What would you do if you woke up to find a man-eating tiger in your bedroom? That's the kind of question posited by Brendan Columbus in his debut comic serial Savage Circus, set to debut in the landmark Heavy Metal Magazine #300. Drawn by Batman artist Al Barrionuevo, the series will run across ten issues of the storied alternative anthology comics magazine, following policeman Brady Harrison. The setting? One wild Christmas Eve quest to subdue forty escaped man-slaughtering beasts from the travelling eponymous Savage Circus, run by Vietnam Vet and presumed lover of animals, Lewis Savage.
The story is the first by Columbus, son of the legendary film director Chris Columbus, and certainly looks to be a rollicking tale in the unfolding. An epic trial of an adventure, Columbus seems to be taking the best of the retro-style of yesteryear and mixing it together with some good ol' twenty-first century popular pulp to create an original and tantalizing, if not twisted, action-packed gladiatorial saga revolving around the age-old struggle of man vs beast. A true aficionado of the nostalgic adventure style, Screen Rant caught up with Columbus to discuss his release.
Screen Rant: What interested you in Heavy Metal Magazine?
Brendan Columbus: These guys are willing to do anything. Do whatever they want. Savage Circus started as a movie script. I brought it around to a couple of places, the reaction was good but every single person was asking me to tone down the content, tone down the violence, tone down the gore, ‘Cause they’re not going to spend 80 million dollars to make an R-rated adventure/animal movie from a guy who’s never sold a script before. I knew it wouldn’t get made, but I really enjoyed the way I wrote it.
And my buddy Dylan Sprouse was like, “hey dude I just met with these guys at Heavy Metal, they’re really cool, they kind of have the same interest as us. More just cool, gritty stuff, less studio taste and more just like, good taste.” So I met with them, and they went over the mood with all the violence and stuff, and if anything they made me notch it up! Really sold it on me instantly.
Well it’s getting made as a comic. Artist Al Barrionuevo has a distinctly realistic style that he brings to what he does. Can you tell me a little more about the feel you’re trying to elicit in what I’m sure is a very visceral story?
So, initially I assumed… ‘cause I knew nothing about the process of writing a comic, I’m a big comic book fan but never that good at the nuts and bolts of writing one, I assumed the artist meets with someone else and they kind of it out, but then I was talking to [Heavy Metal Publishing CEO] Matt [Medney], and Matt’s like “yeah, you should probably start ing issue one”. (laughs) So, I really had to learn, and just- I was devouring comics like a man, trying to learn this- it’s different, ‘cause it’s not like storyboarding as much, ‘cause there’s more movement allowed in storyboarding- but I had to, learn kind of, the way the lives out, and I wanted it look kind of like one of those Amblin movies. Kinda like Gremlins, but even more visceral gore, so Al was actually a perfect match I think.
It’s like… Topps released these “Dinosaurs Attack!” cards in 1988 and that’s the kind of visceral, insane violence I was going for.
Ok, you’re going with a retro/hyper-real vibe.
Yeah, the stakes are higher than you’d normally get with the retro stuff, like you could get your arm ripped off, but I still want the heartfelt… It’s still Christmas Eve during Savage Circus so we’re going for like the Spielberg vibe. That’s the way it works. (laughs)
The story you’re telling is that there is a circus menagerie with all these terrible man-eaters and they all get unleashed on this poor unsuspecting town on Christmas Eve when their train derails. Can you tell me a little more about that?
I think when I was it writing for the action sequences, I always thought of during Raiders of the Lost Ark. You just gotta see every scene! Everything’s built like these serial episodic set-pieces. It really works with comics too.
So your protagonist Brady Harrison is facing a gauntlet, and you want to just be as harrowing and trying as possible?
The gauntlet he goes through... when the train crashes you experience an attack you’ve never seen before; forty different species all at once. And then the night goes on, you kind of go laser-focus on each character of the animals. So, for example like in Ripley’s Believe it Or Not comics back in the day, they do one page on the backstory. You’ll see that on the African Elephant they have. You’ll get his backstory and then you’ll see a one on one versus Brady through that. Tons of focus on the animals’ characters to make the action heightened and kind of scary.
Tell me about the ringleader of the Savage Circus. Why would you have this character who has a travelling circus with only the worst animals?
He's not a villain, Lewis Savage is more of grizzled old Kurt Russel badass with a whip who helps along the way, but in his wild way. He’s like the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not of the most fascinating animals in the world, because what else? 'I don’t want to go a zoo and see another elephant again. I want to see an elephant that’s killed 8 people!'
That’s just crazy enough to work! This is your first outing. What kind of mark are you trying to make with your storytelling?
I want to be able to show that I can do big set-pieces while keeping a nice emotional story at the core with some very funny dialogue throughout. The comic almost reads like a comedy sometimes because I tried to make it light and happy and I like that juxtaposition with the darkness of what could happen. But it’s more of a light-hearted comic that just goes darker than you think. I really hope people enjoy it!
Check out this exclusive sneak peak of Savage Circus, featuring an early tale in the life of the enigmatic Lewis Savage.
Heavy Metal Magazine #300 goes on sale August 19th from Heavy Metal Publishing.
