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PCU:
Just who is Stefan Petrucha?
SP:
Oh, some guy in upper Westchester with two kids and a wife
and a collection of hunchback action figures, who occasionally
fights the good fight for writing, justice and the terran
way.
PCU:
How did you get your start as a writer?
SP:
When I was 10 I was terribly jealous of the fact that my pal
Jim Salicrup could draw really well and really easily. I found
I could do the same with sentences on a page, and so decided
to be a writer. It made sense at the time. In college I would
write and direct these wonderfully bizarre satirical videos.
After graduation, I drifted into being an AV Director, a typist,
then a technical writer, all the while trying to sell comic
stories, screenplays and novels. My first professional break
would probably be selling a Spider-Man story to Marvel editor
Jim Owsley, but I didn't really click until I sold an original
character, Squalor, some years later, to First Publishing.
That was 1989. The first issue of Squalor did incredibly well
with readers and critics, and I felt I'd arrived. The industry,
however, felt otherwise, and I've had various spates in my
life where I earn a living writing and those when I don't.
PCU:
Did you get into Comics or Science Fiction/Fantasy writing
first?
SP:
Not to beg the question, but comics is a medium, and Science
Fiction and Fantasy are genres. Some folks might still assume
that comics refers to Superheroes and that Science Fiction
and Fantasy refers to novels, and that comics/superheroes
are somehow the "lesser" medium/genre, but having done both,
I can assure you there are just as many simplistic god-awful
fantasy and science fiction novels as there are comic books
- and just as few transcendental gems. Squalor was actually
Science Fiction in a lot of ways, so technically I started
both at once. I did get into comics first, and more recently
novels, and when you're doing your best, quality wise there
isn't much of a difference.
PCU:
Whatever happened to Grace of God?
SP:
Grace of God is a screenplay I wrote for producer/director
Allen Rubin, based on his treatment, which means I basically
fleshed out his story idea. Currently, he's arranging a reading
for the script, after which there'll be some tweaks, then
he'll move ahead to get some funding. It's a fantasy-based
exploration of bigotry throughout the ages, using an action-genre
model as its backdrop. Elsewhere on the screenplay front,
there seems to be some movement with Lance Barnes: Post Nuke
Dick, the script I wrote based on my Epic/Marvel comic book
of the same name. The title says it all. Matt Frewer (Taken
and Max Headroom) is attached to star, Rick Friedberg of Spy
Hard is set to direct, and we have some people aggressively
searching for a budget. So, fingers crossed. The trade paperback
collecting the original Lance comics, from Moonstone, should
also be re-solicited soon.
PCU: Your first vampire novel, Dark Ages: Assamite,
where did the inspiration for it come from and how many printings
has it gone into printing?
SP:
Two printings to date. Philippe Boulle, White Wolf’s fiction
editor, basically assigned me to it. The thirteen novel Dark
Ages series is based on their role playing game, Dark Ages:
Vampire, each novel for a different vampire clan. Much like
their terrific games, the staff there nails down something
of a meta-story for the series, and then lets the writers
go berserk within those confines. As for my involvement, I'd
impressed former fiction editor and company founder Stewart
Wieck enough with my X-Files work to get him to try me out
with a short story (The Treatment of Dr. Eberhardt). That
went well enough to warrant a second assignment, Uktena -
then Phillipe followed up with the Dark Ages: Assamite offer.
Inspiration flowed from the history - 9/11 was still a recent
memory, and here was a setting essentially about the ancient
conflict between the west and the Arab/Islamic world. It was
a terrific opportunity to read up on the history, to try to
understand the ongoing madness of mankind, and realize it
in the form of recognizable characters. The fact that they're
vampires really helps concretize some very human questions
about belief and motivation. Focusing on how a non-human reacts
to these things helps you focus on how humans react - but
that's the whole trope of role-playing, isn't it? Anyway,
I'm pleased with the way it came off; particularly that reviewers
and readers really enjoyed it, though I may have gotten a
big bogged by my own research. A bout of pneumonia during
the writing may actually have helped my efforts at verisimilitude
there - grounding me in a weird way. It's hard to get too
intellectual when you're really feverish.
PCU:
How did you get involved with Kolchak The Night Stalker?
SP:
After I started writing for White Wolf, I noticed that there
was this company, Moonstone that was doing comics based on
the White Wolf games and characters. So, I approached publisher
Joe Gentile and found out they were also planning the Kolchak
books. Now, I'd wanted to do Kolchak since my X-Files days,
and, in fact, at one point Topps was planning it as a sister
book - so I was very eager to get involved. As soon as a spot
opened up on the schedule, Joe invited me to pitch, and the
ultimate result was The Devil in the Details.
PCU: Along with Kolchak and Topp's X-Files Comic Book,
what other Comic work have you done?
SP:
Oh, lots. There was Squalor and Meta-4 for First Publishing;
Nexus the Liberator for Dark Horse; a spate of work which
I was paid for but never came out, including eight issues
of an unpublished Brother Power the Geek comic book from DC;
Counterparts from Tundra; Lance Barnes: Post Nuke Dick from
Epic/Marvel; Duckman from Topps; The Bandy Man from Caliber
(still available as a hard cover collection), a What-If? featuring
Blink from the New Mutants for Marvel; Boston Blackie and
an Assamite story for Moonstone; and over 100 Mickey Mouse
and Donald Duck stories for Egmont Publishing in Denmark.
A nice eclectic collection, overall, I think.
PCU: What do you think of Carl Kolchak?
SP:
I love him. I've said repeatedly that I think the original
Night Stalker flick is the single best vampire film ever made.
I'm a little sorry the TV series got stuck in that monster
of the week thing, because I think that ultimately held back
the character's development, but there you go. He's smart,
funny, a humanist, a curmudgeon, a solid journalist, a sort
of Phillip Marlow light, not in the sense that he lacks depth,
but in the sense that he's less jaded than a more deeply noir
figures like that - which makes him all the more accessible
and interesting. An everyman with a slight philosophical bent.
PCU:
What does the future hold for Kolchak The Night Stalker?
SP: The graphic novels are doing well, so they'll continue,
and Moonstone will soon publish a bi-monthly comic, so Carl's
future seems bright. I hope to do at least another Night Stalker
graphic novel at some point.
PCU:
What's the story behind "Making God"?
SP:
Making God is probably still my personal favorite of my work.
It's my first novel, about a reclusive, crazed, nerdy genius
that writes a book he hopes will start a new religious movement
(like Scientology) and make himself rich. His abusive fundamentalist
parents find it and throw it out, driving him insane. While
he's recuperating from a nervous breakdown, a street urchin
finds the book and starts reading from it in public. She attracts
followers, and, ultimately a powerful PR man with his own
devious motivation turns her into the center of a national
movement that threatens to topple the government. The FBI
agent on the case finds the original author, whom it turns
out she dated in high school, and together they try to stop
the takeover. Its a little bit action story, a little Phillip
K. Dick, but mostly it's a novel about ideas - an analysis
of religion and belief, with its structural heart in a genre
science-fiction style story. It was almost published on several
occasions, but it doesn't fit easily into any genre. One editor
went so far as to say that the writing reminded him of Wolfe
and Pynchon. Ultimately, it's kind of short and was considered
too "literary" for most science fiction publisher (their words,
not mine) and too "science fictiony" for most literary publishers
(again, their words, not mine). So, I published it myself,
with a very limited press run (it can still be had at Amazon.com,
etc.) - and got some great reviews and feedback. It was even
part of the syllabus for a graduate literature class. I did
an online chat with the class that was an awful lot of fun.
I'm very hopeful that as my reputation as a novelist grows
(I'm currently working on an original paranormal thriller)
a publisher will pick up Making God and give it wider distribution.
I think it's the sort of book that with a very little proper
PR care could take off. Moonstone Books has offered to solicit
what's left of my original printing, and we may do that early
next year, too, in conjunction with the comic book revival
of Meta-4, a group of New Age superheroes, which I'm also
very excited about.
PCU: I have heard something about you working on both
a Buffy animated series and one on the Monkees? Is this the
Buffy we are used to from TV? And what is the Monkees based
on? A certain old TV series?
SP:
Not a lot of good news to report on either project there,
but yep, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Back when there were plans
for a Buffy animated series, the folks prepping the show were
very impressed with my samples and wanted to work me into
the schedule as soon as things opened up a bit. Unfortunately,
the series is in limbo. There were also plans at Rhino Pictures
for a Monkees animated series, based on the madcap 1960s series
featuring the Pre-Fab Four, which I did develop a pilot for.
They've since shifted gears and financial partners, and are
trying to get a new live action series going. Loving Buffy
and the Monkees, it was fun working on both.
PCU:
How many books or stories have you done with White Wolf?
SP:
Five so far. There’s: The Treatment of Dr. Eberhardt,
a short story that's part of the Inherit the Earth Anthology,
about a vampire/therapist who encounters a little girl who
he just can't bring himself to kill; Uktena; a novella that's
part of the Werewolf Tribal Novels, centering on a member
of the Uktena tribe whose calling it is to be a galliard,
or songstress, but tells really lousy stories, Dark Ages:
Assamite, the second in the sprawling and terrific Dark Ages
clan novel series that takes place following the fall of Constantinople,
a Christian city sacked by Christian Crusaders. As I said
earlier, this is sort of an epic romance dealing with Christianity
and Islam, centering on the Assamite clan, which is concerned
that the Crusaders will now move on into Islamic territory,
and sends a few of their vampire assassins to prevent that
possibility. The Grass is Always Greener, a novella from the
Haunting the Dead Anthology, which I discuss below. White
Wolf is also collecting the original Vampire the Masquerade
clan novels into a series of trade paperbacks, with some new
material. As part of that new material, I penned a short story
featuring Fatima Al Faqadi, an ancient Assamite elder, which
connects the storyline there with what's going on in Dark
Ages: Assamite. That should be out in a month or so. Then,
next year, I have a novella coming out from Telos Publishing
in the UK. They're the folks known for their well-received
Doctor Who novellas, and I'm pleased to be contributing the
second book of their new Time Hunter series, kind of a noir-ish
science fiction series about a time hopping duo. My entry
is entitled The Tunnel at the End of the Light.
PCU:
I understand you also worked with Joseph L. Mankiewicz? What
was this like? What do you think you learned from him and
his work?
SP:
I don't generally speak in devoutly religious terms, but working
for Mr. M. was a true blessing. I mean, he, if anyone, was
an ideal version of what I want to be. He was a lifelong writer
whose work helped define and elevate the forms he participated
in. What he most enjoyed were what he called his "high comedies",
which I think were really Shakespearean at root, like All
About Eve or Letter to Three Wives. He was a terrific raconteur,
a very witty man and generous with his time and his opinions.
Plus, it's really wild sitting in a room that has four Oscars
sitting on the mantel. I think the best advice I got from
him was to be honest with my audience. I was into doing cryptic
smart-ass convoluted stuff at the time, and I think he made
me appreciate the elegance of simplicity. Ironic, since his
own multi-level plot twists and dialogue were anything but
simple.
PCU:
You new short novel in HAUNTING THE DEAD seems to not be the
standard 'Ghost Story'. What is it about, and how did you
come up with the idea?
SP:
The anthology is based on White Wolf's new Orpheus RPG, which
is in some ways related to their old Wraith game, but centering
on an organization that has trained agents which can see and
interact with spirits. In fact, some of the ghosts are ultimately
hired as agents. Anyway, the notion of the anthology is to
sort of start off in the "real" world and slowly bring the
reader into a more nightmarish reality. I pitched for the
first novella, the only rule being that I then had to introduce
some of the basic concepts - which really put you in the realm
of a standard ghost story. When the story begins, ghosts aren't
real, everything's recognizable, but by the end, you're someplace
else. That's really the kernel of the stereotypical spirit
tale, the awareness that there's another state of being, and
unseen creatures that aren’t necessarily keen on your survival.
On the one hand, that's powerful, mythic stuff - much easier
to work with than trying to tell a scary story in a world
where everyone or most everyone already knows that there are
ghosts. On the other hand, it's a story that's been done,
you should pardon the expression, to death, so my challenge
was to give it an interesting spin, which in this case, I
thought I could do by focusing on the character, on the person
who has the main revelation. In thinking up stories, I like
to think in terms of opposites, so I figured, normally in
a ghost or a horror story the protagonists are fighting to
stay alive. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a character
that didn't want to be alive, who was suicidal? As they become
aware that death isn't the end, encountering ghosts and such,
how would they react? How would that affect their depression,
desire for suicide? That's the basis for The Grass Is Always
Greener. The second thing that's always crucial in a ghost
story is location, location, and location. I'd just written
a sprawling historical novel set in the Middle Ages, which
had lots of locations and atmospheric scenery. Ghost stories,
I think, strive on claustrophobia, a sense that the world
is limited. So, to work with that, and to reverse my Assamite
effort, I decided to set the entire story somewhere small,
a place you could get to know intimately within the space
of a novella. Given my own life experience, a dorm room seemed
the likely choice. After that, it was a question of fleshing
out the cast and the characters, and diving in. I'm particularly
proud of the results, and think I've made some real strides
with my prose. It's going over great so far with the readers
I've heard from.
PCU:
Any hints for hopeful writers?
SP:
A lot of writers say, "write what you like", which I think
is their way of cutting down the competition. Me, I say, develop
incredibly great taste and then write what you like.
PCU:
If you could write about any fictional character you have
ever heard about, who would it be, and why?
SP:
Tough question. I've been pretty lucky with that - Mulder,
Scully and Kolchak would have topped my list. I have a penchant
for really obscure characters, like Brother Power the Geek,
from a two issue DC mini-series, or David Sorrel, a ghost
inspecting psychiatrist played by Louis Jordan in a 1969 TV
Movie called Fear No Evil. I'd love to have written an episode
of Buffy, or Northern Exposure. Dark Shadows is a big favorite.
In terms of characters, there's Gollum from LotR, Archy and
Mehitabel (Archy is a typewriting cockroach, Mehitabel a hedonistic
cat); Harry Haller from Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, Chauncy
Gardener from Being There, Max Headroom, Number Six from The
Prisoner, SpongeBob Squarepants, the list goes on. What do
they have in common? I think I'm drawn to things that lie
on the boundaries of something, like Mulder and Scully with
their science versus belief underpinning. I think all the
characters I mentioned there have some sort of contradiction
like that driving them. It's not so much that I want to wind
up on either side of the debate, but there's a certain kind
of energy, spiritual, I think, that you can suck up by sitting
in the middle.
PCU:
And if you could write about any REAL character whom would
it be and why?
SP:
Eep! Are any characters real? Well, I was researching Wilhelm
Reich, the man who "discovered" Orgone for a screenplay, and
that fell through, but I found him fascinating, exactly the
sort of figure I described above. Jon Stewart from The Daily
Show and Aaron Sorkin are my current heroes, and I'd love
to do their bios - then again, I might not like them as much
if I saw them in some other context. My own parents - always
a challenge. Charles Fort, the creator of the paranormal genre,
I think would make a terrific center for a novel. Emerson,
I suppose, to satisfy my loftier literary conceits, protest
singer Phil Ochs, and Akenaten, the revolutionary Egyptian
pharaoh who introduced monotheism to ancient Egypt 3500 years
ago. In fact, I think it would be fun to do a book with ALL
of them, kind of like a team superhero book…
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LArry Stanley, Editor PCU Penguin Comics and Movies ===
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