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Widow Spins A Tenured Tale of Terror

by Vince Brusio

The comics which many remember the most are those that were fun. They shocked you. They made you laugh out loud. They made you cringe. Regardless of the emotion, they moved you. You lost your stern poker face when you flipped through the pages. Mike Wolfer’s Widow: Progeny #1 (MAY161632) is the kind of comic that gives you a workout. One minute you’re wide-eyed over the excessive bare flesh, and the next you’re wincing at the over-the-top gore factor. It’s the plane crash you HAVE to see. It’s everything you want in a horror comic and more. In this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview, creator Mike Wolfer explains that Widow is to horror what popcorn is to movies.

Widow: Progeny #1 (MAY161632) is in comic shops September 7.

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Article Image 8373PREVIEWSworld: There doesn't seem to be an unseen destination at the end of the road for the players in Widow: Progeny #1 (MAY161632). The solicitation seems pretty straight forward. Almost like the synopsis for a zombie movie you hope to see at the theater. Does that sound about right? Did you have the popcorn audience in mind for this book?

Mike Wolfer: That’s absolutely, right on the money. The “popcorn” audience is, and always has been, my target for Widow. When I first created the series back in 1992, I only intended it to be a single, three-issue mini-series, just a one-shot “horror film” concept. My idea was to create an homage to the horror/exploitation movies of the late ‘60s/ early ‘70s that I love so much. What hits that mark better than a story with a mad scientist on a secluded, Caribbean island, doing genetic research and making monsters? Throw in excessive gore and nudity, and you had nearly every movie I went to see as a kid. I suppose my obvious love of the genre- clicked with readers, so here we are nearly 25 years later and fans are still demanding more Widow. Widow: Progeny is a new beginning of sorts, but it’s also a continuation of the core storyline of the various series that have preceded it.

PREVIEWSworld: How did you approach writing this title, given that the illustration chores were given to Karl Moline? Is it a different creative process when you're only writing the book, and not illustrating it? Is there more freedom? Or was it more challenging?

Mike Wolfer: The only time writing for another artist is challenging is when the artist has a different way of envisioning pacing and action. Every artist has their own way of “blocking shots,” just as a director does. How you place each element in each panel to create both a narrative and artistically pleasing flow is vital to comics storytelling. Some artists design panels the way that comic artists design panels, but my personal approach to envisioning each individual panel is to imagine what that single shot would look like on the movie screen. So in the work that I draw, you don’t see a lot of the typical comic art conventions, like exaggerated proportions, anatomy, and perspective, characters flying out of the panels, etc. That also holds true for sound effects, which I rarely use, and thought balloons, which I never use. In essence, I draw movie storyboards, rather than comic book pages, and I love it when I find an artist who tells my stories in the same visual fashion. Karl Moline is very good at storytelling, as is Roy Allan Martinez, who is drawing issues #2 and #3 of Widow: Progeny.

PREVIEWSworld: Widow is a name that's all too familiar with longstanding horror comics fans. But every new generation misses out on things that came along before their "awakening." If a new fan wanted a primer for Widow, where would you send them?

Mike Wolfer: In addition to my monthly, gothic horror series Daughters of the Dark Oracle, one of my plans for Mike Wolfer Entertainment is to schedule regular, new tales featuring Emma, the main character of Widow. To get new readers up to speed, I’ve reprinted all of the previous material in trade paperbacks, ending with Widow Archives Volume 5 (MAY161629) which you can now order through the May PREVIEWS. There’s five volumes in all, which are currently available through Diamond. Since Widow: Progeny is a spin-off tale, I’ve written it so that readers can pick up this new mini without feeling like they’ve missed anything. In the original Widow stories, we found that the “spider virus” that Emma possesses can be transmitted to others, warping their genetic structures and transforming them into half-human, half-spider hybrids. In Progeny, our story takes place on another island where that virus has spread, and we’ll see how a shipwreck survivor and the crew of a US Coast Guard rescue helicopter fare against an army of spider monsters. It’s classic, horror movie fare, and sets just the right tone for what I have planned for the next year.

PREVIEWSworld: What does Widow mean to you as a creator? Is it your baby? Is it something you constantly want to improve? Or is it the family gathering that you never want to see coming to an end?

Mike Wolfer: Taking into consideration all of the various series I’ve worked on — things like Night of the Living Dead, Friday the 13th, Gravel, Stitched, Lady Death — I’m always pleasantly surprised that many comics readers first associate me with Widow. And that’s perfectly fine with me. It’s the character and series that propelled me on to other larger projects, so it’s really nice to now be able to revisit those days, and relive the excitement of creating new stories for a new generation of readers. As for improving the series, yes, absolutely, that’s always my goal. I’ve matured over the last 24 years and so have my storytelling abilities, so it’s great to be able to apply all of that knowledge and skill to something that means so much to so many fans of Widow.

PREVIEWSworld: Now that Widow is being published by your own company, Mike Wolfer Entertainment, how does that affect the books being produced? What's the payoff?

Mike Wolfer: I started my comic career in 1987, and continued self-publishing until 1996, and although it was incredibly stressful, it’s something that I’ve really missed over the last two decades. The “payoff” is that sense of fulfillment and pride that I get every time I see someone post a photo of the latest issue of Daughters of the Dark Oracle (MAY161630)on Facebook or Twitter. Seeing their excitement and being able to entertain them is the payoff, more now than when I worked for other companies. Knowing that every decision that was made in creating that comic was mine, and that no expense was spared to make sure that it’s the absolute best representation of my work, that’s the payoff. And knowing that I’m now able to give fans of Widow exactly what they’ve been asking for all of these years- new stories- that’s the best payoff of all.

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