Interview with Steph Dumais - Creator of Zombie Commandos From Hell

By Geoff Bough

Online comics are hugely popular right now and Zombie Commandos From Hell is definitely one of the better ones out there. Zombie Commandos From Hell is a futuristic splatterpunk tale with zombies from the mind of Steph Dumais. We got to talk with Steph about the comic, check it out...

Rev: Can you tell us how you got started in comics and how the idea for
ZCFH came about?

Steph: I was doodling comics since I was a kid, first doing my own adventures
from cartoons I watched and later doing superhero stuff and by the time
I got in high-school, I was doing funny comic strips. At some point in
my teens, I discovered classic underground comics (Crumb, S.Clay Wilson,
Spain, Robt.Williams...), alternatives like Milk & Cheese and hardcore
horror like Faust and Deadworld. That's when I started up my Raisinlove
Comix zine, which came out every few months, featuring gore and violence
with a twisted funny edge. I xeroxed and distributed these in a few cities.

A few years later, in 1998, I moved to Montreal to study animation and
multimedia. That's when my little network expanded more than ever before
and in 1999 I landed my first fulltime job as a web designer.
Raisinlove.com was born and at first only featured scans of my zines. At
some point I discovered Jake Karns' "Tales of Uranus" online and got in
touch. We decided to collaborate together on an ongoing improvised
online comic where he would do a page, then me and so on. Zombie
Commandos From Hell! was the result. He eventually lost interest in
this project but I took it further by getting it printed and tightening
the story. I got a few guest artists involved in the first issues, got
Diamond distribution and ultimately got to the fifth issue, produced and
published by Frightworld Studios.

Rev: Tell us about the world that ZCFH is set in and a fill us in a little on the story...

Steph: ZCFH takes place in the year 2143AD, after the world's nations have fragmented into warring city states and colonies due to the collapse of civilization through pollution, overpopulation and extreme ideologies. Militias fight for territories, religious cults gather desperate followers and cannibal bikers roam the wastes and pillage the weaker
populace.

Mother Earth is sick of humanity, which has ruined the world, so she makes a deal with Satan to rid the planet of mankind. She gives him the human dead as vessels for his demon minions, who proceed to kill and torture any living homo-sapien.The story features Tatiana, sole survivor of the First Colony, one of the most ruthless militias; Sloan, sole survivor of his cannibal biker gang, the Wasters and a surviving member of the mysterious underground dwelling Vilmari. Other characters include the Blood Queen, leader of
the Church of the Apocalypse, an insane power hungry religious dominatrix intent on recreating the Garden of Eden through genetic manipulation, a First Colony Cyborg turned zombie, the zombie General Gutripper, the Ultrazombies and a host of others.

This is basically the
story of Tatiana and Sloan trying to survive this nightmare along with everyone they meet on their journey to a hopefully safe destination. The focus is mainly action: fights, sieges and splatter.

Rev: ZCFH has been collected in a print format at one point, are there
still plans to take the comic to a wider print release?
Copyright 2008 Stephane Dumais

Steph: Of course I'd like to have the newest episode, which is still ongoing on
the website, into a full colour graphic novel, perhaps collected along
with the previous 5 issues, but I haven't really focused on that aspect
yet. For now, I'm simply concentrating on wrapping up the story. Once
the story concludes online, I will probably submit it to a number of
publishers.

Rev: What goes into creating a comic like ZCFH? Take us through the
creation of a panel and what that involves...

Steph: The creative process behind ZCFH is different from other comics I've
worked on in that I'm constantly refining the script as I go along. I
start out with loose ideas jotted down on paper, which I flesh out into
a tighter story. I then sketch out certain panels or characters very
loosely just to get an idea of what I want. When I get down to the
actual page, I start again with loose scribbled, then ink in the panels
and work on the pencils some more.

Until now I've had a tendency to do most of the detailed fleshing out at the inking stage, which I avoid
when working with scripts from other people (like my TMNT strips and the
Club Zero-G book). Once this is scanned in, I apply shading (and colour
for the latest online episode) in Photoshop with a tablet. The final
stage is laying over text bubbles and sound effects in Illustrator.

Rev: Did you study art? If so, where did you study?

Steph: I studied applied arts in public college in Gatineau, Quebec. In
Montreal I attended College InterDec for a year only to discover 3D
animation wasn't my cup of tea. That's about it in terms of formal
education, everything else I pretty much learned on my own through trial
and error.

Rev: Are there any particular artists or designers that you admire?

Steph: Of course! There's Vince Locke, Simon Bisley, Robert Crumb, Robert
Williams, Jeff Gaither, Jim Lawson , Eric Talbot, James O'Barr, Tim
Vigil, Frank Miller... I also love much of the artwork found in games
like Warhammer 40K, the old Palladium RPGs and 2000AD comics. I like
dark, gritty and detailed art alot.

Copyright 2008 Stephane Dumais

Rev: How about any artists or writers that you'd like to work with?

Steph: I would like to work with Jake Karns again at some point but I would
especially like to work with some writers. I had an amazing time working
on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer Steve Murphy and we will
be collaborating again. It would be great to work on other creator owned
properties as well, where the original writer would let me interpret his
or her characters with my own style.

Rev: It's apparent that ZCFH is very musically inspired, can you tell us
what kind of music or bands in particular have influenced the comic?

Steph: Well it all ties in with the post-apocalyptic aesthetics, pounding
machine music, crunching sounds and aggressive beats that you find in
industrial, IDM, glitch and especially noize music. I usually listen to
this music when drawing, taking in the audio violence artists like
Iszoloscope, Mono No Aware, Pneumatic Detach, Sorehead, Scrape.DX,
Liquid Blasted, Hypnoskull, Sonar, Proyecto Mirage and so on.

When the third issue came out, I released it with a soundtrack (from
Geska/Optikon Records) featuring 15 artists from around the world. I had
correspondence with most of these as I often designed record covers for
industrial bands. Each contributed an exclusive track inspired by ZCFH,
with sound effects, horror atmospherics and even distorted sound bites
from me. The music ranges between dark trance to techno-punk, noize and
ambient. You can hear some of these tracks from the soundtrack section
at www.zombiecommandos.com

Steph: It must come as no surprise that I pick up all the issues of The Walking Dead, the odd appearance of the new incarnation of Deadworld, the TMNT books, 30 Days Of Night, some Warhammer 40K graphic novels and various one shots or trades with artwork that inspires me.

Rev: What can we expect to see you and ZCFH in the future?

Steph: I'd like to finish ZCFH before the summer, concluding with a battle
royale with thousands of zombies and robots! But with a fulltime job and
other ongoing projects, It's not always easy fitting in very personal
projects like this. I'm considering doing a Blood Queen spinoff after
this but there's another comic project in the works with Steve Murphy as
I mentioned earlier. I'm always keeping an eye open for anthologies and
I've begun getting more into pinup art and tattoo design. You can see a
few of these at www.raisinlove.com, along with the rest of my portfolio.

I'd like to thank Steph for taking the time to answer my questions and for his awesome work on ZCFH! To check out the comic and for more info. click the banner below