Even with four films and numerous other projects under his belt, writer-director Robert Tinnell was looking for a creative outlet that would afford him more control over the finished effort. When he and his frequent co-writer Todd Livingston struck a partnership with comic book artist Neil Vokes, he found that venue. The Black Forest, from Image Comics, was their debut graphic novel together. It was followed by another, The Wicked West. Both were hits and now both of them have sequels in the works.

Tinnell is also stepping further out into comics with The Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story, illustrated by Adrian Salmon. Set in early 1960 England, The Faceless is a superbly frenetic combination of TV's The Avengers, The Saint and the classic Hammer horror films of the period as Sharp battles a Satanic conspiracy hell-bent (obviously) on taking over the government of England. The first 20 pages of this new Image Comics graphic novel can be previewed online www.terrysharp.net. The creators are also offering an animated trailer for the book available for download.

Scoop talked with Tinnell about the project.

Scoop: Who is Terry Sharp?
Robert Tinnell: Terry directs horror films at the legendary British production outfit Midwich Studios. During the course of The Faceless he's directing The Return Of Frankenstein. By night, however, Terry is a tireless battler of a Satanic conspiracy dedicated to taking over the government.

Scoop: What is The Faceless about?
RT: It starts about two years after Terry has uncovered the Satanic conspiracy. Up till now he's just tried to stay alive and learn what he can about who they really are. The Faceless, on the other hand, have decided that Terry is a liability. There attack on him precipitates the events in the book.


Scoop: What inspired you to come up with this story?
RT: A lifetime of loving Hammer and other British horror films from the '50's, '60's and '70's. I was a real fanatic for it. When Adrian Salmon and I were searching for an idea to develop together this one just seemed natural given the fact we both were fanatical about that era and those films - and television shows, I might add. Stuff like The Avengers, The Saint, and The Champions to name a few.

Scoop: The art is very stylish and highly evocative, yet that doesn't seem to get in the way of the storytelling at all. What can you tell us about Adrian Salmon and his work?
Adrian's one of those guys whose work I gravitate to. He contributed a pinup to The Black Forest and I knew I had to work with him (as well as own the original art). He's worked steadily for some years in the UK as both artist and colorist. His first US work came when Mike Oeming and Allan Gross and Mark Wheatley brought him in on the Doc Cyborg project for Image. But Terry Sharp is really his first creator-owned character. And the project really struck a chord deep within him, I think, because he's doing a wonderful job of marrying the visual with the storytelling elements. Ade and I are both big fans of Darwyn Cooke, and while you won't see a superficial comparison between the two I think what you do see are guys who maximize their signature styles as well as maximize the storytelling all the while compromising nothing.

Scoop: You seem to have a lot of faith in this story. You're previewing 20 pages of it online. What makes you like this one so much?
RT: To tell you the truth if I'd thought of it I might have done it sooner. And I'll absolutely do it in the future and the reason is simple: I need to earn the buyers' and the retailers' trust. There's a finite amount of dollars out there and tons of product. Why should anyone take a chance on us? I'm asking you to plop down $6.95 for my book the least I can do is give you a good reason why. And I do believe and am passionate about the story. I think if you read the first twenty pages you're going to like the characters and want to know what happens to them.

Scoop: How have reactions to the PDF been thus far?
RT: It's been downloaded far in excess of what I anticipated. I think maybe DSL and high speed internet have become more prevalent than I realized. Of course, the jpegs are there, too, for folks who are on dial up or just want to pop in an image or two real quick. But the pdf... people dig it.

Scoop: Your trailer was really nicely produced. What kind of feedback have you received on it?
RT: This is definitely the most popular one we've done, and that's saying something given how well the ones for The Black Forest and The Wicked West were received. But Mike Anderson, who edited this one, had an concept he wanted to pursue and thankfully his instincts were right on. And the composer, Andy Kubiszweski always nails it. People are enjoying it and it's a great tool to introduce the book.

Scoop: You've had two highly praised, successful graphic novels from Image in The Black Forest and The Wicked West. How was working on this one different?
RT: Not so different really. I mean, obviously I'm writing solo on this one, so I don't interact with Todd so much (we're busy interacting on other stuff). But thanks to email the dialogue is pretty much instant and ongoing. Neil Vokes is actually around most of the time as well. He and Ade are very close friends, too, and he has a short story in the book.

Scoop: How do you think your background as a screenwriter/director affects your storytelling in comics?
RT: For the most part, I guess it comes out in my plotting and pacing. Some folks may see that as a problem, I suppose! With The Faceless I'm also drawing on my experiences in the film industry to add a touch of authenticity to Terry.

Scoop: We know that Todd, Neil and you have The Black Forest 2 in the works, but can we expect to see more Terry Sharp or is this a one-time deal?
RT: As far as Terry goes, Ade will be starting a new book in October - Yellow: A Terry Sharp Story. This will be our tribute to the Italian Giallo films. We really hope to do a series of books with Terry. He's such a great character. Ultimately I hope we get his entire life in print - because his is an epic story. Neil is hard at work finishing up TBF2 (which features a rockin' back up story from The Wicked West) for a September 7th release. With TBF2 we're picking up immediately after the events in the first book. We have big plans for the book but we felt we needed a "pivot" piece of sorts to be able to move on. That's what this story does. Plus it has a hot girl vampire!

Scoop: While you've been leaning toward horror with most of your work, you always seem to blend in something else, too. Why is that?
RT: Horror for horror's sake bores me. The best horror is often about something else entirely - although that might not originally have been the creators' intent. Think about something like, say, The Innocents (based on Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw). On the surface, it's a creepy ghost story. But underneath? There's a whole of other stuff going on. You can go all the way back to Whale's Frankenstein and its imagery grounded in the real horrors of WWI as another example. Or Romero's Dead films. Bringing in a larger context gives our characters life, as opposed to just being situational horror.

Scoop: You've also got The Feast of the Seven Fishes on the way. For folks who don't know, what's that one about?
RT: Feast Of The Seven Fishes was an online comic strip I wrote that was first drawn by Ed Piskor and then Alex Saviuk. It was meant to capture a slice of Italian-American life during Christmas 1983. And we developed a real following. The strip ran 120 days and we've collected them into a hardcover book that's coming out this September from Allegheny Image Factory. Because the Feast is this whole big seafood dinner we've also included a cookbook section. I think we'll do real well with it, particularly outside the direct market!

Scoop: Do you have any other projects in the works that you can talk about?
RT: Sure! Coming up are a 128-page horror original graphic novel called The Living And The Dead and it'll be out in October from Speakeasy. Micah Farritor is the artist on that one and he's a guy to watch. Then The Wicked West 2 in early '06. Bo Hampton and I are doing a huge horror OGN called Sight Unseen that I'm very excited about. It will hit, hopefully, in June of '06. And Neil and I are going to jump in and do a monthly black and white horror comic called Only At Night. Should be ready to go by April. Now I just have to find time to finish my current screenwriting assignment!

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