'The Tower of Power!'

On September 26th, Legendary Comics releases 'THE TOWER CHRONICLES: Geisthawk – Volume 1'!

He Lives to Kill the Dead!

Enter the world of John Tower, co-created/written by Matt Wagner (Grendel and Mage), developed by Thomas Tull (300 and The Dark Knight), and featuring art by Simon Bisley (Lobo and 200 AD).

Tower's missions as a supernatural bounty hunter take him into some of the darkest corners to right wrongs for his "sometimes respectable" patrons.

Written by Matt Wagner, award-winning creator of Grendel and Mage, and developed with Thomas Tull, executive producer of 300 and The Dark Knight, 'The Tower Chronicles' is the tale of John Tower, a supernatural bounty hunter who tracks down the creeping shadows that the modern world has all but forgotten.

His harrowing missions lead him across the globe and into the darkest recesses of mankind's most dangerous places to banish a wide variety of poltergeists, demons, and other unfathomable evils to free his troubled patrons from their tormentors' ethereal grasp.

Chatting recently with Writer/Co-Creator MATT WAGNER and Legendary Comics Editor-in-Chief BOB SHRECK, knowing that the 68-page first Volume contains such character foes as a man-made ghost, a demon owl, and creepy vampires, I wondered which of them they were most proud of having created? [MATT WAGNER] "Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg and just the first volume. Early on, I said to Thomas Tull, we need to show a lot of this guys’ adventures. If he’s a monster hunter, then I want to see him fight a lot of monsters. So there’s a lot more on deck in the upcoming volumes. And the key to this sort of narrative is to figure out how to put your own spin on things. We had said that we needed to figure out how to make this our specific version of this sort of tale."

"For instance, I had brought up the subject of vampires. Are we going to have vampires and what are we going to do specifically with them because they are so ubiquitous now? They are all over TV, movies and books. And I will say, if you go look at the many, many version of vampiresthat are so prevalent in pop culture right now, there tends to be many similarities and so I realized we need to come up with a different way to approach vampires. I think we did that."

"I think we have a cool version so I’m pretty much excited about all the supernatural bad guys we have in this book. I will say, there are times where they’re are drawn from my own interest in folklore and mythology, but just as often they are spurred by working with Simon Bisley. I’ll say to myself, “Wouldn’t it be great to see Simon draw THIS kind of creature?”

The gore detail is explicit (adult vampire ripping the head off a small child vampire, etc.), so how did you decide what level of gore is right? [MATT] "It’s explicit but it’s not all over the place. The first volume, within 68 pages, there are maybe 4 instances of gore where he is fighting 3 or 4 monsters. At the same time, I think a level of gore is necessary. You need a level of gore to fully express the horrors of what John Tower is facing. It needs to be there to heighten the sense of consequence. And as far as deciding what level is right…it’s like that old saying “I know it when I see it.” You just feel when it’s going to be too much."

"There are definitely instances upcoming where we are cautious on the script where I said to Simon (Bisley) “Lets be a little discrete with this.” In other instances I encourage him to go all out and make it as God-awful gory as he can. That’s my narrative instinct coming into play there and after 30 years in the industry, I trust my instincts pretty well."

[BOB SCHRECK] "Matt has been doing this a long time and he knows that fine line of when to step away when its overly gratuitous. As he said, we want people to be able to react emotionally and feel something when they are experiencing the book."

With regard the artwork, the vampire melee towards the book's end is incredible. How much longer does it take to create Epic/stage-setting pages like this as opposed to the usual conversational panels? [BOB] "Actually, the conversational panels will take me longer," he laughs. "You have to remember in comics, conversations are never just conversations. There has to be somethingvisually arresting about them as well. Even though, in our internal terminology, we refer to those pages as the “talking heads” pages, it can never just be talking heads. You also have to have something else going on that is visually intriguing at the same time. Sometimes, that can be more difficult. When I get action sequences, that stuff usually just flows and flows."

[MATT] "As happy as we are with the first volume, I can say with no hesitation that this book only gets better and better as it goes - Both with the depth of story, the emotional involvement, and the grand epicscale of this art. The excitement just builds and builds in this tale."

Interviewed by: Russell A. Trunk

Visit 'The Tower Chronicles' Official Facebook Page for exclusive sneak peeks, additional content, and notes from the personal files of John Tower.