BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO A few weeks ago we got to talk to artist Tom Mandrake about his involvement in the original graphic novel, The Safest Place. Now, we've got writers Victor Riches and Steven Grant on hand to tell us more of war photographer Matthew Castle and his attempts to rescue a US millionaire's young daughter from kidnappers in a third-world country. Castle can't feel physical pain, but will that be enough to go up against impossible odds?
THE PULSE: A lot of images might come to mind when someone hears the words "The Safest Place." What made you want to title your story that, especially considering there doesn't seem to be a true safe place in this tale?
VICTOR RICHES: The title refers to a pivotal element in the story, which I wouldn't want to give away. Suffice it to say, the story involves some extremely dangerous places and situations, and what turns out being "the safest place" will, hopefully, surprise everyone who reads the book.
THE PULSE: How did you come up with your lead, Matthew Castle?
RICHES: Matthew is an emotionally dead war photographer who finds himself on what is essentially a suicide mission. He's really the embodiment of the classic "loner" character, a la Batman or the Punisher. As a longtime comic book fan, I thought it would be pretty interesting to explore the motivations behind these types of characters -- those who bury their emotions in pursuit of a single-minded objective. Yet their motivations are rarely explained as anything more than the pursuit of revenge or justice. When developing Matthew Castle, I wanted to go deeper, and show a possible "origin" for such characters.
THE PULSE: Did you base Matthew on an amalgam of other characters you've both written, or was he based on a little bit of both of you, or maybe a mix of both? What went into this character?
RICHES: We really strove to create a character who fit the dark mood of the story we were telling.
Matthew Castle suffered a tragic event in his past, scarring him deeply, but granting him a special gift: He cannot feel physical pain. In The Safest Place, Matthew embarks on a bloody trek to locate a missing girl. Along the way, he becomes entangled in an international plot that includes the vicious Sudanese slave trade and one of most psychotic killers the comic book world has ever seen (trust me, I'm not exaggerating). Matthew's own sanity comes into question as he delves deeper and deeper into the psyches of the very cold-blooded killers who kidnapped the girl. In telling that type of story, I definitely had to draw from some dark experiences I've had. For Steven, being dark and moody just comes naturally. Just kidding, Steven!
THE PULSE: It sounds horrible, to be closed off emotionally. Have either of you ever experienced something that made you temporarily numb or feel as if you couldn't "feel" anything -- aside from random nights of drinking ...?
STEVEN GRANT: High school. And I watched an episode of "So You Think You're Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" once.
RICHES: I'm still numb from watching Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace.
THE PULSE: How realistic is it for a past trauma to make someone so many years later still be experiencing the effects? I know there is post-traumatic stress disorder and other socio-emotional disorders, but if Matthew is suffering from any of these, why hasn't there been something done to help him recover?
GRANT: That's easier said than done in any case, and usually takes years of therapy, and that's only if the subject is willing to let someone in to help. Matthew has tried to shut himself off instead.
Plus his illness isn't entirely psychological, it's not something that would necessarily respond to therapy anyway. Victor studied up on the condition.
RICHES: Yeah, it's an extremely rare, but real gene mutation called CIPA (congenital insensitivity to pain). People that have it literally can't feel the sensation of pain. It's a fascinating and scary disorder, since your body can be damaged, yet you may not even be aware of it.
THE PULSE: Isn't there anyone in his life who would want to take the matters out of his hand and maybe 302 him or something to force him to get the help he needs?
GRANT: How do you do that? Matthew's not a derelict, he's not incapacitated, he has shown he's perfectly capable of functioning and taking care of himself. He's not crazy or a danger to others or prone to uncontrollable and violent outbursts. There are people who would love to help him given the chance but they don't have any legal basis for getting him treatment against his will.
RICHES: Plus, Matthew does not have a close circle of friends or family. He's basically grown up alone, without the normal support base that most of us take for granted.
THE PULSE: One would guess, since he's a War Photographer, that the trauma is from something he's seen in battle. If it isn't, what made you want that as his profession? If it is, aside from that putting him in the right place, what made you want to use that as his career?
GRANT: First off, we wanted him to have a colorful profession. If he's a certified public account, it sort of creates the wrong effect.
Second, because of the circumstances that led to his condition - no, it's not war trauma related, he actually copes with war fairly well - he has a vaguely suicidal bent. To some extent he's attracted to danger.
Third, it allows him maintain an existence while spending much of his time away from the people who might feel like they have to help him.
Fourth, he can't "feel" the world so he tries to "see" it. That's what the camera helps him do: give some sort of tangible form to his emotional existence. Given all those things, he ended up a war photographer.
THE PULSE: Even though he can't feel physical pain, Matthew Castle can be hurt right? He can be killed ... so why does he do stuff like track down kidnapped children halfway across the world?
GRANT: He originally has no interest in it, preferring to leave it to the authorities. But then it turns out the authorities have their own reasons for non-involvement, and he ends up with a personal debt to a dead man that he feels compelled to honor, and both those things combine to draw him back into the case. He does it because the girl needs help and there really is nobody else.
RICHES: Matthew is no super hero, but he does have a conscience. Because of events in his own life, he feels a particular sense of right and wrong when it comes to kids, and a subconscious drive to protect children who are in danger.
THE PULSE: How many jobs like the rescue has he had before? If this is his first how does one get into this walk of life?
GRANT: It's not exactly his first, but it's the first under these circumstances, where it's an actual mission rather than a byproduct of other involvements. For how he gets into it, you'll have to read the book.
THE PULSE: Who is this news reporter that solicits teased he's accompanying?
RICHES: Her name's Catherine and she's an integral part of the story. She has a mysterious past of her own and her motivations for helping Matthew are questionable. The interchanges between Matthew and her are tense, as they don't fully trust one another, while at the same time needing each other to survive.
THE PULSE: How did Tom Mandrake come to illustrate this story?
RICHES: Steven had worked with Tom in the past, so we were able to get him the script. Fortunately, he was really interested in it and wanted to do something a little different from the usual super-hero fare.
GRANT: Tom liked the story, fate played the straight man, and since then we've never looked back.
THE PULSE: What made Mandrake a good fit for your grim story?
GRANT: You've seen his art, right? That answers that question better than we could. Like Victor mentioned, Tom and I had recently worked together on PAT NOVAK FOR HIRE for Moonstone Books, so we were pretty familiar with each other's story ticks, which helped the process along considerably.
RICHES: Tom's skills as an artist are simply second to none. His work in The Safest Place will blow you away -- it's awesome! Working with Steven and Tom has been an incredible experience. These are the guys, after all, who literally defined such characters as the Punisher and Spectre. I couldn't hope for better guys to work with.
THE PULSE: This sounds like a story that would be a fantastic movie. Have you any interest from Hollywood about bringing The Safest Place to life on the big screen?
GRANT: I don't know whether they even know about it yet. I do agree it'd make a really tight action thriller, but first things first, y'know?
RICHES: My thoughts exactly. If Hollywood's interested, that's great, but we just wanted to tell the best story we could in a medium that we're really fond of.
THE PULSE: What did you find the most challenging about scripting this story?
GRANT: I don't know that it was any more or less challenging than anything else. I've been doing this a lot of years now, I tend to not even think about what's challenging or not challenging when I'm writing; I mainly think about telling the story as succinctly and excitingly as possible.
That's always the only real challenge in writing comics, and it never gets less challenging.
RICHES: Unlike Steven, this was my first foray into writing comics, so the whole process was challenging. However, it has also been extremely rewarding and I'm thrilled with the way our book has turned out. For a long-time comic book fan like me, it's really a dream come true to get my story published.
THE PULSE: Who is your target audience for this?
RICHES: I think anyone who enjoys suspenseful action stories will really love The Safest Place. Writers who I admire such as Geoff Johns, Joe R. Lansdale and Ed Brubaker have previewed the book and they all really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to getting it out there to as wide of an audience as possible. I think anyone who gives it a chance will come away extremely satisfied.
GRANT: I couldn't have said it better. Anyone with a yen for a good action thriller will come away satisfied. We're not picky.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?
GRANT: Currently: Odysseus The Rebel, a retelling of the Odyssey for Bighead Press, and a couple projects for some very well known comics companies that I'm not allowed to talk about yet.
RICHES: Wow, Steven, I didn't know you were redoing The Odyssey -- I can hardly wait to read that! I've got a couple of stories I'm working on that are in the early stages, so I can't give much in the way of details. For anyone out there interested in learning more about The Safest Place, feel free to drop us a note at: thesafestplacecomic@yahoo.com. Thanks for your time and for letting people know about our book.
The Safest Place from Victor Riches, Steven Grant and Tom Mandrake ships this month.
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