Writer’s Commentary: Fred Van Lente Discusses Dynamite’s Creepy Crossover ‘DIE!namite’ #1
by Olly MacNamee
[++NOTE: Buy & read the book, then join us back here for the commentary!++]
DIE!namite #1 came out a couple of weeks ago from Dynamite Comics. Hopefully anyone reading this has read this debut issue for Dynamite’s big crossover, but if not, do go seek it out and then read on as Fred Van Lente, one of the writers steering this series, gives us his thoughts on this issue and his contribution to it. Take it away, Fred…
Page One:
I really enjoyed Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels as a kid, and I was always fascinated by the idea he “died” every time he did his out-of-body thing to Mars. And, vice-versa: When he dies on Mars, he reappears back on Earth. In a zombie book, this whole idea of “resurrection” seemed particularly apt to play with.
Page Five:
Declan [Shalvey] wrote this Vampirella sequence, and I really liked the kind of rich-bitch characterization he brought to her. I just saw The Vampire Lovers on Shudder and now I keep thinking of Vampi as Ingrid Pitt come back to life, armed with a Maggie Smith-in-Downton Abbey acid wit.
Page Seven:
I wrote Dark Horse’s Conan title for a few years so I have the Hyborian map all but memorized. I wanted to bring Sonja to some place I had never been before in Hyboria, so this is the “Caribbean” of Conan’s world, “Antillia,” which wasn’t even created by Robert E. Howard, but is from one of the later novels, Conan of the Isles, which I will admit I’ve never read. The Carter and Camp stuff never really did it for me.
Page Nine:
Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, is a fun character and his original Charlton series is nuts in the best way possible. For every character in this cross-over, I tried to go back to the character’s roots and Cannon’s origin is in fact that he was orphaned in a Tibetan monastery when his aid worker parents died of a plague they were trying to stop — again, an apt concordance with the zombie genre.
I am sure eagle-eyed readers noticed that Peter’s favorite comic there is The Fighting Yank – could that be a Project: Superpowers reference-slash-foreshadowing? Do you even need to ask?!
Page Fifteen:
Red Sonja’s now sadly zombified love interest is indeed Zo’ran, from her main title — you should go check that out on the stands now, where he is still alive and well…!
DIE!namite #1 is out now from Dynamite. You can catch our exclusive and extend preview here.
