Interview: Writer Victor Gischler (Sally of the Wasteland - Titan Comics)

Gef Fox (Wag the Fox) was kind enough to interview Victor Gischler, writer of Sally Of The Wasteland (Titan Comics), for the flock! Check out Gef's 4 1/2 sheep review of Sally of the Wasteland #1-5. 
Victor has also written such comic book titles as X-Men, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, The Punisher, Conan, and The Shadow. 

Gef: What was the impetus behind Sally of the Wasteland? It felt like it harkened back to some of those great post-apocalyptic films of the 70s, so was there any kind of inspiration from that era?
Victor: Yes, I think so. And the 80’s. It’s a whole stew of influences from Mad Max to Barbarella. I also love the idea of “atomic monsters.” Purely B-movie science which I think works well in an over-the-top, irreverent book like this.

Gef: What was it about this series, if anything, that you approached differently from the previous titles?
Victor: Well, the obvious thing is that it’s creator-owned and for mature readers. Or at least mature readers who still embrace their inner immaturity. So I guess I like the fact we can throw a lot of rules out the window. I don’t hold anything back, or if I do it’s because of a decision I’ve made not because I have to play it safe for a mainstream audience. There’s nothing wrong with a mainstream audience, but sometimes it’s nice to cut loose. I like the opportunity to follow my instinct and damn the torpedoes.

Gef: Tazio Bettin did one heck of a job bringing Sally and her motley crew to life. How did this collaboration come about?Victor: I was at the SugarPulp Festival in Padova, Italy one year, and Tazio showed up with some illustrations he’d drawn based on scenes from my post-apocalypse novel GO GO GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE. They were great drawings. So when it came time to find an artist, I already knew he had talent, appreciated my writing, and was familiar with the genre. I was very lucky to connect with him, and his art just keeps getting better and better.

Gef: What do you consider to be the saving grace of apocalyptic fiction?
Victor: This isn’t a “saving grace” but it’s something that’s always attracted me about the post-apocalyptic genre, and that the fact that we’re looking at the ruined version of something very familiar – a city, a society, a civilization. There’s something very compelling and morbidly fascinating about that brand of destruction and ruin.

Gef: Fantasy football time: How would Sally fare in a cross-over issue with another female comic book character, and who might be on your wish list to see her team up with or go toe-to-toe with?
Victor: Awesome. Take note comic book publishers! This is your next best-seller.

I’ve heard people say Sally has a slight Harley Quinn vibe, so that might be cool. I’m also a fan of Tim Seeley’s Cassie Hack. Let’s toss Lady Deadpool into the mix too.

Gef: What's the worst piece of writing advice you ever received? Or what piece of writing advice do you wish would just go away?
Victor: This notion that you have to sit on broken glass while writing.

Wait … that’s not writing advice? Damn it, who told me that?!

Gef: What kind of guilty pleasures do you have when it comes to books or movies or whatnot, assuming a writer capable of concocting Sally of the Wasteland is even capable of guilt?
Victor: Yeah, I don’t do guilt. Short of child porn or something like that, people should read whatever the hell they want and just own it. But, hey, I’ll take the question in a different direction. I LOVE watching golf on TV. My fave sport. So many people think it’s so boring that I guess I’m supposed to be embarrassed to admit it. I’m not.

Gef: What projects are you cooking up that folks can expect in the near future, and how can folks keep up with your shenanigans?
Victor: I wrote an epic fantasy novel called INK MAGE and the sequel THE TATTOOED DUCHESS will but published in a couple months. BUT … you won’t know what’s going on in book 2 unless you read book 1 first, so every man, woman and child reading this needs to order INK MAGE now.

Go ahead … I’ll wait.

I’m also teaming again with Titan Comics for a creator-owned book called TERMINAL TOWN and Titan Books is publishing an APPALLING (but fun and pulpy) novel called GESTAPO MARS.

Sally Of The Wasteland #1

Writer: Victor Gischler

Artist: Tazio Bettin

Letterer: Jon Chapple

Series: Sally Of The Wasteland

Titan Comics

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

Miniseries

Extent32pp

FormatSoftcover

Age:15+
Saving the remains of civilisation plays second best to keeping her sweetheart safe as our smart and sexy princess of the wild frontier runs a gauntlet of gigantic genetic freaks and roving gangs of blood-hungry barbarians!

The ever-so-cute but ever-so-slightly-insane Sally is the wayward daughter of writer Victor Gischler (X-Men, Angel & Faith, Noir) and artistic up-and-comer Tazio Bettin. This first issue in a fantastic new series proves Armageddon can be fun!

About the Author:
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Victor Gischler is the author of such novels as GUN MONKEYS, SHOTGUN OPERA, GO-GO GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE, THE DEPUTY and others. His work has been optioned for film and translated into numerous languages. He's also written such comic book titles as X-Men, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, The Punisher, Conan, and The Shadow. He is a world traveler, grad school survivor and BBQ aficionado.

Comic Review: GRINDHOUSE: DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #2 Dark Horse

GRINDHOUSE: DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #2
Writer: Alex de Campi

Colorist: Giulia Brusco
Genre: Horror, Action/Adventure
Publication Date: December 24, 2014

Dark Horse

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 26746 4 00211
preview

Scalped artist R. M. Guéra!
When you think of comics that really bring the Christmas spirit, put Grindhouse at the top of your naughty list! We’re leaving sex and violence under your tree this year, as the desolate plains of the West fall victim to a terrifying quartet of cold-hearted demons, in “Slay Ride”’s gory climax!
* The nasty holiday gem “Slay Ride” concludes!
* Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes, Lady Zorro) is back with a vengeance!
* R. M. Guéra (Scalped, Django Unchained) paints the snow red!

Shayla, when last we saw her, was being buried alive in the snow while demonic children watched on with fiendish glee. Well, sufficed to say the brash anti-hero ain't going out like that, so where does the second half of Slay Ride go once she's free and back to whooping the snow demons?

I actually mistook this as an ongoing series, unlike the first run's 2-parter format, but this was the second part and a grand finale to this story, and it wasted no time in getting right back into the action and setting up the final showdown. It's where that showdown pays off on an emotional level that I didn't see coming, though.

I had my heart set on a more visceral, bare-knuckled free-for-all with a demonic bent to cap off this storyline, but the focus wound up having a more emotional, more familial core to it. In a strict story sense, it gave me what I needed more than what I wanted. Shayla was a gloriously bad-ass, defiantly flawed character, and if any of Alex de Campi's characters make a comeback in future issues, I hope it's her.

With Slay Ride #1 & #2 in the books, I now find myself chomping at the bit for whatever fiendishly pulpy extravaganza de Campi and company have cooked up next.

Review: Grindhouse: Slay Ride #1

4 1/2 stars

Gef Fox

Wag the Fox

Comic Review: Sally of the Wasteland #1-#5 Titan Comics

Sally of the Wasteland #1-#5

written by Victor Gischler
Genres: Horror, Science Fiction
32pp
Format: Softcover
Frequency: Monthly
Age:15+
Titan Comics
Southern Louisiana, 82 years after the Fall. The apocalypse has come and gone, leaving behind a withered, ravaged landscape of wreckage and mutant crawfish. Still, you gotta laugh, and Sally does, often using her beloved shotgun, Bertha, as the punchline!

Inspired more by lust than common sense, and by a teenage desire to protect Tommy, the object of her desires, Sally leaves her bar job and joins the deranged crew of the Mississippi Duchess on a mission into the remains of New Orleans.

Saving the remains of civilisation plays second best to keeping her sweetheart safe as our smart and sexy princess of the wild frontier runs a gauntlet of gigantic genetic freaks and roving gangs of blood-hungry barbarians!

The ever-so-cute but ever-so-slightly-insane Sally is the wayward daughter of writer Victor Gischler (X-Men, Angel & Faith, Noir) and artistic up-and-comer Tazio Bettin. This first issue in a fantastic new series proves Armageddon can be fun!

WITH A VARIANT COVER FROM REVIVAL AND HACK/SLASH’S TIM SEELEY!

I love me some post-apocalyptic pulp and, boy howdy, did this series deliver. The fever dream Victor Gischler must have had to come up with this one, I don't even know how much mescaline it'd take, because I thought Beasts of the Southern Wild was gonna be the craziest post-apocalyptic tale set in a ravaged Louisiana. Oh, how I was wrong.

The world is a wasteland, quite literally and in keeping with the series title, with mutated monstrosities taking up the space left in the wake of humanity’s downfall. Oh, sure, there are the pockets of survivors spread here and there, but society is a distant memory and for one brassy young vixen, namely Sally, all the world amounts to is a lot of hard work and one dreamy hunk named Tommy. So when Tommy raises his hand to help a stranger with a weird piece of technology head out to New Orleans for answers and maybe one last chance at restoring civilization.

With all the unapologetic panache of a couple true pulp hounds, Victor Gischler and Tazio Betton offer up one of the wildest dystopian thrill rides I've seen in a good long while. Sally, at first glance, might seem like pure cheesecake, but her personality is as charming as it is borderline psychotic. She is no damsel, and she's no hero either, but she is all bad-ass with her shotgun Bertha and whatever other weapons she has at arm's reach. The rag-tag bunch she boats down the Mississippi with are all afforded moments for their own foibles to shine, whenever the ceaseless pitfalls and perils don't have them fighting for their lives.

The series might just be the kind of ultra-B movie fare you didn't know you were waiting for. If there is something to complain about, it is one particular swerve in the storyline that feels like a jumping of the tracks onto a completely different storyline, but even then the zany and the heart of the issue, Sally protecting Tommy, are never lost.

If this series was a movie, it would find itself in good company with the likes of Escape from New York and Army of Darkness. If you like the sounds of that, find these comics. If it doesn't, run and hide before the Bamazons get cha.

4 1/2 stars

Gef Fox

Graphic Novels: the perfect combination of art and fiction

Criminal Macabre: The Cal McDonald Mysteries Omnibus Vol. #1

Author Steve Niles

Artwork: Kelley Jones and Ben Templesmith

I’ve always liked graphic novels, you get the beauty of the art work and a kick ass story. So I was thrilled to get an ARC of the Criminal Macabre Omnibus from Netgalley and I absolutely loved it! I haven’t read a lot of this type of graphic novel and I am not sure about the terminology I should use so please bear with me. I think this qualifies as Noir or Pulp. Since graphic novels are really the marrying of art and fiction, I will address each part separately.

Blurb:

In 2003 Steve Niles, creator of the 30 Days of Night comics series, launched a series of occult detective stories featuring the monstrously hard-boiled Cal McDonald. A pill-popping alcoholic reprobate, Cal is the only line of defense between Los Angeles and a growing horde of zombies, vampires, possessed muscle cars, mad scientists, werewolves, and much more weirdness!

* This volume collects the first two Criminal Macabre trades, the one-shot story Love Me Tenderloin, and Criminal Macabre: Supernatural Freak Machine--never before in trade paperback!

* From the creators of 30 Days of Night!

* For all your vampire and zombie fans!

Let’s talk story. Steve Nile’s Criminal Macabre Omnibus was my first introduction to Cal McDonald. He's a cynical, pill-popping, foul-mouthed, alcoholic private detective that has attracted supernatural creatures that the rest of the world doesn’t know exists ever since he was a kid. As a result, everyone close to him usually ends up dead. His partner and best friend is a very polite and dry humored Ghoul named Mo. Mo, along with all the other ghouls, lives in the sewers. The stories have a pulp feel and the character dialogue is hilarious. Snarky witticism at its best. He is like a male version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, only way more screwed-up and vulgar .

The first story Criminal Macabre is about a crazy man who has found a way to bring back the original monsters from legend, like werewolves and vampires, using a mutated form of the Bubonic plague and fleas to transmit it. You won’t believe how Cal manages to defeat this guy .

The second is the short story A Letter From B.S. Cal helps a dead man find his dead girlfriend. This story is outright hilarious, especially they way the dead guy helps Cal “see” other dead people.

The third story is Love Me Tenderloin. A rogue spirit is possessing meat products. Oh, yeah .

The fourth is Last Train To Deadsville. Here we get meet Cal’s sort of girlfriend and he has forgotten Valentine’s Day, she is a good fit for him. Instead of the usual Valentine's Day date, they end up fighting possessed rednecks and a succubus.

The last story is Supernatural Freak Machine. Cal and Mo buy a possessed car and must track down an escaped insane scientist named Dr. Polynice. This story has a more serious edge and is emotionally tough. Cal loses someone important to him, and it made me kind of sad. You end up seeing why Cal acts the way his does.

Some of my favorite Cal quotes:

“The crazy ghoul had abandoned trying to free himself. Instead he allowed his bones to be shattered so he could stretch his skin and reach what I needed. It was the coolest thing he’d ever done for me. But really f***ing gross.”

“Every once in a while a case comes along that you don’t solve so much as it mows you down and drags you along until it’s over. This was going to be one of those cases. If I’d known at the time, I would have stayed on the f***ing toilet.”

“Polynice is a grade A twisted F***. He likes to play with dead things, Even if he has to make them dead to play with them.”

Now let’s talk artwork. The first 3 stories are illustrated by Ben Templesmith. I think his minimalist approach was a perfect fit for these stories. There isn’t a lot of detail in the art, but the facial expressions are priceless. The rest of the stories are illustrated by Kelley Jones. His work has a more “pop” art feel. It is completely different from Templesmith, with all the detail, but still a perfect fit for the characters. I didn’t prefer one over the other. Both were entertaining and added to the experience.

Here are some examples of their work:

Templesmith

Jones

I give this Omnibus 5 monster killing Sheep!

SS (edited by BAK)