Writer – Joe R. Lansdale and Artist – Nathan Fox
COMIC BOOK:
PIGEONS FROM HELL
Dark Horse Publishing
Available at Your Local Comic Book Shop
Interviewer: Mike Fish
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HORROR YEARBOOK: Welcome to the HYB Quickie where three is definitely company! I’m your host, Jack Tripper. Who’s Chrissy because I’ve got some squeezing to do.
(*crickets)
HORROR YEARBOOK: Okay! Joe, you’re the writer of this adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s classic story, Pigeons from Hell. How did you come about turning this into a graphic novel presentation?
JOE LANSDALE: I’ve been a big fan of Howard’s for a long time. I was talking to a representative of Paradox films and he mentioned the connection to Dark Horse comics, and I had worked with Mike and Dark Horse before, so during the discussion I mentioned how much I liked Howard and Pigeons From Hell. He said they wanted to do an updated version, and it grew from there.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Where there any changes, enhancements, or liberties you wanted to take with the story when using this format?
JOE LANSDALE: I mainly wanted to put it in the modern world, draw some things from it I thought were hinted at, and develop some ideas of my own that struck me as suitable and fitting to the story. I wanted it to look really nasty and noir-ish, and I wanted to play with some of the horror conventions that this tale helped create, and then I wanted to twist them a bit.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Nathan Fox, you’re the artist on this ghostly disturbing tale. Was there anything you wanted to do artistically to bring the tale to life visually?
NATHAN FOX: Joe’s script really blew me away. Especially how cinematic and eerie all of the supporting cast, shadows and the plantation house itself become over the course of the story. Artistically I wanted to try and pull that off in pacing and panel structure somehow. That progression and fluidity that cinema can bring to the delivery of the narrative as it unfolds. Ha. I hope it’s working. I am finding suspense/horror a challenging theme on paper. EVERYTHING is exposed the moment you start reading. Aside from a page turn you have to get creative in how you hide or reveal what’s next. So I tried to play around with the panel structure on the pages. They get more hectic and move or run off the page in the direction the character does or shift when something is dramatic then settle back down to the center of the page when there is a quiet moment, that sort of thing. To keep the viewers eye focused inside the panels and where the story is going rather than being able to skim through the panels just reading balloons but seeing it all unfold before they even get to the end of the page. Compositionally I tried to pull that off by using weird camera angles and using a lot of black area to set the mood but also hide what is coming next or try to focus the viewers eye where the story needs it to go.
HORROR YEARBOOK: This is also a very cinematic piece, flowing much like a film on the page. Were you striving for that look?
NATHAN FOX: Very much so. As before, I felt Joe’s telling of the story was cinematic and I draw a lot of inspiration from film/movies and photography. Reading the script for the first time it was easier than most scripts to read as a movie in my head. From the get go I had ideas for where to put the camera, panning movements, lighting and so on. Once I talked to Joe a bit more after we got started I found out a bit more about his link to the Thriller [with Boris Karloff] version and other movies he liked and it all just started to fall in place and lay itself out. I drew a lot from that episode and pay homage to a few of Joe’s influence and that episode specifically in the story. The staircase and basic layout of the set ended up being to the foundation design I used when I designed the rest of the house. Outside of that I drew a lot from Kubric, De Palma, Hitchcock and others for some inspiration and research for drawing suspense and editing ideas. I didn’t watch The Birds, although that would have been completely appropriate. Didn’t want it or any other films to act as cookie cutters for what it would look like but I do remember how freaky that movie made me feel and specific scenes that I dig. I put as much of that as I could in there as well. Stay tuned though. Issue one is just the beginning of the havoc that ensues cinematically…
JOE LANSDALE: It is a cinematic story, and I saw the TV Thriller version when I was a kid. I have a somewhat cinematic style from time to time, and comics lend themselves to that. I wrote the story that was in my head and in my memory from reading it and seeing the film adaptation and thinking about what I wanted to see, and what I thought Nathan would have fun with.
HORROR YEARBOOK: How did the two of you pair up on this? And are you two an old married couple now because of it?
JOE LANSDALE: I didn’t know Nathan or his work before this project, but I adore what he’s done. His style is unique. I think the way he makes the house look inside and out is very good. I also like the fact that his drawings of my characters are unique and not standard.
NATHAN FOX: Ha! I wasn’t really aware of Joe either. I had flipped through a few of the books he had done but never picked any of them up or known they were his at the time. I caught up quick to his work and Howard’s as well. Didn’t know the breadth of his work either outside of the movie and a comic I picked up as a kid, which was Conan as well. I would/will kill to work with Joe again if he’ll have me. I don’t know if it’s the whole southern Texas roots or what but his writing really reads similar to how I draw in my head if that makes any sense. It all flows well is probably a better way to state it. The thing that hooked me on the issue was how much I despised the idea of drawing 5 young adults going to a scary house but then ate my words the minute I read the following page and they stepped onto the porch. He set me up and I was hooked.
HORROR YEARBOOK: After reading the first issue, I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it, even though essentially, it’s a ghost story… a genre I’m not too fond of right now with all the Hollywood remakes. I think it’s because of the way you both interpreted it, more traditional like Evil Dead than scare tactic like The Grudge.
JOE LANSDALE: I think you’ll find as issues go along this becomes more and more interesting, and we play with the genre a lot, but in the end, I actually think I’m pretty true to Howard’s tale. It has already been done in comics, and faithfully, and it was done reasonably faithful on Thriller, and many readers seem to think it has dated a bit, and though I didn’t think so, I wanted to pull readers back into Howard’s story. I’ve always been at heart a traditionalist with a rebellious attitude, if that makes any kind of sense.
NATHAN FOX: Yeah, I’d have to agree. It definitely develops away from the local fair of scare tactic to just flat out freaky the more you get into the storyline. Same with Howard’s original, no doubt. I had hoped we could make it more than just your typical ghost story (even though they’re shadows, and not the NORMAL ghost…). But then again, what is that thing stealing around in the house?
HORROR YEARBOOK: The car scene especially, crashing into the swamp. No ghosts, no spikes in the road. Just a dumb deer. It played well in my head like a movie.
NATHAN FOX: Ha. Yeah, it didn’t read as contrived. I imagined putting a lot of nature into the book from the outset anyway. Bugs, snakes and so forth. That’s what those signs on the road are for, right?
JOE LANSDALE: I thought the deer was the way to go, to mess with expectations.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Nate, your style is very lively and comfortable, especially in the faces. Do you have any influences or artists you admire?
NATHAN FOX: Wow. Thanks man. Figuratively Yoshitoshi and Lucien Freud really had a huge effect on me from the get go. I’ve always found beauty, for lack of a better cliché’, in violence and oddity or uniqueness from one person to the next. Ha! I stare and people watch a lot to boot. Those uniqueness or differences makes it all that much more tangible I think. “Character” has been a big focus in terms of what I want to do in my drawing and even the freelance illustration stuff I do. I always ended up acting scenes out or find myself making faces while drawing to try and put that empathy and emotion into it. Must come from the movies influences and a necessity for constant movement and detail as well. I started out in college wanting to be an animator. I still do, but that empathy with character and figure has always stuck with me.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Now Joe, you wrote the short story for Bubba Ho-Tep. Where did that originally publish cuz I wanna read it!
JOE LANSDALE: It was published in ELVIS IS DEAD, an anthology, but it’s been published in my short story collection WRITER OF THE PURPLE RAGE, and it’s been reprinted from time to time, and as a book with the screenplay included by Don Coscarelli, with photos from the movie. The book version is called BUBBA HOTEP, and I think it’s still available from NIGHT SHADE PRESS.
HORROR YEARBOOK: IMDB lists you as the writer for Bubba Nosferatu. Is that still in the works?
JOE LANSDALE: I don’t know why they list me as the writer of BUBBA NOSFERATU. It was discussed with me, but it never came to fruition. The movie is dead as far as I know. Bruce bailed on it. He’s commented on it online. I had nothing to do with any of the plans for the remake. Don wanted to go a different way. I think my idea was to go pretty wild. I thought that’s what made the first one work, and I still do. As soon as you put a saddle on it, start to tame it, it’s gone and it’s as if the first never existed. People forget ROCKY was a great movie, because the others are such pop shit. Bubba may not have had that kind of success, but in it’s own way it was wonderful. I love the movie and think Don did a wonderful job. I’m sure had he done BUBBA NOSFERATU it would have been wonderful.
HORROR YEARBOOK: So what are your favorite horror flicks? And Joe, keep the list short buddy! Just kidding. List as many as you like.
JOE LANSDALE: My favorite is the original, THE HAUNTING, with Claire Bloom. I love THE UNIVITED as well. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE INNOCENTS. There are so many. I have to admit I’m very fond of BUBBA HOTEP, and I can say that because I didn’t do the script and the actors were great and the directing was great, etc. It was faithful to my story, and though I’m not sure how comfortably it fits in the horror genre, or anywhere, I really love it. I also adore the original PHANTASM, EVIL DEAD, and all the spin offs from that. I think ALIEN and ALIENS are great, and the latter is also a kind of weird adventure film. HALLOWEEN. So many. I love the one with Bill Paxton as a vampire, and there’s a whole family of vampires and Bigelow directed, and Dark is in the title, but my mind isn’t fire on all cylinders today. [NEAR DARK]
NATHAN FOX: I’d have to say I didn’t watch a lot of horror movies until much later in life but Night of the living Dead, Alien and The Shining really scared the shit out of me as a kid. I watched a bit of late night horror fests and Twilight Zone as a kid as well. Horror anime has been fun over the years as well. Freddy Kruger was probably the first horror character though, as humiliating as this is to admit, to haunt my dreams, literally.
Sheltered suburban youth back then… what can I say?
HORROR YEARBOOK: Any other books or characters you two would like to tackle in the future?
NATHAN FOX: Yeah, now that I’ve gotten a hold of Howard’s stuff it would be great to tackle more. I am a big fan of Japanese folklore and horror films. Would love to tackle the Eastern influences at some point.
JOE LANSDALE: I’d love to do more Howard. I love his stuff.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Are you guys afraid of pigeons now?
JOE LANSDALE: I’m afraid of pigeon shit.
NATHAN FOX: I had always heard about the death association much like the crow kind of thing but I would have to say yeah, just the poop. However I did take pause the other week though. I actually hit one with a car by accident. I didn’t see it in the road till it was too late. They usually fly away at the last minute but nope. This time it was a cloud of feathers and then. Nothing. I couldn’t find the thing to see if it was hurt or alive. It just disappeared. That tripped me out for a few days.
HORROR YEARBOOK: Any last words, fellas?
JOE LANSDALE: Watch where you step.
NATHAN FOX: Sleep tight. Don’t let the shadows bite.
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