Posted in: Comics | Tagged: army of darkness, Ash Saves Obama, Comics, dynamite, elliott serrano, entertainment

Elliott Serrano Talks Putting Ash Williams With Barrack Obama

Published Fri, 30 Oct 2015 19:00:34 -0500

There is a big push right now for anything Evil Dead or Army of Darkness. Being that we are heading towards Halloween this weekend and Ash vs Evil Dead premieres on Starz as well, it makes sense. Heck, both Humble Bundle and comiXology are featuring Army of Darkness from Dynamite Entertainment as we speak.

To go with it, Dynamite has asked some of their creators about their time on the series and of working on the iconic Ash Williams. Things kick off with Elliott Serrano. Cover art by Todd Nauk and Lucio Parrillo.

Dynamite: Elliott, how was it putting Ash in the otherworldly confines of … a comic book convention?! (lol)

Elliott Serrano: Haha! Well, they say "write what you know" and as someone who has been to more comic cons than I can count I certainly know about them. And when you consider that we know Ash to be a bit of a nerd (from seeing those Fangoria and Dark Horse Presents comics in the trunk of his car in the original Army of Darkness movie), having him at a comic-con seemed natural to me.

The challenge was getting all the different sight gags approved. If you go to a comic convention, you see lots of folks in costume, and I wrote some bits involving cosplayers portraying characters that weren't licensed by Dynamite. So even though I thought it fell under satire, I had to nix a lot of the gags.

There was also a major plot point in issue #2 that had to be radically changed because of a licensing issue. It broke my heart to have to change it since I worked really hard to set up the plot point and my editor, Joe Rybandt, told me it was rather clever.

By me a drink at the next comic-con and I'll tell you more about it. Haha!

Dynamite: And Ash in your run got to SAVE Obama! What was it like scripting an out-there character like Ash AND the Leader of the Free World (that's the President)?

ES: There's a certain suspension of disbelief that you bring into a story, and having Ash and President Obama together in the same room means you have to walk a very fine line. You can easily fall into playing it as a farce, so I was very mindful to play it straight with the President.

Although, during scripting I played it a bit too straight and wrote three pages of "West Wing"-type dialogue with Obama and his Chief of Staff. I was patting myself on the back for being clever, but after reading it I realized it didn't really advance the story so I cut it.

Dynamite: Is there some character in history that you would love to write Ash with? Perhaps another President of the U.S.?

ES: Hm. No other Presidents come to mind. Although having Ash meet George Washington and fighting Deadites during the Revolutionary War would be kinda fun.

My fellow Army of Darkness writer Mark Rahner has already gotten Ash and H.P. Lovecraft together in his mini-series, and that seemed like the most natural fit. That would have been my first choice. Wish I'd thought of pitching it before Mark did! Haha!

But really, the Army of Darkness story that I'd like to write, that you will never see?

Ash meets Jesus Christ!

I legit have an idea for that, although it could piss a lot of people off. Haha!

Dynamite: What is the greatest challenge in working with a character like Ash, so influenced by a film actor?

ES: Of course that would be getting his "voice" right. Ash's mannerisms and catch phrases are part of the pop-culture lexicon, and it's easy to tell when he sounds "wrong", but it can be difficult to script his dialogue without parroting the movies too much.

Every time I got stuck writing a scene for Ash, I'd pop in the DVD for Army of Darkness and just let it all sink in. Then I'd try to take the flavor of the dialogue and use it to "season" my scripts. Looking back, there were times I succeeded, but also times when I fell short. I hope to do better the next time I get to write Ash…should that opportunity ever present itself.

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