Mark Schultz & Gene Colan

Mark Schultz: Bob Cooper, the editor on the project, approached me and asked if I'd be interested in taking on a Predator story. I said I would if I could take the Predator in a direction that it hadn't gone before. I told him I wanted to do something that was more adventure oriented and I wanted to put the Predator in a situation that he hadn't been put in before. I had learned to scuba dive the year before and I wanted to apply some of my love for that to the story. Luckily for me both Dark Horse and Twentieth Century Fox liked the concept.

Gene Colan: I love this kind of thing, to [interpret something] that's been done on film, because I'm a big film buff. So I just kind of slid into it -- lucky for me! And it was a wonderful introduction to Dark Horse for me. I've come to know some very nice people up there. It was through Harlan Ellison that I came to work for Dark Horse -- I had illustrated a script for him and he wanted it made into a [comic book] story. So he was kind enough to ask to have me illustrate it. Then came the opportunity to do Predator.

Schultz: When I first submitted the proposal Bob Cooper asked who I'd be interested in seeing draw this. Gene was on both Bob's and my short list. I was very surprised when Bob told me that Gene would actually be available. There are very few people who can handle an adventure/action story -- in my opinion -- especially one with horror overtones. Gene has the nuance, the ability to create mood. I think that's necessary for this type of story. But then to still be able to balance that out with a feeling of action and then to get that adventure feeling as well... I was just so pleased when it turned out that Gene was available. My earliest memory of Gene's work is from when he was doing Sea Devils for DC after Russ Heath, and to be honest I haven't seen it in years, but I remember it as having that gritty feeling of reality when Gene was on the strip.

Colan: Thank you.

Schultz: I also felt that Gene could layer this technology over the human drama without overpowering it. You know, it's got to work with it.

Colan: I don't know of any writer other [than Mark] who really writes in a cinematic way. This was really my first opportunity to illustrate a story that is written in that fashion and that style, which was really a joy to do for me. That's how I view everything that I do -- as if it were up there on the screen. I try to pretend that I'm sitting in the theater and ask how I would like to see it on the screen. That's my general approach. When I received Mark's excellent plot it certainly helped me to bring that about. The whole thing here is loving what you do. If you love the story and all aspects of it, you can bring out all the little special effects that you feel you're good at. You can turn out a good job. This has been a wonderful experience for me. I loved the writing very much. I could get into the story without any trouble whatsoever.

I try not to read ahead too much in the story, because I like to be surprised.

Schultz and Bruce Costa: [laughter]

Colan: I really do! If I know it all in advance I'm not so good at telling the story. I'll read just four or five pages ahead of time and evaluate whether there's something coming up that's different. If I feel that something different is going to take place is going to happen after the fourth or fifth page then I'll read further because I need to know. But as a rule I like to be surprised, which I think helps me with the art.

Schultz: Let me just say that my respect for Gene is overwhelming, and even more so, now that I've worked with him.

Colan: Thank you very much.

Costa: Gene, my foremost exposure to you is your Dracula. Certainly I remember your Iron Man and, especially because you were on the title for so long, Daredevil, but to me "Gene Colan -- Dracula" rolls out in one breath. You're a natural for this; it's got to be an easy transition from foggy Dracula to murky Predator.

Colan: It's all dramatic and it's all frightening. Whether you're on top or under the surface, to me it doesn't matter. I mean, the Predator himself is a mean-looking critter. He gives an artist a chance to broaden his scope a little bit.

Costa: What were you thinking about when it came to creating the spooky environments necessary for this story?

Colan: I haven't experienced any deep-sea diving, but I would imagine, from film, of course, that things are murky under the water. The water has a tendency to diffuse light, making things appear maybe closer, maybe further, or to warp [the way] a person or a thing [appears]. It gives me an opportunity to be as dramatic or as crazy as I want to be. So that attracted me right off -- I knew that the characters were in a very foreign place, so it would have to be frightening. I felt I had to bring it off to the best of my ability, to make the reader feel as if he were also diving.

I like to bring the reader into it, maybe even throw him off balance. A lot of the panels that I've done are crooked, all askew. I only bring them into play when the story is frightening and something is about to happen. When there's just flat conversation going on then usually the panels are just straight up and down. So in any way I can participate the viewer I do. A lot of people don't like the panels thrown about, but the reader should work a little bit to read the story, not just have it all mapped out for him.

Costa: So tell me what Predator: Hell & Hot Water is all about in a suspenseful and incomplete story synopsis.

Schultz: Hell & Hot Water postulates a secret agency that we never really get to know that is tracking Predator activity on the planet. They track a Predator ship that goes down into the sea off the coast of Chile. A team is sent down to investigate and, if possible, try to capture a Predator. But the Predator has his own agenda. The Predator, as is usual in these types of stories, knows more than these humans are willing to give him credit for. It manages to turn the tables on the team of agents. The Predator also is aware of a world underneath our sea -- a cavern world that supports some interesting life forms that we humans are not aware of, and these otherworldly creatures that exist on earth become part of the equation. The Predator winds up playing both ends against the middle.

Costa: Mark, what concerns did you have about writing with such a high-profile licensed character?

Schultz: That was my major apprehension, that it's someone else's toy. It's not a character that I own. I'm primarily used to writing my own characters' stories. I wanted to do the type of story that I wanted to without being told I was drifting too far from the formula. I should say that I think I'm a team player. I know that there are certain formulaic notes that you have to hit in a story like this and I think the balancing act was to hit those familiar notes that make this a Predator story but at the same time stretch the whole formula in different directions. I had nothing but the most complete cooperation from Dark Horse and from Twentieth Century Fox. So there was no reason to be apprehensive. Everything was fine.

One thing I wanted to do that bothered me in the movies -- and it's followed through in a lot of the miniseries, I think -- the protagonists, the heroes, tend to be rotten sons of bitches who are social misfits. They're screwed by their bosses, they're not very likable people. I liked the movies of the '30s and '40s which, rather than have the loner fighting the system to get things done, they had people working together as a team. So it was important for me to have this team really work as a team, not as a bunch of cranky individuals who fall apart when the going gets rough, until the single hero -- the Arnold Schwartzenegger -- emerges triumphant in the end, by himself, against all odds. I wanted these people to work as a team together.

Costa: It must be fun working with and expanding on the established Predator technology. Will we see any new gizmos?

Schultz: Variations, nothing shockingly new. But I think there's some tools he's using, like a harpoon and a garrote, that I don't think have been shown before.

I was a little worried that they would have problems with the Predator being under water because part of the mythology is that the Predator's invisibility powers short out when he comes in contact with water. But being such a superbly trained race of hunters as the Predators are, I think that invisibility would not necessarily be a large part of their arsenal. They've got a lot of other weapons at their disposal.

Costa: Gene, I have Mark's first cover here, and it's extraordinary. Have you seen it?

Colan: Yes, I've seen all three, and I wanted to ask, Mark, out of the two forms of art, writing and drawing, which is your favorite? You do very well with the art element of it as well.

Schultz: Gene, when things are going really well I don't really separate them when I'm doing my own stories. I'll write out a script, but as I'm drawing it, it changes. As I'm drawing it I'll realize that I can tell it better if I draw it another way. So it all kind of jumbles together. I really love drawing, but it takes me so long. I'm so slow.

Colan: I'm slow myself. To do a creditable job you just can't rush through it.

Schultz: No, you can't.

Colan: Every panel is treated like a little illustration.

Schultz: No one appreciates how hard we cartoonists work!

Colan & Schultz: [Laughter]

Costa: You're both known for horrific antagonists. How does Predator fall in with each of your pantheon of monsters? What do you think of it as a monster?

Colan: I never thought of it that way.

Schultz: The thing that I like so much about the Predator is the idea that they are the best hunters in the universe. I like showing that these creatures are very skillful hunters. They're not just guys that can duke it out and slash and maim. Like any good hunter he has to know his territory, he has to know his game, he has to know all the angles. I'm postulating that a Predator is the same as any good hunter on earth. He figures out everything and knows his prey's species and knows all of the factors in the environment that he needs to be successful, to be the top hunter, to be the top Predator. That's what makes him fascinating for me.

Gene, do you think of it as a monster or just a really good antagonist?

Colan: Yes, a good antagonist. He's living in his own domain and we're invading it, in a sense. He's trying to protect it. And he knows far more than we do. It reminds me of the film The Thing, the very first one that was made, with James Arness. The Thing was a monster that could out-think the scientists in the film. [The Predator] knows the underwater life far better than we ever will and things that exist there that we have yet to discover, and so, in that sense, he's smarter than we are. That's what makes it exciting; you don't know what he's going to come up with next that we don't know about. That's where the suspense lies.