Broken Frontier

Demons, horror, humor, and an undead guy who isn’t really undead. Those are the main ingredients of The Damned, a new mini series written by BF’s own Cullen Bunn and pencilled by Brian Hurtt.

BF spoke to Cullen Bunn about his plans for title, debuting from Oni Press this month.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Eddie, the protagonist of your story, finds himself in a bit of a pickle, as he's been asked to end the feud between three demon families waging war in 1920s America. How did he get involved in this mess in the first place?

CULLEN BUNN: Eddie's one of those guys who can't seem to stay out of trouble.  Over the years, he's made a few promises he can't keep, and he's managed to find himself beholden to more than one crime boss.  In this case, of course, the bosses in question are demons, which adds a whole new level of whoa to Eddie's troubles.

BF: He's an undead guy himself, so he should be somewhat used to dealing with demons, should he not?

CB: He's more accustomed to it than the average Joe, but in the end, he's just a mortal.  He talks tough and he comes off as being ready for just about anything, but his knowledge only scratches the surface of the demon world. 

It's funny that you call him "undead."  I suppose that's an accurate description, but he's not a zombie or anything like that.  He can die.  He just doesn't stay dead very long.  And the true nature of this ability is another example of how little Eddie really understands.

BF: This true nature, will it be revealed in the first issue, or is it a key plot element that won't be tackled until the climax?

CB: I reveal why he's able to come back from the dead early on in the first issue.  But some of the other answers are mixed into the story over the five issues. 

BF: Ok. Now, something that's important for each new book is its ability to distance itself from other titles on the stands or within the same genre. What makes Eddie a great lead to do so, or even better, what's the most original aspect of The Damned's premise?

CB: The thing I like about The Damned is that the story lends itself to a play on good versus evil and grey in-between.  Here we have a bunch of demons, some of which are quite likeable characters, and we've got Eddie, who is pretty much a failure at life, so he's made a deal, quite literally, with the devil.  But in the end, I think readers will find themselves rooting for these characters.  I believe readers might get a kick out of asking themselves, "What would I do in Eddie's shoes?"  I also think this story is a good balance of fun, black humor, and elements of pure horror.

BF: Since you mentioned horror; you're a self-professed freak of the genre. Yet, this book, your comics debut, isn't overtly dark, nor is it filled with blood, guts and gore. Why did you opt to NOT tell an all-out horror story?

CB: Well, I wrote the kind of horror story I like, which blends a little action and humor into the horror.  I'm talking about movies like Fright Night and Phantasm, and TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  And because of the setting, I needed to adhere to certain conventions of noir and crime stories like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.  While I've written some stories that have pretty bleak endings (and notice I'm not saying if The Damned ends well for Eddie and company or not), I still like an element of fun.  In a way, a little humor and fun makes the horror all the more frightening.

BF: I'm sure I'm not at all off when I say this book isn't meant to put a scare into people. After all, the artwork is very clean, cartoony and the demons look like they might as well be humans wearing overblown masks, leftovers from a masquerade party gone bad.

CB: Heh.  And the monsters crack jokes and smoke cigars, true.  I don’t think comics can “scare” in the same way as a movie.  The reader’s not going to jump out of his or her seat when the hideous creature leaps out from behind the sofa.  But I do believe comics can scare on a different level. 

This is a crime story, make no mistake, but as the story unfolds there are some elements I'm hoping will give readers a few chills ... and in a story filled with boogiemen, most of the fear it deals with will be on a very human level.  The monsters aren't meant to be all that scary. Well, except for the Verlochin family.  I think those guys are pretty scary, but they don't show up right away.

BF: Next to the Verlochins, there's also the Roarke family and the Aligheris. From what you're saying, it looks like each of these families is on a different level in demon hierarchy.

CB: The Aligheris are by far the most powerful family around, but they're followed closely by the Roarkes.  The power struggle between them is putting a hurt on the business enterprises of both families.  The Verlochin have withdrawn to their own devices.  As far as they're concerned, the other families have forgotten what it means to be demons.

BF: Because they're too embroiled in human-like affairs?

CB: Exactly.  The Verlochin believe the other families have fallen victim to the very vices they should be using to tempt mortals.

BF: Something we've touched upon is the clean nature of the art. What I've also noticed is that the pages are made up of clearly defined panels and gutters, something that's become less common in US comics over the years. Was that a conscious decision, to give the book more of a classical, retro feel?

CB: It's not something Brian and I discussed, but I think it's just a by-product of the things we like in comics.  Clean and crisp while maintaining the right atmosphere, easy to follow visual storytelling.  And I think the retro feel just works very well for this story.  Our main goal was to make the book look like an old black and white gangster movie.

BF: What are the things you like most in comics? Which genres and storytelling modes appeal the most to you?

CB: I read comics in just about every genre, from slice-of-life to superheroes.  Some of my favourite books over the years have included Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Marvel’s Micronauts, Dreadstar, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Man Thing, Preacher, Walking Dead, Hellboy, Deathnote, and Bone. 

I have a soft spot for books from the 70s and 80s, since that’s when I first got into comics, and my comic to-be-read pile contains everything from this month’s recent releases to old issues of Kamandi, Atari Force, House of Mystery, and Devil Dinosaur.  I guess I like a little bit of everything! 

But no tentacle porn… at least not that I’m admitting to you. 

BF: About you working together with Brian—did that come about through Oni?

CB: Actually, Brian and I have been friends for a long while.  More than ten years ago, we worked for the same comic book shop, and that’s how we met.  It didn’t take long for us to start coming up with story ideas, and we always seemed to gravitate towards the genres of mystery, adventure, and horror.  We still kick some of those early ideas around from time to time, but The Damned is a relatively recent creation for us.

BF: How did you pitch the story to Oni, and were they sold on the idea immediately?

CB: Brian had worked with Oni on a number of projects, so they knew him and were familiar with his work.  Still, that wasn’t a free pass to publication.  In the past, we had pitched a couple of projects to them that just weren’t the right fit.  We knew that if the proposal was shoddy or the book wasn’t appealing, it would get kicked back to us hastily.  So we took this pretty seriously and approached it the way we would with any publisher.  The proposal included a synopsis, a detailed plot outline, and character descriptions. 

As for art, Brian put together a number of character designs, but since Oni had already worked with him, he didn’t need to do many sequentials.  They already knew he could tell a story visually.  I was the unknown element.  For all they knew, I couldn’t script or write dialogue to save my life, so I scripted a number of scenes from different points in the story.  I think the folks at Oni liked it pretty much immediately.  They had a few questions about the story and the background of the world, but that’s about it. 

We originally pitched The Damned as a graphic novel, but the folks at Oni thought it would work better as a series.  After writing the scripts, I’m glad that’s the route we took. 

BF: What’s the plan for The Damned from here? This world is packed with enough history and untapped back story for it to be a mere one-and-done thing…

CB: Brian and I have big plans for this world, and we hope the readers will like this first mini-series enough to want more.  I’ve already started plotting out a second story arc, and we’ve discussed the direction the overall tale would take in the future.  In my head, I can see where the story’s going to end years from now.  I just hope I get the chance to share that vision. 

For more on The Damned, hop on over to http://www.thedamnedcomic.com.