2 Comments | Add

 

Rate & Share:

 

Related Links:

 

Info:

• Series:

The Horrifying Worlds of Hart Fisher: Part 2

No Fly Zone: The Horrifying Worlds of Hart Fisher: Part 2 - Jeffrey Dahmer comics
© Mania

Greetings, Maniacs. This is the second part of our interview with the most dangerous man in comics, Hart Fisher. This week, we talk about the death of his girlfriend Michelle, the controversy surrounding his Jeffrey Dahmer bio comic, and the closing of Planet Comics in Oklahoma City for carrying one of his stories. Fisher was at the epicenter of a smear campaign by the media, the families of Dahmer’s victims, and a host of self-appointed moralists. You can check out clips of him defending his work on the talk show circuit at his Youtube channel.

Hart Fisher (HF): I never talked about my girlfriend Michelle’s murder. I wrote about it in my fiction and poetry (Poems for the Dead, and Still Dead), but I wouldn’t discuss it on talk shows or in interviews. When I was a child, I saw my father blown up in a boat. He survived and he was all right, but still. When I was eight years old, I was mugged in front of a police station. I never talked about these things. I’ve had a girlfriend raped by a friend I worked with at a bar. I’ve had a very violent life and I’ve seen a lot of people die. And, I never felt comfortable discussing these things when I was publishing comic books with Boneyard, because I was under attack. I didn’t want to give my detractors any more weapons, nor did I want anyone involved having to deal with any fallout. It’s been about 15 years now, and I can discuss these things.

Kurt Amacker (KA): Can you talk about the background of the first comic, Jeffrey Dahmer: Portrait of a Serial Killer? I know that you meant it as more of a straight true-crime story and not as anything exploitative, but you became a target on the talk show circuit and of the victims’ families.

HF: A friend of mine was publishing at Northstar, who published Faust. He told me I should check out this Jeffery Dahmer guy, and suggested I do biographical comics of serial killers. I thought it was a great idea, so I went to check out this Dahmer guy. And, I was really offended by the way the positive way the media was portraying him—not even as an anti-hero. The thing that stands out in my mind was People magazine’s 1991 “Top 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year” list, and Dahmer was ranked #4 on it. I found it offensive. They glossed over the fact that this guy was a convicted pedophile [before he was arrested for murder]. This guy was scum. He was shit. I wanted to portray him how I saw him—as a pure monster. I also knew there was a lot of heat on this, so I hired a newspaper illustrator so we could handle a distasteful subject matter as tastefully as we could. And, right in the opening page I stated my feelings—that this book was made to show what Dahmer was. I find it very ironic that the media jumped on me with both feet. They said I was this heartless evil person who was exploiting the victims’ families for profit. That’s not me. That’s the talk show industry. That is there job—to get people on camera and make them cry, because pain sells sponsor ads. No matter how much I fought them, they just kept saying “That comic is not funny!”

I’d say, “That’s right, it’s not funny.”

They’d say, “My child’s death is not funny!”

And, I’d say, “You know, you’re right, you child’s death isn’t funny.”

“He does not need to be demeaned in a comic book!”

“You’re right, it shouldn’t happen.”

Then, they’d come back with, “Well, why are you making these funny books for kids?” I’d tell them I wasn’t making them for kids, and wasn’t making light of anyone’s death. But, that all got thrown out the window. Then, the legal bills started to pile up. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund left me high and dry. They told me to my face that they couldn’t support my politics. I was thinking, “What the fuck are you talking about? Politics?” I was just a guy fresh out of college with his art degree trying to make cool comics. In order to pay for my defense, I just embraced it. I did Jeffrey Dahmer vs. Jesus Christ. I did Dahmer’s Zombie Squad. They thought I was offensive? I said, “Fuck you. Now, we’re going to get offensive.” My feeling was that if people wanted me to be the bad guy, I’d be the bad guy. But, unfortunately, my personal life was just getting crazier. They didn’t understand that I was just like them—an angry victim of crime looking for a target. The media gave me that.

KA: There were and are thousands of true-crime novels in bookstores. The first Dahmer comic was essentially the same thing. It seems like they came down on it just because it was a comic book.

HF: None of it made any sense whatsoever. Check this out: I was on the E! Channel and I saw an update on the OJ Simpson murder trial. So, I specifically decided to manufacture a controversy. I did an OJ comic [called Doin’ Time with O.J.] and I went down to the courthouse steps to sell them. I decided to actually look for media controversy. But, it never seems to work out that way. I just got sued by O.J. When I’m just doing what I like to do, I write a story like A Taste of Cherry with Glenn Danzig and Christian Moore. I thought it was a cool horror story. I didn’t think it would be great to shut down Planet Comics. I was flabbergasted about that. I couldn’t believe that 10 pages of illustrated story that was sold behind the counter to adults was busted in Oklahoma. But again, that was by a person who was looking for political gain. It was the same with the Dahmer comic. The victims’ families were all being manipulated by “community leaders” who were using their tragedy to further their own agenda. And, I often found myself caught in the middle.

KA: It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now. If anyone watches those talk show clips, everyone else comes across as pretty hysterical—from the victims’ families to the hosts and everything. You did a good job keeping your cool and appearing professional.

HF: Those shows were very brutal. During the Sallie Jesse Raphael show, several of the victims’ families were in the front row taunting me during the commercial breaks. They said they were glad my girlfriend was murdered. They were trying to get me to flip out. Then, I had death threats and stalkers. I had my house robbed because the local news broadcast that I was out of town. My life has been injured by what was done to me by the media—my life and my family’s life. And, no one seemed to give a shit about what was the real problem. It was really all about how to use the chaos to further someone’s agenda. And I have to admit, I was part of that. Once you’re in the middle of it, you realize that you can’t get out of it. You can either capitulate or make a shitty situation work for you.

KA: We touched on what happened with Planet Comics and A Taste of Cherry. You were the managing editor for Glenn Danzig’s publishing company Verotik when that happened. Can you give us some more background?

HF: Glenn hired me to be the managing editor at Verotik. We really saw eye-to-eye on horror. We’re both into martial arts. Frankly, I really looked up to him at that time in my life. I was a huge Danzig fan. Working for him was a dream come true, and it was a huge opportunity for me to learn and grow as a publisher and an artist. Glenn took no prisoners. He was very demanding. I learned a lot working for him. It really broadened my horizons. I was working on both Verotik and Boneyard out of my house. But, I learned that it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at them, because an artist blows a deadline the same way they do when you’re not paying them. There are still the same issues of getting people to produce in a timely fashion. But, at the same time I had Glenn, who had real money and stardom behind him. He didn’t run into the same walls I did with distribution. Glenn could get away with a lot more. I found that money talked and bullshit walked. Like order minimums—if you only sold five copies of every issue but you took full-page ads out in Previews, you were getting carried.

KA: What happened with A Taste of Cherry, specifically?

HF: Christian Moore had written a story for one of my books called Rouge Trade. Glenn asked me to write something for Verotika. I said, “You want the little hammer, the big hammer, or the A-bomb?” Being Glenn, he asked for the A-bomb. I was really busy at the time, and I liked the story that Christian did. I saw something in the script, so I rewrote it. I had no idea it was going to blow up like that. Glenn kind of did, though. When we were dealing with the artist, he made a point that the girl didn’t look like “a little girl,” but a real woman. He made a point, because he didn’t want to get busted for child porn. So, when this whole thing hit the fan with Planet Comics, I was no longer the managing editor at Verotik. I got a phone call from the guy in the store manning the cash register, while the cops were hauling the comics out. It got real ugly. A grandstanding political attorney in Oklahoma City decided he was going to make a name for himself. So, the police seized Verotika #4 and some other books. But, the books weren’t sold to children. And, Planet Comics was crushed as a result. Eventually, the owners copped a plea. For a long time, the attorneys were talking about coming after me and Glenn. You really never know what’s going to blow up on you. When it broke within the industry, I became the bad guy again. And, I always had people saying this bullshit to me, asking, “How can you write such trash!? If only you had lost a loved one, you would never write such a thing!” And, I’ve lost a lot of loved ones. That’s why I write what I do.

KA: Thanks, Hart. It’s been great talking to you.

You can keep up with Hart’s work with American Horrors and in comics, music videos, and whatever else he gets his hands on at In Cold Blog. You can check out his film editing and post-production company Crime Pays Inc.

Kurt Amacker is the writer of The No-Fly Zone, Mania’s weekly alternative comics column. He is also the author of the comic miniseries Dead Souls, published by Seraphemera Books. Dead Souls is available from the Seraphemera Books website, Amazon.com, and at comic shops everywhere. He can be reached at kurt_amacker@seraphemera.org.