All in Black & White Interview with Chris Ryall - 2007

Welcome to our first interview at All In Black & White For 75 Cents! I've been doing them for a while over at The Aquaman Shrine and Treasury Comics.com, and getting to talk to people whose work I really admire is one of the greatest thrills of doing these blogs, if not my life!

So after I discovered the wonder that is--was(*sniff*) IDW's Doomed, I quickly went and found the previous two issues I had missed and by the end of the week I had read all three. I was thrilled that somebody out there had the idea and the drive(and the money!) to do a 21st century take on the classic Warren-type b/w horror magazine.

I was very sad to hear that Doomed was, in fact, doomed, sales-wise, and ended with its fourth issue, with host Ms.Doomed bidding us a not-so-fond adieu. Not too long afterwards, I emailed IDW's Chris Ryall--who not only is the editor-in-chief, but also wrote a lot of material in Doomed--and pleaded for an interview. Chris treated me better than Ms.Doomed would, and agreed to answer my questions:

All In Black and White: Did you grow up reading the Warrens and Marvel's b/w line?

Chris Ryall: I did, yeah. I didn't buy any of those mags every week, since I was a bit young and had to sneak them (Fantastic Four and X-Men were okay in my house, but Savage Sword of Conan and Eerie were harder sells on my parents). But whenever I did, I really loved reading them, even if I had to hide them inside Mad magazines to do so.
B/W: I love the idea of Mad being the magazine used to hide something else! Whose idea was Doomed?

CR: It started with Ted Adams, IDW's co-owner and President. He'd been trying to make a deal for the old Warren material for a while, and it just never came together. He and I both loved those mags before, so we worked on developing our own take on it as a tribute to that material.

B/W: Did retailers or Diamond have any concerns about it being in the magazine format?

CR: Any time there's a non-standard format, yeah, it can throw people a bit. But if we were going to do this, we wanted to make sure we did it right and not a watered-down (or sized down) version.

B/W: I think Doomed would've sold well at bookstores, indy record stores, and the like. Is it difficult to get comics and related publications into places like that?

CR: It really is, yeah. Difficult and expensive. And one thing we ran into when looking at that, which we really wanted, was the fact that we would've had to polybag the magazines for the newstands due to the adult content. For a new magazine like this, polybagging it would've been death. It needed the "flip-through" factor for people to see what we were doing.

B/W: Did you have any long range plans for Doomed, like certain creators or famous stories you wanted to go after?

CR: We intended to do the first four with the writers we had (David Schow, F. Paul Wilson, Richard Matheson, and Robert Bloch), but beyond that, yeah, I had a long list of other names I would've loved to work with on this.

B/W: Would Doomed's failure(sales-wise only!) keep IDW from trying the format again? Can you tell how much was the format, how much was the material?

CR: From what we heard, the format and the b&w thing made it difficult for some retailers to justify ordering. We're doing Transformers material in magazines right now(in full color), so we're definitely not put off of using the format. And we may yet try it again with Doomed, too. Ms. Doomed is hard to keep quiet forever.

B/W: Overall, how proud are you of Doomed?

CR: Honestly, it's one of the best things I ever worked on here. Makes me proud to have done a magazine like this that hopefully exposed people to some great short horror writing (I had no idea Robert Bloch was so diverse and amazing a writer before this, for example). It also got me my only Eisner nomination for "Best Short Story," too, so that's an added honor.

But in a market that pushes for so much similar material, I think we're all most proud of trying our best to produce something different and worthwhile. We'll keep doing that and see what happens with the next effort.

Doomed certainly was different and worthwhile. Thanks Chris!

Doomed #2 - IDW

So here we are, the last chance I''ll get to review Doomed(unless of course this blog generates some huge outpouring of support and IDW brings it back...could happen!).

The cover is by Jeremy Geddes, and kinda makes me a little queasy to look at it, which of course is the point. I'm definitely not a fan of the "gorno" genre; films featuring unflinching depictions of torture and mutilation, but I do like this cover because, like a lot of good horror, it's all implied. For all we know, this could be a gloss on the old "I don't know, Officer--he was like this when I found him!" bit.

We open with David J Schow's "Bagged" by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood, about how a Society that is forced to accept vampires in their midst. But not everybody is so accepting(you know how people are). It's ghoulishly funny, and once again Ryall and Wood make a heck of a team. C'mon, DC--let's revive House of Mystery or something and hand it over to these two, ok?

Next is "Crickets", by Scott Tipton and Mike Hoffman, adapted from the Richard Matheson story. It's about a nice couple--Harold and Jean Galloway--that find themselves on vacation who meet a strange guy whose convinced the crickets are speaking the names of the dead. Well, this vacation is shot to hell! Some beautiful artwork by Hoffman--it looks a bit like the work Frank Frazetta did for the first issue of Creepy.

Third is "The Warm Farewell" by Dan Taylor and Alex Sanchez, adapted from a Robert Bloch tale. A bunch of Klu Klux Klan knuckleheads come to a small Southern town, and one of them at least gets their just desserts. I would imagine the Klan is only second to the Nazis as a group that's perfect to star in a horror tale--you never get a more satisfying feeling of comeuppance than when you see a bad guy like a Klan member really get it.

F.Paul Wilson's "Slasher" is next, featuring a great art job by Tony Salmons. A man is consumed by vengeance for his daughter's murderer, but lets it cloud his judgement until it's horribly much too late. Salmon's storytelling is tough and effective here--I'd love to see his guy do a whole book of crime thriller stories like this one.

We end with an interview with Wilson, and then Ms.Doomed bids us a fond farewell...or as fond as she gets.

Another solid issue, as good as the first. I think I read both these first two issues back to back, and I couldn't wait until the next one. Had I known it just going to be these four issues, I woulda paced myself.

Farewell, Doomed!

Doomed #1 - IDW

Something I had worried about before--that IDW's super-cool Doomed is cancelled--seems to be true. When I saw that they were soliciting a trade collection called Completely Doomed, I asked the good folks at my local shop, All Things Fun, if that meant what I thought it did. Sadly, the answer was yes.

Apparently the whole retro black-and-white magazine format just didn't sell; and as if you needed any more proof, Completely Doomed is even in the regular comic book format. *sigh*

But I don't blame IDW--in fact, they deserve nothing but praise for even trying this. They weren't just ripping off Creepy for an audience that mostly wouldn't know better; no, they were using a classic format for a 21st century pass at a sophisticated, literate approach to horror comics, to create something classic yet new. It was enormously cool of them to give it a shot. I haven't yet reviewed the first two issues of Doomed, so let's just celebrate what they did, and get down to it!

Doomed #1's cover(the version I've got, at least--each issue came with alternate covers) is by Ashley Wood, and is creepy and weird, but a little sexy, too. Once we turn the cover, we meet the magazine's "host", Ms.Doomed, for the first time(who, like the cover, is creepy and weird, but a little sexy too), who promises us we "are all Doomed." And how!

The first story is an adaptation of Richard Matheson's "Bloodson" by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood, about a very strange little boy with an obsession over blood. Hard to go wrong adapting Matheson, and this sparsely worded and rendered take works very effectively--the world you see in this story looks weird and forboding, and when we see normal parts of life--a school classroom, a library--they feel distorted and off-putting, which is how the rest of the world sees this twelve-year-old. Nicely done.

Next is "Cuts", by F.Paul Wilson and Ted McKeever. It's about a guy who wakes up and finds his body is slowly turning against him, which of course scares all of us in some way or the other. McKeever's art is more cartoony here than his usual work, which fits with the ghoulishly goofy tone and kick-in-the-pants ending.

Third is "Blood Rape of the Lust Ghouls"(which is second only to "But Bork Can Kill You!" for the honor of Best Comic Story Title Ever)by Ryall and Eduardo Barretto, adapted from the story by David J. Schow. A hack screenwriter with a miserable life finds a portal into another dimension based on movies, and uses that to cover up some really bad behavior. It's a classic tale, told in the best EC tradition, with simply beautiful art by Barretto. He draws some of the sexiest women in comics, made moreso by their actual human-like proportions, unlike most of the women you see in comics now.

Robert Bloch's "The Final Performance", by Ryall(Ryall again? He's like the Archie Goodwin of IDW!) and Kristian Donaldson, is next, about a guy who drifts into a small town and takes a little too much notice of the comely wife of the local diner owner, a weird dumpy guy named Rudolph. They of course fall into bed, figuring they can pull one over on Rudolph. They're wrong. Nicely done, with a minimum of fuss and lots of dread.

We end the issue with an interview with author Schow, which is a nice touch, and only reinforces the whole classic-black-and-white-magazine thing. Marvel used to run interviews in their mags way back when, and I love that IDW did them, too. Then the sexy Ms.Doomed says goodbye, but promises us she'll return, and we had better be ready!

A fabulous start to Doomed, with solid, tough stories, each a little different in tone and look from each other. Ms.Doomed is right--I do want more!

Doomed #4 - IDW

It's a total joy when I got to my local comics shop and I'm handed the newest issue of Doomed. I know it's going to be the closest I'm ever going to come to that feeling of excitement and anticipation I had as a kid when I would find an issue of Creepy or Eerie on the racks.

After a one-page beration (?) by the mag's host/narrarator/mascot, Ms. Doomed, comes an adaptation of Richard Matheson's "Legion of Plotters" by Ted Adams and Ashley Wood. Wood's art is always exciting and effective, especially for these kind of paranoia stories. The scene of people eating lunch at a cafeteria is disquieting, even though nothing actually horrifying is going on!

After some horror-book reviews is "Faces" by F.Paul Wilson and Rufus Dayglo, a little more typical, House of Mystery-ish story, but it works in contrast to the more subtle creepiness of the first tale. Next is a horror-DVD review page (which made me want to rent Slither now) is "Coming Soon to a Theater Near You" by David Schow, adapted by Kris Oprisko and T.Cypress, which was a story I didn't quite grok, but the art was quirkily effective. I hope T.Cypress gets to do more Doomed stories (more on that in a second)!

After some short-fiction (short-fiction? wow, this magazine is a throwback!) is Robert Bloch's "Ego Trip" adapted by Joshua Jabcuga and Dario Bruzuela, which is a classically goofy-and-fun a-twist-every-two-pages kind of story. Completely ridiculous and very fun to read.

Last is a short bio of Richard Matheson, and then after that is something disturbing, and not in a good way--a final sign-off by Ms. Doomed, though she talks about being "finished off", and instead of the usual last page promo for the next issue, it simply says "Ms. Doomed--for everything there is a season." To me, that could only mean one--say it isn't so!!

Is Doomed cancelled? IDW makes no mention on their site of this being the last issue, but these last two pages seem awfully final. I figured a bw/ comic magazine, any kind, is a tough sell, but the product is so good that I hoped they were bucking a trend. I emailed IDW to ask, but have yet not received a response.

I sincerely hope Doomed isn't...doomed.

I'm Doomed! (Doomed #3 - IDW)

"Wow, somebody finally did it."

That was my first, and overriding, thought as I read the new magazine Doomed, from IDW Publishing. I just happened to see it in my local store, All Things Fun, on Friday. Being a fan of the whole comic/magazine format, I leafed through it, thought it looked kinda cool, and bought it.

So I just finished reading it, and while I did enjoy it, like I said my main feeling was more one of amazement. For years, I've had the idea in my head that someone should try doing a 21st century version of the classic Warren magazines like Creepy and Eerie. One of the main reasons the Warrens died was because they had just missed the explosions of comic shops and direct marketing, something Warren excelled at. I had always thought someone could put something together like that again, but with maybe a broader approach. In my more fanciful moments I dreamed I would just go ahead and put together such a magazine, and rope some of my writer and/or artist friends to help me, all Warren and/or horror fans as well. Not being a writer by trade or a sequential artist, the idea was a longshot at best, so it sort of stayed in the back of my mind.

But this new mag, Doomed, is pretty darn to close to what I had imagined. It has multiple stories, some adapted from classic authors like Robert Bloch and (my favorite!) Richard Matheson. It has two full-page front-and-ends-pieces featuring a mascot character, "Ms. Doomed", who is firmly in the Vampirella/Cain/Uncle Creepy tradition. It even has an old-school table of contents, plus DVD and book reviews.

The stories in this issue are hit-and-miss, but that didn't bother me. Without the cloud of nostalgia, I remember so were the Marvel and Warren mags. The opening piece, "Fat Chance", adapted from Bloch by Ted Abrams and Ashley Wood, is excellent, ghoulish fun, as is Matheson's "The Children of Noah", adapted by Scott Tipton and Nat Jones.

The third story, "Pelts", by F.Paul Wilson and James Owen, is a lot more amateurish and (to me) unnecessairily gory and drawn out, and the last story, "Visitation" isn't bad, but it doesn't match the first two efforts. The whole thing wraps up with an interview with author Jack Ketchum and his rememberances of his friend and mentor Robert Bloch.

The only thing(s) I'd say are missing is a strong editorial voice behind it, like the Warren and Marvel mags had, and I'd love to see a letters page (though maybe since this is only the third issue it's coming). And while the mag does deal with gruesome horror, it's nothing a teenager couldn't be exposed to, so the one lonesome F-word (in the interview portion) felt out of place to me.

But these are minor quibbles--for fans of classic comic book horror who still have their musty copies of Creepy, Dracula Lives!, and Monsters Unleashed, Doomed is a wonderful treat.