More Murder For Ash & The Army of Darkness

Ready for an ass-whoopin' Army of Darkness adventure while you're waiting fro Ash's next TV season? Look no further than the Ash Vs. The Army of Darkness #0 (APR171529) issue in the April issue of the PREVIEWS catalog! To give you a heads-up on what's going on in this special introductory issue that's priced at only 99¢, we give you this interview with writers Chad Bowers and Chris Sims so they can share their thoughts on this debut title.

Ash Vs. The Army of Darkness #0 (APR171529) is in comic shops June 7.

**********

PREVIEWSworld: Welcome to Army of Darkness, Chad and Chris! What's it like to get into the headspace of Ash Williams, the Deadite-killing, wise­ass Chosen One?

Chad Bowers: The headspace of Ash Williams smells like Aqua Velva! He's the toughest dude in horror. A blue collar badass. The guy you want standing beside you when the supernatural poop hits the fan. Ash doesn't care if he's wrong or if he's right, just so long as he wins. He'll do whatever's necessary to get the job done, even if it means, literally, cutting off a part of his body and replacing it with a gas-powered outdoor appliance. (I mean, seriously, can you even imagine?) Ash is the kind of character you immediately fall in love with writing because there's nowhere he can't go in a story, as you'll see in the first issue of Ash vs. The Army of Darkness.

Chris Sims: I saw Army of Darkness when I was nine, and I literally describe it as a life-changing experience. It might've been the most influential movie I've ever watched in terms of the stories that I like and how much I love smartass everyman heroes who kinda stumble into having to do the right thing. Almost everything I've written has had a variation on that idea kicking around in it. It's been one of my favorite movies since I was old enough to have a favorite movie, so when I tell you this was a story I've been wanting to do for 25 years, I'm not kidding around.

PREVIEWSworld: In this new series, we're going to see Ash in a situation he's never been in before. Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about the new direction?

Chad Bowers: Actually, Ash finds himself in two situations he's never been in before, but who's counting? And yeah, we're definitely keeping things pretty close to the vest on the new book, so you'll just have to pick up the #0 issue to find out exactly what he's gotten himself into. But I promise that you won't see it coming!

As for the new direction, Chris and I are really committed to shaking things up on planet AOD. We want to show fans of the series a good time, and stuff they've never seen before! That said, we're staying pretty close to the original film's set-up. In fact, our first issue picks up just hours after S-Mart ending in Army of Darkness. We ask the question, "Where'd that Deadite which Ash fought in S-Mart come from, anyway?" It's wide open from there.

Chris Sims: One of our big goals whenever we sit down to write a new story is to keep things moving fast enough that nobody has a chance to get bored, and with Ash, escalating those situations was so much fun. It's like his life, right? Just when you think you've got a handle on what's happening, something comes along — a book, a time portal, an evil twin that changes everything. That's the feeling we want to get, and Ash works great as a character when you never quite let him get comfortable.

PREVIEWSworld: We've seen Ash both as a complete bad-ass and as an insufferable goofball. What are your thoughts on walking the line, and putting him in situations that bring out those qualities?

Chad Bowers: The thing is, he's both of those things — the goofball and the badass — and it's precisely why we love him. It's part of his charm, and if you don't have equal parts of each in there, you're not doing it right.

Chris Sims: That's what we like about him, right? He's a little bit of a blowhard — okay, a lot of a blowhard — and if you knew that guy in real life, you'd hate him for being such a jerk all the time. But at the same time, that's what makes him work. You drop anyone else into these situations, where there's a literal army of soul-eating corpses trying to destroy everything in their path, and they'd be losing it from fear! Ash, though? That dude goes the completely opposite direction. All that stress, all that terror, it just makes him more confident. He's got an ego big enough to wield like a shotgun — and he's also got a shotgun!

PREVIEWSworld: Dynamite's offering this #0 launch with "Special S-Mart Pricing" of only 99 cents. What are your thoughts on the accessibility of this debut issue to new readers?

Chris Sims: I think our number one goal with Ash vs. The Army of Darkness #0 is to show readers that we're doing a different kind of AOD story. When there's something that's so beloved, and that's been explored so well in comics, I think there's a temptation to think that you know what you're going to get before you even crack open that cover. With our book, though, we're going to go in some directions that people might not expect, and giving readers the chance to check that out for less than a buck is a great way to tell people, "Hey, give this one a shot. It might just surprise you!"