BORING & HILDEBRANDT ON TOKYOPOP'S WAR ON FLESH

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

In September, creator and co-writer Justin Boring sets the stage for an epic, cutting edge horror romp that’s been described as “Kill Bill Vol. I meets Dawn of the Dead in the Matrix with a saucy mixture of Akira and Return of the Living Dead.”

Joining him on the trip, co-writer Greg Hildebrandt Jr. and artist Tim Smith 3. And before we go on, yes it’s the son of Greg Hildebrant of the renowned fantasy-painting Brothers Hildebrandt team.

“It’s chock-full of loveably weird characters and unlikely heroes,” Hildebrandt told Newsarama. “The incredible action follows a kick-@$$ plot line, with white-knuckle suspense, dark zombie macabre, and zero gravity kung fu. It’s a roller coaster ride of shotguns, zombies and a climatic battle that literally cracks the world almost in half.

“The creation was the twisted brainstorm of my partner, Justin Boring,” he continued. “It’s a concept that he slowly developed many, many, many years ago. As my story goes, being a writer and in the entertainment field, he came to me one day and told me he had an awesome idea that would make a ****ing unreal movie! As I have learned through the years, everyone has great, if not fantastic ideas; the trick is to put them on paper. So after he excitedly pitched me this long and twisted idea, I said, that’s great, do you have anything written down. He said, well, not exactly. I said, no problem, write it down and let me read it, and then we’ll talk.

“Well, several years later, here we are.”

“I spent two years funding and creating a jaw dropping website that featured all of my characters, storyboards and a synopsis of the story,” Boring recalled. “I knew someone on the inside at TOKYOPOP (thanks Julie) that I could email a link to and she passed it along to one of the Editors. They loved it and the rest is history.”

Creator and co-writer Justin Boring said that he wanted to create something one of a kind story that rooted in horror, anime and manga. War on Flesh is set deep in the swamps of Louisiana where a rag-tag group of unlikely heroes are forced together to fight a primeval voodoo curse known as the War on Flesh, which gives life to the dead and mutates the living into enraged zombies.

“A gritty power struggle between three industrial racketeering factions located in the alternate future of Bogalusa, Louisiana unleashes an ancient voodoo curse known as the War on Flesh,” he said. “The putrid curse was designed hundreds of years ago by an ancient witch doctor of Haitian born decent known as Dr. Ew Chott Channy. If set free, the curse would unleash Dr. Ew Chotts’ virulent swarm of Ew Chott hornets and resurrect an army of the undead. Each soul collected would donate energy to the Prince of Pestilence who had released it and the Dark Forces would condemn mankind to an eternity of undead purgatory.”

“As with any story of this nature, there are a vast many, but a few of my favorites are Mondo Caine, a gnarly, old voodoo doctor who plays a vital roll in unleashing the War on Flesh,” Hildebrandt added. “Jean Tois, who will become our evil gateway to the War on Flesh, thus, turning him into the Nasty Man. And my favorite, which sold me on the entire story, was Zelda, our heroine. She’s a twelve-year-old black girl and the daughter of a slain preacher out to kick some zombie butt in a little fit of revenge.”

“War on Flesh is a ground breaking combination of gritty two fisted horror and zero gravity, mushroom cloud exploding, kung fu action. There is a lot of dark humor intertwined with Romero influenced terror as well,” Boring said.

As it’s evident by now, Boring is a fan of both Japanese manga and American manga. He’s a fan of Priest, Warcraft, Cowboy Beebop, Dragon Ball Z and he loves anything by Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Alex Ross, Toby Cypress, Bernie Wrightson and also John Carpenter, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino and “anything with Dead in the title of a movie.

“I grew up on a steady diet of horror, anime and manga. It is the combination of these genres that have, aside from turning me into a complete weirdo, given me the essence of my material. I first wish to change the very face of manga, then the face of horror movies and then the face of anime. Oh yeah, then the face of video gaming. I have taken my favorite parts of each genre and combined them into one horrifying, action packed drama style that birthed War on Flesh. I needed to put forth my new brand of deep-story action and horror. This material is completely original, never before seen and I hope to trail-blaze right along side like minded folks like Quentin Tarantino and others who are helping to forge the new Japanese-American style of storytelling. I assure you the titles that follow, that are already in production, will not disappoint.”

“When people see the book, I want them to understand the story and what the writers are trying to do,” artist Tim Smith 3 added. “I want them to feel the characters and think about them later. Even if it’s just for a few seconds longer after they close the book. I want them to think about what they would do if they were in the world of War on Flesh.”

More info on War on Flesh at www.waronflesh.com

Read the first chapter of War on Flesh @ www.tokyopop.com/takuhaionline

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[Pawel]

first *****es

What the heck have the hildenbrand brothers been doing anyway?

I am assuming thats one of them.......

proly wrong.....

[Tiger47]

In the article it mentions that it is Greg Hildebrandt of Greg + Tim Hildebrandt

[SS-XVIII]

Man, i love the Hildebrandt brothers. Mavel masterpieces baby. Yea, does anyone know what they've been up to other than what's stated in the article?

[ArtisticJim]

I met Greg Hildebrandt not too long ago. He and his brother trained one of my teachers at school so we got a tour of his studio. What I've heard he's been doing lately? He's been doing commission work and had done some pin-up calendars. One of the things we saw in his studio was a painting of the Fal of Mordor from Return of the King, and the canvas it was on was 4 feet by 6 feet! The whole thing was amazing to look at even with it being only half finished.

As for his brother? He lives in Texas now... dunno if he still paints or not, but he's doing well.

[rroch]

One of them has been painting beautiful pin-ups in the classical way, I´ve bought the 2004 and 2005 calendar showing some of these pictures. I hope they print a book with those great paintings.

[jasinmartin]

I've been looking forward to this one since the Previews solicit...
These preview pages don't dissapoint!

[Benjamin Ong]

I've edited the article to clarify that it's Greg Hildebrandt Jr. who's co-writing War on Flesh.

[mangamaster]

Originally posted by jasinmartin
I've been looking forward to this one since the Previews solicit...
These preview pages don't dissapoint!

I have been waiting for this title every since I ran across the web site. www.waronflesh.com

It looks incredible! The story sounds sick and the artwork looks outrageous on these preview pages! Looks like Tokyopop is taking a chance and doing something different, rather than another cutsie fuzzy friendly title.