Posted in: Comics, Indie Comics | Tagged: cthulhu, Joe Brusha, man goat and bunny man, Ralph Tedesco, zenescope

Zenescope's Joe Brusha Talks Man Goat & the Bunnyman and Cthulhu

Published Wed, 13 Jul 2022 13:28:15 -0500

Zenescope Entertainment's Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco joined Bleeding Cool today to talk about the next installment of the company's horror/comedy title, Man Goat & the Bunnyman. Man Goat & the Bunnyman returns this week with the second volume, titles Green Eggs & BLAM! Let's see what Joe and Ralph had to say about this new series.

Man Goat & the Bunnyman: Green Eggs & BLAM! cover. Credit: Zenescope Entertainment

Man Goat & the Bunnyman is about to return with its second volume, Green Eggs & BLAM! What is the pitch for new readers who are interested in this title?

Joe Brusha: While the first story dealt more with Man Goat's past, this is more Bunnyman's story. In it, we learn about his past and how he came to have such a murderous rage trapped inside him.

Zenescope has dabbled with humor in the past with titles like Hollywood Zombie Apocalypse, but I've heard Man Goat & the Bunnyman referred to as part of a horror/comedy universe for Zenescope. You guys already have the interconnected Grimm Universe, so it's interesting to see another whole world emerge. What is the future for other titles in this horror/comedy universe?

Horror/comedy is something we gravitate to as writers, so those types of titles are always going to come out from Zenescope. We published the comedic illustrated novel The Monster Hunters' Survival Guide over ten years ago, but we've more recently decided to really turn that concept into a shared universe with Man Goat & The Bunnyman and following that up with All Guts, No Glory, which came out in late 2021. Neither of those aforementioned titles directly revolve around monster hunters, but both series have monster-hunting teams that play a part in those stories. We have a few ideas still in the early stages of what comedy titles can become part of that universe and also how we can also cross some of the characters over at some point.

Reading Green Eggs & BLAM! showed that this isn't only horror/comedy but also has sci-fi and big action elements. That blending of genres seems to be a major aspect of Zenescope, as the main Grimm Fairy Tales title has at times been a horror anthology, an epic fantasy, a jail exploitation vibe, a war comic, and more. Do you see genre-blending as a main focal point of what Zenescope does?

Joe Brusha: I'm not sure that we see genre-blending as the main focus of what we publish. We definitely lean toward horror, fantasy, and Sci-Fi stories. The characters of Man Goat and the Bunnyman are kind of ridiculous, so the humor elements were there from the beginning. I think we just let the stories go where they naturally want to go and try not to force anything. I usually don't go into a story saying this isn't going to be a blend of "horror and fantasy" or "we need to add some comedy to this." Some of the stories just naturally go that way.

Man Goat & the Bunnyman: Green Eggs & BLAM! interiors. Credit: Zenescope Entertainment

Can you give us a teaser at what scene from this Man Goat & the Bunnyman sequel you're most excited for fans to read?

Joe Brusha: My favorite scene in the story is the ceremonial Dogman feast which is the climax of the story and happens near the end of issue #3. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that there's a lot more on the menu than food and the main course is goat bunny stew.

In the past few years, Zenescope has changed in major ways. The publishing line used to focus on miniseries but has moved to oversized, often graphic novel-sized one-shots. The media content you put on YouTube and on livestreaming platforms has also become a major part of the company. From all of that to the use of Kickstarter, motion comics, and live script readings, it seems as if Zenescope is powered by excitement for new ideas. Can you give us a teaser of what we can expect Zenescope in 2023 and beyond?

Joe Brusha: Going into 2023, not much will change in terms of our publishing formats. We've had success with the long one-shot stories, so we'll keep rolling them out. The biggest news in terms of content is that we will be bringing the Cthulhu Mythos into the Zenescope Universe. That's been a lot of fun to work on, and readers can expect that to start surfacing in stories later this year. We will keep trying to run a new Kickstarter campaign every quarter. Next up, we have a horror boxed set which should run in August. And if everything goes according to plan, the most exciting news is that we will start self-producing films in the next eighteen months. We're working on a Tales of Terror production right now, and that will most likely be the first thing we release.