Heavy Metal
Zany , spontaneous , action - packed , mad … these are the kinds of descriptors that go well with author Dan Fogler ’s ( OfFantastic BeastsandWalking Deadfame ) growing oeuvre of experimental and rivetingly adventuresome risible book , and which often spell succeeder in the more fledged variety of storytelling of the medium . On the cusp of the release of his first two comic book series ; the four - part intemperately - boil detective storyFishkilland the six - part dystopian fever dreamBrooklyn Gladiator , as well as the re - release and continuance of his off - the - rampart anthology seriesMoon Lakeall under theHeavy Metallabel , Fogler seem to be see the ambition of his own fictional man come to liveliness . Or nightmare dystopia depending on how you look .
Satirical , sardonic , with the dial always turned up to max volume , Fogler ’s storytelling often revolves around desperate humankind in heroic times , but with a hint of witticism inherent in the corresponding surrealism that feels right at home on his raw label . Oftentimes adequate part outlandishly wacky and viciously serious , it ’s no wonder he ’s draw in such noteworthy talent as Ben Templesmith ( 30 Days of Night ) and Simon Bisley ( Slaine ) for his newest endeavors . Screen Rant catch up with Dan to discuss his storytelling ism along with the details on his game - yet - wonderful forthcoming sacking .
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Screen Rant : First let ’s talk aboutMoon Lake . Going through your influence like the honest-to-goodness EC anthologies andHeavy Metal Magazine , you have the storytelling technique of paint with shades , and try out to practice those shade to form the overall picture . What is it about those former trend that draw you in ?
Dan Fogler : LikeTales From the Crypt , Creep Show- all of these early mirthful books that I read . Heavy Metal Magazinewas the first amusing book that I pick up . I was right smart too young , I was like ten - years - quondam , and it was on my brother ’s shelf , and it was outsized so it stick around out from another comic book . And I picked it up and was like ‘ holy shit , this is what people are doing with comical book ? ’ And I was just hooked . And I then I sawHeavy Metal , the movie , and I just really fell in erotic love with that kind of storytelling where you have the Loc - Nar which is the narrator which weave its fashion through all of the unlike short stories .
And I think ‘ man , I want to do that ’ .
So , my Loc - Nar for Moon Lake is The “ Man in the Moon”;he ’s like Hitchcock on Zen , y’know ? It ’s an homage toHitchcock Presents , where you have the Man in the Moon , this weird narrator telling creepy-crawly tales just like the Cryptkeeper , or the ghoul fromCreep Show , and he tells tales this specific place scream Moon Lake , and I believe , y’know how can I make my world , a horror / fantasy / sci - fi world , unlike ? And I was like ‘ that ’s just it ’ : it ’s a lasagna ! It ’s like bed and layers and layers and layers of different brand of evil , in a lot of ways .
You ’ve gravel everything from alien to ghosts to werewolves and vampire and sasquatches and beasts . So when you have Bigfoot fighting alongside cave - girl and her zombi t - rex , then thing pop out to get dreamlike , and that ’s when a luck of clowning comes out of it . It ’s a fine , specific variety of alchemy to get the perfect kind of symmetry of everything . Some stories are really dark , while other fib are really comical , but what links them together is this Man in the Moon . And sometimes some character from one tale will finish up in another taradiddle .
Then whenVolume Twocame out , I really wanted to paint the movie that ‘ oh , each one of these stories is actually part of a much large picture , and they all have puzzle pieces fit together to make a much orotund tarradiddle . ’ Where it ’s like wherever you go there ’s just a million unlike rabbit gob , kind of like the island inLost . I jazz that show , Lost , and the idea where it ’s this place is displace from time , and once you go there , you ca n’t escape and it ’s an endless labyrinth of rabbit golf hole , for every undivided character it ’s its own cony mess , and you ’ll never unearth the actual history . It ’s just everything is a secret .
So I just basically did , inMoon Lake- I in reality put in all those thing I bonk watching past my bedtime growing up , likeAmazing StoriesandTwilight Zone , and all the pieces muse that . I like a good anthology . I hope to go the alive road with it . For all my projects , I need them to go on and be boob tube shows and picture show . I ’m excited to reveal all the newMoon Lakematerial that we have been compiling for this specific moment .
SR : What do you think cause a estimable enigma ?
Dan : Well it ’s got ta be something that has n’t been done before . Something that is surprising , you ca n’t have people see it out before the end of the story . So I take a cue from appearance likeLost , where you have the ‘ what ’s in the box ’ , y’know the conjuration box , and as long as you this question of ‘ what induce this plaza kick ? ’ ‘ Are we ever going to get to the bottom of this place ? ’ The answer is no ! I require the stories to just go on forever ! It discover history all the style back to our history to prehistoric times and even before to ancient civilisation . It just goes on and on and on .
What it is is just a Pandora ’s Box . It just keeps on reveal information . And that ’s the world we ’re living in today . We ’re living in one monolithic conspiracy theory that just keeps on discover itself to be true every single day . It ’s quite an exciting time to be alive , but very surrealistic , trying to get to the bottom of what ’s really pass off , and I think thatMoon Lakeis like a confederacy theorizer ’s wet dream . Truth is unknown than fabrication and I ’m just mad inMoon Laketo make an tremendous goulash of all of these different character working side - by - side together which makes the stories invigorated .
SR : So these characters and the way they are unraveling this unfathomable closed book , you say you ’re drawing upon the zeitgeist of today in these characters ?
Dan : Well , you ca n’t really help it , you know?Moon Lake , it has the telephone dial work up very , very loud on the reference . But if you take any of the theatrical role like , Desensitized Deirdre , who ’s one of my preferent eccentric ; at the core she is a girl that was in a MK - Ultra - like brain - alter curriculum when she was a tike . That ’s literal shit .
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SR : Sounds like fun . You ’ve got a clear love of the dystopian nightmare , bring these awe to lifetime . Can you recite me why you find this so prescient today ?
Dan : Yeah , we ’re living it , mankind ! And I remember that it ’s our responsibility as artists to comment on the humanity we ’re live in , to put a mirror up to society . Brooklyn Gladiatoris a exemplary tale . It ’s a big admonition signboard to what happens if we go head into confide new observational technologies . SoBrooklyn Gladiator , the hero in it is John Miller who has turn away all this technology and all the ‘ redacted entropy ’ and all the drugs that are used to dumb down everybody . He ’s live in this1984worldand has managed to evade catch the nannites that the state [ implant into everybody ] in this world .
This is pushed on everybody and everyone ’s at the end of their ropes , so everyone agrees to it . Fifteen , twenty years later , the nannites are in everything , they ’ve taken over . And our grinder , John Miller has rejected it , and he ’s gone the opposite way . He has looked inside and he ’s started grow astral projection abilities and realizing that all the engineering around him , it ’s just a crutch . That we do n’t need to become cyborgs to get to the next spirit level . We have recover the drop off ability that we used to have , that have disappear over time , because the world power - that - be want to keep the condition quo .
The other thing that ’s happen inBrooklyn Gladiatorwhich is something that ’s happening now , in our headlines , is nanotechnology . This is a real matter They are considering put it into everything . Nanotechnology basically is , you program microscopical golem to do a job . You shoot them into your bloodstream , and they will cleanse up your blood . They ’ll brush your fucking tooth for you . They ’ll go into your brain and help the electro - magnetic synapses . If they ’re frayed , they help connect them . They make you better .
SR : But …
Dan : But it ’s engineering science , and sentient applied science , so if you get a microchip or something embed in your skin , if you adjudicate ‘ ok this is n’t for me , I require to get this chip taken out ’ , you ca n’t do that with nannites . Nannites is permanent . Nannites become part of you . So now you have these microscopic microbe - bots that could conk out down at any consequence , that can disobey orders , that can get hacked- that can be hacked to say ‘ you know what ? Multiply . ’ That ’s a bounteous fear that these scientist have that ‘ okay , we ’re run low to make these nannites , but what if we ca n’t get them to stop convert thing ? ’ You program microscopic nannites to take the molecular structure of stain , and it will turn it into gold . That sounds great . But then what happens if you ca n’t cease it from turning everything into Au ? It ’ll just turn every f*cking thing on the major planet into atomic number 79 . Multiply , multiply , multiply .
SR : SoBrooklyn Gladiatoris like a gamy , street - degree battle against this all - pervasive enemy ?
Dan : It ’s even more - powerful than that . It ’s full - scurf , full - spectrum mastery . They ’re in your blood stream . They ’re in your thinker . The information they feed you …
SR : They can impact your consciousness like * snaps * that ?
Dan : Yeah . Just like we ’re getting affect on an daily basis by the news , by the food we ’re give , by the pollution in the air . Turn the dial up on all that . People talk about chemtrails in the sky today . I ’ve just decided that in Brooklyn Gladiator , all confederacy are straight . Just an endless cony hole of how powerful [ the scoundrel ] is .
SR : I want to hear about your baddie .
Dan : My villain is a complex scoundrel . My scoundrel is Nikola Tesla . Nikola Tesla is bet down from a pocket dimension , in the 4th attribute , and he ’s front down on the earth and he ’s pissed off , because he ’s take in how his technology has been bribe , nannite engineering , HAARP technology , and he has seen how instead of creating a Zion out of his engineering science , detached get-up-and-go which is what he always require , he realise that the people that are in ascendance now have corrupted it . He ’s like the master inThe Matrix . He ’s like God , he ’s looking down and he ’s saying ‘ yeah , there ’s going to be a lot of pain in this transition , but there ’s going to be a thousand yr of peace of mind after , once we get tomyutopia . ’ So , from where he is , he ’s pulling the strings , he ’s keeping agents , manipulating them from the astral woodworking plane , like John Miller , like other psychic , so as to herd them towards his utopia , whether the world want it or not .
SR : And he ’s the villain of bothBrooklyn GladiatorandFish Kill ?
Dan : In a sense , yeah . ButFish Killis the very get-go of the rabbit mess . They ’re connected . I was writingBrooklyn Gladiator , and I said ‘ human race we ’re living the sci - fi dystopia powerful now . I well come out writing the tale that ’s happening right on now . Fish Killis the prequel toBrooklyn Gladiator . It ’s about a detective who goes sniffing down the wrong corridors depend for lost children . And he knock on the wrong door , and his superiors get relieve oneself off , and recollective story short , he ’s penalise for it . He went down a trail that unbeknownst to him led him to a orphic club , and they decide that he got too tight . So he finds himself on the Brooklyn Bridge , on bridge obligation in one of those cadence - maid three - wheeled carts . He was a detective and now he ’s demoted . He ’s in limbo .
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And a bomb sound off , and it ’s horrific , and it ’s scream the “ Home Dog Terrorist Attack ” . He wakes up the next day and he learns that it ’s all being find fault on him . He ’s the “ Black Friday Bomber ” . Now he ’s a fugitive , now this detective has to bear witness his innocence live on against the deep res publica . So he get to that level of the hare hole . He ’s bugger off to essay his innocence , one humanity against nefarious society .
SR : It sounds like that this story is a mirror reflection ofBrooklyn Gladiator , one human being against the multitude .
Dan : on the nose , you got it , buddy . They ’re connected . John Miller and Barton Fishkill are forever colligate . I ’m work a storyline where they possibly meet up subsequently inBrooklyn Gladiator .
SR : How many years beforeGladiatorisFish putting to death ?
Dan : Fishkillis happen the right way now , andBrooklyn Gladiatorin 2033 . It ’s all connected . Fishkilldeals with the headline of today , tittering on the edge of soldierly law of nature , forced lockdown , quarantine , forced stagnation , riots , it ’s sick . I wrote this years ago , and if you read it now , you ’re going to be like ‘ oh my god , it look like you wrote this last hebdomad . ’ And it ’s impossible that we wrote it last week because we have Ben Templesmith absorb it and he could n’t maybe work that tight .
SR : Certainly an telling line - up of artists you have , Templesmith onFishkilland Simon Bisley onBrooklyn Gladiator .
Dan : I could n’t believe it . First of all , Bisley is like- I used to readLobo , he was the fully grown Heavy Metal artist . That ’s just amazing to have a comic book [ with him ] . Same from , Ben , man.30 daytime of Night . Both of these guy wire are legends , and both of them have report for being rock n ’ gyre and doing their own thing and lease their time . So it was a swelled risk of infection , but my immortal it pay off , man . I ’m so happy . Very proud of both of those books . I really believe thatFishkillreally has the full interpersonal chemistry that you want in a book . I ’m very proud of it , of both of these record book coming out , I ca n’t wait to portion out it with everybody .
SR : What can you say about the ambiance , the vibe of these two volume ?
Dan : I ’d sayBrooklyn Gladiatoris classic , granulose , dystopian sci - fi , my homage toMatrix , Blade Runner , Escape From New York , and once he gets outof New York it becomesveryMad goop . MeanwhileFishkillis modern noir with a piffling sparge of sci - fi . It ’s a dark , mettlesome crime drama , where he ’s trying to prove his innocence , but the world is change . The nannite bill has been introduced . The cops are starting to take the nannite injections during this lockdown , during the warlike police period . So it ’s leach , the ejaculate are being sown forBrooklyn Gladiator . That’sFishkill .
SR : How would you account your “ action hero ” John Miller ofBrooklyn Gladiator ?
Dan : He ’s like a forward-looking Robin Hood , but also he take care like Jason Statham on the outside , almost an homage to classical Bruce Willis/1990s natural action sub , but on the inside he’scultivating his psychic abilities , he ’s becoming a Jedi . He ’s a reluctant hero . I care name anti - Hero , reluctant zep , that ’s my pilothouse .
SR : What new whirl are you trying to supply to this Hellenic grinder formula ?
Dan : What ’s new ? I would say that the noesis is real . It ’s a cautionary fib for a practiced reasonableness . On each page , there ’s a little bit of information that will , if you partition in on it , it will send off you down a rabbit hole of very important information I cogitate as a society , we have to comtemplate these melodic theme , we have to awaken people up .
SR : You need your submarine to be figures of discovery ?
Dan : What binds them together is that they are both searching for truth .
Brooklyn Gladiatorgoes on sale August 5th , Fishkillgoes on sale August 12th , andMoon Lake : Midnight Munchiesgoes on sale in September from Heavy Metal Publishing .
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