I was able to do that with Badger, and the high point of that is Bill Reinhold and I’s Badger #9, “Hot August Night.” There’s a fight sequence in there where the characters come alive. I vowed that if I ever had the opportunity to do a martial arts comic, I would make the techniques logical and exciting.

I’ve always been a stickler about action scenes you don’t want to see extreme close-ups of fists hitting chins or whatever, you want to understand how they physically go after one another. But when you see martial arts being done in comics, it’s often just poses and no technique – you don’t see any logical progression. I went crazy when the first Master of Kung Fu came out. How did you come to have such an interest in martial arts? My understanding of those is the Lee family was very reluctant about that, and that’s why they haven’t been seen since. I fondly remember that Bruce Lee series you did with Val Mayerik back in the 1990s. The art he’s been sending to me and I’ve been posting on Facebook is absolutely galvanizing. He received his black belt a couple years ago, and he and I have a series coming out called Warriors of Yin/Yang. It’s about a satanic rock band coming back from the dead.ĭean Zachary is another friend of mine who’s into martial arts. Right now I’m working on Domain, but the next one published will be Banshees later this year from American Fantasy Press. My first novel was Helmet Head, and I’ve written several since. I’ve always loved horror, but just as I loved over genres.

Much to my surprise, I’m focusing on horror.

There were no more doubts, and I just started writing and haven’t been able to stop since. It took me a hell of a long time to write a novel, but about two or three years ago I woke up one morning and suddenly understood the novel form. I’ve always wanted to write comics as well, but they’re two completely different animals. What was the initial push that got you into writing full-length novels on a regular basis? Your debut as a writer was doing prose for Kitchen Sink’s Weird Trips Magazine back in 1974, and in the past few years you’ve written a number of prose novels on your own – even outstripping your recent comics. In addition to comics, you’ve been pushing heavily into prose writing.

Original nexus mike baron