Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: barb wire, Chris Warner, Comics, dark horse comics

Steel Harbor's Badgirl Bounty Hunter Returns – Chris Warner On The Re-Launch Of Barb Wire

Published Mon, 13 Apr 2015 16:00:00 -0500

By William Wright

One of the biggest announcements to emerge out of Emerald City Comic Con's Dark Horse Comics panel was the news that Barb Wire will return in July 2015. The series will be written by Chris Warner, who also created the character in the early '90s, and drawn by Patrick Olliffe (Untold Tales of Spider-Man), with covers by the legendary Adam Hughes.

Warner recently sat down with Bleeding Cool to discuss the resurrection of comics' badgirl female bounty hunter, and the hurdles the creative team faces with making modernizing the character for today's audience.

William Wright: The obvious question everyone wants to know is, why bring back Barb Wire now?

Chris Warner: Well, now is the only time we could bring it back, since we can't change the past, and the future isn't here yet. There is no better time for now than the present. I dunno, just seemed like a good time to do a fun book and kick some ass. Over the years I've wished that comic books were more like comic books and not the deadly serious, overwritten, postmodern, continuity-strangled torture chambers so many have become. I read a typical mainline comic book these days and I want to jump off a bridge, which interferes with all my other reasons for wanting to jump off a bridge.

WW: How is this iteration of the character different from the previous incarnation?

CW: From what I've written of Barb in the past, the character remains pretty much who she was, but the landscape around her is changing. The new series isn't hugely referential to the past, but it's not really a so-called reboot either. If you've read Barb Wire before, you'll be right at home, but if you're new, you'll have no problem catching on. It's better than ever and better than never! I have no idea what that means.

WW: What can you tell us about the supporting cast for the series? Will characters like like Barb Wire's brother Charlie return?

CW: While there are plenty of new characters, here are a number of familiar faces: Barb's brother Charlie, dopey rocker Alonzo, gang leaders Mace Blitzkrieg and Hunter, and radio talk-jock Barry Braunschauer, though that's more a familiar voice. We're definitely putting the band back together, just louder.

WW: The 90s version of the character was lumped into the bad girl craze that exploded in that era, where female characters were using their sexuality as a weapon. Do you think that characterization of Barb Wire in the 90s was unjust and if so, how have you changed the character to make her more modern?

CW: "Lumped in" is right. I think anyone who read the original Barb Wire comics would tell you that the "bad girl craze" characterization is inaccurate. The comics never really featured sexuality as any overt part of Barb's arsenal. I never created the character or wrote the book as fan service. Barb looks hot, just as most male action characters in comics look hot, but that was about as far as I wanted to take it–look good, kick ass. If you read the Barb books I've written—try "Ace of Spades" in the Barb Wire Omnibus—I think it's fair to say that I was writing straightforward action/superhero comics in which the title character happened to be a woman. I have no interest in pandering, neither am I qualified to speak for women, so the book should be thought of as what it is: a fun, action-focused comic spiced with my own sweet-and-sour world view. And there's plenty enough of that to go around, believe me.

WW: Today's comic readership is made up of a lot more female readers than when the character was last published. How do you appeal those women readers with a strong and sexy female character?

CW: Failure is the typical result of trying to appeal to this audience or that audience, so I don't worry about that stuff. Barb is a strong, complex character who does the best she can to make her way in a tough world, and she doesn't always succeed. I think everyone can relate to that. I'm trying to write the best book I can, and while I'm not writing Barb Wire "for" anybody, I'm confident that readers who give it a shot will enjoy it. In fact, I've found that Barb Wire readers tend to be highly intelligent and incredibly good looking, so there's that.

WW: When character was first introduced, bounty hunting wasn't something that many people even knew existed. Now with reality television shows like Dog The Bounty Hunter and U.S Bounty Hunters, have really brought the profession into the limelight. Has that shaped the way that you wrote this incarnation of the series?

CW: I've watched some stuff just so to get a handle on how the gig works in the "real" world, but I'm not pretending that Steel Harbor is the real world. I do give a tip of the hat to these shows, though, in that as the series begins, Barb is being filmed for a possible reality show of her own. This is mostly for comic relief—though almost everything in the book is fodder for comic relief!

WW: In the initial series the city of Steel Harbor played a large role in the series and was almost like a member of the supporting cast, in the same way Gotham is to a character like Batman. How does this version of Steel Harbor factor into the series?

CW: Steel Harbor is the same city, but like in a lot of places in urban America, the landscape is changing. Gentrification has come to Steel Harbor, bringing both the good and bad that comes along with it. About a year ago I was priced out of the apartment I'd inhabited for over twenty years. I saw a great neighborhood with an eclectic mix of people and businesses become, as reported in USA Today, one of the ten hottest neighborhoods in the country, and rapid development and speculation utterly changed the area in a few short years and caused rents and housing prices to skyrocket. If you were to ask me what I thought of the changes, you'd get a much different answer than if you asked the hipster down the block, who probably thinks he's moved to heaven on Earth. That's sort of the background hum in Barb Wire: struggling with change. While you're fighting crazed supervillains, of course, as I often do.

WW: Does Barb sill own and operate her own bar (The Hammerhead) in this series?

CW: Oh, yeah. The Hammerhead is really the centerpiece of the stage. Characters between a rock and a hard place are always the most interesting, since that tug of war brings out who we really are, good and bad. What Barb really wants, or at least thinks she wants, is to have a successful, kickass rock-and-roll club. What she has to do to keep the dream alive is chase down crooks, creeps, and creatures to pay the bills. A lot of us have jobs that feeds the bulldog so we can continue to follow the dream, to pursue our passions. I'm still in a punk-rock band after all these years, for Christ's sake, far from any hope of success. In a measured cost/benefit analysis, the endeavor is a waste of time–which occurs to me every time my ancient carcass has to haul gear–but I can't get the hunger for a cranked vintage Marshall at my back out of my system. I can't let it go. And that's another below-the-surface element that drives the series: how long do you hang on to the dream?

WW: This time around you are working with artist Patrick Olliffe on the series. What was it about his style that made him the perfect choice for the visual look of the book?

CW: As an editor, I worked with Pat Olliffe a few years ago and really enjoyed the collaboration–I thought of him right way for Barb Wire. He's talented, a total pro, and a great guy. Most importantly, Pat can tell a story. The industry has a lot of artists who can draw like crazy but can't tell a story. I used to push a pencil for a living, and visual storytelling is what drawing comics is all about, not just making pretty pictures. Without the artist's commitment to visual storytelling, a comic-book story never really sinks its teeth into you. Reading a comic-book story without good visual storytelling is like trying to eat a steak with a spoon. Pat draws like a sonovabitch, but he tells a story like one, too. And he draws purty ladies, which is sort of important when your main character . . . well, is one. By the way, we got plenty of purty gentlemen in the series, too. It's kinda like a Milan runway, but with motorcycles and fights. I guess it's exactly like a Milan runway. And speaking of drawing beauties, Adam Hughes is doing our covers. You don't need a map to know where that goes.

WW: If we took a look at the last project you had open on your computer screen, what would we find?

CW: Does bingeing on True Detective for the fourteenth time count as a project? Seriously, you'd find Barb Wire #6 on my screen, which I'm currently chipping away at. Writing is hard work! I mean, I already have a day job editing at Dark Horse. I like to think of myself as a devoted idler, but I'm spending a lot of time writing, drawing, and playing guitar these days, so apparently I'm not quite the layabout mountebank I hoped to be. I am a great disappointment to myself. Luckily, all these activities can be accomplished with the TV on, so I can still feel like a malingerer even when I'm getting stuff done. Thanks, television!

William Wright (aka BigJ) has been working as a freelance writer since the days when magazines were actually physically printed. William actively writes about comics for Bleeding Cool, Bloody-Disgusting, and is a huge fan of all things horror.

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