“The idea originally came to me while I was reading a book by a guy who had formed a “channelling” group to contact the spirits of the dead. I did some research and found that, although it’s ignored by the mainstream media, channelling has a huge audience all over the world. I wondered what would happen if, instead of channelling one of the boring spirits who advocate peace and love, somebody managed to channel the spirit of some long-forgotten scion of evil.”
(some lovely, stylised artwork from Channel Evil by Shane Oakley, published Renegade/Berserkser)
“I used to own a flotation tank, it was soundproof, and totally dark. Once, when I was in the tank, I was thinking about a Batman story I was working on, which featured a villain known as Cornelius Stirk. Stirk suffered from severe mental illness, which he “treated” by cutting the still-beating hearts out of his victims and then consuming them. The thought suddenly flashed through my mind: “This is what I do for a living…and it’s evil!” Immediately, and to my terror, a disembodied voice said clearly: “You think that is evil? I can show you what evil really is!” Chills ran up and down my spine. I broke out in a cold sweat. I was out of that tank faster than a ferret up a drainpipe! When I’d calmed down and thought about it, I realised that – whatever the reality of what had happened – it was a brilliant base on which to build a story. I hope it frightens readers as much as it terrified me,” Alan Grant explains where the inspiration for the story of Channel Evil came from, a new horror series Alan is doing with Shane Oakley (Deadline, Albion and many more) and Jamie Grant for Brighton-based Renegade Entertainment and Belfast’s Berserker Comics (who Alan has worked with before), with the first issue due to hit shelves this month.
(cover to issue 1 of Channel Evil, art by Shane Oakley)
Ironically I recall Alan saying at the Edinburgh Book Festival that although he often writes horror (I think he was talking about The Dead for Berserker at the time) he actually avoids watching horror movies himself after a bad experience in a cinema years ago (drugs may have been involved). Doesn’t stop him writing in the genre though!
Leave a Reply