Templesmith and McCool Talk "Choker"

Artist Ben Templesmith should be familiar to horror comics fans, from his breakthrough with the original "30 Days of Night" comic to horror-comedy with "Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse" and supernatural mystery with "Fell".

He's been working on a new project with writer Ben McCool called "Choker" that's scheduled for early 2010, and they did some press at Comic-Con recently. Comic Book Resources did a longish interview with the duo, and it sounds like McCool not only shares Templesmith's tastes for depravity, tough women, and bizarre supernatural scenarios, but takes everything up a notch. If you liked "Fell" but wanted it to be weirder and have more elements of "Wormwood" or "Welcome to Hoxford," this is for you. I'm hoping the duo do some interesting things with the comic's official site before the book's release.

The CBR interview linked above is especially interesting in that it will be most people's introduction to McCool, "Choker" being his first big writing project. Some choice quotes from the interview are below...

BEN MCCOOL: I guess I'd better lay down the disclaimers, then: language used is dastardly goings-on are repellent, and the characters are so lewd you'll feel like only an industrial-strength jet wash will be able to rinse your tarnished conscience clean. Put simply, we're hoping to give Bill O'Reilly a Rush Limbaugh-resembling hernia.

Okay, okay, it's not all deprivation.

And then later, discussing one of the support characters from the book...

Good ol' "Dick-Punching" Flynn has a gruesome pair of trophies hanging from her rear view mirror, and appallingly, they were once a factor in her ex-husband's wedding tackle. Johnny's a little intimidated by their presence. Can't really blame him.

Yes, there is a character whose promotional art gives her name as "Dick Puncher." There's also aliens, inappropriate relations with strange entities, and if I understand correctly, possibly a possessed hand. Sounds like a winner to me!

Joey

Contributor