I love graphic novels. I’ve been reading them since a British magician named Alan Moore plucked my head right off and set it back on my shoulders permanently skewed. I’ve never been much for typical superheros, but give me something by Moore, Daniel Clowes, Robert Kirkman or Brian K. Vaughan and I’m a happy reader.

Of course this would mean that I’ve been pondering writing my own graphic novel for years. That little matter of finding a great artist kind of always stood in the way, though. Well, that and time. And finding a publisher for the finished product. Okay, there were a lot of reasons I never did it.

Until Rocky Wood approached me in 2010 and asked if I would consider working with him on one. He’d just finished the absolutely incredible Horrors! Great Tales of Fear and Their Creators, and was about to embark on a second one with the same publisher (McFarland). Because he’d just been diagnosed with ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), he was concerned about his ability to finish the book.

I get a lot of offers these days, but that was one I didn’t have to think twice about. The subject of the witch persecutions was of great interest to me (and something I’d already studied a bit of, thanks to my Halloween books), I loved the idea of working with Rocky, and the publisher (McFarland and Co.) and artist (Greg Chapman) were already in place.

I’d already studied graphic novel and comic book scripts before I agreed to work on Witch Hunts. I had Alan Moore’s book Writing for Comics, and I had a few other editions of things that included the scripts. I immediately saw that while writing for the “sequential narrative” was somewhat similar to screenwriting – a format I’m well versed in, since I make part of my living as a screenwriter – it allowed for more stylistic flexibility. I was most affected by Moore’s style, which was insanely detailed. Moore didn’t, for example, just describe a street; no, he described every person on the street, what they were doing, what they were thinking, what color their clothes were, which direction they were walking, etc.

Rocky had already written the first chapter of Witch Hunts, and had created a simple template using color codes (thanks to Word’s “Highlighting” feature) that would help Greg distinguish description from text and dialogue (and I’m sorry WordPress doesn’t allow me to recreate our color codes!). Here is Rocky’s script for one page:

Page 29:
TEXT: Following the Feast of St Francis, a particular case came to Court. They had carried Mischief and other things to church, so that everyone believed it to be children. But they had left their children at home and ate them later.

PICTURE: Okay, try this: we have a one page picture split down the middle from say top right to bottom left (maybe by a lightning shape but over to you).

The left half of the picture relates to the text above and shows a couple coming into a small church with two children. But somehow they are not quite real children – you will show something weird in each – perhaps their limbs are out of proportion, or their head is too large/small and if we see their faces they look vacant.

The right half of the picture relates to the text below and shows a great metal cooking pot over a fire and a couple serving up hot food at a rough table to a few other adults. There are no children in the picture but you will slyly hide a severed leg or arm somewhere in the background (or whatever you think will work best).

TEXT: They had killed their own children and cooked them, and took them to their company to eat them. They were found out and we sent them to the Fires.

And here is the finished page:

Rocky had already thoroughly outlined the book, so we divided up the writing by sections, with me taking most of the later sections.

I tried to keep some of the stylistic details Rocky had already set up (for instance, using “Look upon” to begin sections), while letting a little of my own style creep in. Here is my script for page 86:

TEXT: Finally, in 1593, the executions in Trier ended only when the city and its people were too impoverished to continue, the population had too much diminished, and food became scarce because farmers had been among those burned at the many stakes.

PICTURE: This one should be very dramatic: A plough lies forgotten at the edge of a cleared field; the plough looks old and splintered, and it’s tilted in a way that suggests it might be broken. The plough is simple – little more than two long, sturdy wooden handles that connect to a large triangular metal blade, which is half-buried in the soiled. Half of the field had been ploughed, and we can still make out the long furrows; but the other half was never finished, and is already sprouting weeds. In the middle distance, beyond the field, is a river; and glimpsed just past the river is the city of Trier…where three people are being burned at the stake, in an open plaza near the river’s edge. A faceless crowd surrounds the three pyres, and smokes billows into the air, obscuring part of our view of the city

And once again, the finished page:

I think particular applause is owed to Greg for his splendid job of working through the frequently complicated descriptions we threw at him, and managing to meld the work of two different writers into one cohesive whole.

I still hope to write more graphic novels someday, but in the meantime I’m very proud of what Rocky, Greg and I created with Witch Hunts. If you include the research, it took many months to write, and I hope you’ll agree that the end product was worth it.

Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times isn’t the only new book that Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton and Greg Chapman have out. Don’t miss these other titles:

Rocky Wood – Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished – now available in a revised and expanded 2012 edition from Overlook Connection. There are a multitude of interesting updates in the revised edition of the classic book about King’s “hidden” work. This edition is likely to prove to be the definitive book about King’s uncollected, unpublished and lost works. Included in the new information are a series of newly discovered unpublished works, for many of which Rocky was able to secure Stephen King’s exclusive and definitive statements about how they originated, and why they never saw the light of day. Many of these quotes are entertaining and even controversial.

Lisa Morton – Wild Girls was a three-day sensation when offered as an e-book, and readers loved the wild ride! Now offered for the first time in an affordable signed & limited hardcover edition (the e-book is no longer available). Jessie and Dens are two roomies in a small southern town who like movies, drinking, collecting glittery stickers…and the occasional killing spree. When novice reporter Noelle begins to put high heels together with certain puncture wounds, is she about to make a move up to a major paper…or become the next victim? Order your copy now from Bad Moon Books.

“…a fun and gruesome novella…Highly recommended!” – Rhonda Wilson, MonsterLibrarian.com

Greg Chapman – The Noctuary is an acclaimed and compelling novella by the multi-talented Greg. Struggling writer Simon Ryan’s life has gone to Hell. Shadows are pouring into his reality and his words are not his own anymore. He has been chosen to become a scribe for some of the worst creatures of the Underworld–the ones whose sole purpose is to torment human souls–The Dark Muses. As Simon writes he falls deeper into the abyss and before long he has no sense of what is real. With the help of another scribe, old and mutilated, Simon comes to discover that his writing can mould people and places–that he can write things out of existence. To become a scribe he has to pass a test and the Muses offer him a chance to rewrite his horrible past. All Simon has to decide is how the story ends. The Noctuary is now available from Damnation Books.

Greg has been hard at work again, and has come up with poster #4! Don’t forget to check out the Gallery page for more of Greg’s fantastic work.

Have you seen the amazing posters that Witch Hunts artist Greg Chapman has designed? We just added a new one, so please visit our Gallery to take a look!

Witch Hunts artist Greg Chapman is giving a talk at the Rockhampton Regional Library on June 2nd, and the local paper gave him this nice write-up HERE

“With inspiration drawn from artists Brian Bolland, Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Miller, John J Muth, Mike Mignola, Dave McKean and Bernie Wrightson, Greg has illustrated a compelling graphic novel tracing the fictional account of the history of the witchcraft persecutions that plagued Europe and the Americas for hundreds of years.

The 185 page graphic novel looks at, amongst other things, the origins of the craze; how the Malleus Maleficarium was created and was used as a torture guide book; how the Church of the time endorsed Inquisitions and people used the craze for their own personal gain.

Meticulously researched in terms of the history of witchcraft and torture, Greg has taken fourteen months to create the artwork for the book. A process he thoroughly enjoyed.”

Way to go, Greg!

You might think that as the illustrator for Witch Hunts, all the research would have been done solely by Rocky and Lisa right? Well, yes, but that’s not to say I didn’t have my nose firmly buried in books as well.

Given the graphic novel deals with about 400 years of European and Colonial American history, my illustrations had to be historically accurate, right down to the last detail. Yes, I could use artistic license in some cases and imagine what locales and people might have looked like, but I was also very eager to ensure the book was authentic.

During the nine months or so that I was hunched over the drawing desk (not unlike Heinrich Kramer, but without the misogyny!), I had to refer to many different texts and art books in order to bring the story of Witch Hunts to life.

Thank goodness then for libraries and the Internet, which provided me with a plethora of artistic material; fashions of the era, architecture, hairstyles, headwear (oh, god the hats drove me insane!) and of course the numerous instruments of torture.

Three books that proved invaluable to me were: The Chronicle of Western Costume: from the Ancient World to the Late Twentieth Century,  by John Peacock,  An Illustrated History of European Costume : Period Styles and Accessories, by Auguste Racinet, and Medieval Panorama, edited by Robert Bartlett.

Peacock’s book had page after page of clothing from peasants to royalty and I photocopied so much of that book that I should have just bought myself a copy! The other tome was filled with paintings, woodcuts and metal work from the Middle Ages and lots of exposition on how people lived and worked at the time.

Other books I borrowed out way too many times included Knights, by Andrea Hopkins, The Flowering of the Middle Ages edited by Joan Evans and What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry, from Time-Life Books.

Costumes for the Salem chapter were sourced entirely from the Internet, with imagery from the film and theatrical versions of The Crucible being readily available. Lisa’s chapter on King James of Scotland was a little trickier as I had to find, among other things, an engraving of his old castle Holyrood House – before it was burned down and rebuilt. I also had to find an appropriate sailing ship specific to the 16^th Century (Lisa didn’t make things easy for me!)

The only real trouble I had was finding any images of the witch hunters Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer. The only pictures I could find came from a thumbnail of the cover of an old Spanish edition of their book the Malleus Maleficarum. It helped give me an idea of what Sprenger might have looked like, but Kramer’s appearance I had to come up with myself.

The torture implements came from the web as well with one very thoughtful (or obsessive person?) even compiling them all into one PDF and putting them on the Internet for all to see.

Strangely though, for a book about witches, I didn’t have to draw many of them. There was only one page where I drew them with the stereotypical characteristics that we associate with witches – the pointed black hat and warty face. The victims of the witch craze were normal-looking people of differing ages.

All in all this was the largest art project I’ve ever undertaken (around 185 illustrated pages!), not counting the few pages I did that weren’t suitable. I spent many nights (I work full time during the day) at the drawing desk after my kids went to bed, trying my very hardest to capture the history of this truly terrible time in the age of man. Rocky and Lisa’s text is very important in my view and I hope I have done it justice. I hope I meet readers’ expectations.

And to the artists who came before me and inspired me during my time on Witch Hunts, I say thank you!

We’re excited about the forthcoming release of our non-fiction graphic novel (yes, we know that sounds like an oxymoron) Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, and we’ll be using this site to post tantalizing excerpts, essays about the creation of this unique book, and (as they start to appear) reviews and other mentions of the book. We hope you’ll enjoy both the book and this site. – Rocky, Lisa and Greg