Tony Moore and Rick Remender Talk Fear Agent with Nerdist

Fear Agent co-creators Rick Remender (he’s the writer) and Tony Moore (he’s the artist) series is an unlikely – and often thrilling – mix of influences. Pitting space-bound exterminator, drunk and Texas good old boy Heath Huston against a series of nasty aliens, Moore and Remender see the character (and his violent universe) as a crazy melange of influences.

The Dark Horse series is being reissued in a new series of trades starting today, while the second volume of the Fear Agent library – collecting the back half of the 32-issue series – will be out next week.

In this interview with Trace Beaulieu (AKA MST3K‘s Dr. Forrester), Remender and Moore discuss where old Heath comes from, some of their own creative influences, and their thoughts on bringing Heath to the small screen.

Nerdist: First off let me just say that I love Fear Agent. You guys have built such a lush and densely detailed world. I love little things like Heath Huston having old low tech VHS tapes, to the beautiful laser guns that shoot rings. The return to classic sci-fi space adventure is long overdue. I haven’t purchased many comics for a while now, and this has reignited my love for them. Short of having new Wally Wood on the rack, this will do nicely. Thank you for taking the time to answer a few of my fan boy questions.

There are very few comics I have read that have made me laugh out loud. I had never heard the phrase “booger hooks” before. Also, “Set phaser to “cowardly monkey” is a great line. Oh, and having Huston almost eaten in a food court is hilarious. What are your comedic influences?

Rick Remender: I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so, much of my initial exposure to humor was Harold Ramis films and the original SNL. Also things like National Lampoon’s Vacation, Strange Brew, Meatballs, Airplane, Caddyshack, Life is Hell, Mad Magazine, and other various absurd and wonderful comedies of that era. That was back when smart and quirky film comedies were made somewhat regularly.

In the early 90s as I reached my 20s I found underground comedy. Oddly enough it was the Ben Stiller Show in 1991 the first introduced me to what was possible the sketch comedy, and this was the first sketch comedy I can ever remember that was in the voice of my generation and felt pertinent to my life. From there I drifted over to Comedy Central a fledgling channel where I found Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a host of other great new comedians and shows such as Dr. Katz.

The biggest influence in my entire life though his The Simpsons seasons 2 through 10. I have watched those 1 million times. It’s all I still watch. Those coupled with Mr. Show basically cooked my brain in the 90’s and still define what I enjoy most in comedy: Absurdist humor with a serrated edge and something to say.

Tony Moore: I literally learned to read from my uncle’s Mad Magazines laying around the house, so that brand of humor is my cornerstone. I also had a gigantic stack of Cracked, and a litany of lesser-known Lampoon knockoff magazines. I grew up on late-night TV with SNL and Kaufman on Letterman, as well as early-morning TV, where i was a straight-up Looney Tunes fiend. My whole family was nuts for Looney Tunes, even my grandfather, who was a war-hardened old Depression-era farmer. We’d all sit around after breakfast on Saturdays and cackle like crazy clowns. Mel Brooks was also a cornerstone. My granddad couldn’t get enough of Blazing Saddles, and it’s still one of those movies I could watch on repeat for eternity.

I could sit here and list everything from Popeye to Monty Python, Harold Ramis, and the Coen brothers. If I could have one wish, it would be to sit around and laugh like an idiot all day. Maybe one day a magic genie will come brain me with a claw hammer.

By Charles Webb 

Remender: Other than Heath my favorite characters would have been Otto, Mara, and the Jelly Brains. But it’s hard to really pick from the menagerie of insanity we cooked up on the series. It really was a matter of just having fun digging through the bag 1950s sci-fi tropes in trying to find ways to re-imagine these classic and iconic character types and creatures in a way that had some pertinence to a modern reader.

Moore: Aside from Heath himself, I love Annie. I’m not comfortable with doing slick future tech, because my mind doesn’t operate that way. In my world, everything is rusty old farm machinery with weeds growing through it, and shit cars up on blocks in the front yard. That’s Annie, though. She’s that once-glorious ’57 Ford Fairlane Skyliner, hanging together with coat hangers and Bond-o, with duct tape on the seats. But when her engine growls, you get all warms and fuzzy inside.