Author: Chris Ullrich

Previously on ComicMix, I spoke with Dark Horse Comics’ Editor Scott Allie about a variety of subjects including Buffy: Season Eight, Joss Whedon, the Dark Horse/MySpace Comics project and the rise of digital media.

This time around, we revisit a few old topics (because there’s always something new going on with Dark Horse projects in the Joss Whedon universe), discuss who might be handling the Serenity spin-offs and talk a bit about the origin of Shepherd Book.

COMICMIX: Okay, Scott, we talked about Serenity spin-offs before, like the one featuring Shepherd Book. Will it be old Buffy and Serenity writers on that one or…

SCOTT ALLIE: No. Joss [Whedon] will still have his role as co-writer, plotter, all that, but the rest of this is changing up. This one is such a different thing. It’s a flashback with a single character, before the television show, so we figured it was an opportunity to go in a real different direction.

CMix: There’s a story about the Shepherd Book comic’s origin, right? Something about Ron Glass (who plays the character in both the tevelvision series and feature film) going on a cruise?

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Previously on ComicMix, I spoke with Dark Horse Comics’ Editor Scott Allie about a variety of subjects including Buffy: Season Eight, current and future Serenity spin-offs, how he deals with reactions from fans and other tidbits about the Joss Whedon universe. Recently, I got the chance to speak with Allie again.

For this interview, we tackled a bunch of new topics, revisited some old ones, and spoke at-length about Dark Horse’s upcoming online plans, his thoughts on the future of comics and what he looks for in artists and writers.

COMICMIX: Scott, thanks for talking with me again. The last time we spoke was during New York Comic Con. Since we’re in convention season now with more of them looming, can you tell me how a convention like New York Comic Con and some of the others compare to something like San Diego’s Comic-Con International for a publisher like Dark Horse?

SCOTT ALLIE: New York is second only to San Diego. The big difference with the New York show is that it’s more about comics for now. The San Diego show has become so much about anything but comics. Movies, videogames, actresses, whatever. With New York, even when you’re talking about a licensed property, the focus remains on the comic.

Sure, there’s videogames and all that other stuff in New York, but it really feels like a comics convention, and the San Diego Comic-Con just doesn’t. San Diego’s a great place to talk about the biggest things, like Buffy: Season Eight, but smaller stuff just gets lost in the shuffle.

Whereas in New York, you can engage directly with readers about all of what we do. And we do a wide range of material. New York is a good show for that.

CMix: I was surprised that you guys were accepting submissions in New York?

SA: Yeah, we weren’t really doing that.

CMix: It was in the program, though.

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Writer and artist Tim Seely has come along way from reading, drawing and dreaming about comics as a kid in his parent’s basement in Wisconsin. Over the years, he’s managed to write and/or draw some of the most popular cult-favorite comics in publishing, including Kore, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe vs. Transformers, Forgotten Realms: The Dark Elf Trilogy and most recently, a comic based on the Holloween movie franchise.

He’s also the creator of the hugely popular and successful comic book series Hack/Slash, which is currently being produced as a feature film by Rogue Pictures and expected to be released later this year. Recently, ComicMix sat down with the prolific artist and writer to get all the latest details on Hack/Slash the comic, the movie adaptation and his latest project with the Suicide Girls.

COMICMIX: Hey Tim, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

TIM SEELEY: Sure, no problem at all.

CMix: You’re the staff artist for Devil’s Due Publishing, but your most well-known work, Hack/Slash, is a creator-owned project?

TS: It is creator-owned, yeah.

CMix: How did you come up with the idea for it?

TS: My girlfriend always gets embarrassed that I tell this story at all, but I was sick for a couple of days with the flu or something so, and it was right around Halloween. I’d just lay in bed for three or four days, and all I did was watch horror movies, like every station, they all run marathons, you know?

So I’m just sitting there and I’m on cold medicine and I start noting patterns in these horror movies. I took a bath because I’m feeling all crappy, and all of a sudden, it gelled in my head, and I jumped out of the tub and ran over, dripping-ass-naked in my house, and I wrote down this kind of outline for the comic.

There’s a girl that goes from slasher movie to slasher movie.  It’s a whole meta-idea or whatever, so then I started to build Hack/Slash from there. I just wanted to do something that didn’t have the flavor of what most comics have, something more like, B-movie, kind of totally creative, not so serious, something more like Psychotronic Movie Guide, like gonzo silly, but make it really important that the characters

There is a lot of characterization, and it was going to be about two characters and about their relationship. So, I kind of combined what I like about bad movies and what I like about good movies, and just got rid of all the other stuff.

CMix: Now, in addition to the comic, there’s also the Hack/Slash film in production as well… How’s that going?

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Devil’s Due Publishing, the Chicago-based home of comic book titles such as Dungeons & Dragons, Demon Squad and the cult favorite Hack/Slash, recently announced that it will be teaming up with noted videogame publisher Capcom to launch four new comic book titles based on the company’s successful videogame properties.

Two of the four titles announced as part of this deal will be comics based on popular Capcom titles Bionic Commando and Lost Planet.

According to Devil’s Due President Josh Blaylock:

Not only are these awesome games, but they have great stories behind them ripe for comics, including a vintage classic with Bionic Commando that’s been revived along with the new sequel.

More details about DDP’s plans for Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and the two other new Capcom comics are expected to be announced in July at the San Diego Comic-Con. Be sure to check back here at ComicMix for all the details.