover underground cult films, just as much as it is meant to help them discover and learn about mainstream Hollywood horror films. I think independent, lesser known horror films can be very exciting, in that they can really push the envelope and take risks that just wouldn’t be allowed in mainstream studio films. Often indie films are driven by passion, rather than the desire to make a buck. They’re grittier, often darker and more experimental. Indies can also step outside of the tried and true formula; you know the “paint by numbers” predictable formula that can be spotted in many mainstream films.
 
Gorezone is moving in a somewhat new direction, in that there is more of a focus now on substance, rather than just gore for the sake of gore. We don’t want to get pigeonholed into being a “blood and guts” only genre magazine. So we are definitely broadening our horizons, focusing on psychological thrillers just as much as slasher films. What’s interesting to me is that you can have a movie like “The Shining” or “Misery”, which in fact has very little onscreen gore, but your imagination runs wild. The things the viewer envisions are often even scarier than if the killings occur on camera.

AK: Won Ton Baby already seems to be generating quite a buzz — do you think horror filmmaking lacks a certain artistic or creative integrity. What I mean, there seems to be a lot of sameyness in commercial horror. Whereas Won Ton Baby, albeit very tongue in cheek - is a horror film where the viewer could see the love of the subject matter come through - it rivals and pretty much beats - or if Baby Won Ton had his way, chokes - all the other Bad Seed baby monsters that have come before (I am really hoping there isn’t a pun there, though I suspect there is — you’ve corrupted me Suzi) -

SL: I’ll grab your pun and run with it!  Won Ton’s Baby’s bad seed will be the impetus for “Won Ton Baby! 2″, as the poor drunk girl he impregnated gives birth to a whole new generation of baby won tons in the sequel….  
 
I agree - I see a trend of very similar themes in indie horror lately.   Some filmmakers like to “paint by numbers” - i.e. scantily clad girl/s get chased by madman wielding ax, knife, etc. and then offed one by one.   It’s a formula alright, but not terribly creative.    With “Won Ton Baby!”, we wanted to of course keep the elements of suspense and horror, but focus on the hilarity and insanity of the baby.   And the relationships between the Won Ton family members were paramount.  James Morgart did a phenomenal job fleshing out the characters in the screenplay.
 
The true test of a movie is whether you care about the characters.  If you’re half way thru, and you don’t give a “dalmation” whether the lead characters live or die, then the movie failed.  It was really important to us to make the characters very robust and even heartfelt, so that people would relate to them, and hopefully root for them.

AK: When did you first fall in love with the horror genre, was there ever a time that you can remember thinking: “this is the dark twisted avenue I’m gonna go down”?

SL: I think it all goes back to Alice Cooper. There was just something about that first time I heard “Steven” from the Welcome to My Nightmare album. My brother played it at full blast, and I remember it echoing and resonating thru the walls, particularly lines like “Steven, it’s time to come home!” and then the baritone “I’m a little boy”. “No, I’m a great big man”. It was just so creepy, and yet so enthralling at the same time. I think during that one month, I must have run back to my brother’s room 6 times asking him to play that album.
 
In terms of actual films, the imprinting (ahem… damage) had to have been done while watching “When a Stranger Calls”, or “Halloween”, or perhaps “Carrie” or “Psycho II”. It’s so hard to pinpoint the first horror film that I watched that really made a hard imprint. I can’t honestly remember, I just remember them always being a part of my family. My brother and father are horror fans, so I literally grew up around that stuff. I remember being about 9 years old, and being incredulous when my friends told me their parents said they can’t watch a movie. I was like “Whaatttt?? Why can’t you watch “Nightmare on Elm Street” with me? Or even worse, the friends that would say, ‘Suzi, I’m scared to watch those movies”! I honestly didn’t get it, and felt bad that they were missing out so dearly. And therefore, they had to pay!! Mwahhhh!!!!
 
My cousin (decidedly a non-horror fan) can tell you stories about how I terrorized her (lovingly, of course) by scaring the living hell out of her at sleepovers. I would trigger some kind of creepy horror soundtrack/song that I had recorded, and then magically it would start playing and freak her out. Or I would cut all the lights and toss stuff around, telling her it was the ghosts. Or even better, I would dress up as a ghost, and scare the living daylights out of her! (Editor’s note: HR staff found this very amusing…)

AK: Could you give me three titles from film, literature and television which you loved and why?

SL: TV: “Twilight Zone”. Brilliant sci fi/horror tales, with an impactful moral message at the end of every episode. I love the creativity and originality of the series. Riveting, and fascinating. And I love the fact that an episode could be completely creepy and/or terrifying without showing a drop of blood onscreen.

Film: “The Shining”. An example of an all around perfect horror film. You have a picturesque and oh so creepy old mansion, feelings of complete exclusion and isolation from society (and reality), and of course, the one and only Jack Nicholson, who was simply brilliant in the role, as he becomes slowly unwound and homicidal. Not to mention the ground breaking cinematography and art direction of the master Stanley Kubrick.

Literature: “Solitaire”, by Kelley Eskridge. It’s a sci-fi styled fictional account of a young woman in a post modern time who was convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, and was setenced to many decades of solitary confinement. However, in this futuristic world, the justice system has been using a technique in which prisoners are put into a catatonic style “sleep” in which hours seem like days, even years. So an 80 year sentence feels to the prisoner like 80 years, but can be completed in a year or 2. It was a really riveting account of this young girl’s struggles and the way she dealt with the insanity of being isolated for such a long period of time. The book also details her return to society, and how many demons she had to deal with as a result of her solitary imprisonment time.

AK: What are you thoughts on horror on the small-screen, you mentioned The Twilight Zone above – I’m excited about The Walking Dead and really like True Blood and Being Human.

SL: I think horror on the small screen can have tremendous potential, however there really haven’t been too many lasting series dedicated to it as of yet. Of course there are a million and one forensics/crime dramas out there like CSI and Criminal Minds, which are fantastic in their own right, however they are more psychological thriller/forensics based than actual horror.

I have also heard great things about the TV series “Dexter”, although I have yet to check it out. I recently discovered the “Chiller Channel” here in the US, and am loving the content! Speaking of good TV series, they recently played an “American Gothic” marathon on Chiller. What an intriguing show, with outstanding characters. I love that great comedic character actor, Gary Cole, and young Lucas Black (”Swingblade”) is also outstanding in the series.

AK: Thank you Suzi for taking the time to talk to me…

SL: Thanks so much for doing this interview with me Alan! It has been a lot of fun. I loved all your questions!

1 comment August 7th, 2010

Interview with Johnny Mains by JD’L

Many of you will be familiar with our guest today, Johnny Mains. His mission to resurrect The Pan Book of Horror Stories has made him an instant legend in the horror community. As I said to him in a recent Facebook exchange, he is at the forefront of Horror Reanimation.

I invited Johnny to join us here in the Hell-realms of Horror Reanimated where we could interrogate him properly – a chat on Facebook never quite satisfies, does it? At least down here, where the walls drip pus-thick sulphur and our interrogation equipment never fails, we could get to know each other…more intimately. He could barely wait to get his genitals through our mini-guillotine!

Unfortunately, Johnny pressed the wrong button in the lift (B is for Blowtorch not Basement!) and got a bit of a roasting.

Joseph D’Lacey: Hi, Johnny. Thanks for riding the elevator down to Satan’s crypt – where the resident bloggers are enslaved for all eternity. You’re looking a little crispy but I’m sure we can soon excise the excess dermis. Anyway, we’re delighted to have you here – Mathew’s been blunting his razors in anticipation.

Johnny Mains: Afternoon Joseph, and in honour of my recent holiday to Portugal, I shall call you ‘Senhor Slicer Pênis Pequeno.’

And Mathew needs to use those razors on his beard, or he needs to grow it out a bit. It looks like a snail with a bad belly has been

Mathew's beard, eating his face and drinking his beer

running all over his manly jaw. But it’s good to be at HR and thanks for inviting me!
 
JD’L: You must have a soul-level connection with the genre to be involved with it so deeply. Were your first feelings of horror caused by something in real life or by something from the world of entertainment? What got you hooked?

JM :  When I was a child I lived not too far from an area where there used to be a Roman Fort called Trimontium. But even closer to me were the remains of a Roman Marching Camp – something I didn’t find out about until I was in my twenties. So, when I was around eight years old I was ill in bed, it was a Saturday afternoon and I heard what I believed to be the sounds of a deafening Roman Legion trample through my farmhouse bedroom. Scared the absolute shit out of me. The braying of hundreds of horses, clanking of light and heavy metals; (I hid under the covers as it was scaring me) people talking in a deep raucous foreign language.

For the obvious reasons I never told my parents, and as I grew up I truly believed that the ghosts of these Romans had walked through the house. Then one Christmas I was given an Armada Ghost Book and the connection with my experience and ghosts in these stories was made. I recieved many of these books and each story in their own way reminded me of my experience in which the terror I had felt duly morphed with time into a delicious thrill. I continued to be a fan of the ghostly tale until I discovered Stephen King (Carrie) at the age of twelve and the Pan Book of Horror Stories at the age of thirteen. Then that’s when my love of horror truly began.

JD’L: Horror is often described not as a genre but as a sensation or experience. This may make it harder to categorise but it strikes me as a useful distinction. As someone who’s involved so fundamentally, what are your thoughts on defining the genre?

JM: Something I might find frightening might be laughable to someone else, and this, while amusingly ironic, is the definition of the genre. Individual perceptions make it (horror) what it is.

JD’: Why do we have horror in the first place? Surely in a sane world, people wouldn’t want to be any more frightened than they already are. What’s the use of it, do you think, and why does it endure?

JM: As a collector of ghost/horror anthologies I am truly staggered at the books I come across that were published in the years immediately and following the First and Second World Wars. You would have thought that books of this kind would be almost impossible to track down – after the aftermath of millions of soldiers butchered on the battlefields, the traumas of the blitz, the understanding of what the Final Solution meant – would you want to read a horror story when there was this terrifying legacy to deal and to live with?

It goes to show that even though we may face real life horrors – sadly as relevant today as they were back then, we still like to be thrilled with the horror we can stop at will, the terrifying that we are in complete charge of. In this regard horror will always be with us, and that we can choose to be a part of it, or not.

JD’L: Has horror changed much or are we merely seeing the same old stories told in slightly different ways? I suppose what I’m wondering is, have the archetypes of horror developed or altered in response to changes in society?

JM:  There are bound to be homages, rip-offs, re-treads, call them what you will of the core ideas, myths, and legends of the genre that are out there – but on that flip side there are startling new voices and even people who are firmly established – like say for instance Nicholas Royle who is always there with his new exciting spins on the genre. Stories for instance like Unfollow (marvellous Twitter inspired short story), The Children (a very creepy take on the package holiday) and others continue to prove that he is on top of his game.

JD’L: Film, literature, art, music and video games are all viable media for presenting Horror. There are probably many others I haven’t thought of. Which do you think has the greatest potential to scare people?

JM: I think literature, for me is the one that is scariest. Sitting on your own, late at night, reading a suitably creepy short story or novel…and the house starts settling down, making it’s noises, creaks and groans… something outside makes a noise, a twig snaps…
Most of all I miss being a kid and telling the most goriest stories while being on overnight excursions or hearing stories from other countries while on exchange. Each storyteller would try to outballs the latter one.

So yeah, Literature first, spoken word second, music third.

JD’L: Can you tell us a little about what prompted you to bring back The Pan Books of Horror Stories?

JM: I’ve been a fan of it since I was 13 years old and a few years ago I was looking for information on one of the authors to my favourite short story from the Pans and couldn’t find anything on him at all! So I started a research kick, with the aims of bringing out a history book of the Pan Horrors. I got sidetracked by several of the authors I got in touch with saying they had nice new unpublished stories. The book is now an anthology with a bit of history in it – I’ve been the first person to seriously look into the world of Herbert van Thal, the series’ original editor. He didn’t disappoint!

JD’L: What kind of experience has that turned out to be?

JM: Tiring, exhilarating, mindblowing. I’ve been in touch with around 40 odd authors, can now call quite a few of them friends, as a fan it’s been great because I now have every book from 4 – 30 signed! But it all culminated at the World Horror Convention with the Pan Horror panel which I fronted, a moment I will treasure for the rest of my life. And it’s ongoing, still uncovering facts, secrets and new (old) authors!

JD’L: Well, I and many others thank you for your perseverance and hard work, Johnny. I mean that very sincerely.

I recently read an article about Cory Doctorow’s approach to marketing his fiction. He’s big into making his work available for free on the internet as well as selling hardcopy. What are your thoughts about the future of publishing – particularly Horror publishing – with regard to the online/dead-tree split?

JM: Publishers are rightly shitting themselves, books can be produced cheaper now than they ever were. Of course, you have to wade through more crap to find the nuggets more than ever, but I think the small press (to a certain degree – see below) is in a healthy place. I think if you can afford to give out your stuff for free on the internet – then good for you, but why would I want to pay for something that you’ve already given me yesterday for nothing? You’re not a drug dealer, you’ve not got me hooked – I’ll just find someone else who is punting out free stuff and go and read them.

JD’L: In the UK, Horror literature appeared to go through a long slump between the 80’s and the turn of the millennium. Now, however, fans and authors alike are hopeful of a renaissance in the popularity and quality of horror fiction. Recent novels such as The Birthing House, Let the Right One in, Apartment 16 and The Leaping seem to point the way. Do you think such hopes are well-founded?

JM: Out there in mainstream land, I’m very happy with what’s happening – currently reading Tom Fletcher’s excellent THE LEAPING, love Lindqvist’s stuff and eagerly awaiting his third, I’m project editor on the Pan Horror 1959 re-issue which is going to be brilliant in terms of getting more anthologies out there, and I’ve also finished STORIES, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sorontonio – a knock out anthology which really took my breath away with how brilliant it is.

JD’L: What’s next for Johnny Mains? Will you always be a compiler and editor or do you have more personal creative projects lined up?

JM: I want to create books which will make people glad they put their hands in their pocket to buy them. Quality anthologies, quality collections with established authors, new discoveries and hopefully be able to be given the chance to write a few short stories myself.

JD’L: Visitors to Horror Reanimated are always encouraged to make two awards: The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness goes to the work of Horror in any medium which you consider to be a timeless classic. You may also banish to the Plague Pits the most astounding flop in Horror history. Go for it, sir!

JM:  Right, the Sword shall go to…Dawn of the Dead – THE greatest film I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. Now have it on bluray – and my god it’s like watching it for the first time. I think the messages and themes weaved into a ‘shoot ‘em in the head’ movie are still as valid and as urgent as they were back then.

The Plague Pits…any of the SAW films after the first instalment. Or Pet Sematary 2. That stank.

JD’L: Worthy choices!

Johnny, it’s been an enlightening experience to have you strapped to a rusty iron chair while we show you how all our instruments work. You’ve been a real gentlemen about it. While we’ve been talking, Mathew has had your manly bits encased in Perspex as a Horror Reanimated souvenir for you. I hope you’ll display them prominently on the mantelpiece of your living room.

In the meantime, we wish you the very best of good fortune with all your dark endeavours!

JM: Much obliged, it’s been a pleasure and I’ve really enjoyed my time with you. Now give me my bits back. I have a buyer for them!

2 comments July 6th, 2010

Interview with horror artist Nick Rose by JD’L

I first discovered today’s featured artist when I stumbled across his blog. I’d been Googling my short story ‘The Food of Love’ to see if its ghost remained online. Instead, I found Nick’s site and his detailed explanation of an illustration titled ‘Brainburgers’. Nick had been commissioned to provide art for my story in an anthology now titled Darc Karnivale. His image of zombies queuing for ‘Brainburgers’ in a fast food joint appears in the book, as do many other fine examples of Nick’s work.

As you’ll glean from his frank responses to our questions, Nick has survived a lot to get where he is today.

Joseph D’Lacey: Welcome to Horror Reanimated, Nick. I’m glad you could make it all the way out to our quaint little corner of Hell.

Nick Rose: Joseph, I am very honoured. You know you’re Madison’s and my favourite writer, and you’re a wonderful man on top of that. Illustrating “The Food of Love” was probably my favourite assignment to date. And guess what? – This time next month everyone will be able to have a print or T-shirt with “Brainburgers” on it. And don’t worry, brother, if we sell a good many of these, we’ll send some money your way! After all, you gave me the idea…

Actually, this will be the very first time that fans and friends can buy prints of Nick Rose art. I really hope that I get the chance to work on more of your stories in the future.

JD’L: Thanks, Nick! It doesn’t matter about the money – you can buy me a beer next time I come to the USA!

Now, I see a lot of news about you on Facebook these days but I’m very curious about your past. How long have you been a professional artist and what kind of journey has it been?

NR: Well, actually I have been around for a long time.

My first published piece was for a fanzine called “Stellar Gas” way back around 1980. It was a Star Trek fan magazine. The picture I did was of Mr. Spock. From there I was published regularly in a Magazine called “Lost World”. Around 1990 my pro career started with a piece published in Dragon Magazine #203. I also had landed a few commercial accounts as well.

Publishing is great as far as building a fan base, but it pays very little considering the time you spend on it. Commercial art on the other hand is boring most of the time, but the pay-checks are awesome.

Now through all of this, I also was a carpet installer. It was the only way I could make ends meet. This went on until 1995. At the time computers were coming in strong and you could do an assignment in a 10th of the time. But two things were going on with me at the time.

One: I was against using computers to produce art. Two: I was growing sick of doing commercial work. I wanted to paint Dragons and Monsters, so out of frustration, I quit drawing and painting again. From 1995 to 2000 I gave up art. I packed up the studio and put it in storage.

Those 5 years where hell. I started drinking and smoking very heavy and I just didn’t want to live to be honest. I was killing myself.

Then in 2000, I got a computer for my then step-son, and he started showing me all the cool things like publishers websites. (Before this, you either had to mail your work into the publisher and pray that you would get it back, or you had to have an agent knocking on doors for you.)  But now with the internet, all of that had changed. So I became inspired again, and unpacked my studio and got to work.

Everywhere I sent samples, I was getting work. This was mainly small press, but I was loving it. I was constantly getting magazines and books in the mail that either had a cover by me, or interiors. It was very exciting. I muddled along doing this until 2005 when a Master Artist offered to train me – Master Daniel Horne, and shortly after that fantasy legend Todd Lockwood decided to help me as well.

Sammy Unmasked - Based on the movie Trick 'r' Treat

As a young man, I could not afford to pay my way through an art school.  After the Army, I went to a local community college where I took commercial art for a year. The sad thing is, everything I learned from the community college is totally useless these days. The computer has changed the world as we know it. So having Daniel and Todd train me was and is a dream come true. Daniel really opened my eyes to art and I started seeing it in a whole different light, and Todd really introduced me to contrast and perspective. He had me go down town twice a week and practice drawing buildings from all different points of views. I did that for about 5 months, and I remember mumbling every time I was sitting on a bench drawing and a wino would come up to me asking me for money. But after a while I started to get it and understood why he had me doing that. It really opened my eyes to how important it was to making a good picture. I haven’t used much of that knowledge yet but I will soon.

Through the years I installed carpet to get by, but there were some years I decided to try to go full time as an artist. Financially, those where tough times, but they were also a lot of fun. I don’t even remember how I got by, but I did. For some reason when I was young I thought I would get rich painting, but the truth is, you’re lucky just to get by. Being an artist is an act of love. Now don’t get me wrong, I know a few artists that are well off, mostly because they had a spouse with good business sense, like Elli Frazetta. She built the Frazetta empire by cutting out the middle man.

I know other artists who make $20,000 per painting, but those are few and far between. In my case, 2 of those a year and I would be living better that I ever have.

These days I paint because I love to, and last year people started noticing me on Facebook, and with in a year’s time I had 4600 friends, 2 fan clubs – one with 4800 fans, and the second one with 2000 fans, and my blog has 900 known followers. That’s about 12,000 fans in less than a year. It’s mind boggling if you think about it, me just being an artist. So I guess I’m doing pretty well these days.

JD’L: It seems that very few of those who set out to become authors are ever able to support themselves through their writing. How true is this of artists, do you think? I ask because I know several and only a couple of them make a living by their creativity.

NR: Good question Joseph, and you are right. A small percentage of artists like me can make a living doing this, but I have help. I have a health problem that I get money for, and Madison works a regular job, so all of that helps.

A couple of weeks from now we will start selling prints and other merchandise, and hopefully that will get Madison out of her job so she can write full time. But even the big names I know struggle. If their wives weren’t working, I don’t think they could make it either. Now there are a few that do, but they live modestly. For the first 50 years of my life, I installed carpet 37 of those years, and was able to retire from that at 50 years old. But the sad truth is that 80 percent of the artists you see in the field right now, will be memories in 3 years. Life pressures get to them, or raising a family, or they lack the 3 things it takes to be an artist which are Talent, Heart, and Soul, and/or they are in it for the wrong reason, like they want to be famous. If you want to be famous, you’d best learn how to play music or act.

JD’L: In your case has it always been the bizarre side of imagery that has drawn you or do you also enjoy what people might refer to as mainstream art?

NR: Now that is the first time I have ever been asked that, and I will do my best to answer it.

I didn’t take art seriously until I was in the army, but in the 4th grade, around the time “One Million Years BC” came out, I started drawing dinosaurs. I had always loved dinosaurs and had a big box of the plastic ones like army men that I used to play with. You heard it here first folks, Nick Rose used to play with toy soldiers and dinosaurs! Anyway, after I saw that movie, I started drawing dinosaurs in school. If I’d gone to a Junior high school that had an art program, I would have pursued art at a much earlier age. But we lived in Bigfoot country, so the best I could get was creative writing.

In high school I became a huge comic book fan and I loved Spiderman. So in the army, when I started to draw again, I was really into comics.  After the Army, I went to a local community college to take some art classes, after that I found a book by Frank Frazetta and I knew then and there that I wanted to learn to paint like that man. So I moved into doing fantasy art.

But through the road of life, dark and evil things and people have been part of my existence. Not by choice, but imposed on me by certain step-family members. For instance my step father used to beat me and my mother senseless, and I don’t care how old you get, you never get over that. I had an asshole artist tell me the other day that he was friends with my ex Stepfather, and I remember thinking that this fool was proud to be friends with a man that would do that to a woman and a child.

He also allowed his younger bother to molest me. He was told about it but never did anything about it, except call me a “faggot”. This same artist told me that I was not allowed to come to my ex step fathers funeral when it happened. I would be physically removed if I did. I’ve got news for them: I am going to visit his grave often to pay my respects, if you know what I mean. So this artist is proud to be friends with him. I think that says volumes about his character.

But because I have had to live with these memories through the years, my work has become darker and darker, and I see them getting Darker as I go. There is no cure for what was done to me, talking about it just makes me angry, so in some way, painting these images has helped me slowly but surely.

In my early years I did try to do some mainstream art because family members would tell me “why don’t you paint something people will like, like barns or cowboys?” I did try, but it was like taking a pair of pliers and pulling the skin off of my face. So I went back to being the loser artist that everyone thought was weird.

JD’L: It’s very clear that you’re no kind of loser, Nick. Certainly not to survive such treatment and come out with so much positive spirit. What fascinating about what you’ve told me – apart from your honesty and candour – is that the darkness of your work has given you comfort. Horror has many functions!

Tell me, what is your preferred medium? Do you ever work outside of it?

NR: Joseph, I work in all mediums, including digital. I believe if you’re going to make a living doing this, you need to be able to do as much as possible. My favourites are pencil, oils, and Corel painter. I used to work in pen and inks a lot, but I don’t get much call for it anymore.

JD’L: I’m fascinated by the working practices of other ‘creatives’ – How does a typical Nick Rose work day go?

NR: Normally, I get up at 7:15 am, make a pot of coffee and head to the dungeon (studio) to go through my mail and Facebook. That takes from 1 to 3 hours, drinking coffee throughout. After that, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I head to the gym for 90 minutes, come home, shower and get to work. The other 4 days of the week, I shower after checking e-mail and start work immediately. Somewhere along the way I grab a bowl of oatmeal. I work to at least 7pm, sometimes as late as 9pm. It depends on the day. Then I pick out a good movie and enjoy that, have a snack and hit the hay ready to start all over at 7:15 the next morning.

Starting this week I am going to be redesigning the studio, buying new equipment and supplies. I am really looking forward to that. Right now a good portion of the floor is taken up by my movie collection. I am going to buy book cases to put them in and that will clear a lot of the floor. Then I will have space for a table where I can put together packages ready to be mailed or to matte my prints. I am also buying another drawing table, a medium size easel for Madison’s daughter to work on, and a light box for her. The dungeon is large and wide open, so I can do what ever I want down here.

Another thing is that I listen to music all day long, so I have about 11,000 c.d.’s most of them are on my iMac. I listen to every kind of music you could think of.

JD’L: Do you feel there’s a gap between your ideas and your ability to bring them into being? Arthur Machen once wrote: ‘One dreams in fire and works in clay.’ He also talked about ‘the horrid gulf that yawns between the conception and the execution’. Admittedly he was an author, not an artist. Nonetheless, what’s your personal view?

NR: At one time I would say that would have been true, mostly because my skills were not strong enough to paint what my mind sees. Now, it is the other way around, my hands can surpass what my mind sees, and improve upon it. I get excited now every time I do a new piece because I know that it will be so much more than what my mind sees. I have to ask myself, what is next, and that is a big part of why I love to paint.

JD’L: Is it only art that gets you out of bed in the morning – or, indeed, at any other time – or do you have other passions?

NR: Oh my, to be honest, there was a time I didn’t want to get out of bed several years ago at all. As a matter of fact I overdosed on pain pills, and somehow lived through that. After the Dark Angels disbanded and I realised my best friend had betrayed and stabbed me in the back, and my Step Father said he never wanted to have anything to do with me ever again, I was going to commit suicide, but as a last resort I went to the VA hospital and told them what I was going to do. They locked me in the Mental Health ward for 3 weeks, during Christmas, and worked with me to help me cope with what happened. When I went home, the girl I had been dating took almost everything I owned and vanished off the face of the earth.

I just existed at that point. I didn’t care anymore. I just drank and smoked all I could smoke in a day. Then a friend offered to move me up here to Michigan, where my home is now, and my life changed 100%. The first thing was I met Madison. We fell in love, and all of a sudden I wanted to live again. It has been a rough year. I quit smoking, drinking and started working out again. I found out I have COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) because of the smoking, and this last year I’ve had pneumonia 5 times. But each day I get stronger, and my will to live is amazing. Nothing gets me down anymore. I work all the time and spend time with Madison and the kids.

My career has gone through the roof and keeps going up everyday. This is the 9th interview I have done since Christmas, Joseph. I was on a world wide radio show last week and am going to be a regular on there – talking live a couple times a year – and they will be giving away prints of my work and promoting my name almost every week. You can’t beat that.

JD’L: If you had the time, money and support to do only your own work, which deeply-held, as yet unrealised idea, would you bring into the world? I suppose I’m asking, what is the piece or series Nick Rose was born to create?

NR: Actually that is coming very soon now. I am at the point where I can do what I want and turn down what I don’t want to do. I have two projects I will be starting as soon as I finish remodelling the studio this coming week. One is a series of oil paintings of my dear friend and scream queen, Ms. Suzi Lorraine. We will be selling prints, calendars, t-shits, and whatever with her image. Another is a series of books called “The book of Rose” which I am already working on. I can’t say anything about that now, because of all the thieves out there, and this is a one of a kind thing. It will have a role playing game and video game based around it, all done through my company. And on top of that, I will be painting my paintings, writing how-to book, and a book about my life including all the creeps and monsters I have met on my journey, names and all.

JD’L: Beyond that, what’s next for you, Nick? I have a sense there’s a lot of work in the pipeline. Is there anything you can tell us about without giving away too many secrets?

NR: Well, between now and January I have 20 covers to do, so that’s gonna keep me busy and it will get my work out there to a much larger audience. I hope by this time next year that the number will double and we will have our own market of buyers who are fans of my work.

JD’L: I hope so too, Nick. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you and share some of your artwork here at Horror Reanimated. Thanks for joining us and good luck for the future!

NR: Joseph, it has been my pleasure. You know Madison and I are two of your biggest fans, and it has been a thrill for me to do this interview with you. To my fans, “May the Darkness Comfort You.”

6 comments June 17th, 2010

Interview with Jasper Bark by JD’L

Oh, joy!

Tonight, after months of scheming and dirty deals, I have finally snared the slippery and elusive Jasper Bark, author of Dawn Over Doomsday and Way of the Barefoot Zombie. We tracked him down using private detectives, crooked coppers and undercover prostitutes. After a failed blackmail attempt, we kidnapped his children. He said we could keep them. In the end, we had to resort to a large transfer of funds into his numbered Swiss account. There’s nothing we won’t do for you, the horror-lover, here at Horror Reanimated.

Okay, that’s a complete lie. We should have strapped Jasper into the ‘interview chair’ several months ago but I forgot.

Still, he’s comfortable now. Ears pinned to the backboard with carpet tacks, hands nailed to the armrests with a staple-gun. We removed his foreskin and eyelids – purely for reasons of hygiene, you understand; the filth of the dungeon just doesn’t enter the bloodstream properly if we don’t take certain precautions. Septicaemia should be setting in about now…

Joseph D’Lacey: Welcome to Horror Reanimated, Jasper. We’ve done our best to make you comfortable but if there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask.

Now, sir, I’m curious about the various Abaddon Books worlds. To write a Tomes of the Dead novel for example, what are the parameters? Similarly, what rules exist for The Afterblight Chronicles – both of which you’ve written for?

Jasper Bark: Okay, I’ll spill the beans on the Abaddon worlds as long as you promise to omit the sordid confessions of the last hour and sew my thumbs back on.

The parameters and the rules are slightly different for both series. The Afterblight Chronicles is a shared world series. The world was created by Si Spurrier who also wrote the first novel in the series The Culled. He was supposed to write the next instalment but around the same time he sold a novel called Contract to another publisher and decided to work on that instead, so Rebecca Levene got the job.

You’ve got a pretty free reign as a writer so long as you uphold the basic ‘post plague’ premise of the world and make certain you don’t contradict any of the events and timelines of the other novels in the series. My novel picked up on some of the events in Si’s novel and I stayed in touch with Scott Andrews and Paul Kane while I was writing it, as they were both working on their Afterblight trilogies at around the same time and we were all trying not to step on each other’s toes.

Tomes of the Dead is just an umbrella title for a series of contemporary and somewhat edgy zombie novels. The only thing that connects them is the defiant attitude of many of the authors and their general interest in subverting and experimenting with the sub-genre of the Zombie novel. When the series was first launched Matthew Sprange did write a shared world bible based around the back drop to his novel Death Hulk, which was the first in the series. Editor in Chief Jonathan Oliver soon fell out of love with the idea of the series having a shared world though and decided Tomes of the Dead would simply be a line of zombie novels.

JD’L: What attracts you to writing Zombie/Apocalyptic fiction?

JB: Although both those genres have become conflated thanks to Romero’s excellent Dead movies, none of the Zombie fiction I’ve worked on has been post apocalyptic. The appeal of each genre is quite different for me.

What I like about zombies is how malleable they are as a representative icon. As society trades old nightmares for new with each advancing decade the zombie keeps adapting and changing the things it stands for in our collective unconscious. In the 30s when the zombie was first introduced to western culture it stood for the western colonial fear of the nations it was exploiting. Over the years the zombie has come to represent mainstreams fears of everything from communism and terrorism to sixties radicalism and growing economic unrest. This makes it very appealing to writers like myself who have an interest in writing social commentary and satire.

The thing that appeals to me about post apocalyptic fiction, on the other hand, is that it allows you to study society as a whole in microcosm. As we view the shattered bands of survivors trying to rebuild their life in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation there’s a huge opportunity to examine the everyday tensions and conflicts of our current society. The backdrop of a lost and ruined world allows us to view these opposing forces in a more naked and honest light, outside of the contexts and allegiances of our contemporary culture. This throws them into sharper relief and allows us a fresh perspective of the problems they’re causing us and the long term consequences of certain courses of action.

Plus err … zombies are totally awesome. They eat brains, they never wash and they always, always win. Vampires and Werewolves might be in an eternal conflict but Zombies can kick both their butts. A vampire or a werewolf can bite a Zombie as many times as they like and it’ll still be a zombie. A zombie’s only has to bite them once and you’ve got a zompire or a werebie. (Is it just me or does a ‘werebie’ sound like a creepy undead furby fetishist?)

JD’L: When a novel has a strong theme, it can be a tightrope act walking between what the story’s about and what it’s really about. Way of the Barefoot Zombie uses the walking dead sub-genre as satire. At times I found the message blazing as brightly as the story itself. Was that intentional? Once you knew where you were going, did you find it hard to keep a lid on all that social comment?

JB: You’re right it can be a tightrope act but I’m glad you said ‘blazing as brightly as the story itself’ and not ‘strangling the fecking story to death’. I think the writer’s ultimate responsibility is to the story itself but I think the story is strengthened no end if it is about more than just the characters themselves and what happens to them. As a writer you get incredibly close to your story and subject matter when you’re spending eight, nine and even ten hours a day working on it. You can’t help but ruminate a lot on your themes, so when the greater significance of certain parts of your story occurs to you, you want to point them out.

I was a lot more subtle about this in  Dawn Over Doomsday and as a consequence a lot less people noticed. So I think this time around I was over compensating a little and trying to point out the subtext to the reader, possibly a little too much at times. But I’m only on my fourth novel and I’m still learning how to get the balance right.

I do aspire to write genre fiction that is fast paced, completely gripping but just as intelligent and significant as more weighty writing. This is a tall order though and sometimes you can fall between two stools. The sort of people who just want quick entertainment can get really annoyed when you start asking them to think a bit and the sort of people who might appreciate the more complex ideas you’re considering can be put off by the schlocky nature of some of the content.

Still, it’s not worth doing if it’s too easy is it.

JD’L: Course, WOTBZ was a lot of fun too. How important is humour in your work?

JB: I would say it’s extremely important where it’s applicable. It’s often highly applicable when you’re writing horror. In fact horror and humour are the two genres that are specifically geared towards getting a particular physical reaction from the audience, you either want them to laugh or hurl. Because of this it’s easy to get it wrong and get a laugh when you’re looking to horrify so, in a way, getting the laugh in first - where you want it - is a way of keeping the reader on side and not losing them.
For me it’s also a way of puncturing any possible pomposity. If you’re writing work that aims at some type of profundity and insight it’s very easy to get a bit full of yourself and to come across as sanctimonious or preachy. Humour is a great way of undercutting that and maintaining a balance in the tone of your work. It’s a way of showing that I take what I do very seriously, but not myself.

For many years I led a hand to mouth existence as a stand up performer and I wrote and performed comedy sketches for BBC radio and live theatre. So along the way I learned how to be funny. It’s another tool in my armoury I guess.

JD’L: The novel has a strong grip on the traditions and practices of voodoo. Is this something you’ve had personal experience with or did it all come from research?

JB: Initially it came from research. I knew from the get go that voodoo would be central to the plot and my conception of the zombie. I wanted to go right back to the root of the myth. However Voodoo is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented religions in the world. Horror fiction has contributed a huge amount towards the misconceptions surrounding this belief system, so I decided I was going to treat it with due reverence and present as authentic a view as I could.

So I did a lot of reading and sought out practitioners. A lot of people were very generous with their time and shared their experiences with me and they also lent me lots of books. Research is key to my work. I also did a lot of reading about economics for this novel.

I didn’t have any practical experience of economics but I did sort of get quite up close and personal with Voodoo. Followers of the faith are known as ‘Servant of the Loa’. The Loa are the spiritual beings who act as intermediaries between us and God. The Loa commune with us by taking possession, or ‘riding’ one of their followers during ritual ceremonies where the followers go into trances and the Loa choose a ‘horse’ to take possession of, so they can talk to their servants.

Writing can be quite a ritual activity and it certainly sends you into a type of trance after a while. I write a lot about different religious beliefs and tend to steep myself in them to such a degree that I tend to convert myself as I’m writing. This means there are times when the lines between the world you’re writing about and the world you live in can blur.

When you’re writing scenes of authentic rituals that conjure up the Loa it does feel like they come and have a look over your shoulder. They also demand a co-writing credit. I didn’t really write any of their dialogue whenever they appeared in the novel I just sat and took dictation and wouldn’t have dared edit it either. So in that sense you could say I had a bit of a practical experience.

JD’L: There’s a growing trend for novelists to accompany their new releases with online video teasers but I have to say the teasers for  WOTBZ are among the best I’ve seen. Who wrote them? And how and where were they made? Also, they looked expensive – did you get lottery funding???

JB: I wrote all three. They were made over a two day period across three locations here in the West country where I live.

We had next to no funding so although they should have cost in the region of £12,000 to £15,000 to shoot we managed to do all of them for under two grand. That’s mainly because I was able to talk the incredibly talented individuals at Level Films into working for nothing. In fact everybody who worked on the three short videos gave their time and talents for free. The make up and special effects artists, the actors, the sound and camera guys they were all fantastic.

I was very up front with everyone about the fact that I had absolutely no money but they all agreed to get involved because I can be very persuasive when I want to be and the project looked like a lot of fun. In fact we all had a blast. I hope that comes across when you watch them. If you’re reading this please do go watch all three. I promise you’ll laugh and you won’t have seen anything quite like them before.

JD’L: Are there more Abaddon titles to look forward to from your good – or should I say damnably evil – self?

JB: I am at work on something new for Abaddon at the moment, it’s for a new line of titles that hasn’t been launched yet. Nothing has been finalised at the moment, so I’m going to have sound all enigmatic and leave it at that.

JD’L: Now, I’ve heard Jasper Bark also writes books for children and is well known in the world of graphic novels. When did all this start and how do you fit it in around writing horror novels?

JB: Well the comics and graphic novels probably came first. While I was working as a music and film journalist I got in touch with The Losers creator Andy Diggle, who was then editor of 2000AD and offered to get him in to see any band or up coming film he liked for free. After a screening of the film Snatch I mentioned I was interviewing the cast and director the next day. Andy told me if I could get a quote from director Guy Ritchie he’d buy a script off me no matter how ropey it was. So in the middle of the interview I asked this drawn out question about 2000AD and got Guy Ritchie to endorse it. I let Andy out of the deal though and eventually sold a script to his successor, current editor Matt Smith.

After writing grown up comics for a while I began to notice there weren’t any really good comics for kids anymore and as I was a parent myself I felt impelled to try and write some so I moved into the kids comics market. From this I moved into writing kids books. Some of my kid’s books have been translated into nine different languages while others are used in schools all over the country to help improve literacy in senior school children. I’m even published in all sorts of new media now, with a series of books for young children being sold exclusively on the i-pad and the i-phone called The Recyclies and an audiobook about to be launched on i-tunes called Mr Woznotiz. I’ve also just finished a 30 part graphic novel series for Channel 4 Education for young adults too. It’s called Alien Ink and it’s available initially on line.

JD’L: Do you think horror has a purpose, above giving people a comfortable, entertaining scare?

JB: I really do believe it has. In my opinion the best horror stories use the weird and other-worldly as a metaphor for a deeper or more personal truth. I also think that the world is quite a scary place at the moment and because of this the tropes and motifs of horror are some of the best ways of addressing the contemporary world. A lot of the horror writers coming up at the moment seem to be interested in social commentary in the same way that the New Wave and the early Cyberpunk writers previously used science fiction as a vehicle for social comment. It’s one of the (many) things I like about your work actually.

JD’L: Regardless of whether you could sell it or not, what is the book you were born to write?

JB: The Scratch and Sniff Karma Sutra - don’t know why it hasn’t been done before.

Seriously, I have so many books and graphic novels that I still want to write that I haven’t the time or space to list them all here.

JD’L: As you may know, every Horror Reanimated interviewee is imbued with a temporary but godlike power.

You, Jasper Bark, may now bestow The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness upon the work of horror in any medium which you consider the pinnacle of ghastly achievement.

JB: Well I think the EC Horror comics work of Johnny Craig deserves an honourable mention, as do the short stories of Ramsey Campbell and many episodes of the original Twilight Zone.

But perhaps my favourite horror work in any medium is the 1945 portmanteau horror film Dead of Night, which has never been bettered.

JD’L: When you’ve done that you must cast forever into The Plague Pits, the worst work of horror in any medium.

Please exercise your power now…

JB: I had to think a long time about this having seen and read a lot of terrible horror. I did consider the movie Troll 2 but that’s now kind of famous for being unbelievably bad.

So I’m going to go with Guy N Smith’s second novel The Sucking Pit. And no, that’s not cockney rhyming slang but it ought to be as it would perfectly describe this novel. Published in 1975 it manages to be racist, sexist and atrociously written with moronic dialogue, almost no characterisation and a pitiful plot.

This said I have a grudging affection for it. In his excellent book On Writing Stephen King talks about the joy you feel the first time you read a book that’s so bad you realise you could easily do better. I was about 12/13 when I first read The Sucking Pit and I was so encouraged by the thought that if something this awful could get into print then I stood more than a chance myself, that I began work on my first novel the very next day.

Now here I am, (ahem) years later, talking to you writer to writer. So I guess when I’m done here I should really head up the apples and pears get on the dog and bone and thank Mr Smith for writing something so Sucking Pit.

JD’L: Thank you for joining us, Jasper, and from all the Horror Reanimated team good luck for a dark and dreadful future!

JB: Thanks for having me Joseph, I’ve had a brilliant time … now can you loosen that tourniquet round my nuts like you promised?

1 comment June 4th, 2010

Interview with Simon Bestwick by JD’L

Today our interview takes place in the attic of a derelict house far out across the moors. A long way from where anyone could hear if something happens to me. Who am I kidding? Something always happens to me, doesn’t it? The attic is strewn with dust and bones – I can’t tell whether their owners died up here or were brought along later.

Not to worry, though, it’s cosy as can be. And the shadows move as though something in the darkness is still alive. Home from home.

Joining me in the attic is Simon Bestwick, author of the inspiring short story collection ‘Pictures of the Dark’. It’s the best book of short fiction I’ve read in a long time. Simon sits opposite me, wrapped in a grey blanket edged with red, for all the world like some street-weary derelict.

What struck me about this collection was the fortitude of Simon Bestwick’s writing voice. Flawlessly genuine throughout the entire work, much of his strength seems to come from using the first person.

Joseph D’Lacey: Simon, thanks for suggesting this snug attic in the middle of nowhere. The air’s a lot…drier…than I’m used to in the basement of Horror Reanimated. Not so many uncategorisable things crawling the walls.

Anyway, welcome to the interview.

I wanted to know first of all why so much of the work in PotD is written in the first person. Is this your M.O. in longer fiction too?

Simon Bestwick: It’s just the easiest voice to slip into as a writer.  I know some people say you should always switch it to third person unless you’ve got a really good reason, but I’ve never done that, although I have sometimes deliberately chosen beforehand to write a particular piece third person, just to break the monotony.  First person’s particularly attractive in horror because of the nature of the field- it puts you right inside the character’s head and implicates you in their thought processes.  That makes it harder to dissociate yourself if the character does something terrible- anybody is capable of just about anything, but we like to pretend otherwise and turn away, cop out by dismissing people who do certain things as ‘evil’.  Plus which, of course, a first-person voice usually implies the character has lived to tell the tale, but that doesn’t have to be the case.  And even if the character has survived, that’s not necessarily reassuring- just read Lovecraft’s ‘The Rats In The Walls’, or nearly any first-person narrative by Poe.

All my novellas have been first person- not deliberately, it’s just worked out that way.  My first novel consisted of three different first-person narratives; my second one’s third person, although all from one character’s viewpoint, and the third’s going to be third person, and told from a lot of different viewpoints.  Not planned beyond that yet…

JD’L: You’re very comfortable in the horror genre. I can’t help thinking you belong there. But you also write crime fiction – Never Say Goodbye, Starky’s Town and Vecqueray’s Blanket spring to mind straight away. If you had to write in only one genre for the rest of your existence (including eternity in hell, where we all belong) which would it be and why?

SB:  Horror, because it encompasses all the other genres as well.  The overlap between horror and the crime genre’s an obvious one, but it can just as readily go into science fiction or fantasy’s territory, and because it shares a lot of elements with magic realism as well, there are plenty of writers- Graham Joyce, in particular, springs to mind- who are just published as ‘mainstream’ authors.

There’s good genre writing and there’s good writing that happens to be in a particular genre.  M.R. James’ ghost stories use language wonderfully and they’re great at giving you a pleasant shiver, but beyond that, there’s not really that much to them.  Compare a few of James’ stories to any collection by, say, Raymond Carver and you’ll see what I mean.  On the other hand, if you take a collection of Dennis Etchison’s short stories and compare them to Carver’s you’ll that they measure up, in terms of the quality of the writing and in terms of content.  The best writing deals with whatever subjects, themes, issues are closest to the writer’s hearts and it does so with good prose, careful structure and sound characterisation; it combines all the tools of narrative art with actually having something to say.

JD’L: Can you cite any precursors to your writing style or have you worked hard to create an original voice?

SB: Both- there’s been a lot of writers whose work I’ve admired in different areas, and I’ve tried to learn from each of them. At the same time there’s a fairly definite goal in mind, and I think my style’s been shaped by aiming for that. Poe and Lovecraft both taught me how dark fiction can be and how to construct a story so it builds to maximum effect; Richard Matheson showed how clear, simple prose that tells a story smoothly and effectively could have poetry in it too; later Stephen King did much the same.  Also, I came back to writing fiction from an acting background, and so there were playwrights as well, Edward Bond, Howard Barker and David Rudkin; they all dealt in very unsparing, often harrowing imagery and again, they were all trying to create a poetic language that was also very everyday, earthy, raw.  I think that’s always been one of the main things I’ve striven for, and to use that to try and get as much as I can into everything I do- psychological depth, social comment, existential musings- but never forgetting a) to still tell a good, involving story and b) that horror fiction is supposed to unsettle, frighten or disturb.

It’s not just me, though; I think what we’re seeing more recently are different strands in weird fiction being drawn together, different traditions being integrated and synthesised.  Conrad Williams is doing that, I think; Gary McMahon is another one.

JD’L: One thing I adored about PotD was your use of language. Partly because of this, the stories had depth and colour rarely found in any genre. Were you born a clever bastard or did you take lessons?

SB: You have a knack of asking questions I can’t answer without sounding like a vain git!  I agree with the line about genius being the capacity for taking infinite pains- I’m not claiming to be a genius there, just that if I have reached any standard of quality it’s through a) reading widely in and out of the genre and b) being very tough with my own work.  More and more now the first draft of anything is the raw material- the ‘brain barf’ as an American friend put it!- and the rest of the process as shaping and refining it.  The first draft can be frustrating at times, but once the work’s completed it’s a hell of a lot easier to work out what to do next.

I can’t stand writers who try to get away with second best when writing genre fiction- whether in prose, characterisation, plotting or whatever.  I want to write the best fiction, the best work I possibly can.  You’re a short time here and a long time dead, and when I’m gone, if I’m very lucky, the work might live on.  In the meantime, I’ll be happy if it pays the bills.

JD’L: For your basic horror fan, PotD has got everything: Ghosts, Zombies, Vampires, Psychos, Demons and more Zombies. However, the themes in the collection make it far more than just a bunch of monster sketches. In PotD, story is everything and yet the resonance of each tale lingers. What comes to you first; story or theme? And if your theme comes first, do you worry that trying to explore it too fully will spoil the tale?

SB: Form dictates content, but content also dictates form.  Most often the story comes first.  Sometimes I can see the themes in there waiting to be pulled out; other times I’ve no clue what it’ll be ‘about’ until I actually start writing.  When there is a theme in mind, the job is then to dramatise it, so the theme basically disappears into the characters and the action without needing any big Kevin Costner speeches, please god.  And if you’ve done your job properly, form and content become the same thing, so exploring the theme fully will be the same thing as taking the story as far as it can go.

JD’L: What was the last piece of short fiction that blew your mind and why?

SB: ‘This Creeping Thing’ from Robert Shearman’s collection Love Songs For The Shy And Cynical.  It’s a great collection; the nearest I can come to describing it is Raymond Carver writing magic realism for Jackanory.  The stories start out light, almost whimsical.  It’s only as you go on that you realise what he’s doing, and just how dark it is.  ‘This Creeping Thing’ blew my away because it surprised me, not in a plot twist kind of way, but by going into territory I’d never have guessed it would, or could, go into.  I can’t really talk about the story without spoiling it for people, but really, I can’t recommend it, or the collection as a whole, enough.

JD’L: I’ve always considered short fiction essential practice for novels. Yet some short fiction writers never touch the longer form and some novelists never write short stories. Sometimes, that middle territory occupied by the novella is where the most astounding things occur. Do you have a favourite form?

SB: I love them all!  In the past year or so, I’ve been concentrating on novel-writing and haven’t written many short stories except when an editor’s requested one.  Mainly it’s the time factor- not just the writing time, but also you have to mull over story ideas and let them brew up to a certain point before you can start writing them.  Once the ball’s rolling, you can just come back to the desk each morning and jump back in where you left off.  With a novel, that makes daily production an easy task. With short stories, on the other hand, they usually get done in one sitting, maybe two.  And then you have to go off again and wait for the next one to rise to the surface.

It’d be nice to do some new short stories, though, just for fun.  There are always those ideas that won’t leave you alone and have to be written.  Maybe after the next novel I’ll have a blitz on them, start laying the keel for a new collection.  I agree with you about novellas; they give you the focus and brevity of shorter fiction together with the additional depth, colour and range of a longer story.  Some of the work I’m proudest of is novella-length, such as ‘The Narrows’ and in particular ‘The School House.’

JD’L: Have there been any supernatural or unexplainable events in your life that have shaped your creativity?

SB: No.  Plenty of unpleasant non-supernatural ones though.  Go to a private all-boys’ school for seven years if you really want a reservoir of painful memories to draw on.  See ‘The School House’ for details; writing that fucker hurt.

JD’L: The sheer variety of ideas in PotD was a delight but I can’t help wondering about the things that you return to again and again, those rocks you can’t help but keep looking under. Are there any core themes that won’t leave Simon Bestwick alone? If so, what are they and why?

SB: Apocalypses, because there’s such a massive list of ways in which we’re fucked right now, or at least imperilled.  Economic crisis, climate change, resource wars, peak oil, pandemics… They all basically serve to remind us just how fragile everything we take for granted, day to day, is, and how easy it is for everything to slip out of our control.

We’ve also got people trying to smuggle insane bullshit like creationism onto school syllabuses.  We’ve got pharmacists who refuse to supply contraceptive pills and registrars who won’t conduct civil partnership ceremonies, all claiming religion as a defence. The head of the Catholic Church, who’s told his African congregation that condoms make the spread of AIDS worse and has worked to shield paedophiles from justice, attacks anti-discrimination laws for ‘restricting religious freedom’- presumably meaning the right to act like bigoted scum without consequence.  People like this hold power.  And this is in a world where we also have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.  The scary thought is not that those people might get access to those toys- under George W. Bush, they did. And it could- probably will- happen again, and we might not be so lucky.  How that can’t appal and frighten somebody is beyond me.

JD’L: A fog of depression overtakes me…What projects can we look forward to from you next, Simon?

SB: I’ve just finished the first draft of a new novel,The Song Of The Sibyl, which I’ll be rewriting into its (hopefully) final form over the next couple of months.  After that I’ll be writing the first of a planned quartet of novels set in Britain twenty years after a nuclear attack and incorporating Lovecraftian horror.  There’s a couple of short stories in the offing- I have a tale called ‘The Sons Of The City’ in End Of The Line, a horror anthology coming out from Solaris Books and edited by Jon Oliver, as well as another that I can’t talk about as it’s still under wraps.  I’ve also been invited to contribute something to Never Again, an anti-fascist anthology edited by Joel Lane and Allyson Bird, and another novella, Angels Of The Silences, should be due out from Pendragon Press at Fantasycon this year.  I do my best to keep busy and have a lot of irons in the fire!

JD’L: No Horror Reanimated interview is complete without its incredibly bogus award ceremony. You have been given the power to make two nominations:

First, The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness goes to the work of horror in any media which you consider a timeless classic.

Conversely, you may banish to The Plague Pits the very worst example of the genre in any media.

Please make your nominations.

SB: The Sword Of Ultimate Darkness: Fuck.  Never, never, never ask me to nominate a ‘best of’ anything.  I should’ve told you before we started doing this.  I’m hopeless at it.  So hopeless, in fact, that I’m going to cheat.  I’ll nominate Best Film, Best Novel and Best Short Story.

The main character of Necropolis is a punky, black-leather-jacketed witch with spiky blonde hair. And six breasts. Which she gets out. More than once, as I recall. And still, we switched the film off after twenty minutes, which gives you some idea of what a steaming pile of half-digested llama guts it had to be.  The main actress (I use the term advisedly) appeared to be a dance student on her summer break; every few minutes came footage of her doing a completely pointless dance routine to godawful ‘80s synth-pop.  There were no good reasons to put that in the film and plenty not to, so I can only assume she was blowing the director between takes.  Occasionally I wonder if I should watch it again just to check we didn’t switch off just before it turned into one of the great lost masterpieces of Western cinema, but so far I haven’t.  I’m going those twenty minutes of my life back on my deathbed as it is without adding on Necropolis’ full running time of 77mins.

JD’L: It only remains for me to say a big thank you for talking to Horror Reanimated – albeit on your own rather unusual terms. There’s certainly been a lot of weird activity up here in this attic, much of it XXX rated!

On behalf of all of us, may I also wish you very much success with all your future work. There’s absolutely no question it deserves a much wider audience.

SB: Thank you.

Simon’s other fiction includes:

• Tide of Souls (novel) - read our review of Tide of Souls
• Pictures of the Dark (2nd story collection)
• A Hazy Shade of Winter (1st story collection)
• We Fade To Grey (anthology containing BFA-nominated novella ‘The Narrows’)
• Apparitions (anthology containing story ‘The Suicide Chairs’)
• Houses on the Borderland (BFS anthology containing novella ‘The School House’)

1 comment March 24th, 2010

When the Night Comes Down…

Here’s a beautiful little shadow to darken your day…

The brand new Dark Arts horror anthology ‘When the Night Comes Down’ is now available for pre-order. There are five twilight tales from me and plenty more from legends of the genre Bev Vincent, Robert E. Weinberg and Nate Kenyon.

From start to finish it’s been a genuine pleasure to be involved in this collection. The Dark Arts team: Bill Breedlove, John Everson and Martel Sardina are innovative publishers, absolutely dedicated to publishing top quality horror – even if I say so myself.

We’ll be launching this officially at WHC 2010 in Brighton but for those who can’t wait here’s where to find out more or grab an early copy:

http://www.darkartsbooks.com/?page_id=710

I hope you enjoy every word of this unique book…

Add comment March 1st, 2010

Short Fiction News by JD’L

So far, I have stories appearing in four anthologies this year.

Here’s a little inside information about each book, its publisher and editor, as well as what my contribution amounts to in each case.

First off is When the Night Comes Down released by Dark Arts. This is an approach to horror collections I hadn’t come across before. The four contributors to the anthology provide four or five stories totalling 20-25,000 words each. The other writers in this volume are Nate Kenyon, Bev Vincent and Robert Weinberg. Editing the collection is Bill Breedlove, closely assisted by John Everson and Martel Sardina. I’ve come to like Bill very much just through our email communications. He is a wise and free-thinking editor and I’ve welcomed his comments on my work. Happily, I’ll be meeting Bill, some of the contributors and the rest of the DA staff at WHC 2010 in Brighton – When the Night Comes Down will launch on Friday 27^th March in Bar Rogue between 10pm and midnight. I’ve contributed five stories to this collection.

Longer in the making but probably to be released well before WTNCD is Darc Karnivale published by The Evil Nerd Empire. The editors, David Byron and Corey R. Scales have put a great deal of time and effort into collecting and organising the stories for the anthology. The artwork has been provided by the talented Nick Rose. The image he’s created for my story ‘The Food of Love’ is superb. Other contributors include Paul Kane, Ralan Conley and Jeremy C. Shipp. With luck the anthology will be available at WHC 2010 in the dealer room, but failing that, it will be stocked by all the usual online suspects.

Next up is Holy Horrors. To give you an idea of how long this anthology has been in the pipeline, I submitted my tale ‘The Germ of His Ideas’ to Matt Cardin and T. M. Wright on 8^th September ’06. It was accepted about ten months later. Since then, watching the ups and downs has been quite disturbing. At times, I was convinced – and so were the editors, I think – that the book would never be published. However, we’re finally on course for Holy Horrors to be released in two volumes by Ash Tree Press. Volume 1 in spring and Volume 2 before the end of the year.

I include both TOCs because they excite me so much

VOLUME 1

1) “Sanctuary.” Jim Rockhill.

2) “The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini.” Reggie Oliver. Reprint.

3) “Bavel II.” Jens Rushing.

4) “Saviour.” Gary Braunbeck.

5) “Vom-Beist.” Mike Norris.

6) “Magog and I.” Craig Holt.

7) “Darshan.” William R. Eakin.

8 ) “Ezekiel Remembers.” Kurt Dinan.

9) “And You Shall Be Adored.” Regina Mitchell.

10) “Sicarii.” Andrew Tisbert.

11) “Porta Nigra.” Darren Speegle.

12) “The Dead Must Die.” Ramsey Campbell. Reprint.

13) “At the Feet of the Forest Primeval.” Randy Chandler.

14) “The Editor.” Pamela K. Taylor.

15) “Behind the Bathroom Door.” Sara Joan Berniker.

16) “The Hands of God.” Michael McBride.

17) “Cold to the Touch.” Simon Strantzas.

18) “Anubis Has Left the Building.” Tim Waggoner. Reprint.

19) “On This Day of Reckoning.” Joseph Nassise.

20) “Rapture.” Robert Morrish and Harry Shannon.

VOLUME 2

1) “Abandon.” Adam Browne.

2) “In the Name of God.” Stuart Young.

3) “The Sect of the Idiot.” Thomas Ligotti. Reprint.

4) “The Shaft.” Brian Hodges.

5) “Waters Dark as a Raven’s Wing, Flames Bright as a Dove’s Breast.” Dru Pagliassotti.

6) “Uncaged.” Paul Finch.

7) “Intentions.” William Freedman.

8 ) “The Tattoo Artista.” Eric S. Smith.

9) “Redemption.” David Niall Wilson.

10) “The Bishop Receives a Visitor.” Marion Pitman.

11) “A Prayer for Captain La Hire.” Patrice E. Sarath. Reprint.

12) “Purifying Vows.” Kim Paffenroth.

13) “The Temple.” Quentin S. Crisp. Reprint.

14) “The Monsters We Defy.” Karen Williams.

15) “The Wound of Her Making.” Gerard Houarner. Reprint.

16) “Bad Religion.” Douglas M. Chapman.

17) “The Germ of His Ideas.” Joseph D’Lacey.

18) “Darkness.” Jude Wright.

Finally – but only for the moment, of course – Mark Deniz of Morrigan Books asked me for a story to complete a pet project of his. Scenes From the Second Storey was The God Machine’s debut album. Released in 1993, it has been hailed as one of the best albums of that decade. It’s one of Mark’s favourites of all time, so the collection bears the same name. Each of the stories in the anthology takes the title of, and is inspired by, one of the songs. Mine was track eleven: Seven. It was a pleasure to write and I’m happy to note that Mark will be giving himself the book for his 40^th birthday present! Other authors include Carole Johnstone and Gary McMahon.

For those of you who’d like to see a free JD’L horror tale right now, the gruesome ‘Read my Lips’ is in Ecelcticism #9.

2 comments January 15th, 2010

The sound of MEAT!

When MEAT first came out, Bloody Books made an unabridged recording of the text. The reader was Sorcha Cusack who has the most amazing voice – it really fits the tale. I heard she was white with shock at some of things she had to say whilst reading! Apologies to you, Sorcha!

The downloadable audio version of MEAT was released last year but was never well publicised. It has now been re-released on iTunes and at audible.com and is currently on offer for a lot less than the book.

It might make a unique Christmas gift or just scare the hell out of you during the season of goodwill…

(SORCHA CUSACK is probably best known for her long running role as nurse, Kate Wilson in Casualty. She has also appeared in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Playing the Field and Eureka Street. She has appeared in many radio plays including The First Witch, The Real Charlotte and The Day Daniel O’Donnell Got Married as well as stage productions such as The Vagina Monologues, A View From the Bridge and Feast of Snails.)

Add comment December 19th, 2009

Interview with artist of the fantastic, Allison Theus by JD’L

Some months ago I posted a free story here on HR titled ‘Lights out’. I wanted some art to accompany the tale and after trawling Google images I found exactly what I was looking for. The discovery made me very interested in Allison Theus, the creator of the image. I don’t believe in coincidences, so I spent some time looking at her other work, on her website and at deviant art. I knew I had to get her for an HR interview and here, after months of chasing this very busy and successful artist, is the result:

Joseph D’Lacey: Hi, Allison. And welcome to the cramped, dripping corridors of Horror Reanimated. After waiting all this time to interview you, it’s a real treat to finally have you here.

There are reasons why you’ve been otherwise occupied, though. Tell us what you’ve been doing since I first contacted you regarding ‘Face’…

Allison Theus: Hey Joseph, quite a bit has been going on. At the time you contacted me I was just finishing up grad school in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University, in their Entertainment Technology program. Immediately afterward I went to work at a start-up videogame company called Divide by Zero Games located in Seattle, WA. I spent a little over a year there doing concept art, illustration, texturing, UI design and some 2D and 3D animation on several projects. About 3 months ago I decided to strike out on my own to try a little freelancing, where I picked up work doing monster miniature concepts for Rackham Games and monster miniature schematics for Fantasy Flight Games as part of their Arkham Horror project. I’m currently working on illustrations for a children’s book and involved in a gig with Warner Bros. which, though not as fantastic as some of the monster stuff, is still really cool. Add to that the usual queue of private fantasy and sci-fi commissions, and it’s been pretty hectic!

JD’L: I have a theory that artists and musicians tend to know what they were destined to do from a very early age, whereas writers often don’t find out until later. Was that true of you?

AT: It was. Art had been a big part of my life from a very early age, and as the years went by it evolved and took over everything. It’s difficult to imagine what I would do without it.

JD’L: And were the themes you find attractive always in the realms of the fantastic?

AT: I suppose so. I found there to be a great deal of freedom in the fantastic, and that freedom allowed me to explore themes that were both of the fantastic and non-fantastic variety.

JD’L: Are you self-taught in the main or have you done a lot of formal study?

AT: I’m a pretty even mix of both. I’ve taken art classes throughout school (hell, I majored in Fine Art in undergrad), and for several years very early on I studied with a local painter, but the most important things that I have learned have been outside the classroom. I would spend hours playing with concepts and materials, figuring out new techniques, and learning what worked and what didn’t. While the classes were good, I believe I owe most of my progress to my own experimentation.

JD’L: If I were a creator of visual art, it would be my instinct to reinvent the world rather than show it as it is. After all, the real world is one no one can see, isn’t it – reality a drab cover for something astonishingly beautiful? Like everyone who creates art for a living, I know you’re tied to certain contractual commitments but if it was up to you how and what you created, what would you say the driving force is behind your gift? What do you want to see and what do you want us to see?

AT: It really depends. I’ve always possessed a strong feeling that my art was for something; that it would serve some sort of higher purpose (which is not to say I believe my art is the grandest thing since sliced bread, or that this purpose will ever reveal itself during my lifetime). It simply exists and provides a continuous urge to create. Simultaneously, my art has always been intertwined with my life. Think of it as one giant ongoing dialogue with yourself, where everything you’ve ever done or felt or learned has been recorded, IS being recorded and considered and at times disputed. A constant self-assessment, if you will.

I think what I really want to see in my art is some sort of resolution – perhaps the complete evolution of the self into something greater then what I am. For my audience, it’s less about what is seen and more about what is felt. At least for personal pieces, if someone can look at a piece and glean what I felt while making it (which is often the ‘why’ I made it), then that’s good stuff. It’s an odd way to share experiences, but I find it particularly rewarding.

JD’L: The first time I talked to you about this interview, you felt there wasn’t a great deal of horror in your work. When I look at it, I see both horror and fantasy. I didn’t mean that you set out to frighten in your work, merely that what you depict is unsettling and a spark to the dark imagination. Horror is, perhaps, more a sensation than a genre and if it was up to me, I wouldn’t hesitate to commission you for some cover art for one of my novels. I guess what I want to know is: What’s more important; how you see your work or how others see it?

AT: How I see my work, definitely. You’ve got to like it, or at least semi-like what you do to really want to do it all the time. The more involved you are, the better you will be able to convey your message(s). Besides, everybody’s different; I know and expect that people will interpret my work differently. That’s part of the fun!

JD’L: Who are your artist heroes, past and present?

AT: My very first artist hero was Robert Bakker, a well-known Paleontologist (I distinctly remember watching him explain the way sound travels through a Parasaurolophus’s nasal passageways as he was sketching the head of the creature on a TV program many, many years ago); his ability to be both scientist and artist was extremely inspiring. When I hit my wildlife stage I was very fond of Carl Brenders and Robert Bateman, one for his extreme realism and the other for his dramatic portrayals of nature. From there I forayed into the realm of sci-fi clutching Wayne Barlowe’s ‘Expedition,’ and picked up some inspiration later on down the line from Terryl Whitlatch and Iain McCaig. Currently, my present, and perhaps most influential hero to date is Zdzisław Beksiński, whose work manages not only to depict most of my long-standing nightmares but to do it in such a way that is both immensely beautiful and utterly terrifying.

JD’L: If you could pick your next employer, what would be your ideal paid project?

AT: I would absolutely love to get a chance to work inside Stan Winston Studios and make monsters come to life. That would be a dream come true for me, no joke. I would also be happy working for a variety of game companies, especially Blizzard.

JD’L: What is your favourite work of art?

AT: There are too many great artists and great works of art to choose from! I don’t know that I could ever settle on just one.

JD’L: Allison, it’s been a delight to finally have this time looking into your mind. Thank you for sharing your visions with us. All of us here at Horror Reanimated wish you great success for the future.

AT: Thank you!

Add comment December 8th, 2009

JD’L talks to 3:AM Magazine plus changes to pre-christmas signing schedule…

Add comment November 30th, 2009