Feature Category: Interviews

Tzvi Lebetkin | THE IMPERIUM

The Imperium is a new comic book being produced by Stefano Cardoselli and Tzvi Lebetkin, who are best known for their Doctor Who-inspired Ice Warriors comic strip. Imperium is a ‘60s-style tele-fantasy comic book. We caught up with Tzvi Lebetkin to learn more about their crowdfunding campaign.

STARBURST: Who are the team behind The Imperium? Who are Biblical Comix?

Tzvi Lebetkin: Well, Biblical Comix is basically me, Tzvi Lebetkin – and it’s the studio I set up to publish my first solo book, Biblical. Thankfully Biblical has been reasonably successful and we managed to stay in publication with it, and we’re now working on issue 6, which completes the first story arc. So, we were in the position where we wanted to do more work, and increase our profile, so I roped in my old friend, Stefano Cardoselli, to do this Ice Warriors idea – which is essentially a series of one-page strips and tries to continue the tradition of the Dalek strips from the ‘60s, albeit quite a bit darker and more visceral.

What have you done before?
Stefano and I have been working together for years, off and on. Most notably in Heavy Metal, and we did quite a well-received sci-fi/sword and samurai mini-series called Bashido.

Why Ice Warriors?

Because the Ice Warriors are AWESOME! Lumbering reptilian giants, in bio-mechanical armour, and they have such a layered society – so they were just great fodder for fantastic storytelling.

What is The Imperium?

The Imperium is our attempt to tell bigger stories to the same Ice Warriors audience we’ve built up. Essentially it takes all that’s great about classic British tele-fantasy, and boils it down into one great stonking storytelling box of delights. It came about because I really wanted to do a super strip where I took all of my childhood heroes and have them play together. Now, of course, this couldn’t happen – because I don’t own James Bond or Doctor Who or Emma Peel. Then I had this lightbulb moment when I realised that if I unashamedly used these cultural icons as the starting point for the characters, and everything I loved about them, and developed new characters from there, we could be on to a bit of a winner. Much in the same way as Alan Moore did with Watchmen, as he wanted to use the Charlton superheroes but they became unavailable. And that really worked out for the best, because the characters in Watchmen are so much more layered and interesting because of it – but still maintain the essence of the characters they were spawned from. So, if we can do the same things here, and add little believable quirks that define personalities, again like in Watchmen or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – I mean, don’t we all love Rorschach eating cold beans out of a can with his mask pulled up over his nose, for example – to our beloved iconic characters, then that would just be one, extended fangasm of a read. Of course, we need to tell real stories about real people for it to work as well. It’s just these real people have been ripped from our childhood memories.

Is British tele-fantasy trapped in the ‘60s?

Oh, Heaven forfend. In fact, I’d say British tele-fantasy is going through a bit of a golden age right now. The Imperium is much more based on my love of British tele-fantasy of the ‘60s, and I think that love was spawned from watching it in the ‘70s as a child. I did have an interesting idea for a storyline, where our hero travels in time to the present day and they have to deal with the revamped and rebooted versions of themselves. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see how Sean Connery’s and Daniel Craig’s James Bond would interact together? I’d pay to see that.

Why has Spy-Fi endured so long?

How wouldn’t it? It’s just so cool! Done well, it’s a rollercoaster ride of action and adventure and sexiness and just extraordinary super cool people doing extraordinary super cool things. That never gets old. I saw the new Mission: Impossible flick the other day and just loved it. It delivers on all those things, and does it well.

How has The Avengers, James Bond and Doctor Who survived so long?

Have they all survived? The Avengers movie from the 1990s didn’t spawn the franchise that I think it was hoped it would. But Bond and Doctor Who have, despite fallow years where both franchises seemed dead. I’d say because when they get it right they take the essence of what makes those things work, and then reinterprets them for the current age, making it always seem contemporary, yet without betraying what the core DNA of what they are.

Why have a monkey in a spacesuit?

Well, why not? Who doesn’t want to see a monkey in a spacesuit? It does seem to gel very much with the 1960s vibe we’re going for – of burgeoning science and space exploration, and the unbowed optimism that came with such youthful naivety. Plus it gives us a character that can eat its own poop and yet still remained dignified – which to my mind is worth the price of admission in and of itself.

Why comics?

Because comics are a fantastic storytelling medium – and I can do them! I’d REALLY love to do this as a, like a three-episode British TV series, but at the same time I’d like to see it too. So by doing a comic, I can have something in my hand in a relatively short space of time that I don’t have to jump through a gazillion hoops and sit through countless committee meetings to get to.

Why IndieGoGo?

Well, it’s the business model of the age isn’t it? And what’s great about crowdfunding is it makes things SO much more attainable for so many more people. You can bring a concept to market by connecting directly to your market.

How can we help?

Well, firstly buy it. Head over to igg.me/at/Imperium right now and show us your love. But we’re offering more than just selling you a comic book. We want to take you on a journey with us. We want you to come with us and see the pilot being made, and then be with us as we try and get a series commissioned from it. Think of it as a super cool reality show, which comes with a free comic!

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Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.

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Sam Clemens | CAPTAIN KRONOS – VAMPIRE HUNTER

Brian Clemens was a titan of the British film and TV industry. Not only did he oversee The Avengers to its success, but was behind shows such as The Champions, created The Professionals, and wrote for many classic shows. However, he only directed one feature film: Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter for Hammer Films. Brian sadly passed away earlier this year, but his sons, Samuel and George have followed in his footsteps into the movie world. We caught up with Sam to find out their father and their own work, the latest of which, Surgery, screens at Film 4 FrightFest at the end of the month as does Brian’s Captain Kronos…

Starburst: Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter was released in 1974 and although it went largely unnoticed at the time, it’s gathered quite a cult following in the intervening years. What’s the story behind the film’s troubled journey to find its appreciative audience?

Sam Clemens: I can only talk about what Dad told me and my brother George but he didn’t have a particularly good relationship with Michael Carreras (executive producer, Hammer). He wasn’t supportive of the route Dad was going down with Kronos which was to be a bit tongue-in-cheek which he felt it should be; he felt it should be fun and exciting which was a very different way to approach Hammer – it’s very different to all their other movies. So Michael billed it as a second feature in the UK with Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell so it was lost. But I think people like it because it has a special mysticism about it. When you say that a vampire can be killed in any way but you just have to work out what that way is you’ve opened the world out to anything which is fantastic. I think Dad was also influenced by a bit of Samurai culture – Kronos uses a katana blade, for example – which, back in the 1970’s wasn’t as mainstream as it later became. Quentin Tarantino’s gone on record as mentioning it as an influence, it’s one of Peter Jackson’s favourite films – he remade it when he was fifteen on Super 8 and cast himself as Captain Kronos as a kid. I think the film has got a lot of great imagery in it some of which it still referenced today – you can certainly see the Ringwraiths from Lord of The Rings in the mysterious hooded character with the hidden face. The imagery is iconic – and, of course, Laurie Johnson’s music is fantastic; he’s the master.

Kronos is a marked change from the ‘fangs and Frankenstein’ image of much of Hammer’s output in the early 1970s. Was the film a conscious effort to resuscitate Hammer’s fortunes which were starting to fade at the time?

Absolutely. Dad saw Kronos as a bit like Doctor Who in a sense that he could appear within any timeframe at all – that’s why he called him Kronos. The plan was that he could appear in different time periods which gives it enormous scope for a franchise and I think it’s crying out for a remake or a TV series or something but the problem with Hammer today is that they don’t really acknowledge old Hammer even though they’re happy to use the classic logo. But I ring them up and they don’t even know what I’m talking about so it’s really tough. It’s a similar situation with Canal Plus, trying to get anything from them about The Avengers because Dad wrote a stage play which we’d love to do but getting access to the rights is almost impossible.

Horst Janson as Kronos seems like an unusual choice to play a character who might be expected to be a broader, more flamboyant presence. There’s a sort of ‘stillness’ in his portrayal. How did he come to be cast in the role?

Dad was a huge fan of stillness in an actor. When people say ‘Watch Robert de Niro or Robert Duvall on camera’ it looks like they’re not doing anything but when you watch it back it’s phenomenal because the camera just captures thought. As an actor if you understand that concept and you’re confident with what you can do then I think it reads really well. I think Horst was recommended by Peter Collinson, who directed the original Italian Job who had worked with him previously . Dad said ‘I need someone who’s a tall, larger-than-life hero , someone who can swordfight and ride horses’ and Peter said recommended Horst. Dad met him, thought he was charming and wonderful and hired him. The ADR (Additional or Automatic Dialogue Recording) on the film is quite remarkable because he was completely dubbed, that’s not his voice at all. My Dad protested profusely to not allow that to happen so he could be shown as foreign like Franco Nero in Django but he lost the battle and then he had to be dubbed. But I think the dubbing is wonderful and it keeps the level of tongue-in-cheek humour. I’d love to hear the original version but I don’t know if it even exists anymore.

Incredibly, Kronos was your father’s only directing credit. Did he enjoy the experience of being behind the camera?

I think the only thing my dad was disappointed about on Kronos was the fight scene at the end because they had a lot more time billed to be in the studio but they got pushed out because another film was coming in so they only had a couple of days where they were supposed to have a week and then the other movie didn’t come in for another three months! He was frustrated by that but I think that, on the whole, it was his only directorial effort and I know that he loved it and he came from an era where you were asked to direct as opposed to now where it’s like “please, let me direct!”. I think that’s the only reason he didn’t direct any more because I know he loved doing Kronos.

Presumably, as a first-time director, he was meticulous in his preparation for the shoot?

I think Dad had a real eye for a great set up. He storyboarded the entire thing – 400 storyboards. He wanted to turn up on set knowing what he was doing because I think when you’re a first-time director your crew will test you very quickly so see if you know what you’re talking about and he learned from the best because they had some of the best working on The Avengers because the film industry sort of died and a lot of the film guys ended up working in the TV world. There were incredible DOPs (Director of Photography) and directors making episodes so he really learned from some of the best around at the time.

You’ve mentioned the untapped potential of the character and certainly Kronos seems ripe for reinvention in these franchise-crazed times. Do you think Kronos could ride again?

I certainly think Hammer are a missing a trick now in the wake of Netflix and stuff like American Horror Story, there’s such a demand for this sort of material they should really be all over that. They’ve got all these iconic properties just sitting there. Every few years I get people contacting me saying ‘I’ve written this script for Kronos, can you have read?’ but I have to tell them ‘Well, I don’t own it, so you might as well send it to Hammer’ which again is such a shame. I think once I finish touring Dad’s Sherlock play in November there are a lot of things going on but my brother George and I have an extremely tiring job of going through all these properties – and there are so many films I’d like to turn into plays – but Kronos is one I’d love to try and find out if we have any rights to because if we do I’d probably immediately call Peter Jackson knowing he’s a huge fan – we’ve had connections with his office – to see if he’d have any interest in doing something with it because you need someone of that calibre to make it into a workable franchise and to give them the creative freedom to put their own personal spin on it. I think it’s due a wonderful remake; I’d love Tarantino to do his version, that’d be absolutely glorious!

Your father’s last story, Surgery, is the short you and George have directedwhich will be screened at Frightfest. What can you tell us about the film?
It’s a about a man who wakes up in the clutches of this terrible surgeon who we call ‘TheCrude Surgeon’ and this poor man is being tortured in horrendous ways but intrue Brian Clemens fashion not everything is quite as it seems. There’s a bit of a twist. It stars Nicholas Ball which is hilarious because I was talking tolots of actors about it and we eventually got Nicholas because we share the same hairdresser who said ‘I think Nicholas might be interested in this’ and fortunately Nicholas, who’s a great old pro, said yes.

How did Surgery come about?
My friend and I had written a horror film called The Still and we had a producer involved who said he really liked it but he said ‘I’d really like your father to do a pass on the script which will make it much more sellable’. Well I’m not going to say no so I took it to Dad and although it took him a lot longer than usual because of illness, he finished it. But George and I needed to prove we could direct horror so I said to Dad ‘Well, we’ve got a tiny bit of money to do a short but we really need an idea for a horror’ and he said ‘Okay, give me a minute’ and I’m not joking but about a minute later he said ‘Okay, I’ve got it’. It’s changed a little bit but ultimately it’s really exactly the same. The day before he passed away, in fact, I was working on the script for The Still and I was trying to work out how I could get a character to reappear without it being contrived and he solved it in about five seconds. The last thing he did was solving a problem on a script; in the end it was only his body that was failing him, not his mind.

Although your father wrote scripts for a number of horror films including Captain Kronos, most of his work was in an age before horror films took a turn for the gory. How does Surgery compare with the more recent vogue for extreme violence and bloodshed?
I hope Surgery feels a little bit ‘old school’; we kept everything in the mind of the audience so whilst there’s gore it’s much more about what’s implied rather than seeing everything which I think diminishesthe impact. Dad always used to say ‘What I imagine is much worse than you wantto see 99% of the time’. Frightfest will be the world premier and George and Iare so happy because I went to Frightfest a few years ago because a friend ofmine was doing red carpet interviews and they mentioned doing a screening of Kronos – they did a screening of it in Glasgow last year. So we filmed Daddoing an introduction to it which was the last thing he ever filmed. I’m so pleasedthey’ve chosen to screen it this year as well and, bizarrely, it’s on the same day as Surgery which will be really exciting.

Sam Clemens is currently appearing as Sherlock Holmes in Brian Clemens’ Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper Murders which is touring the UK until November at the following venues:

24th August – 26th August – Buxton Opera House

28th September – 3rd October – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

6th October – 10th October – Dundee Repertory Theatre

12th October – 13th October – Marina Theatre, Lowestoft

15th October – 17th October – Millennium Forum, Derby

21st October – 24th October – Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon

26th October – 27th October – Hexagon Theatre, Reading

3rd November – 7th November – Grand Theatre, Blackpool

Check local press and venues for further details

A Blu-ray of Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter which was written and directed by Brian Clemens will be released later this year. If you can’t wait, it is being shown on Horror Channel in the UK on Monday, August 17th and at Film 4 FrightFest on Sunday August 30th. The Clemens Brothers short film Surgery also screens at the London horror event on the same day.

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Andrew Lee Potts | WIRELESS

A well-known face on TV thanks to his portrayal of Connor Temple in ITV’s much-missed Primeval, Andrew Lee Potts has always had a passion for directing; his short Photo Finish won the Grand Prix Award at the Reed Short Film Competition. With his web-series Wireless – the futuristic story of cop partnered with a car with Artificial Intelligence named Unit White – getting more and more successful, we had a chat to find out what’s driving this self-funded project…

STARBURST: Tell us a little bit about how Wireless came about…
Andrew Lee Potts: I work a lot with Alex Moss, who writes a lot of the stuff we make together – we basically create the ideas together. I’ll ring him and say, I’ve had a wicked idea, let’s start to put it down on paper. He starts that, then he comes to me, and I’ll say ‘this is right, that’s not right, let’s swap and change those bits’, so we created quite a lot of things together including the short films. We’ve been working together a while, he actually helped me produce The Making of Primeval, which they asked me to do for Series Two, which was fun! So we have a lot of experience working together and towards the end of Primeval, I was shooting in Dublin and we were talking more and came up with this idea of this AI and this cop that we wanted to stick together. It’s gone through loads of changes over the years and that’s to do with how we bring it to screen, really. We really like this idea and I wanted to use what I’d learn with being in Primeval. I’d learnt that the humour is massively important. The British love it when you just don’t take it too seriously. You have a serious situation, but there’s an edge of humour to it. You do get out-and-out dramas, but that’s not how we’d handle things! You often have to crack a joke, and it does help the mood. It brings you back to ground level and you say ‘let’s try to deal with this now’. We wanted to create this high concept show, that was character driven, and also had a lot of drama and humour equally.

It’s quite an unusual approach putting the show on YouTube for free; do you think that’s sustainable?
Don’t know! All I’ve ever done is put my stuff out free on YouTube. I know a lot of people enter into festivals, this that and the other and I’ve never done that. I’ve always just wanted the audience’s opinion, that’s all I’ve ever done. It’s been brilliant – I’ve got a donation button on my website, and I couldn’t believe the donations that I was getting to help me make it, which was so lovely. In the first year it was up, it was just awesome. People were being just so unbelievably generous and coming back and going, ‘listen, I’ve wanted to help you for so many years, I’ve enjoyed what you’ve done and now I’ve got an opportunity, I’m really chuffed and stuff’ and that was really, really cool for me. So I never put it out there to make money or anything. It’s starting to change for me as I entered Little Larry into Virgin Media – got to the final, entered Photo Finish into Reed and won the Grand Prix, so I’m starting to go, ‘oh maybe I should enter into stuff’.

As for the YouTube thing, I kind of like it at the moment. Obviously, it costs me money to make – I don’t make any money from it – so down the line, it would be awesome if we had a sponsor or something to help us make it. But at the moment, I’m so passionate about it; I enjoy putting it out there for free. I don’t know whether it’s sustainable or not, but you never know, maybe the right pair of eyes will spot it.

It can just be a simple set-up, and it all is in the edit…
Yeah, and with Wireless, it’s ALL in the edit, which I do! Which is great, but obviously, it’s amazingly time consuming to do all the digital effects and that kind of stuff. And also, because I’m self-taught, I’m learning every single time I do an episode. The world’s growing bigger with Wireless, and I’m trying to push it further and further. It’s great though – I prefer to be learning than not!

What’s the end goal for Wireless? To tell the story! In this season, the episodes keep pushing on, and getting a bit longer and longer, so we’re having to cut and change them a little bit. The original plan was about 15/16 episodes to tell the first season story. We know where it ends, and really want to get to that point. The audience is growing quite consistently, so that’s cool. And obviously, I do some comic cons and try to spread the word around country which really helps – kind of the old school way. I’m totally happy to spread the word around about Wireless.

And people respect that, rather than some big studio forcing it down their throat…
Exactly! It’s their choice whether they want to see it or not. Sometimes people say ‘you’ve got to watch this, this is good…’ and the response from people I’ve given a card with the website on to, people come back to me and go ‘actually, to be fair, I really enjoyed that’.
We wanted to flashback before the title sequence, so you get that little bit more of the world, and then you’re in the day it’s set on, and at the end there’s always a hook that’s hopefully make you want to go ‘I have to watch the next one now…’

They’re very bite-sized, so it’s not too much to take in…
Yeah, it’s like a show you can watch on your iPhone* (*other makes of phone are available) – it looks great, so you can watch on the way home from work or something like that. It’s being able to dip into that, with the episodes being between six and nine minutes. Some of them might have to be a little bit longer just to do the story as it unfolds, but then some might be a bit shorter! Each one’s very different from the last, which is cool.

Is there a timescale for when the next episode will be up?
I hope it doesn’t get too frustrating for people! There could be a month or two months between episodes; the reason for that being is that I use actors for free, and they are all really successful, and all really busy. For instance, we were just about to start filming episode seven, and I’ve lost my actor to a film in L.A. at the moment. So what we’ve had to do was jump out of sequence and shoot something else. So it’s all to do with their availability, and also mine as well, because obviously I’ve got to do the day job!

The world of Wireless is getting bigger, I’ve got more and more people – prop makers, costume designers – as it gathers momentum, and this is what I was hoping for it, and people see it and enjoy it, they want to be a part of it and offer up their services. It’s happening nearly on a weekly basis. People are getting in touch and saying ‘I can help’. With that in mind, the world of Wireless is actually getting bigger! It’s funny, because I kind of sit there and go, ‘ooo… I made this!’

Catch up with the previous episodes of Wireless on YouTube, or through the Wireless website.
You can follow Andrew and Wireless on Twitter @andrewleepotts and @wireless_web.

Watch Andrew’s award-winning short Photo Finish here.

Kate Ashwin | WIDDERSHINS: GREEN-EYED MONSTER

Kate Ashwin is the creative force behind Widdershins, a hugely popular webcomic filled with supernatural mayhem and adventure. Her latest book, Widdershins: Green-Eyed Monster, has successfully been crowd-funded on Kickstarter and is running until September 2nd. STARBURST got in touch with Kate to find out more.

STARBURST: How would you describe Widdershins?
Kate: Ashwin: A series of light-hearted adventure stories, set in a magical version of Victorian-era Yorkshire!

Why magic?

There’s just so many potential stories you can spin from the basic concept of magic being a common practice, and just thinking through how it would fit into British society leads to so many ideas. Also, it’s always interesting to take something familiar and add a little of the unfamiliar.

Why the seven deadly sins?
When I came up with that, it was very much tied into the way I wanted magic to work in Widdershins. All of it is based on summoning spirits made of human emotions, and making deals with them – say, if you wanted a train to go fast, you summon Impatience – and the deadly sins are always an interesting set of traits to use. There’s an awful lot of story potential with them, as they make for some fabulous villains, not to mentions they’re just plain fun to design the art for!

Where do you get the inspiration for your characters?
Quite a lot of the time, I’m just writing the sorts of characters I’d like to read about. Harriet Barber, the main character of a few of the books, came from wanting to see a female version of an Indiana Jones-style adventurer, and from there I added strengths and flaws to make her more interesting; she has a strong resolve but also a grumpy attitude, she’s smart and fast but she’s a pretty terrible chain-smoker. My favourite thing to do is set up a pair of characters who are complete polar opposites of each other, since that tends to make for the most interesting situations and journeys.

Why webcomics?
I’ve been putting comics on the internet for something like 13 years now. I originally did it that way because it was just a fun hobby, and it was so simple to make a thing and upload it. I found I really enjoyed the fact that people were reading things I’d written and drawn, and were interacting with me and the story. There’s something really gratifying about the instant feedback you can get on a page-by-page basis when you do a webcomic. Nowadays, there’s an absolute wealth of amazing webcomics out there, some massively unique stories and beautiful art that I genuinely don’t think would have seen the light of day anywhere else but via online self-publishing. I adore the freedom of webcomics, honestly, I couldn’t imagine working any other way, long term.

Is the future of comics in Kickstarter?
Hard to say, but it’s certainly a very beneficial resource to have right now. It’s been such a boon to be able to make print copies of Widdershins without having to traditionally pitch it to publishers. Not only is it a massive financial help, their site is very well set up to handle the fiddly parts of shipping, and it’s also great promo. I definitely wouldn’t be in the same position without it.

What’s next after Widdershins?

I hope to do Widdershins for a few more years yet, since there’s still a lot of stories I want to tell with that setting and those characters, but after that, who knows? Won’t be stopping making comics any time soon though, that’s for sure!

How can we help?

Read Widdershins online at www.widdershinscomic.com, and check out the current Kickstarter project at www.kickstarter.com which is running till September 2nd!

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Jason Graves | UNTIL DAWN

Jason Graves is a BAFTA-winning composer for film and video games. He is more recently known for his musical scores for DEAD SPACE, a survival horror-action video game, the 2013 reboot of the TOMB RAIDER franchise, and THE ORDER: 1886. His latest project was creating the soundtrack for the PlayStation 4 adventure survival horror game, UNTIL DAWN. STARBURST caught up with him to find out more.

STARBURST: What challenges did you face writing the music for Until Dawn?
Jason Graves: Normally I would go into interactivity, mixing and all this crazy stuff we do in video game to make the music really adaptive as the game progresses. Until Dawn was actually very different. It has an extremely cinematic approach, both in the way they did the motion capture, wrote the story and implemented the music. This was scored more in the way you’d score a film or TV show; in a more linear way. That’s not to say the music doesn’t change, it changes it all the time. There are so many decisions you can make in the game that will change the course of the plot. Every single one of those decisions has been scored to fit. Each one is custom crafted to go with the scenes. It’s almost like a ten or twelve-hour movie. It was fantastic to work on the score.

How different is it from other scores you’ve written?
You can get lost really easily in the different points of interest and sides of the story. I find the easiest thing is to focus on the characters. It’s the same as if I was scoring a film. With Tomb Raider you had a single character point that was the purpose of the game; to focus on a single characters journey and reimagine it. In Until Dawn, you’ve got multiple characters who are important to the plot and you can play these characters. Some of the decisions that you make can determine whether they’ll live through the night so it was a lot more character driven. The focus of the music is more about your decisions. We were able to fit in themes for the locations, the mountains and cabin and so on. What I love is if you make certain decisions you won’t hear certain scores. You could literally play through the game ten times and get ten different game play experiences, including the music.

Do you have preferred order for the Until Dawn score?
It’s not like that. I want you to play it ten times to get different experiences. That’s the beauty of it and the inherent difference between video games and TV. What it boils down to is the replay ability and interactivity. You are involved in the story.

Video games are certainly unique in that regard. What started you on this path?
I’ve been in games for about 15 years now and I’ve watched as the technology has allowed us to do branching scenarios with the score. In the beginning it was just start and stop, you could add a stinger here and there. Now we have the RAM and processors to do more. The technology has really enabled us as games designers to really do anything we want. We’re really only limited by time now; how much time it takes for us to craft these experiences and release them into the world. It’s really been more about making that decision and maximising the time.

Is the future of musical composition in video games?
There is definitely a future in composing music for video games. They say that if the composers of the past were alive today, they’d be working in games. I think they probably would, there’s a lot of opportunity and variety in games, because of the sheer amount of music we get to write. A movie might be three hours, a game is at least ten. If you wanted to do a movie soundtrack that long, you’re looking at something like The Lord of The Rings trilogy, which took years to make.

You tend to write music for darker games, what draws you to that sort of work?
It’s nothing to do with my last name. I think it’s just as a composer you are a sum of the titles you have worked on. I did a lot of stuff that was not dark and was uplifting. It’s just that the darker games were more popular. That’s what people associate my name with. They realise that one composer has written the music for all these dark game and say ‘maybe we should hire him’. Now I listen to my work and think ‘maybe it should be darker’.

What’s your ideal project?
Probably one that’s completely different from the last one. I like to be enthusiastically elated at discovering new things and trying something different. That’s why games like Until Dawn tick all the boxes for me. They want to try something new, that’s what I really like about the industry. My next challenge is trying out new things.

Until Dawn is available on PlayStation 4 from late August 2015.

Steve Green | STRONTIUM DOG FAN FILM

The team behind the unofficial Judge Dredd based fan film, Judge Minty, are at it again. They’re turning John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s glorious mercenary Johnny Alpha of the Strontium Dogs in to a fan film. We caught up with co-director Steve Green to find out more.

STARBURST: Why Strontium Dog?
Steve Green: It was really a chance to do another 2000 AD character as we’ve read the prog for such a long time and are curious to see how a strip translates to the screen. Johnny and Wulf are interesting characters; they’re killers but a lot more sympathetic than Dredd is. We also wanted to see where we could improve on what we produced with Judge Minty. Originally we had mulled over doing a Rogue Trooper trailer, but we chatted to John Wagner at the Lakes Comics Festival and he mentioned Strontium Dog, so we switched to that.

Which Strontium Dog stories do you want to tell?
Originally the idea started out as being much more of something like a sizzle reel, almost tick-boxing what readers might associate with Strontium Dog, but it evolved into something a bit more substantial. Strontium Dog covers a range of themes, it can be a bit more fantastic like Journey into Hell, or a war story like Portrait of a Mutant. We’re aiming for the sci-fi western look as a base, but people will spot elements from other Strontium Dog stories – I like that the world of Strontium Dog is very UK based, with regional accents. I’m not sure what non-readers will make of it though!

Why has 2000 AD lasted so long?
Sheer bloody-mindedness? Thrill-power? I think Pat Mills says it best in the Future Shock Documentary, about not messing too much with the formula – although in more colourful terms!

How different is it from Judge Minty?
It’s shorter, for one! Also, a little less bleak. Strontium Dog lends itself to some interesting visuals – the time weaponry, for example. Having two lead characters rather than just a single protagonist makes a difference. At a technical level, we’re trying to be a bit more considered, we have a fight co-ordinator on board, better lighting. We also know the pitfalls this time around, although I’m not sure if ignorance is bliss.

How have Strontium Dog’s creators reacted?
It’s been very favourable; Carlos in particular has been very gracious with his time and feedback. We’ve been pretty faithful to his designs. Johnny Alpha’s helmet took a few revisions, and Jock also gave us feedback since he’d gone through the process of adapting a comic character for film with Dredd.

How difficult was it to cast people?
Pretty easy – Steve Sterlacchini went through casting lists, but Matt and Kev were our first choice, and they’d worked together previously which was a bonus.

How can we see the movie?
The plan is to do a few festivals/conventions first, then it will be available to watch for free on YouTube and probably Vimeo as well. People usually ask about DVD/Blu-ray versions, but it’s not something we can easily do since it’s a not-for-profit venture. We gave some DVD copies away of Minty, but it’s much less of a headache to just put it on online.

How can we help?
Just spread the word (sorry, different strip), we should be finished filming in the next couple of months, once we get the basic edit done it will give us an idea if there are any holes to fill.

You can find out more at www.strontiumdogfanfilm.com

Joe Abercrombie | HALF A WAR

Best known for THE FIRST LAW trilogy, JOE ABERCROMBIE published HALF A KING in 2014, the first book in his new SHATTERED SEA series, which won the 2015 Locus Award for best Young Adult book. We caught up with him to find out more about the last book in this series, HALF A WAR…

STARBURST: Tell us all about Half a War…
Joe Abercrombie: Well, war is a theme, as you might imagine! The shattered sea is ruled by a High King and more specifically, by his ruthless minister Grandmother Wexen, and she has pushed and maneuvered various nations around the sea so that they have no choice but to go to war. Gettland and their ally and once rival Vansterland are threatened by a wide confederation of the High King and his allies. So Father Yarvi brings some allies together in an attempt to succeed against impossible odds.

Why the multiple points of view throughout the series?
I like that breadth, and I like having different points of view and threads to follow in a fantasy book. The idea with these books was to be quite tight in the focus; to be quite short and fast. To have the pace of a thriller, if you like. To try to do epic fantasy with a driving, forward pace; by splitting each book into many different threads and characters. I thought it would be interesting to start from one character’s point of view only then to bring in two different characters in the second book. Half a War has three inter-related plot lines, although the characters in the previous books are very much there in the background. It also gave me the opportunity to move time forward between each book but to keep the protagonist in that age range of sixteen to eighteen that I was aiming for. I think changing the characters just gives a different tone and flavour to each book, keeping it all interesting and varied. It also allows us to see the characters we knew very well in previous books from the outside.

Did you have each character’s story arcs plotted out in advance?
Up to a point. Certainly Yarvi is the central character of the first book and then he’s more in the background in the other two, but the arc of the three together is very much a story about him. That arc was very much set from the start, and I had a good idea where that was going. With the other individual characters that were then introduced during the books, I didn’t have precise idea at the start of the series where they would all end up, but I had a rough idea what the overall back story would be. They fitted in to that bigger story. I tend to have a rough idea what the book will be and then I will plan each book as I come to start writing it. As I go through the book, I’ll get a better and better idea of where I’m going. It’s really in the revision. Once I’ve finished the first draft of a book, I really strip it down so I can do a focused plot and get a good idea of what the characters will be. It’s good to have a guiding direction and a plan. If you start with no plan you can easily wander off into nowhere and it’s hard to find your way back.

The Shattered Sea series is aimed at Young Adults. Why?
This series developed out a conversation I had with Nick Lake, who is an editor of Young Adult books at Harper Collins. He liked my adult stuff and wanted me to write some YA books. That idea hung around for a while, and took me a few years to have the time and an idea that would work. I think when writing for younger readers, I wasn’t trying to get into a particular category as such, I was just trying to write the sort of book that I would have liked and read at age 14 to 16. I wanted it to have the same edge and moral ambiguity as the books I write for adults. I wanted it to be challenging and not talk down to the audience at all. At the same, I’d written very bloody and nasty scenes in my adult work. I didn’t want to repeat that style. I wanted it to be distinct and different.

What’s next for you?
Good question. There’s always something, isn’t there? When Half a War comes out, I’ll be touring and doing a lot of events. I’ve got a collection of short stories in The First Law world that will probably come out sometime next year. It’s looking like it’s going to be more adult books in The First Law world. I’ve got a trilogy that I owe to Gollancz, so at some point I need to get started with that. I’ve already some idea as to what it is, but it’s pretty vague at the moment. There’s a few other irons lurking in the fire that might end up taking up some time, as they always do.

Do you think your stories would work in other media? As a TV show perhaps?
Would I like to see them turned into a television series with the depth and success of Game of Thrones? Yeah, I think that’s not a tough one to say yes to. Obviously, it would give a huge boost to the books as well and that can be no bad thing. Of course, things aren’t always adapted well and you can’t really control what happens when you set these things in motion. You can try and sell the rights to the right person and hope the right people get involved and that they respect the books. But it’s an ensemble effort in a way that writing a book never is. You’ll never have that control, so you just have to roll the dice and trust to luck. I’d welcome anything that made me stratospherically successful and enabled me to have a toilet seat carved from a single massive diamond.

You’re known as Lord Grimdark. How did that come about?
The grimdark thing is something that happened to me long after the fact. I’ve heard it used four or five years ago to describe something that was absurdly pessimistic and almost laughable. Then people started using it to describe things like Game of Thrones. It’s become a much more general descriptor. I never really set out to be one thing or another, I just set out to write the things I wanted to write. Because I’d read a lot of shiny and optimistic fantasy I wanted to do something different. I felt a lack of grit and darkness in it. So I ended writing something quite cynical and gritty. It was an interesting contrast to what I’d read. I think grimdark has become more popular and has lost some of its impact.

You’d hate to become predictable for doing one sort of thing. It’s important to try different things and keep people guessing!

HALF A WAR is out now. You can find out more about the author at joeabercrombie.com.

Phil Woodward | POST MORTEM

Phil Woodward is prominent creator of UK indie horror comics. We caught up with him to find out more about his latest project, Post Mortem, which is currently on Kickstarter.

STARBURST: What is Post Mortem?
Phil Woodward: A dark and twisted horror story, a story of survival and morality – all entwined with some dastardly surgical procedures. Skin & Bone is the first of a planned trilogy following the journey of the protagonist; the nameless man that awakens in a hospital room with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He quickly finds that he is far from safe, the halls running thick with blood and lined with bodies. Beset on all sides by nothing but terrifying questions. If you’re in to your organ harvesting stories then this is for you.

Why have you chosen this particularly vivid style?
I probably read too deep in to the word graphic novel. I took inspiration from my favourite genre and horror movies, the likes of The Cube and Hostel. Horrors with twists. The real inspiration came from reading articles about underground organ black market and body snatching. You know, the light-hearted stuff. I have always been a slasher fan with Freddy, Jason and Mikey being a part of my entertainment schedule, and the most part it takes a lot to scare me. For me, the ones that keep me awake are the originals of Ju-On and The Ring as well as Shutter.

Why are hospitals such a mainstay of horror?

It’s all to do with fears and phobias, feeling trapped, feeling helpless. You’re supposed to feel safe and well looked after in a hospital. Very similar to people’s fear of dentists. A place with all the equipment to cure diseases and save lives is also a place with the equipment to create a human abattoir.

Is horror coming back to comics?
I don’t think it ever really left comics. Looking around, there are plenty of quality and gory titles out there. The indie scene has plenty of twisted writers that can push the boat. With the uplift in superheroes to all mediums and the spotlight on Marvel and DC, it’s easy to see why many horrors are taking the back seat.

Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is a solid foundation for imagination, funded by the community and driven by people who want to provide and offer support. The community is an integral part of why we decided on launching a Kickstarter. We spent four years developing and networking in order to achieve the goal of realising our dreams.

How different is this from your other work?
The difference for me is purely the story and backdrop of my ideas. I pursue the same level of quality and detail in everything I do. I have many story ideas from sci-fi to horror, action to mystery and although they are very much different, they must have the same high standards throughout. A big change from my day job in retail, although there’s a horror story in there somewhere.

What’s next?
Continuation of Post Mortem with follow ups Blood & Bone and Flesh & Bone. Project-wise, we have horror anthology Nyctophilia, a collection of urban horror stories and horror comic called Shepherdz. It will be a post-apocalyptic tale with a cool backdrop. Also in the pipeline is our website Comixster which is a social education, recruitment and showcase platform for the comic book creative, fully designed and coded from the ground up.

You can find out more about the project via www.postmortemcomic.com or via their Kickstarter page here.

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Anaseed Man | STINKHORN CITY BATTLE

Anaseed Man is a British comics creator responsible for comics such a GART and Slamurai Warriors. His latest project, a goblin-fuelled adventure called Stinkhorn City Battle, is currently being crowd funded on KICKSTARTER.

STARBURST: What is Stinkhorn City Battle?
Anaseed Man: Stinkhorn City Battle is a fantasy-punk action comic in the vein of ‘80s movies like Escape from New York and The Warriors. But with goblins.

Why fantasy?
I’ve always liked fantasy creatures like orcs, ogres, trolls and goblins, but I’ve never really been a fan of the high-fantasy settings they tend to inhabit. So I thought it would be a fun idea to take those beings and put them in a far future, dystopian world full of giant mushrooms.

What are your influences?
All sorts of things. The main two, however, are ‘80s post-apocalyptic actions movies like Mad Max… and Dragon Ball Z, that was my visual diet while growing up.

Why goblins?
They don’t get enough love! Goblins are never really used as protagonists; they usually just get kicked around by humans, or elves, of other non-primary coloured things. That and I just think goblins are neat.

Is the future of comics in crowdfunding?
I think so! It’s really opened doors for comics. It means people can self-publish more ambitious projects that aren’t just zines – not that there’s anything wrong with zines. Not only that, it means people can get their stories out there without having to rely on gambling with pitching to a publisher.

How different is it from other projects you’ve done?
It’s the first self-contained story I’ve worked on. And the first one I’ll be producing entirely in colour. Most of the time my comics are action-based, but this one’s going to be more full on.

How can we help?
By spreading the word! The more people that know about the Stinkhorn City Battle Kickstarter, the better! The odd pledge here and there wouldn’t hurt either.

The Stinkhorn City Battle Kickstarter can be found here.

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Victor Wright | BLOOD RED MOON

Victor Wright is the multi award winning author responsible for stories such as the futuristic zombie horror bloodbath T.E.A.L (Total Elimination of All Life) and the very popular Light of Darkness trilogy. His latest project is the rage fuelled Blood Red Moon, currently being funded via Kickstarter. We caught up with him to find out more.

STARBURST: What is Blood Red Moon?
Victor Wright: Blood Red Moon is a story of captivity, deceit, carnage and lust. The perfect elements for a great horror. It’s about a clan of Vikings that want to conquer their adversaries and at the same time grow their army by means of loyalty to the pack.

Why Vikings?
I chose a Viking setting to start the story off because I wanted it to be a blood bath and who else in history were more violent than the Vikings. For a while I’d been toying with scenes of warriors yielding oversized axes and swords slaying their enemies, whilst huge werewolves torn into the flesh of the unfortunate. Normally, the werewolf is seen as a lone assassin – until now they have never really worked with anyone to achieve goals. It’s exciting.

Is the horror comic coming back?
Has it really gone away? We’ve been thrilling our audience with horror comics for the last two years and have constantly been selling out. There are some great titles on the market. You only have to check out Image, IDW and Avatar to see how popular horror actually is. On top of that the indie market is buoyant with great titles; Escape from Jesus Island, Zombie Bears, Vampire Vixens there are lots. And then you have the crowd funders like Kickstarter who are bringing some awesome new titles. Keep your eyes open for ‘Post-mortem’.

Carlos Villas’s art is very distinct; how did you end up collaborating with him?
Carlos is amazing. He sent me some examples of his work and I knew straight away he was the right person to illustrate the story. He’s such a great guy to work with and his artwork delights every time. I rarely make changes to his work; I’d rather change my script. But don’t tell him that!

Is Kickstarter the future of indie comics?
I see Kickstarter as an opportunity to broaden our readership. Personally, I don’t think you should put a project on there, if it’s the only means to fund it to fruition. It’s there to help you – not be the only answer. Indie creators use the crowd funding platforms to assist them in different ways – I’ve heard some successful stories and some nightmares. Projects that appear to be a certain win fail, whilst others success rate is immense. At the end of the day it comes down to what people want to read and how you market the project to your audience.

What’s next for you?
At the moment I’m writing several titles and I’m working on a new novel. But I do have a great idea forming about a serial killer which allows me to combine horror and crime together. It’s probably a way off though as I have big plans for several spin off stories for Blood Red Moon.

How can we help?
We need the money from the Kickstarter pledges to help us print the new comic (which is nearly completed). People can help by sharing the links to the campaign on their social media, blogs and websites to raise awareness and of course by making a pledge themselves. We’re really excited to be doing this book we want you to share our excitement by getting behind us.

You can find out more about Blood Red Moon via their Kickstarter page here.