CBR interviews Warren Ellis about his new zombie book Black Gas:
While in film, filmmakers have the ability to scare audiences by having characters jump out from shadows and what not, the same tools aren’t available to comic writers as it’s the reader controls the experience (i.e. flipping to the next page). Ellis said exploring the psychological side of the story is what will grip readers with fear in “Blackgas.” “It’s about drawing people in. It’s about creating a tone, and slowly tuning it so that everything becomes threatening,” said Ellis. “It’s hard to do the sharp-shock of horror in comics, but it is possible to create a real miasma of disturbingness (which may not be a word). Bit by bit, you can worm your way into a reader’s head and, not outright scare them, but disturb them… create genuine revulsion, so that they feel like they need a shower afterwards.”
[…]
“Horror very much depends on the context of the ‘good life,’ the status quo,” explained Ellis. “So you start slower, you show life as it should be lived. And then someone starts bleeding. And something is moving behind the door that’s ajar. You know what I mean? The bad stuff leaks in. A little at first. And then a lot. And then when you think it couldn’t get any worse lots of little men run in with buckets and fling some more on.”
[…]
“Zombies tend to enjoy a resurgence when Western society feels it’s up against a faceless, silent threat — whether it’s conservative culture threatened by Communists or radical Islam, or liberal culture terrified by all-enveloping capitalism and the world turning into a mall full of drones.”
(via cbr)
