“Rotten” is a surprise on many levels and not exactly what you’d expect from a comic that traffics in zombies. First off, it’s set in the Wild West of 1877. And it’s packed with a number of issues that parallel our own time like Americans forced to accept a president who has not been elected by popular vote. Or Americans being manipulated during a crisis. I sat down with “Rotten” creator, Mark Rahner, and began with this tongue-in-cheek question: “Is there room for ‘Rotten’ to address universal health care?”

With a chuckle, Rahner quipped, “Being uninsured today sort of leaves you as screwed as you would have been in 1877. And, by the way, when they have those historic reenactments, they never have displays of people who lost all their teeth by thirty.” He then adds, “You’ll see a lot more connections. In Issues 7 thru 9, for instance, we’ll have a story arc about the denial of evolution. It’s to my shock and dismay that this is still an issue for debate but it is. Science exists independently of whether or not you believe in it.” Any chance of a direct reference to Sarah Palin? Rahner doesn’t rule that out but he stresses that you won’t be getting an obvious pop culture fix like a lab mouse reaching for its next food pellet.

In the upcoming Issue 5, one of the characters delivers a wonderful Shakespearen quote: “Have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?” Very classy and all too relevant to 1877 or today. Rahner: “With something like that, it helps to stress that this isn’t a cliché Western. It also underscores the fact that if anyone thought that just with Bush gone we’ve returned to reason is mistaken. And that quote hits on the central theme running throughout this comic: Americans being manipulated during a crisis, when fear trumps reason.”

Mark Rahner, and co-writer Robert Horton, have both written professionally as movie critics. Rahner calls himself the more boisterous one and Horton the more thoughtful one which sort of parallels the main characters, Agent William Wade and his trusty aide, J. J. Flynn. “We often talk and act like our characters,” says Rahner. Given their backgrounds, these guys are quite capable of seasoning their writing with just the right movie reference. In No. 1, you’ll find references to “The Molly Maguires” and “Yojimbo.” In 4 - 6, you’ll find the spaghetti Western, “The Great Silence.”

Aside from movies, Agents Wade and Flynn, share a vibe with James T. West and Artemus Gordon from the TV show, “The Wild Wild West” and, maybe even more so, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. “It wasn’t something we set out to do but, the Holmes/Watson connection is there. The story is in Flynn’s voice. It can’t be Wade’s. It can’t be from his perspective since he’s right in the middle of it all.”

I talked to Rahner more about horror movies. He prefers his horror to be serious and to be about something like George Romero and his movies, notably “The Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead.” Getting back to the Holmes/Watson dynamic, Rahner suggested a classic horror movie with humor, “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter,” which “has a roving heroic hunter of monsters with a sidekick. It’s by the same creators of the TV show, ‘The Avengers’ and has that same wit.” Rahner even likes the sendup of the zombie genre and satire on society, “Shaun of the Dead.” But, as for “Rotten,” it is not going to break out of character. As Rahner says, “We are getting back to the roots and making it serious and about something.”

With the brilliant art of Dan Dougherty, “Rotten” is the real deal all the way around. When asked about Dougherty, Rahner admits that it’s not easy to work with Mark Rahner. “Dan will ask if he can spread out on the page something and I’ll just say, no, we have too much to cover.” Whatever the case, the final result is a comic that just keeps growing creatively and continues gaining buzz. FHM recently suggested that it’s only a matter of time before “Rotten” becomes a movie. “We’ve thought about that. We were thinking it could be cool to turn it into something for cable.” Time will tell.

One thing is clear, you couldn’t find a better spokesperson for “Rotten” than Mark Rahner. He is a well-spoken, funny and personable guy. It’s no wonder that, as part of his work as a reporter at The Seattle Times, he creates some really cool videos that accompany his written stories. A couple of recent standouts are Rahner’s investigation of bacon-flavored mayonnaise and a tour of the locale for “Twilight,” Forks, Washington . “All that is time-consuming. It’s hard to do humor, especially satire, and rely on it reading well on video. If you’re a control freak, like me, and want to keep all your juvenile humor intact, then you have to do it yourself.”

“I never wanted to do an honest day’s work,” jokes Rahner when asked how he got his start. “Seriously, it’s really like it is for anyone else who has something they need to follow. At twelve, I was telling people I was a writer, no matter how absurd that may have sounded. It’s about discipline and hard work regardless of what talent you may have. The better the writer is, the easier he makes it look. I don’t know of any other profession where people can chime in about your work and tell you how much you suck.”

And what else lies ahead for Rahner? For one, he and Horton have a new project, a 5 issue mini series, H.E.L.I.X. that is set in the present day but is also part of the “Rotten” universe. “All the stuff we’re doing is connected to one universe. You’ll see names pop up from previous work and things that happen in one title, set a hundred years ago, will affect another title set today. In H.E.L.I.X., Rahner promises “an exciting and even repugnant story at a break-neck pace set in Seattle that involves stem cell experiments, sexually transmitted diseases, a race to the clock with two partners who hate each other and people who die in ways that are vomit-inducing.”

Stay tuned to all things “Rotten” and the rest of the work published by Moonstone. And check in on what Mark Rahner is up to at his site.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Comic Books, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.