For the last few years, Mark Schultz has been a staple in the pool of writers editor Phil Amara favors for consistent assignments, and a few of those assignments have centered on the cinematic horror of Aliens and Predators. Amara credits Schultz with transforming seemingly far-fetched sci-fi concepts into relevant and original stories. This is why Amara called Schultz when Dark Horse began exploring the idea of crossing over its three most action-packed science fiction characters for a book they hoped to call Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator. And that's how a book that could have been an uninteresting series of monster fistfights became a tight tale of military corruption, genetic foul play, and the perilous presence of humans in a galaxy filled with unknowable horrors.
I spoke with Schultz at the beginning of the year, and found him eager to share his thoughts on super-heroes, how to make a living doing comics, and why he remains fascinated by intergalactic monsters who like to snack on humans.
Shawna Ervin-Gore: At this point in your writing career, how many Aliens projects have you worked on?
Mark Schultz: I've only done two Aliens series.
SE-G: It seems like you've done a lot more.
MS: No. Only two: Apocalypse and Havoc, which is the one where we had different pages done different by a different artists. I've also done a couple of short Alien vs. Predator short stories for anthologies.
SE-G: And you've done a Predator series.
MS: I did the Hell and Hot Water miniseries, which was kind of based on my scuba diving fascination.
SE-G: That's right. That was just before SubHuman, which was also heavily influenced by your diving experiences.
MS: It's more fun to write when you can combine work with something you really enjoy.
SE-G: I think that shows through on those projects, and it usually adds a neat level of personal insight and interest, especially when you use it approach a well-known character from a different perspective. But now that you have done a handful of stories for both the Aliens and Predator worlds, are you starting to feel like you have a really good handle on the mythology of these creatures?
MS: Yeah, I do. I was a fan of the original movies -- at least, the first Predator movie and the Alien series. So I had a pretty firm grip on things, and I always knew where I would want to take the concepts if I ever had a chance to put my two cents in. Fox has been really gracious about letting me surmise the history of these creatures, set forth hypotheses, and add a little mythology. Plus, I've been able to elbow in a few of my ideas about the bigger picture.
SE-G: Yeah, our contacts at Fox are great to work with. They seem to give certain writers--once trust has been established--lots of room to explore and create history.
MS: Yeah, they've been really cool.
SE-G: I was wondering something when I was reading the script for the first issue of Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator -- what kind of sci-fi stuff have you written outside of these titles? And have you written any sci-fi stories that weren't for comics?
MS: Essentially, for the first ten years of my career, I did nothing but my own books, mostly Xenozoic Tales, which is a science-fiction-type concept -- very influenced by the work of people like Edgar Rice Burroughs and the EC sci-fi comics, and stuff like that. I was lucky to have such a long run on that, and I was able to make a good living just doing that -- writing and drawing my own comic, and having it merchandised well, which turned out to be important.
Eventually, that big cycle ended, and Xenozoic Tales and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was no longer something I could depend on for a living. So I started looking for other work, to pick up other work in comics, and I was lucky that editors -- first Bob Cooper, who was an editor at Dark Horse, and then Phil, who I knew from my days back at Kitchen Sink -- at Dark Horse were interested in hiring me.
They both started giving me work and lucky for me, it has grown to a point where I regularly receive science fiction minseries assignments from Dark Horse, usually tied in with licensed properties, which is fine.
SE-G: And you're one of our most popular cover artists.
MS: I've also been lucky to get the covers for some of the series. And I've got a monthly assignment from DC, writing Superman: The Man of Steel. What's really cool about that is I am not a super hero fan at all. I make no bones about it, I don't care who doesn't like it. But I like Superman, however, because he was originally a science fiction concept that kind of got co-opted into the first super-hero. I've always loved the fact that he is a great science-fiction concept, and the people at DC have been letting me go with that as an angle. They're essentially letting me write Superman as science fiction, so I'm continuing in that direction.
SE-G: It's not often that you stop to think of Superman as being a space alien, because he's such a humanistic super-hero. But essentially, he is a being from another planet.
MS: Right. And he's got this great cultural heritage that has been explored to a certain extent in the past, but I think there's a lot more that can be done with it.
SE-G: It seems like it's only been explored as the vehicle for explaining why he is a super hero in America today and not for the sake of telling his own story.
MS: Pretty much. I like the idea of pushing it even further and going into his heritage for its own sake.
SE-G: When did you first try your hand at writing? Did you study it in college?
MS: I actually began writing fairly seriously in high school. I went to college not knowing whether I should pursue writing or art, but my major was declared in commercial art. But I went to a school that also had a strong communications art program, because I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to continue in art or if I wanted to veer more toward writing. I figured I'd know after my first year of college, and as it turned out, I veered more over to art, and I kind of gave up writing for years.
SE-G: Oh, yeah?
MS: And I didn't really get back into it until back in 1986, when I started Xenozoic Tales. I had this idea for Xenozoic Tales, but I really didn't think anyone would be interested in my ideas. Essentially, I created Xenozoic Tales as a sort of hook to hang my art on. It's what I do best. So I wrote up the first Xenozoic Tales story and Kitchen Sink liked the concept as well as my artwork, and they said "Why don't we try this as a series?", and I said ,"But I don't write," and they said "Well, you wrote this. You can do it."
With the help of the editors there, I developed into at least an adequate scripter.
SE-G: (laughs) I would say at this point that you've proven at least that!
MS: Well, I'm still learning. I feel that every miniseries I do, I learn something new.
SE-G: You would hope that you would keep learning stuff.
MS: Oh, yeah. If I ever get to the point where I am one of those producers, you know, that just kind of hits their stride and they're happy with it and settle into that, I hope someone puts me out of my misery.
SE-G: It's a good thing that doesn't sound like a problem you would have. But it seems to me that you have a really good handle on what makes stories interesting and how to add a lot of texture and enough twists and turns to keep things exciting.
MS: Phil and I discussed -- think, literally, for hours -- the biggest problem we faced with this series, which was how to make these three different concepts work in the same universe. We didn't just want to toss off a story thinking that the story doesn't matter if the end result is just a slugfest. I have to believe in what I'm doing, even if it is within the concept of a fantasy, science-fiction book. There has to be enough representation of how people really relate to each other and what people can actually physically accomplish. It's got to be rooted in reality for me to believe it and stay interested in it.
I've read stuff that is a great initial concept, but then it gets so over the top that you just lose interest. On the one hand, they want me to be emotionally interested in these characters, but on the other hand, you know there is no chance they are going to die. It's obvious that they shoot all the bad guys and the bad buys never shoot them. So, why should I believe for a minute that there is any real danger being presented?
SE-G: Yeah. In a way I think that sort of stuff works in movies sometimes because you are giving your sensibilities over the notion that you're getting a visual treat. Sometimes you are just going to resign your disbelief and say, "I just want to look at something explode and have it be really fantastic." Sometimes that's OK with me, but I prefer good storytelling. And when you're reading something, there's usually a kind of intimate relationship with the story. People are usually thoughtful and alone when they read, so it's hard to be alone with a story that doesn't hold water.
MS: You know, Shawna, that's one of my biggest gripes about movies and storytelling and books in general these days. So much of it is moving toward that big flashy finale. And I guess there's nothing wrong with it, but you get less and less story telling. The old adventure movies let you care about the hero, because he could often get hurt, and it's rare that I feel that any more. I see that in comics too, and it bugs me. I try to make scripts believable and characters believable. I try to make you feel something, that these characters really do have something at stake here. I don't usually write "super-human" characters.
SE-G: Let's talk about the characters in Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator.
MS: Well, the main people we're dealing with are two familiar characters; Ripley, whom everybody knows, and Call, who was played by Winona Ryder in Resurrection. No one has been screwed so badly by life as Ripley.
SE-G: No kidding. She went from being this great science-fiction heroine who was the last survivor of this big battle with the Aliens, and now the military has messed with her so much that she's actually part Alien.
MS: Phil and I decided to start this story after the events of Alien: Resurrection. If you remember at the end of Resurrection, they were landing on Earth and neither Call nor Ripley knew anything about Earth. It's going to be a whole new adventure for them. Ripley has gone completely to seed. She is destitute. She has been so screwed up by the military industrial complex, that she is doing whatever she has to -- living in squalor -- just to stay away from these people. She has moved beyond being afraid of the Alien. She realizes that if the Aliens get her, she is dead and that is it. She might die a horrible, painful death, but at least she'll be dead. But the military, with their ability to clone her, they can do all sorts of horrible things and she is going to live on, and probably come back again in some other tortured form.
SE-G: That's really horrifying.
MS: This was sort of implied in the last movie, but not much was done with it. So I saw that as a green light to further explore this idea, and it ties in with another idea I had years ago, after I saw the second movie. That would have involved Ripley realizing that the real monsters are not the Aliens. The Aliens are amoral creatures, who do what they do to survive. It just happens that we're on their list of things they can use to breed with. It's horrible to us, but there's nothing intrinsically evil about the Aliens.
SE-G: Some of the best monster movies -- like Jaws -- are rooted in that concept.
MS: I agree. It's when humans try to exploit these creatures that we see where the real evil lies. Actually, Ripley is coming to identify more with the Aliens than she is with human beings. There is a good physical reason for that now that she has actually got Alien DNA in her, but also, she is just realizing that these things have a place in the universe. It also has to do with the very inhuman side of humanity she's come to know so well.
SE-G: She's probably become more aware of the larger "food chain" notion that comes with discovering other life in the universe.
MS: Essentially, we're dealing with a cosmic food chain, which includes the human military industrial complex exploiting and essentially screwing with the environment.
SE-G: Certainly. But why does Call go looking for Ripley?
MS: She wants Ripley for a very practical reason. Call is now part of an underground, antimilitary organization -- that was kind of hinted at in Resurrection, but I take it a little further and suggest that she is part of an organization that is continually searching out military conspiracies to develop and exploit Alien biology. They know something's going on, and they need every bit of muscle they can get. Ripley has the expertise, and she has the strength that will increase their odds of success tremendously. They are sent to infiltrate a space-station laboratory of this Trollenberg character, and they know that Alien physiology is being used to create some sort of super-soldier.
SE-G: I don't want to give away the punch line, so maybe we will leave it at that. But it gets good.
MS: Well, let's just say the Terminators come in here someplace.
SE-G: And then there are Predators, too.
MS: And there are Predators, too. You know, Predators can really be cool creatures, if they're handled well. They can still be the worst mothers in the universe, but they also have an established culture and a reason for doing things. I'm playing with the idea that they have a relationship with the Aliens that goes beyond just wanting to kill Aliens for sport. I think a correlation I could use is the American Indian and their hunting practices. They respected that there was a spirit in whatever they killed, and believed that their hunting was part of the cycle of life.
SE-G: Admittedly, I've been surprised by how much I like a lot of the Predator stories. For the last couple of years, especially, they've been really well done. Here's something else I wanted to ask you: I kind of see a similarity with Aliens and Predators being these sort of mythological creatures -- big, very beautiful to look at, but also intensely frightening from our point of views, considering what sort of power they have over a little measly human. Do you see any sort of relationship between your early and ongoing fascination with dinosaurs and what attracts you to these stories?
MS: I'll tell you what the connection between all this stuff is, and it's a kind of thread that runs through most, if not all, of my stories -- it's a fascination with ecology and how creatures relate. For dramatic purposes, of course, it's a lot more fun to work with dinosaurs or a Predator--something that is big and frightening and scary to us, at least on the surface. It's a lot more fun and a lot more commercially feasible working with these types of monsters than it is with the relationship between a mountain lion and a deer, for instance.
SE-G: It's back to the whole Jaws thing again, right?
MS: Right. And it's important to get these points across without hitting people over the head. These creatures do what they must to survive, just like we do. When we get into situations where we are not the masters anymore, like when we go into the water where there are sharks, or when we go into outer space, then all of a sudden, people freak out. We are used to being at the top of the food chain, and that's not always going to be the case.
SE-G: And animals aren't capable of profiting, which is where humanity really seems to get evil.
MS: Well, we are really the only species that will advance our personal goals over that of the good of our species. And I think the best way of communicating these concerns to other people is to write it into a fun adventure story, and that's what I think this series is.
Look for Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator, written by Mark Schultz and featuring the fantastic art of Mel Rubi. The first issue of this four-part, full color series will be available April 26 for $2.95.