BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO Anyone who went to Catholic School knows how scary nuns can be. A lot of adults still shudder when thinking about the Sisters who taught them or scared the beejeebus out of them in church. Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski are taking advantage of the scariness of nuns by showing a darker reason for some of their attitudes in the pages of The Sisterhood. The pair are detailing a secret sect, The Order of the Holy Sepulchre, who house exorcised demons in their bodies until death, to prevent them from attacking other innocents. The problem is, if the Sisters don't die a natural death, the demons are freed to wreak havoc on others. Golden told us more about this intriguing concept for this three-part limited series ....
THE PULSE: How did you come up with the idea to do something like The Sisterhood? Did you go to Catholic School? Is this kind of why you thought the nuns were all mean as snakes, because their bodies housed exorcised evil spirits?
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN: [Tom] Sniegoski and I were talking about horror tropes and things we hadn't seen done *differently* in a while and we decided we wanted to do an exorcist story. It all built from there. Yes, in fact, I did go to Catholic school all the way from first grade through high school, but most of the nuns were nice enough.
THE PULSE: Your concept seems kind of strange, especially since in the Catholic Church most exorcists seem to be performed by Priests with nuns having little involvement. Why did you want to make this a Sisterhood instead of a Brotherhood?
GOLDEN: Again, it was just the idea of taking a different approach. For the longest time, nuns were a hugely integral part of the church. These days there seems very little emphasis on those orders. The church desperately needs priests, but I never hear them recruiting for nuns. Plus Sniegoski and I have always enjoyed writing strong female characters. The Sisterhood of the Holy Sepulchre was officially excommunicated by the Church, but are secretly still aligned with the Vatican.
THE PULSE: How did you come up with the women who would be a part of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre? Were any of them based on real women you knew?
GOLDEN: The older nuns certainly are reflective of the quiet strength and dignity of the nuns who were part of my education. The younger ones are more contemporary figures, from earnest girls to ass-kickers. I can't speak for Sniegoski on this one. I suspect he just thinks the penguin suits are sexy.
THE PULSE: How did you come up with the idea of having these women exercise demons, but then house the demons until they die? That's really crazy ... Is this based on anything you've read about exorcisms or is this just purely fictional?
GOLDEN: It's entirely fictional, but based--like so many of the things I've written in the past--on my thinking that some of the lore is stupid. Honestly, if all an exorcist does is kick the demon out of a little girl, what's to stop them from possessing the girl next door? It's like cops rousting a drug dealer, who just moves down a block and sets up shop all over again. It made sense to Tom and me that there ought to be a more permanent solution.
THE PULSE: I kind of don't get why anyone would want to be a member of this Order. I mean, yes, it's something extremely noble to do, but who wants to have their body be a flesh cage? What kind of woman would agree to something like this?
GOLDEN: What kind of woman would take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and spend her life spreading the word of God in regions where it is not only possible but quite likely that she may be raped and murdered as punishment?
THE PULSE: This doesn't seem like something that would be advertised, so how does the group hunting the elder nuns of this order down find out about their hosting duties?
GOLDEN: Ah, well, on that one, you'll have to read the comics.
THE PULSE: You told me if one of the sisters housing one of these evils dies a violent death the demon is set free again. Define violent? Does that include taking a few too many sleeping pills or sitting in the car with the garage door closed?
GOLDEN: Indeed. Anything but a natural death will loose the demons.
THE PULSE: Who's Eden Parish? How does she become involved with problems facing The Order?
GOLDEN: Eden and her sister Vanessa were taken in by the Order when they were little girls. Their father was a priest who had an affair with a woman who later committed suicide out of guilt. To hide his sins, the priest gave the girls to the Order, so they were raised in it. After watching her sister die on a mission, Eden is disillusioned with the Order, but still works with them, traveling the world to draw demons out of ordinary people.
THE PULSE: Why did you want to do a story like this? You seem to have skated with this kind of subject matter before ...
GOLDEN: The why is never easy to answer. Demons and action and mystery are all things I love. If you mean something that challenges the conventions of organized religion...I think THE SISTERHOOD is mostly good fun, and anyone who gets pissed off by its twist on religious dogma has bigger problems than exorcist nuns. Religion is steeped in mythology and folklore, and that stuff is fun to play with.
THE PULSE: Was Tom Sniegoski always on board with you for this project?
GOLDEN: Absolutely. From day one. We're both so busy that we have to make time to work together, so when we get the chance we always enjoy ourselves.
THE PULSE: How did you decide on Wellington Alves to round out the rest of the team?
GOLDEN: The book was originally placed with a different publisher, and Wellington was the only artist the publisher, Sniegoski, and I all agreed on. He's very talented. We're happy to have him on board. When we parted ways with the original publisher, we bought the artwork for the entire miniseries from him.
THE PULSE: This is a three issue miniseries, but it seems as if there is a lot of potential for past and, provided some of the Order survives, future stories. What plans do you have in place for potential prequels or sequels?
GOLDEN: No plans at the moment, but anything is possible. There's a film in development right now with Intermedia and a director is attached, but I can't say any more about it just now. If the film goes, there could be potential for a lot of things. We've talked about comics and novels and more.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?
GOLDEN: Right now I'm trying to finish the screenplay for BALTIMORE that Mike Mignola and I are adapting from our novel for New Regency films. I'm working on a new novel called THE OCEAN DARK for Bantam. And I've got a ton of stuff coming out later this year. I'd love for people to come by my site at http://www.christophergolden.com and have a look.
The first issue of The Sisterhood is in stores now.
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