Miles Gunter Talks Yeti vs. Vampire
Posted by dominie in Comics, Interviews on September 25th, 2008
Following his review, Dominic was able to catch up with Miles Gunter, author and creator of the upcoming comic Yeti vs Vampire (with art by Kelsey Shannon), so by all means enjoy the following interview!
Famous Monsters: How did you develop your love for monsters?
Miles Gunter: Like most people I fell in love with them as a result of observing Halloween as a kid and going to haunted houses. That was back when you would go to a haunted house and the people working there would grab you (laughs). It was terrifying. But then I guess they passed laws forbidding that. So it was that and movies of course: starting with the Universal Monsters, Godzilla movies, Ultraman and that quickly dovetailed into things like the Salem’s Lot miniseries, The Howling, Alien, Funhouse, The Thing, the Werewolf TV show. All the great late 70s, early to mid 80s stuff.
FM: How did you come up with the interesting premise of Yeti vs. Vampire? A vampire fashion designer with werewolf, and various monster henchmen, hunting a yeti for fur is actually quite awesome if you ask me.
MG: Thanks! I had developed the vampire character years ago when I was going to art school in Savannah, Georgia. During the Civil War, Savannah surrendered to the North; it didn’t get burned like Atlanta. So you have all these beautiful old buildings full of history. And when the sun goes down there, the evil comes out. There is a huge amount of darkness in that place. At that time, a lady friend had turned me onto Bret Easton Ellis’ short story collection the Informers which has a really crazy vampire in it. I think that book and the creepy feeling of Savannah at night were the things that inspired me to make my own vampire.
Having a Yeti fight my vampire fashion designer just seemed like the kind of thing that I would want to read as a fan. As it progressed I added the werewolves and started creating my own monsters (which appear in issue 2). I always liked how in Disney’s Beauty in the Beast everything in his castle was his friend and I wanted to do something similar with the Vampire, where she is surrounded by monster minions. But she is the big enchilada.
FM: How closely did you work with Kelsey Shannon on the look of the book?
MG: Pretty closely. My scripts are visually specific, but I try not to be controlling: like I don’t tell him what angle to draw from or what kind of socks the werewolves wear. Nothing like that. We grew up with a lot of the same influences so if I say, “I want the Vampire to glide into the room like Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China, or I want shadowy Rob Bottin lighting on the werewolf as he reforms” he knows what I mean.
FM: Do you believe Yeti/Bigfoot exist?
MG: Sure. Why not? Even with all of our advancements in technology, there is still more unknown than is known in our world.
FM: This comic is like a monster battle royal, are you a fan of Godzilla, and if so were you partially influenced by Destroy all Monsters, albeit on a less giant monster scale.
MG: I was probably more influenced by Waxwork, an 80s horror film that is a monster bonanza. It’s such a fun horror movie. I think I was also influenced by Fright Night 2 and Monster Squad. Both movies with a variety of monsters. But I do have deep affection for Godzilla, Gigan, Megalon and all the rest (except Mothra) and I hope to do a giant monster/giant robot story in the future.
FM: I know this is a four part miniseries but, are there any plans to continue the story in a monthly series?
MG: There are no current plans to continue. But Kelsey and I are developing a follow up project called Werewolf Samurai which will have lots of crazy futuristic monsters. We want to make it our love letter to Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards.
FM: What made you choose comics as an outlet for your story telling? Who are your comic and horror influences?
MG: Comics is the freedom to do anything. The only limits are your imagination and effort. I think there are things that you can only do in comics. With this current phase of horror cinema, it seems like the monster has gotten the short end of the stick. There just aren’t enough monster movies! So I am trying to give horror fans a monster experience they can’t get anywhere else.
For this book I was heavily inspired by an old manga called Fist of the North Star by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. But there’s also some Simon Bisley, Richard Corben and Peter Milligan in there too. Milligan’s Face is my all time favorite horror comic. My horror influences are mostly make-up effects artist like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Stan Winston, Tom Savini and Greg Cannom. Cannom’s werewolves in the Werewolf TV show are my all time favorite werewolf design. They are like gorilla/grizzly bear wolves. There used to be a bar in Manhattan that had a life-size hologram of one of these guys. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a bar. I also have to give a shout out to Tobe Hooper’s Barlowe in Salem’s Lot. This is the only vampire that to this day, still freaks me out. He is so inhuman. A lot of it is the sound design and the way it works with his performance
FM: One of the things I really liked about the comic was the fact that the werewolves spoke to one another. Why did you decide to make the werewolves conscious of their actions, i.e. able to communicate like when they are in human form?
MG: I guess I tried to portray the kind of werewolf that I would like to be (laughs). Who wants to be a werewolf and not be able to talk? That would suck. There have been so many serious werewolves in the past. Being marked by the beast doesn’t have to always be so fatalistic. It can be a blast too. It just seemed more interesting to create a camaraderie between them. Friendship is a big part of human life. So why not for werewolves?
FM: Miles, I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to Famous Monsters. In closing is there anything you’d like to say to our readers about upcoming projects or your thoughts on the horror/terror genre in comics?
MG: Ask your comic retailer about Yeti vs. Vampire. The first issue is only 99 cents! And for more information, you can check out our blog at yetivamp.blogspot.com or join our page on Facebook!
