Classic Elric Comics Return From Titan Comics

Some of you may remember when the now sadly defunct comic company Eclipse Comics had the rights to do Elric in comic form. If you don't remember this, then you are lucky because you are going to get to experience them for the first time through an upcoming reprint series from Titan Comics.

"Unforgettable action and intrigue...a must-read for any fans of science fiction, sorcery or sword-and-sorcery epics!" - Comics Bulletin

"Richly deserves to be back in print...Can’t wait to return to the Dreaming City!" - SFX

"A terrific book." - Jeff Vaughn, Scoop

Collecting the first volume of the classic adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s bestselling fantasy saga, Elric of Melniboné marks the perfect introduction to the series’ iconic antihero, his fabled blade, Stormbringer, and his harrowing adventures across the Dragon Isle.

Adapted by former Marvel Comics editor, Roy Thomas, and beautifully rendered by longtime comics illustrator,Michael T. Gilbert, and the multiple Harvey and Eisner award-winning P. Craig Russell, this definitive collection marks an essential read for all fans of sword and sorcery and brings the Moorcock’s epic tales to life with luxuriant imagination.

The Michael Moorcock Library - Volume 1: Elric Of Melnibone hits comic stores February 18, 2015 and is available to order now from your local comic store using Diamond code NOV141648.

 

 

 

 

 

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: P. Craig Russell, Michael T. Gilbert
Format: 176pp – HC - FC
Volumes In Series: 1 (of 15)
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $22.99/$25.95 CAN /£18.99 UK
ISBN: 9781782762881
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Diamond Order Code: NOV141648

To pre-order via Amazon visit:
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Moorcock-Library-Vol-1-Melnibone/dp/1782762884/

For more information visit:
http://titan-comics.com/c/182-the-michael-moorcock-library-elric-vol-1-elric-of-/

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Valiant Next - The Next Wave From Valiant Comics

In 2015…the story starts here!

Valiant Entertainment is proud to announce VALIANT NEXT – an all-new wave of ongoing series and prestige format projects from some of the premier creative talents in comics today. Beginning in December with THE VALIANT #1 (of 4) by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and Paolo Rivera, VALIANT NEXT continues with five blockbuster new series in 2015:

• IVAR, TIMEWALKER #1 by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry in January
• DIVINITY #1 (of 4) by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine in February
• IMPERIUM #1 by Joshua Dysart and Doug Braithwaite in February
• NINJAK #1 by Matt Kindt and Clay Mann in March
• BLOODSHOT REBORN #1 by Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan in April

Following the critically acclaimed, smash-hit success of VALIANT FIRST in 2014, VALIANT NEXT will present six new starting points perfect for readers new and old. Featuring an exciting selection of new series starring Valiant’s biggest, most-demanded heroes alongside all-new, never before seen characters, VALIANT NEXT is the next epic evolution of Valiant's best-selling, fan-favorite publishing line.

"We've spent two years building an award-winning publishing line, pouring our hearts into re-imagining X-O MANOWAR, HARBINGER and the rest of the Valiant Universe for the modern day. Now it’s time to take it to the next level,” said Valiant CEO and Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani. “VALIANT NEXT taps into the same creative energy that made Valiant one of the most legendary comic book companies of all time. When I was a kid, one of the best things about Valiant was picking up an issue with a brand new character, like X-O MANOWAR or NINJAK. I’m excited that we’re doing that again now with series like DIVINITY and IMPERIUM. And that’s only a fraction of what we have coming next.”

"Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt and Paolo Rivera are delivering an absolute monster of a book with THE VALIANT and it’s the perfect title to lead off VALIANT NEXT," said Valiant Editor-In-Chief Warren Simons. "This is our most ambitious initiative yet, and everyone’s bringing their A-game. The creative team of ARCHER & ARMSTRONG reuniting to launch IVAR, TIMEWALKER. Clay Mann on NINJAK – his first ongoing series at Valiant. Mico Suayan tearing it up with Jeff Lemire on BLOODSHOT REBORN. Joshua Dysart and Doug Braithwaite together for the first time for the devastating events of IMPERIUM. Not to mention the introduction of an all-new, all-powerful force in DIVINITY from the minds of Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine. It’s a kick-ass time to be a Valiant fan."


THE VALIANT #1 (of 4)
Written by JEFF LEMIRE & MATT KINDT
Art by PAOLO RIVERA
PRESTIGE FORMAT LIMITED SERIES | BEGINNING DECEMBER 2014

A battle ten millennia in the making…

The Eternal Warrior has protected the Earth for more than 10,000 years. A master of countless weapons and long forgotten martial arts, he is guided by the Geomancers – those who speak for the Earth. During his long watch, the Eternal Warrior has failed three times. Each time, the Geomancer was killed…and a new dark age for humanity began. Each time, he was unable to stop The Immortal Enemy – a monstrous force of nature. A civilization killer. A horror that appears differently each time it arrives…and whose seemingly only purpose is to bring disorder and darkness to the world. Now, the time has come for The Immortal Enemy to return once more. But, this time, the Eternal Warrior will be ready. This time, he has a force greater than any single warrior. This time, he has…THE VALIANT.

IVAR, TIMEWALKER #1
Written by FRED VAN LENTE
Art by CLAYTON HENRY
ONGOING SERIES | BEGINNING JANUARY 2015

From the award-winning team that brought you ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, New York Times best-selling creators Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry present a centuries-spanning race against the clock!

At this very moment in Geneva, Switzerland, history is being made. A thousand meters underground inside the Large Hadron Collider, researcher Neela Sethi is about to discover time travel – and jeopardize her life in the process.  But she doesn't know that yet. Ten minutes from now, every deadbeat chrononaut, wannabe conqueror, and misguided protector of the timestream will be banging down her door. Good thing that the legendary Ivar, Timewalker, got there first…right?  Now it's down to history's most jaded, most tempestuous time traveler to stop the worst of everything that is, was, and will be...before time runs out!

DIVINITY #1 (of 4)
Written by MATT KINDT
Art by TREVOR HAIRSINE
PRESTIGE FORMAT LIMITED SERIES | BEGINNING FEBRUARY 2015

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union – determined to win the Space Race at any cost – green lit a dangerously advanced mission. They sent a man farther into the cosmos than anyone has gone before or since. Lost in the stars, he encountered something unknown. Something that...changed him.

Long thought lost and erased from the history books, he has suddenly returned, crash-landing in the Australian Outback. The few that have been able to reach him believe him to be a deity -– one who turned the scorched desert into a lush oasis. They say he can bend matter, space, and even time to his will. Earth is about to meet a new god. And he's a communist.

How long can it be before the first confrontation between mankind and DIVINITY begins?

From New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt and blockbuster artist Trevor Hairsine comes a shocking new vision of 21st century science fiction in an all-new prestige format limited series.

IMPERIUM #1
Written by JOSHUA DYSART
Art by DOUG BRAITHWAITE
ONGOING SERIES | BEGINNING FEBRUARY 2015

A daring new superhero saga from New York Times best-selling creator Joshua Dysart – writer of of the Harvey-Award nominated series Harbinger – and superstar artist Doug Braithwaite!

Toyo Harada is the most dangerous human being on the planet. Imbued with incredible powers of the mind, he has spent his life guiding humanity from the shadows. But today he is a wanted man.  His powers are public knowledge, his allies have turned to enemies, and he is hunted by every government on the planet.

Instead of surrendering, Harada has one last unthinkable gambit to play: to achieve more, faster, and with less, he will build a coalition of the powerful, the unscrupulous and the insane. No longer content to demand a better future, he will recruit a violent legion from the darkest corners of the Earth to fight for it. The battle for utopia begins now.

NINJAK #1 

Written by MATT KINDT

Art by CLAY MANN

ONGOING SERIES | BEGINNING MARCH 2015 

Then: Meet inexperienced MI-6 recruit Colin King on his first mission in the field as he learns the basics of spycraft and counterintelligence, and develops a volatile relationship with his first handler.  

 

Now: Colin King is Ninjak, the world's foremost intelligence operative, weapons expert, and master assassin.  And he's hunting the Shadow Seven – a secret cabal of shinobi masters with mysterious ties to his training and tragic past.  

For the first time, Ninjak's past and future collide in the pages of an all-new ongoing series from New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt and superstar artist Clay Mann!

BLOODSHOT REBORN #1 

Written by JEFF LEMIRE

Art by MICO SUAYAN with JEFF LEMIRE

Colors by DAVID BARON

ONGOING SERIES | BEGINNING APRIL 2015

From New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and red-hot rising star Mico Suayan, Valiant delivers an all-new ongoing series for Valiant's most unrelenting hero!

Bloodshot's nanites made him a nearly unstoppable killing machine. His enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and healing made him the perfect weapon, and he served his masters at Project Rising Spirit – a private contractor trafficking in violence – very well. 

Now, Bloodshot is a shadow of his former self. He lives in self-imposed exile, reeling from the consequences of his past life and the recent events that nearly drove him mad. But when a rash of shootings by gunmen who appear to look just like Bloodshot begin, his guilt will send him on a mission to stop the killers, even if it means diving headlong into the violence that nearly destroyed him.

For more information on VALIANT NEXT, join Valiant this week at New York Comic Con 2014 for the VALIANT COMICS: THE VALIANT, RAI, X-O MANOWAR, AND BEYOND panel presentation on Friday, October 10th at 12:15 pm. Featuring Matt Kindt (THE VALIANT, NINJAK, DIVINITY), Jeff Lemire (THE VALIANT, BLOODSHOT REBORN), Paolo Rivera (THE VALIANT), Fred Van Lente (IVAR, TIMEWALKER), Robert Venditti (X-O MANOWAR), Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons, and Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani, get your first look inside each VALIANT NEXT release right here, only at New York Comic Con!

New From Image - Warren Ellis And Tula Lotay Reimagine The Straightforward

Supreme was one of the mainstays of Image Comics during its early days. Spinning out of the imagination and world building of Rob Liefeld, Supreme was part of the super-powered arms race going on at the company at the time as creators tried to one up each other with the most powerful characters that they could create. Supreme was Liefeld's homage to Superman, filtered through the unique comic sensibilities of the 90s.

I will be honest, while I knew about the Supreme comic, it didn't really hit my radar until Alan Moore's run on the book. While I enjoyed that run, it was fueled more for nostalgia for comics from another age than the quality for which Moore was known.

Likewise, Ellis' work has been lackluster of late. Where his stories were once some of the most wildly creative in comics, they have of late been infected with an action movie idiom that has made them less appealing. Violence has been substituted for plot in too man of his stories for my taste.

Bring this together and I had planned on skipping this new Supreme Blue Rose series by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay. However, the recent relaunches and reimaginings of Liefeld's Prophet and Glory were interesting comics that pushed the envelope on super-hero comics. Both were books that I would not have expected to come from Liefeld's studio.

Now, with Supreme Blue Rose I have been surprised for a third time.

The new Supreme Blue Rose by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay is turning into something like the comic version of a Pynchon novel. Ellis is at his most creative in probably a decade and Lotay's art has a dreaminess to it that gives the story an ethereal quality, and when combined show just exactly how comic books can be an art form.

Fairly pretentious, I know.

I'm not really one to fawn over a comic book without some sort of a justification. As a media, comics have just become too fleeting and ephemeral. You read a new comic once or twice, and then put it away in a box. Maybe later you pull it out of that box and try to experience that initial buzz again. A lot of the time that just doesn't happen.

One of the stengths of Lotay's art in these issues is that she puts that ephemeral quality onto the page, making it a part of the story. Her art, and Ellis' script, has you questioning the reality of what you are experiencing within the comic. This is something that I think is a quality of good art, and something definitely lacking from a lot of mainstream comics these days.

For the longest time I was a huge Ellis fan boy, I even have a copy of Crooked Little Vein, his first novel. Ellis was an explosion onto the comic scene, wildly creative and bringing influences into his stories that we hadn't seen in comics for a long time. Ellis loves his science. Even if his science is itself sketchy, he is able to make it sound convincing with a lot of buzzwords that make you feel like he knows what he's talking about, even when you and he both know that he's just making it all up as he goes. That is one of the qualities that drew me into Ellis' work over the years.

Unfortunately, it felt like much of his initial joy faded away, to be replaced by a more cynical approach fueled by the idioms of blockbuster action movies. Violence became a replacement for plot and a catalog of damages instead filled in for characterization. Everything became an imitation of what he had done with Stormwatch and The Authority, I personally lost interest. I would still pick up books here and there, but a lot of them would be disappointments to me. I am still sad that newuniversal was never completed. Despite the art in that book having one photo reference too many, the writing was the Ellis that we all knew and loved.

However, Supreme Blue Rose isn't a return of vintage Ellis, and that is a good thing. The writing in these issues is subdued, very much in tandem with Lotay's art. Ellis seems to be more interested in creating a tone than in building a world. The setting is obviously our own contemporary world. Little touches of dialogue like "Best Instagram ever." ground his story in the real world.

This isn't some super-hero story filled with bulging biceps and over enhanced breasts. This isn't some hackneyed "deconstruction" of the super-hero genre that comes off as a fifth generation copy of Watchmen or The Dark Knight. The characters in the story aren't new. Much like with Moore's run, they are recreations of the characters that have already appeared in Supreme comics. Unlike Moore, Ellis is not trying to retool them into another comic idiom. Instead, much like in a story by British author J.G. Ballard, Ellis deftly blends the "real" and the "fantastic" into a story that would not be out of place among Borges' works.

I think that I have done enough name dropping for one review.

Let's just say that I think the first two issues of Supreme Blue Rose were engaging comics that drew me into the world that Ellis and Lotay are creating. This is not your father's Supreme. If you want something out of the mainstream, a comic that tells an intriguing story, you should check out Supreme Blue Rose today.

EXTERMINATE! The New Doctor Who Comics From Titan Comics

I meant to talk about these a couple of weeks ago, but with all the Gen Con prep, they sort of fell through the cracks here at the blog. If it isn't apparent yet, I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who, started watching the classic series as a kid on PBS, and then carried over to the new stuff. It isn't a popular position amongst older Who fans, but Matt Smith grew into the role and became one of my favorite Doctors (never surpassing Jon Pertwee, however).

As you may or may not know, the comic license for Doctor Who recently changed hands, now being possessed by the British publisher Titan Comics. I've reviewed a few Titan books here and there on the blog, and if you look around you can find some of my reiviews. They do good books.

I had good expectations that they would do some good Doctor Who books as well. I was right.

Both of these first issues felt like they could have been episodes of their respective Doctors' television runs.

The 10th Doctor issue was mostly set up of the situation, and introduction of Gabriella, a first generation Mexican-American, the next Companion. I'm sure that it was intentional, attempting to create an echo of previous Companions, but the Doctor's first words to Gabriella in the story are almost exactly the same as when the 9th Doctor first met Rose. I thought that was a nice touch.

The setup is that there are some supernatural shenanigans going on around The Day of the Dead in present Day Brooklyn. Being that it is Doctor Who, I am assuming that the supernatural veneer will be debunked for something more alien, but it is still a good story. I am guessing that this is the 10th Doctor after the events of the Anniversary Special, but I could be wrong. Those few quiet moments we get with the Doctor in the issue seem to hint to that to me.

However, the high point of this issue has to be the art of Elena Casagrande. She brings a indie comic, personality-based approach that brings the characters to life and reminds me a lot of the work of Ming Doyle. This is an artist to watch in the years to come.

With the first issue of the 11th Doctor's comic we get a similar approach as in the 10th Doctor's. We get an introduction to the world of the person who will be the Companion, in this case Alice Obiefune, a Londoner. When the alieness breaks into her world, we see the differences immediately between the 10th and 11th Doctors. The comic captures the manic quality of the 11th very well. All in all, I think that both of these first episodes manage to capture the qualities of their Doctors well.

The 11th Doctor is kind, sympathetic and as empathetic as his alien nature allows him to be. For him, how Alice is feeling is just as important as the alien stuff that is happening in the city, if not more important. He takes time to talk with her about her mother, rather than chase down the alien. All because he thought that she was sad.

One of the reasons that I liked Matt Smith's portrayal of the Doctor was that his character was this juxtaposition of weird alien not quite getting it with a strong empathy for those around him. Where other Doctors were drawn into situations to win, he honestly wants to try to help. Unfortunately the Doctor getting involved in a situation isn't always helps. This dichotomy drives not only this incarnation of the Doctor, but also many of the stories that he is a part of as well.

How does the "man" who needs to help deal with his very existence often making things worse?

I enjoyed these comics. To be honest, I don't have a lot of a background with previous Doctor Who comics. I read a few of the IDW Publishing era issue, and I've seen a few of the classic stories from the Marvel Comics era, but this is my first time getting in on the ground floor of things. I very much enjoyed these comics. Both issues encapsulated what I liked about the respective Doctors and did a good job of feeling like episodes of the show.

 

The art is the 11th Doctor comic moved effortlessly between realistic and "cartoony" (for lack of a better word), as the story needed it. This flexibility of the art is also what gives the story much of its impact. Artist Simon Fraser should get props for the power of his art bringing so much to this story.

Should you buy these comics? I would say that picking up these comics are a necessity for any Doctor Who loving comic fan. If, like me, you've never regularly picked up a Doctor Who comic, now is your chance.

As a fan of roleplaying, it is a shame that we can't see synergy between the various licensors, I would love to see writeups for the Doctor Who game from Cubicle 7 of the various characters appearing in the comics.

Tampa Bay Comic Con

I went to the Sunday of Tampa Bay Comic Con yesterday and I had a really good time at the convention. I'm working up a more detailed piece about it for Bleeding Cool, but my initial impressions were really good ones. I saw some great cosplayers in some spectacular costumes, I got to meet some great local comic creators and I even was able to see my friend +Norbert Cartagena and his niece (who I now feel guilty that I don't remember her name). I also got to meet artist, writer and designer Jim Steranko and writer Nick Cuti (co-creator of the comic character E-Man with Joe Stanton!).

I had a really good time, and the show opened my eyes to a local community of comics creators that I admit that I didn't know about before now. However, I've got some great comics that I picked up at the convention to rectify that situation, and I got a lot of business cards and email addresses of publishers, writers and artists. I am very excited about this, and I am excited about the things that I will be getting to write about. Expect to start hearing more about all of this both here at the Dorkland! blog and over at Bleeding Cool as well.

I was also finally able to meet with Cullen Bunn face to face. We've talked before on Twitter, and I ran an interview with him here on the blog about being a gamer. He and I talked for a bit about comics and gaming, and how he might be going to Gen Con again this year. We can only hope.

More to come!

Mapping The Multiverse

Maybe it is because I received a copy of the newly revised edition of the Supers! role-playing game in the mail today. Maybe it is because of the fact that Comic Con International: San Diego is going on and I am jealous of all of the comic-related news coming out of there.

I don't make a secret that I am a fan of Grant Morrison's work. I loved his Doom Patrol and Justice League runs more than is probably legal in a number of states. Moreso even than Warren Ellis and his Stormwatch/Authority run, I think that Morrison redefined the super-hero team book during his JLA run. So, today, at Comic Con, on the Multiversity panel (for Morrison's upcoming mini-series redefining the DC Comics Multiverse) they revealed maps of the Multiverse, according to Morrison's story.

What do these maps make me want to do? They make me want to run a super-hero game that runs across worlds and planes of existence. Something that kicks some major ass. On the panel Morrison said:

"It has a concordance of every earth, with who lives there and which superhero teams are there.  There is a big story there too with Kamandi and Batman,” Morrison added.  It will literally define each of the 52 universes explicitly while showing what is going on in each one.  It was inspired by an old issue of Jack Kirby‘s Kamandi where Kirby drew a map of the western hemisphere to show what has been happening in different places. 

 How can this be bad?

Constantine And Flash Pilots Leaked To The Internet

So, this week the pilot episodes for the upcoming The Flash and Constantine series were leaked to the internet. They are easy enough to find, if you are so inclined. This post is going to talk about these pilots, so if you don't want to know anything until they air...click away now.

12th Doctor Comic Coming This October From Titan Comics

Eagle award-winning writer Robbie Morrison (Drowntown, The Authority, 2000AD, Nikolai Dante) and New York Times-bestselling artist Dave Taylor (Batman: Death by Design, 2000AD) dive headfirst into the TARDIS console room and spin the new Doctor off to his most challenging destination yet!

As with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor ranges, Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #1 comes with a beautiful regular cover painted by Alice X. Zhang, plus five other variants - including a "100% rebel Time Lord" photo cover and Mariano Laclaustra penned picture of Clara.

With the amazing storyline and fantastic interior art under lock and key at the time of going to press ­keep an eye on doctorwho.tv, titan-comics.com and the official BBC Doctor Who Facebook page for the official announcements!

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor is available to pre-order from comic stores tomorrow and will hit retailers on October 1.  Due to licensing restrictions,  fans in the UK and Ireland can only purchase this comic digitally.

Titan Comics' new Tenth and Eleventh Doctor ranges will hit comic book stores on July 23, and print or digital editions are available to pre-order now - for more information, visit titan-comics.com.

A Dorkland Interview with Max Brooks

Max Brooks, the best selling author of World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide, the comic book series Extinction Parade and the riveting historical graphic novel Harlem Hellfighters, sits down with Dorkland! to give us further insight on what makes undead creatures tick, what inspires his creations and a glimpse of what he is working on for the future.

Dorkland!: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Before we discuss the new chapter of your Zombie vs. Vampires book, Extinction Parade: War, can you give a little background about your inspiration for writing the Extinction Parade single issue comics? What gave you the idea to put vampires into a world filled with zombies?

Max Brooks: I've written a lot about how countries and individual humans would survive a zombie outbreak, but I wanted to focus specifically on the emotional and psychological survival skills. Beyond the guns and blades and bottled water, there’s the mind and heart and without those you have nothing. Humans have proven themselves to be phenomenal survivalists and I believe that talent was earned clawing our way from the middle of the food chain. Our greatest strengths come from compensating for inherent weaknesses. Our problems have made us amazing problem solvers. But where would be if we had natural strengths; claws and fangs and agility and immortality? How soft and arrogant and unprepared for adversity would we be? That’s the problem with vampires. It’s a precarious place at the top of the food chain. I wanted to explore how vulnerable they are to a major crisis (and hopefully whisper a warning to some humans as well).

DL: In the beginning of Extinction Parade, the vampires find the initial chaos of the zombie outbreak to be entertaining and then advantageous. When some of them realize that their human food supply is on the verge of extinction they spring to action. Why are the vampires so unwilling or unable to predict this catastrophe earlier?

Max Brooks: Vampires have no history of adaptation. Why should they? They are apex predators. Life’s been very good to them. In my world humans have never hunted them, so anonymity is just one more supposed advantage.  To make matters worse (or better, at least in the short term), they have a class of human caretakers who do the grunt work and get their hands dirty with all the little details of life. This existence has made them comfortable and complacent. Unlike humans who are always looking over their shoulder, vampires just assume that they’ll be fine.

DL: Without giving away too much of the story, what can readers look forward to enjoying in Extinction Parade: War? Will we see the further development of the vampire characters that were introduced in the single issues?

Max Brooks: Definitely! Each issue will be a journey of self-discovery for vampires, which is in itself hard for a species that’s been too inward looking. Each issue they will have to make choices about HOW to fight the war against the zombies. Will it be more effective to go down the path of innovation, creating new tactics and weapons completely from scratch? Or will they just copy the humans and try to fight like them? They will also have to confront their limitations, both physical and mental. For a species that has never bothered (and never needed) to challenge themselves, this will come as a particularly cold shock. Lastly, they will discover something the world has never seen before, an entire army of nothing but Vampires.

DL: You have written a survival guide for humans to use in the event of a zombie invasion and also the various ways that people might fight against zombies in your work of fiction World War Z. What advantages do vampires have when battling the living dead?

Max Brooks: NONE. Every supposed advantage will turn out to be a disadvantage. Every physical strength will be paid for with a character weakness. As we will see, they are a painfully vulnerable.

DL: If you had to choose between the existence of zombies or vampires in the real world, which would you pick and why?

Max Brooks: Vampires, definitely. Zombies are a true threat to humanity. They are a potential extinction level event. Vampires are just a bunch of blood sucking parasites. Statistically, you’re more likely to be hit by a car than be killed by one of those well-dressed dear-ticks.

DL: Over the past several years there has been an unending stream of books, movies and comics that prominently feature zombies as well as a treasure trove of vampire-centric media. How would you respond to critics who dismiss the theme of the zombie or the vampire as a fad?

Max Brooks: I don’t dismiss them. Maybe they’re right. I have no idea what’s going to be popular and what’s not. I will say that I've been hearing about the zombie ‘fad’ being over since 2004 so go figure. As far as vampires, well, I will say that we don’t see as many vampire movies as a few years ago, but that’s mainly because the bulk of ‘Twilight’ fans have, by now, lost their virginity.

DL: From the different periods in human civilization that you reference in the "Recorded Attacks" chapter of the Zombie Survival Guide to your compellingly written graphic novel The Harlem Hellfighters about a real, heroic black regiment in World War I, you draw from history as an inspiration for your work. How do you go about researching these different histories?

Max Brooks: I’m always devouring history. I've been fascinated by it as long as I can remember. I’m always watching some new documentary or listening to an audio book on my ipad (dyslexia makes reading a challenge so audiobooks are how I compensate).  There’s always so much more to learn, you can never stop.  Specifically with Harlem Hellfighters, my sources were books, documentaries, and even the actual recordings from their regimental band. It’s one thing to read about early WWI jazz, but to listen to it, to hear that tinny voice and rapid beat is a much deeper education.

DL: In some of the other interviews you have given, you mentioned that you write about what interests you. Which of your  other interests could you see potentially influencing your future projects?

Max Brooks: I don’t like to give too much away. I've got a few things in the pipeline, but, right now, I have to finish The Extinction Parade comic series and the screenplay for the movie version The Harlem Hellfighters. That alone are more than enough work for the next 12 months.