The Z Word

It's the end of the world as we know it, but Dale and Otis Savage feel fine. The pair of "dreadneks" have survived the coming and going of the apocalypse, and have gotten on with their lives, tooling around the end days in their pick up truck and putting the undead out of their loved ones' misery in exchange for Schlitz. That's the premise of "The Savage Brothers," a new Boom! Studios miniseries from Andrew Cosby and Johanna Stokes, whose previous collaborations include Boom!'s "Zombie Tales" and Sci-Fi Cannel's Eureka TV series.

 

Together with artist Rafael Albuquerque, the pair guide the titular antiheroes through a refreshingly lived-in, post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. With zombie comics reaching a critical mass, it sometimes seems like we've seen it all before, but the trio's take on the genre is so different it makes it seem fresh—or as fresh as any book with so much rotting flesh could be, anyway.

 

Given an especially difficult assignment from mysterious employers, Otis and Dale head into a heavily infested city, and run afoul of a head in a jar about to have his minions sacrifice a virgin stripper. And that's just the first issue.

 

I spoke with Cosby and Stokes to talk about their current miniseries, which reaches its halfway point on Wednesday, and the living dead in general.

 

Bam! Kapow!: Why zombies? Given that there's been such an explosion in zombie comics the past few years, why did you guys want to jump into such a crowded genre?

 

Johanna Stokes: Boom! Studios flagship book was an anthology entitled "Zombie Tales." We had so much fun doing it and received such positive feedback, we knew we had found a nice little niche to play in. "Savage Brothers" is a bit different as it is more of a post-apocalypse book with a few zombies thrown in for flavor.

 

Andrew Cosby: Yeah, "The Savage Brothers" isn't just a zombie book. It's more of a redneck apocalypse project. Just some good ol' boys making their way the only way they know how… in the midst of global Armageddon. The zombies are fun but incidental—undead comedic relief. What this is really about is telling a heroic tale in what we consider to be a completely original environment.

 

BK!:What do you feel separates your story from all the competition in the global Armageddon with some zombies genre?

 

Cosby:  First, there's the tone.  We think we've captured an original voice in "Savage Brothers," one that you won't find in other comics in this genre, including zombie comics.  And we love our main characters.  This is really their book and I like to think the reader would have fun with them in any genre.

           

Stokes: Plus, most other stories start with the cataclysmic event—not years later when people have adjusted and sort of moved on. We wanted to bypass all the stress and anxiety that you typically see in these types of books and just get straight to the fun. We definitely don't take ourselves or the apocalypse too seriously.

 

BK!: The world you create does seem pretty lived in, so that the Brothers are going about their lives in a semi-normal fashion, rather than actually struggling to survive and going through the shocks that one usually associates with zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?). Can you tell us a little bit about the world-building that went into the series?

 

Cosby:  That was the fun part for us—crafting an "end of the world" scenario in which the survivors had already found equilibrium with their environment.  Once we knew that was the toy box, it was simply a matter of crafting the right toys.

 

Stokes: Andy and I are both southern and have grown up with a bunch of guys like Dale and Otis. There's no doubt in my mind that if the End of Days comes those boys are gonna be around a lot longer than the suits and the stockbrokers. They kind of take everything in stride, but have a gun rack in the car for a reason.

 

BK!: When do we get to learn more about the head in the jar? Otis and Dale seem to have recognized it or have at least heard stories of it before.

 

Stokes: You hear all sorts of things in an Apocalypse but the key to surviving the end of the world is not to ask too many questions.  The beauty of Dale and Otis is they're the type of guys who can come across something like The Head and their response will be, "There's a head in a jar."  "Yup."  And they're already moving on.

 

Cosby:  I just thought it'd be cool to show what happens to a zombie when you try to pop him one in the head, thus squashing his brain and putting him out of his undead misery—and miss.  I like to imagine that the Savage Brothers were responsible for his predicament.  The Head's the one that got away—the fish they threw back, as it were.

 

BK!: Is the imperiled lady at the end of the first issue really a virgin stripper?

 

Stokes: She really, really is. An unlikely combination, to be sure.

 

Cosby:  She's our Madonna/Whore.  A book like this not only gives you a certain amount of creative license, but it also just demands you play with some of the familiar archetypes in unfamiliar ways.  The stripper character has a lot to do with that.  And she's important to the story and our heroes' journey.  You can't judge a book by its cover in the world of the Savage Brothers, so you certainly can't judge a stripper just because she's still got her clothes on.

 

BK!: Do they really like Schlitz, or do people just drink whatever they can get after the end of the world?

 

Stokes: Have you ever had Schlitz?!? It's AWESOME. Okay, that's probably not true but Dale and Otis are simple men with simple taste. They like to actually be able to taste the malt in their malt liquor.

 

Cosby:  What was the question again?  I've been drinking.

 

BK!: In tales of zombie apocalypses, sometimes the "reason" for the end of the world/zombification is given, and sometimes it's left a mystery. Will you guys be exploring what caused the current state of affairs in your book at all?

 

Cosby:  Not really, no.  There's a subtle hint that the "Savage Brothers" have stumbled onto something that's related to this, but like we said before, it's important that this book be about what you do AFTER it all falls apart.

 

Stokes: So many books and movies focus on the beginning, we wanted to ask, "what about the middle?"  Okay, so some people survive. What next?

 

BK!: The current series is set up as a three issue miniseries. Is that the entire story of the Savage Brothers or, if sales warrant it, do you have plans for future miniseries or stories involving the characters?

 

Stokes: I think Andy and I could tell a hundred stories about this world and these characters and we'd both enjoy revisiting them again but we'll have to leave that up to our dear publisher.

 

Cosby: A hundred's a bit of a stretch.  But ninety-six sounds doable.

 

BK!: So, what was your first exposure to zombie literature? Was it a film rather than a comic?

 

Stokes: I don't think I really got into zombies until I moved to Los Angeles and fell in with Andy and Ross.  They showed me the classics, like the Romero movies and a few obscure Japanese zombie films, so by the time I saw the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" in theaters, I was hooked.

 

Cosby: Definitely "Night of the Living Dead" for me. And there was always a zombie tale or two lurking in the pages of those old EC Comics.  Man, I loved those things.

 

BK!: Personal preference: Fast zombies or slow? Talking (ala Return of the Living Dead) or silent (ala Night of the Living Dead)?

 

Stokes: I like my zombies fast and quiet.  Predatory.  It seems to me they'd still have the ability to run as fast as us but because they're not dependent on oxygen or blood pumping to their muscles, they'd never get tired. And that is fricking terrifying!

 

Cosby: I could go either way, and both versions have worked wonderfully in movies and literature.  After all, who didn't like "28 Days Later"?  But if it happened in real life, I'd have to go with slow zombies. The slower the better. No legs would be best. Wait, make that no teeth.

 

BK!: Do you have a favorite zombie movie then? Or zombie comic?

 

Stokes: It's a tight call between "28 Days Later" and the most recent "Dawn of the Dead," although "Shaun of the Dead" is pretty incredible. My single favorite moment from any zombie movie, though, comes from the "Dawn" remake. Matt Frewer is about to turn and Ving Rhames is standing over him with a shotgun aimed at his head… just waiting. Frewer looks up at him and whispers, "You want… every… single… second." I love that.

 

As for comics, I've really enjoyed reading "Walking Dead" but if I'm completely honest, the first "Zombie Tales" anthology is probably my favorite – Mark Waid, Mike Nelson, John Rogers, Andy Cosby, Keith Giffen - Those guys just ripped it up. I'll reread it every once and awhile and I enjoy it every time.

 

Cosby: "Night of the Living Dead" mainly because it set the standard and was way ahead of its time.  After that, I gotta go with "28 Days Later."  And I absolutely LOVED "Shaun of the Dead."

 

Like Jo, I love the work my fellow writers are doing with the Boom! "Zombie Tales" books.  There are some great stories being told in those pages.  Oh, and of course, "Walking Dead."  That book's definitely on my must read list.

 

BK!: To what do you attribute the current explosion of zombie stories, not only in comics, but film as well, over the last few years?

 

Stokes: Horror movies have traditionally done well in times of war. Look at WWII or Vietnam—sales for horror movies spiked and studios couldn't turn them out fast enough. Then as soon as the wars ended, sales dropped and subsequently Hollywood stopped churning them out.

 

There are a lot of theories as to why this is. I think it may have something to do with the underlying fear we feel as a nation during wartime.  When we watch horror movies, we don't think of ourselves as the guy who bites it in Act One.  We associate with the hero, the guy or girl who makes it out in the end, who outsmarts the enemy, who lives to fight another day.  It's empowering. And when you're living under a shadow of uncertainty and dread, you need that.

 

Cosby: Plus, people like zombies.  Zombies are fun.  I'd have one as a pet if I didn't think it was dangerous… and probably some type of felony.

 

Savage Brothers #2 drops Wednesday, October 4th. For more info on the book, click to boom-studios.com Stokes and Cosby are also currently working on the hit Sci Fi show "Eureka," created by Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia. The season finale, which Cosby and Stokes worked on, airs Tuesday, October 3rd.