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Newsarama: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today Thomas.
I got to read the first issue of The Lycan, and I thought it was great.
Thomas Jane:We’re fans of Brotherhood of the Wolf, a terrific French film.
The cinematography in that thing is terrific.
If anybody hasn’t seen it, watch it.
But man, the movies are few and far between.
It was The Howling.
And I guess that kicked off my love affair with the werewolf genre.
We produce a show for Amazon called Troppo, which I direct, and produce, and star in.
And it did really well.
It was in the top ten on Amazon for weeks.
Courtney said, you know, we should really attempt to find a good graphic novel.
There’s a lot to love.
Mike wrote an absolutely fantastic script, and I love his historical dialogue, you know?
And so he was able to bring the story to life in really just a perfect way.
So I’m excited for folks to check it out.
You know, you mentioned that werewolves don’t get a whole lot of love.
Well, I mean, it’s your primal connection with the beast inside of all of us.
I’ve always been interested in Jungian psychology.
And there really is no better instantiation of the beast than the werewolf story.
And the other thing I love about The Lycan is that, ultimately, it’s a love story.
You know, it’s this sort of like Forbidden Love, lost love.
This is set in 1797, right?
But they’re like the wild child of the period.
They’re their own bosses, they do their own thing.
They’re highly skilled, and they’re all for one and one for all.
And then you’ve got the Red Coats they encounter.
You’ve done comics before, such as Bad Planet, and Alien Pig Farm 3000, among others.
What are the lessons that you’re bringing forward from those previous comics experiences to help shape this story?
Well, you know what?
It’s an art form, right?
It’s a craft, and the only way to learn a craft is to start doing it.
I also did a graphic novel with Thomas Ott and Tab Murphy called Dark Country, which is fantastic.
I love Thomas Ott.
And you’re able to always find simpler ways to get the information across in a striking way.
So that’s what’s fascinating to me about the comics.
You know, I have been a fan since I was eight years old.
And as a kid, this is just about the most boring thing you could ever do.
My mom is also an antiques collector and dealer, so I know all about that.
So you know, yeah, it’s just deadly hanging out.
And then the auctions, and the sawdust on the floor… And our house looked fantastic because it was all antique.
There was not one piece of modern furniture in the entire house.
And she’s still that way today.
But I would eventually find that cardboard box that’s full of comics, you know.
And that’s how I discovered comics.
And it was just like this weird glimpse into somebody’s sort of twisted imagination.
And I was like, whoa.
Now, what are we dealing with here?
And that really kind of set me off.
That’s my editorial capacity on this thing.
I was immediately taken aback by how good it looks.
And I’ll be like, “No, we have to zoom in on this.
This is an important moment.”
So that’s the job that I have as the director of the comic book, you know.
And I learn so much, it’s like a feedback loop.
I think Francis Ford Coppola said something similar.
Somebody said “Where do you get your inspiration for all these cool shots?”
and Coppola said, “Comic books.”
And that’s so true.
Speaking of art, you’ve got Tim Bradstreet doing the covers.
How did Tim come on board?
And I have been pals with Bradstreet since the very beginning.
And that’s how we met.
We hit it off, and we have become pals ever since.
Timmy is a comic book legend, you know, and his work is better than ever.
So that was a no brainer.
I also have Liam Sharpe another doing a cover for us, too.
And I just saw that the other week, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.
So I’m excited.
I’m excited for folks to check this out, you know?
And I also did a double cover.
When we do the print version, there’s going to be three double issues with wraparound covers.
So that’s been fun.
I’ve never done that before.
You know, working with the artist is really the most rewarding thing about doing these books.
Well, you know, we’re fans of genre over here.
My company Renegade, I like to think of it as an elevated genre company.
And genre includes westerns.
We’ve done a few of those.
Crime, which is Troppo, and science fiction and horror, because that’s really what I love.
But finding good sci-fi and horror scripts is insanely difficult.
And for me, creating characters that matter.
Fully fleshed out human beings.
So that is the goal all the time.
I want to ask you about working with Mike Carey.
I know he was very instrumental in bringing the story to the page.
Well it’s really me and David James Kelly who had the original outline for the story.
I worked with him on the outline, and we batted that back and forth a bunch of times.
And again, I was acting more as a director and producer on the story.
You know, cut this, add that, bring this more to the surface.
Don’t do that and that.
But when it comes to working with Mike, you don’t need to do any of that.
You just let him go.
And I got lucky, because Mike almost never adapts anything.
His stuff is always original.
And somehow, I asked him, and he just so happened to have a gap in his schedule.
And he liked the story.
You know, here’s the story, here’s where we are, here’s when we are.
And getting his instincts into the story is really why we have a comic book, you know?
If it weren’t for Mike, this would have just been another fun outline sitting in my drawer.
It’s all Mike, man.
Well, I’m very excited.
You know, the perfect story is always in your head.
And that’s very true with film as well.
And if you’re fortunate, it’s going to be better than what it was before.
It’s a perfect time to dig into the list of thebest horror comicsof all time.
