MattBrady
10-19-2007, 09:05 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Baltimore/07/FLoorbuzz/steve_niles.jpg" alt="" align="right"><i>by Vaneta Rogers</i>
Somebody needs to tell Steve Niles to slow down.
Seriously. His constant output of dark, disturbing horror stories means Niles is supposed to be a mysterious, brooding personality with a bleak outlook on life, right? Someone who came up with the idea for one of this Halloween season's most anticipated horror films, <i>30 Days of Night</I>, should be lingering in the shadows, wearing a furrowed brow and reluctantly interacting with the living.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Comic fans who meet Niles at comic conventions or signings will find him filled with energy and enthusiasm for his work. While someone who has collaborated on comics with figures like Rob Zombie and Clive Barker should at least have a chip on his shoulder, it's nearly impossible to find one on this guy. As Niles peaks over the dark-rimmed glasses he often wears down on his nose, he also wears a constant smile and a friendly attitude as he shakes hands and talks to his fans about his work.
And asking him about his current projects isn't recommended for the weak – or at least there needs to be a chair nearby – because Niles will be running down the list for awhile. From the current <b>Simon Dark</b> series and the upcoming <b>Gotham After Midnight</b> he's writing for DC Comics, to his stories of paranormal detective Cal McDonald in his ongoing <b>Criminal Macabre</b> comics, to his collaborations on comics like <b>City of Others, The Mystery Society</b> and <b>Dead She Said</b>, Niles starts looking like one of the busiest guys in comics. Add to that his continuation of the <b>30 Days of Night</b> story in <b>Beyond Barrow</b> with Bill Sienkiewicz, his work with actor Thomas Jane on <b>Bad Planet</b>, the novel he's writing for Pocket Books, and the movie projects he's always got going, and the only concern is whether he even knows how to take a break.
Calling him for this interview and hearing about how many different stories he's got swimming in his head and all the projects and interviews he's juggling right now and how much enthusiasm he has for everything brought two words to mind: "<i>Slow down</I>."
Then again, calling him on <i>this</I> week of all weeks might tip the scale a little. With this weekend's opening of <i>30 Days of Night</i>, the horror film based on the comic he created for IDW, Niles has a lot to be excited about. Filmgoers nationwide will see how director David Slade interpreted Niles' story about vampires taking over the Alaskan town of Barrow, where darkness comes for 30 days straight in the dead of winter.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/30daysofnightposterbig.jpg" alt="" align="left">While Newsarama is covering the comics and background to the film this week, we decided to also force Steve Niles to take a break and talk to us about ... well ... Steve Niles. Maybe tap into that enthusiastic and overactive brain of his and find out more about the person Behind the Page.
And as we talked to the creator about the path he's taken to get to this point and the way he approaches his work, one thing became apparent. Telling him to <i>slow down</I> won't do any good. Always looking for the next project, the next collaborator and the next story, Niles doesn't know the meaning of those words.
<b>Newsarama</b>: Looking at your career, you've written novels and comics and screenplays – quite the bibliography. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
<b>Steve Niles</b>: I kind of always knew I wanted to do something creative. I was either trying to make music or films or writing. I was really obsessed with pretty much everything when I was a kid. I wanted to be a special effects artist and writer. I just .. I was doing everything. Even making Super 8 movies at the time.
<B>NRAMA</B>: First thing you remember writing?
<B>SN</B>: When I was about 15 or 16, I wrote this thing that was about vampires or something like that. I think it was called “Day for Night,” of all titles. [laughs] And then I did a little self-published magazine in high school, too, called <i>Scary Stuff</i>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did you have brothers or sisters who influenced you wanting to be a writer or family members who opened you up to those type of creative pursuits?
<B>SN</B>: Well, I have older sisters, Jackie and Donna. And Donna is 11 years older than me, so she exposed me to a lot of music and movies and things like that that I otherwise wouldn't be. She had me listening to the punk rock stuff in the late '70s, because she was there and old enough to experience it. So I was seeing bands that I really shouldn't have been seeing. I was 15 or 16 years old and being taken to nightclubs and seeing bands like The Birthday Party and Minor Threat and all these great, old punk bands. If I had waited until I was old enough, I would have missed it entirely.
My whole family really encouraged me. I was sort of the first creative person in my family, so they really encouraged it. As it turns out now, my sister Jackie is a fantastic photographer, and she actually works professionally. And I just remembered Donna, actually, gave me my first copy of <i>Interview with the Vampire</I>, which was very influential. I read that as a teenager and really enjoyed it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You talked about your first story involving vampires. Were you always into the darker stuff?
<B>SN</B>: Oh, yeah. I always loved horror, since I was a very little kid. I used to watch horror movies when I was really young, and then I'd be petrified at night. And I'd torment my parents at night because I was having nightmares, and then I'd watch them again. And just sort of kept doing that over and over again. I drove my parents nuts with that for a few years. I'd watch them and then I couldn't sleep for days.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I think we all went through that period, but you never left!
<B>SN</B>: I never left! But I don't get really scared anymore. I really do just love horror now.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/NoLD.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: Is there a movie that sticks out in your head as an influence from your younger years?
<B>SN</B>: Oh, yeah. The first time I saw <i>The Night of the Living Dead</i>, it was almost a <i>War of the Worlds</i> experience because I was so young, I thought it was real. It looked like a documentary. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on film. That grainy black and white and the news reports and everything really had an effect on me. But you know, it was the same thing – it scared me, but I couldn't wait to go back and see it again.
<B>NRAMA</B>: At what point did you get into comic books? Do you remember early influences in comics?
<B>SN</B>: It's really funny because, when I was a little kid, all I would do is walk around with copies of <b>Creepy</b> and <b>Eerie</b>. And my mom would get really upset with me because I'd bring them to church. So comics were the first thing I ever read, and my parents got a little worried and were trying to get me to read other books, and teachers were trying, and I had no interest at all in reading like, <i>Huckleberry Finn</i>. I just didn't like it. I just didn't care. And then I got a copy of <i>I Am Legend</i> and read it in one day. Just devoured it. So it wasn't like I didn't like reading; I just didn't like the crap they were trying to get me to read. And that set me on a whole course. So I tried to do writing like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I'm getting the feeling you weren't exactly a scholar in school.
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] I never really made it out of high school. I dropped out of high school for a little while and moved to D.C. I played in a band and did all that kind of stuff.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You played bass, right? What was the name of the band again?
<B>SN</B>: Gray Matter.
<B>NRAMA</B>: And they still have CDs out there by Gray Matter, don't they? Your fans could hunt some down.
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, it's on Dischord Records, and we're on iTunes...
<B>NRAMA</B>: You're on myspace (http://www.myspace.com/graymatterrocks) and youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VApynTY9C_g) too. Do you still play in the band?
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] No, no, no, no. Nobody wants to see a 42-year-old man playing hardcore. No that was ... that was just something I did with my friends. You know, those were the guys I was hanging out with. The attitude was that we might as well play music.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/darkdays2.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>NRAMA</B>: And you said you dropped out of high school for a "little while." Did you go back eventually?
<B>SN</B>: Actually, one of my band members got me into a school in Washington, D.C., called School Without Walls, and that's where I got my high school diploma. That was just to make my parents happy, 'cause even though I was putting out albums and writing and doing all this stuff, they wanted that piece of paper. So I did it. And I almost went to college in D.C., but I ... well, I really didn't make it past my front porch. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: Wasn't for you?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, I just didn't see the point. I just always wanted to do stuff. I was always way too impatient. I just wanted to get out there and start doing it instead of sitting around talking about it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: At what point did you feel like the writing was what you wanted to do more than anything else?
<B>SN</B>: Well, at first I wanted to make movies. That's what I thought I wanted to do. And do special effects. I was big into <i>Starlog</i> and <i>Fangoria</i> and <i>CineMagic</i> and all those magazines. I would make smoke machines, and try to do stop-motion animations and all this.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You said you did Super 8 films. You made a lot of movies yourself?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, and as I got older, I wanted to make better and better movies. But it was just budget and equipment, and my stoned friends were not the best actors in the world, and one thing and another. And I just realized, as I was trying to make my last Super 8 movie, I was looking at the storyboards, and I went, like, "Oh my god!" I just felt like such an idiot. Because I had been a comic fan my whole life. And I realized, "Oh my god! I should just be doing comics!" I was 18 or 19. And I just turned my attention to it, just as a medium, and as something I thought I could actually pull off with some kind of quality because there were less people involved, you know?
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sure. If you look at the storyboards and break it down to the basic idea of sequential art, comics are really just movies on paper.
<B>SN</B>: That's how it started. And it really was like going back to something I loved. It wasn't really obvious to me because it wasn't until the independent boom of the '80s that people really openly discussed how you do comics, and how you distribute them and get them out to the world, so I was at the right age, at the right time. I just kind of rode that '80s wave and started self-publishing and doing that kind of stuff.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What was the first comic you self-published? It was <b>Arcane Comix</b>, right?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, the first comic we did was <b>Arcane Comix #1</b>, and it was called “Bad Planet.” Oh, not Bad Planet. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: [laughs] Yeah! That's the comic you're doing with Thomas Jane that is just now coming out!
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] It was called “Bad Moon.”
<B>NRAMA</B>: Those titles are close. But wait, you said "we." I know you started <b>Arcane</b>, but who was "we?"
<B>SN</B>: Me. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: It was just you alone starting <b>Arcane Comix</b>?
<B>SN</B>: Well, it was me and then whoever was helping me out at the time -- the artist or whoever I was paying.
<B>NRAMA</B>: So you just kind of researched how to publish your own comic and did it yourself?
<B>SN</B>: I tried, yeah. I tried my best. And just through sheer luck, I got the attention of Clive Barker and I wrote Richard Matheson, and all these people just really helped me out. So I went straight from doing this kind of crappy black and white magazine to doing these really beautiful lithographs of Clive Barker's book covers for the <i>Books of Blood</i>, and then I did a horror anthology called <b>Fly in my Eye</b>, which was actually <b>Arcane Comix #2</b>. And I worked with these people like Bill Sienkiewicz and Ted McKeever and John Bolton and all these people.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Wait, working with these huge names of comics -- this was all through "sheer luck?"
<B>SN</B>: Well, basically, I didn't know any better, and I would just call information and get their number and call them at home. [laughs] And, you know, I was just like ... now, looking back, I was such a little jackass. I must have driven a ton of these people crazy. But most of those people are still my friends today. In fact, Bill Sienkiewicz and I are working together again. He's actually living in my guest house right now.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I heard about that in your interview with Steve (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=133000) about the movie. You're doing the new <b>30 Days</b> installment with Bill Sienkiewicz, right?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/BeyondBarrow01.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>SN</B>: We're working on a couple books. He's moving out to L.A. He's living here while he looks for a place. And we're working on <b>30 Days: Beyond Barrow</b>, and this new series we're working on called <b>The Sinner</b>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Yeah, you talked about that in San Diego. What's <b>The Sinner</b> about again?
<B>SN</B>: It's a superhero book about ... well, the way I like to put it is that with most superheroes, the biggest problem in their life is that they have to wear glasses or they're slightly nerdy and get picked on. I wanted to write a superhero story about somebody truly pulling themselves up from the bottom of the barrel. Their life is absolutely falling apart when they come into contact with their superpowers. I'm just going to try a more realistic approach to it. I really want to. And I think Bill's the guy to do it. So we're just experimenting with it now. But I keep telling people, it's like a horror version of <i>Unbreakable</I>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Steve, you just sound like you have so many ideas popping out of that head of yours, and you've hooked up with so many people. How does a person do that?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/Sinner.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>SN</B>: Well, one was being an annoying pest for so many years and calling people and just not stopping and constantly writing and constantly knocking on people's doors and submitting stuff. And now, 20-some odd years later, I have all these great friends and contacts in place in the industry.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Well, not just the comics industry, though. You've worked on comics with people like Rob Zombie and Thomas Jane...
<B>SN</B>: Well, one is just being here in L.A. I met Rob Zombie through a mutual friend, and they just kind of stuck us in a room and said, "You guys will like each other!" And we started talking, and it was like, we're exactly the same age, we have exactly the same movie background and likes, and we even came from similar music scenes (although, obviously, he had a little more luck than I did). But, you know, it was all these things in common, so it was like meeting a friend.
And the same thing with Tom. Tom just walked up to me at a comics convention and just said, "I want to be Cal McDonald." I was like, "Jesus, you <i>are</I> Cal McDonald."
So it was just about being at the right place at the right time, and I've been really fortunate to meet all these great people.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But it sounds like you made a lot of it happen yourself. The phone calls, self-publishing and getting your stuff out there.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/cmdb1cov.sized.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>SN</B>: You know, probably my biggest influence was George Romero. He did <i>Night of the Living Dead</i>, and he did it his own way. He filmed it in Pittsburgh on their own budget. He basically did it outside the system. I just really, really believed from the beginning of my career in doing it yourself instead of waiting for everybody to just hire you. If you wait around for that, you could be in for a big disappointment, but if you just get out there and do it, it ups your chances.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That makes sense. And for you it hasn't been just about comics. You and I talked in Baltimore last month (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=128880) about your novels, and how most people don't realize you've been doing those for years. People talk about Brad Meltzer and Warren Ellis and other people doing both novels and comics, but you just don't hear the name Steve Niles on that list.
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, the first was actually a novella called <i>Freaks of the Heartland</i> back in 1989. I've always been interested in other types of storytelling.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You told me you've had a total of five novels published, and you just signed a deal with Pocket Books for a new novel. And of course, you wrote the screenplay for the <i>30 Days of Night</I> film and have been involved with other movies. My point is, you're not just a comic book writer – you've really become a writer in many creative outlets. You've got to feel like you've fulfilled that early dream to write and then some.
<B>SN</B>: Well, it's been what I wanted to do since I was about 19. And I've just been plugging away at it ever since. And it wasn't until relatively recently that I was actually able to pay my bills with it. I had little spurts, like when I worked for Eclipse and when I was doing the Clive Barker stuff, and later when I was working for Todd McFarlane, I was able to support myself. But then there were always these lulls where I would have to go work at comics stores or bookstores. Unfortunately that's my only other skill [laughs], because I didn't go to college. You know ... writer ... or retail clerk. It was going to be this or retail, so I really put my effort into the writing.
Then <b>30 Days of Night</b> took off, and I've been lucky enough to support myself as a writer ever since.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That was your breakout hit, wasn't it?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, and with the movie coming out, I'm so happy about how everything's turned out.
<B>NRAMA</B>: We've already talked to you about the movie in a separate Newsarama interview earlier this week, but I know you're going crazy anticipating the release this weekend.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/30Days1.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>SN</B>: I am. It's pretty exciting, but crazy too. This week has just been insane. Probably next week, the phone won't even be ringing.
<B>NRAMA</B>: OK, Steve, we've covered your career up to this point and your early influences, but let's talk about what's up with you now. You're married now, right?
<B>SN</B>: No, I've been married ... uh ... twice. I'm just getting divorced.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Oh, I'm sorry.
<B>SN</B>: No, it's OK. I have a great situation. I'm finally with an artist, and that seems to be what it took.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Only an artist can deal with you creative types, huh?
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] Yeah, I guess so. She can deal with the fact that I like to work 24 hours a day. Because my work is, I write comics and monsters and I'm working on movies – so I can't punch out at 5 o'clock. I love it and I think about it all the time. So I'm with somebody now that understands that, and hopefully kids will follow soon, because I really love kids.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Kids! What happened to that wild guy from D.C.? Is "wild" a fair term? Were you wild during those years with the band?
<B>SN</B>: Just a little. Maybe just a little. [laughs] That's a pretty safe term for it, yeah.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But now you seem like this mover and shaker or something, or at least more like a successful businessman with everything you're doing.
<B>SN</B>: Y-y-yeah. You'd think I'd be more of a businessman, but I still think I'm more of a creative person. Luckily, now I have people around me who can rein me in and take care of some of that stuff because I'm really a horrible businessman. That first book I did, that <b>Fly in My Eye</b>, I so much wanted to make sure that artists got paid what they deserve that I didn't even consider how to run a business. My first company, I just ran it right into the ground. I didn't know how to sustain a business. I just wanted to put out the best book possible. So I put out a 225-page book for $9.95 and paid every artist a hundred bucks a page, and just lost my ass on it.
But yeah, I guess "wild" is the right way to put it, because I know I scared the crap out of my parents quite a few times. And even recently, I had an uncle tell me, "We were really worried about you." And it's so nice to see that now I've actually been able to do something with this craziness.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like the family believes you've made it as a writer. Do you feel like you've made it?
<B>SN</B>: Wow. With writing, I don't know if you ever feel like you've made it. You know? 'Cause it's such a fast-moving world that even when I get something done, I still feel like I'm very much the kind of person who is saying, "OK, what are you going to do next?" I'm always looking to the next project. So, I don't know. I feel pretty good. I feel like I've had a decent career going. But I'm never going to rest on that.
Somebody needs to tell Steve Niles to slow down.
Seriously. His constant output of dark, disturbing horror stories means Niles is supposed to be a mysterious, brooding personality with a bleak outlook on life, right? Someone who came up with the idea for one of this Halloween season's most anticipated horror films, <i>30 Days of Night</I>, should be lingering in the shadows, wearing a furrowed brow and reluctantly interacting with the living.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Comic fans who meet Niles at comic conventions or signings will find him filled with energy and enthusiasm for his work. While someone who has collaborated on comics with figures like Rob Zombie and Clive Barker should at least have a chip on his shoulder, it's nearly impossible to find one on this guy. As Niles peaks over the dark-rimmed glasses he often wears down on his nose, he also wears a constant smile and a friendly attitude as he shakes hands and talks to his fans about his work.
And asking him about his current projects isn't recommended for the weak – or at least there needs to be a chair nearby – because Niles will be running down the list for awhile. From the current <b>Simon Dark</b> series and the upcoming <b>Gotham After Midnight</b> he's writing for DC Comics, to his stories of paranormal detective Cal McDonald in his ongoing <b>Criminal Macabre</b> comics, to his collaborations on comics like <b>City of Others, The Mystery Society</b> and <b>Dead She Said</b>, Niles starts looking like one of the busiest guys in comics. Add to that his continuation of the <b>30 Days of Night</b> story in <b>Beyond Barrow</b> with Bill Sienkiewicz, his work with actor Thomas Jane on <b>Bad Planet</b>, the novel he's writing for Pocket Books, and the movie projects he's always got going, and the only concern is whether he even knows how to take a break.
Calling him for this interview and hearing about how many different stories he's got swimming in his head and all the projects and interviews he's juggling right now and how much enthusiasm he has for everything brought two words to mind: "<i>Slow down</I>."
Then again, calling him on <i>this</I> week of all weeks might tip the scale a little. With this weekend's opening of <i>30 Days of Night</i>, the horror film based on the comic he created for IDW, Niles has a lot to be excited about. Filmgoers nationwide will see how director David Slade interpreted Niles' story about vampires taking over the Alaskan town of Barrow, where darkness comes for 30 days straight in the dead of winter.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/30daysofnightposterbig.jpg" alt="" align="left">While Newsarama is covering the comics and background to the film this week, we decided to also force Steve Niles to take a break and talk to us about ... well ... Steve Niles. Maybe tap into that enthusiastic and overactive brain of his and find out more about the person Behind the Page.
And as we talked to the creator about the path he's taken to get to this point and the way he approaches his work, one thing became apparent. Telling him to <i>slow down</I> won't do any good. Always looking for the next project, the next collaborator and the next story, Niles doesn't know the meaning of those words.
<b>Newsarama</b>: Looking at your career, you've written novels and comics and screenplays – quite the bibliography. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
<b>Steve Niles</b>: I kind of always knew I wanted to do something creative. I was either trying to make music or films or writing. I was really obsessed with pretty much everything when I was a kid. I wanted to be a special effects artist and writer. I just .. I was doing everything. Even making Super 8 movies at the time.
<B>NRAMA</B>: First thing you remember writing?
<B>SN</B>: When I was about 15 or 16, I wrote this thing that was about vampires or something like that. I think it was called “Day for Night,” of all titles. [laughs] And then I did a little self-published magazine in high school, too, called <i>Scary Stuff</i>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Did you have brothers or sisters who influenced you wanting to be a writer or family members who opened you up to those type of creative pursuits?
<B>SN</B>: Well, I have older sisters, Jackie and Donna. And Donna is 11 years older than me, so she exposed me to a lot of music and movies and things like that that I otherwise wouldn't be. She had me listening to the punk rock stuff in the late '70s, because she was there and old enough to experience it. So I was seeing bands that I really shouldn't have been seeing. I was 15 or 16 years old and being taken to nightclubs and seeing bands like The Birthday Party and Minor Threat and all these great, old punk bands. If I had waited until I was old enough, I would have missed it entirely.
My whole family really encouraged me. I was sort of the first creative person in my family, so they really encouraged it. As it turns out now, my sister Jackie is a fantastic photographer, and she actually works professionally. And I just remembered Donna, actually, gave me my first copy of <i>Interview with the Vampire</I>, which was very influential. I read that as a teenager and really enjoyed it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You talked about your first story involving vampires. Were you always into the darker stuff?
<B>SN</B>: Oh, yeah. I always loved horror, since I was a very little kid. I used to watch horror movies when I was really young, and then I'd be petrified at night. And I'd torment my parents at night because I was having nightmares, and then I'd watch them again. And just sort of kept doing that over and over again. I drove my parents nuts with that for a few years. I'd watch them and then I couldn't sleep for days.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I think we all went through that period, but you never left!
<B>SN</B>: I never left! But I don't get really scared anymore. I really do just love horror now.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/NoLD.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: Is there a movie that sticks out in your head as an influence from your younger years?
<B>SN</B>: Oh, yeah. The first time I saw <i>The Night of the Living Dead</i>, it was almost a <i>War of the Worlds</i> experience because I was so young, I thought it was real. It looked like a documentary. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on film. That grainy black and white and the news reports and everything really had an effect on me. But you know, it was the same thing – it scared me, but I couldn't wait to go back and see it again.
<B>NRAMA</B>: At what point did you get into comic books? Do you remember early influences in comics?
<B>SN</B>: It's really funny because, when I was a little kid, all I would do is walk around with copies of <b>Creepy</b> and <b>Eerie</b>. And my mom would get really upset with me because I'd bring them to church. So comics were the first thing I ever read, and my parents got a little worried and were trying to get me to read other books, and teachers were trying, and I had no interest at all in reading like, <i>Huckleberry Finn</i>. I just didn't like it. I just didn't care. And then I got a copy of <i>I Am Legend</i> and read it in one day. Just devoured it. So it wasn't like I didn't like reading; I just didn't like the crap they were trying to get me to read. And that set me on a whole course. So I tried to do writing like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I'm getting the feeling you weren't exactly a scholar in school.
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] I never really made it out of high school. I dropped out of high school for a little while and moved to D.C. I played in a band and did all that kind of stuff.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You played bass, right? What was the name of the band again?
<B>SN</B>: Gray Matter.
<B>NRAMA</B>: And they still have CDs out there by Gray Matter, don't they? Your fans could hunt some down.
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, it's on Dischord Records, and we're on iTunes...
<B>NRAMA</B>: You're on myspace (http://www.myspace.com/graymatterrocks) and youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VApynTY9C_g) too. Do you still play in the band?
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] No, no, no, no. Nobody wants to see a 42-year-old man playing hardcore. No that was ... that was just something I did with my friends. You know, those were the guys I was hanging out with. The attitude was that we might as well play music.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/darkdays2.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>NRAMA</B>: And you said you dropped out of high school for a "little while." Did you go back eventually?
<B>SN</B>: Actually, one of my band members got me into a school in Washington, D.C., called School Without Walls, and that's where I got my high school diploma. That was just to make my parents happy, 'cause even though I was putting out albums and writing and doing all this stuff, they wanted that piece of paper. So I did it. And I almost went to college in D.C., but I ... well, I really didn't make it past my front porch. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: Wasn't for you?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, I just didn't see the point. I just always wanted to do stuff. I was always way too impatient. I just wanted to get out there and start doing it instead of sitting around talking about it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: At what point did you feel like the writing was what you wanted to do more than anything else?
<B>SN</B>: Well, at first I wanted to make movies. That's what I thought I wanted to do. And do special effects. I was big into <i>Starlog</i> and <i>Fangoria</i> and <i>CineMagic</i> and all those magazines. I would make smoke machines, and try to do stop-motion animations and all this.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You said you did Super 8 films. You made a lot of movies yourself?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, and as I got older, I wanted to make better and better movies. But it was just budget and equipment, and my stoned friends were not the best actors in the world, and one thing and another. And I just realized, as I was trying to make my last Super 8 movie, I was looking at the storyboards, and I went, like, "Oh my god!" I just felt like such an idiot. Because I had been a comic fan my whole life. And I realized, "Oh my god! I should just be doing comics!" I was 18 or 19. And I just turned my attention to it, just as a medium, and as something I thought I could actually pull off with some kind of quality because there were less people involved, you know?
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sure. If you look at the storyboards and break it down to the basic idea of sequential art, comics are really just movies on paper.
<B>SN</B>: That's how it started. And it really was like going back to something I loved. It wasn't really obvious to me because it wasn't until the independent boom of the '80s that people really openly discussed how you do comics, and how you distribute them and get them out to the world, so I was at the right age, at the right time. I just kind of rode that '80s wave and started self-publishing and doing that kind of stuff.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What was the first comic you self-published? It was <b>Arcane Comix</b>, right?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, the first comic we did was <b>Arcane Comix #1</b>, and it was called “Bad Planet.” Oh, not Bad Planet. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: [laughs] Yeah! That's the comic you're doing with Thomas Jane that is just now coming out!
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] It was called “Bad Moon.”
<B>NRAMA</B>: Those titles are close. But wait, you said "we." I know you started <b>Arcane</b>, but who was "we?"
<B>SN</B>: Me. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: It was just you alone starting <b>Arcane Comix</b>?
<B>SN</B>: Well, it was me and then whoever was helping me out at the time -- the artist or whoever I was paying.
<B>NRAMA</B>: So you just kind of researched how to publish your own comic and did it yourself?
<B>SN</B>: I tried, yeah. I tried my best. And just through sheer luck, I got the attention of Clive Barker and I wrote Richard Matheson, and all these people just really helped me out. So I went straight from doing this kind of crappy black and white magazine to doing these really beautiful lithographs of Clive Barker's book covers for the <i>Books of Blood</i>, and then I did a horror anthology called <b>Fly in my Eye</b>, which was actually <b>Arcane Comix #2</b>. And I worked with these people like Bill Sienkiewicz and Ted McKeever and John Bolton and all these people.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Wait, working with these huge names of comics -- this was all through "sheer luck?"
<B>SN</B>: Well, basically, I didn't know any better, and I would just call information and get their number and call them at home. [laughs] And, you know, I was just like ... now, looking back, I was such a little jackass. I must have driven a ton of these people crazy. But most of those people are still my friends today. In fact, Bill Sienkiewicz and I are working together again. He's actually living in my guest house right now.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I heard about that in your interview with Steve (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=133000) about the movie. You're doing the new <b>30 Days</b> installment with Bill Sienkiewicz, right?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/BeyondBarrow01.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>SN</B>: We're working on a couple books. He's moving out to L.A. He's living here while he looks for a place. And we're working on <b>30 Days: Beyond Barrow</b>, and this new series we're working on called <b>The Sinner</b>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Yeah, you talked about that in San Diego. What's <b>The Sinner</b> about again?
<B>SN</B>: It's a superhero book about ... well, the way I like to put it is that with most superheroes, the biggest problem in their life is that they have to wear glasses or they're slightly nerdy and get picked on. I wanted to write a superhero story about somebody truly pulling themselves up from the bottom of the barrel. Their life is absolutely falling apart when they come into contact with their superpowers. I'm just going to try a more realistic approach to it. I really want to. And I think Bill's the guy to do it. So we're just experimenting with it now. But I keep telling people, it's like a horror version of <i>Unbreakable</I>.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Steve, you just sound like you have so many ideas popping out of that head of yours, and you've hooked up with so many people. How does a person do that?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/Sinner.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>SN</B>: Well, one was being an annoying pest for so many years and calling people and just not stopping and constantly writing and constantly knocking on people's doors and submitting stuff. And now, 20-some odd years later, I have all these great friends and contacts in place in the industry.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Well, not just the comics industry, though. You've worked on comics with people like Rob Zombie and Thomas Jane...
<B>SN</B>: Well, one is just being here in L.A. I met Rob Zombie through a mutual friend, and they just kind of stuck us in a room and said, "You guys will like each other!" And we started talking, and it was like, we're exactly the same age, we have exactly the same movie background and likes, and we even came from similar music scenes (although, obviously, he had a little more luck than I did). But, you know, it was all these things in common, so it was like meeting a friend.
And the same thing with Tom. Tom just walked up to me at a comics convention and just said, "I want to be Cal McDonald." I was like, "Jesus, you <i>are</I> Cal McDonald."
So it was just about being at the right place at the right time, and I've been really fortunate to meet all these great people.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But it sounds like you made a lot of it happen yourself. The phone calls, self-publishing and getting your stuff out there.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/cmdb1cov.sized.jpg" alt="" align="right"><B>SN</B>: You know, probably my biggest influence was George Romero. He did <i>Night of the Living Dead</i>, and he did it his own way. He filmed it in Pittsburgh on their own budget. He basically did it outside the system. I just really, really believed from the beginning of my career in doing it yourself instead of waiting for everybody to just hire you. If you wait around for that, you could be in for a big disappointment, but if you just get out there and do it, it ups your chances.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That makes sense. And for you it hasn't been just about comics. You and I talked in Baltimore last month (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=128880) about your novels, and how most people don't realize you've been doing those for years. People talk about Brad Meltzer and Warren Ellis and other people doing both novels and comics, but you just don't hear the name Steve Niles on that list.
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, the first was actually a novella called <i>Freaks of the Heartland</i> back in 1989. I've always been interested in other types of storytelling.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You told me you've had a total of five novels published, and you just signed a deal with Pocket Books for a new novel. And of course, you wrote the screenplay for the <i>30 Days of Night</I> film and have been involved with other movies. My point is, you're not just a comic book writer – you've really become a writer in many creative outlets. You've got to feel like you've fulfilled that early dream to write and then some.
<B>SN</B>: Well, it's been what I wanted to do since I was about 19. And I've just been plugging away at it ever since. And it wasn't until relatively recently that I was actually able to pay my bills with it. I had little spurts, like when I worked for Eclipse and when I was doing the Clive Barker stuff, and later when I was working for Todd McFarlane, I was able to support myself. But then there were always these lulls where I would have to go work at comics stores or bookstores. Unfortunately that's my only other skill [laughs], because I didn't go to college. You know ... writer ... or retail clerk. It was going to be this or retail, so I really put my effort into the writing.
Then <b>30 Days of Night</b> took off, and I've been lucky enough to support myself as a writer ever since.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That was your breakout hit, wasn't it?
<B>SN</B>: Yeah, and with the movie coming out, I'm so happy about how everything's turned out.
<B>NRAMA</B>: We've already talked to you about the movie in a separate Newsarama interview earlier this week, but I know you're going crazy anticipating the release this weekend.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/30Days/30Days1.jpg" alt="" align="left"><B>SN</B>: I am. It's pretty exciting, but crazy too. This week has just been insane. Probably next week, the phone won't even be ringing.
<B>NRAMA</B>: OK, Steve, we've covered your career up to this point and your early influences, but let's talk about what's up with you now. You're married now, right?
<B>SN</B>: No, I've been married ... uh ... twice. I'm just getting divorced.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Oh, I'm sorry.
<B>SN</B>: No, it's OK. I have a great situation. I'm finally with an artist, and that seems to be what it took.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Only an artist can deal with you creative types, huh?
<B>SN</B>: [laughs] Yeah, I guess so. She can deal with the fact that I like to work 24 hours a day. Because my work is, I write comics and monsters and I'm working on movies – so I can't punch out at 5 o'clock. I love it and I think about it all the time. So I'm with somebody now that understands that, and hopefully kids will follow soon, because I really love kids.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Kids! What happened to that wild guy from D.C.? Is "wild" a fair term? Were you wild during those years with the band?
<B>SN</B>: Just a little. Maybe just a little. [laughs] That's a pretty safe term for it, yeah.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But now you seem like this mover and shaker or something, or at least more like a successful businessman with everything you're doing.
<B>SN</B>: Y-y-yeah. You'd think I'd be more of a businessman, but I still think I'm more of a creative person. Luckily, now I have people around me who can rein me in and take care of some of that stuff because I'm really a horrible businessman. That first book I did, that <b>Fly in My Eye</b>, I so much wanted to make sure that artists got paid what they deserve that I didn't even consider how to run a business. My first company, I just ran it right into the ground. I didn't know how to sustain a business. I just wanted to put out the best book possible. So I put out a 225-page book for $9.95 and paid every artist a hundred bucks a page, and just lost my ass on it.
But yeah, I guess "wild" is the right way to put it, because I know I scared the crap out of my parents quite a few times. And even recently, I had an uncle tell me, "We were really worried about you." And it's so nice to see that now I've actually been able to do something with this craziness.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like the family believes you've made it as a writer. Do you feel like you've made it?
<B>SN</B>: Wow. With writing, I don't know if you ever feel like you've made it. You know? 'Cause it's such a fast-moving world that even when I get something done, I still feel like I'm very much the kind of person who is saying, "OK, what are you going to do next?" I'm always looking to the next project. So, I don't know. I feel pretty good. I feel like I've had a decent career going. But I'm never going to rest on that.