Cartoon Mayhem: 'Black Metal'

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"BLACK METAL" ISN'T a genre term for people of African descent playing heavy rock; it's a severe strain of underground metal that thrives in Scandinavia.

The movement has roots in 1980s metal acts Venom and Bathory, but it really started to blossom — if such a weak-hearted, flowery word can be used for that which is all about death — and achieve its modern definition in the early 1990s under the satanic tutelage of Mayhem, Darkthrone and Emperor — all from Norway, where the scene was both nurtured and notorious for its extremism.

Black metal is usually filled with machine-gun drums, wall-of-scuzz guitars, minor-key themes and Cookie Monster vocals grunting about everything from occult worship and pagan pride to Viking tales and horror stories. There are also plenty of lyrics about wanton murder and other sorts of maximum misanthropy.

Often, these evil ideas are expressed by long-haired singers sporting spiked armbands, leather pants, bullet belts and — most important — "corpse paint" covering their faces in evil clown imagery.

Does all that sound kind of cartoonish to you?

In "Black Metal," a new manga-sized graphic novel from author Rick Spears and artist Chuck BB, the more comical aspects of black metal do get their comeuppance, but the book is also a love letter to the genre — and to metal in general.

Twin bros Shawn and Sam Stronghand get kicked out of school on the first day — again — and their June Cleaver-like mom has to come get them. She decides to take the kids to the mall to buy Easter clothes, but the boys find a record store instead and buy a vinyl LP by the fictional band Frost Axe. When home, they are surprised to find out that the record conjures up the Sword of Atoll when it's played backward. Soon they and their friends, along with Frost Axe, are fighting the Hell Baron Von Char for control of the blade and to fulfill an ancient prophecy, all the while throwing devil horns and sword swings with berserker-like abandon.

In other words, it's like a black metal concept album rendered graphically.

But "Black Metal," published by Oni Press, is also filled with funny sight gags and clever tributes to the music genre that inspired the comic, all told in the sort of epic, myth-filled storytelling style has inspired so much of the music.

Express talked to Spears and BB about the dark arts.

» EXPRESS: Are both of you fans of black metal? If so, who are some of your favorite bands?
» SPEARS: Yeah, we are both into it but Chuck puts me to shame: His knowledge of black metal is staggering. Some of the faves are Emperor, Immortal, Bathory, Ulver, Mayhem, Celtic Frost, Carpathian Forest and, of course, Frost Axe!
» BB: Too many to name. Of course, the classics: Immortal, Gorgoroth, Emperor, Bathory, etc. What I'm currently digging is the most recent Watain album, "Sworn to the Dark," and this strange Russian outfit Reusmarkt who are like a space-age, forest-worshiping atmospheric black-metal assault. Also Nachtmystium gets a lot of plays. Oh, and, of course, my loves: the ever-evolving Ulver.

» EXPRESS: How much of the book is a paean to black metal and how much of it is a parody?
» BB: Personally, I think the entire book is a love letter to not just black metal but to all metal music and the metal subculture. I really believe that you can love the beast but still admit there are things that would make one chortle. Often people cite the corpse-paint makeup used in black metal as something silly, but honestly I love it. It is so graphic and iconic. I think the things that people tend to laugh at are just things that are so overtly in their face that they may not be able to handle it.
» SPEARS: It's all love really. I never wanted to make fun of black metal. I mean, the book is 160 pages and that's just too long and too much work to just clown on something. At that length you really have to love what you're doing and love the characters and story or you won't make it. At the same time you can't take things — especially yourself — too seriously or you just come off like an ass. Most of the great reviews we're getting are all pointing out our sincerity and I think that's part of what people are responding to.

» EXPRESS: Was the Frost Axe name, logo and concept record inspired by any one black metal band, or is it just based on the look and themes of the scene in general? And aren't black and death metal logos the best? The more illegible the better.
» SPEARS: Chuck can answer this one better as he did the logo, but I will say originally the band was called Winter Blade but then we switched it up to Frost Axe — it's just a bit more frostbitten!
» BB: Frost Axe was heavily inspired by Immortal. I know Rick took a strong liking to them. They constantly reference both frost and the use of weapons, and they have a super strong image. Black and death [metal] logos just might be the best "things" of all time. I continually have a tendency to draw things centered and symmetrical, which is generally something most artists will try to avoid, but I have a feeling that this tendency comes from my love for the logo art, which are always so precise. It's also worth noting that the logos, while illegible, really are successful at identifying the band because they become an instant indication of what the band will sound like. It's like a company icon represents the company's identity. But I guess it can be hard when trying to ask the record store hipsters what this band's name is.

» EXPRESS: The comic is brimming with references for hard-core black- and extreme-metal fans. In the record store are posters for Ulver, Nachtmystium, Arcturus, Gorgoroth. The address for Necro-nation Records is 1349 La Brea. In the Necro-nation offices is a poster of Khanate; dude is wearing Xasthur T-shirt. Becca tells Shawn he's "…so 'Black Wizards'" after the Emperor song. You throw out other metal references, too — kids at Ronald Reagan Junior High School are seen wearing Mastodon, Zombi and Pig Destroyer T-shirts and an Isis hat. Did I miss any and how much did you guys discuss adding these details?
» SPEARS: Yeah, Chuck threw in all kinds of stuff in the art like when [Hell Baron] the Roth gets his head cut off and the blood spins out in 666. In fact, 666 is all over the place. Also, at the end Frost Axe is covering Bathory's "For All Those Who Died." It's said in a piece of dialog that has a double meaning. We did that sort of stuff a lot because it's fun to do and it gives true fans of black metal a bit more out of it. Also, black metal lyrics are just bad ass, so I would comb through them looking for things to snag.
» BB: Well, like I said, I'm a huge fan, and I was most likely listening to those bands while drawing the pages. I think it was always the plan to have as much metal in the book as possible, maybe just to give us some instant street cred. But I love 'em all. By the way, good eye on the Nachtmystium: I don't think the whole logo is even visible there.

» EXPRESS: The devil horns are almost like the twin's missing triplet. I love when Shawn screams, "This is too much metal for one hand!" — and then busts out a double devil horn. Did you try to pack in as many devil horns as possible?
» SPEARS: Yeah, we did that a lot. It's almost used like an exclamation mark. My fave is the "Too much metal for one hand," [too]. We used that for some of the original art we worked up for the pitch.
» BB: Its an interesting thing: The devil horns have been adopted by everyone these days, and you'd think that the metal scene would be sick of it, but every time I go see a band they insist on the crowd throwing up their horns — and the crowds are always ready and willing to oblige. When I saw Emperor a few months back, a hefty sum of the crowd held their horns up high for the entire set, without even being asked to do so. Very nice of them. I love it. Maybe I like the fact that the devil horns have gone on to be so popular everywhere in our culture — it's like maybe everyone is OK with evoking the power of Satan or something.

» EXPRESS: Chuck, your page layouts are often pretty interesting, such as the inverted cross that splits the panels where the twins discount Easter. What are some of the other symbolic layouts and how do you map out a page before the drawings?
» BB: Thanks. There are a few hidden things here and there. I think there are at least two or three hidden 666s that are kind of obvious. In future volumes, I think the symbolic layouts and iconography will be a stronger presence. These were just an experiment to see if anyone would see them, but I've received a favorable amount of comments on it. As far as mapping out a page layout, this was my first time doing something in the digest/manga size, so it was new for me and I just played it by ear. If the scene called for action, I'd try to make the layouts dynamic. It was fun to try to match the panel layouts to the context of the story. Hopefully it worked.

» EXPRESS: I like that in this MP3 age these kids brought home a vinyl LP. Is that simply because you needed the "play the record backward" scene, or because black metal fans still seem to value vinyl because it's "grimier" than CDs?
» SPEARS: When I first wrote that scene I joked around that this would be one of the last times you could get away with referencing playing a record backward, but then I realized it might be true. I'm a big vinyl fan, and there is a love of vinyl in the metal community, so I hope we purists can keep wax around for a bit longer.
» BB: Black metal loves its vinyl. I just dropped $200 on an out-of-print Ulver box set featuring their first three albums on picture discs. Black metal values the uniqueness, and cult — kvlt — status of something, and vinyl is most always printed in a limited run, so the [fewer] copies in existence, the more excellent it is. Tape trading is also very popular in black metal. These lesser-used older mediums are celebrated, much like the old Norse gods. Also the record player hiss is definitely a black metal staple. Maybe that's why black metal needs to be in comic form — the coolest and yet least accepted form of storytelling.

» EXPRESS: Did you worry that black metal is too underground for the jokes about it to translate to non-fans?
» SPEARS: No, I wrote it so anyone can understand it. A deep knowledge of black metal is not required. However, if you are into the scene you will definitely get another level of enjoyment out of it.
» BB: Things like this crossed my mind, of course, but you can't really screech and growl in a book, which is generally the thing that scares non-metal fans away — so I think we're safe. Everyone should love metal, at least a little.

» EXPRESS: The ending indicates a volume two. True?
» SPEARS: Yeah, we are planning to do at least three books. Book two is called "Black Metal: The Bones of Gorn." I don't want to give too much away but sufficed to say both heaven and hell are worried about the boys' rise to power. Angels are dispatched to spy on and frustrate their ambitions. All the while Satan, working toward his own mysterious ends, complicates things as well. A deep wedge is driven between the twins when it is suggested that they are unequal and that only one is true metal. Then things get very ugly and bloody from there.

» Click here to read a sample of "Black Metal."

Images courtesy Oni Press