Dark Horse Comics: Tim, your Ex Sanguine comic stands out as a delightfully gruesome addition to the DH horror line this fall. What makes the horror genre so entertaining for you to work in?
Tim Seeley: For me, I think that it’s always been about the escapist nature of horror. Real life is, and has always been, full of fear. Fear of silly little things, fear of big, terrible things…and for the most part, we can’t control that fear or the things that scare us. But, in horror entertainment, we as the reader or viewer get to determine when to read on, when to look away, how much we let ourselves escape into the fantasy of the story…It’s a safe place to be afraid. The older I get, and the more I have to be afraid of, the more I feel like making good horror is REALLY important.
Jeff, you’re a well-known superhero comics writer! How’s it feel to step out of the spandex and into the Whedonverse, with all its denim and leather?
Jeff Parker: I’m always happy to delve into other genres but MAN THAT’S A LOT OF DENIM! What’s especially great is to write a woman protagonist, which I don’t get to do nearly as much as I’d like. Also Willow is dealing with a lot of very bizarre mystical settings and creatures, so I have the chance to do some world building with a place designed to push her buttons. Also she gets to wear leather, since you mention it.
Now back at you: I’ll get deeper into Ex Sanguine in a minute, but did I just see on Twitter that you had the distributor turn down one of your covers for too much naughtiness???
TS: Ha, I did! And it was an Ex Sanguine cover! It’s a strange world we live in…A sexy horror comic, aimed at adults, can be rejected for having “too sensual” of a cover. In the meantime, the Joker is seen holding his own severed face on the cover of a Batman comic, a character for children, who has a Lego line. The hypocrisy of it all can drive a man to drink. So I do.
For you! I suppose you get asked this a lot, but were you a Buffy fan before coming into this gig? Or did you get to do the big research jam and spend three weeks watching every single episode in a row?
JP: I hear you on the Joker-face thing—do you have any extra whiskey around for me?
I am a Buffan. I know that’s not terminology; I just made that up because I can. I got into it towards the end of the TV run, assuming I’d missed too much to pick up, but FX was showing the early seasons. And then I mainlined it, because as you know it’s pretty easy to get into—Xander is always helpfully explaining what’s happened in the past and what’s going on now.
But speaking of diving into a new concept—who would you say is ripe for discovering the world of Ex Sanguine? Anyone of appropriate age? Are there types of people you know will definitely not appreciate what you’re crafting in it?
TS: I think what we’re going for is a sort of two-fold approach. We want the old-school horror fans, for sure. And we want the new horror fans also. The ones who are maybe in their late teens or early twenties that read Twilight at that perfect age when it was good and new and scary. But now they’ve grown up and realized maybe Twilight is actually kind of bullshit, and want something with a little more teeth. And, yeah, I did just make that joke, but I promise the comic is better written than that.
So, what do you think makes Buffy the kind of show that’s still going strong as a comic book several years after its run on TV ended—strong enough for supporting characters to have their own miniseries written by underrated superhero writers? I mean, what about it translates so well, as opposed to Welcome Back, Kotter, which didn’t last long in comics at all?
JP: I approve of that Twilight joke; I am on board. Though I think the fact that the Welcome Back, Kotter comic didn’t last is a failure of our industry that we can never live down. Up your nose with said rubber hose, industry.
I think the key appeal of Buffy and the Buffyverse in whole is that no matter how wild the premise or fantastic the monstrous threats, the conflicts still boil down to situations and rites of passage that everyone goes through in their own lives. All your favorite episodes or issues function as metaphors for very real conflicts.
Also there’s always the subject of horror, and facing what we fear. I’ve got to imagine you now spend a lot of your waking time pondering the functions and appeals of horror. And not just because it’s almost Halloween.
TS: I do. I spend way too much time thinking about the genre of horror. I think everyone who creates for the loose term “horror” does. It’s such a powerful but maligned genre that encompasses so many things. It’s one of the original genres of story, and it’s one of the few with passionate-enough fans to have conventions dedicated just to it. I ask you, “romantic comedies,” where is your Rom Com Con?!
I think, spending day in and day out with “horror,” I’m at the point where I’m asking myself what my particular voice is, and if it’s going to be relevant in the future, and how I can ensure I have new things to say.
So perhaps the majority of modern comic readers know you as a superhero guy, but I remember back in the day when you did stuff like The Interman, as well as more recent stuff like Underground and Mysterius. You clearly have a dark bend to you. What are some of your favorite horror genre stories…films, comics, novels, etc.?
JP: I like psychological horror, old Hammer films, and of course monsters and occult stuff. As a kid I would always read the anthologies like Witching Hour and the horror comics like Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and Dracula, and later I was able to find the reprints of the EC horror comics, which were a gold mine.
The tough thing about really doing horror is that to be successful, you have to scare yourself first. It’s letting your mind wander into places that I normally try to keep it out of during daily life. In Underground, I had a scene where two rangers forge ahead through a subterranean tunnel filled with water that keeps getting more full, so they’re tilting their heads back to breathe this very narrow pocket of air. Steve Lieber drew it, and we both had to really describe and imagine how horrible that situation so far under the earth would really be. It freaked us both out! But it worked, because Steve really conveyed that. I get lots of readers telling me how much that scene got to them.
Horror as entertainment helps us deal with fear. That’s why people want it so much. But you can’t just throw any horror conventions together; it takes real thought to be effective.
DH: Thank You both so much for your time.