SE: I just read through the first issue of The Territory, and I'm intrigued -- what the hell is going on with this guy? Set the stage, please.
JD: If you're intrigued, that's good. In the opening scene of the story, Ishmael is 'born', fully formed, into a rough and elemental 'void' . . . a spark of life dropped into a threatening and unstable world. He is lost, without any frame of reference, innocent and ship, he'll starve, cast away in an empty ocean. He has a need. It is answered . . . but there is a price to pay. It could be a luxury cruise-liner that picks Ishmael up, but it's not. El Pulpo (Spanish for 'octopus') is the vessel of weird cannibal pirate slavers. Captive on board El Pulpo, Ishmael 'remembers' his name.
From El Pulpo to the decadent pleasure resort of 'Zanadoo'. Life as an arena slave is marginally better than sitting on a rock . . . and Ishmael learns that he is capable of effective action. He needs to fight to survive, so he fights. Fighting doesn't leave much time for thinking, but he knows that, after survival, there must be something more. He may have forgotten it, but he must have a purpose, a reason to live. It's love, of course . . . personified by the mysterious and lovely Scarlett . . . a femme fatal if ever you saw one.
Ishmael must free his love from the corrupt paws of powerful Max. En route to the mysterious City of Possibility, home of the sinister Hydracorp, Ishmael does just that.
Hero fights bad guy and gets girl. That's the way it happens in stories. That's the way Ishmael expects it to happen now. But this isn't a story . . . is it?
In The Territory, Ishmael's moment of triumph slips through his fingers and he drifts through the void again... to awake on the edge of a primeval swamp, delirious, in the embrace of a pulp adventure sci-fi giant slug. Do we start to see a pattern here?
SE: We probably need to take my first question a little deeper. What elements are we dealing with in this story? Who are the players? It seems to me that there is actually only one that we can be sure of -- Ishmael.
JD: Are you sure you can be sure of him? He seems a little simple . . . doesn't know very much about himself, except what he discovers as he goes along. Where the Hell is he, anyhow? The Territory is weird. It's full of anachronisms and incongruities. Kind of familiar, though.
SE: It seems that for all the action and physical predicaments this character finds himself in, most of what's going on here is psychological. It's like you're giving the character Ishmael a number of very difficult choices, and he has no idea what will result from any of them. At least in the world we live in (I hesitate to use the term 'real' for some reason), you and I can somewhat predict the results of our actions. This guy obviously can't.
JD: Hey! Ishmael's a hero . . . a man of action. He just does what he has to do. When he's done it, he confronts the result and deals with it. All he needs to think about is keeping his mind on his ultimate goal of loving unity with Scarlett . . . I mean Ruby . . . no, damnit! Redd . . . Carmine . . . Cherry. . . After all, there's no one like her in whole wide, uh, Territory.
SE: Is this some sort of parable? What are your intentions in crafting a story where so much needs to be interpreted? I suppose it could just be fun . . .
JD: Parable? This is the whole damn Bible. Every carefully placed comma is part of a complex encryption of ancient mysteries. Intoned sonorously, in reverse, at the precise date and time indicated by the orientation of balloon tails relative to the rising of the constellations of Orion and Draco, every syllable of the text is judged to invoke a separate sprite of wisdom. The answers are all here. Study the text. Discover the key. Rule the Universe.
Our intentions? Why, nothing less than the spiritual evolution of the species, of course. It just needs enough of you to understand and it will start a chain-reaction of enlightenment that will sweep the globe. Think of it. No more war, famine, sickness, work or Republicans. All you have to do is buy four comic books and invest a little time and intelligence. Fun? Do you think we are so shallow?
SE: Are you a student of philosophy at all? This whole story seems like it could be rooted in Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" -- Ishmael thinks he's Ishmael, but he can't be sure of anything. In fact, in the script of issue two, he asks himself "What did I really know?" which is something we can all ask ourselves about our self-perception and what we believe of the world around us. Is this something you'd like your readers to consider as they read The Territory?
JD: Descartes . . . That's in Iowa, right? It's all in the mind, innit? I think, therefore I am, I think . . . I am, therefore I think, I think . . . I think I am, therefore I think . . . Philosophy: stay away, it's worse than drugs.
SE: How does The Territory compare to other work you've done? Does it hold to a common theme in any way?
JD: The work of all writers and artists reveals their obsessions if studied closely enough, I guess. The conflict between "nature and nurture". . . instinct and will . . . the rational and the animal . . . perception and reality . . . aspects of the same basic dichotomy of human nature, perhaps (although crudely expressed) is one of mine. It's something that's found in The Bastard (or more likely The B*st*rd when published) - a future John Constantine story concerning the last, and illegitimate, heir to the throne of England . . . drawn by Phillip Bond and coming from Vertigo next year, and also Cruel and Unusual --- co-written with Tom Peyer and drawn by John McCrea -- a (very) black comedy centered around a privatized South Florida penal institution.
And The Great Satan (unfortunate artist currently unknown) - a new monthly Vertigo series which takes a look back from the cusp of the Millennium at 20th century America through the eyes of a "Wild Bunch" of American outlaw archetypes will be another one dealing with this sort of thing.
SE: What sorts of entertainment do you enjoy? And what (or whom) would you consider your influences to be?
JD: A random multi-media selection off the top of my head includes in no particular order: Burroughs, Ballard, Kesey, Beefheart, Jim Thomson, James Ellroy, Pynchon, Hunter Thompson, John Cale, Lee Perry, Conrad, Verne, Elmore Leonard, Roeg, Cormac McCarthy, Coen Brothers etc., etc . . .
My current favorite comic is Jonny Double by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso from Vertigo.
SE: Back to The Territory -- (editor) Dave Land said there's a big secret somewhere in the context of the story, and he wouldn't even tell ME what it is. I don't suppose you'll want to drop a hint for us as to what that secret might be?
JD: What? Apart from the secret of the Universe, you mean? Enjoy the escapism of the story. Serve your time. All will be clear in the end.