Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Amry of Darkness, Ash for President, Comics, dynamite, elliott serrano, entertainment

Ash Williams Runs For President… His Boomstick Might Stop The Gridlock

Published Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:00:13 -0500

Is there a literary category for Political Horror? I mean besides the current election? If not, this may be the first entry. Elliott Serrano talks Army of Darkness: Ash for President one-shot, on sale in August from Dynamite. Cover by Elliot Fernandez.

BYRON BREWER: Elliott, Ash has done some wild things in his film and comic book existence, but how does our reluctant hero come to be on the Presidential campaign trail?

ELLIOTT SERRANO: It all starts when Ash receives a cryptic message from the "Necronomicon Ex Mortis", the book that has been tormenting him for decades. He takes the book to a local psychic who helps him decipher the message, but it makes Ash skeptical because that damn book has never done him any favors! Haha! Without giving away too much, Ash learns that an agent of "The Great Darkness" is involved in the current Presidential election, and he needs to find out who it is and stop them before they can gain access to the Highest Office in the Land.

It all sprung from an idea by Joe Rybandt, my editor on the book. He was thinking that we could have Ash get involved with the presidential election so that we could have some fun and poke fun at it. I'll admit that while Ash has been involved in some freaky situations, this one seemed to be a bit of a reach. But it's not like we hadn't done this sort of thing before, and the Ash Saves Obama miniseries turned out better than most folks expected. Whew!

It then struck me as odd that the villains in movies and comic books were always trying to gain power through the use of force, when they could easily accomplish the same things via the election process. I mean, take all the money you would use to build a lair and put it towards a campaign! Hahaha! All you have to do at that point is add Ash and stir.

BB: Tell us your particular view of Ash as a character. What makes him so appealing to writers?

ES: In all honesty, I'd never been a big fan of horror movies since they always portrayed evil as some indomitable force that couldn't be beaten no matter what. Freddy Krueger always returned to haunt your dreams. Jason Voorhees would be resurrected repeatedly. That damn Chucky doll would keep coming back and even bring his girlfriend! Thematically that just lacked balance in my opinion. To me, you just can't have ultimate evil without ultimate good to oppose it. Then I saw the Evil Dead movies and got to see how Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell took Ashley J. Williams — this goofy guy that most all us geeks could relate to — and made him into one of the biggest heroes in horror.

And he's just so cool! He battles demons and monsters, using his boomstick and chainsaw, all the while cracking wise. And he pretty much gets the girl every time too. (Although on the downside, the girl usually ends up dying, turning into a deadite and trying to kill him later, but why quibble?) So on a power-fantasy level, the character is really appealing. But of course the secret ingredient is Bruce Campbell's portrayal in the films. I mean, you can't think about Ash without hearing Campbell's voice in your head. And trying to come up with dialogue that you could imagine Bruce Campbell saying is always a fun challenge.

BB: Of course, the political arena is the perfect place for satire and Ash's brand of humor. What sacred cows might you be going after with a satiric pen in this story, if any?

ES: When it comes to politics, I don't think there are any "sacred cows" left, especially seeing how things have been playing out in the media – and in social media – with this last primary. So everything and everyone is fair game! The way the media covers elections, the way certain networks spin narratives in favor or against certain candidates, the way people interact in public and on social media when talking about their chosen candidate, and even the candidates themselves get lampooned in this story. I do expect to get some angry e-mails from folks saying that I was being unfair to their side, but I take shots at everyone and everything without reservation.

BB: Will we be seeing any guest appearances from Washington's elite?

ES: Ummmm…well let's just say that I couldn't feature any real politicians for legal reasons, but if you see the stand-ins that were created, you'll know who's who. Then again, I did a bit of thematic shuffling of the deck, so to speak. The characters aren't necessarily direct analogs of real-life politicians, but a mix of them. Still, anyone who's been watching the news will get a sense of who's being lampooned.

BB: In a non-spoilery way, what can you tell us about the threat of the "Great Darkness"?

ES: It's the greatest evil Ash has ever faced and it is such a massive threat that it even scares the Necronomicon! How's that for a big bad?

BB: How challenging is it to work in political satire and horror (which I will assume will be part of the one-shot), even in a 48-page special?

ES: It's harder than you'd think, yet in some ways easier than you'd think. As I was writing the script, I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't a satire of The Newsroom or The West Wing, and to remember that readers will expect some horror bits and Ash kicking ass. It's surprising how easily I was able to transition from politics to horror, which I think says something about how closely the two are related!

BB: How did you like working with artist Diego Galindo? I would image this is not an easy book to either write or draw.

ES: I've been incredibly fortunate to work with a whole stable of talented artists during my run on Army of Darkness, from Ariel Padilla to Marat Mychaels to Dietrich O. Smith and so many others! Diego is proving to be just as formidable a talent as any of them. He's taken my scripts, which in some places can be rather particular about what happens in a scene, and in others that are rather vague, and he just makes it all work effortlessly.

He also adds in these little details that make me smile. For instance, in the script I described Ash's sidekick, the psychic Delilah, as simply "a looker." He could have just drawn the character as an attractive woman without any other embellishment, but he really put work into giving her a distinctive appearance. And considering that she was a local psychic, he gave her certain characteristics that made perfect sense for her character.

BB: Elliott, will we be seeing you on any other Army of Darkness-related projects in the future?

ES: I'm always up for taking Ash on new adventures, but there are so many other great writers working with him already that I'll just have to wait my turn. I do have some ideas for our boomstick-wielding, chainsaw-swinging hero that would get even wackier than this story. Let's see how many angry letters I get after this go-around, though. Dynamite may not let me go near him again! Hahaha!

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