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Evil Ernie Gets A God Complex

Evil Ernie: Godeater (JUN161368) is the latest mini-series from Dynamite Entertainment that puts the homicidal teen monster back in the spotlight for more murder and mayhem. And who best to help Ernie serve up a dish of death buffet style? Justin Jordan. A longtime fan, and eager to help Ernie chop up some human kindling, Jordan explains in this interview to Dynamite’s Keith Davidsen that Godeater is anything but typical. Just ask the Viking zombies.

Evil Ernie: Godeater #1 (JUN161368) is in comic shops August 3.

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Article Image e9dfKeith Davidsen: How’s it feel to take the creative reins on Evil Ernie? What are your thoughts on the comic book industry’s most bad-ass boogeyman, and what do you hope to explore with the character?

Justin Jordan: Kind of daunting! Evil Ernie has a special place in my heart. I was born in the late seventies, so when I was a kid, comic books were everywhere. You could buy them in every gas station and grocery store, which was awesome. But what you could buy was, by and large, Marvel and DC superheroes…which was also fairly awesome. But when I was thirteen or so, a local bookstore started stocking comics, and their selection was much, much broader, and one of the things they included was Evil Ernie. Which was very, very different than the superhero comics on the newsstands. So that along with a few other books really expanded my view of what comics could be, and as a horror fan, that book particularly resonated.

Coming around to write that character, twenty five or so years after Ernie changed the course of comics, is a little intimidating. There’s a reason that he resonated, and is still kicking now. There’s a core to the character that works. He’s a monster, sure, but he’s a monster born out of seeing the worst in people and who’s done terrible things because of love. And I think that core and that contrast are why people still like Ernie and Smiley after all these years, and that’s the core I want to make sure I get right.

Specifically in Godeater, I wanted to sort of explore the mythology of the universe that Ernie inhabits. Why was he chosen? How did the world get the way it became? If Mistress Hel exists, are there other gods? And, you know, tell a kickass story at the same time.

Keith Davidsen: We’ve heard that Evil Ernie: Godeater (JUN161368) will shake the Chaos! Comics universe to its very foundations. How would you describe the scope of this story, and the forces amassed either alongside or against Ernie?

Justin Jordan: Well…if you wanted to see frozen Viking zombies fighting alongside demon hordes against a Lovecraftian nightmare, this is probably the book for you. We’re going big for this one, and the whole Chaos! Comics Universe is at stake!

Keith Davidsen: What do you hope that longtime Chaos! Comics fans will appreciate about Godeater, and what will be the draw for curious newcomers? Are there other works from the Justin Jordan library whose fan base will naturally cross over, and what would be the connective themes?

Justin Jordan: My goal with pretty much everything is to tell the most entertaining story I can. If you had fun, then I’ve done my job. But beyond that, I think, or at least hope, that Godeater will give them a better sense of why the Chaos! Comics universe looks the way it does and functions the way it does. If you’re new to the universe, I hope this serves as a good introduction to why Ernie is awesome and why you should read the rest of his stories. I think, in particular, if you like my book Spread, you’re probably going to enjoy what I did here. There’s a lot of large scale horror going on, as well as my usual themes of what it means to have power and what you should do with it once you have it (which is also one of the big themes in my Luther Strode series).

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