Big Shiny Robot! writer Ticelli Bot had the chance to meet up with Tom Morello at New York Comic Con 2011 to discuss his new comic series, Orchid (from Dark Horse Comics).
Ticelli Bot: “Hello, this is Ticelli Bot with BigShinyRobot.com and I’m here with Mr. Tom Morello!”
Morello: “Hello!”
Ticelli Bot: “Tom has been the guitarist for many extremely popular bands over the years like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave but most recently, he has started his own comic book, Orchid.”
Morello: “Right!”
Ticelli Bot: “Orchid is a story about some ragtag anti-heroes in a crumbling society based in a post-apocalyptic setting. Now, in a time where there are so many post-apocalyptic stories in videogames, comic books, and movies, what makes yours stand out? Why should I as the reader want to read Orchid?”
Morello: “Well this is a story that I’ve had in my head for about 3 years. I wanted to combine sort of the epoch stories from Dune, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and put it in a post apocalyptic setting. The main difference is, unlike any other one that I can think of, is that this one has a real class consciousness to it and that’s the thing that I thought, as a fan of epoch story arc and as a fan of class warfare (stories), that the two needed to come together and they do so in Orchid.”
Ticelli Bot: “Now, when in Orchid will one of your characters start sporting a signature baseball cap?”
Morello: *Laughs* “That hasn’t been written in so we may have to redo the entire series to put it in. I don’t like to be that literal.”
Ticelli Bot: “So, how much of a geek are you?”
Morello: *Laughs* “I need more pages in my geek passport and it’s something I’ve owned up to in recent years. I was a dungeon master and I was in Star Trek, both in Voyager and in the movie, Insurrection. If that’s not enough for you I could go on, but that should suffice.”
Ticelli Bot: “So, I know that you are supposed to be doing a song for every issue of Orchid that is released.”
Morello: “That’s right.”
Ticelli Bot: “Is this going to be with The Nightwatchmen or?”
Morello: “Yeah, to clarify that, each issue will have free, new Tom Morello music with it. Issue one is different from issues two through twelve. Issue one has a song from The Nightwatchmen record. It’s called, It Begins Tonight from the Worldwide Rebel Songs Record. It’s to sort of build a bridge between the two worlds so that my comic fans know sort of what I do (besides writing comics), and my music fans will as well. All the other ones will be instrumental score. I’ve scored a number of films and so using those abilities, I’ll write a sort of soundtrack for each issue.”
Ticelli Bot: “So, is it just a coincidence and that the whole protest on Wall Street is going on? You didn’t bring that with you, did you?”
Morello: *Laughs* Actually, I performed today at Occupy Wall Street at noon so it was kind of like a nice two-for-one. But no, they were doing fine on their own before I got here.
Ticelli Bot: “So, you’re working with Scott Hepburn who is doing the art in the issues. What are your thoughts about working with him?”
Morello: “Yeah, he’s really great. I was a fan of his art before but in Orchid, it’s really another level. It took a year to find the right illustrator and there were a number of big name people who threw their hats in the ring. A good analogy would be like band chemistry, to have the right creative chemistry between people. So, even though these people are great artists, we just didn’t have the right chemistry together but with Scott, as soon as we started talking together, it’s been really great. Shepard Fairey did an alternate cover for the first one too which was really cool.”
Ticelli Bot: “Hepburn has done a lot of work with Dark Horse Comics so I’m just curious as to what you have read of his or any comics in particular from Dark Horse?”
Morello: “Well, about five years ago I started reading comics again but not explosively. Once I started looking for an illustrator, I started reading comics extensively and I was really drawn to his work. The skill set that I think he has in abundance is that he is like a great cinematographer and that has been very key in Orchid. He has also been helping me along as a first time comic writer because I know what the story should be but it’s very helpful to have someone to be like, ‘We need an extra page on this action,’ or he’ll give me thumbnail ideas on how he thinks we should do a big spread somewhere but I’m the writer of every word of it. It’s very collaborative.”
Ticelli Bot: “I actually first heard you were a fan of comic books because I read about a contest you entered with Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance”
Morello: “Yeah, this was whatever year the big tsunami was in Southeast Asia. At a local radio station, they were trying to raise money and the prize that Gerard offered to be auctioned off was he would draw a comic of your life. I was actually in the studio when that offer came in with one of the guys from Linkin Park and both of us bid on it and it got really expensive. I was not gonna let that guy outbid me but at the last minute, some super fan of Gerard’s called in and won the prize.
Ticelli Bot: “Have you been trying to get into the comic book industry for a long time or is it something that happened more spontaneously?”
Morello: “No, it was more that I just had a story to tell and I was looking for the right medium to tell it. I did not want to be some Hollywood jackass with a screenplay and frankly, in my rock life, I don’t have enough time to write a 700 page novel that this would take. So, I rediscovered my love of comics. I was a big comic book collector as a kid and around the time I started playing guitar, I stopped collecting comic books and they came a really long way in the interim. Now there’s no emotional depth or philosophical scope that you can’t cover in comic books so I thought that was the right home for it. There’s a lot more coming, too. One of the big challenges was that this was written as a graphic novel and then we decided to make it episodic. So, finding twelve sections of it was one of the big challenges rather than one continuous narrative. But I think we’ve done a really good job so far.
Ticelli Bot: “Yeah, I really did enjoy the first issue. Is New York Comic Con your first kind of event like this that you have been to?”
Morello: “I’ve done San Diego Comic Con as well.”
Ticelli Bot: “How do these compare to your previous venues as a rock musician?”
Morello: “Very different. I guess the analogy would be this thing called MAM which is like the music version of this. It’s like where the most hardcore fans are, and there’s a lot.”
Ticelli Bot: *Laughs* Well, I think that we are just about out of time. I would like to thank you for your time with Big Shiny Robot!”
Morello: “Thank you for having me.”
You can check out Ticelli Bot’s review of Orchid #1 here.
