Geekscape Interviews: Brandon Seifert, Author of ‘The Harvester’

“Portland is secretly the comics capital of the US. There are more comics illustrators per capita here than anywhere else. And more here, period, than anywhere but New York City.”

I love to travel. Having been born, raised and now still living in New Jersey, I yearn to see the world even if it’s not across an ocean. That’s how the subject of writer Brandon Seifert’s current residence, Portland, came up. I’ve never been, but I adore Portlandia.

“I moved here in 2006. I can’t speak to what it was like before that but it has always been, from my experience it has always been an extremely geeky city. When I moved to it, they used to show three episodes of Buffy every Tuesday night at a local movie theater for free, and you could get beer,” Brandon tells me. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.

“There was geek trivia [which] was this huge thing for years,” he continues. “They had to move it to a bigger venue, and even then it still wasn’t big enough. It’s this extremely geek-friendly city, and it’s a city where fandom and nerdy stuff have really penetrated into kind of the popular youth culture in a way they haven’t in a lot of other cities. You go into a comics convention here and the people you see typically is in the same cross-section of people you see down the street.”

Originally from Alaska, Brandon Seifert is a comics author with a foot steeped into horror. As he should, he’s co-written Hellraiser with Clive Barker himself. He’s also built his name elsewhere, with his debut series Witch Doctor, Disney’s Kingdoms: Seekers of the Weird, Doctor Who, and Spirit of the Law. If he’s at your local comic-con, look for the guy in a tie and sweater vest behind a table.

His newest series, The Harvester, comes from Legendary Comics and will hit shelves later this week. For centuries, a mysterious force has targeted evildoers and criminals in brutal fashion. Thought to be just a myth to scare others silly, scholars have searched for evidence to prove his existence and all efforts have been futile. Two ordinary but rebellious investigators embark on a mission to prove the Harvester’s existence, his purpose, and his entire story once and for all.

This may not end well.

What can you tell me about the origins to The Harvester? How did you come to the idea of a criminal boogeyman, and how did you choose the unlikely protagonists?

Brandon: So, I can’t take credit for The Harvester. The original idea came from Thomas Tull, the Legendary CEO. Thomas has come up with a lot of story ideas over the years, and since he started Legendary Comics he’s been bringing in other writers to co-create along with him and to write comics based on his ideas. The Harvester was one of those. He came up with a lot of the kind of core stuff for the character. And then [he] brought me in and kind of shared what he’s been thinking with me. And then I took it and kind of ran with it.

What is that kind of creative relationship like? As a creator yourself, is it refreshing? What kind of challenges does it have?

Brandon: For me, any kind of situation I’m in on a writing project, it’s got its strengths and its weaknesses. In a project that I’m just creating … on the one hand, I have total control over what I come up with. On the other hand, I have to come up with all of it myself. Like, the entire workload is on me. If I’m having problems with it, if I’m stuck, I don’t have anybody else there to suggest other things or ask questions, stuff like that.

The way things have gone with The Harvester where I’m brought in fairly early on a project that’s already got some material there, and then kind of develop it to a certain degree on my own, and then develop it to a certain degree collaboratively, on the one hand it doesn’t have that flexibility. I don’t have that freedom that I do with something [on my own]. Some of the heavy lifting is done for me. But I’m somebody who really likes writing exercises, I like writing challenges. It’s actually easier for me to write if I’m given some specific parameters, or something that I need to hit. The problem with doing anything is that I can do anything, so what do I do?

So, I really like the creative process on The Harvester. It was a good mix of those.

On your Tumblr blog, you wrote a few short pieces about movies that start with opening scenes that act as a microcosm for the rest of the film. It’s hard to tell with The Harvester because the whole story has yet to be told, but you kinda did that here, I’m assuming, with the opening fight. What is it about that kind of storytelling that fascinates you?

Brandon: What I like about it, in writing and in movies, people always say “Show, don’t tell.” What they mean by that is demonstrate the point through action and visuals. Demonstrate, don’t explain. In chemistry class, if your teacher is writing stuff on the board about some chemical reaction, rather than putting a piece of white phosphorous in water and you watching it catch fire. In stories, I don’t want somebody to explain white phosphorous and water to me at the very beginning. That’s the last thing I want to see when I start a new movie or a new comic. I want to see somebody drop that white phosphorous in water so I can watch the damn thing burn.

Whenever I can do that, whenever I can start a story with a scene that is kind of like is a prototypical archetype example of what you’re gonna get in the story overall, that’s definitely my preference.

You’re no stranger to horror stories. You’ve written Hellraiser, Witch Doctor. What is it about horror that fascinates you? What’s the most important thing that you’ve learned about writing horror?

Brandon: That’s a very good question. I think horror is one of the most difficult genres to write well. And I don’t honestly regard myself as writing it well. I have my moments, but overall I don’t. There’s a lot of genres in fiction that are about certain plot tropes. In science-fiction there has to be some kind of science that doesn’t exist. In fantasy there has to be some kind of phantom, or dragon, or magic or something. With horror, comedy and tragedy, [they’re] genres that are about evoking a mood, or inspiring a reaction or emotion in the audience more than anything else. I naturally gravitate towards comedy the most because I like it. I like laughing. I like making people laugh. I’ve spent a lot of effort learning how I can eventually do that. Horror, scaring people, that’s much more difficult. Especially because all of us, our settings are all different when it comes to horror. The things that scare us are very different. I’m afraid of heights, but you might be fine of heights. You might be afraid of spiders, but I’m okay with spiders. That kind of stuff.

I’m actually not sure what the most important thing I’ve learned about horror is. Except that it’s very, very hard. And if I actually want to scare people I have to really, really try and think it through.

What can you tell me about the artistic vision of The Harvester? In so few words, it’s rough and “dirty.” Some panels are in entire single palettes. What influenced this style?

Brandon: I think a lot of it is Eric Battle’s style. It’s very much the style of our artist and colorist. I feel like it really happens to lend itself really well to the material we’re doing. Because this is “dirty,” gritty. The series has kind of like a crime comics feel to it, [and] kind of a horror comics feel to it. But it’s also got a superhero comics feel to it. Because you’ve got this larger-than-life being with superhuman powers and basically this mandate to fight evil. And these are all elements of the story and they’re all things Eric Battle, our artist, does really well.

What’s in store for everybody in The Harvester? For the protagonists and the Harvester himself? When they meet, I can’t imagine they’ll sit down for a latte. Should we be worried for them?

Brandon: Honestly, I would be worried for anybody who meets the Harvester. And we’re definitely going to get into the reasons why in the next few issues. But, as far as what to expect, this first issue is all about set-up. That first scene was kind of a microcosm, but the rest of the issue kind of is too. And so, in issue #2, we’re going to see more of what you saw in issue #1, but also the big plot is really gonna kick off. We’re gonna meet our villain, and things gonna be set in motion.

Our viewpoint characters, Vickie and Justin, yeah, they are so not going to be sitting down over cappuccinos with the Harvester.

That would be a great scene!

Brandon: Yeah, that would be a lot of fun.

What is the story of The Harvester really about to you? What’s the big, grand thematic idea you want the world to know about The Harvester?

Brandon: Oof. [laughs] I don’t tend to think in those terms in my writing. And if I have thought in those terms, I don’t think I’ve ever succeeded. I think one of the problems with fiction is, if you sit down and try to construct fiction with a specific point, then it ends up being didactic and heavy-handed. So for me, I don’t know. Honestly, I think the thing that keeps occurring for me in The Harvester is the idea that people are complicated. People do things that are constructive and altruistic and people do things that are destructive and selfish. There are no clear-cut good people or bad people.

One of the examples I like to use is the Birdman of Alcatraz. He was this notorious murderer, but the reason they called him “Birdman” was because he was also an amateur ornithologist who wrote a very early, seminal book about diseases of birds while he was in prison. He had this very vocal fanbase who were always writing into the prison after he was no longer allowed to keep birds and no longer allowed to continue releasing writings in public. He had this fanbase writing in demanding he be allowed to do this. Meanwhile, he was strangling guards and stuff in the prison. And he’s like one of the heroes of the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz.

So that’s kind of the point in the series. You’ve got the Harvester, who overall is doing bad things in the service of a good cause. And the villain we introduce in the second issue, he’s also working in the service of a good cause and also doing bad things. So where do you draw the line? There are heroes and villains in this, but there is no clear cut. Everyone is doing good things and everyone is doing bad things.

The Harvester #1 hits shelves February 11 from Legendary Comics. You can also follow Brandon Seifert on Twitter!