Cover A to '68
© Image
I Talked with a Zombie: Mark Kidwell on ‘68
By: Kurt AmackerDate: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Everyone loves zombies. They scare the hell out of you. They serve as a perfect metaphor for, well, “us.” And, best of all, they eat people. With those sterling qualities, I see very little not to like about our lumbering, undead friends. Though mind-controlled, killer zombies first arrived in on film in 1932 with Bela Lugosi in White Zombie, George Romero introduced the shambling, undead, flesh-eating version we love so much in 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. Recently, the Dawn of the Dead remake and the Resident Evil films – for better and worse – have renewed zombies as a staple of horror cinema. In 2003, Robert Kirkman dragged zombies out of the grave and into the limelight with his ongoing series The Walking Dead from Image. Now, writer Mark Kidwell; artists Jay Fotos and Nat Jones; and letterer Jason Hanley have gone back to the well with ’68, a one-shot from Image Comics and Cryptic Magazine. ’68 takes place in the public domain universe of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Except, instead of rural Pennsylvania, we see the zombie plague unleashed on the other side of the world and in the worst place possible – the jungles of Vietnam. I talked with Mark about ’68, zombies, and the future of the project.
Kurt Amacker: Tell me a little bit about the evolution of '68. How did you and Jay Fotos get together on the book?
Mark Kidwell: ‘68 was originally commissioned by Chazz Demoss of Dead Dog comics. When Dead Dog decided to focus on publishing Cryptic Magazine and cease publication of individual comic books, Jay was instrumental in getting the book green-lighted at Image. The creative team, including Nat Jones, Jay, and myself, was already in place and the book was already completed. I credit Chazz with getting Nat and Jay involved.
KA: The book takes place during the Vietnam War, ostensibly during the outbreak depicted in Night of the Living Dead. Lieutenant Blake is obviously seeing or married to Barbara, the woman from the film. And yet, the story is relatively self-contained and short. Did you ever consider making it into a miniseries or at least framing it with some reference to the outside world of the film?
MK: Yeah, Lieutenant Tommy Blake is Barbara’s boyfriend. The book was originally planned as a “bridge” issue between story arcs on Dead Dog’s Night of the Living Dead comic series Barbara’s Zombie Chronicles. When the series was discontinued, everyone involved agreed that ‘68 was strong enough to stand on it’s own, thus the one-shot. As far as future plans for ‘68, Nat and I have already discussed tons of story ideas to flesh the series out into a four-issue run and then possibly a trade paperback collection. If reader response is extremely positive and there’s a demand, we’d love to continue it. If we do, you can bet there’ll be some flashes of what’s happening in the outside world, Saigon, and elsewhere.
KA: You guys pulled no punches with the gore in '68. But, unlike most comics – even horror comics – the violence feels more unnerving than cartoonish. Given that gore is in plentiful supply in comics, how do you keep it scary and prevent it from becoming boring or silly?
MK: The approach to violence and gore in ‘68 is an emotional one and the effect, hopefully, varies as the story proceeds. At first, the blood-letting, while profuse, is a bit on the jovial side on the part of the characters. When standard methods of dispatching an enemy fail, the violence zooms in and gets grimmer. Also, there’s a difference in mood when you’re dealing with empathetic characters in a historically accurate setting. Most of the gore and violence in ‘68 is rooted in historical fact (minus the zombie stuff, of course) and is designed to reflect the type of atrocities that actually took place during the conflict. As the situation becomes more intense, so does the character reaction to it, especially when it involves members of the squad. It hits home when it’s one of your own.
KA: Zombie comics are incredibly popular right now. Why do you think that is? What do you feel you have to offer to the subgenre to separate it from all the other titles out there?
MK: Zombies have remained popular since their inception for several reasons. The first major one I can think of is the morbid fascination with the fact that these monstrous creatures that attack and eat human beings are us. I think the fear of contracting a virus that kills you, raises you from the dead and sends you on a cannibalistic murder spree, unable to control your own actions really hits home with readers and viewers of this genre. Secondly, the total collapse of governments, police forces and the military caused by the wildfire spread of the zombie plague gets people thinking of their own survival without society’s built-in protections. How long could you hold out locked in your cellar or attic? Would you eat a bullet when the stress got too great? Would you even be able to protect yourself by shooting a friend or loved one in the head before they gnaw your arm off? I think the whole zombie subgenre involves its fans more than other horror concepts, makes ‘em think about their own chances of survival.
What separates ‘68 from other zombie titles is its firm anchoring into an actual historical period. By centering on the Vietnam conflict, the story grounds itself in the believable. It focuses on the horrors of war, and then ups the ante by introducing the risen, hungry dead. It also offers the opportunity to drive home the impression that this plague extends past the comfortable, familiar borders of the United States, into the jungles of Vietnam, and beyond.
KA: How do you feel that working with Jay enhances the book? What does he bring that another artist couldn't?
MK: Jay’s work is perfectly suited for horror and dark fantasy. His use of a muted palette, heavy darks and gauzy light expands on the grim, paranoiac atmosphere established by Nat Jones’s line art and my scripting in ‘68. It especially enhances that feeling of isolation and claustrophobia suggested by a dense, surrounding jungle that could at any moment explode with gunfire, shrapnel or (in the case of our story) the hungry dead. Jay’s colors and use of sparse lighting really set the mood. In addition, his paint work on the covers pull you right to the book on the shelves with their depth and mood. His stuff is top of the line when dealing with dark fantasy.
KA: '68 is relatively self-contained. Besides its length, we spend most of the comic with one fire team who encounters the zombies without any explanation outside of what they can speculate based on personal experience – one soldier from the south talks about voodoo zombies, for instance. We never even see the zombies overrunning Saigon or anything. How do you think that sense of immediacy and claustrophobia enhances the story?
MK: It pulls the reader into the story with our five troopers. As a witness to what goes on in ‘68, you are slogging along right behind those guys. You see only what they see. Under restrictive radio silence, you can’t even get in touch with the home firebase to request intel. Limiting the characters’ worldview forces them and the reader to keep moving forward, into the unknown, to see what fate has in store for them. The reader is right there with them until the bitter end. It’s only in the final two pages that you get to zoom out a bit and see, via the helicopter crew’s perspective, the final ramifications of the zombie outbreak and the air strike. Think of it in terms of heading up that first big hill on a roller coaster. The tension mounts until you get to the top, then you hit the top, see what awaits you and there’s nothing you can do to stop. Now think of looking off that hill and seeing a brick wall across the track at the bottom. There’s still no getting out of it.
KA: '68 also pulls no punches in the depictions of the war. The American soldiers frequently use racial epithets when referring to the Viet Cong, and not all of the characters are even likeable. Did you consciously emphasize the bunt brutality of the wartime experience, or did it just come out that way because you were writing a horror story?
MK: Y’know, I considered toning the dialog down a bit when I wrote the script, mostly due to today’s warm, fuzzy approach to political correctness. I finally decided to portray the characters realistically, using documented slang and the real, harsh language of the situation. The dialog is also designed to give you a deeper insight into the personalities of the characters. For instance, the initial dialog from Privates Mann and Bronto is harsher than that of Blake and the others. Those two are more hardened and more adapted to the barbaric wartime environment. As the story unravels and all the members of the squad are faced with their enemy’s brutal acts visited on fellow soldiers, we see their dialog change, getting more insulting and vengeful.
KA: What do you hope readers will take away from '68? Do you see any lessons to be learned, or do you just hope it scares the hell out of them?
MK: Sure, we wanna scare ‘em! That’s the whole point. However, we’re all aware of the fact that you can’t really scare the hell out of someone within the restrictions of the silent, static medium of comics. As a result, you go for mood. I hope we’ve established an atmosphere of impending danger, spiced with the confusion and paranoia of facing the gruesome supernatural head-on. Also, by setting the story in the historical time period of the Vietnam War, I hope we can juxtapose the horrors of the undead sub-genre with the all-too-real horrors of war and provide a one of a kind comic book experience. I’ve never seen a film or comic deal with zombies in Vietnam and I hope we’ve done our jobs well and have filled in that gap.
KA: Do you have any future plans for '68, like another one-shot or miniseries, or is this it?
MK: Well, as I stated above, if the readers want it, we will provide it. There are potentially endless stories you can tell using ‘68 as a jump-off point and Nat, Jay and I already have some firm ideas. We all feel really close to this project, have put our best work into it, and would love to expand it into a miniseries, trade paperback, and, eventually, a film.
KA: Anything else you'd like to add? Go nuts.
MK: Thanks, yeah. First off, let me thank everyone involved in bringing ‘68 to life. Nat Jones, Jay Fotos, Chazz DeMoss and Erik Larsen at Image Comics for making it possible to bring my script to life and get it into readers’ hands and secondly, thanks to everyone who picks the book up and gives our horror one-shot a chance.
Coming up, you’ll be seeing another horror one-shot from Jay and me. It’s a monster and gore-filled romp entitled Creature From the Depths that uses Universal’s original Creature From the Black Lagoon as inspiration and spirals into the dark via Lovecraft. Another book originally commissioned by Chazz over at Dead Dog, the book will now be published by Image Comics in the next few months. Also, do not miss Nat and Jay’s Death Dealer mini-series, also from Image. From what I’ve seen so far, these guys are doing the work of their careers and it’s gonna be a comics milestone in the dark sword and sorcery genre. Later in the year, be sure to check out BUMP, a four-issue mini-series from the all new Fangoria Comics line. I’m providing the script and the interior and cover art. It’s by far the darkest, most vicious thing I’ve ever written. It’s slated to become a feature film and will start shooting this summer with Robert Kurtzman (Wishmaster, Buried Alive, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn) providing director’s duties and SFX. From there, I’ll be illustrating further Fango projects from horror fiction giants like Ray Garton and veterans of the horror filmmaking world. It’s gonna be a busy year…
Thanks Kurt, for giving me the opportunity to get the word out on ‘68 and these other projects.
KA: No problem. I support the living dead in all their forms.
The Spinner Rack
By Al Brown and Kurt Amacker
Al: This week: Recurring guest star Dr. Dastardly analyzes the latest trends in code names as Superman fights aliens, some guy explodes, Warren Ellis takes over Thunderbolts and...sigh...Wolverine has a kid.
Kurt: I’ve already got the cigars!
DARK HORSE COMICS
Blade Of The Immortal #121 (MR) $2.99
Classic Peanuts Character #2 Lucy Van Pelt Statue $39.95
Kurt: Football and bad attitude not included.
Messengers GN $6.95
Rex Mundi Vol 2 The River Underground TP Dh ED $16.95
Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures Vol 7 TP $6.95
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #12 $2.99
Star Wars Legacy #7 $2.99
DC COMICS
52 Week #36 $2.50
Batman #662 $2.99
Al: John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's fill-in run comes to an end. Next month: Grant Morrison returns.
Batman Confidential #2 $2.99
Batman: Confidentially, you know what's in my utility belt? Twinkies. I mean, on the right side there's some grappling hooks and smoke bombs and stuff, but the left side is pretty much Twinkies. I get hungry, y'know? With all the swinging and punching and stuff.
Kurt: I thought Batman never, ever ate dessert!
Batman Scarecrow Fear Gift Set PI
Al: This "gift set" is actually just some guy's severed finger. Scary!
Batman Strikes #29 $2.25
Cartoon Network Action Pack #9 $2.25
Densha Otoko Vol 2 $9.99
Fallen Angel Vol 2 Down To Earth TP (MR) $14.99
Friday The 13th #2 (MR) $2.99
From Eroica With Love Vol 8 $9.99
Gen 13 #4 $2.99
Gen 13 Var Edition #4 $2.99
Green Arrow #70 $2.99
Al: We go now to our Senior Villainy Correspondent, Dr. Dastardly, for his take on Green Arrow's latest opponent, Brick. Doc?
Dr. Dastardly: Don't call me Doc. Al, while I appreciate the succinctness of his name, I find it lacking in the creativity department. What if, for example, Green Arrow was just known as "Arrow?" Or Wonder Woman was simply "Woman?" Brick represents a disturbing new trend away from the descriptive, exciting names of the past. Listen: your alter ego has to be memorable, and that takes imagination. What about "Red Brick?" Or "Mighty Brick?" Or "Really Hard Brick that will smart like the dickens if it hits you in the head?" I have to say thumbs down to this one.
Green Lantern Corps #8 $2.99
Dr. Dastardly: Now, see, this book features a dude named "Von Daggle." That's a memorable name!
Kurt: I think we can thank Dr. Victor Von Doom for the sinister associations of that particular surname.
JSA Classified #21 $2.99
Justice Society Of America #2 $2.99
Justice Society Of America Var ED #2 $2.99
Majestic Vol 3 The Final Cut TP $14.99
Martian Manhunter #6 (of 8) $2.99
Omac #7 (of 8) $2.99
Outsiders #44 $2.99
Rush City #4 (of 6) $2.99
Kurt: Would a few more of you just buy the damn car so that DC never does this again?
Showcase Presents Justice League Of America Vol 2 TP $16.99
Stormwatch Phd #3 $2.99
Stormwatch Phd Var Edition #3 $2.99
Superman Batman Vs Aliens Predators #1 (of 2) $5.99
Al: For anyone who's ever sat around and said "Hey, if Superman, Batman, the Predator and some Aliens ever fought, I wonder who would win:" Oh my God you are such a nerd.
Kurt: Up next Aliens vs. Predator vs. Muppet Babies vs. Happy Days.
Tales Of The Unexpected #4 (of 8) $3.99
Welcome To Tranquility #2 $2.99
Al: I really enjoyed the first issue of this Gail Simone series about a town inhabited by retired superheroes and villains.
Welcome To Tranquility Var ED #2 $2.99
Women Of The Dc Universe Power Girl Bust $45.00
Kurt: Come on, this sounds like a monthly special from Playboy.
IMAGE COMICS
Ant #9 $2.99
Cryptics #2 $3.50
Kurt: Imagine Universal horror movies played through the filter of Tiny Toons.
Cyberforce Vol 1 TP $14.99
Freshmen Texas CVR Ltd ED Litho $19.99
Freshmen Texas CVR Ltd ED Litho Sgn $29.99
Godland #15 $2.99
Dr. Dastardly: Introducing a dude named "The Savage Sting." Now there's a friggin' name! See how that works? Adjective -> Noun. Extra points for alliteration. Alliteration is awesome!
Kurt: So, like, Awesome Attacker would totally work, right? Okay, that was f—king stupid.
Meltdown #2 (of 2) $5.99
Al: Concluding this short story about a superhero who knows his powers are about to kill him. What would you do? I would join BMG Music Club and be all like, "Bill me later." Ha ha, suckers!
Kurt: I would recommend doing that with Columbia House, but by the time they got your application straightened out and you actually got your movies, you’d be dead.
Nightly News #3 (of 6) $2.99
Phonogram #4 (of 6) (MR) $3.50
Strange Girl #13 $3.50
MARVEL COMICS
Agents Of Atlas #6 (of 6) $2.99
Al: Conclusion of this entertaining little series.
Amazing Spider-Girl #4 $2.99
Al: Introducing Mad Dog, a bounty hunter who keeps the weapons of all the super-villains he captures. Cool idea.
Dr. Dastardly: And note that if you remove the initial adjective, his name becomes "Dog" - the same name as the famous bounty hunter of TV fame. Clever!
Blade #5 Cw $2.99
Al: Vs. Wolverine, of course.
Kurt: Well, one’s got claws and the other uses a sword. They both like sharp things, see? God, I’m lame.
Cable Deadpool Vol 1 If Looks Could Kill TP $14.99
Kurt: Coming soon, my new self-published epic, If This Book Could Just Die.
Champions Classic Vol 2 TP $19.99
Civil War Final Battle Poster $6.99
Fantastic Four Books Of Doom TP $14.99
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #16 $2.99
Ghost Rider Vol 1 Vicious Cycle TP $13.99
Al: Get it? "Vicious Cycle?" Like a motorcycle? Except, like, vicious? Hey, does the trailer for the movie look super-lame or what?
Kurt: I will see this. If it rules, I will laugh at you. If it sucks, I will quietly sulk in the corner before writing a really academic review picking apart a movie about a guy with his head on fire.
Hellstorm Son Of Satan #4 (of 5) (MR) $3.99
Immortal Iron Fist 2nd Ptg Dellotto Var #1 (PP #746) $2.99
Magician Apprentice #5 (of 12) $2.99
Mythos Ghost Rider #3 $3.99
New Excalibur #15 $2.99
Al: Conclusion of Frank Tieri's pointless, but inoffensive run.
Kurt: Wow, that’s some ringing praise – “Al Brown calls New Excalibur ‘pointless, but inoffensive’!”
New Mutants Classic Vol 2 TP $24.99
Al: Featuring the White Queen in full evil, slutty glory. Yay for evil slutty White Queen!
Kurt: As opposed to the good, slutty White Queen?
New X-Men #34 $2.99
Punisher #43 (MR) $2.99
Al: New arc about five women whose husbands were killed by the Punisher, now out for revenge. The solit mistakenly says Frank "put them down like gods" instead of (presumably) "dogs," which is kinda funny. Frank shoots gods! That dude's so going to hell.
Runaways #23 $2.99
Squadron Supreme Hyperion Vs Nighthawk #1 (of 4) $2.99
Al: Another story that, like every Superman vs. Batman story ever, will spend four issues trying desperately to make us think the guy with no superpowers has a prayer. The problem with stories like these is that in order to convince us that the human guy can win, the authors usually end up portraying the super-powered guy as a complete numbskull.
Thunderbolts #110 $2.99
Al: Here comes awesome! Warren Ellis takes over Thunderbolts! I hope he's been given a long leash, because Thunderbolts needs a serious shakeup. And to make things worse, now he's gotta deal with "Penance," the ridiculous new persona for Speedball who - seriously - has little spikes on the inside of his supersuit so that he can feed off his own constant pain. Ooooooh, angsty. Did I say angsty? I meant "lamest idea ever."
Dr. Dastardly: Also, the name Penance has already been used by Marvel as the mute, brainwashed alter ego of Monet St. Croix (currently of X-Factor) and then her two siblings in early issues of Generation X.
Thunderbolts Yu Var #110 $2.99
Ultimate Marvel Flip Magazine #21 $4.99
Ultimate Tales Flip Magazine #21 $4.99
White Tiger #3 (of 6) $2.99
Wolverine Origins #10 $2.99
Al: Did someone just say "The son of Wolverine?" Is it okay if I pretend they didn't?
Kurt: Son of Wolverine! Son of Wolverine! That means he had sex! That means he had sex!
Wonder Man #2 (of 5) $2.99
(..to the magazine, not 68, in case you were confused)
World War II bomber and swamp Zombies in the HM segment "B-17" - I always loved the atmosphere in that.
Almost as much as the gratuitous boobie shots.
'68 sounds good.
2. re: "For anyone who's ever sat around and said "Hey, if Superman, Batman, the Predator and some Aliens ever fought, I wonder who would win:" Oh my God you are such a nerd.
Sandy Collora actually did it in a live action kick-axe 30000 dollar fan-film called "Batman Dead End"; it's in your website's video section, you know down the page.
P.S "Nerd" is so 80's we're "Geeks" now. GET IT RIGHT.
:D
Laterness.