Idwx chap 12

THE FIRST DECADE

C H A P T E R12

C O N T I N U I N G

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TA: In the Art of Wormwood, youmention that you’ve beenworking on Wormwood sinceyou were in high school.

BT: Yeah, Wormwood wasprobably the first thing I ever

created, starting as a high-schoolstudent doodling in my spare time. He’s

changed a lot since then but the basic idea wasalways there.

TA: What where your influences back then? I alwaysthought that Lovecraft was an influence onyou–mostly because of the tentacles–but you recentlytold me you never read a lot of Lovecraft.

BT: I’ve never really read Lovecraft but I’ve probablybeen influenced by people who were influenced byhim. My influences go back to Ralph Steadman andalso British TV shows like Doctor Who and some

comedy shows like Blackadder. TheBritish sense of humor and theoffbeat nature of a few things. Incomic books, I was readingHellboy, John Constantine [Hellblazer],and a few others like that.

TA: The Wormwood books are very funny and, nowthat you say that, I can see that British sense ofhumor.

BT: I just think genitals are funny.

TA: Did you ever see the Captain Marvel villain Mr.Mind? He’s a worm–a talking worm.

BT: No, I never saw that.

TA: Well, he wasn’t in a corpse anyhow. How didyour education and training impact the developmentof Wormwood?

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_________________________________________Art from Art of Wormwood by Ben Templesmith.

C H A P T E R

BENTEMPLESMITH& WORMWOOD

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TA: In the Art of Wormwood, youmention that you’ve beenworking on Wormwood sinceyou were in high school.

BT: Yeah, Wormwood wasprobably the first thing I ever

created, starting as a high-schoolstudent doodling in my spare time. He’s

changed a lot since then but the basic idea wasalways there.

TA: What where your influences back then? I alwaysthought that Lovecraft was an influence onyou–mostly because of the tentacles–but you recentlytold me you never read a lot of Lovecraft.

BT: I’ve never really read Lovecraft but I’ve probablybeen influenced by people who were influenced byhim. My influences go back to Ralph Steadman andalso British TV shows like Doctor Who and some

comedy shows like Blackadder. TheBritish sense of humor and theoffbeat nature of a few things. Incomic books, I was readingHellboy, John Constantine [Hellblazer],and a few others like that.

TA: The Wormwood books are very funny and, nowthat you say that, I can see that British sense ofhumor.

BT: I just think genitals are funny.

TA: Did you ever see the Captain Marvel villain Mr.Mind? He’s a worm–a talking worm.

BT: No, I never saw that.

TA: Well, he wasn’t in a corpse anyhow. How didyour education and training impact the developmentof Wormwood?

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BT: It was the first thing I ever wanted to write butit wasn’t the first thing I wrote. The first thing Iwrote was Singularity 7, which I consider a learningexperience.

I learned how to write the way I do now fromworking with Warren Ellis. I saw some half-finishedscripts by him and realized what the process ofwriting was for him. So, I took that on board and,hopefully, it improved my dialogue skills and how togenerally make a story flow better. Before that, I wastrying more of a Marvel method where I’d come upwith what I wanted to draw and would then make upthe dialogue after the fact. But then I realized thedialogue is much more important than just throwingit in at the last minute. Unless you’re really, reallygood. But I’m not.

TA: So when you’re writing something for yourselfto draw, are you doing full scripts? You’re doing thedialogue at the same time as you’re plotting it out?

BT: I never do full scripts. What I do is, I have aplot–a story in a sequence. Whether or not it’s anygood, that’s debatable. So, I have the scenes–theevents that will happen–and then I just go along and,purely in a conversational sense, I write down thedialogue of what the characters would say to eachother. And then I lay out the book visually fromthere. So, there’s no panel descriptions or anything–it’s not a full script by any means. It’s just a ramblingsense of dialogue that no one would know exceptme because I know who the characters are. And thenI write it up right after the art’s done and give it toa letterer so that they know who’s talking and what

173

_____________________________________Opposite Page and This Page:Art from Singularity 7 by Ben Templesmith.


BT: It was the first thing I ever wanted to write butit wasn’t the first thing I wrote. The first thing Iwrote was Singularity 7, which I consider a learningexperience.

I learned how to write the way I do now fromworking with Warren Ellis. I saw some half-finishedscripts by him and realized what the process ofwriting was for him. So, I took that on board and,hopefully, it improved my dialogue skills and how togenerally make a story flow better. Before that, I wastrying more of a Marvel method where I’d come upwith what I wanted to draw and would then make upthe dialogue after the fact. But then I realized thedialogue is much more important than just throwingit in at the last minute. Unless you’re really, reallygood. But I’m not.

TA: So when you’re writing something for yourselfto draw, are you doing full scripts? You’re doing thedialogue at the same time as you’re plotting it out?

BT: I never do full scripts. What I do is, I have aplot–a story in a sequence. Whether or not it’s anygood, that’s debatable. So, I have the scenes–theevents that will happen–and then I just go along and,purely in a conversational sense, I write down thedialogue of what the characters would say to eachother. And then I lay out the book visually fromthere. So, there’s no panel descriptions or anything–it’s not a full script by any means. It’s just a ramblingsense of dialogue that no one would know exceptme because I know who the characters are. And thenI write it up right after the art’s done and give it toa letterer so that they know who’s talking and what

173

_____________________________________Opposite Page and This Page:Art from Singularity 7 by Ben Templesmith.


panels they’re talking in. I can do that because it’sall me.

TA: Have you ever thought about writing somethingfor somebody else to draw?

BT: No, I don’t think I’m that good.

TA: I think you’re a really good writer–particularlyyour dialogue and your sense of humor. I don’t thinkthere’s anybody else out there writing like you. Inoticed in the first Wormwood book that you gavethanks to Douglas Adams and Terry Nationand Russell T. Davies–as you mentioned before,British humor writers. So, it wasn’t just the BBC butalso guys like Douglas Adams that were an influenceon you.

BT: Douglas Adams actually wrote for Doctor Who.

TA: He did? I didn’t know that. I know him for TheHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novels.

BT: When he wrote for Doctor Who, he made itaccording to the “law” of whatever he was doing sothose two universes are one and the same. He putthem together. I dig his sense of humor a lot.

TA: You grew up reading Douglas Adams?

BT: I actually watched the TV shows. There was abig series of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy TV showsthat I grew up on. Not the movie.

TA: Did he write the scripts for it?

BT: I’m pretty sure he did. Because that was aroundthe time he was involved with BBC TV.

TA: Were there any other writers, prose writers, thatwere influential to you?

BT: I wouldn’t say influential in that I work the waythey do or I aspire to be them or anything. I was veryinto Harry Harrison when I was young but I can’tsay he rubbed off on me or anything. But I like hisideas. Harry Harrison did a series of books [the Edenseries] where the dinosaurs never died out buthumans still evolved and then you had humansfighting dinosaurs and stuff.

TA: You mentioned Ralph Steadman before–wereyou reading Hunter S. Thompson, maybe Fear andLoathing in Las Vegas?

BT: Not until a lot later, I actually saw the film first.

TA: Wormwood is always talking about when he’sgoing to get his next beer and Thompson often

175_________________________________________Art from Art of Wormwood by Ben Templesmith.


panels they’re talking in. I can do that because it’sall me.

TA: Have you ever thought about writing somethingfor somebody else to draw?

BT: No, I don’t think I’m that good.

TA: I think you’re a really good writer–particularlyyour dialogue and your sense of humor. I don’t thinkthere’s anybody else out there writing like you. Inoticed in the first Wormwood book that you gavethanks to Douglas Adams and Terry Nationand Russell T. Davies–as you mentioned before,British humor writers. So, it wasn’t just the BBC butalso guys like Douglas Adams that were an influenceon you.

BT: Douglas Adams actually wrote for Doctor Who.

TA: He did? I didn’t know that. I know him for TheHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novels.

BT: When he wrote for Doctor Who, he made itaccording to the “law” of whatever he was doing sothose two universes are one and the same. He putthem together. I dig his sense of humor a lot.

TA: You grew up reading Douglas Adams?

BT: I actually watched the TV shows. There was abig series of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy TV showsthat I grew up on. Not the movie.

TA: Did he write the scripts for it?

BT: I’m pretty sure he did. Because that was aroundthe time he was involved with BBC TV.

TA: Were there any other writers, prose writers, thatwere influential to you?

BT: I wouldn’t say influential in that I work the waythey do or I aspire to be them or anything. I was veryinto Harry Harrison when I was young but I can’tsay he rubbed off on me or anything. But I like hisideas. Harry Harrison did a series of books [the Edenseries] where the dinosaurs never died out buthumans still evolved and then you had humansfighting dinosaurs and stuff.

TA: You mentioned Ralph Steadman before–wereyou reading Hunter S. Thompson, maybe Fear andLoathing in Las Vegas?

BT: Not until a lot later, I actually saw the film first.

TA: Wormwood is always talking about when he’sgoing to get his next beer and Thompson often

175_________________________________________Art from Art of Wormwood by Ben Templesmith.


BT: Yeah, but that’s what I try to do all the timeanyway. I think if you can’t make fun of something,there’s something wrong with it.

TA: What’s next forWormwood?

BT: I have a miniseries planned out that I’ll get towhen time permits. The title of the story will be“Bingo Night in Valhalla” and it’s something to dowith the great hall of Valhalla. Wormwood goesthere and other mythical beings I won’t mention yetwish to turn it into an old people’s home and it’salready a bingo hall. It’s been turned into a bingohall because Odin can’t pay the rent. Something likethat.

TA: Sounds like fun.

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IDW

wrote about that as well. Maybe not beer but otherkinds of alcohol and drugs.

BT: Wormwood never gets a spare moment becausehe’s always being interrupted by demons and things.I try to make them less stereotypical where he justhas a big fight at the end and says, “Oh, I saved theworld again because I’m good.” No. He doesn’t care,he just wants to drink and be quiet.

TA: Right, he’s always looking for his next beer.

Jeff VanderMeer’s introduction in the second bookquotes a painter that says, “Be normal in your life so youcan be strange in your art,” which I thought was perfectfor you because you’re a very level-headed, down-to-earth guy and yet you come up with this really twistedfiction and these really twisted characters that are doingall these outrageous things.

BT: I think I have perspective on the whole thing. Iknow I’m lucky so why spoil it by being a primadonna or going crazy. I’ll just keep my ego in checkand keep trying to pump out the good stuff becausethat’s what turns me on, that’s what I do it for.

TA: In one of the books you appear as a characterand it’s sort of an arrogant version of you–BenTemplesmith unleashed.

BT: I think it was a reference to the fact I’ve beennominated for the Eisner awards and I’ve never won.It was a “taking the piss out of myself ” sort of thing.Hopefully that’s what it looked like and that I wasn’tbeing arrogant.

TA: You’re a guy that I don’t think would ever needto “take the piss out of himself ” because you’re solevel-headed.

176


BT: Yeah, but that’s what I try to do all the timeanyway. I think if you can’t make fun of something,there’s something wrong with it.

TA: What’s next forWormwood?

BT: I have a miniseries planned out that I’ll get towhen time permits. The title of the story will be“Bingo Night in Valhalla” and it’s something to dowith the great hall of Valhalla. Wormwood goesthere and other mythical beings I won’t mention yetwish to turn it into an old people’s home and it’salready a bingo hall. It’s been turned into a bingohall because Odin can’t pay the rent. Something likethat.

TA: Sounds like fun.

177


IDW

wrote about that as well. Maybe not beer but otherkinds of alcohol and drugs.

BT: Wormwood never gets a spare moment becausehe’s always being interrupted by demons and things.I try to make them less stereotypical where he justhas a big fight at the end and says, “Oh, I saved theworld again because I’m good.” No. He doesn’t care,he just wants to drink and be quiet.

TA: Right, he’s always looking for his next beer.

Jeff VanderMeer’s introduction in the second bookquotes a painter that says, “Be normal in your life so youcan be strange in your art,” which I thought was perfectfor you because you’re a very level-headed, down-to-earth guy and yet you come up with this really twistedfiction and these really twisted characters that are doingall these outrageous things.

BT: I think I have perspective on the whole thing. Iknow I’m lucky so why spoil it by being a primadonna or going crazy. I’ll just keep my ego in checkand keep trying to pump out the good stuff becausethat’s what turns me on, that’s what I do it for.

TA: In one of the books you appear as a characterand it’s sort of an arrogant version of you–BenTemplesmith unleashed.

BT: I think it was a reference to the fact I’ve beennominated for the Eisner awards and I’ve never won.It was a “taking the piss out of myself ” sort of thing.Hopefully that’s what it looked like and that I wasn’tbeing arrogant.

TA: You’re a guy that I don’t think would ever needto “take the piss out of himself ” because you’re solevel-headed.

176


179

Silent Hill: Dying InsideWritten by Scott Ciencin. Ben drew the first twoissues of this series based on the Konami videogame. More can be learned about the series inChapter 9.

Tommyrot: The Art of Ben TemplesmithThis 8.5” x 11” 96-page edition collects many ofthe major images and covers from Ben, as well asmany never-before-seen, unpublished paintingsand personal work.

Welcome to HoxfordRaymond Delgado is the newest inmate at theHoxford Correctional Facility and Mental Institution.He has no hope of release, parole, rehabilitation,or decent conversation. On a good day, he’ll tellyou he’s Zeus and only bite your arm off. Literally.On a bad day, you won’t have time to scream tothe prison guard for help. And why are peoplealways transferred into Hoxford, but no recordsshow anyone ever transferring back out?

178

Ben’s work on 30 Days of Night is discussed in Chapter 7 and this chapter coversWormwood. Below you’ll find information on other projects Ben’s done at IDW.

Blood-Stained SwordWritten by Dan Wickline. In a dark and grimfuture, a Samurai must travel to Seattle, wherecorporations have replaced clans, to clear hisfather’s name.

Conluvio: The Art of Ben Templesmith, Vol. 2A second 8.5” x 11” collection of Ben’s work. Thisone is made up entirely of never-before-publishedart and includes an all-new story about theInterdimensional Part-Time Assassin Guild.

The Presidents of the United StatesBen serves up a collection of portraitures featuringall of the Presidents of the United States.

Singularity 7Written by Ben Templesmith. With the Earth laidwaste by an assault from microscopic nanites, it’sup to seven men and women, seemingly immuneto the nanotechnology, to fight back.

ShadowplayWritten by Ben Templesmith. This series featuredtwo vampire-themed stories, one illustrated by BenTemplesmith and one illustrated by Ashley Wood.Ben’s story, “Demon Father John Pinwheel’sBlues,” was written by Amber Benson and is abouta group of vampire street children.

BEN TEMPLESMITH’S OTHER IDW PROJECTS


179

Silent Hill: Dying InsideWritten by Scott Ciencin. Ben drew the first twoissues of this series based on the Konami videogame. More can be learned about the series inChapter 9.

Tommyrot: The Art of Ben TemplesmithThis 8.5” x 11” 96-page edition collects many ofthe major images and covers from Ben, as well asmany never-before-seen, unpublished paintingsand personal work.

Welcome to HoxfordRaymond Delgado is the newest inmate at theHoxford Correctional Facility and Mental Institution.He has no hope of release, parole, rehabilitation,or decent conversation. On a good day, he’ll tellyou he’s Zeus and only bite your arm off. Literally.On a bad day, you won’t have time to scream tothe prison guard for help. And why are peoplealways transferred into Hoxford, but no recordsshow anyone ever transferring back out?

178

Ben’s work on 30 Days of Night is discussed in Chapter 7 and this chapter coversWormwood. Below you’ll find information on other projects Ben’s done at IDW.

Blood-Stained SwordWritten by Dan Wickline. In a dark and grimfuture, a Samurai must travel to Seattle, wherecorporations have replaced clans, to clear hisfather’s name.

Conluvio: The Art of Ben Templesmith, Vol. 2A second 8.5” x 11” collection of Ben’s work. Thisone is made up entirely of never-before-publishedart and includes an all-new story about theInterdimensional Part-Time Assassin Guild.

The Presidents of the United StatesBen serves up a collection of portraitures featuringall of the Presidents of the United States.

Singularity 7Written by Ben Templesmith. With the Earth laidwaste by an assault from microscopic nanites, it’sup to seven men and women, seemingly immuneto the nanotechnology, to fight back.

ShadowplayWritten by Ben Templesmith. This series featuredtwo vampire-themed stories, one illustrated by BenTemplesmith and one illustrated by Ashley Wood.Ben’s story, “Demon Father John Pinwheel’sBlues,” was written by Amber Benson and is abouta group of vampire street children.

BEN TEMPLESMITH’S OTHER IDW PROJECTS


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Idwx chap 12