Hot Shot of the Week Companion Feature

 

Ten Questions About Fall of Cthulhu #11 With Michael Alan Nelson!

Russell Burlingame reporting for Comic Related

 

Comic Related: For the benefit of the readers who HAVEN'T read this title before, can you give us a quick sales pitch/series summary?

Michael Alan Nelson:  Absolutely.  The series takes place in a modern setting of the universe that Lovecraft created.   Followers of Cthulhu are at odds with followers of the God Nodens (I won't spoil it by telling you why), and their animosity toward each other is being stoked by the mysterious Mr. Arkham for his own nefarious purposes.  That being said, the series focuses mainly on the everyday people who are caught up in the larger events unfolding in their town and how they deal with those events (or their inability to deal with them).  

To give an example , the series begins with a young graduate student at Miskatonic University, Cy, is having a nice, leisurely breakfast with his girlfriend at an outdoor cafe.  But their conversation is interrupted when Cy's uncle unexpectedly shows up, places a duffel bag on the table, then pulls out a gun and blows his own brains out.  So the first story is about Cy trying to learn why his uncle killed himself in such a public and horrifc fashion as well as the deal with all of the crazy things in the duffel bag.  And the more Cy learns, the deeper down the rabbit hole he goes.

CR: How daunting is it to work on a comic with "Cthulhu" in the title?  It seems to me that such an iconic concept would be hard for many writers to address.

MN: I try not to think about it too much or else I'll break out into a cold sweat and never get anything written!  The trick is, of course, to remind myself that "Cthulhu," even though he is a character so to speak, the name is representative of universe that Lovecraft created.  So even if we don't see Cthulhu (because, let's face it, if we did, that would be the ball game for humanity), the name still indicates the world the reader is about to enter.  The central premise of the story revolves around Cthulhu, but it isn't necessary for him to make an appearance to tell that story.  Well, yet anyway. ;)

CR: For this particular issue, did you put a lot of thought into the setting?  I really liked that we spent the majority of the issue "trapped" in the jail.

MN: It's interesting how this issue came about.  Before I even had the story, I had this image of a young girl, mid to late teens, sitting in a large, cold jail cell and drawing a circle of symbols around her.  So I sent that idea off to the artist for a cover and when it came back, I loved it and just stared at it for hours imagining who this girl was, what she was doing, and why.  Then the story just came flooding out.  I knew exactly who this character was, what her motivations were, and what her goals were.  She's a survivor and putting her in a jail cell for the first issue, appearing helpless, was a perfect way to underscore that.  She's a terribly bright girl with a knack for survival in the most difficult situations.  You don't grow up on the streets of Brazil without learning some survival techniques.  So she's never helpless.  She may be frightened and in terrible danger, but even locked in a cell she isn't helpless.

CR: There was a recent announcement that the title will be ending with #14.  What motivated that?

MN: We wanted to change the format from an ongoing series to a collection of miniseries.  The title really isn't going away (the book is one of our best sellers after all), but we're wrapping up the current overarching story introduced in The Fugue with Godwar so that we can move forward with four issue stories within the Fall of Cthulhu universe instead of four issue "chapters" of a larger story.  Also, there's always the possibility that the title could be suddenly canceled and the story end without any resolution.  So we wanted to make sure that we had a chance to end the story the way we wanted to and not leave our readers hanging.


CR: And after the miniseries that wraps the overall arc, do you know whether Cthulhu titles will continue to exist at Boom! Studios?

MN: Most certainly.  Our Cthulhu books our some of our most popular and we really want to make BOOM! synonymous with Lovecraftian horror.  I think we're well on our way.

CR: And following up on that--what's your next gig once you're done here?

MN: I'm going to be writing a Fall of Cthulhu spin-off miniseries about one of the characters from The Gray Man arc.  But what's interesting is that we want to move that character outside the Fall of Cthulhu universe and into her own supernatural setting.  I'm really looking forward to it since I'm absolutely in love with the character.

I also have a fantasy/sci-fi miniseries that will be coming out at the end of this year.  It's still in the early stages so there isn't much I can say about it, but it's going to have a lot of big action, a little darkness (c'mon, I am writing it after all), and who knows, maybe even a happy ending.

CR: I think back on The Ring and its success recently, and the slew of Asian horror remakes that followed it.  Looking at the Spanish written in blood on the walls of the jail, I can't help but think there's something inherently creepy about "the other," and that even if it's easily or quickly translated, a bloody message might take on an even darker hue if it was incomprehensible at first glance.  Did this kind of thinking play into the writing at all, or am I just overthinking?

MN: No, you're spot on.  Rightly or wrongly, fear of the "other" is a huge part of humanity's psyche.  I mean, that's the reason deputy Bill is so horrible to Lucifer.  So I wanted to use that innate fear to increase the reader's level of discomfort. Another factor was that writing on walls in blood isn't anything new and this would be an interesting take on an old idea.  I felt that if it were in a language most readers wouldn't recognize (it's Portuguese, actually), it would tap into that fear of the "other" as well as show that the characters are dealing with something that is not from their world.  Even though it's happening in their town, they are outsiders looking in.

CR: "No.  This is a local matter!"  As soon as you hear this in a horror setting, don't you pretty much know that character is screwed?

MN: Well, this is a story within the Cthulhu mythos, so you pretty much know ALL the characters are screwed!


CR: With studios like IDW and Boom! getting some top-tier talent and really choice licensing opportunities (like this one), do you see the financial dynamic of the comics industry changing?

MN: I think the perception might be changing, but the actual dynamic, not so much.  The Big Two are still the heavy hitters in this industry and most likely will be for time immemorial.  But for the smaller publishers, there's definitely an upward swing in credibility and quality.  So I think that the top-tier talent migrating to smaller publishers are probably doing so because of the creative freedom they offer moreso than any immediate financial benefit.

CR:  And this is only because I promised myself I would hold off on any jokes as long as I could--how are Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot holding up these days?

MN: Ha ha ha!  To be honest, I have no idea.  Just the other day I was telling someone that there are over 6,000 people in the U.S. with the same name as me (I almost got arrested in college because of one of the other three "Mike Nelson"s on campus).  That's actually why I use my full name, Michael Alan Nelson, because so many people confused me for the MST3K guy.  And let me tell you, nothing deflates your ego more than seeing the disappointment on someone's face when they realize that you're not the Mike Nelson they thought you were.  But at least I think my mother has come to accept it.

 

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