Interview with Fear the Dead comic writer Michael Alan Nelson

By Geoff Bough

Boom! Studios has been satiating zombie fans lust for zombie comics for a while now with the ever popular 'Zombie Tales' series. Now they are poised to turn the zombie comic world on it's head with the upcoming release of 'Fear the Dead' by 'War of the Worlds: Second Wave' author Michael Alan Nelson accompanied by a myriad of incredible artistry from the worlds top horror artists the likes of: Nat Jones, Jay Fotos, Eric Powell, Chee, Josh Medors and a host of other eye-popping artisans. We recently had the opportunity to pick the brains of 'Fear the Dead' author Michael Alan Nelson about the book. Be warned, what follows is incredibly horrific. If you feel yourself becoming faint, just repeat to yourself the mantra ...It's only an interview, it's only an interview, it's only an interview...

Rev: Michael, it's great to be able to talk zombies with you man. Wow! Fear the Dead must have been quite the undertaking with a talent roster such as it has. How did this project come about?

MAN: Fear the Dead was just one of those fun projects that luckily came across my desk. But it was also a serious challenge in that there were all these great images from all these great artists just sitting there like scattered pieces to a terrifying jigsaw puzzle. And I had no idea what the puzzle picture was supposed to look like. But when it finally started coming together, we realized that we really had something special here for zombie fans.

Rev: Initially, Steve Niles was tapped for this project. Was he just too busy? Had anything been written when he left the project?

MAN: I'm not sure why Steve didn't end up doing the project. If he had anything written before I came aboard, I'm not aware of it. I came into the project cold, without any storylines or character sketches. All I had were the images. But I have to tell you, that made it a lot of fun. Instead of coming into the project with a story already in mind, I used the art as a catalyst to help me come up with something I never would have otherwise.

Rev: Fear the Dead is a "zombie survivor's journal". Can you tell us a little about that?

MAN: The story follows a photojournalist who was unfortunate enough to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. As he chronicles the events he's witnessed and how he 's survived, he also hints at something called "Setting Sun" throughout his story. But you'll have to read it to find out what it is.

Rev: What was it like working with all this incredible talent?

MAN: It was amazing, not to mention a little intimidating. This work is so disturbingly beautiful that I worried that any words on the page might take away from the art. So I just had to make sure that whatever was going to be on each page had to be something that complimented the image and yet still keep it all within the story. Which was difficult in its own right, but the fact that each piece of art was so incredible and so rich meant that I had to fight the urge to tell an entire story for each one.

Rev: Was orchestrating all of the talent a chore? That's a lot of artists to all be on a deadline.

MAN: This really wasn't an issue for me since I came in at the eleventh hour. The art was already finished when I showed up so all I had to do was figure out how to put it all together in a cohesive story. That was the toughest part because each artist did their own take on the zombie apocalypse without any instruction other than "Zombies. Go." Because each artist had their own unique perspective, there were a number of directions the story could have gone. So it took a little while to find a way to put it all together. And yeah, I hear that keeping artists on deadlines is a lot like herding cats, but not nearly as tough as keeping writers on deadline. But these guys are professionals so there were no issues. Only heaps and heaps of bleeding, gory goodness.

Rev: When I read the blurb on the Boom! site about Fear the Dead, my head nearly exploded in anticipation. What can zombie fans expect from Fear The Dead?

MAN: They can expect 44 pages of the most beautiful, disturbing and horrifying images ever put to paper. Seriously, this book is gorgeous as it induces dry-heaves and fills you with an urge to keep a cricket bat by your door. I can't sing the praises of these artists enough. There is such a vast array of talented visions in this book that even the most casual zombie fan would have to have it in her collection. Some of the art is funny, some of it's scary, sad, twisted and disgusting, even bittersweet. Now, I don't expect the book to be gracing your grandmother's coffee table any time soon, but the caliber of quality in this book certainly warrants it. Oh yeah, and the story's not half bad either.

Rev: How long did it take to write Fear the Dead?

MAN: Longer than it should have taken. Even though it only took me a few weeks, it still needed to be done a lot sooner. I wrote three seperate versions of the story. Not different drafts of the same story, but different stories altogether. I was having a really hard time finding a common thread that I could run through the entire book. My first attempt resulted in a typical journal style narrative with each caption on the page directly referencing the image. And even though it wasn't that bad, it wasn't the best thing I'd ever written. But the axe fell when I gave it to Ross and he called me a little later to tell me, and I quote, "It's a good start." Yeah, that's code for "I'm using this script to house-train my puppy. What else you got?" So I went back to the woodshed and hammered out a second story. I think that script ended up lining the bottom of a birdcage. It's not that these stories were bad, they just weren't good. And when you've got a book filled with artwork this good, you want something that's going to rise to the same level of quality. So I sat down with one of my closest friends, writer Johanna Stokes. The nice thing about being friends with my favorite writer is that I can go to her when I'm having trouble and she gives me great advice. So after about ten minutes of explaining my problems with the script, she got me turned around with a great idea and I was able to crank out the story in a single afternoon. Ross loved it, so that's what you'll be reading when the book comes out.

Rev: Did you have any favorite artist(s) on the project?

MAN: That's a tough question. With this group I can't really say that I favor one artist over the other since all of the artists brought their A-Game to this project. But there are a few images that really stand out for me. What I call the "Yorrick" image by Chee (I don't know if the artists have any names for these images so I've just been kind of making my own). Every time I see it I always think of Prince Hamlet standing in that grave saying "Alas, poor Yorick..." And it's not just the coolness of someone holding a severed head but the reflection of the man's face in the blood. Just brilliant. Another one I really like is by Jay Fotos that I call "Zombie Vanity." I'm not going to describe it since I could never do it justice, plus I don't want to give anything away . But I think it will be easy for people to recognize which piece I'm talking about. But I think my favorite image is what I call the "Zebulon" image by Sanford Green and Scott Kester. My sister was pregnant with twins at the time I was working on the story and "Zebulon" was going to be the second name she was going to use if she had two boys. Which basically meant that there was an above average chance that the kid was going to grow up getting his lunch money stolen every day. So I wanted to do what I could to associate the name with a zombie killing ass-kicker instead of something that sounds like a Klingon side-dish. But my sister ended up having a boy and a girl so it all became a moot point. Still, don't be surprised if you come across Zebulon the Zombie Annihilator in the future. I've actually grown to really like the name.

Rev: How do you feel about the current zombie craze in comics and film? Do you think zombies are just the current "in" monster?

MAN: Well with anything like this, its popularity comes and goes. And the more popular something becomes, the more likely it is that the market will be saturated with it. Which can be both good and bad. Bad in the sense that there will people who just want to get something with zombies out into the market just to get a piece of the action, regardless of how good or bad it is. But it's good that in order to really be heard above the din of that saturation you really have to put out a quality product. That means better comics and better movies. I think we've been fortunate this time around since there's been so much good zombie stuff coming out in the last few years. Not only did we win the cinema trifecta a few years ago with 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead, but we've got such great works as The Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies and Warren Ellis' Black Gas (and, of course, Zombie Tales) in comics today. Eventually zombies will fade in popularity , but they'll come back (because zombies always do). Even though we may think that we've told every possible zombie story, someone always comes along and says, "You haven't heard this!" And that's when the fun begins.

Rev: Who/What are some of your influences?

MAN: My influences come from a lot of places: fiction writers, comic writers, television and film writers. I just love great story tellers. Even though I haven't read much of his more recent work, I think my biggest influence starting out was Fred Saberhagen. It was after I had finished reading his Book of Swords Trilogy when I was thirteen that I knew I wanted to be a writer. What did it for me was the fact that the first line of the first book and the last line of the third book were exactly the same, yet it had a completely different meaning. The story itself was amazing, but the way that he bookended the story with a single line absolutely floored me. And it's writers who can give you moments like that that I truly love to read. Those great cliffhangers or those moments when you're left with your mouth hanging open. Writers like Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Mark Waid, Joss Whedon, Clarke, Asimov, Goodkind, Goldman, anyone who can tell a great story and move you in some way.

Rev: When you sit down and begin to write, do you have any sort of ritual or do anything special to get in the frame of mind to write?

MAN: I usually have to play my guitar for a few minutes to get myself ready. It helps clear my mind and get me thinking creatively. Sometimes that 's not always an option though and it takes me a little longer to get into it. But the biggest thing that helps me get in the right frame of mind is the music I listen to when I'm writing. I generally try to listen to something that works as a soundtrack to the scene I'm working on. Heavier stuff for violent scenes, jazz for the more intircate scenes where there's a lot of nuance and subtext, mellow and somber music for emotional scenes. And sometimes silence works best. Just the sound of the world creeping through the windows is perfect for what I need. I also need a change of enviornment too. I don't have a laptop so I can't just get up and go to a different place whenever I need a change so I end up moving my desk to a different corner of the room about once every three months. It helps me keep things fresh.

Rev: What is your most prized possession?

MAN: That would be my guitar. A Fender Strat with that fat 70s headstock and an HSS configuration that lets me throw down anything from blues to thrash, all to the aggravation of my downstairs neighbors.

Rev: What have you been listening to lately? (music)

MAN: I've been listening a lot to the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack and a Japanese pop/rock band called L'arc en Ciel. I'll still throw on some System of a Down or Medieaval Baebes to set the right mood, but the first two are really working for me right now.

Rev: What is your favorite zombie film?

MAN: I would love to shore up my zombie street cred and give you an old school answer, but Shaun of the Dead is my favorite. That was just an amazing piece of story telling. It was funny, moving and entertaining with even a few moments of over the top gore. Damn near perfect film as far as I'm concerned.

Rev: What comics have you been reading lately?

MAN: There's actually quite a bit I try to keep up with. I really like Brian Wood's Local, The Walking Dead, Y the Last Man, Fables, Conan, anything by Warren Ellis and Mark Waid, Usagi Yojimbo, Girls, the new Blue Beetle and I'm impatiently waiting for more JTHM to come out. I just love Vasquez' twisted sense of humor.

Rev: I also wanted to take the time to say that your work on War of the Worlds: The second Wave is absolutely incredible. That must be a lot of fun to write.

MAN: Thanks man. Yeah, it's a blast to write. Ross is letting me take it into some pretty wild directions so I get to really go dark with it. I don't think most people will be expecting some of the things I have in store.

Rev: Any upcoming projects that we can expect soon?

MAN: Aside from Second Wave, there's Cthulhu Tales that will be out soon as well as X-Isle that I'm writing with Andy Cosby. I'm also hoping to adapt my novel Dingo into a comic as well. With any luck, I hope to see movement on that by the end of the year.

Again Geoff, thanks for interviewing me. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns, just let me know.

- m a n

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Michael for the interview and we here at Revenant wish him all the best. I can't stress enough how incredibly awesome this book is and I highly recommend it to any zombie fan out there, you will not be disappointed.