OCTOBREREFEST
AN INTERVIEW WITH COMICS CREATOR DAN
BRERETON
 All Art from GIANT KILLER ©1998
Dan Brereton
WORLD OF FANDOM: Let's start off with the BUFFY comic.
I understand you are writing it?
DAN BRERETON: I'm working on a couple of things that
have to do with the BUFFY comic, but The writer of the monthly series is
Andi Watson. Andi is the creator of the SKELETON KEY comic. Originally they
approached me about working on a lot more then I ended up doing ,but I had
other commitments.
I'm working on GIANT KILLER now , which takes up most
of my time. I'm writing a 70 page BUFFY graphic novel called THE DUST WALTZ.
Hector Gomez is penciling it and Laura Allred is coloring it. I'm especially
happy that Laura is on board; I really like her work and I'm friends with
the Allreds.
W.O.F.: What's the other BUFFY project you're doing?
D.B.: I also plotted a 2 part story arc that will be
a part of the BUFFY monthly comic series. Andi's scripting from my plot,
which is about a twisted slumber party. It was suppose to be a 48 page special
but ended up being an arc in the monthly. The BUFFY comic has gone through
so many incarnations it's ridiculous. First it was going to be a series
of mini-series. Then they decided they wanted to make it a monthly series
with me doing a story arc in the first 3 issues. That would have been THE
DUST WALTZ. The slumber party thing was for later on. Then the DUST WALTZ
story got pushed back and was going to be issues 5,6 and 7. Finally, they
decided to format it a graphic novel. I think it has something to do with
it taking FOX such a long time to approve artist and writers and so on.
The wait was excruciating.
W.O.F.: Are you doing any artwork at all?
D.B.: I was originally supposed to be the cover artist
on at least 5 or 6 issues. I would have painted the covers for the mini
series that I wrote. But the producers of the show passed on me as cover
artist.
W.O.F.: What are they going to do? Go with photo covers?
D.B.: Yeah, on the DUST WALTZ GN it looks like its gonna
be a photo cover, which I don't mind, really.I figure if I can't do the
cover to a book I wrote, a photo cover will keep me from being jealous of
any cover artist who gets the gig!
W.O.F.: Why did they pass on you as cover artist?
 D.B.:It was pretty
confusing but all I know is that I was rejected. I was pretty upset at first
because I couldn't figure out what the deal was. But lot's of weird stuff
has gone on and several really great artists have come and gone off the
project, besides myself. People like Duncan Fergredo and J.Scott Campbell.
Campbell was approved as cover artist initially, but I guess they were having
problems with the way he was drawing Buffy, like maybe a little too sexy.
It was weird because half the time on the show she's not even wearing a
bra! They obviously take great pains to make Buffy look sexy on the TV show,
so I'm puzzled by their thinking on that. I wasn't going to play up the
sex angle of Buffy on my covers any more than the show does, but I guess
they saw my LADY JUSTICE and THRILLKILLER covers and perhaps thought I was
going to. Like I'm the King of Cleavage or something. It's too bad, because
I would have done some kick-ass covers for BUFFY.
W.O.F.: So who is doing the covers?
D.B.: I think Arthur Adams is working on some. I saw
one and it's really nice. I also heard that even he was asked to make revisions.
I'm really kind of glad I'm not an artist on it because of all that. It
just sounds like a nightmare. When I found out they rejected me as cover
artist I though there was no way in hell they were going to approve me as
a writer. So when I found out they approved my plots, I was shocked. Elated,
but surprised.
W.O.F.: Can you tell anything about THE DUST WALTZ ?
D.B.: This pair of sisters come to Sunnydale, who are
supposed to be the mothers of all monsters. Or at least that's what they
call themselves. One is the mother of all vampires and the other is the
queen of all monsters. They roam the earth, picking out all the strongest
and fittest of their progeny. They get together every 50 or 100 years and
they hold this festival called the Dust Waltz, which is a reference to the
way Vampires die in Buffy's world, by exploding into dust and ashes.
The Dust Waltz is a dance of death, a battle which decides
which sister's "children" are the fittest. The sisters hate each
other bitterly, and pit their champions against each other as a way of working
out their "personal issues", I guess you could say. It's also
an excuse for all the vampires,werewolves, demons and what have you, to
get together and celebrate and devour humans. The festival always takes
place on or near a hellmouth. This time around it takes place in Sunnydale.
At the same time Giles' niece, who is an archeology
student at Oxford, has taken a semester off to travel around the world on
a ship. She stops off for a visit to Sunnydale and gets involved with Buffy
and Giles and all their friends. Xander and Willow follow her around and
she keeps getting them into trouble. And at the same time all these monsters
are moving into Sunnydale for The Dust Waltz.
W.O.F.: That sounds really cool. Is Angel in the story
also?
D.B.: Angel is in there. We are not required to make
Angel a bad guy. Oz is not in this story and Zander and Cordelia are still
somewhat dating at this point, though I purposefully keep vague about that,
since Xander seems to have a crush on Jane.
W.O.F.: How closely are you following the tone and style
of the tv show?
D.B.: Very much so. I wouldn't have it any other way,
really.I really love the show and must confess to having aspirations to
writing an episode of the series for TV.
W.O.F.: Maybe after this, they'll let you adapt your
graphic novel for the small screen?
D.B.: Yeah, that would be the coolest! To be honest
though, I'd love to do an all-out Zombie-Fest episode first. I want to do
a story where WWF wrestlers become zombies.
W.O.F.: Are you into zombie movies?
D.B.: I think I'm starting to get into them, yeah. I
went from Crime movies, to Japanese samurai flicks to Godzilla and now to
Zombies. I like Zombie movies because , like crime fiction, the stories
are pared-down to essential simple elements and characters are really integral
to the stories being good. I only saw DAWN OF THE DEAD this year
W.O.F.: A true classic. One of Romero's best. Great
flick.
D.B.: It really kicks ass. I'm looking forward to more
horror films this year. John Carpenter's VAMPIRES is supposed to be really
good, which is great to hear since I'm a big JC fan. THE THING is one of
my all-time favorite films. Gamera 3 will be out next year too. It sounds
like it might be the best of the current Trilogy.
W.O.F.: Speaking of Giant Monsters, you have your series
GIANTKILLER coming out next year, right??
D.B.: Yeah, probably in the spring of 1999. I'm working
on that now, just finished the first issue.
W.O.F.: Why don't you tell us what that's about?
D.B.: It's basically a giant monster epic. In the tradition
of Japanese giant monster movies and the old Jack Kirby Atlas/Marvel monsters.
The inspiration for this came from my son and I watching
GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE a few years ago when he was about 2. I'd never really
thought a Godzilla movie could be cool before watching this one. G vs. Biollante
was cool. It was different than anything I'd watched before. I didn't watch
Godzilla movies when I was a kid, I kind of thought they were dumb. I liked
ULTRA MAN but I just couldn't get into Godzilla because he was too silly
in a lot of the movies I saw him in. It didn't do anything for me. I liked
the Harryhausen SINBAD movies because they were fun and kind of scary, without
giving me nightmares as a child.
So when I watched GODZILLLA VS BIOLLANTE , here was
this Godzilla who was mean looking and all angry. Just those scenes of Godzilla
walking out of a volcano and smashing Tokyo, there was just something about
it that just clicked. And my son and I started watching these movies together
and it was fun. He really loves those films now as much as I do. He started
to memorize all their names. So I started getting more of the movies and
now I have all 22 of the Godzilla movies and I like them, silly or not.
While I was watching these movies I thought it would be fun to do my own
giant monster comic. Just the idea of two big creatures bashing away at
one another seemed like a fun thing to paint. But at the same time I didn't
want to remake Godzilla or remake the Kirby monster tales. I wanted something
different and I wanted a strong but simple storyline.
I began thinking about a guy who was a hybrid of human
and giant monster DNA. He was man-sized, but he could fight these monsters
single handedly. Even if he had to climb up them with a rope or something.
That's how GIANT KILLER evolved.
W.O.F.: And DC comics is publishing it?
D.B.: Dark Horse wanted to do it first off, but it didn't
work out. Then I took it over to DC and they said they wanted to do it.
I guess they thought it was weird and different and cool enough to work.
The funny thing is, when I came up with the idea I didn't think anyone would
be interested in it. I thought they would just look at me and go "why
would we do a monster comic? They don't sell." I think a Monster Renaissance
is on the horizon. Even though GODZILLA wasn't a critical success, lots
of kids dug it and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG Looks really good.
I'm really excited to see what the fans think of GIANTKILLER.
I don't think it will be what they expect. There are some fun twists and
turns in the story that no one's going to expect, I think.
W.O.F.: And it's all set in it's own universe?
D.B.: It's kind of like my universe. There was some
talk of setting it in the DC universe in the beginning. They seemed really
keen on that. But it didn't make sense to me because why would you need
Jack The Giant Killer if you already have Superman?
And I wanted to have Jack interact with some of my other
characters possibly, down the road. One of the main characters in GIANTKILLER
is Jill Sleet who is also in a NOCTURNALS project that I want to do down
the road. So I set it in the "Brereton- verse.
W.O.F.: So it is going to be a mini series?
D.B.: A six issue mini series. I'm writing it and painting
it. There's also going to be a companion one-shot called "MONSTERS
A TO Z" which is a sort of faux- scientific field guide to the monsters
in the story and many monsters who don't appear in the series.
W.O.F.: So I hear that you did some kind of artwork
for the Rob Zombie Crow film that is now suppose to be something else?
D.B.: Last Sept. I got a call from Pressman films. They
wanted me to do some conceptual art for this Crow movie that Rob was writing
and directing. At that time I found out that Rob liked my work and that
he owned quite a few original pieces of my art. So 2 weeks go by and they
call me and tell me I have 2 weeks to do this job. They flew me out to Hollywood
and I talked with some of the producers and such.
At that time is was very clear to me that Rob was really
frustrated with the whole deal. The whole process. But he seemed very committed
to the film. He's a hands-on guy. He likes to be in charge of his own creation.
Kind of like people who do comics. It was frustrating for him to have to
deal with all these producers. They always want their input in everything
whether it's a good thing or not, always sticking their fingers in the pie,
constantly tasting it, ruining it. So anyway, Rob wanted me to do these
3 paintings. They wanted this Crow to be different from the last 2 movies.
This is not a guy in mime make-up that looks like he's built like a dancer.
I did these 22x24 paintings. I did one of the Crow who kind of looked like
this scruffy, grungy Solomon Kane witch-hunter guy. A cross between a Clint
Eastwood Spaghetti western character and Daniel Day Lewis in THE CRUCIBLE.
I did one of a witch with a cauldron. And the last one was of this Christopher
Lee like Fu Man Cu-like villain with one of his harem of wives who are vampires.
So I did the paintings and they used them to draw attention to the project
at the MIFED film festival in Italy.
 I found out that Rob
visited Christopher Lee in London and showed him the paintings and told
him about the film project and that he was interested. But Rob was having
a problem with people back in LA who were going" who is Christopher
Lee?"
W.O.F.: Unbelievable.
D.B.: That's the kind of people he was dealing with.
These were movie executives. So I didn't hear anything for a couple of months.
I was hoping to get my artwork back and Rob said he wanted to buy the paintings.
So I said what's going on with the movie? He said it was on hold. Then I
found out from Rob that after 17 months of just pulling teeth and getting
the runaround, he was so fed-up that he realized he had to get back to his
music career. I don't blame the guy .And I can't wait for the new album.
I actually did a painting in it of Rob in front of a haunted house.
W.O.F.: Anything else we should look for from you?
D.B.: Well In Oct. there is the SUPERMAN/ SILVER BANSHEE
2 issue series.
It is a Halloween story. There will be a hardback collection
of the first six-issue NOCTURNALS miniseries, BLACK PLANET coming out from
ONI PRESS. The THRILLKILLER trade comes out in the fall as well, which collects
both DC series in one volume. And of course, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER; THE
DUST WALTZ, comes out in October too.
W.O.F.: Sounds like Halloween is gonna be busy for your
readers this year!
D.B.: I hope so!
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