Non-MX Interviews: Michael Easton (10/08, 3/10, 10/10 Newsarama)
Newsarama 10/10/08 Michael Easton
Michael Easton on Soul Stealer
By Zack Smith posted: 2008-10-10 15:28:00
If you’ve watched TV with any regularity in the past decade, you probably recognize Michael Easton from one show or another. The actor is best known for playing dark, brooding characters on many cult SF and fantasy shows, including VR5, Mutant X and Total Recall 2070 and guest spots on shows such as Ally McBeal, along with such daytime shows as Days of Our Lives and Port Charles. Since 2003, he’s played cop John McBain on ABC’s One Life to Live, which celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year.
But, as the saying goes, what he really wants to do is write comic books.
In addition to his work as an actor, Easton has written in many mediums, including the poetry collection Eighteen Straight Whiskeys and Monty, a screenplay about actor Montgomery Clift. Now he’s about to hit the comics scene in a big way with two major graphic novels.
Soul Stealer, Easton’s first graphic novel, was recently released by DMF Entertainment. The four-years-in-the-making story features art by Christopher Shy (Pathfinder), and some of the most gothic prose and imagery ever found in a comic book. It tells the story of Kalan, a warrior whose love, Oxania, is taken from him by his rival Apis Bull, leading to his transformation into an immortal being who can return souls from the dead...and a quest to find his love’s soul. An online trailer for the book is available here.
The book also features an introduction from horror novelist Peter Straub (Ghost Story, Koko), who is Easton’s co-writer on his next project, The Green Woman, which will be released by Vertigo in 2009.
We called up Easton for a talk about Soul Stealer, Green Woman, and his thoughts on comics. Our conversation took many turns, including the philosophy behind his work, the unusual way that his day job led to his comics gig, and why he wouldn’t want to play his character in a film.
Newsarama: Michael, how did you get the idea for Soul Stealer, and what made you want to do it as a graphic novel?
Michael Easton: I think the idea came to me in a dream back in 1998 or 1999. It took me about two years to put it down on paper, and I registered it as a one-page idea for a script, but there was no way I could do the idea literally as a screenplay.
I felt like, “I’m going to get handcuffed if I try to write a feature film or television screenplay. I’m going to write this with complete freedom to what I want to do, and make it as dark or disturbing as I want.” I don’t know if it ended up my way, but that was my intent, to do it with absolutely no limits.
I respect comic and graphic novel writers more than anyone else. I’m very respectful of all writers, but I especially love what they do. So it was a very daunting challenge for myself, but I said, “I’m going to set out and see what I can do, and try and join this fraternity of writers for whom I have so much regard.”
NRAMA: It did look like you did a lot of research in mythology and history for doing this story.
ME: Somewhere early on, we got the idea that it would be a really interesting world (in the book) if all gods existed and everyone’s beliefs were true - if the gods drew their power and strength from how many people believe in them, almost like an incredible popularity contest. So nobody’s wrong (in their beliefs). The Greek gods are still up there and can still fuck with you, but they don’t have the power of the new gods.
NRAMA: With regard to mythology, the book reminded me of some works from the last decade that have taken mythological elements from different eras and cultures and mixed them together, like Dark City or Tarsem’s The Fall.
ME: Yeah, absolutely. Visually, Chris does a lot of beautiful stuff with color and atmosphere and blending of different mediums. Dark City is one of our favorites. And we both love the (Andrei) Tarkovsky films like Stalker and Solaris there’s a lot of that stuff going on (in the book), and of course Blade Runner.
I give Chris the credit for the overall look of the book because he deserves it. We definitely talked through color schemes and how we wanted to do it with the absence of thought balloons and word balloons to help the visuals stand out even more. I was in favor of doing the words in such a way that they almost blended in with the art. We were thinking of science fiction films like Gattaca, where the dialogue is very subtle, but the images have a lot of depth and weight and meaning to them, and they’re not hitting you over the head with things.
NRAMA: And Chris did most of this through Photoshop?
ME: Yeah. To be honest, we started on this book and worked on it for more than a year before we met in person. We went back and forth with emails and I really got to know him that way, but I have never had the chance to see him at work.
After about a year I said, “Why don’t you come up to New York, man?” And he and his wife came up and stayed with my wife and me for four days, and we got to know each other better. But I’ve never actually seen Chris at work! I’m very curious about how he does what he does, but I believe it is with Photoshop, yes.
NRAMA: What’s been the process in designing the pages? Did you do it in a style where he interpreted your prose, or was it as a full comic script, or something in between?
ME:We started off a few years ago doing a 26-page comic book, something small...and everything grew out of that. We started going, “oh, here’s where there could be a story, and here’s where there could be another story...” That’s how that sort of evolved into a full book. I recently worked on a graphic novel for DC/Vertigo, and it was a very different process. We’re working with an artist named John Bolton on that one...
NRAMA: Yeah, he’s great.
ME: Incredible. With Chris on Soul Stealer, it was more of a constant collaboration. I would write specific pages like, “It’s four panels, and in the first panel, Kalan is sitting in the foreground, Oxania is standing in the background...” and he might come back with a four-panel page or a five-panel page with all these variations, and they were usually better! (laughs)
And other times I would go back and change things that we needed to change, story-wise. But Chris really gave me the freedom to work, and I had such respect for him as an artist that I trusted his instincts.
NRAMA: Can you talk about your upcoming project at this time?
ME: I think Peter and I were actually contacted separately by Vertigo about doing something for them, maybe the Constantine series, but neither of us felt comfortable working on something that was so well-established and so well-done.
So they asked if we had something else we could pitch them, and we didn’t, but we spent a few nights scribbling in bars and came up with this idea that incorporates a character from Peter’s book The Throat named Franklin Bachelor. In the book he supposedly ends up being killed.
We open on Bachelor in a bar, talking about how a writer wrote about him once and thought it would be really convenient if he was dead, and how that’s what a writer is, a fuckin’ liar. Franklin Bachelor is the most horrific serial killer in the history of this country, and he lives in an abandoned bar in Wisconsin called the Green Woman Tap Room.
This is sort of a mecca for serial killers, where they connect with their inner selves, their victims talk to them from the pipes, it’s a very haunting place. We simultaneously cut to a cop in New York whose name is Bob Steele, who’s path is going to cross with Franklin Bachelor, he’s sort of destined to stop this serial killer.
It’s very dark. John Bolton’s doing the art, and I’ve only seen the first 40 or 50 pages of it, and it’s amazing. We were extremely lucky to get him. It’s a case where we were told, “Well, John is a really great artist, and he takes his time, and he doesn’t work on just any project, but let’s try anyway,” and they took it to him and he really responded to it. We’ve just been getting page after page of this beautiful artwork, and we’ve been blown away. It’s been a privilege.
And working with Peter Straub has been like...there’s a Coleridge quote where he says something about the difference between writers and poets to the effect of, “writers put words in the right order; poets put the right words in the right order.” That’s how Peter is, writer and poet. Like going to school. I’d write something and he put the right words in the right order.
NRAMA: How’d you get involved with Peter?
ME: I work on a show sometimes as an actor called One Life to Live. Peter and his daughter came by the studio for a tour one day, because Peter’s a fan of the show and has been watching for years, and so is his daughter. And I wasn’t in, but he left me a book in my mailbox, which was Koko.
And that was a book that was very meaningful to me. In 1994, my mom went through a long battle with cancer, and ultimately, she passed away. But I would sit with her as she went through the chemotherapy sessions and read books to her, and one of the books I read was Koko. So it was a strange coincidence, him leaving that book for me.
So I sent him an email and told him the story, and he called me up and said, “We should get together and talk sometime.” And Peter appeared on the show once, and it was fun for him and fun for me, and suddenly we started talking about doing something together. We went, “We’ll do something, and if it doesn’t pan out, no problem, we’ll have had some fun and we’ll still be good friends.” And the book just came from that
NRAMA: One of the themes in your writing - both in Soul Stealer and your other work, such as the Montgomery Clift screenplay - is alienation. Why do you feel that’s a theme you keep coming back to?
ME:I’m fascinated by damaged people. Montgomery Clift was disfigured, in a sense, partway through his career in a car accident but in a deeper sense, he was disfigured internally for most of his life. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of Frankenstein, this guy that was made of these different parts, who’s trying to do a good thing, who’s trying to be better than what he is.
Love and hate. Mortality. Death is something we all have to deal with. It can be something that affects us for the rest of our lives; I lost my mom quite young, and it affected me from that day on, in some ways that were positive, but also in ways that were very negative.
You feel helpless when you lose someone you love, and I wanted to write about that feeling of being unable to protect the one you love. I think that’s what Kalan has to deal with, certainly; he’s always tormented by the fact that he couldn’t protect the one person that he loved. He has to deal with that the rest of his life, and he has these things, these different pieces inside of him, which affects the way he responds to things.
NRAMA: I noticed that you dedicated the book to your wife, Ginerva - does Kalan’s relationship with Oxania reflect the relationship you have with your wife?
ME: I’d like to think, at the end of the day, this is a love story - it’s a dark and twisted love story, but it’s a love story.
Love is one of the things worth fighting for in this world, and I believe I have that kind of love for my wife. I was a long time in finding her, and she has...she has inspired me to explore the better sides of myself, because I have a tendency to be a little dark myself.
I can be a little detached, a little unemotional myself but she’s Italian and she’s more genuine about her emotions, and vocal about them, and hopefully that’s helped me to be more open. Because...(laughs), one of the reasons I love Tarkovsky movies so much is that there’s this incredible, moving, detachment that I respond to.
NRAMA: There’s been some talk about doing Soul Stealer as a film - if they made it as a movie, would you want to play the lead?
ME: I would have no interest in playing the part, though I’m sure they’ll find someone who’ll be great in it. The only thing I would want is to write the script, so I could maintain some control on some level as it was translated to film. I’d be more interested in finding the right director who would treat it with the same care I did while I was writing it.
NRAMA: We were talking about Dark City earlier, and I could really see Alex Proyas doing a good job with this.
ME: He would be a dream guy to do it. Obviously, there are a lot of people who could do something like this. Ridley Scott...there are so many good directors.
I’m excited about seeing what Zack Snyder does with Watchmen, because there is someone who really understands the genres, who does great things with pictures and story, that’s the kind of guy you want to get. You want someone who’s a fan, who understands the history, who isn’t going to just do something silly with it.
A movie like Gladiator, that’s the tone that we’d want for Soul Stealer - sprawling and epic and emotional. People fighting for what they believe in. There’s also a part in the modern world of Soul Stealer that’s very dark and cynical, and I think it becomes a great blend of all those elements.
NRAMA: You know the Dark City director’s cut just came out on DVD?
ME: Oh man, that’s awesome! I’m ordering that today. Chris and I also talked a lot about Gattaca. I remember watching that, seeing these old cars driving around and thinking there was something strange about watching these old Corvettes go driving by, and then I realized - they had an electric car sound effect! That’s genius! They took these old cars, and then in post-production, they just added in this electric car sound effect - it’s so simple, but it adds so much to the sense of place.
And I love that about Proyas as well - those great wide shots where you move over the city, going through these vast spaces. It’s one of the things that lured me, as an actor, into a series called Total Recall 2070, which ran on Showtime for a season.
We were on a budget, but the production in Toronto was able to do some amazing things, particularly with the sets, because we shot everything inside. And I think Dark City really carried over into the visual style of that series in the way we pushed through shots of the city to get to reveal a smaller part of the city.
NRAMA: Now, you’re doing another volume of Soul Stealer?
ME: We're hoping to release the book in March 2009. Where as with the first book we really seemed to labor creating the world and getting it just right, this story came on like a hurricane and just wrote itself.
NRAMA: What will be the focus of this volume?
ME: The second book," Blood and Rain" tells the story of (Kalan’s nemesis) Apis Bull. We learn his journey was even more tragic and breathtaking than Kalans and when he was killed on the battlefield by Kalan he also lost his wife and child. Apis Bull’s existence now is fueled by vengeance and the promise of one day being reunited with his family.
We had a lot more for (the first) book and we had to cut ourselves off. We’ve talked about Kalan and Apis Bull and how they are more alike than it appears, that there exists an almost fraternal bond uniting them and their destinies. The notion that the line between something beautiful and something hideous is a thin one and it’s running through all of us.
NRAMA: It sounds like a story that could go off in a lot of different directions.
ME: That’s what excites me about it. Then again, writing in a way, is the easy part - the artist is the one who has to spend six months to a year putting it down on paper! And Chris is a busy guy. He does storyboards and production design for films. He’s got movie people calling him all the time. He’s got his own series called Silent Leaves, which is wonderful.
So it’s a matter of clearing the slate so he can draw it. Artists are gods in this world, in the world of graphic novels, and you’ve got to respect them, and you’ve got to let them have their time. You can’t rush people like Chris or John.
NRAMA: Given the number of writing projects you have going on, have you ever thought about giving up acting to write full-time?
ME: Sure. But it’s nice to have a day job, because it allows me to have some freedom to make choices. Sometimes I’ll take jobs as an actor that I would never take as a writer - if someone gave me a call to write something like Porky’s 6 or something, I wouldn’t even know what to do, I wouldn’t know how to write it but I could probably show up and say someone else’s words in front of the camera.
There are guys who can take any job and make a script out of it and make it terrific. I need to do something I love, and when you do that, you’re probably not going to make a lot of money off it, certainly not enough to live on. So this is where I keep it at. And I like to think that maybe if I keep at it and stay true to myself, one day I’ll be able to do it full time. And maybe Soul Stealer and The Green Woman will have some small success and allow me to go ahead and create some new stuff. But I’m happy just getting by, making a living and doing what I love.
NRAMA: What are some of your favorite comics right now?
ME: Preacher is my all time favorite. I probably read through the whole series once a year. All the Absolute editions; love Watchmen and The Dark Knight.
Vertigo’s been nice and sent me a lot of books, which is just one of the benefits of writing for them (laughs). Brian Azzarello is a terrific writer, 100 Bullets really works for me. Anything Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith do. Ed Brubaker I like. I just picked up this reprint of the adaptation Jon Muth did of the Fritz Lang film M, that was just overwhelming, the way he draws from the photographs, just amazing work. That kind of imagination is very inspiring.
NRAMA: Anything else you’d like to talk about?
ME: Just want to say thanks to anyone who gives the book a read. At this point that’s what Chris and I want - to get it out there and get some feedback, and use what we learn to make the next book even better. We were fortunate I think, working with a smaller publisher that we got to do it the way we wanted to do it. So, thanks for giving us a shot.
Soul Stealer is available for order now from DMF Entertainment.
© Newsarama
Newsarama 3/10/10: Michael Easton
TV Actor Steals Souls in Indie Book
By Chris Arrant posted: 10 March 2010 04:28 pm ET
Although best known for his recurring role on the daytime television series One Life To Live, actor Michael Easton’s love of science fiction runs deep. He’s starred in several short-lived Sci-Fi TV shows such as Mutant X, VR.5 and Total Recall 2070, and he played a vampire for a two-year stint on the soap opera Port Charles. Although it’s acting that pays the bills, Easton has carried in him the desire to write his own material; he’s got several screenplays floating around Hollywood, and has written two volumes in his graphic novel series Soul Stealer with artist Christopher Shy.
Soul Stealer covers the life of a fallen warrior named Kalan who lives in a Sci-Fi fantasy world that mixes Easton’s gothic prose with the esoteric and atmospheric imagery of Christopher Shy. In this story, Kalan is mourning the loss of his lover at the hands of a man named Apis Bull. His devotion leads to a transformation for Kalan into a supernatural being set to return souls from the afterlife, and he uses that to go after his partner and after her killer.
With the third volume, Soul Stealer: Last To Die scheduled to debut at Chicago’s C2E2 convention in April, we talked with both creators about the series and the upcoming new chapter.
Newsarama: Michael, for your entire career, you’ve straddled mainstream stories with genre stories, like playing a vampire in Port Charles and futuristic stories like Total Recall 2070 and VR.5. What drew you to the fantastic and supernatural so early?
Michael Easton: I remember watching Frankenstein for the first time when I was ten years old and in a way, I think I've just been trying to find my way back to that place. That's the type of storytelling I've wanted to be a part of. On some level, to portray characters trying to do good in a world seemingly overcome with corruption and despair. If you were limited to operating in a single literary realm, for me it wouldn't be one created by Shakespeare, it would more likely be the universe of Phillip K Dick.
Nrama And what led you to graphic novels?
Easton: From the first line scratched out on a napkin, How far would you go to get back someone you love? It was clear that Soul Stealer just belonged to the graphic novel. You read comics all your life and the notion that you might somehow join this order was both humbling and daunting. You know your intentions have to be true. Your story has to fit, it can't be manipulated. It must have heart and a bit of magic. We needed a universe where vice and virtue could coexist. A world created in shadows but wasn't simply black and white. This was the only genre that allowed us the freedom to come to life.
Nrama: How did the ideas that became Soul Stealer come together?
Easton: It began as a dream that became a nightmare. I'd like to blame it on the Ambien but the fact that it's continued on leads me to believe I'm just a little twisted.
Nrama: Tell us about the world that Soul Stealer’s set in.
Christopher Shy: The near future at the beginning, maybe 20 or 30 years off. The world is a dark place it has a very Enki Bilal feel to it. Once we see Kalan, we start cutting into his past, which opens up various paths, confrontations, and relationships that resolve themselves into the future. Its very French New Wave, in the sense that you are dropped into the story, and as the reader, you are playing catch up. Its rarely spelled out, but the clues are there. The Gods are dead; long live the new Gods as it were. It has aspects of everything, Frankenstein, ancient history, Shakespeare; it’s all woven there.
Nrama: You’re definitely the comic book veteran of the pair of you, so why did you choose to work with Michael?
Shy: I am not sure I would consider myself a vet, but thank you just the same. Maybe something of a committed amateur.
It really came down to creative chemistry in the beginning. I don’t think either of us knew how far we were going to take Soul Stealer, but I think as the first book grew, we realized we really liked working together. We watched the same movies, read a lot of the same books, etc. I work really fast, so I would be ahead of Mick, as he was finishing the script, and I would research some things, and call him up, and he would know exactly what I was talking about, he would have heard that particular story I was referencing, I was really blown away by his knowledge in some pretty obscure areas. I was impressed, Plain and simple. He is a great friend.
He also has a commitment to doing things outside of the system, something that I committed too early on. Neither of us were interested in doing mainstream work, both of us were writers, and both of us grew up all over the place. So we would talk about our pasts, stories we heard, and a lot of what is in Soul comes out of that, a real passion for unconventional story telling. Mick is really committed the WORK. He works all the time, and so do I, that kind of ethic, its...well, its gone, really, and I appreciated what he was trying to do.
Nrama: What makes Kalan special from your point of view?
Shy: The idea that what you are most afraid of is inside you. For Kalan, who is made up of parts not all his own, the potential for doing good, bad and the unknown created a unique dynamic. Ultimately what drives Kalan is the belief that love is worth dying for -- is worth going into Heaven and Hell for -- and that power is at the core of everything that follows in the story.
Nrama: In the second volume of Soul Stealer, you laid bare the origin of Apis Bull, Kalan’s rival. Originally portrayed as the villain, in this book we see Apis’ own motivations to become the person he ended up being - I won’t say he’s on the side of angels now, but he’s not the clear-cut villain by no means. Can you tell us about that from a storytelling standpoint?
Easton: Evil comes in many forms and rarely are they that transparent. Nothing should be as it seems. Apis Bull is a violent man in a brutal world but it's a world in which the journey between hero and villain is a potentially short one. A few events in ones life make the difference.
Nrama: This opens up a wider conversation about the sense of moral ambiguity that you write into this book. Is this something you consciously wrote into this, or just what flows naturally out of you?
Easton: All things meet their opposite. But rarely do we see the consequences of that action from both sides. From the beginning It was important to make Apis Bull redeemable. To make he and Kalan closer in value than it first appears. Ultimately, Apis Bull cannot survive. But his heroic sacrifice in the final installment hopefully brings about a state of salvation.
ENLARGE Nrama Chris, your artwork on this has a big Frazetta vibe - what were you aiming for when depicting Apis Bull’s story?
Shy: Yes, always, Frank will always inspire me. For me honestly, it’s always been about Apis Bull. I loath characters that are evil for evils sake, its complete crap, don’t waste my time. Everyone has a reason inside for the things they do, no one is born evil, and I am not sure anyone ever thinks that they truly are. They may be in pain, or have a murderous rage, but there is always a reason. In book two we saw what shaped Apis, and realized his motivations were much less clear, and yet in other ways completely understandable.
The work, or passion for it in that book came from that. I understood Apis, and what Mick was going for. Its was a real moment for both of us when we took that gamble to set most of that book from his perspective. We were both fans of Ridley Scott’s The Dualist and that was how the first discussions of book two between me and Mick began. “Have you seen the Dualist? Why yes, I certainly have.” The characters in the book, Kalan, Apis, and Oxania form a trinity or the Triple Goddess, each representing an aspect of birth, Decline, and Death, and its was necessary to set up book two in that fashion.
Nrama: How do you write a script - are you doing the narration and dialogue as well as plotting simultaneously, or do you do it in waves so to speak?
Easton: I try for all at once but want the words to exist mostly as a guide to recognizing the full potential of the story that exists beyond us. A suggestion that although defined is also limitless. I'm keenly aware to never hinder Chris' artistic contribution to the process.
Nrama: This book relies on a lot of narration - and the words you chose were very poetic. You really convey a special kind of atmosphere at the cadence and words chosen for this - what were you aiming for with the narrative?
Easton: I just try to faithfully reproduce what the characters see within themselves. Fears, dreams, loss and loneliness. As a result the point of view is sometimes fractured, a little damaged. I like poetic yet vague. My hope is to always err on the side of restraint and never get in the way of the art.
Nrama: Christopher, being the guy taking the script to comic form, what has become the hallmarks of Michael’s style? Do you see anything due to his background in film/television showing forth?
Shy: That a good question, but it’s really hard to say. Perhaps his day polished his style, but I think his work is much clearer than a lot of scripts that get passed around my desk honestly. Certainly he is a damn fine writer in my humble opinion. Our collaboration may be a lot different from the normal working relationship. He will work an outline, that we will usually talk over after I receive it, and then as I break it down, I will notice he will leave areas open for me to develop. I will usually drop him a call, and we will chew through it, and then more notes. It’s very organic, at least for me, and I am appreciative of it. The story is there but its what he leaves in the margins that most intrigues me, a little note to look into something here, or an ancient poem, “What do you think?” I research it, and then its drags me in, the backgrounds start to affect the story proper, and before you know it, his script copy and mine are a battered note filled book.
We actually wrote a book for Soul Stealer 2based on our notes, its called “The Order Of The Immortalis”. We had so many notes for so many background characters, their place of birth, how they died or were turned, that we just needed to work it out. I drew sketches throughout and that became our guide, something we referenced time and again just to keep our thoughts straight.
Nrama: Michael, have any of your co-stars on your tv show had anything to say about you writing graphic novels?
Easton: They have been kind and very supportive.
Nrama: Besides graphic novels, you’ve also written a book of poetry as well as some screenplays. DO you consider yourself a writer first, or an actor? And how do you balance the two?
Easton: I haven't thought about it much. Perhaps it's telling that this story, these characters, dominate my thoughts from morning to well onto the night. I just feed off the process, the journey, even when it leads into dark places. I guess because I know there's always a way out. I just ask, What would Tarkovsky do?
© Newsarama
Newsarama 10/25/10: Michael Easton
Actor & Bestselling Author Team For Vertigo Graphic Novel
By Vaneta Rogers, posted: 25 October 2010 06:28 pm
As part of a growing trend toward actors and authors writing comics, an unlikely pair of celebrities have teamed up on a new graphic novel.
Best-selling horror novelist Peter Straub and actor Michael Easton united to write The Green Woman, a new graphic novel just released by publisher Vertigo. Featuring art by painter John Bolton, the story follows both a homicide detective and the seemingly reformed serial killer he's hunting.
It's not the first time either Straub or Easton has worked within the world of graphic novels, and they're part of a growing trend. From Stephen King's just-finished comic work on American Vampire to Kevin Smith's recent Batman comic, actors and novelists dabbling in comics is becoming a familiar occurrence. Names like Nicolas Cage, Milo Ventimiglia, Jodi Picoult, Brad Meltzer and Ian Rankin have turned up on the front of graphic novels and comics.
"Michael and I are both very fond of graphic novels," Straub told Newsarama of their choice to write in the medium. "I read all the way through the Preacher and the John Constantine books because Michael raved about them to me - and he was right about them, of course, they're great works of complex storytelling."
The two met when Straub was given a tour of the One Life to Live set, where Easton plays the popular character John McBain. Straub was dropping off some signed books for his favorite actors. "Michael soon wrote to me, telling me that he had already known and enjoyed the book Koko, which he had in fact read aloud to his mother in her last year of life," Straub said.
As the two began talking, Easton asked Straub to take a look at the graphic novel he was writing. "I said yes, of course, and a few days later he turned up at my house with a big folio of pages from Soul Stealer," Straub said. "It was a natural evolution of all this that we one day began to talk about doing a graphic novel of our own."
Although Easton's best known for his acting on shows like Ally McBeal and Mutant X, he's written several screenplays and even published a book of poetry, as well as his Soul Stealer graphic novels. But he recognized the benefit of getting to work with a writer like Straub.
"When you get the opportunity to write a horror story with one of the true masters of horror you jump at it," Easton said. "I'm a guy who's been pretty damn fortunate. And working with Peter you get an understanding of what a true writer is. I have a ways to go, but maybe I'm getting there. For now, I'm just trying to get the right words in the right order."
This is Straub's first graphic novel as a writer, although he's been overseeing the comic adaptation of The Talisman, a novel he co-wrote with Stephen King.
With The Green Woman, the two writers expand the story of Fielding "Fee" Bandolier, the serial killer who previously appeared in Straub's Blue Rose Trilogy. But this part of Bandolier's story doesn't rely on the novel - instead being self-contained - so the two decided to tell Fielding's new chapter in a graphic novel.
"Some words like pictures," Easton said of the decision to turn away from prose. "In this case, I think it allows for a bit of magic on the page."
"We liked the darkness, the potential for violence, the odd brooding
'poetry' that seemed to move through the story," Straub said.
The title, "The Green Woman," refers to the old, abandoned bar on the banks of the Milwaukee river that is Fielding Bandolier's sanctuary. "He lives there, brooding about his terrible history and thinking about new outrages," Straub said of the serial killer. "He wishes to be released from the obligation to kill, and he senses that his release is immanent.
"In the other half of the story, a brilliant young New York homicide detective of excessive habits and deep self-loathing, Bob Steele, gradually pieces together the facts of Bandolier's existence and sets out to arrest or murder him," Straub said.
The bar, "The Green Woman," gets its name from the figurehead of an old, evil ship called the Black Galleon. The title echoes the story's theme and adds an eerie mystery of its own. "[The figurehead] is the source of the evil in the story," Straub explained. "In part, her evil comes from incompletion and the yearning for a restored wholeness: the figurehead wants to be reunited with the timbers of the old Black Galleon, now long rebuilt into a pub in Belfast."
When the writers were working with Vertigo to choose an artist, they were attracted to John Bolton's painted images. "We considered the work of a lot of artists, and it just seemed to us that John Bolton really had the tools to do a great job with our material," Straub said. "He could be naturalistic and he could be grotesque. His touch, his line and use of color, had a great deal of power -- what he wound up giving us knocked us out. Bolton did a brilliant job with our story."
"We wanted something twisted and epic and John got that from the first page," Easton added. "You never have to ask him to push the boundaries with his art because he's already doing it. We were very fortunate that John responded to our story. Sometimes you shoot for the moon and you get it."
Both authors admitted the story is very dark and disturbing, which Vertigo is marketing in light of this month's Halloween focus. "It is a story about a kind of imprisonment and the need to break out of that confinement," Straub said.
"I like to think of it as more haunting than dark," Easton said. "Hopefully it sticks with you like your shadow."
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