Tiny Robot Monkey Special Feature

"I Am A Slobbering Baboon." Says comics artist BEN TEMPLESMITH in conversation with JODY MACGREGOR, taken only slightly out of context.

Ben Templesmith made a name for himself drawing 30 Days Of Night, a horror comic about vampires besieging an Alaskan town during its month-long winter night. His vampires looked like nobody else’s; black-eyed and with gaping mouths like open zippers. Where did that look come from? “Sharks basically. They are primeval beasts and eating machines. Exactly what vampires also should be.”

After that came opportunities like the Silent Hill comic, a chance to write his own series about a loveable zombie in Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, and working with Warren Ellis on Fell, a crime series whose mysteries are so twisted they could make David Caruso have a facial expression. All of his collaborators on these books live overseas, and Templesmith keeps in touch from his home in Perth over the Internet.

Fell is a bold formal experiment, each issue telling a complete story while being priced at bugger all. It’s attracting an audience driven away by high prices and stories that never end. Given how cheap it is, the profit margin can’t be high, but it’s only a rumour that he’s living on instant noodles. “Warren worked it so I could get a little more from the split on the initial floppies which was incredibly nice of him.”

The stories are set in the fictional Snowtown (no relation to the South Australian town), a grimy, degraded city abandoned by the authorities and left to regress back to medieval squalor and superstition. Templesmith got inspiration for the look of the place from London’s seedier side, as depicted in The Bill, and the “virtual third world” areas of American cities.

Working with the fabled Warren Ellis was a dream come true for him. “Warren is pretty much the only writer I can honestly say I’d jump at working with on name alone. I am a slobbering baboon of a fan of his work thanks to what Transmet and some of his other books did to my frail young mind a few years ago.”

The artwork on Fell, like all of Templesmith’s work, is highly stylised. He makes use of a limited colour palette, making up for the lack of colours with added texture, especially in the backgrounds. “I take pictures and also make textures with paint, collage and what not. It’s all layering in Photoshop really. I tend not to do comics the traditional way, so it works for me.”

The unusual look of Templesmith’s art helped to sell the rights to a movie of 30 Days Of Night. It’s currently being filmed by David Slade, who directed Hard Candy as well as clips for Muse and Aphex Twin (those creepy bears in Donkey Rhubarb were his), with Sam Raimi producing. Templesmith jokes about the likelihood of Academy Awards, but is excited by the project. “I think it’s going to surprise people how big it may actually be. With David Slade directing, it’s going to be amazing. Now I’ve seen lots of his other work, I realize why they picked him to bring the property to life.”

The first collected volume of Fell is due out in April from Image Comics. The 30 Days Of Night film is likely to be released late in 2007.

^{CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE ARTWORK FROM BEN TEMPLESMITH}

Comments (3)

3. Written by cassie, on 26-04-2007 02:59 , IP: 66.4.225.11 nice page!

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