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Desperadoes: Quiet of The Grave
With old comic book westerns snatching record prices in recent auctions, it seems a good time to visit with one of the main forces behind a mini-resurgence in new western comics. In the case of Desperadoes, though, writer (and WildStorm Productions editor) Jeff Mariotte teamed up with some impressive artists to combine the traditional western with almost gothic horror. His forthcoming trade paperback, Desperadoes: Quiet of The Grave is featured in the September 2002 Previews, showcasing his work with comics legend John Severin. Scoop talked with Mariotte about his work. What lead to your career in comics? My first career in comics was in retail, working for a while during college at one of Bud Plant's stores, in San Jose, CA. Then I took a long detour, and came back to comics decades later, hired as a writer by Jim Lee. His wife had worked for me at a bookstore I managed in La Jolla, CA, and they'd read some of the stuff I had written, both fiction and nonfiction. Shortly after the formation of Image Comics, when Jim had a trading card deal with Topps for WildC.A.T.s cards, he needed someone to write the card back text and called me up. I did that, then wrote the first couple of sourcebooks, and then started being asked to do stuff around the office. That led, eventually, to my position as VP of Marketing. What changed for you when WildStorm was acquired by DC Comics? Well, DC already had a good marketing department that didn't really need me. And, according to DC rules, business execs can't do freelance writing for the comics, but editors can. So the company generously offered me the position of Senior Editor, which I accepted. It means I don't get to interact with my pals in the press as often as I used to, and instead have to spend my time hounding freelancers for their work. What are your influences as a writer? Extremely varied...William Goldman, Wallace Stegner, Stephen King, Ross MacDonald, Denny O'Neil... I think all writers learn from everything they read, good or bad, but we're better off reading the good because the lessons we learn are much more helpful. In general, what are the types of stories you like to create? I have a hard time with the mundane--not meant as a pejorative, but a descriptive term, as it's applied to fiction that's about the “real world.” There's almost always an element of the fantastic in anything I do, whether it's horrific or science fictional or magical. Hence, I guess, the idea of doing a supernatural western instead of a straight western, with Desperadoes. I like stories with well-developed characters and a plot you can follow, but have little patience for stories that are gimmicky or contrived. How did the concept for Desperadoes develop? We were in the early stages of Homage Comics, our creator-owned line, and doing interesting books like Leave It To Chance, Strangers in Paradise, and Astro City. Jim wanted Astro City to be the only superhero book we did, and he was interested in playing with other genres we don't see much of in comics these days. He knew I was interested in Westerns, and invited me to pitch one. In my pitch, I included a suggestion that it could have supernatural elements, and he was very enthusiastic about that. Which was good, because it was what I really wanted to do in the first place. Everything was basically there in that first pitch--all the main characters, the kinds of situations they'd face, how they came to be on the run from the law. How long did your development process take, and what was involved before readers saw the first issue of the first mini-series? The hard part, really, was finding an artist. I didn't particularly have visual looks in my mind for the characters beyond the basics--age, gender, ethnicity, and how trail-worn they'd be. The editor who was working on it at the time was Jonathan Peterson, and we kicked around the names of lots of artists while I was writing the first script. Finally, I had breakfast with Mark Waid at a con - I think it was the Mid-Ohio Convention, which I'm going back to this year for the first time since then - and told him about the book, and he suggested this guy whose work he had seen, named John Cassaday. I got some copies of Cassaday's work from him, and showed it to Jonathan and Jim Lee. We all agreed that he was the guy, so I called him up, and discovered that he was from Texas, knew what horses and cowboy hats, etc., looked like, and was interested in the job. That cinched it for me, and he was able to start drawing almost right away. At this point I no longer remember precisely how long it took to develop - I think it's like labor that way, in that if you remember the details you'd never want to do it again. I know it was frustratingly long, but not really all that long. How would you describe the first mini-series, Desperadoes: A Moment's Sunlight, to a potential new reader? The Hollywood high-concept line was always “The X-files in the old West.” Which isn't 100% accurate, but kind of sums it up. Four heroes, on the run from the law, who find themselves running up against supernatural terrors. The history is always as accurate as I can make it, with real people and locations showing up whenever possible. The newspaper in Las Vegas, New Mexico (not Nevada) did a big story on us, for instance, because we set the first issue there and included realistic representations of what the town looked like then. Is that trade paperback still available? It's not only still available but has, in fact, just been re-solicited along with the new trade paperback of the Quiet of the Grave storyline. What did you think of the work John Cassaday did on the series? John's work surpassed all my expectations. Everyone knows by now what a great talent John is, as he's become one of the few real artistic superstars to emerge in the last few years. But at the time he wasn't known at all, and we really didn't have much to go on. The first issue was terrific, but the rate at which he got even better as he drew more and more was truly amazing. The fifth issue remains one of my all time favorites, not just because it was a self-contained story that was more complex than most comic stories (but worked) but because John's artwork, by that point, had matured to such a tremendous extent. There are panels in that story that still take my breath away. What was he like to work with? John was a complete professional, and a delight. He was fast, even while turning out such great pages, so there was never a worry about the book being on time. What level of interaction did you have with him on the mini-series? Initially, not that much. I was in California writing the scripts, and he was in Texas, drawing the pages. We'd talk about stuff, and if he had a question or a concern he would call, but for the most part we trusted each other to do our part. There was a long gap between issue #4 and #5, the self-contained story, and I remember talking to him about it in the car as I drove him to the airport once, kind of working it out in my mind as we talked. So that one was the story on which we had more detailed interaction. After the first story arc was out, what kind of feedback did you get from readers? Fans loved it. We got a lot of great letters, with very few complaints, from young readers and old-timers who didn't read comics very often but loved Western stories. Issue #5 was a close second in the annual competition on the CompuServe comics forum, and Comic Shop News gave the series one of their annual awards for reinvigorating the comic book Western. Reviews were almost universally favorable. If only people had bought the book, it might have been a big hit... As John has gone on to increasing levels of fame with Planetary and Captain America, have you experienced new readers discovering the story? I haven't heard about a lot of people coming back to it since then, though I'd like to think they will. Or they are, but they just aren't writing to us about it. Certainly anyone who's become a fan of John's work should check it out, to see the process of artistic maturation that occurred between issue 1 and issue 5. In between the two mini-series, you did a one-shot. How would you describe that? Desperadoes: Epidemic! is, in some ways, more horror story than Western, although the Western elements are still strong. It's set in the little mountain town of Naciemento, which is fictional, when our heroes are stuck there, driven there by a blizzard but kept there because the town is under quarantine because of an influenza epidemic - which was a real problem in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A lot of people have commented that with the various Desperadoes stories, we get the sense that these characters are just living their lives and we get to look in on them from time to time as each book comes out, and that's kind of how I view them too. So in this one, we get some forward motion in the interrelationships between the characters, while at the same time understanding that stuff happened while we weren't looking. The story was laid out by John Cassaday and drawn by John Lucas, a Texas pal of Cassaday's who has since become a good friend of mine as well. Cassaday provided a front and back cover, as well, and colorist Nick Bell, who was part of the team from the beginning, was still with us for this one. That was followed by your second mini-series. EC veteran John Severin was your artist on that one. How did that come about? Were you a fan of his work? I have been a fan of John's since the 70s, when I became aware of both Severins [John and Marie] thanks to their work on Marvel's Kull book. I looked around for other stuff he'd done, and realized that he'd been working for decades, by that point--since at least 1949. He's a brilliant craftsman. He had been working primarily for Cracked for a long time, and not really getting to do the kind of storytelling he does so well. But a couple of years ago he called Scott Dunbier, our Group Editor, and said he was looking to do comics again. I happened to pass by Scott's office as he hung up the phone, and he sounded kind of awestruck as he told me that John Severin wanted to do something with us. I said something like, “Gee, a Desperadoes story by Severin would be great.” Scott agreed. We needed to hurry, before he was snapped up by someone else, so I went home and worked up a proposal overnight. We had sent him, right after that first call, copies of the original Desperadoes books. That was followed up by the proposal, the next day. He liked what he saw and wanted to play along. What was he like to work with? He was incredible. He wanted to change one character's gun to make it a little more realistic. I wasn't about to argue with a request like that, and knew we were on the same page from that point on. I provided him reference for some specific locations that appeared in the story - there are not only real towns but also real buildings, interior and exterior, with specific details that figure in the story. He got it all on paper, brilliantly. He not only gave me everything I asked for in the script, but got it down better than I could possibly have pictured it. The finished work was just gorgeous, and so impressive for any artist to have done, much less one going into his eighties. How would you describe the story? Working with John Severin, as opposed to the other two Johns who've drawn Desperadoes, I knew a couple of things from the beginning. I wanted to do a more naturalistic story, less dependent on the supernatural, and I wanted him to draw lots of Indians. Not because I'm cruel, but because I've seen him do it before and it looks so great. So I came up with a story that had a horrific element - in some ways, the most horrific of all the Desperadoes stories--but was primarily about the people, their relationships, the way they all deal with the stress they've been under. Facial expressions, body language, etc., are all very important to the story. In it, Gideon Brood, the ex-Texas Ranger who accidentally shot a Sheriff's wife (which is why they're on the run in the first place) becomes despondent about keeping his friends in danger all the time. He's drawn on by a young kid out for a reward, and has to gun the kid down. Now he's really upset, and he leaves town in the dead of night, leaving his friends behind. Race Kennedy and Abby DeGrazia go looking for him, while Jerome Alexander Betts looks for a woman he's fallen in love with who has also gone missing. And the body of the kid Brood shot seems to have disappeared as well...or has it? In this issue, Brood meets a young rogue with his own definite ideas, who may play a big part in adventures to come. What was reader reaction like to that one? Again, people seemed to really like it. The mail was overwhelmingly positive, the reviews, for the most part, even better than before. It was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award and the Horror Writer's Association's Stoker Award. But again, sales were not exactly good enough to get us on the bestseller list. Did you pick up any of Severin's older fans for that series? Some picked it up and commented on it. What struck me more, though, was the number of people - even reviewers, who one would think would have a good historical understanding of the field - who had been completely unaware of Severin before that point. They were definitely fans once they'd seen it, but they just didn't know what to expect. Are there any extras in the collected edition? Not really, in terms of new art. There's a new introduction by Brian Keene, who's one of the brightest new lights in the field of horror fiction, a real powerhouse who all horror readers will know about within the next few years, if they don't know. And a new afterward by me. What's next for Desperadoes? Hard to say. Because sales have always been just okay, there is nothing new greenlit at this point. I personally would very much like to see what happens after the very end of this miniseries, when things are really shaken up a lot. But I can't look into my crystal ball and find out - I have to be writing about them for the stories to unveil themselves. What else are you working on? As a comics writer, nothing right now. As an editor for WildStorm, I'm working on a couple of great original hardcover graphic novels by big-name science fiction writers: The Life Eaters, by David Brin, painted by Scott Hampton; and The Saga of Seven Suns: Veiled Alliances, by Kevin J. Anderson, with art by Rob Teranishi and Wendy Fouts Broome. I'm editing Thundercats, Black Sun, and a few other projects. As a novelist, I've just turned in an original Angel novel, based on the TV show--my fifth solo Angel novel (I've done a few collaboratively as well, including the first Angel hardcover, written with Nancy Holder, which will be out in late September). I'm currently working on a Charmed novel, and there's a Star Trek novel waiting in the wings. I have some other projects out there in different stages, so I'm keeping very busy. Maybe a little too busy... Desperadoes: Quiet of The Grave will be selling for $14.95.
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