Spike : Asylum

You’re a platinum blond vampire with a soul, living in the city of angels. What’s a bloke to do for fun? In IDW’s forthcoming 5-issue series, Spike: Asylum, writer Brian Lynch adds a new adventure to William the Bloody’s time in LA. Last week Brian took some time to stop by and talk about the series (and, by the way, the part about the lap dances is at the end)...

BROKEN FRONTIER: As a cheap and easy warm up question - who is Brian Lynch?

BRIAN LYNCH: Oh man, who is Brian Lynch? That’s a question that has plagued mankind since the beginning of me. I’m a 33 years old, blonde hair, fantastic sideburns, 6 foot 3 and a half.

BF: What or who inspired you to be a writer?

BL: Years of watching movies and TV shows and reading comics and wanting to try it myself. Everything from Woody Allen movies to Ghostbusters to Bloom County to David Letterman to Howard Stern has inspired how I write.

I wrote so much before I got an agent and manager that when I finally did sign with someone, I had five or so scripts that were ready to go out to studios. I just like to write, and it’s very flattering that people want to read it.

BF: What have you written in the past?

BL: Past writing gig include writing jokes for the movies Scary Movie 3 (sorry) and Robots. I sold a couple of scripts to Warner Brothers, one an original kids’ movie, the other a Looney Tunes script.

Sold a horror script to Artisan called Everybody’s Dead. They made Blair Witch 2 instead. Who’s laughing now, Artisan? WHO’S LAUGHING NOW? Oh, you are. Very good.

Currently working on a movie, and I just sold a TV show.

I got my break writing a Muppet Movie for fun, that Henson actually wound up buying, so that was neat. Haven’t met Kermit yet, though. Damn.

Comics-wise, I wrote a story for Spider-Man Unlimited # 1, co-starring Slyde.

Click to enlargeClick to enlargeI have a comedy website, www.angrynakedpat.com that is the home to many fun comics, animated shorts, and short films. Through the site I have released a bunch of comic books available in your favorite comic book shoppe. They are titled Monkey Man Unleashed and Patchouli. You can see a bunch of comics starring these characters at my site. You should go. I’ll wait.

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See? Fantastic.

BF: I know you’ve perfected this answer already (as fans of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine know) but for the un-initiated, just who is Spike?

BL: Spike is a character that started out on Buffy as a villain, but proved so popular they slowly made him a hero. He fell in love with Buffy, won back his soul to win her heart. She was all like, and this is a direct quote, "so what if you have a soul, I totally love Angel", but Spike, fool for love that he is, fought side by side with her until the end.

He seemingly died in the final episode of Buffy, but was resurrected on Angel, brought in as one of the main characters for the final year.

Basically, he’s the perfect anti-hero. Started out as a completely evil character, slowly came to the side of good. He fights the good fight, but isn’t a goody two-shoes like Angel. To awkwardly reduce it into comic terms, he’s the Whedonverse’s Wolverine.

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BF: What challenges does he face in Spike: Asylum?

BL: The Asylum sells itself as a rehab center for anyone supernatural. They take in werewolves, vampires, demons, and try to curb their dark tendencies. Of course, the Asylum believes in tough love, so it’s not all group therapy and arts n’ crafts. It’s actually more like a prison. Jam-packed with monsters.

Spike checks himself in to find a young half-demon girl that is trapped in the Asylum. When Spike enters the Asylum, he finds out that most of the patients there have either been hurt by him, or have heard horror stories about him. So Spike has to find this girl while fending off hundreds of monsters that want to dust him. That’s just the first issue, things spiral way out of control from there.

BF: Where does Spike: Asylum fit in terms of the grand scheme of the Buffy-verse?

BL: Spike’s at a point where he has his soul, and he’s loose in Los Angeles, trying to be a hero. Problem is, he fought for a soul to win a girl’s heart, and it didn’t work, so now he’s at a crossroads. He’s been a ruthless killer forever, and now he’s a champion, he’s not sure what role that fits him best. The whole series deals with him trying to find his place in the world... while fighting tons of monsters, and making fun of anyone that crosses his path.

BF: What has impressed you most so far about Franco Urrus artwork?

BL: Franco’s artwork is just perfect all around. No matter what is going on, Franco finds the most interesting way to visualize it. Since Spike is in a monster asylum, there are some scenes that feature literally hundreds of monsters, so Franco has to come up with a lot of different creatures on the fly, and each one is so great, you want to see a spin-off starring them. But even the scenes of Spike talking to someone in the back of a limo, with no big creatures or action beats, is drawn so moody and scary, it’s just as interesting as the full-on action moments.

Very dark, violent stuff happens in this book, and Franco nails it each time. When something bad happens to a character, you feel it. But on the flip-side, the lighter, funnier moments are also done perfectly.

I’m very lucky to be working with him. He’s a master of his craft, and I hope we can work together again.

To be concluded... tomorrow!