Horror Street: Interview with Jonathan Maberry

Interview with Jonathan Maberry:
[Alessandro Manzetti] In your first novel Ghost Road Blues, Bram Stoker Award 2006 winner, you write that Evil doesn’t die, it changes and returns. The location of the story is Pine Deep, a place haunted by supernatural Evil, but also from all of its human expressions. What is the Evil in your novel, and in what does it transform to?
[Jonathan Maberry] The main evil in the series is a vampiric spirit that rises from the grave of a werewolf.  This is something found in the folklore of the Vlkodlak of Serbia or the Mjertovjec of Belarus. Each of these are types of vampires whose nature is tied to werewolves, because in both countries, when either a Vlkodlak or a Mjertovjec werewolf dies it comes back to life as a vampire.  That’s a terrifying thought, so I used that as the core of the Pine Deep Trilogy, which includes Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man's Song and Bad Moon Rising. However, the novels also draw on other vampire and werewolf legends, including the craqueuhhe, a flesh-eating vampire from France. And we touch on the legend of the Benendanti, a kind of werewolf from Livonia, Italy and parts of Germany who fought other monsters on the side of heaven. And I explore the Gypsy myth of the dhampyr, the half-human child of a vampire. All of these monsters come into collision in the unfortunate little town of Pine Deep.
[Alessandro Manzetti] Were the Pine Deep Trilogy stories and their locations affected by your folklore, occult and paranormal studies?
[Jonathan Maberry] I’ve always had an interest in the occult and paranormal, and a deep fascination with myth and folklore.  There wouldn’t be a horror genre without beliefs in monsters from previous generations. Having written extensively on these subjects, I was somewhat frustrated by not being able to find many novels with folkloric influences. Most of the vampires and werewolves in popular books and movies are the modern ‘Hollywood’ versions, which bear little resemblance to the monsters of legend.  So, instead of continuing to complain, I decided to try my hand at writing such a novel.  Ghost Road Blues was that novel, and it was the first novel I’d ever written. The story I conjured was a big one, essentially a vampire epic, and I spread it out over three long books, finishing the trilogy with Dead Man's Song  and Bad Moon Rising .

[Alessandro Manzetti] In Patient Zero, Bram Stoker Award 2009 nominated, you introduce the character of Joe Ledger, an action hero, a typical thriller stories protagonist, and you tell about a very timely topic as the bioterrorism. In this novel you use again supernatural creatures like zombies. The novel belongs to two different genres, how did you manage to bring together these different souls in your novel?
[Jonathan Maberry] For me, zombies are monsters created by science rather than magic. Even in Haitian voodoo beliefs the zombie is brought to life using chemicals -a discovery made by the noted ethnobotanist Dr. Wade Davis in his landmark book, The Serpent and the Rainbow. In Patient Zero the zombies are created by combining a real-world prion disease with various parasites. I tackle scientifically-created zombies again in the forthcoming novel, Dead of Night,  which debuts in October.  In that, the zombie plague is started by a mishandling of a bioweapon developed during the Cold War. That bioweapon uses genetically-altered versions of various parasites actually found in nature, including the jewel wasp. However, the Joe Ledger series does collide a bit with the supernatural in a couple of different places.  In the short story, Material Witness, Joe Ledger and Echo Team travel to Pine Deep on a case and encounter some inexplicable events.  In I introduce a character called Nicodemus in the third Joe Ledger novel, The King of Plagues, who is not at all ‘natural’.  Nicodemus is a trickster, and he will show up again in the fourth novel, Assassin's Code, which I just finished writing. I love stories where science and the supernatural come into contact.  It gives a writer so many toys to play with!

[Alessandro Manzetti] Since 2009, you’ve been writing scripts for Marvel, starting by Black Panther, then Wolverine and the mini-series DoomWar and Marvel Universe Vs. Punisher, set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Marvel universe. What was the inspiration of the apocalyptic impression of this project? It reminds us of  Richard Matheson's  I Am Legend
[Jonathan Maberry] Marvel Universe vs the Punisher has its roots in my own boyhood.  When I was fourteen I met and spoke with Richard Matheson, author of I Am Legend.  Matheson has been a huge influence on me -in my thinking and in my writing.  His novel was the first mainstream crossover between science fiction and the supernatural, and Joe Ledger owes a debt to him as well as my Marvel work. The other ‘grandfather’ of the Marvel Universe vs the Punisher is George Romero. His movie, The Crazies (the original 1971 version) was always one of my favorites.  It changed the perspective of an outbreak to the point of view of someone trapped inside of it, much like he did with Night of the Living Dead. However instead of the hero being a trapped victim of the outbreak, the protagonist in The Crazies  was actively fighting back. Now roll forward to modern day. Marvel has been running its enormously successful Marvel Zombies series for years now –and I had the pleasure of contributing to that franchise as part of the writing team for Marvel Zombies Return.  However, I pitched a series to Marvel that was a non-zombie story, built more on the I Am Legend model, but with a twist. Instead of a scientist fighting for a cure, we’d tell it as a super-predator (the Punisher) working to destroy a new breed of cannibal predators. My editor at Marvel jumped at it.  The series was highly successful when released as a four-issue limited series and again in hardback.  The trade paperback of the series was just released. While writing the series, I pitched a number of related stories, some set before the events in the Punisher series; and others set afterward.  I got a green light to write a four issue prequel, and the first issue of Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine was released in late June. Readers, critics and comic book stores owners are raving over it, which makes me very happy.  There are plenty more stories to tell in this world.

[Alessandro Manzetti] From comic book to film. You wrote the novelization of the 2010 remake of The Wolfman, film starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. The Wolfman character and werewolf stories are still very current, retains a strong emotional impact on the public, in film and literature. What is the secret of this longevity?
[Jonathan Maberry] The werewolf is a standard storytelling trope: a person whose raw inner beast breaks free of civilized control and emerges in a reckless and violent way.  It’s the same essential model as Jekyll and Hyde, and you can trace thematic elements of it back to the murderous rage that compelled Cain to kill Abel. Even though the beast that emerges is destructive, there is also something beautiful about it in terms of its purity.  It is pure animal, a perfect predator and we are its natural prey. I’m developing a new werewolf novel that draws on the Benendanti model, which will allow me to explore how a person learns to establish control over a deeply violent and destructive nature.  The protagonist in the novel will be a former policeman now working as a private investigator.Writing The Wolfman was a lot of fun. Universal Pictures gave me quite a lot of creative freedom, so I put my heart into it and wrote the best book I could.  I was delighted when the book landed on the New York Times bestseller list, and again when it was nominated for the Scribe Award for best Adaptation.


[Alessandro Manzetti] Are memories an important part of your work and of your life? if yes how? And how do you see yourself in future in terms of private life and work? Are you afraid of the future?
[Jonathan Maberry] All of my writing draws on some degree of personal experience.  I was raised in a violent and abusive family situation, and I grew up in a neighborhood that was rife with racism, intolerance and crime. There were a lot of opportunities to make very bad decisions and perhaps even become a bad person, but because of exposure to books -and from studying martial arts -I learned a set of useful values.  I read books about heroic people who made stands against monsters -real or fictitious. From Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockinbird  to Peter Parker in Spider-Man to Captain Horatio Hornblower in the novels of C.S. Lewis, I built a genuine set of ethics and values. When I started writing fiction, I drew on the challenges I faced.  In the Pine Deep Trilogy, there is a subplot involving an abused boy –Mike Sweeney -who rises above his past to become the person he wants to be.  Joe Ledger is also the victim of childhood trauma, and he uses that as the forge for building an iron will.  Both of these characters are similar in that because they’ve experienced abuse they are strongly determined to prevent harm from coming to others.

As for the future…I’m a political realist. I have a solid degree of optimism, but I can also see the real dangers that surround us, from possibly irreparable damage to the ecology of the planet to a new nuclear arms race to racial and religious intolerance.  Some of these are new chapters in very old books, while others are new dangers. I can’t and won’t accept that the future cannot be saved or that we are rushing toward an apocalypse without hope. Something must be done, even if I can’t imagine what that is. Writing Rot & Ruin is a reflection of my views.  If my generation can’t fix the problems we’ve created, then it will be on the next generation (however unfair a burden it is) to do so.  I believe they will, because they want a future. They are inheriting a broken world and a damaged society, but they still have to live on planet earth. Their hope, their optimism, their ingenuity, and they natural survival instincts will create a solution. I just hope I’m here to see how they do it.

[Alessandro Manzetti] Let's go back to your novels: In Italy has been recently released your novel Rot & Ruin published by Delos Books. We are again in post-apocalyptic world, living scenarios of desolation that will be the scene of the clash between the human and the undead, the zombies. Zombie genre is now living a moment of great interest and demand, both in the U.S.A and Europe. What shall we find in this novel? How was your novel in U.S.A?
[Jonathan Maberry] Rot & Ruin is the first of a series of four novels featuring teenager Benny Imura, who was not yet two years old when the zombie apocalypse destroyed the world.  He and his friends have grown up in a fenced-in town in California. The rest of the world is the great zombie wasteland known as the Rot & Ruin. Benny’s brother, Tom, is a revered zombie hunter who looks for specific people who have been turned into monsters and gives them closure on behalf of their families. When we first meet Benny, he despises Tom and believes that he is a coward who abandoned their parents during ‘First Night’, the eve of the zombie apocalypse. As the story unfolds, however, Benny learns the truth about his brother, about what happened to their parents, and about the world in which they live. Benny goes through a radical and painful awakening. The story is written for everyone to enjoy, teen and adult. It’s a coming-of-age tale which explores the value of human life.


[Alessandro Manzetti] And now, two Horror Street classic questions:In this heading we try to learn about new landscape of horror literature, through direct experience of the authors. What are the new trend of horror? Could you name some new authors who are conducting original projects?
[Jonathan Maberry] We’re very fortunate to be witnessing a renaissance in horror fiction. There are many new genres and subgenres in horror, ranging from the urban fantasy tales of Laurell K. Hamilton and Jim Butcher, to the paranormal romances of  L. A. Banks and Sherrilyn Kenyon, to mainstream horror like Justin Cronin and Scott Smith.  But some of the most exciting horror.  Zombie fiction has become its own genre, and it is growing in strength thanks to books like Dead City by Joe McKinney, Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Browne, Dying 2 Live by Kim Paffenroth, and Feed by Mira Grant. We also have a resurgence in the classic ghost story, thanks to Sarah Langan; and bold new werewolf fiction from W. D. Gagliani and David Wellington. And there are strong movements within Middle Grade and Young Adult horror fiction.  Neil Gaiman, Carrie Ryan, Cherie Priest, Heather Brewer, and Dan Wells are leading the pack with chilling stories written to frighten a new generation of kids.  And these are kids who have become very jaded, so jolting them takes real effort—but these new writers are doing just that!
[Alessandro Manzetti] We leave the reader to imagine of walking along a dark and lonely road going back home, and having to turn the corner. Who (or what) does he find around the corner?
[Jonathan Maberry] Around the corner are shadows from which strange whispers echo.  The whispers sound like the voices of their friends, but the closer they get to the shadows the more something feels…wrong. But by the time they realize that there is something very, very wrong, it’s too late to run.  The hungry shadows need to be fed.
Thanks Jonathan for being the guest of Il Posto Nero Blog.
Interview by Alessandro ManzettiHWA Associate Member
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Profile:Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and Marvel Comics writer.  His novels include the Pine Deep Trilogy –Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song and Bad Moon Rising; the Joe Ledger thriller series --Patient Zero, The Dragon Factory, The King of Plagues, and Assassin’s Code; the Benny Imura Young Adult dystopian series -Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay, and Flesh & Bone; the film adaptation of The Wolfman and the standalone horror thriller –Dead of Night.  His nonfiction books include the international bestseller Zombie CSU, The Cryptopedia, They Bite, Vampire Universe and Wanted Undead of Alive.  He has sold over 1200 feature articles, thousands of columns, two plays, greeting cards, technical manuals, how-to books, and many short stories.  His comics for Marvel include Marvel Universe vs the Wolverine, Marvel Universe vs the Punisher, DoomWar, Black Panther and Captain America: Hail Hydra.  He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse and co-founder of The Liars Club; and is a frequent keynote speaker and guest of honor at conferences including BackSpace, Dragon*Con, ZombCon, PennWriters, The Write Stuff, Central Coast Writers, Necon, Killer Con, Liberty States, and many others.  In 2004 Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame, due in part to his extensive writing on martial arts and self-defense.Visit him online at: Web Site