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Your comicbook-series Ginger-Stein: Rise of the Undead - in a
few words, what is it about?
The series is a horror/sci-fi tale that centers around
the title character, Ginger-Stein, and her life starting with the outbreak
of a plague that re-animates the dead and how she copes with it all. Your comic seems to be full
of horror- and especially zombie-movie references. Would you like to
elaborate on that for a bit?
I'm
a hardcore fan of horror films, zombie fare in particular. I think that
preoccupation has a lot to do with the fact that zombies, out of all the
fictional creatures and villains in the world, are the monsters that are
really the closest to being us. They’re like a dark mirror. They don't
seem all that far away from what could actually happen, and that’s scary
to consider. It’s very easy for the reader or viewer to transport
themselves into the zombie apocalypse scenario and ask “What
would I do if it were me?”
Most
zombie stories that I enjoy are character-driven and because of that really made an impact with me. They're inspiring, raw, brutal and usually
have some kind of social commentary to them. George A. Romero's
Dead-movies, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead-books, the Russo spawned
Dead-films were revelations to me, and they shaped how I look at
storytelling and the visual impact of violence and horror. I owe a lot to
those storytellers, so I'm always trying to find ways to reference them or
pay homage. Each one of those properties explores their respective stories
and characters through pure terror, humor and social commentary, and they
do it in a very fluid way. Other sources of
inspiration when conceiving Ginger-Stein: Rise of the Undead?
The Phantasm films were a profound source of inspiration. I
love the characters and the world those movies explored, the horror and
science fiction of Coscarelli's psychology adding so much weight to what
was essentially a series of stories about a family broken by death,
pursued by death and ultimately confronting death. Those ideas heavily
influenced Ginger-Stein and became a real source of
motivation for the characters in the story, particularly in Rise of
the Undead.
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The character of Ginger herself was the female
evolution of what I personally liked about the characters of Ash Williams
(Evil Dead), Reggie (Phantasm) and Ellen Ripley (Alien).
Her look evolved from several different actresses and models, specifically
Alison Hayes, Sophia Loren, Lisa Marie Presley and so many others, it’s
hard to keep track. What’s interesting is how many different people have
come forward with their own theories on who Ginger is based on, to which I
always rattle off the list above then always my body models for Ginger,
Apple Angel and Lorretta Kenyon. Those two ladies have brought a lot to
the character, giving her real grounding in terms of physical interaction
and personality. I use my own facial expressions when it comes to Ginger
emoting, basically because I’m always on hand to do it. A lot of
Ginger’s more angry, sarcastic and goofy expressions are my own, but
they look better on her. How
would you describe your usual process of putting your comicbook together,
do you write a detailed script first and then stick to it as best as
possible, or do you make it up as you go (draw) along? I tried doing it verbatim
to the scripts I had written, which were very detailed and loaded with
more than I think the traditional comic can handle. “Wordy” and
“dialogue-heavy” are terms I’ve heard pop up more than once.
Anymore, I write loose scripts that detail where I want to start and where
I want to end. Frequently, I'll get on a roll with a certain character and
that character will allow me to go in new directions I didn't necessarily
consider at the beginning. It's pretty much a combination of allowing
things to progress naturally, and then editing and cutting back once
finished. How
would you describe your visual style to someone who has never seen any of
your stuff, and what techniques do you use in your comics?
There's
been a lot of discussion about this particular subject. Ginger-Stein
is a multimedia book, in that it incorporates hand-drawn and digitally
painted characters, backgrounds that are created in Photoshop, and it also
makes use photo elements. A good example of photo elements in the series
is the Barracuda Ginger drives around in. I found out really quick that
not only am I no damn good at drawing cars, but it would take forever and
a day to draw and paint the same car or cars over and over again. So, I
studied up on film compositing/ special effects, bought a scale replica of
the Hemicuda from Phantasm on eBay and began doing miniature
photography.
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The
early results were rough, but now it's like putting together slick special
effects shots. The miniature photography can be rendered to fit with my
drawn and painted characters. I'm using this same method to create the
airplanes and bigger machines seen in the series by actually buying and
building the models myself, and kit-bashing new designs together. More
elaborate backgrounds, such as city skylines and the cities themselves,
are usually stock photos or photos I've taken myself that are rendered and
touched up to match my artwork.
Some
people have been critical of the process, but I think it makes better
artwork and a more consistent visual style for Ginger, which
ultimately makes a better experience. A few people over the years have
mistaken what I do for being nothing but photo-manipulation. I used to
take offense, but I don’t so much anymore. I found there’s a great
compliment in people not being able to tell the difference between your
pencil/paintwork and a photograph.
No
zombie-comic without violence. So how far do you go in Ginger-Stein:
Rise of the Undead in terms of violence and gore? Ginger-Stein is
heavy on violence and gore, so much so that I would consider it to be
highly over the top. While the violence, blood and savagery of the
creatures in the book serves a point thematically, it's also comical in
how over the top it actually is. Obviously, I'm not gonna show people
getting their naughty bits chopped off, bitten off or anything
sadistic like that. But pretty much everything else is fair game. My
philosophy is that violence and gore within context, even when extreme and
over the top, is acceptable as long as it serves a purpose and elevates
the story. For
Ginger-Stein: Rise of the Undead, you have used quite a few people
who are quite prominent names in B-horror as models. Whom did you use,
why, and what's your collaboration with these people usually like?
I'm
a portrait artist. That's what the bulk of my career was prior to 2008. My
specialty was always drawing hyper-realistic pencil portraits of people.
When I started learning how to use the digital paints in Photoshop, I
realized there was a lot of potential in how I could draw my characters
and give them life. Thus, I decided to work with the actresses, actors and
friends I had made through my work as a poster artist in the industry to
get things going. There's something special and unique about a character
that has the nuance and reaction of a real person. It makes the work feel
more fluid and I think creates a more enriched experience.
The
character of Lathan Bronx, the severed head that serves as Ginger's
sidekick, was originally just a one-note joke in the earlier drafts of Rise of the Undead. When actor Landyn Banx did his
shoot for references in drawing the character, everything just exploded.
Suddenly, instead of a simplified character with limited abilities in
terms of expression and emotion and movement, there was this amazing
creature that had been born from a combination of my art skills and Landyn's
acting. It was a true revelation to me.
It's important to note that most of the film personalities in the book are
in there for cameos and one-note jokes, which is a lot of fun. I'd say 85%
of the people that appear in Ginger are cameos. The
primary cast, folks like Apple Angel, Lorretta Kenyon, Monique DuPree,
Cari Thomson, Bobby Akers, Deneen Melody [Deneen
Melody interview - click here], Mark Smith, DeeDee Bigelow
[DeeDee Bigelow interview -
click here],
Landyn Banx, Jessica Cameron, Cyndi Crotts [Cyndi
Crotts interview - click here], Damien Colletti and Bianca
Barnett to name a few, are the ones that have been contracted to portray
these characters throughout the run of the series. I've come to have
a tremendous respect for the professionals that work with me on this
project.
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Cyndi Crotts in
Ginger-Stein: Rise of the Undead |
There have been pros and
cons to utilizing a modeling cast for the artwork, but by and large the
pros far outweigh the cons. When the completed artwork is finished, and
you see these characters interacting in a realistic way, it's all worth
it. There've
been only a few rough patches in terms of the modeling cast, and that was
unfortunate. I can say that those problems weren't due to the quality
of the work or the practices of Iron Dead Studios, but rather a simple
incompatibility of view points and such. In
return, you are also a quite requested movie poster artist. What can you
tell us about some of the movie posters you have worked on, and how do you
usually go about designing a movie poster?
I've
done a wide variety of promotional posters over the last four years, and
I've been thankful for the work. I started with Regan Redding's Killer
Biker Chicks, which was a massive campaign consisting of
multiple character posters and a primary one sheet. That one was the
genesis of my work as a poster artist. It was also a trial by fire as I
was still very, very green with digital painting and coloring. I used way
too many filters and textures, which led to this over-zealous and somewhat
heavy-handed campaign, but I think the work still holds up. There
were a lot of growing pains as I struggled to find my style through the
films of 2009 and 2010. I'm particularly proud of the work done for Bikini
Monsters, Stagnant, Humans vs. Zombies, The Hagstone
Demon, The Locals, Song of the
Shattered and Rose White. My all time favorite poster I've done is for the short
film Super Undead Doctor Roach. I think in terms of
composition, color and design, it's the most compelling thing I've come up
with. And it's just a funny poster.
Designing a poster can either be a highly rewarding experience or a
nightmare without end. It depends on the client. I find I do my best work
when the client is able to be specific about their needs and then allow me
to do what I do. That creative freedom is important, even when structured
by a specific set of mandates. The artwork done for Bikini
Monsters was really well received and the director Terence Muncy
gave me enough direction to get the job done, but allowed me to roll with
it and add my own sensibilities.
The
original set of posters for Hallow
Pointe, which came to be called the blue campaign,
were some of the best pieces I'd done at the time, and even now I think
are still pretty interesting to look at. Bobby Akers, the original
director of the film, gave me a specific mandate in what he wanted to see,
and we collaborated to create a smooth convergence of ideas. It was a
process that led to tension sometimes, but ultimately, it allowed for a
better product than either of us could have achieved alone.
Conversely,
the red campaign, commissioned when the film was taken over by Thomas J.
Churchill, was such a poorly micro-managed, ill-conceived, derivative
waste of time and resources that it became an experience I’d never want
to re-live. The red campaign and the politics that became needlessly
entangled with it is what led to me leaving Hallow Pointe. One of the
primary reasons I changed my business policies on how I’m commissioned
stemmed from that experience. When it comes
to movies, you have also worked as a producer on a handful of
B-horrorflicks with such beautiful titles as Strip Club Slasher, Killer
Biker Chicks and Super Undead Doctor Roach. What can you tell
us about Dennis Willman the producer? Ah yes, the 'producer' title. I gotta tell you, every
week for the last four years I've typically gotten at least two
emails from people trying to get into a movie, get their movie made or who
seriously want to talk about funding their project. I have to chuckle,
because those producer titles attached to my name are all honorary. They
were all given as part of the deal for the key art on the projects. Dennis
Willman the Producer is pretty much the same guy as Dennis Willman the
Artist. The only difference is people assume Dennis Willman the Producer
is rich with cash to burn. Dennis Willman the Artist knows better. The
only producing duties I actually have on a film project are solely in
relation to movie adaptations on Ginger-Stein. There is a rumour
that Ginger-Stein is about to be featured in the movie Nightmare
Collection: Necro Nancy vs Ginger-Stein. What can you tell us about
that project yet?
I have to credit Rick Danford
completely. Necro Nancy vs. Ginger-Stein goes way back to, I
believe, 2009, when Rick commissioned me to do poster art for The Nightmare Collection
II. At that point, Ginger-Stein
was an art project that was being developed into a comic book format, and
Necro Nancy as a character had already been established in the Nightmare
Collection-film. He realized that our trademark characters, Necro
Nancy and Ginger respectively, would make awesome opponents and we started
brainstorming. Initially, he did a casting call for an actress to portray
Ginger, and ultimately Shannon Lark was selected. If memory serves,
shortly after that happened, there was a pause in production of The Nightmare Collection
II and everything was put on hold.
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Earlier
this year, Rick was ready to proceed and wanted to push the project
forward again with a fresh outlook. After a few weeks of casting and
decision-making, he decided on Melantha Blackthorne. I believe the
decision to switch actresses had everything to do with setting a new
course. I think Melantha is going to bring a very special quality to
Ginger. We've had numerous discussions about the character's psychology,
her background and what makes her tick. I think how she looks as Ginger is
also a compliment to the drawn version already established in the books as
modeled by Apple Angel and Lorretta Kenyon.
In the last
year or so, there have been some preliminary movements to bring a film
version of Ginger into reality, mostly centered on adapting Rise of the
Undead. It's an exciting idea, and there've been a
handful of pitches from different directors and producers to that end.
Some of the pitches were amazingly well thought out and solid. Others
weren't. I think some of the more shady pitches were all based solely in
securing the film rights to keep on hold in case the books do well. I’ll
put it to you this way: Anyone proposing to make a non-studio backed film
that can look you in the eye and seriously suggest a $25 million budget to
start out, based solely on independent filmmaking economics and fund
raising, is just fishing for the rights.
For a project like Ginger, which really is just
now beginning to step out on its own, to even see the notion of
a film adaptation is a tremendous compliment. A big part of that even
happening at this point is that the film industry sees the profit to
be made from a good comic film, and they're hungry for what could be the
next big thing. I think Ginger
has real film potential. I've always said these books are the movies I'll
never be able to make. That being said, Ginger-Stein
would be a very expensive venture if the creatures, zombies and special
effects were to be done right. I liked Rick's approach in that he was honest and down to Earth about how
to bring Ginger into a live action capacity. The mandate was to start
realistic and small in terms of scope, and build from there. Necro Nancy vs. Ginger-Stein will have its roots in the finale
of The Nightmare Collection II, and hopefully that
will springboard the stand-alone film that can explore how these two
somewhat antagonistic characters interact. What's in store for Ginger-Stein
in the future? Aside from potential film adaptations, we'll be seeing
Ginger through Rise of the
Undead and then in the subsequent books that follow. I have six
planned altogether. Rise
will be finished this year and complete, released in total by September. Ginger
II will be out in Fall of 2013, and Ginger
III is slated for release in Fall of 2014. The $64-question of course: Where are
Ginger-Stein
comics available from?
The facelift on the Ginger website will be complete shortly, and that will
be the primary place to order the book. Hopefully someday there'll be a
chance for wide distribution, but until then, it's grass roots baby.
Comics besides Ginger-Stein
you worked on you'd like to talk about? On the slate for this year, I'm also working on
The
Vengeance of Sleepy Hollow with frequent cohort Bobby Ray Akers.
It's a black and white mini-series that's a real switch from Ginger,
and I think it's going to blow people's minds. I'm actively working on
Monique DuPree and Anthony Saint Thomas's new series "Tha Original
Gata,"
which is something that I can only
describe as epic. They'd shoot me if I said any more. Let's go back to
the beginnings of your career: What made you become a comicbook- and
poster-artist in the first place, and where did you learn the craft?
Practice.
Lots of practice. Look, here's the reality of what I do: I've always been
an artist, even in the womb so I'm told, and it's all that I ever really
wanted to do or have been really good at. Aside from instruction from my
mother (an accomplished watercolor artist)
and then later interning with other digital artists to learn the
tricks and techniques, it's self-taught, good old fashioned trial and
error. I practiced my art like some people practice the piano or
martial arts. It was a passion, yes, but it was more this
overly-compulsive instinctual need. I've never really been happy doing
anything else.
My
mind was always at the drawing board. The need to create and put it on
paper, to create the colors, the lines, the designs... it's not
negotiable. I'm working by 5 AM, splitting my day between the work, kids
and household chores, and I finish up around 11 PM usually, on any given
day. My typical workday is a 12 hour shift drawing, painting and writing.
I
don’t do it for recognition or awards, I can tell you that. I think the
last award I won for anything was back in high school. Awards are cool to
win, for sure, but it can never be a motivating factor. Hell, I generally
stay away from conventions for the simple fact I personally hate being in
the spotlight. I’m all for the spotlight being on the work and the
quality of said work, not so much on me. I’m a reclusive, private type.
My single goal in all this is to be able to do what I love and pay the
bills while doing it. If I can do that, I’ll have succeeded. That’s
award and recognition enough for me. Any
future projects you'd like to talk about? There’s a few, PLAYZOM
being the most prominent. That project is being spearheaded by Katie
Russell and DeeDee Bigelow, and if all goes well, should be a fun parody
magazine dedicated to horror, sci-fi and pin up artwork/photography. In your
private life, any comicbooks you like to read? I follow The
Walking Dead religiously, and I'm a huge fan of just about
everything Alex Ross does. Artists
who inspire you (both within and outside of the comicbook world)?
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Oh man that's a list a mile long, but to narrow it
down: Drew Struzan, Alex Ross, H.R. Giger, Ralph McQuarrie, Boris
Vallejo, Julie Bell and Greg Capullo have had profound effects on me,
Struzan and Ross in particular. Those guys absolutely made me fall in love
with commercially illustrative artwork, and I spent a lot of my youth
trying to emulate them. I think the classification of “commercial
artwork” is unfair, because what they do is so far above and beyond
simple commercialism. I learned more from studying the artwork in Kingdom
Come and dissecting Indiana
Jones-posters than I ever did in a college art class. ...
and since this is a primarily a movie-site, your favourite/least favourite
movies? Damn, that's a broad question too. I can list my top
five on each category for you. Favorites: Raiders
of the Lost Ark, Phantasm II, Day of the
Dead, My Name is Nobody and
Kelly's Heroes. Least favorite? The entire Twilight-saga,
Battlefield Earth, Nacho Libre, Wing Commander (so disappointed) and
Napoleon
Dynamite. Your/your comicbook's website, Facebook,
whatever else? The official site for everything I do is
www.gingerstein.com,
which is undergoing some cosmetic changes and will be offline for a bit.
However, Facebook is the best place to keep up with everything right now.
Anything else you are dying to mention
that I've merely forgotten to ask? Not that I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure
I’ll think of something five minutes after I email this to you. Thanks for the
interview!
Thank you, sir.
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find Dennis Willman at adultvideouniverse.com
