Posted in: Comics | Tagged: alice cooper, Comics, David Mack, dynamite, Eman Casallos, entertainment, joe harris

Welcome To His Nightmare – Joe Harris Talks Alice Cooper

Published Thu, 10 Jul 2014 23:00:00 -0500

Alice Cooper has been a performer since he first took the stage fifty years ago, back then going by his real name of Vincent Furnier. Four years later he and his band created the persona of Alice Cooper and the rest became rock legend. That persona has entered the comic world on a handful of occasions first with Marvel Premiere and later with the Neil Gaiman written The Last Temptation. Now the enigmatic front man returns again in a new series from Dynamite written by Joe Harris. I chatted with Harris about the new series and what it's like writing a rock legend.

BLEEDING COOL: Let's start off with this has to be kind of an odd assignment in that you are writing about the persona of an actually person who is party of the creative process yet you are putting that persona in a fantasy world. How do you approach something like that?

JOE HARRIS: Well, "Alice Cooper" is a persona, and a pretty larger than life "character" already without my help… but I was given a lot of leeway to build this comics mythology out from some of the more well-known aspects of the "Alice-verse." My approach was guided by Dynamite's desire to do a monthly series that was reminiscent of some of his earlier appearances in the medium, but something wholly new.

BC: From what I understand Alice Cooper is involved in the project, but just how much? Was he part of the plotting? Does he get involved in the scripting stages? Does he get final approval on the finished comic?

JH: I'm assuming he's reading, or being read, what's been written and made so far.

BC: In the story Alice Cooper is the former Master of Dreams but had his powers stripped and he was imprisoned. Where did the idea of the dream involvement come from? How much of this was driven by the on-stage persona and how much was new to the table?

JH: The idea of dealing with dreams — nightmares, specifically — is a riff on Alice's "Welcome to My Nightmare" album. Not a direct tie in to what's been done, on any albums really, but a central element to our series that's reminiscent of something out of Alice's discography, his mythos, his legend.

BC: Now this is listed as an on-going series, so what is the long term outlook here? Is there an overall story going through the series or does it more focus on the people he inflicts the nightmares on?

JH: Alice is the central character of the series, if that's what you mean. There is an overall story arc building through this. In very, very broadstrokes: Alice Cooper, both the rock legend AND The Lord of Nightmares, has been out of action for a while. The world has changed. Music has changed. The things that scared us once don't scare us the same way anymore. And our long story really concerns his reestablishing himself on both fronts, learning from some of the mistakes that led to him almost losing everything, making some new ones, but really building toward a reconsolidating of his influence and power.

BC: How did you get involved in the project? Were you a fan of Alice Cooper's music prior to getting the assignment?

JH: Dynamite asked me the same question, and I was, so it felt like a fun thing for us all to try. I saw him years ago, when I was a kid, and just saw him again, live, a couple summers ago while he was opening for Iron Maiden.

BC: What, if any, connection is there between the new comic series and The Last Temptation series written by Neil Gaiman and Alice Cooper that Dynamite is going to republish shortly after your new series kicks off?

JH: None, really. It's reminiscent in that it features, at least our opening arc, Alice Cooper getting between a kid and some supernatural menace, but there's no direct continuity.

BC: You've got Eman Casallos doing interiors and David Mack doing covers. How much of the mood of the series is set by having the Mack cover? And what made Casallos the writer artist for this series?

JH: First off, the David Mack covers are the shit, aren't they? I'm just blown away when those come in. This is a fun project, and those are just so validating to behold.

Eman's doing a great job on this. Our Alice Cooper is trip, man.

For more on Alice Cooper #1, click here.

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