Rebekah McKendry is a jack of all horror trades, writing, directing, and producing horror movies whereas additionally educating about horror. Now, she and her husband, David Ian McKendry, are including comedian e book writers beneath their belt. Whereas they dipped their toes in that pool with the Hellraiser: Anthology graphic novels, they’ve now written an unique sequence, Barstow, which is out now from Darkish Horse Comics! This desert-set cosmic horror neo-noir is a trippy (and gnarly) journey right into a city stuffed with fascinating characters (to say the least)…
In Barstow:
Agent Miranda Diaz is on this godforsaken land on the path of a lacking agent. He’s a person she’s by no means met, and but her title was the one clue he left behind. One thing darkish, one thing demonic, lurks beneath this oddball city, however can Miranda unravel the thriller earlier than all hell breaks unfastened?
We spoke with Rebekah McKendry about tackling comics within the face of the pandemic, how highway journeys formed this distinctive piece of cosmic horror, and a person who loves conspiracy theories.
Dread Central: You’re engaged on so many various issues on a regular basis, however now you’re writing your individual comics! What impressed you so as to add comedian e book writing to your wonderful resume?
Rebekah McKendry: Properly, thanks for that. It took place in the course of the pandemic after which we type of simply doubled down on it in the course of the strike. In instances of hardship, I’m at all times like, “What can I do?” So it took place in the course of the pandemic. I did Superb in the course of the pandemic and proper after that we had all this different stuff lined as much as go, however due to the pandemic, it was actually laborious to get issues transferring. It was simply laborious typically to get something going. I used to be purported to direct a TV present, and that fell aside in the course of the pandemic. So it was this example the place we had been considering, “Properly, what can we do?”
So my husband and I began eager about that. Did we’ve got any TV tasks that we might repurpose? What might we repurpose into different issues? If the world can’t make motion pictures proper now, what can we make? We had been speaking a few TV challenge that we had and we had been going to show it right into a podcast.
Then we realized that making a kind of is simply as a lot work as making a movie. We nonetheless needed to solid it, and it nonetheless had loopy manufacturing values. We had been making an attempt to price range it out and I used to be like, “We’re at $70,000 for 4 episodes, honey.” Then we had this challenge, Barstow, however [our comics journey] didn’t begin with Barstow. It began with one which we’ve got coming from Simon & Schuster known as Fairly Evil.
Fairly Evil is a horror story. It had been optioned by a TV community and so they did nothing with it. Then it got here again to us three years later. So it was simply sitting there and we had been type of like, “Properly, what can we do?” So we began procuring it round as a graphic novel and it offered to Simon & Schuster.
That simply opened our eyes and made us say, “Why are we at all times considering when it comes to movies?” It’s so laborious to get movies off the bottom. It’s simply loopy what number of tasks you assume are going someplace and so they simply die on the vine. As a director, my job is to maintain them alive and it’s simply so inconceivable typically. And immediately it was like, “If we had been in a position to try this e book, properly what else might we do?”
So we began taking a look at different concepts that we’d had that we had by no means actually fleshed out or that we had by no means actually taken out. And we had this one Barstow, which was—briefly—about an FBI agent who goes to the center of the Mojave Desert, and thinks she’s investigating human trafficking. However what she shortly finds out is that it’s truly demons being traded on the black market. However, they should have a human vessel to commerce a demon. It has to exist in a corporeal kind.
Dave and I are such big comedian e book readers that we had been instantly like, “We wish this as a month-to-month.” So we wrote the primary situation and began procuring it round, and that each one went down. That was in the course of the pandemic, after which we simply stored going in the course of the strike final yr.
DC: Wait, that’s so cool although, and in addition so inspiring. In the event you like to put in writing, it doesn’t simply should be in these conventional types or the anticipated codecs. These had been your first comedian books, proper?
RM: Just about however not fairly. We wrote the Hellraiser comics from a few years in the past.
DC: Oh, that’s proper
RM: So we had positively dabbled within the comedian e book area and we learn sufficient comics that we felt fairly snug transferring to that. And it translated. We had been capable of take the way in which that we might normally write movies and translate even simply our workflow as co-writers over to graphic novels and comics. Comparatively simpler than it has been for us to, say, sort out a novel, which is what we’re hoping to do subsequent. The comics and graphic novels got here naturally to us simply because we had been such avid comedian and graphic novel readers.
DC: So that you write a script for a comic book or graphic novel. Is it the same script to what you do for a movie?
RM: I truly preferred what I acquired to do within the graphic novel and comedian area a little bit bit extra. You get to explain the body. If I’m writing a script, I at all times view a script as if I’m the screenwriter of the script and I’m not slated to be the director. If I’m only a author for rent, it’s uncommon that I’d describe what the body appears to be like like or how the digicam is transferring—until it’s pertinent to the plot. The digicam transferring in a roundabout way to disclose one thing is the one time I’d ever embrace that on the script stage. In any other case, it’s type of a skeletal view of the story. Ultimately, the director will do their director go, and that’s when it turns into a blueprint on learn how to shoot it.
However with a graphic novel, once you write it, you describe precisely what the body appears to be like like. That stated, it’s going to be a dialog later between you and the artist, and which may change closely. The artist may need nice concepts that you just wish to incorporate. However mainly, at that [early] level, we had been describing the body, which I don’t at all times get to do after I’m writing the screenplay. You then put your dialogue down.
However that stated, one in all our greatest studying curves got here in that once you’re taking a look at a single body of a comic book e book, you possibly can’t have a monologue. As a substitute, you get one sentence. Greater than that, it turns into means wordy. So we needed to actually take into consideration economizing the dialogue. It might probably’t simply be limitless banter. You need it to be very visible.
So we had been nonetheless studying as we acquired began, however I’ve to present a shout-out to Tim Seeley, our artist on Fairly Evil. On our very first name with him, we requested how does this work. He defined numerous what helps [him as an artist while working with writers]. So we had been capable of finding out firsthand from the beginning, what is going to actually assist the artists do their job to the most effective of their benefit from a writing perspective. It was only a stunning collaboration.
DC: I’m at all times curious concerning the collaboration on a comic book or graphic novel sequence between artists and writers. I do know numerous the time the artist is illustrating the phrases, however it’s nonetheless a collaboration. I imply, it’s like working with the DP in a means.
RM: There’s so much that’s assumed in a comic book. In a movie, I’m eager about protection. If someone’s leaving a room, I flip off the sunshine swap or I present them opening the door or strolling right into a door at a distinct location simply so as to really feel that geography. You don’t do this in a comic book. They will teleport. It’s simply completely acceptable.
My favourite components of the collaboration had been after I would write 4 panels on a web page after which I’d get a textual content from the artist and he’d be like, “Hey, if I did these as one, however it’s type of one interconnected panel?” I beloved breaking down the web page so it isn’t simply all panels. And since Barstow is actually bizarre and trippy and cosmic, we needed to combine it up.
DC: Properly, and the artist, Tyler Jenkins, his fashion jogs my memory of the enduring Concern and Loathing In Las Vegas poster.
RM: That’s precisely it.
DC: It’s virtually sketchy in a means. And I like that it’s not tremendous sensible, however it’s acquired that soiled vibe. It feels dusty. I can virtually style it in my mouth.
RM: That’s what we had been going for. Tyler offered us with a number of completely different artwork kinds, all nonetheless very a lot him. He has a really particular fashion. However after we first pitched Barstow, we pitched and I feel we listed 4 artists in our unique pitch that we had been interested by. I had Tyler on that checklist. So once they green-lit us, they had been like, “Who do you wish to exit to?” And I used to be like, “I wish to exit to Tyler first” as a result of I beloved his fashion. It did remind me of Concern and Loathing In Las Vegas, a bit of which is definitely set within the Mojave Desert. That’s bat nation.
DC: That’s so cool. On the again of the primary situation is your and your husband’s creator’s notice. I like that that is based mostly on driving throughout the nation in your RV. Whenever you get into Barstow and also you see the place the sheriff lives, you possibly can inform that you just all have skilled driving by way of the desert and discovering the bizarre little locations that pop up within the desert. These particulars are so cool.
RM: Thanks. Yeah, this isn’t set within the precise city of Barstow particularly. We have now folks asking, “Oh my gosh, did you embrace this explicit restaurant?” As a substitute, it was only a common thought of Barstow being one of many greatest cities in that a part of the Mojave Desert. However yeah, that’s precisely what this was. The entire thought of structuring it round Barstow got here [to use when] we had been driving again from a horror conference in Vegas. My husband and I acquired caught in Barstow at 2:00 AM on a Sunday evening whereas we had been driving again from the conference. My automobile overheated and we had been making an attempt to determine what to do. So we had been in a Denny’s at 2:00 AM on a Sunday evening in Barstow…
DC: Oh boy, no higher approach to perceive a city’s coronary heart than to go to its Denny’s at 2 AM.
RM: That’s the place you get the heartbeat proper there. However that stated, what we’ve actually gravitated to above all else is simply these wild desert cities that sheriff, we’ve handed cities the place the sheriff is the Kwanza Hut. We didn’t make up the sheriff’s division being run out of Kwanza Hut.
We at all times go all the way down to the Phoenix Fan Fusion Conference, and I like doing that drive. It’s 5 or 6 hours straight by way of the desert from California to Phoenix, and also you simply drive by way of these wild little desert bergs, stopping by the Salton Sea on the way in which, which has these loopy artist communities.
That’s actually what we needed to embrace, all of those completely different sorts of teams of life, together with the people who find themselves simply there. However I like desert horror and I like noir and cosmic horror. So it is a merge of all three of these genres.
DC: So I’ve learn the primary situation. How far out have y’all written and deliberate for Barstow?
RM: We’ve gone by way of the tip of situation 4. We’ve most likely idealized, I don’t even know if that’s a phrase, by way of situation eight. So we’re twice so far as what’s truly been written out. And with comics, they at all times could have a shelf life. It’s laborious until it’s Preacher to maintain it rolling for 36 years. So we’re conscious of that. However that stated, we’ve got much more story that we’re excited to inform.
It was fascinating to see, even coming from the movie and e book world, how shortly the comics had been rotated. We spent lower than a yr from signing to “Right here’s your comedian popping out”, which was actually cool as a result of books take simply so long as a movie does, and movies take a yr and a half or extra. So yeah, the comics, it was wonderful to see how shortly they got here collectively.
DC: I simply love the little particulars you’ve within the motel run by a conspiracy theorist. Was that Tyler’s doing or yours or a combo?
RM: Oh, we wrote that in. We met that man in Arizona. That was truly someplace we stopped, and I feel he ran a crystal store in Arizona. And we had stopped on the place subsequent door to get ice cream. And I had been like, I wish to go within the rock store is one thing that you just don’t say typically, however when in Arizona subsequent to a rock store, you’re like, I wish to go within the rock store. Your complete wall was lined with conspiracy theories and newspaper clippings. He was carrying a shirt with an alien on it, and we had been like, “This man is superior.”
So I do know that the rock store, Sadly we tried to cease at that rock store two years in the past after we had been driving again by way of and it has since closed down. So I hope that man is doing properly. And I hope he is aware of that he impressed us together with his wall of conspiracy theories. However yeah, every little thing that we put in Barstow is one thing we’ve seen throughout our travels. I like touring, so we are going to proceed to take action as a result of it’s how I discover probably the most wonderful characters who I like dearly and wish to carry to life.
DC: No, I really feel the identical means. I’ve been touring so much this yr and it’s rather more creatively stimulating to have such an enormous change of surroundings. Additionally, it’s acquired to be so nice to take all of these recollections and put them into one thing inventive. I feel there’s one thing so stunning after we take a reminiscence like this and make one thing so cool and bizarre. There’s one thing cool and so private about that.
RM: I used to be by no means an enormous traveler. I imply, I traveled to horror conventions. I normally needed to do a horror conference every month, however the pandemic hit. We had been possibly 4 months into lockdown and I used to be going out of my thoughts. I known as it my mid-pandemic disaster the place I used to be like, “I’m both going to purchase an RV and journey with out having to be round folks, or I’m going to finish up transferring to Joshua Tree simply to get the fuck out of LA.” I used to be simply going insane right here. And it was so sizzling. That’s all I keep in mind is that summer time was so sizzling and we couldn’t go away our home.
So we purchased a really gently used RV and simply began touring the nation. It actually modified numerous our tales for the higher. It simply gave us different glimpses outdoors of the Los Angeles bubble.
DC: I do wish to know the way you selected the quilt as a result of it’s so gross and bizarre. It’s eye-catching, to say the least.
RM: All of our covers for these first 4 points I completely love and wish to tattoo them onto my physique. It was numerous brainstorming with Tyler. That first cowl, very similar to a film poster, has to promote the subgenre. So we talked about what subgenre are we making an attempt to promote probably the most. Can we go detective? However then it doesn’t really feel very laborious. Can we go tremendous horror? However then individuals are going to come back in anticipating loopy vampires and it’s not—it’s numerous detective stuff. So we had been making an attempt to think about a contented medium and determined to lean closely on cosmic horror greater than something. That’s why we ended up with the one which we did.
DC: Would you adapt Barstow right into a present or a film if somebody requested you?
RM: 100%. So it began as a TV present after which we stated, “ what, let’s strip this down and make it a comic book.” So yeah, we at all times noticed this as world-building. It’s making a world and surroundings, a gaggle of individuals on this one little eclectic desert city. We might 100% take it again to the TV if wanted or needed. I’d like to do it.
Barstow #1 is on the market now from Darkish Horse Comics.
Categorized:Interviews
