Vietnam Bayonet Massacre!

At last, Massacre For Boys Picture Library #1 is out there – and what a corker it is! Featuring some of the most talented folks in the small-press world (and me), this work of wonder is wrapped up in a David Frankum cover that’s the equal of anything you’ll find in the pro comics world. For a full rundown of the contents, have a look at mastermind Chris Denton’s blog here. Suffice to say, you need to get your hands on a copy, and pronto!

My contribution, in collaboration with the awesome John Caliber, is the inaugural appearance of The Zen Fusilier, also known as Captain Appollinaire Sartre. Operating in the year 1901, Sartre is a Fusilier Marin who has spent considerable time in France’s eastern colonies and developed a unique philosophy and fighting style that fuses oriental wisdom with Gallic imperialism. Now, he fights supernatural horrors opposed to spiritual ascendance.

The character evolved out of a number of ideas and influences. The main one was my fascination with world mythology and folklore. Put simply, I love monsters, the weirder the better, and as my ‘Martillo’ collection suggests, I also love researching the supernatural lore of foreign lands and discovering the mythic beings that have haunted a culture’s imagination. Connected to this is my fondness for Hong Kong vampire movies, particularly the classic ‘Mr. Vampire’, the film which popularised the jiangshi or ‘hopping vampire’. Even the classic tv series ‘Monkey’, with its insistence that demons are to be fought, helped inform Captain Sartre’s mission.

Another very different jumping-off point was a song, specifically ‘A Shogun Named Marcus’ by the band Clutch, about a redneck samurai. This got me thinking about characters who embodied a clash of cultures, and led to my writing a never-finished comic script featuring a parallel world where different historical cultures had merged together. This was done mostly on the basis of my being able to engage in a bit of wordplay with their names, so it included Naztecs (Nazi-Aztecs, later used in ‘Spencer Nero’) and Kung-Fusiliers (‘Kung-Fusilier’ was my original title for ‘The Zen Fusilier’ strip.)

Captain Sartre was also a bit of a reaction against the aforementioned Spencer Nero from PARAGON, who was steadily and enjoyably evolving into a bit of an arse. As a contrast, I wanted write a character who really was a decent guy – who might be an eccentric, infuriating, never-loses-his-cool know-it-all, but was without doubt very moral, genuinely devoted to vanquishing evil, and completely lacking in pettiness.

So there you go. I am at present working on a new adventure for Captain Sartre - one that will see him visiting France's African colonies. Keep 'em peeled, and watch out for strange lights in the night sky....

Keep Me Covered (x 2)

Two separate stories of mine have garnered two different cover spots, it seems: always an absolute honour, I should add. The first fantastic frontispiece is for Paragon #13, showcasing an eighteen-year-old Spencer Nero’s flashback conflict with the sort of creature that would give Ray Harryhausen a profound dose of the heebie-jeebies. The intrepid and highly talented artist is Neil Roche, also known as Bhuna, and the creature in question is based on designs by James Corcoran, who draws the interior strip, ‘Spencer Nero Goes South’. Neil has also drawn a Nero two-pager, ‘Spencer Nero and the Ruthless Rhymer’, which follows in a Paragon tradition of rhyming stories. Not sure if that’s in #13 as well or being saved for a later issue, but having seen Neil’s completed art, I can confirm that it looks gorgeous – albeit in a deeply sinister way.

The other cover is for ‘The Zen Fusilier’, as mentioned in a previous posting, which has been chosen as the cover story for the forthcoming Massacre For Boys Picture Library. The art here is by David Frankum and is, frank(um)ly, jaw-dropping. As I commented to Massacre impresario Chris Denton, there’s a strong Brian Bolland vibe to David’s line-work on this awe-inspiring piece: precise, detailed and evocative. Unfortunately, it sounds like the Picture Library will be out later than the Massacre boys originally intended, but good things come to those wait, particularly in the small press.

French Doors Opening

 

Just a quick preview for something coming up in 2013 (probably around May, I believe): 'The Zen Fusilier'. It's a 6-page story due to appear in 'Massacre For Boys Picture Library', a new anthology produced by the much-vaunted Massacre For Boys team of Chris and Steve Denton. (And yes, this page indeed appeared as a preview on their blog last year, but hey, as publication looms, there's no harm reappropriating it and parading it over here. Any excuse to show off John Caliber's remarkable art.)

The year is 1901, during a time of French Colonial power known popularly as the Belle Epoch, and our hero is the inscrutable Captain Appollinaire Sartre, Fusilier Marin and Gallic devotee of the Orient. Sartre is stationed in Hue, Vietnam, then part of French Indochina, and is accompanied by the redoubtable and yet perpetually anxious Ensign Chaput. As for who those tree-creepers are (and what, precisely, they have dangling from their nostrils) - well, I'm not giving everything away yet.

Art (and lettering) are, as noted, by the ridiculously talented John Caliber - having seen the whole thing, I can tell you that he's delivered an absolute blinder. Colourful, beautiful, terrifying - it's an absolute feast for the eyes.

But not, sadly, for the nose. Well, unless those things in the trees get their way.

Happy New Year! (Though it won't be a particularly pleasant one for most the people on that page.)