After bursting onto the scene with The Black Forest, a surprise hit
graphic novel from Image Comics, writer-director Robert Tinnell plowed himself
full-time into the comic book world. Along with his frequent collaborator Todd
Livingston and artist Neil Vokes, Tinnell scored not only a success with The
Black Forest, but also with the subsequent graphic novel, The Wicked
West, also from Image.

With The Black Forest 2 due next
month, The Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story scheduled this month, and
Feast of the Seven Fishes due in the fall, Tinnell has been busy. Tinnell
and Livingston have teamed up with artist Micah Farritor for The Living And
The Dead, a mysterious vampire tale which was announced this week by
Speakeasy Comics.

An online trailer for The Living And The Dead is
available at www.thelivingandthedead.com.
Scoop talked with Tinnell about the project.

Scoop:
Over the past couple years, there’s definitely been a resurgence in horror
comics. As someone who’s done horror in film and television, what can comics do
that other media can’t?
Robert Tinnell: Interesting question. Most people
would ask the opposite – immediately assuming film and TV have the upper hand. I
think they’re probably right.. Comics come at horror at a disadvantage when
compared to film and TV. There’s no music for one thing. What’s more, film can
manipulate the pacing – it can control what you’re going to see next – far more
efficiently than comics. With sequential art there’s the ever-present danger
that someone is going to “see ahead” and lose impact. I think when you’re
writing comics you must always be aware of how best to set up for page-turns and
so forth – you really must if you have any hope of actually delivering a
“jump.”

Now, conversely, I think comics can – if the creators
choose – totally trump film in terms of delivering nuanced ideas. Sure there are
films that have nuance – The Devil’s Backbone or The Others or
The Sixth Sense. But as a whole the horror film genre is driven in a more
visceral manner, I think. Studios and audiences demand more
“streamlined” fare. I just had a meeting this week regarding one of
my projects for film and was actually asked to simplify it and “give the
audience a cleaner through-line.”

With comics – as with novels –
one can often have the liberty to slow down, explore a “side
street,” or set up a more intricate situation. I can give you a case in
point. I really enjoy The Walking Dead. I think Robert Kirkman is doing a
marvelous job with his characters and their milieu. But if a movie deal ever
happens, the first thing they’re going
to do is ask him to sharpen the
characters motivations. “But what is Rick trying to do?” My answer:
survive. That won’t be enough for the powers-that-be. They’ll demand a very
concrete goal. Simple survival will be judged to passive. He’ll be assigned some
sort of task – find his family, find the army, or some such goal. I’m not saying
they’re wrong, incidentally. But that’s the way it is. Probably the reason you
never see any of the brilliant Peter Straub horror novels made into movies. He’s
much too layered and literary.

Scoop: Whether with co-writer Todd
Livingston or on your own, you frequently seem to blend genres. Why is
that?
RT: I can’t really answer that with any authority. We’d have to
employ a shrink, I suppose. But I have some theories. First and foremost, these
sorts of characters and situations were deeply ingrained him me as a kid.
Watching Dark Shadows or old Universal horrors, reading Tomb of
Dracula, or listening to LPs of Hammer film soundtracks – I was constantly
transported into the world of horror. I wanted to shape that world to one of my
own design. I wanted Barnabas Collins and Dracula to be my heroes. I vividly
remember – and I swear this is true – two dreams of my childhood. In one,
Barnabas Collins rescued me from a witch. In another, (and I swear this dream
was in Technicolor with production design by Neal Adams) I was forced to team up
with a vampiric Vlad Tepes to hold off the Turkish army as it attacked the
ruined Castle Dracula (too much Dracula Lives before bedtime). On my
honor, I had those dreams. I can see them still. So I think there’s that.
There’s a nostalgic element, of course. Every time I revisit these types of
things I’m a kid again. Beyond all of that, I think intellectually there’s a lot
of ground to be covered wandering amongst these ideas – and it can be very
rewarding. Take The Black Forest for example. It was wonderful to set a
classic horror tale against World War I – which in turn produced much of the
visual mind set that led to the thirties’ classic horror films that inspired
The Black Forest. Ultimately, when you smash genres and archetypes and
icons – and you do it logically – you can view beloved characters and situations
through fresh eyes.

Scoop: Is The Living and The Dead
another blended type story or is it a more traditional horror tale?
RT:
That’s kind of a tricky question. I can’t give a full answer. It’s not really
blended with another story – and yet it is. I would not actually call it a
traditional horror tale either. We did not try and yell “boo!” with this one.
It’s more of a creeping kind of horror, and a rumination on evil. In some ways
it’s very traditional – and in others it moves forward. I like to think of it as
the kind of film Hammer might make if they were making films
today.

Scoop: What’s the story about?
RT: This is tough.
How do we attract readers to take a chance – without spoiling the twists and
turns and shocks that make the story special to begin with? I will say this
much: It’s the mid-19th century and there are some very sick and twisted games
being played by someone who is pure evil. Imagine a “snuff” theater in Europe in
1847 – Grand Guignol with real blood. That’s where the story
starts.

Scoop: We’re just now becoming familiar with Micah
Farritor’s artwork. How happy with it are you? What else has he done?
RT:
Ecstatic. Micah is brilliant. For one so young it’s amazing that, in addition to
his great artwork, he can actually tell a story using sequential art. There are
industry vets who cannot. I do know that Micah and I are discussing another
upcoming book. At the present he’s working with Mark Ricketts on The Night
Trippers graphic novel and doing a wonderful job.

Scoop: What else
do you have coming up?
RT: The Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story
graphic novel is coming out from Image this month. Feast Of The Seven
Fishes (96 pages hardback) comes out next month – it’s a collection of the
online comic. I’m working on the Only At Night bi-monthly book with
NeilVokes – does the world need another vampire book? I don’t know – but I do.
Bo Hampton and I are finishing up Sight Unseen, coming out from Image in
the spring. Beyond that I’m working on projects with David Michael Beck and Mark
Wheatley. And I’m working with Rich Woodall and Matt Talbot on a mini-horror
graphic novel called The Raccoon Man.

On the film front, I’m most
likely going to actually direct again this coming year. I have an offer to do a
film in Canada and there’s a very serious effort being made for one that would
shoot in Europe. Look for quite a bit of film news from me in the coming
months.