Interview: Darryl Knickrehm on The Immortal
Darryl Knickrehm is a renowned writer and filmmaker, who is also notable for being the co-founder of the Kansai International Film Festival, which showcases Japanese films made by non-Japanese filmmakers. He’s taking the sci-fi route for his next project, the comic The Immortal (Kickstarter here), and Dread Central caught up with him to find out more.
Dread Central: Why did you choose the medium of the comic to tell this story?
Darryl Knickrehm: Having gone to film school, I’ve always written my stories in a very visual way, storyboarding them before I even shot one frame of film. And I’ve always dabbled with little comics just for fun, but I never thought about drawing an actual graphic novel. Well, until about 5 years ago.
Right around the time I turned 30 my filmmaking hit a creative wall: resources. I had spent my 20’s making short films like 152 and even producing a film festival, but I wanted to move on to feature films. For one, short films have very little return (no one buys them, and few see them). For another, it’s hard to develop interesting characters and a stimulating plot in a short work. The problem with making feature films, however, is gathering the resources to do so. And the thing that severely limited me from gathering resources was that I was living in Japan.
I had moved to Japan shortly after graduating film school to explore the world. I liked it so much there that I stayed. But living in a foreign country can be very isolating when it comes to making industry connections. So when I was trying to move on to bigger things, I was hitting bigger walls. It was very frustrating and restrictive. So I decided to shift directions. I remembered those ‘storyboarding’ skills and decided to work on improving them. At the same time, a story was brewing in me as a result of those restrictions and frustrations. A story completely unrestrained by resources, something that was everything I couldn’t do in the past. Something that turned out to be The Immortal.
DC: You mention Boba Fett, Frank Miller and Mobius as being influences. Can you elaborate?
DK: I grew up on Star Wars. It was a big influence on my life and on my view of sci-fi. However, I’ve always been drawn to offbeat characters. Ones that were not perfect, more mysterious, characters like Boba Fett. This definitely had an influence on how I create sci-fi, and especially The Immortal.
Frank Miller is someone I’ve only stumbled on in the past couple of years actually. When I was a kid, I loved comics, things like Batman and X-men. But when I started making films, my interest in comics kind of went on hiatus. I didn’t really keep up with what was going on. But then somewhere along the way I read Batman Year One. I thought it was amazing. Dark, serious, realistic. I then read Miller’s other work and finally came upon Sin City. While I had seen the film (and thought it was okay), I thought the comic was amazing. I loved the ultra contrast of his art. That type of hyper contrast was something I’d been playing with since I was in film school (I was also able to take a few art classes), and I really dug it. But it was his first-person narratives that hooked me most. They had style and flair (that worked better in written fiction than spoken word). And they really reminded me of my favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk. So I think it’s a bit inevitable that the style I love to write in is a stylistic first-person narrative akin to Miller and Palahniuk.
Last is Moebius. Ah, Moebius. I think his art is beyond amazing. Sometimes simple, sometimes deeply complex, it always has a perfect sense of balance and is never overdrawn. I came across his work shortly after I came to Japan. While he never made a huge splash in the States, his work was influential in Japan. And even though I didn’t keep up with comics while filmmaking, I couldn’t help but read manga (they won’t let you into the country without doing so 🙂 ). It also turns out that he was a big influence on my favorite Mangaka, Katsuhiro Otomo. I had known Otomo’s work since I was a teen, when I first saw his mind-blowing anime Akira. But I didn’t actually read any of his manga until I came to Japan. And I didn’t realize that Moebius had been an influence on his work until, well, I found out that he was. And I guess it’s no wonder he influenced some of my other favorite Japanese artists like Miyazaki Hayao or Yukito Kishiro. And when I found out that he had done design work on one of my favorite sci-fi films (Alien), well, it was pretty much settled; I was a disciple of Moebius.
DC: Is the story influenced by manga?
DK: Yes. I’ve read a lot of manga over the past decade while living in Japan. Funnily enough, I’m not a huge fan of ‘traditional’ manga (aka big eyes, big boobs, big caricatures). Some of my favorite mangas are the ones that are more detailed, for adults, different (like Monster, Battle Angel or Nihei Tsutomu’s work). One of the things I really like about manga is its cinematic quality. It’s often drawn in a shot for shot, storyboard-like way. You can really see everything in the story. That said, I think The Immortal is equally influence by American and Euro comics. With The Immortal, I’m trying to mix all my favorite qualities into one style.
DC: Can you talk about the universe in which the story takes place?
DK: The Immortal takes place far off in the future. It is a future, however, where humanity no longer exists. Only one human remains, a man named Z. But that doesn’t mean he is completely alone in the galaxy. There are planets full of new and interesting life forms. There are ancient empires and nomadic races, all in a unified network called The Interstellar Union. The Immortal’s story takes place in the wild west region of Calypso Sector.
DC: Will each issue be a self-contained story?
DK: Basically, yes. The series is a single story in itself — the story of Z finding out who he really is. But while each issue is the next chapter in that story, they are also basically self-contained (i.e., Z sets out to do something and he does it… or not). I imagine The Immortal kind of like a TV series like “Lost” – in each episode you have to wrap up today’s problem while also leaving enough open for the overall story to continue.
DC: Is this a darker kind of sci-fi?
DK: My stories tend to be a bit on the dark side, so yes. I think my stories always have a touch of horror in them. While The Immortal is probably the least horror-like story I’ve created, it still has some of those elements. Heck, it’s about a man who dies in practically every issue.
DC: Can you tell us about the protagonist, Z? What kind of person is he?
DK: Z is not the nicest guy in the galaxy (well, since he’s the last human, maybe he actually is). He’s not the type of guy you’d probably be friends with. He’s gruff, impatient, hot-headed, and he’s got some issues. But I guess it’d be hard not to have issues if you were the last of your kind.
DC: And he’s also the last human?
DK: Yeah. And that’s one of the reasons he’s the way he is. The other reason is that he can’t remember why he’s the last human. And the reason for that is that his memories are full of holes. And that’s because the way he’s decided to make a living in his wild, open galaxy is to be a bounty hunter. When hunting dangerous criminals is your occupation, death is always waiting around the corner. Luckily bounty hunters have regeneration chambers so that the can finish their jobs. The problem is, when you die and you don’t back up your memories, you forget everything since your last regeneration. And since you don’t know when you’re going to die in the line of duty, more often than not, memories are lost. So Z is missing a lot of memories. In fact, he doesn’t even remember his name. He’s only called Z because of the tattoo on his head.
DC: Can you talk about the artwork and how it fits the story?
DK: Actually, it took me awhile to come up with the style for The Immortal. I really loved the high contrast of Frank Miller’s Sin City, and since that style was something I’d been experimenting with for a long time, I thought that would be perfect for The Immortal. It conveys a very thick, noir-like atmosphere and would be great for the more tense moments too. The first issue of The Immortal has a lot more of these high-contrast images as a result. But I realized that while this style was great for some situations, a clear, detailed representation might suit a sci-fi story even better. Because I know when I read/watch sci-fi, the one thing I like most about it are the fantastic places and creatures that fill the story. I want to really see these things and experience them. I don’t like it when there are quick cuts or too many closeups that hide all the details. So I decided to bring out those details more to help create bigger worlds and more interesting characters. The later issues reflect this, I think. But they still have high-contrast moments to add drama.
DC: Will we see more of Z after the 8 issues?
DK: I sure hope so. This story now is basically the origin story of Z. But since I like stories that have endings (it gives them a direction), I didn’t want to create a series that just goes on and on and on and on. I’d love to tell the stories of what happens to Z after this one and what happened to him before he became a bounty hunter. I’d also love to tell little stories of his life as a bounty hunter. Short stories of some of his famous bounties. The stories wouldn’t be connected, but they’d be cool little adventures against legendary monsters that might reveal tidbits about Z. I’m actually creating one right now as the special Zero Issue for the Kickstarter campaign for The Immortal.
DC: You’ve made some films, like the well received horror short 152; do you have any more films planned?
DK: Right now, my filmmaking is on hold. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to make films, however. I’d love to get back into that in the future, if I could gather the resources to do so. I’m continuing to write horror scripts. They might become comics first, however. Like I’ve already written the first draft of 152 the novel, and I’m thinking of possibly making that my next graphic novel. I’ve also written up the first draft of a kappa-inspired horror script.
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