We sat down with Jane to talk about his love of werewolves and the long process of bringing this story to life. Plus, we have a little debate about found footage!
The first issue of The Lycan is out now via Comixology. Get an exclusive first look here: https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/522320/the-lycan-get-an-exclusive-look-at-thomas-janes-new-comic-series/
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The first issue of The Lycan is out now via Comixology. Get an exclusive first look here: https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/522320/the-lycan-get-an-exclusive-look-at-thomas-janes-new-comic-series/
Dread Central
https://www.dreadcentral.com/
Check Out Our Podcast Network- https://www.dreadcentral.com/dread-podcast-network/
Grab your Dread merchandise, movies, and more- https://store.dreadcentral.com/
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Okay, so I don't think I realize how big of a comic fan you were.
00:03Oh, okay.
00:04Yeah, I don't think I realize that.
00:05Have you been a comic fan your whole life?
00:07Has that been like just like a lifelong love of yours from childhood?
00:11Lifelong love.
00:12My mom was an antique, my mom, my mother was an antique nut.
00:17And so she would drag me off to all the antique shops and the auctions and all these incredibly
00:24boring places.
00:26But I discovered the cardboard box full of comic books, and that helped get me through
00:32it for sure.
00:34And that's how I discovered comics, fell in love with it.
00:39Grew up in the 80s when Pacific Comics and Eclipse came out, these independent books
00:48that decorated the local comic book shelf.
00:52And that's what I fell in love with.
00:54I fell in love with Dave Stevens, the Rocketeer, and Bruce Jones with Twisted Tales and Alien
01:04Worlds.
01:06That's where I discovered all these great artists and terrific writers.
01:09I was never a fan of the Marvel stuff, you know, Batman was okay, you know, but I was
01:16an adult when the Dark Knight came out, you know, and really kind of blew up the superhero
01:23stuff.
01:24When I was a kid, it was all basically the same shit they were making in the 60s, you
01:29know?
01:30Yeah.
01:31I mean, I grew up loving comics too, but I was similar in that I didn't go to the superheroes,
01:34I went to the creepy, weirder stuff.
01:36I always loved the independent, weirder things that come out, and still am very much that
01:42way.
01:43Creepy?
01:44Yes!
01:45Creepy is a great...
01:46Warren, did you ever get into the Warren magazines, Creepy and Eerie?
01:50No!
01:51Where have you been?
01:52What's wrong with me?
01:54Under a rock, apparently.
01:55So, how long have you wanted to make your own comic?
02:01Has that been something in the back of your head that you've wanted to do, or is this
02:04something you didn't really conceive of as a possibility until recently with The Lichen?
02:10I started a comic book company after I did The Punisher in 2005.
02:18I started my own company.
02:19I met Steve Niles, who had just done 30 Days of Night.
02:26We turned out we were in the same... we grew up in the same area, which is outside of Washington,
02:32D.C.
02:33Wait!
02:34That's right!
02:35Where did he grow up?
02:36I literally am in Silver Spring, Maryland right now.
02:38And I also... last time we spoke a while ago, I think you mentioned that you grew up around
02:42here.
02:43Yeah, Rockville.
02:44Yep, yep.
02:45Rockville, Maryland.
02:47So, Steve was in the D.C. punk rock scene, and he had a band called Grey Matter.
02:56And so, I would go to those shows, and I had no idea that it was Steve Niles, you know?
03:05Probably...
03:06I don't remember many of those shows.
03:08Oh, I know the D.C., but the D.C. punk scene was like...
03:12It was terrific, is what it was.
03:16It was a really special time, if you were into that kind of thing.
03:23So, me and Steve became partners, and we did a couple of books.
03:27We did Bad Planet, which... proud of the art in that.
03:33But I was just learning how to write, so the writing... when I look back and flip through
03:37that book, I'm like, wow, I was terrible.
03:40But the idea...
03:41I'm being a creative, just being like, everything I do... like, this is garbage.
03:45It's garbage.
03:46And the art was great, and I got to work with Basil Gogos, I got to work with Dave Stevens
03:53and Bernie Wrightson and Bill Stout.
03:58I just had so much fun.
04:02And then...
04:03So, we did three books through the company, which was called Raw Studios.
04:09And you can find them on Amazon.
04:12They're still floating around out there.
04:16Bad Planet, we did a... issue three was in 3D, so I got to work with Ray Zone, who was
04:22the king of 3D comics at that time, and I had a huge crush on 3D comics.
04:29That was just mind-boggling when I was a teenager.
04:34So I said, we have to do an issue in 3D.
04:38So we did.
04:39That was super fun.
04:40And then The Lichen was going to be the fourth book.
04:45I found a great artist, I got a couple issues deep, and then my artist disappeared on me.
04:52Which is not terribly uncommon, especially in the independent world.
04:59Artists are...
05:00They have the hardest job.
05:01I mean, chaining yourself to a desk for eight to 10 hours a day is not for the meek.
05:11So we lost him.
05:13He disappeared, and the book fell apart, obviously.
05:17So I put it in a drawer for over 10 years.
05:20I just...
05:21It was heartbreaking.
05:23I had a fantastic script by Mike Carey.
05:27We were lucky to get him.
05:29He did a bang-up job.
05:31He just did such a great job with bringing the outline to life and bringing his own magic
05:39to the story.
05:41So Renegade is my new company, and we said, let's...
05:46We have to do a book.
05:48So we sent it to Comixology, who picked it up, and they've been so great giving us the
05:56time to do the kind of book that I want to do.
05:59Because I like my books that have to be detailed, they have to be good to look at.
06:08The art, the comic art is really what turns me on.
06:12Being able to create a world that you feel like it's unlike reality.
06:20It's unlike anything else, because it's an artistic vision of the world, and there's
06:24just as many different ways to do that as there are artists on the planet.
06:30You look at stuff like from Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby, that's a world.
06:37The people are alive inside of that Jack Kirby style.
06:44The same is true of any artist.
06:48That's what really turns me on, being able to create a little people into this imaginatory
06:57world that would not exist in any other medium, which is what makes comics special.
07:04The American art form.
07:08We have jazz, and we have the comic book.
07:14So I'm proud to be a part of that.
07:18Yeah, and the lichen is so pretty to look at, and I love how detailed the art is.
07:23But I first want to hear about how the idea came to be for you.
07:28So the lichen was, the idea originated with you, right?
07:31Correct?
07:32The idea for the comic?
07:33I was working with a screenwriter named David James Kelly, and he came to me with this idea.
07:43We were genre fans, but we're elevated genre fans.
07:48We love the character.
07:49So if you can bring character to a genre thing, that's sort of the bee's knees for me.
07:59Dave gave me this really terrific outline, and we worked on it, and we just started batting
08:04it back and forth in my capacity as kind of a producer slash director, developed the thing.
08:13And then I was working with some artists from the UK at the time.
08:20And through working with guys that I admired from the UK, I was able to get the outline
08:28into the hands of Mike Carey.
08:31And somehow, the guy just so happened to have a space in his schedule that he could knock it out.
08:40And he loved the story, he's like, I never do stuff that I adapt, I mean, sorry, I never
08:46adapt stuff.
08:47I always do original content, but I like this story, so let's do it.
08:52And so it just so happened, I think it's the only thing that he's ever adapted.
08:57Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that that's true.
09:02That's so cool.
09:03That's amazing.
09:04Unless he's done like a book or something like that, I don't know.
09:07But so was he game to jump back into it after 10 years, when you said we're going to make
09:11it happen?
09:12The script is done.
09:13He wrote the script.
09:14Okay, so it was all done.
09:15Of course.
09:16The whole thing was.
09:17Yeah, I guess there's different ways of, I guess that's...
09:20Yeah, because comics, I feel like people have different ways of tackling the script for that.
09:25That's a legitimate question, because there's a lot of different ways to put it together.
09:30And some people sort of like are writing it as you're drawing it.
09:36And sometimes that pressure can sort of like drive it out of you, like you have to stay
09:41ahead of the artist.
09:43But this week, we had the whole script from top to bottom.
09:48Oh, cool.
09:50So this time, it was just finding another art, like another artist, and you have Diego
09:55Yapur, right?
09:56Yeah, Diego Yapur.
09:58So I just started combing through the shelves at my local comic book shop, which was called
10:06Secret Headquarters.
10:07With a good comic book name, comic book shop name.
10:11It's a fantastic shop.
10:14And they've recently moved, they used to be in Silver Lake, but I think last year, maybe
10:19during the pandemic, they moved over to Eagle Rock, I think they're in now, which is near
10:25Silver Lake.
10:26I'm in California.
10:27I'm in Los Angeles.
10:28Yeah.
10:29And I would just go there and a couple other places, and you just start peeling through
10:34the independent books.
10:35That's awesome.
10:36You have to find an artist that's young enough that he hasn't been gobbled up by one of the
10:43major studios, but experienced enough that he can pull off what you're asking him to
10:50do.
10:51So there's this little window for an artist, for the really good ones, which is the only
10:59kind of artists that I'll work with, the crazy ones, the ones that are willing to go the
11:06extra mile in creating the detail, you know, and the world that I want to fall into.
11:15And I got lucky and found Diego.
11:18Yeah.
11:19Because his work, I mean, I'm just looking at the pages now, like there's so much detail
11:22with like the rain and the water and the boats and the musculature on the people, like it
11:27just feels so lived in with the art that he created.
11:31And the style has to complement the story, you know.
11:36Yeah.
11:37The story takes place in the late 17, I think it's 1797, you know.
11:42So I sent Diego Franklin Booth, you know, a lot of those pen and ink artists from the
11:54early 20th century and late 19th century stuff and got him in the mood.
12:05You got him in the mood.
12:07But so you're like, your role in this is like producer slash director, you said, right?
12:12And so you're part of the editing process.
12:14So what is that editing process been like then to see this come together again into
12:20what you've always wanted it to be?
12:23Well, if you've done your job, the editing process should be fairly simple, you know,
12:27because you've worked out the script, you've gone through the layouts with Diego.
12:33So like he's in the middle of laying out the last issue right now.
12:40And that's where the work gets done.
12:44Because he'll send me rough sketches of every page of every scene, right?
12:48And you have to tackle the comic scene by scene, you're like, okay, what happens in
12:54this scene?
12:55What's the important information that we need to get across?
12:58And how do we get that across in a visually striking way?
13:03That's going to pack as much meat on the bone as we can in this limited medium, you know,
13:11which is like, you've got like a page, or three pages to do an entire scene.
13:19So you've got, you know, you're always working with less, how do I do this simpler?
13:26How do I condense this, but still get the punch and the emotional, get everything I
13:31want to say into the scene in as simple a way as possible, and visually striking a way
13:39as possible.
13:40And that's where the work gets done.
13:42By the time I'm editing the final, so I've sent it, Diego has sent it to the colorist,
13:49the colorist is sent it to the letterer, they send that to me, and it's the sort of like
13:54the last set of eyeballs on it before it goes to print.
14:00So any little changes I want to make, anything that's that I feel I can come across, I'll
14:04rewrite a line or I'll cut stuff.
14:10Or I'll move the balloons around, you know, so let's give a little space between these
14:14two characters.
14:16All of that is, you know, what I call editing.
14:19I'm not sure what a real comic book editor does, but that's what I do.
14:25That sounds awesome, though.
14:26I mean, because, again, a lot of people know you for acting, so it's really awesome to
14:31hear all of the work and like, what's going on with this.
14:34That's amazing.
14:35And to have this come together like this, finally, it also must feel really fulfilling
14:40for you to finally have this out into the world or almost out into the world.
14:44It's really great, you know, I, of course, was worried about Diego, I thought, you know,
14:50it's just going to be a repeat of what I did.
14:54And when your heart's been broken, you're a little bit tentative going in.
14:59But Diego has proven to be a terrific partner and really open to notes, understands the
15:08drama and the characters, you know, and that's what you want out of an artist.
15:15Your artist is your cinematographer in the thing.
15:23So I'm curious, is there, it's a limited series, six issues, correct?
15:29Yeah, it's a whole story, you know, it's a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.
15:35And if we can think of a way to continue it, we could do another mini series, maybe.
15:48But right now, this is the story that we want to tell.
15:52You know, at its heart, it's a love story.
15:55I think all great stories are love stories at their heart.
15:59And that's what this is.
16:01It's a gothic romance, which, come on, I mean, I love that stuff.
16:06Who doesn't, though?
16:07I mean, like, even if you say you don't, you can't, a gothic romance is always incredible
16:12and just juicy to look at.
16:14Yeah.
16:15And I haven't seen stuff like that combined with the werewolf.
16:19Um, you know, there was that one with Benicio del Toro that came out in 2010.
16:26That was the Wolfman remake with him and Anthony Hoffman.
16:29Yeah, they went for that gothic.
16:31It looked fantastic.
16:34It looked gorgeous acting.
16:36That's what we want, you know.
16:37And boy, did I love Nosferatu.
16:42Man, did I love that movie.
16:43The new one?
16:44Oh my gosh.
16:45It's, I was so, you know, it's one of those things where I was like, is it going to be
16:50as good?
16:50It was.
16:51There was, it was incredible.
16:53I mean, he knows how to make a beautiful image.
16:56That's a masterpiece right there.
16:58That's a modern masterpiece.
17:00You could tell right away.
17:01You're like, oh, you know, nobody's going to discover this film in 10 years, like this
17:06film.
17:08Which is great, because it also has elements of that gothic romance.
17:12Yeah.
17:13So I think it's a good time for the lichen, because people's appetites are a little bit
17:19whetted by Nosferatu, you know, and I think he could do a similar thing with the lichen.
17:30So that would be fun.
17:33So I know that you weren't like the originator of the idea, but you worked on it.
17:38What do you love about the werewolf?
17:40Why did you want to be part of a werewolf story specifically?
17:44Is there something about them that attracts you as a monster?
17:47The werewolf is, you know, it's the beast within us all.
17:53They're pretty simple archetypes, you know, that's why they're called archetypes.
17:59And all the archetypes are cool.
18:03They all say something about, you know, who we are, and they all give us unique opportunities
18:09to explore different, darker corners of the human soul, you know.
18:17I love the gothic, I've always been a fan of that gothic romance stuff.
18:23And always been a fan of the werewolf, you know, the howling made a huge impact on me,
18:31because I was the perfect age for that movie.
18:34I think I was 13.
18:36Oh, yeah, okay.
18:38Well, 12 or 13, when the howling came out, and saw it in the movie theater, and was just
18:45knocked out.
18:46Of course, all I remember from it is the werewolf transformation.
18:49But boy, did you get your money's worth, you know?
18:54Right.
18:54They could have been reading the phone book for the rest of the film.
18:58Then when you got to that werewolf transformation, you're like, as a kid, it was like, jaw on the
19:04floor in the dark, you know, movie theater.
19:06You're like, oh, oh, oh, oh.
19:10So that had a big impact on me, and pretty much everybody else from my generation.
19:17Yeah.
19:18American Werewolf in London, of course, is just like, such a great twist on the thing
19:24with the humor.
19:26And then, you know, a series of disappointing werewolf movies.
19:32The werewolf's been done so dirty.
19:33I feel like we really need more good werewolf stuff in the world, which is why I was excited
19:37for the Lincoln, because I was like, we just need more good werewolf stories.
19:41There's a similar problem with Bigfoot in the film.
19:45Okay, let's talk about this, because I feel the exact same way.
19:49I love Bigfoot.
19:50I used to work on a show about Bigfoot.
19:52I've gone Bigfooting.
19:53Oh, okay, yeah.
19:54I'm a freak about Grumpus.
19:54So which one do you like better?
19:56Do you like Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Yeti?
20:01Bigfoot or Sasquatch.
20:02I like Bigfoot.
20:03I just use Bigfoot.
20:05Yeah, I like Sasquatch.
20:07It just sounds more like an Indian legend.
20:10Yeah, but they can't make a good one.
20:13It's always so silly, and it's hard to make a good Bigfoot movie.
20:16I feel like it always ends up being too silly and not scary, or they don't, like, I don't
20:21know.
20:21Yeah, it's not about Sasquatch himself, because, you know, if you shoot him in the dark, you
20:31can get some, you know, it's just like Jaws, like, the less you see of the monster, the
20:36better, like Alien, right?
20:39So it's not that.
20:42It's the refusal for filmmakers to take the subject seriously, you know?
20:50And if somebody took Sasquatch seriously, I think you could make a great film.
20:56I mean, look, the template is really simple.
21:00It's Jaws in the woods.
21:03If you were to do Jaws in the woods with the same kind of thing, you know, there's a national
21:08park, and everybody wants to go there.
21:11Maybe something's happening in the national park that attracts a whole bunch of people,
21:16and there's the guy, the park ranger, then there's the politician who sort of runs the
21:24national, you know, he's like the governor of the state or something, and he wants to
21:28open it up, and the guy's like, you got to shut this shit down, because there's a family
21:33of fucking Sasquatches out there.
21:36You know, it makes its own sauce.
21:40But just nobody's done it, you know?
21:46Have you seen Willow Creek, the Bobcat Goldthwait movie?
21:53Bobcat is in Willow Creek?
21:55What?
21:56Bobcat Goldthwait made a found footage movie, a Bigfoot found footage movie called Willow
22:01Creek, and it's one of the-
22:03Bobcat the comedian?
22:04Yes!
22:07Isn't that crazy?
22:07But it's actually one of the best Bigfoot movies I've ever seen.
22:10It's really good.
22:12I'm not, like, it's really good, because it does what you're talking about, like, doesn't
22:17show you a monster until the end type situation, but they go to like a real town that is based
22:24around Bigfoot for their, like, their tourism, and that kind of thing.
22:28All right.
22:28So they interview people about Bigfoot.
22:30Interesting.
22:30It's good.
22:31I gotta check out Willow Creek.
22:32You liked it, huh?
22:33I liked it a lot.
22:35That and Exist, the Eduardo Sanchez one, are like the two Bigfoot movies that are, like,
22:40decent.
22:40Yeah, it falls apart, you know?
22:44But like a lot of-
22:44It totally falls apart.
22:46All the other Bigfoot movies are just so silly, and I-
22:50Yeah, I'll have to check out this Willow Creek.
22:54Is it found footage?
22:56Yeah.
22:56I hate found footage.
22:59I hate the cheapness of taking a camera and wiggling it around and giving you this seasick
23:07idea that you're somehow watching a real thing.
23:11It's so tired, but also it's, like, anti-film, you know?
23:19When you create a film, you've got this language, this cinematic language at your disposal with
23:25the lenses and the sizes and the camera moves and angles, and that creates this language that
23:34you're able to communicate emotion with just using the tools.
23:39You know, you could be filming some rocks that you painted some eyes on, but if you're
23:44using the tools in a way you can communicate so much, and found footage does the opposite
23:51of that and puts me to sleep within five minutes.
23:55Oh, interesting.
23:57Okay.
23:57See, I'm opposite.
23:59I have a Blair Witch Project tattoo, and I'm a massive found footage fan, but I still think-
24:04Why?
24:05Why do I love found footage?
24:06Yeah, what do you love about it?
24:07So, I think it's the reason why you don't like it.
24:10I think I love how it goes against the grain of what you think of with cinematic language
24:15and makes something completely different, and obviously there are tons of bad ones.
24:19I will not contest that whatsoever.
24:22I think it's a really cheap way to make movies, which means a lot of people do it,
24:26and they don't do it well, but I think if you can really lean into-
24:31Again, if you take found footage seriously and actually know where the genre comes from
24:36and the movies that have come before you, you can find really cool ways to craft scares,
24:42but you have to be smart about it, and I think what you're pointing out is accurate.
24:46You have to take the medium seriously.
24:48It's not just because you want to make a cheap movie.
24:50You should just respect what the medium is allowing you to-
24:52Right.
24:52What rules to break.
24:54Yeah, getting the conceit of why you're filming all these people at this particular time is
25:00important.
25:03Being able to buy that somebody's actually taking the time to film for days and days.
25:12What's a good example of one of your favorite found footage films?
25:19I really love this one called Lake Mungo.
25:21Have you ever heard of Lake Mungo?
25:22That one's interesting because it's framed like a true crime documentary,
25:26so it's not just in the woods, so it's a little different.
25:30But that one's one of my favorites.
25:32I really love As Above, So Below, which is in the catacombs of Paris.
25:36They go on-
25:37Oh, right, right, right, right.
25:38Yeah, and there's a couple other really small ones that I just, I'm a huge found footage fan.
25:45All right.
25:46But hey, I get it.
25:47It's not for everyone, but-
25:48It has its fans.
25:50There are good ones out there.
25:52There's good examples.
25:54Look, my first big movie was Deep Blue Sea.
26:01You know, I flew my parents out to the premiere, and they were from Maryland.
26:09And that same weekend, this movie came out of nowhere, which didn't have any money.
26:16We spent $100 million on this shark movie, and this movie was made for like 15 grand.
26:24And they shot this film in my backyard, literally.
26:30In the woods of Maryland, where I used to play with my friends,
26:35is where they shot the Blair Witch Project.
26:40Crazy.
26:41And it came out of nowhere with an online campaign, because the online thing had just
26:49become a thing.
26:50And it caught the studios completely off guard, where this new technology was able to put
26:58this $15,000 movie in theaters, and it beat Deep Blue Sea.
27:05It was the number one film on that opening weekend.
27:09Number two was Deep Blue Sea.
27:12So yeah.
27:12Oh, so that's why you don't like-
27:14I got a problem with it.
27:16No, no, no.
27:17I went and saw the movie.
27:18I'm like, well, shit, man.
27:20I guess this movie's fantastic, because everybody's freaking out about how real it is,
27:26and the scares, and all that.
27:28I walked out halfway through it.
27:31I was like, what the hell?
27:34In fact, somebody stood up in the theater.
27:37Somebody stood up, because I saw it in Los Angeles, so obviously there's a lot of filmmakers
27:41in the audience.
27:42Somebody stood up in the middle of it and goes, this is bullshit.
27:47Some guy from the UK just stood up in the middle of the thing, like, fuck this bullshit,
27:54and he walked out.
27:55And then I walked out about five minutes later.
28:02That's incredible.
28:04Anyway, I got to go.
28:07We got to wrap.
28:08Yeah, I was going to say, thanks so much for your time.
28:09I'm going to wrap up.
28:10And yeah, so this has been amazing.