Break-out talent, Rick Remender (Strange Girl, Sea of Red) has teamed with Eisner nominated artist Tony Moore (The Walking Dead, Exterminators) to tell the story of the last of the Fear Agents, the band of Texans who once defended Earth from an onslaught of alien annihilation. We recently had a chance to speak with Rick where he shared his thoughts on life and comics. Or, comics and life. Either way, enjoy!
Dark Horse: For the uninitiated, tell us a little bit about Fear Agent, and the how the new Dark Horse series Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye fits into the overall story?
Rick Remender: Fear Agent is the story of a bookish young school girl and her journey into adulthood and her own blossoming . . . wait, that's this other thing I'm writing. Strike that.
Fear Agent is the story of Heath Huston, an intergalactic alien exterminator with a belly full of whiskey and a life full of hard knocks. He's had his ass handed to him by the time we open up on The Last Goodbye and so we are using this arc to explore Heath's past on Earth and the events that led him to become the space trash he is.
So as it's the origin of Heath, The Last Goodbye is the absolutely perfect time for new readers to come see what they've been missing. How's that for cocky and self-aggrandizing?
If you could describe the new Fear Agent story arc with just one word, what would it be?
Devastating. It's a rough story and it'll help to illustrate why Heath is such a tragic character. He goes through some fairly awful sh*t.
How did you get Jack Davis to do that variant cover for #1?
Tony Moore called him up. He tracked down his number and just cold-called him. Greatest thing Tony's done in his life if you ask me. Jack wanted to see the book before agreeing to do a cover and so we thought for sure he'd turn us down. Not only did he love the book, he told us he wished Harvey Kurtzman were still around to see it. Holy God did that make us happy. Just unreal. Such a hero, an American icon and to hear him say how much he loved the book is an honor that can't possibly be duplicated in my life unless someone knows how to get in touch with Wally Wood.
How has it been working with artist Tony Moore on The Last Goodbye?
Tony's got some issues. He calls me at midnight every Tuesday and makes me listen while he cries into the phone and does horrible and unspeakable things to himself. It's nothing you need to know about but it can make the collaboration a bit taxing. I'm a big-time comic book writer and I'm so booked up with work and meetings with Steven Spielberg and the likes that midnight for me is a time of reflection. A time to look in the mirror and bask in the glow of what I am, a star--a big golden star. So Tony's calls can screw that up as I suddenly have to change my focus from myself to talking him down from whatever ledge he's got himself on. So it's no good--except for his gorgeous art and perfect storytelling.
You recently moved up here to the Great Northwest. How do you like Portland? What is your favorite neighborhood?
I moved here just as the rain started and it kicked me in the ass a bit. Once the sun came out in April my wife and I fell in love with it, we'll be here for a long time.
I'm living in the northeast-Irvington-and it's quiet and exactly what I needed to detox from eight years in the big city (San Francisco). I dig Burnside and Hawthorne and have some friends down that way so I go down and eat and drink and carry on down there and come home to be a curmudgeonly old man. I've recently moved into Periscope studios (formerly Mercury) and I love the food carts we have downtown across from the office. Food is good and so I eat it. It's a great crew in the studio as well and they all made me feel right at home. Then I've got my publisher ten minutes away so I can come down to the Dark Horse office and leave DNA in Dave Land's coffee whenever he give me notes. In all honesty, I'm really as happy as I've ever been these days.
What do you miss the most about SF?
I miss the city itself. It has a real uniqueness; I guess all great towns do. I have some friends down there I miss seeing and a few restaurants as well. We lived right on the beach so I miss seeing the ocean everyday but mostly I miss my morning walk through Golden Gate park and killing a bum for Hentorium my dark lord. He's a great master and I like to give him souls, so look out Portland's homeless--I'm here to stay!
Do you have pets? What are their names?
Three cats. Roo, Mr. Blue, and Lester Magoo. Magoo is the king cat and I've learned to just do as he says. He weighs about twenty-four pounds and is like two feet plus in length. He's really huge and really hates to be inside for too many hours a day. When it's time to go out he lets me know by jumping on my desk and knocking my sh*t everywhere. He's a sweetheart.
Pirates or ninjas? Why?
Pirates. I did a series called Sea of Red over at Image and fell in love with the idea of a boat full of filthy men baking in the hot summer sun with no women to . . . uh, I mean because they are mean and kill stuff like real men should.
What are you reading these days?
Super F*ckers by Kolchalka, Criminal by Brubaker, Cassanova by Fraction, I have a ton of Goon to catch up on but always love my swamp friend Eric Powell's stuff, and I'm about to crack open The Other Side by Jason Aaron which I hear nothing but good stuff about. Reading Catcher in the Rye as well, somehow I never finished it in college. Love what Niles and Stakal are doing on Criminal Macabre. I usually keep myself too busy to enjoy reading much of anything but I'm making time to read more these days and keep up to date on what the passionate creators are pouring themselves into.
Who has been most influential in your life?
My mom. She read to me nonstop as a kid. Literally. All day and night till I was twenty-six when I escaped. Seriously though, she's an English teacher who focused on Greek mythology in college, so as a kid she read me so much Greek mythology that the fantastical and mythological are forever engrained in my head. My dad is a close second, as a bigshot lawyer he must have found it a bit hard to watch his son march into the arts, but he never showed it and was always very supportive. They built me up and helped me gain the self-confidence it takes to survive in the entertainment industry. Most importantly they cut me off after college. Nothing is a better motivator to a young man than knowing you haven't got a dime coming to you from your folks--ever. I don't know many spoiled people who've accomplished f*ck-all. Parents' money can really d*ck up a person.
What do you enjoy most about working in the comics industry?
Creative freedom and like-minded people. After doing five years in animation I knew I needed more freedom to tell and draw the kind of stories I wanted to. Getting things rolling in comics is a pretty good challenge but it's damn gratifying. When I hand someone one of my creator-owned books I always feel a charge, like it's exactly what I wanted to make and I'm so goddamned happy with it I'd proudly hand it to anyone. You don't get that feeling from being a feature film animator, or I never made it high enough up the ladder to anyway.
The friends I've made in comics are people I'll know for life. I find people who are drawn to this industry fall into two camps for me; those I have absolutely nothing in common with or people whose sentences I'm finishing after knowing them for ten minutes. The former consists of about 90 percent unfortunately but the 10 percent of like-minded folks more than make up for it. Meeting other artists and writers who grew up on the same punk rock or liked the same stupid B movies and same comics or skateboards or whatever . . . those people who were cooked in the same pop culture and now make comics from a personal place because they have a passionate desire to tell stories, meeting them, the 10 percent is a treat you don't get in most jobs. It's a unique personality type and you just don't find it in many places in the world.
How much of Rick Remender is Heath Huston?
Rugged lantern-jawed good looks, devil-may-care attitude, drinking problem, and a passionate hatred for aliens--we might as well just cut out photos of me and save the artists time and trouble. It's hard to explain why I hate aliens . . . my wife is English and she beats me. I guess that wasn't so hard to explain. But yeah, she beats me like hell, and all the time. It's good, you know, sometimes . . . but most of the time it's pretty emasculating and hurts. She's why I drink.
Have you ever seen a UFO or had an extra-terrestrial experience of any kind?
Yes! I really have. I saw a UFO shoot across the sky and turn at ninety degrees and shoot the other way in the desert near Yuma. Laugh all you want. They chose me for a reason. To spread the word--they're coming and if I want to go with them I'll need to slaughter the managers of six different 7-11s. I'm making my way down the coast this fall and doing just that.
What advice would you give to young, aspiring artists and writers trying to break into the comics industry?
Get a good and loving woman locked into place with her need for a green card before you really dive in. You'll need her support and sex to help you work seven days a week to get enough books out to be noticed. You'll also need her ability to cook delicious salmon to help you keep your weight down, fatso. I got one of them and it's made all the difference.
Oh, and go DIY and just make comics. Shut up and go. You'll learn on the road, preparation is for your Granny. Oh, and maybe try and learn some social skills . . . and it wouldn't hurt if you actually had talent--but looking around comics these days it's no prerequisite.
What can you tell us about End League (c'mon, your editor Dave won't mind)?
It's going to be so much fun your head will explode out your butt. I've been itching to chat about this for a while now, and even though I can't show any of the pages or cover art yet, I'm itching to. For those who haven't heard me ranting about how excited I am about this book The End League is my first creator-owned superhero series. I'm damn fortunate to be teamed up with artist and co-creator Mat Broome for this, the work he's done so far is just jaw dropping. For me, The End League is a project where I can do everything I've ever wanted to do with superheroes. A merging of The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight Returns, The End League follows a cast of the last remaining supermen and women, all familiar archetypes, as they embark on a desperate and perilous journey through a world dominated by evil, in hopes of locating the one remaining artifact that can save their world--the Hammer of Thor. We're looking at a December launch I think. You'll have no choice but to buy it.