Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dynamite, entertainment, Lou Garou, Max Marks, Wolf Cop

Max Marks On Bringing Wolf Cop To Comics

Published Sun, 07 Aug 2016 16:00:24 -0500

There are certain concepts that stand on their own. Snakes on a Plane for example. As well as the 2014 horror comedy film Wolf Cop. Now Dynamite is making a comic series of Wolf Cop and Byron Brewer talked with writer Max Marks about the first issue on sale in October.

BYRON BREWER: Max, tell me how it feels to be writing this new comic based on the 2014 horror comedy film. Were you a fan of the werewolf police picture?

MAX MARKS: I've been involved in the production of WolfCop since it got picked up by the CineCoup Film Accelerator in 2013. Since then I've seen it go from a short trailer and some great proof of concept makeup/VFX to a full fledged franchise with an awesome cult following. Even before it was a movie, I knew I wanted to bring this character into comics. A werewolf with a gun who gets powered up by bourbon? I mean, come on! In a word, it's exciting.

So yeah, I'd say I'm one of WolfCop's biggest fans. Maybe a close second after that guy who got a WolfCop tattoo on his arm.

BB: What can you tell us about the storyline of the series?

MM: This storyline runs somewhere between [the films] WolfCop 1 and 2. When discussing the comic, WolfCop creator Lowell Dean expressed to me that he'd love to see WolfCop on the road, dealing with threats outside of Woodhaven. So it begins there, with Lou Garou exiled from his hometown. The road he's on … Well, picture if Mad Max were based in Saskatchewan. Aside from drinking and crimefighting, Lou is very good at getting himself into trouble. A recurring theme in WolfCop is that the blood of a werewolf is a valuable thing.

Each issue definitely has a bit of a "Monster of the Week" feel to it, with WolfCop fighting some monsters that we'd never be able to get onto a film of WolfCop's budget, but there's an underlying arc of WolfCop's travels and eventual return to Woodhaven.

BB: For those familiar with the film, what will we see reflected from the movie in the new book? Any characters crossing over with your main protagonist?

MM: The first thing fans of the film will notice and likely be a bit confused by is that WolfCop's sidekick, Willie Higgins, who died at the end of WolfCop, has returned. There's something strange about him, but how he's come back is a bit of a mystery that gets alluded to over the course of the series. We also see the secondary protagonist, Tina Walsh, make an appearance.

I think we did a good job of getting across everything people loved about the film. The gore, the action, the '80s throwbacks and subtle references to Canadiana… It's all in there.

BB: Tell us about Police Officer Lou Garou as a character, including (for the uninitiated) how he found himself in his current … er uh, "hairy" situation.

MM: Lou Garou seems like a simple kind of guy. He's a small town cop who doesn't really care about his job. His dad used to be Woodhaven's chief of police before he died under mysterious circumstances, but being in his father's shadow really only motivated him to not try so hard. He's an unapologetic alcoholic and a bit of a slacker, and mostly lets his partner Tina do all the tough police work.

Basically, he's a loser who nobody really expects much from. And the shadowy group that controls Woodhaven has a generational ritual where they find guys like him and force them into a black magic ritual that turns them into werewolves for a ritual sacrifice. The idea is to find someone who is easy to control, and who the town won't really raise an eyebrow at losing.

What they didn't count on was that becoming a werewolf would suddenly bring out the best in Lou. When he's wolfed out, he declares himself "WolfCop" and suits up to fight Woodhaven's underworld with more motivation than he's ever shown in his life. What's more, the heavy drinking doesn't stop him – in fact, in this world, alcohol actually makes werewolves stronger. So this apathetic drunk of a cop suddenly has the power to make a difference in his town. And like we say sometimes, it teaches him to be a better man… one transformation at a time.

BB: Can you tell us about Woodhaven and some of its denizens (and perhaps some that will come as part of this series)?

MM: Woodhaven is one of those small towns that seems to be mostly untouched by the world around it. There's a feeling that the place never really left the 1980s. The people there are simple, salt-of-the-earth types with a weird streak and a love for booze. The favorite place for locals to get a late night snack is a chain store called "Liquor Donuts" and you can guess what they serve. Their annual hunting festival is called the "Drink and Shoot" where locals get hammered and go out in the woods with rifles to hunt down a legendary beast called the "Walking Bear."

What most people there don't realize is that Woodhaven was founded and controlled by a shadowy cadre of shapeshifters who use it as a front to create werewolves and ritualistically harvest their blood. Or they did, until WolfCop had anything to say about it.

Most of Lou's friends turned out to be less than trustworthy over the course of the film. But he does have one person he can rely on, and that's his partner Tina Walsh, the brains and police competence behind the dirty, hairy muscle that is WolfCop.

As I mentioned, for most of the comic WolfCop is on the road, in an area called "Woodhaven County" with its own quirks. He does return to Woodhaven eventually, and when he does, he's forced to deal with the reality that when you kill the shadowy overlords of a town, you leave a power vacuum that sometimes makes things even worse. Hard times have fallen on Woodhaven.

BB: Does Lowell Dean, writer and director of the WolfCop film, play any role as to story in the new Dynamite comic?

MM: Lowell has been involved every step of the way on this. Whenever I finish a script I send it to him for notes. I'm pretty familiar with the world of WolfCop and its characters now, but there are certain things that only the evil genius behind its creation can give you: Ways the characters talk, the extent of how strong he is, that kind of thing. The initial premise to take WolfCop out of Woodhaven and into the wider world was Lowell's as well, as I mentioned before. WolfCop was his brainchild, and it's very important to me that everything we put out is consistent with his initial and continuing vision for the character.

BB: How has it been working with Arcana Studios on the art chores?

MM: Arcana Studios has been a total pleasure to work with. Since our first meeting about making this happen, Arcana CEO Sean O'Reilly has been awesome at streamlining the process every step of the way. The art we've got just screams "WolfCop" on so many levels.

BB: Max, any projects current or near-future you'd like to tell us about?

MM: Well, it's been going around that WolfCop 2 is shot and we're rolling that out hopefully close to the comics. CineCoup media also completed its first non-WolfCop film this year, which is called Hellmington and should be seeing a release around the same time as WolfCop 2. It's also a horror film, but with much more of a suspense thriller vibe. It's not WolfCop, but it will have a feel to it that, once you've seen it, you'll understand that there's a particular vibe our studio is going for that goes beyond genre.

As far as comics, I don't have any other projects underway quite yet. But I've got to say, having written for almost every other medium in some way, this one was by far my favorite. I've always been a huge fan of comics as a consumer, but being involved in the process is something entirely different in the best way imaginable. I'm excited to keep contributing to it both for WolfCop and beyond.

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