Broken Frontier

The Frontier caught Simon Bisley at the Belgian F.A.C.T.S. convention, October 18th after Bisley went through a pretty rough night of ... well who knows what but I'm pretty sure the always excellent Belgian beer played a big role in it. In true Halloween mood, he made the interview a pretty horror-ific experience. Yours truly improvised on the spot and chose to spare mister Bisley some of the questions, trying to get to the good stuff.

Broken Frontier: What is it that constitutes true horror for you?

Simon Bisley: Probably is these questions right now, that's probably my biggest horror. I don't want to do any kind of work right now. Do anything, even breathing is a horror, I just want to go to bed. I'm not sick, just sick in the head though.

What a fucking waste of time this is, go on.

BF: What are the specific challenges you are facing when writing a horror tale as opposed to drawing a, for instance, superhero story?

SB: Yeah there is a difference because with Slaine, it's gotta be a bit more realistic; the physical make up of the characters. Whereas with superheroes, you can be way more dynamic and exaggerate, it's easier to do. It's easier to exaggerate the musculature. You get away with much more and it's quicker.

But when you're doing something like - currently I'm doing Hellblazer, John Constantine; that's like, you gotta concentrate harder to get a more realistic feel to it, just takes longer. It's completely different from let's say Lobo which I don't even pencil, I just ink it straight away. It's actually pretty bad when I think about it now. Yeah I think Constantine is maybe going back a bit to some of my older stuff.

For Berserker comics I tend to rip into it, just like that. That's what you're getting paid for right, for the quality of work you do [grimaces].

BF: What is your favourite terrorific story, be it comics, movies or books?

SB: I think it's gotta be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. It's the original book I like. It goes on a bit, on and on blablabla 'I'm riddled with guilt' etc. Get to the fucking point, you know what I mean? It's pretty long winded. I read it once and that is enough for me. What I find more interesting is the reflection about the book and how it came about. In the day you know, they had criminals and they put electricity on them and they made them walk around. They had them walk around at one point. They got so good at making the body move, wired up with electricity, they reckoned for a moment it actually breathed. They thought that would re-animate them. It was an Italian doctor I believe, a scientist. Like criminals, they would wire them all up everywhere, saw the chest breathing and reckon they was alive at some point. Fuck, it's scary man.

Anyway, I like the stuff surrounding Frankenstein, it's all about human beings, you know. We all kinda associate with the monsters, the demise or the situation I think.

BF: When faced with a giant octopus, his tentacles woozing your way, his one giant eye focusing on your frail human body, what do you do?
a) I reach for my can of maze
b) I quickly try to reach for my mobile to call my zombie army: zombies vs giant squids!
c) I'll tell you what I'll do! (insert your personal option)

SB: I'd take a big bite out of it! Yeah, that's it!

Simon Bisley can be found scaring people over at simonbisleygallery.com and at Berserker Comics.

Broken Frontiers' Halloween feature 7 Horrific Questions With has featured The Walking Dead's Charlie Adlard, North 40s' Fiona Staples and Solomon Kane's Scott Allie.