Schultz tends to lend a rare quality of consideration to his work, whether he's writing for a popular franchise like Aliens, or creating his own stories for SubHuman or the critically-acclaimed Xenozoic Tales. In January, Schultz' new Aliens series Aliens: Apocalypse -- Destroying Angels hits the stands, and fans can expect the same high standards from this series that they've come to enjoy in everything else he's done. He's joined this time around by artist Doug Wheatley, of whom Schultz says "(his) art is really pretty exceptional." Destroying Angels is a decidedly different Aliens series in scope and focus than fans might be used to, but we guarantee any fan of Aliens will love what he's done with it.
SE:You're working on a new Aliens series called Aliens: Apocalypse. Can you tell us the premise without giving too much away?
MS: The new series goes back the first movie, Alien, for inspiration. It postulates a secret cabal of independent scientists, the Geholgod Institute, who have managed to tap into Weyland-Yutani files and have learned of the existence of the derelict space ship the crew of the Nostromo discovered in Alien. The Gelholgod conducts its own search and discovers another derelict, to which they send a research expedition, headed by a very ambitious and charismatic scientist, Lucien Keitel. Lucien and his team reach their destination and everything seems well for a time, but then the expedition ceases contact, and the Geholgod turns to the story's heroine, Alecto Throop, to find and recover Kietel and his men.
But Kietel has an agenda of his own, which is very tied into his discovery of Aliens, and he may not wish to be found. Which gets down to the premise of the series: what's the story behind the Aliens? Where are they ultimately from, and is there an intent behind their contact with the human race? What is their role in the universe? I can't believe that any creature is inherently evil -- what seems evil to us is actually only not in OUR best interest. But maybe the universe at large needs Aliens. These are the kinds of questions Keitel is addressing.
Anyway, Throop, in her search for Kietel, winds up very far into uncharted space and encounters the remains of an ancient space-faring civilization, and must learn to survive a host of Aliens.
SE:Why the nominer Destroying Angels?
MS:I don't want to give away too much about the title this early on -- suffice to say that Kietel sometimes sees the Aliens in biblical terms.
SE:Your last series SubHuman also featured a remarkable female lead. What do you think a strong female character adds to a comic book like SubHuman or an Aliens title?
MS: I like writing characters I find interesting, and I guess I find strong women who know how to navigate and succeed in traditionally male-dominated situations to be interesting -- and attractive. Writing for the underdog is fun, too, and, I think, due to societal perceptions, women heroes almost automatically become underdogs. Unless, of course, you're carrying some kind of agenda and turn your heroine into a infallible superbabe, which, as far as I'm concerned, would make her as uninteresting as the average macho hero.
I like writing competent characters -- male or female -- who, while merely mortal, are good at what they do, keep their acts together during crises, and pull together as a team when the going gets tough. Which, I think is generally how people succeed in the real world.
SE:Before your work on the title were you an Aliens fan?
MS: I have been a big fan of Alien (the first movie) since its initial release. I think it's one of the most successful science fiction-horror films of all time -- just a level or two below the very greatest, Howard Hawks's The Thing. It's Lovecraftian in its atmosphere and implications -- an attitude that I'm trying to capture in Aliens: Apocalypse. I enjoy Aliens (the second movie), too -- its a very good action-adventure film. Unfortunately, beyond Ripley and the android, the characters were all pretty annoying and I ended up rooting for the Aliens.
SE:What made you want to work on the series?
MS: Phil Amara (series editor) told me that Dark Horse was looking to retool the Aliens franchise, and asked if I'd be interested. I pitched the idea of returning the basic premise to more in keeping with that of the first movie, with the Aliens being very much beyond our understanding and ability to deal with, much more of a "things are out of control, and we're not anywhere even NEAR the top of the cosmic food chain" atmosphere, and without any reassuring solutions in sight. More towards traditional horror. Phil showed enthusiasm for the direction I wanted to take things, and I was hooked.
SE:What sorts of media do you enjoy? And are any of these sources of inspiration for your comic book work?
MS: I enjoy all storytelling mediums, when the work is done with integrity. Good stories and exciting characters are always an inspiration. I take whatever I can learn from any medium, even though techniques from other media are seldom adaptable to the unique demands of comic book storytelling.
SE:You're best known as an artist, but suddenly you're popping up all over the place as a writer. How did that happen? And how do you like working with other artists on your writing projects?
MS: The bottom line is, I can't draw fast enough to make a living. I CAN write fast enough to make a comfortable income. I'm essentially a control freak, and in my perfect world, I'd be able to do it all and control all aspects of my projects. I do reserve that kind of control for my own book, Xenozoic Tales, but that's why I can only get a new issue of Xenozoic Tales out every year or two. But I've got to say that I feel very lucky that in most of my collaborations I've worked with very talented, very sympathetic artists. Case in point would be Doug Wheatly, the artist on Apocalypse. I'd never seen his work before Phil introduced me to him as the prospective artist, and at first I had some questions, but, honestly, his work on this series has just blown me away. It's far beyond the call of duty, and his feeling for the material, and sympathy for Giger's design style, is phenomenal. Plus, he has experience as a wildlife illustrator, which is a happy coincidence as one of the major characters is a great gray owl. He really knows his animal anatomy, which is a big plus in my book. I think readers who don't know Doug's work are going to be very pleasantly surprised when they see his take on the Aliens universe.
SE:At the end of Apocalypse, where do you leave the Aliens readers, and what do they have to look forward to -- or dread?
MS: Hopefully at the end of the series we'll have the reader intrigued and wanting more. While I want to keep this a self-contained, satisfying read, it's a big universe out there, and we want to leave lots of unanswered, disturbing questions. And with the feeling that there's a much bigger picture out there, of which we've only shown a tiny glimpse.
Aliens: Apocalypse -- Destroying Angels is an all-new four-issue miniseries, heralding the beginning of a new continuity within the Aliens series. The first issue hits comics shops January 27, 1999. Beware.