Interview with Michael Alan Nelson

For followers of Boom! Studios (as the Dollar Bin tends to be), the names of a few creators start to become very familiar both for the amount of work they produce for the growing publisher as well as the quality of it. One of those names is Michael Alan Nelson, writer of DB staff favorites like HEXED, DINGO, 28 DAYS LATER and numerous others. Despite this very hectic writing schedule, Michael was recently able to carve out some time for this Dollar Bin e-mail Q&A session.

DB: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for us. If you don’t mind, can you start with telling us how you first got interested in comics and how you got started in the industry?

MAN: It’s quite funny since I never really read many comics growing up.  I lived in a small rural town in the middle of nowhere and the closest thing we had to a comics shop was the local public library.  So I only had access to a couple of Elf Quest books and a graphic adaptation of the movie Alien.  It wasn’t until I graduated from college that I really started getting into comics.  My brother colored comics for years, so I began by reading the books he worked on.

As for how I came to write comics, my path was a bit unconventional.  After several years of trying to break into the world of fiction, I wrote a novel titled DINGO.  I published it online under a Creative Commons license, posting a chapter a week.  Fortunately, Ross Richie had read it and really enjoyed it.  So he approached me and said he was starting a new comic book company and if I’d like to try my hand at writing comics.  So I sat down and wrote a short story for Zombie Tales.  Ross like it and has been asking me to write for him ever since. 

DB: For a number of your projects at BOOM! you have not only teamed with artists but also other writers to tell stories. So as someone who delivers stories both solo and as a member of a writing team, what can you tell us about the differences between the two processes and maybe the benefits you find in writing partnerships?

MAN: Writing solo and with a partner both have their strengths and weaknesses.  When you’re writing by yourself, you have absolute freedom to tell the story that you want in the way that you want to.  However, you don’t have the benefit of another person helping with the heavy lifting of breaking the story or sharing the time needed to actually write the story.  With a partner, you get to share that burden.  You also have someone who brings their own ideas and solutions to the table (often ideas and solutions that you never would have thought of yourself).  The downside is when you and your partner disagree on those solutions.  Usually it all works out for the best, but on rare occasions you can find yourself wishing you had done it another way.

DB: With the creative partnerships you’ve had with other writers as well as artists, is there any particular dynamic you look for?

MAN: The only thing I really look for in a collaborator is someone who can bring good ideas to the table and who is excited about the project.  It really is a wonderful thing to see what an artist can do when they really dig the project.  That excitement shows in their work as it does, hopefully, in mine.

DB: Swordsmith Assassin was a four issue mini drawn by Ayhan Hayrula and is one of the books you have co-written with Andrew Crosby. With some of the more supernatural or sci-fi flavored stories you have on your resume, this tale from Japan’s feudal era really stands out. What drew you and your collaborators to this story?

MAN: When I was approached to write the script, Andy had an 8 page synopsis of this incredibly dark and beautiful revenge story set in feudal Japan.  I mean, I can’t think of anything that would be more up my alley.  Dar?  Revenge?  Japan?  Yes, please.  And because Andy had come up with such a wonderful story that hit all of my creative pressure points, I threw myself at the script.  I really wanted to give Andy’s idea the justice it deserved.  And since it was tonally and stylistically outside of my wheelhouse, it was a fun challenge. It was an absolute joy to write and I think that came through in the script.

DB: How did the idea for the series DINGO develop and without giving the conclusion of the mini-series away do you have plans for the characters beyond these 4 issues?

MAN: DINGO actually started as a novel that I wrote before I started writing comics.  In fact, it’s the thing that got me my first comic writing gig.  So it’s terribly exciting to have a chance to adapt it into a comic (though condensing a novel down to four 22 page issues was quite the challenge).  But ever since I first wrote the story, I always had an idea of where I wanted to take Dingo.  I know exactly how Dingo’s next story begins.  Just like Lucifer in Hexed, there’s still plenty of Dingo’s story left to tell.  

DB: Since you mentioned Lucifer and that Hexed mini-series, it was a big hit with our staff. What can you tell us about how that series was created?

MAN: Strangely enough, Hexed came about when I was thinking of cover ideas for Fall of Cthulhu.  I had this image of a young girl, sitting on the floor of a jail cell and doodling symbols in the dust running through my head.  I didn’t have much of a story, but I couldn’t get the image out of my head.  So as I started to craft a story around that image, the character of Lucifer began to take shape.  Eventually, she became the main protagonist of Fall of Cthulhu and a character that everyone loved.  Because she was such a popular character, we decided to pull her out of that Lovecraftian universe and put her in a world wholly my own.  And that’s how Hexed was born.

DB: Speaking of Fall of the Cthulhu, you’ve been a writer for many of the books in the series of Cthulhu titles BOOM Studios has produced. For those who might not be aware of that name and the mythology behind it can you explain how it is used in these series and tell us a bit about your involvement in these series of titles from Boom?

MAN: Cthulhu is a creation of the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.  Lovecraft had written numerous stories about these dark Elder Gods and unknowable Old Ones that, over the decades, became incredibly popular.  The Old One named Cthulhu is only one of his creations, but it’s his most popular, so popular that the name has come to represent all of Lovecraft’s work (the Cthulhu Mythos).  The great thing about the mythos, though, isn’t all the dark denizens hidden within, but the tone that it represents.  That, to me, is the greatest thing about Lovecraft’s work.  Aside from the creepy crawlies in his stories, it was the tone that he created that really made his horror work. 

Cthulhu and Lovecraft have always had a cult following, so when BOOM! was thinking of ideas for another series of “Tales” books (Zombie, Ninja, Pirate), Cthulhu was the obvious choice.  In fact, Cthulhu Tales did so well, they approached me about doing an ongoing story in that Lovecraftian universe.  And that’s how Fall of Cthulhu came about.  The great thing about that series is that you don’t need to know anything about Lovecraft or Cthulhu to understand the story.  You can come in completely cold and not be lost.  And I guess I must have done something right because Fall of Cthulhu is BOOM!’s longest running original series.  

DB: What drew you into the 28 Days Later series you are currently writing and what is it like to transfer a movie property like that into comic form to tell new stories that are still connected to the movie mythology?

MAN: I love the film.  Hands down, it is one of the best films of the aughts.  So when I heard that BOOM! might be getting the license, I walked into their offices with a gallon of kerosene and match, screaming, “This book is mine or else!”  Sadly, that didn’t really work.  The creators of the film had a very specific vision for the story and needed to know that the creators behind the comic would be able to bring that vision to fruition.  Unfortunately, my name isn’t all that well-known so when it came to choosing a writer, I wasn’t at the top of the list.  The folks at BOOM! believed that I would do a great job with the story, but since I wasn’t a household name, there were doubts about trusting me with such a high-profile title. 

So I cheated.  I wrote a short little story about Selena just to show them what I was capable of.  They read it, loved it, and gave me the gig.  I can’t tell you how great a feeling it is to have a chance at writing stories in such a rich and compelling universe.  But it’s also terrifying.  This is a title that I love and I would be traumatized if I screwed it up.  So I want to make sure that I respect the property that Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have created and do their characters justice.  I mean, c’mon.  We’re talking about Selena and her machete here.  How cool is that?  It’s such an honor to write stories with these characters and I want to make sure my work is deserving of such a great franchise. 

DB: I think anyone reading this can tell that you have a pretty active schedule writing comics for BOOM. So with that in mind…what’s next? What projects will you be continuing and what will you be launching in 2010?

MAN: I have a new Cthulhu series coming up called The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles.  I’m writing it with one of my favorite writers, Johanna Stokes, and we’re having a wonderful time with it.  The series isn’t as over the top as what Fall of Cthulhu was.  It’s definitely more grounded.   That being said, it still has a heavy does of Lovecraftian creepiness to satisfy any horror fan.

DB: Besides tracking your work on BOOM’s site, do you have a personal site, Twitter or another page on a social networking site where fans can follow your work?

MAN: I do some blogging over at John Rogers’ site, Kung Fu Monkey as well as the occasional post at my own blog, MAN’s Machinery.  Fans can also follow me on Twitter @roquesdoodle.