CEMETERY CLUES #1 by Ryan Rubio and Thomas Boatwright
© Image Comics
Playing the Cemetery Blues
By: Kurt AmackerDate: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Once in a while, dear Maniacs, I find a small press project I really like – one I enjoy so much that I have to use the column to tell the world about it. In this case, a self-published project called Cemetery Blues by writer Ryan Rubio and artist Thomas Boatwright caught my eye. The three-issue miniseries presented the adventures of Ridley and Falstaff – two ne’er-do-well English monster hunters that spend as much time at the pub as they do on the job. Combining Victorian Gothic sensibilities with humor straight out of Monty Python’s Flying Circus or Faulty Towers, the miniseries achieves a delicate balance between humor and horror. And while genuinely funny, it begins a larger story. Ridley and Falstaff represent the last of an order dedicated to eradicating supernatural evil. In the course of investigating a series of hauntings at a mansion, the two encounter an ancient evil hell-bent on destroying them, their ghostly mentor Lear, and the order the three represent. And, besides the three-issue self-published miniseries, another miniseries has been accepted by the good souls over at Image/Shadowline for publication. You can find the first issue of Cemetery Blues: The Haunting of Hernesberg in shops in January. I talked with Thomas about the upcoming miniseries earlier this week.
Kurt Amacker: The first issue of the new Cemetery Blues miniseries, The Haunting of Hernesberg, will come out from Image/Shadowline in January. Tell me about the inception of the first self-published miniseries.
Thomas Boatwright: Ryan Rubio and I wanted to work on a project together. So, we started brainstorming on things we liked. He saw a picture I drew of a vampire hunter and he came up with what would be the basic idea of Cemetery Blues. Then I added my two cents. I made Ridley and Falstaff very bad at their job, and constantly poor.
KA: They’re poor and often drunk, if the first miniseries is any indication. Now, Ryan does the scripting, but the project belongs to both of you. How much input do you have on the actual story?
TB: We talk about the story. Ryan usually has a structure in mind. We go back and forth for a bit. Then, he'll do a draft or two of the script. I use that for the art. I streamline the flow of the story and add in little gags or interesting things where I can. I know what needs to be in there, but Ryan is open to me moving and editing parts. Then, we get back together and script it, panel by panel.
KA: So, it's almost more of a co-writing experience than the credits page would let on?
TB: We split it up in the first miniseries – the script by Rubio and the art by me. But, the new miniseries has the story credited to both of us. During the scripting, Ryan pretty much works with what I gave him. I offer my thoughts and we bounce lines off each other.
KA: Let's talk about the story. It almost seems like you all took an old-school Victorian ghost story and infused it with modern pub culture. It's like Ghostbusters meets Edward Gorey at a bar.
TB: Exactly – I think the line we came up with was "Tomb of Dracula meets Monty Python." We wanted to have a "real" ghost story or horror movie that our boys Ridley and Flastaff deal with.
KA: That's a nice way of summing it up. Tomb of Dracula always had the ghosts-and-gas-lamps feel of Victorian horror dragged into the Marvel Universe.
TB: There's an epic story going on behind the scenes, but we focus the story on these two lowlifes.
KA: It's interesting, because the first miniseries strikes a balance between humor and horror without allowing one to overwhelm the other. That’s very difficult to do. How do you all keep it scary without making the humor seem out of place, and vice versa?
TB: We kind of know how a horror movie works, and we know what we enjoy about them. Ridley and Falstaff are us in a way, reacting to things the way we would want to in that situation. Humor and horror work on the same level in a way. It's all about timing.
KA: They both aim to disturb the audience, but in different ways. Sex jokes are funny because they break open taboos that people are usually fearful of discussing in the open. Similarly, horror traffics in images and experiences you don't – and shouldn't – experience every day.
TB: Right – the same way the old banana peel slip can be funny, the jump out of the closet can be scary. But if not timed right, neither will work.
KA: I appreciate what you and Ryan have done thus far because it resonates on a larger scale with the unexplored history of the Order for the Preservation of the Mystical Balance, but at the same time it works like an episode of Faulty Towers with ghosts.
TB: We usually just call it The Order. That's about as long as Ryan would let me make it. I wanted a really long name, like a Monty Python name. It's long enough, though.
KA: Why did you all decide to use black and white art and then continue with it into the Image series?
TB: The short answer is that it's cheaper. But, we actually like it that way. I enjoy trying to recreate the old Universal monster movies. I think unless we’re pressured to color it, we'll always do it black and white.
KA: I love Universal horror. And as was often the case with those movies, I think black and white can really bring an atmosphere to the story that color intrudes upon. A friend of mine who self-publishes once told me that you have to ask if the color is going to be part of the artwork, or if it’s just going to sit on top of it.
TB: I agree. Color should be used as a weapon, not just to fill in spots. I hate that "fill in the blanks" style of coloring. But, it’s not as bad as it used to be.
KA: It's definitely improved since the 1990s.
TB: When computers started to be used more often, people just used it to color faster. Only in the last few years have they really explored the potential.
KA: How did you all get The Haunting of Hernesberg picked up by Image/Shadowline?
TB: Doing The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo sort of gave me an "in" with the editors. We pitched the first miniseries to them, but it was too many pages. Ryan and I wanted to do a sequel anyway, so we came up with another story. So, we pitched that to them and they agreed. If this miniseries is a hit, we'll get to publish the whole thing in a trade one day – both of them, I mean, and we'll even try to get in some of the little short things we've done, like our three Free Comic Book Day shorts.
KA: Was the first miniseries done when you pitched it?
TB: I had that finished in December of last year. I took a break from the book to do Edgar Allan Poo.
KA: I understand The Haunting of Hernesberg will be three monthly issues.
TB: Yes, they’ll be out in January, February, and March. But, we have many more miniseries planned.
KA: Do you promise that they will come out on time?
TB: Oh, yes. We're ahead of schedule actually. Our editors have been pleased with our progress.
KA: Given the overt anglophile quality of Cemetery Blues, I have to ask if either you or Ryan is from the United Kingdom originally. Did you come over before you could develop an accent or something? Or, do you just enjoy the sensibilities?
TB: No, we were both born and raised in North Carolina! We're just big fans of British horror and humor. We’re Hammer horror fans. The villain, Orlok is based on Christopher Lee. And Lear, Ridley and Falstaff's ghostly mentor, is based on Peter Cushing.
KA: I really enjoy the elegance that infuses Victorian horror – and subsequently, a lot of other British horror. I really miss that in modern horror.
TB: I agree. There’s too much flash and not enough substance. I love the Victorian sensibility. A lot of the ghost stories from that time barely had a ghost in them. They played with mood and setting more.
KA: I think it's something that's difficult to translate to film – or comics, for that matter. A lot of it depends on, as you said, perception and mood. A character's – and consequently, a reader's –internal experience of a tapping at the window is far scarier than actually hearing it on film.
TB: Right, and that’s hard to do outside of prose. That’s why we try to have interesting characters and settings. If I can give the reader a sense of place, then I feel I'm doing what I set out to do. Comics for me are a storytelling medium. I'm not here to draw you a great pinup or show you how well I can do perspective. I'm telling you a story. I want you to feel like you're there with them.
KA: If the first miniseries is any indication, I think you all have succeeded.
TB: Thank you. I’m always afraid people will just pass by thinking it's just another horror book. Hopefully, we’ve done our best to tell them otherwise.
KA: All right, here’s your chance to pitch Cemetery Blues: The Haunting of Hernesberg to the legions of Comicscape readers. Go out in a blaze of glory.
TB: Ridley and Falstaff's hunt for the villain Orlok has led them to the small village of Hernesberg. There's a dark spirit in the eastern wood troubling the town. Our boys are enlisted to lead a hunting party to rid the people of this menace. Of course, things go terribly wrong. Ridley and Falstaff, along with a young couple from Hernesberg, will have to figure out how to deal with stirring up ancient evils! Look for it on January 16, 2008. The Diamond order code is NOV072012.
KA: Thanks, man. We’re looking forward to it.
The Spinner Rack
By Ben Johnson and Kurt Amacker
DARK HORSE COMICS
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Kurt: But, this column is now quite dead. See you all next week.
