The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Regular contributor to the blog, the Megazine and many others spots, Matt ‘madman’ Badham has been confusing the Twitterverse recently with multiple references to needing more artists and some project, ominously entitled ‘Grinder’. Intrigued and not a little alarmed at the title (visions of giant robotic meat grinder stomping across the land devouring humanity; I must stop watching so many B movies) I decided to investigate and find out what these cryptic references to a title, the need for artists and taking turns with panels meant.

FPI: Matt, what’s it all about? Is this a new comics project or, as the name might imply, a fiendishly evil scheme for world domination under the guise of Project Grinder, doubtless to be conducted from some hi-tech underground lair?

MB: I’m a bit embarrassed to be answering these questions (you’ll soon see why). Still, I suppose this is an opportunity to flag up how rich and diverse the small press comics scene is in this country.

The short answer: GRINDER!! is the best deathsploitation comic I haven’t written yet.

FPI: Okay, you have me in that sort of fascinated by the promise of pulp and B movie references state I get into when I hear a new Tarantino is coming (you had me at ‘deathsploitation’), so what’s the long answer version?

MB: The long answer: last night Doug Noble (ace cartoonist) and I were chatting about the recent Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Story competition. One question we considered was whether a genre (sci-fi, horror, whatever) entry would have any chance of winning… our thinking was that winning entries would probably reflect the sensibility of the Observer’s art pages and that would rule out genre stuff. Anyway, we started to light-heartedly discuss the idea of entering a genre story next year to test our thesis. Before we knew it, we were bandying story concepts back and forth. Out of that was born GRINDER!! The basic plot is as follows (some of this came from Doug; some from me): Max Grinder is on the run in Mexico for a crime he didn’t commit. A corrupt cop framed him (Max was having an affair with his wife). The cops catch up with him, he’s accidentally zapped with an experimental teleportation device and teleported to a hostile alien planet.

(no, they’re not talking about Matt, its a scene from a recent page of Complex by and (c) Doug Noble, borrowed from his site)

Anyway, as the night went on, I found myself thinking that it would actually be a lot of fun to write GRINDER!! And get it printed up to flog at conventions for charity or just put it online. Problem: no artist, and who was I going to persuade to draw my mad ramblings anyway?

And then, sudden inspiration. I could ask lots of artists to contribute, each one providing one panel. Asking one artist to work for free for a whole comic felt wrong, even a page felt like I’d be taking the piss. But one panel on a not-for-profit enterprise that wasn’t taking itself too seriously, that felt like it might be fun for people…

(Of course, one artist per panel brings its own problems. For a 24-page comic that’s about 144 contributor copies before I even sell any.)

Anyway, I’m hoping that I can rope Doug Noble and Andrew Cheverton into helping me write the comic, although I’m not sure Doug is aware that I’ve taken the ball and ran with it (Andrew is now credited as a co-creator along with Doug after coming up with a two-word title for the first episode, but, boy, was it a good two-word title!)

I’m also hoping that I can persuade a musician friend to do a deathsploitation ‘John Carpenter’-like soundtrack that can be mounted as a free CD on copies of GRINDER!!

FPI: This year’s Cape/Observer/Comica winner has certainly sparked a fair bit of commentary on the blog (see here) and I suspect you’re right in that something overly genre would have less chance of winning (which is also the case in major literary awards all too often as well). Back to Grinder – from what you’re saying I’m guessing we’re going to be treated to some of the beloved staples of Grindhouse and B movies and pulp novels?

MB: Well, I have certain elements that I want to include:

Scorpions.

An intelligent, talking monkey.

Nuns.

A teetotal, slipper-wearing assassin.

Alien punks.

A comedy robot.

A handgun that blows up if used by anyone other than its owner (Dredd homage).

A philosophical bomb.

Mexican wrestlers (although I’m a bit worried about whether I can write Mexico and Mexicans without falling back on slightly racist clichés).

Subterranean creatures.

Clowns.

An alien religion.

Bikers.

More scorpions. Lots more scorpions.

FPI: Hopefully scorpions of the stinging, multi-legged variety and not the band… Are you ready to name some of the names involved and what they’ll be contributing?

MB: I’ll gladly name them, but they might decide not to contribute once they’ve read this interview.

I tweeted a request for artists who would be willing to draw one panel for me for a new comic I was doing. The following artists responded (check out their blogs and websites, gentle readers, they’re all fantastic. (Well, they’re not all fantastic artists. One’s a computer programmer. They’re all great people, though.))

They are: Gary Northfield, Andrew Cheverton, Chris Doherty, Paul Harrison-Davies, David O’Connell, Rob Jackson, Sarah McIntyre, Mo Ali, Vicky Stonebridge, Neill Cameron, Jez Higgins, Garen Ewing, Mike, Dan Berry, Philip Spence, Warwick J Cardwell and Jon Scrivens (and, possibly, a 2000 AD artist).

FPI: That’s a fair old list of talent to be starting off with! Is the title a homage to the affectionate term applied to the low budget, usually exploitation movies, Grindhouse?

MB: Yes. The whole exercise is also inspired by browsing Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit in a comic shop.

(cover to Prison Pit Book One, by and (c) the one and only Johnny Ryan, published  Fantagraphics)

FPI: Good old Johnny Ryan, you can always count on his corrupting influence. Are you planning to physically print and sell it or will it be online or, as is increasingly the case, will it be both physical and digital? Any ideas when you hope to release it and is there a site where readers can follow the progress of Grinder?

MB: Who knows? I’ll start a blog if and when I finish the first draft. Determined to release it if it’s good enough, even if all the artists have dropped out and I have to self-publish it as a script book with ‘concept art’.

FPI: Are you looking for more contributors and if so where do they get in touch with you?

MB: I am, but let’s hang fire for now. I’ll be in touch with more news when I have it (i.e., when the first draft of the script is written).

FPI: Matt, thanks for that, sounds like a fun project; we’ll be sure to post more on it further down the line and meantime you can follow Matt via his Twitter.