Mark Verheiden's and Ron Randall's professional histories are so impressive that a discussion of their previous efforts would consume far more space than I have here. (Besides, we want to talk about Predator comics!) So, regretfully, I must truncate their impressive dossiers to the following
list: Randall's career began in the early '80s at DC on various projects including Warlord and Barren Earth. While he was working on Airboy for Eclipse, Dark Horse came into existence. Soon thereafter, Randall's first efforts under the Dark Horse banner in the form of Trekker. Randall went on to work on Dragonlance for DC, Idol for Epic Comics, and Justice League International for DC, some Spider-Man miniseries for Marvel and, of course, the Time Cop Movie Adaptation and Predator: Cold War for Dark Horse.
At the same time that Randall was working on Trekker, Mark Verheiden gained Randall's attention with his script for the first issue of The American. "It was the first time I had ever heard of Mark," Randall said, "and I thought, `Hmm. I wish I was drawing this book!'" After some
frustrating years of low-budget Hollywood script writing, The American was actually the first comic-book script Mark ever tried to write on a request from Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley. "So I sold my first comics script," Mark joked, "which always thrills people who worked really hard to get in to no end!" Mark went on to do the first three Aliens series, a year of The Phantom for DC, and Dark Horse's first Predator comic book, [collected as the Predator Volume One: Concrete Jungle trade paperback] with Chris Warner, as well as Predator: Cold War with Randall. At that time Mark got back into screenwriting on a studio level, and has produced a dozen screenplays, three of which have been made so far: The Mask, Time Cop, and Darkman III (for which Mark has an uncredited rewrite). Predator: Dark River began as an outline by Mark in 1992 and, in 1995, when Dark Horse called to offer him the project, Mark
saw it as an opportunity to work with Randall once again. I had a marvelous opportunity to reunite the old friends via a 3-way telephone call in mid-March.
Bruce G. Costa: Okay, we're all together. Well guys, assuming you have your cup of coffee or whatever it is you require...
Mark Verheiden: Whiskey!
Ron Randall: [Laughter]
Costa: You guys certainly have a propensity for making things even tougher for the characters than "just" their encounter with the Predators themselves. Please give us a suspenseful and incomplete story synopsis of Predator: Dark River.
Randall [to Verheiden]: That's your job, mister. If you make any mistakes I'll let you know.
Verheiden: Dark River picks up three years after the events of Cold War. Detective Schaefer, who's the brother of the Dutch Schaefer character from the first Predator film -- that character is played by Arnold Schwartzenegger in the very first film -- Detective Schaefer is a cop in New
York City and he's still wondering whatever happened to his brother. During a drug bust he arrests a drug-running airplane pilot who reveals that he knows something about what happened to Schaefer's brother, that he was, in fact, the pilot on that last mission in South America. That
launches Schaefer back into an adventure back to South America to figure out once and for all what really happened to his brother. At the same time we discover that a Predator he thought he'd killed in the first comic book series... uh, it was just a flesh wound and, uh, he recovered...
Randall: It wasn't a flesh wound. He was impaled!
Verheiden: He was impaled, right, but he got better...
Costa: [Laughter]
Verheiden:... but the experience drove him completely mad and so now this Predator is in the South American jungle running around with this bunch of devotees causing all sorts of havoc. So Schaefer launches himself in the midst of that mess trying to solve once and for all the mystery of his brother.
Costa: Devotees. I assume you mean human devotees.
Verheiden: Yep. This Predator is a little wacky. In the past, Predators haven't thought too much of humans -- in fact, considering them just cattle, really. But this Predator's really off his nut. He's talking to trees and talking to bushes and talking to people and talking to cows... He's just a
little bit crazy.
Costa: Does any of his technology still work?
Verheiden: Some of it. It's actually a little bit half-assed at this point. See, another aspect of it is that if he's there it means that somebody left him there. So they didn't leave him all the technology that he would usually have had. We play a little bit with the fact that he's not quite up to snuff with his mechanical stuff.
Randall: One of the ideas Mark had was to visually take advantage of the technology and how it works. Regarding those camouflage modes that the Predators can go into where they're just sort of a shimmery, shadowy image, we're taking the tack that after this much time in the jungle his
camouflage mode is in a constant state of malfunction. So when the Predator is camouflaged an arm or a leg or part of his torso will be shimmering out so that he's somewhat ghostlike much of the time. And the effect shifts around to different parts of his body as he moves. That does two things, I think -- it gives him more of a distinctive look. (By now there have been a lot of miniseries, a lot of Predator comic books out there. So it gives him a little bit more of an eerie look.) It also makes him look more unearthly or unnatural, so that these devotees that Mark was
mentioning -- they're a bunch of South American tribesmen -- to the people that come down from North America into the jungle it certainly looks as if they're worshipping a forest spirit or something.
Costa: Well, Ron, I don't want to give anything away, but did you have to concern yourself with likenesses for Arnold Schwartzenegger?
Randall: Um, uh... that might give something away...
Costa: Okay! Then I won't ask! How do you guys feel that Dark River compares to your other Predator work? Did you have any goals that were different?
Verheiden: It's interesting. My original goal with Dark River was to do flat out the scariest Predator you'd ever seen. That mutated a little bit as I actually started working on the script and working with Ron in developing the story. I finally decided that actually I enjoyed the Schaefer character more for the... What would be the word? He's not lighthearted...
Randall: No.
Verheiden: But he's got a real cynical, black-humor-funny world view. I didn't want to lose that. This story, I think, veers between pretty intense emotional moments with sort of a real black humor. I mean, this is a guy who lost his brother, who's had his life turned inside out by these
repeated encounters with the Predator. Yet even when he's in the middle of South America with a Predator on one side and a tribe on the other and he's being strafed by government airplanes, he still finds, somewhere inside of him, this ability to have ironic commentary on what's going on around him. So I finally decided that I wanted to have fun with this series. When you hear people say, "We want to bring fun into comics," usually I don't buy that comic. But in this case the fun, I think, is in a very dark, intense sort of way. It's not fun in any kind of lighthearted, giddy, children's way. I think it's a fairly adult story.
Randall: The humor that's in there, as in all of Mark's stories, complements a certain toughness of tone. The structure of the story is a very muscular sort of structure, if you know what I mean. There's a hard edge to it. The humor that's there leavens that, so that it's not boorishly grim, as is the case when everybody's got their teeth clenched all the time. Well, these people do tend to have their teeth clenched a lot, but at least they're breathing enough that they can get enough perspective on the situation that they can remark ironically on it. Just like a good movie or any good story that wants to get you highly involved and wrapped up in it and bring up those levels of suspense and anxiety, the humor that's there serves the necessary contrast, breaking up the moments of grimness or tension. When the drama builds up again it really catches you. It's the contrast in the story that really brings the drama to the story. When it gets very loud you notice the volume if it's been quiet a minute ago. If it's a merciless scream from page one through to the end, I personally find those stories really unsatisfying. I don't find them to be stories. I find them maybe to be some kind of event, but I don't find them to be entertaining, the way on a roller coaster you have ups and downs. You're not screaming downhill at a constant velocity. That's not a roller-coaster ride.
Verheiden: Right. The only movie/comics comparison I will make is this one: I try to bring a little of the entertainment value that you get out of a Die Hard sort of movie to this story. Just like Ron said, Die Hard has highs and lows. One moment a guy's getting his head shot and being killed, the next moment Bruce Willis is commenting ironically on the fact that he's hanging out of a 15th story window. That is the sense of danger and of storytelling that I wanted to bring to this. And I think this story has some good set ups and some good payoffs and a few pretty big surprises. When you get toward issue four, if you're paying attention, you'll open your eyes a little bit and you'll go, "Whoa!"
Costa: You'll be digging for the first issue...
Verheiden: Yeah, it's set up. So... what Ron said.
Randall: [Laughter]
Verheiden: (Incidentally, I don't believe in this thing that comics are just movies on paper. I don't agree with that at all. They're totally different media. There are strengths in film, there are strengths in comics. But the fun you get in comics -- you get to get inside your characters' heads. You don't get to control time as much [in film]. You try to control time in a comic. In a movie you have to just watch it. You just sit there and everything goes by. But in a comic you can try to get
someone to linger over a panel, you write it so that there's a little jump at the end of each page, at least I try to... I mean it's just a different form and it's fun. The fact that there's not millions and millions of dollars riding on it means there's actually a freedom there that you don't get in film writing, too. Both media have their strengths.)
Costa: You guys keep coming back to this property, so I assume you are both big Predator film fans. What are your thoughts on the movies?
Verheiden: The way I got back into studio screenwriting was that I had written the first issue of the Predator miniseries I did with Chris Warner (this was back in 1989 or so) and Joel Silver had read the first issue and said, "Hey, this is great! We're gonna use this as Predator II!" He called me out of the blue one day and said, "C'mon out. We want to talk to you." I went out and told him what the rest of the miniseries had in it and, at the same time, pitched him The American which he bought. (You know, he owns Predator, so it wasn't like I was gonna be involved in that, and I understood that at the time.) So I have an affection for the character that may be a sidelight to the enjoyment of the literary or filmic property. I've always liked the Predator stories because they're a real ride. I used to bounce between Aliens and Predator. The Aliens were much darker, much grimmer -- great fun to write in their own way, but much darker. The Predators I see as much more sort of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot(TM) fun -- with some very grim moments. Again,
this series has some spots that I think really can bring you up short, but for me they're great fun to use to write a good exciting adventure piece. Do I love the Predators to death? Do I watch them every night? No, but I enjoy the property. They created a great mythic monster with the Predator.
I think there are a lot of places to go with that monster yet.
Costa: Is that the way you feel, Ron?
Randall: The nice thing about the Predator is that he's got such iconic weight to him already that you don't need to spend a lot of time thrusting all this character development on him. Which allows you to spend that time, when you're working with a writer like Mark, on developing and
delving into the character of the human beings that confront him. I'm pretty much character oriented, as far as my storytelling. I like to take characters and poke around inside them a little bit. And then of course, Mark, the way he writes stories with first person narration keeps the focus
on the characters and their reactions. Even if they're making ironic comments you can read between the lines and get the emotional honesty that's really going on there. And the Predator's a great vehicle to put a character like Schaefer up against. [I also like] Schaefer and the way he'll spark off the other humans that he interacts with. He's got a lot of hard edges that sometimes work for him and sometimes don't -- he's similar to the Predator in some ways, in his relentlessness and hardness, but in the end -- hopefully both in the Cold War miniseries and then in Dark River -- he finds something out about his own humanity, too. Those kind of stories are worth telling to me. The great thing about working with Mark is he doesn't write a story that's just a fun little romp. Mark's a thinkin'-enough-kind-of-guy [laughter] that when he writes a story there's a purpose to the story. There's always a point of view, a purpose to being there. As an artist, it's not easy for me to draw a comic book. It's an effort and it's a lot of work. I appreciate it when I'm working on a story that has a reason for being there. Mark's stories always have that. They have an intelligence to them.
Verheiden: Now you know why I like working with Ron.
Costa: I'll bet!
Verheiden: One thing I always try to do is find some sort of emotional center for the characters, some sort of emotional core that transcends the action beats, that you can get your hands on to make these characters more real, feel like they're more real in an unreal world. Ron's really good at bringing out the emotions of those characters, the way he draws them, just the way he positions them on the page. So it's really great to work with Ron because not every artist on earth is interested in these storytelling values in terms of the emotional characters.
Randall: (Speaking of which it would be nice to mention that Rick Magyar is the inker on this project. He's just a great inker. He's immaculate as far as his technique and his loyalty to the pencils in that he always holds to the intent but will flesh things out by bringing in textures and he
enriches the atmosphere a lot.)
Verheiden: Unfortunately some artists are more interested in the big fight scene and stuff like that and I've never been particularly interested in that stuff. I mean, I do it, and it's interesting within the context of an interesting story, but...
Randall: Right. A fight scene by itself is not a good enough reason to have a Predator comic.
Verheiden: I remember when I did the first series with Chris Warner, there were editorial comments about not seeing enough of the Predator. You know, the Predator wasn't the story! The Predator is -- and I use this example for Aliens, too -- the creatures are sort of like big dogs that come in, cause problems, and then leave. The real story is about the people and how they interact and how they deal with this incredible force that's been thrown at them. How do they emotionally cope with this situation? Those are things that interest me when I'm trying to work on characters.
Frankly, these are pretty darn commercial books. People could raise an issue about the Predator not being in there enough, but that's not the story, you know? We're trying to tell a good story. If people could hang around and stick with us I think they'll discover there is a good story in Dark River. Given that it's Predator, given that it's a commercial book, we've made it the best darn commercial book that we can. We didn't just slough it off and do 48 pages or 96 pages of Predators tearin' out people's spines. We've found an emotional center to these characters, we
had a blast getting them out there, we have highs and lows, we really spent some time learning about these people so that we got to know them so that when they're in jeopardy, we care! We give a damn about them! Which is a big problem with a lot of movies, comics, everything. You have these guys hangin' off cliffs, but who cares? You don't know them, you never met them, you don't care about them. Hopefully in Dark River and in Cold War they're characters that you care about. The Schaefer character, especially, is designed to have moments when he's trying to come to terms with the fact that he's had this pretty nasty series of events happen to him. He's having trouble believing in anything. Both Cold War and Dark River are about having faith in your fellow man a little bit. No, faith in your fellow man quite a bit, actually.
Randall: Yah.