Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Chris Fason, Comics, Dan Taylor, Donald of the Dead, entertainment, Geek Punk, Hero Happy Hour

Zombies And Political Satire From The Guys Who Bought You Hero Happy Hour

Published Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:30:59 -0500

by Dan Wickline

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Dan Taylor and I go way back. We met on the Steve Niles message board years ago, I did a Hero Happy Hour story for him and he became my editor at IDW while I was working on the 30 Days of Night comics. Since leaving IDW, he's been focusing on his writing again and just wrapped up Hero Happy Hour after 15 years. So what is he up to now? He and his HHH co-creator Chris Fason is mixing horror and politics with Donald of the Dead.

DAN WICKLINE: You're best known property is Hero Happy Hour, how do you go from a comedy about superheroes after hours to lampooning the Republican Presidential nominee? What is it about Donald Trump that made him a target for your humor?

DAN TAYLOR: How do you NOT lampoon the Republican Presidential nominee? The reality TV star / businessman is as close to being a two dimensional cartoon character that a human being can possibly get. My Hero Happy Hour cohort Chris Fason (he does the art, I do the writing) recently shingled our super heroes hanging out in a bar comic series, but that didn't mean we were done working together. Our last Hero Happy Hour title, Hero Happy Hour Vs. The Supreme Leader lampooned North Korea's Kim Jong-un. So, I guess that was our warm-up into entering the political satire ring.

DW: So what is Donald of the Dead? How much of this is a zombie parody and how much is political satire?

DT: Donald of the Dead is a zombie story. Like many of the great zombie stories told before, our story features four people trying to survive while being stuck in a location overrun with zombies. This time around the zombies are mostly rabid Republicans under the spell of one Donald J. Trump. And, while we have fun with many of the classic zombie tropes, we actually are making a bit of a statement with the make-up of our group of survivors—a Muslim woman, a gay Latino, an African-American retired cop, and a pro 420 burnout. These four weren't just randomly thrown into our story. In light of today's headlines, they have a purpose to be in our story.

One of the advantages to publishing comics on Kickstarter is that we can focus on material that is timely and "ripped from today's headlines." Traditional comic publishing doesn't allow the quick turnaround production wise that we have utilizing Kickstarter. With pitching to publishers/editors, production, solicitation, and distribution via the traditional channels we wouldn't have this book out until well after the 45th President of the United States is inaugurated — and by then it my be way too late.

DW: Whose idea was Donald of the Dead, yours or Chris Fason's? And one the idea happened, how hard was it to convince the other person to get on-board?

DT: I'm fully to blame for initially coming up with Donald of the Dead. The title actually hit me first, and as I tend to do when I think of a title, I searched the internet to see if the domain name was taken yet. Turns out DonaldOfTheDead.com was available. A clever homage or blatant rip-off (whichever way you choose to look at it) at George Romero's classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead. Chris and I were kicking around what to collaborate on next when I sent him an email asking what he thought about a zombie project called Donald of the Dead. Twenty-six minutes later he emailed back saying he dug it and may have used the word "brilliant."

DW: Is this a one-shot or will there be more than one issue?

DT: Let's call it a "one-shot with the possibility of sequels and/or a spin-off." If the comic is well received and people want more "Trumpocalypse" then Chris and I can explore more orange hued nightmares in America.

DW: You've recently called it quits on Hero Happy Hour, something you've been doing as long as I've known you. How does it feel to have the bar closed?

DT: As cliche as it sounds… Bittersweet. I'm sad that I'm not hanging out with Hero Happy Hour characters at the Hideout Bar & Grill anymore. That comic, too, started out as a one-shot expanded to multiple issues, collected trades, anthologies, and even role-playing games. And while we retained a loyal fan-base during the fifteen years we did the book, parodying super heroes and their archetypes and tropes seemed to have run its course.

DW: Besides the new book, I know your attention has been on your beautiful new daughter. But what else writing wise do you have coming up?

DT: There is more Armarauders on the horizon. I'm just waiting for the green light from the powers-that-be. I'm always trying to persuade artists here and there into going into cahoots on collaborating on the next great-American-independent-comic. I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of pitches that are out there in various editors' email inboxes. And, I'm kicking around another Trump related project called Dystrumpia. Who knows with that? Depends on how the next couple of months play out, I think.

For more information please visit the Donald of the Dead Kickstarter campaign page at http://kck.st/2a8zyCH or donaldofthedead.com. Here is a preview of the book: