BLUEWATER PRODUCTIONS' WARLOCK -- A ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW

Bluewater Productions kicks off its comics based on Lionsgate movie properties in March with Warlock, the horror movie franchise celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Along with Lionsgate's Leprechaun and other brand-names such as Vincent Price and William Shatner, Warlock is part of Bluewater's recent push of established licensed properties into the comics market.

The Continuum this week conducted an interview with the talent behind the new Warlock series -- writer Nick Lyons, artist Jacob Bear, colorist John Hunt and Bluewater publisher Darren Davis.

Following is the interview:

The Continuum: How does the book correlate to the 1989 movie? It's not an adaptation, but could it be called a sequel?

Lyons: I'd call it a sequel/franchise reboot. It's an original story with a new Warlock character, but I do make several references to the first Warlock film.

Bear: For me, I like to call this the 20th anniversary for the Warlock and this is like a new introduction to the forces of evil in Warlock to a whole new generation.

Davis: I would say it is the sequel to the third film. Lionsgate has been really successful with this title in both the film and home video mediums. We have had success at refreshing older franchises. We made this series to make sure that readers that did not see the films will pick this up. Then they would like the brand and pick up the films. Also we were careful to not to alienate the core Warlock fans. We did well doing this with Clash of the Titans and 20 Million Miles to Earth. It is all about the balance and thinking of both readers.

The Continuum: What is the concept of the comic?

Lyons: The basic story is this: The Warlock is on a mission to destroy a book that contains a spell which imprisoned six other Warlocks. If the book manages to be destroyed, the dangerous Warlocks would be released back into the world free to cause chaos and destruction. It's up to a rag-tag group of people to prevent the Warlock from carrying out his plan.

The Continuum: What drew you to the comic? Were you a fan of the film(s)?

Lyons: I had seen the first film prior to writing the comic and I did enjoy it. I thought Julian Sands was superb in the title role. I was attracted to this project because the idea of creating an original Warlock story appealed to me. I liked that I was able to make the character my own and develop a fresh, exciting storyline. Even though I am a fan of the film, it was apparent that Warlock suffered from budget limitations. When I started writing the comic, I really wanted the Warlock to have more power and wreak more havoc and with the comic medium, the sky is the limit for that sort of thing.

Davis: I used to work for Lionsgate back in 1999. I worked on the marketing of both this and Leprechaun. I loved these little cult films and wanted to do an updated take on them. I have the best memories of sitting in the conference room of Lionsgate eating lunch with the rest of the marketing department having to watch these over a sandwich. I don't do well with the horror genre, so it was hard for me to eat my meat sandwich when someone was getting hacked. But I did it and this is my way to paying homage to my old employer.

Bear: I thought it would be a fun comic to draw and it's Warlock, so I couldn't pass it up. I thought the movies were fun, but I feel with the comic, we can explore it so much further. It's like were producing a movie with an unlimited budget, so we can do things that they couldn't do in the movies, because it would've been too costly. The only limits we may have here really is time.

The Continuum: What are the difficulties of bringing horror to comics?

Lyons: Since the Warlock franchise is more of an action-horror type of series, it's much easier to blend the two genres together rather than having a straight horror comic. But, to answer your question, I really don't think there are any difficulties as long as you are confident in the story you are telling.

Bear: I don't think it's anymore difficult than the movies. Both mediums are designed to tell stories with images and dialog. The only thing we don't have that the movies do, is sound. So, that means we just have to make it that much more creepy.

Davis: We have had success with the horror comic genre with titles like Vincent Price Presents and Bartholomew of the Scissors. We added Plan 9 From Outer Space...Strikes Again, which is going to be a fun horror title. The horror comic fans are hardcore fans and you have to give them what they want. We get letters about the Vincent Price book not being gory enough. But that one is a gothic horror book, which is another beast to do correctly.