Oh, how I love promoting South Jersey horror creaters; and comedy is always a close second!
The crew behind the award-winning viral series, Underbelly, are now bringing you a zombie comic, which could possibly have one of the best titles ever. Nerds, Girls, Guns and Ghouls! If the comic contains all of four of those elements, it sounds like it will be pretty awesome. Nerds, Girls, Guns and Ghouls will follow a group as they try and “uncover the truth behind those Atari 26000 E.T. games buried in a New Mexico landfill and the crew of a certain web show who accidentally release Hell on Earth.” The graphic novel is described as Scott Pilgrim vs The World meets Grindhouse and will be a mix of 8-bit and manga styled panels. The story is written by Newt Wallen from Zedura Magazine and Raphael Moran of The Ape Entertainment series, Dream Reavers. Many mainstream and indie names from the comic scene will be featured in Nerds, Girls, Guns, and Ghouls; and the gang over at Underbelly are hoping their 23,000+ followers will help smooth their transition from web comedy to horror comics.
I asked whether Nerds, Girls, Guns and Ghouls is completely original or a spin-off of Underbelly. This is what I was told, and it sounds like a mix of both:
“I wanted to use all types of creatures in this, sorta like H.P. Lovecraft type stuff. A dimension of darkness spilling out into our world, coming through the human form, to revealing something out of a nightmare. But now with that said, it;s a DARK comedy and about a bunch of idiots from South Jersey who are used to horror movies, horror comics, and zombie video games; who now have to try not to die in an insulting way in the face of the real deal. But followers of the show will get an extra kick out of some of the inside jokes.” — Newt Wallen
I also asked if the plot is based on real events, since the original press release I received made it sound like I should know about Atari games in New Mexico. Turns out, there is a little video game urban legend I didn’t know about:
“In 1983, the video game market crashed. 2 many cooks in the kitchen other than Atari. That’s why everything moved over seas. But one of the most known stories about that time period was the release of E.T. on the 2600. The game was unplayable and copies just sat forever on shelves. So the powers that be collected them up and buried them in a land fill. That story captured my imagination and was a perfect jumping point for this type of tale. But I made sure to touch on the origins in the script in case people came in cold.” — Newt Wallen
Finally, Mr. Wallen and I compiled quotes from other team members involved with Nerds Girls, Guns and Ghouls:
“What brought me to NGG&G was entirely due to my friend Newt. He is directly related to my start in comics and we always talked about working on a project of our own. Though this project was his brainchild, I jumped at the chance to work on it and with all of the talented people at Underbelly.” — Dane Cypel (artist)
“I like sick, perverted black humor. So going in I knew it was right up my alley; and from the moment I read the original script I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of – and from there Newt let me bring a lot of my own ideas to this.” — Raphael Moran (co writer. creator of Ape Entertainments Dream Reavers)
“Seeing myself drawn into a comic book was very cool. Now when people ask me who my favorite comic book character is, I can say ME.” — Justin Silverman (producer Underbelly)
Make sure to keep an eye on HorrorSociety for any updates on Nerds, Girls, Guns and Ghouls. In the meantime, follow Newt Wallen on Facebook by clicking here and watch Underbelly on youtube by clicking here.
