Brad Fraser Recalls His 1985 Swamp Thing Audition

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*Brad Fraser Recalls His 1985 Swamp Thing* Audition by Rich Handley Sept. 1, 2010** Acclaimed Canadian playwright Brad Fraser, in 1985, auditioned for an art gig on DC's second Swamp Thing run. Fraser has graciously agreed to discuss this submission with Roots of the Swamp Thing. (Click on the above image to view a larger version.) RICH HANDLEY: Were you in talks with DC to work as the series artist, or would this have been an unsolicited pitch? BRAD FRASER: It was completely unsolicited. It was 1985 and my writing career wasn't going so well and I decided to give cartooning a try again and told myself if I had the discipline to finish a twelve-page story, I would see about going to New York and knocking on some doors. Then I got busy being a waiter, wrote a play that created quite a lot of attention (Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love) and somehow never got past the first eight pages. HANDLEY: Were you proposing a miniseries, a one-shot or an ongoing monthly? FRASER: It was just an audition story. I was applying as an artist, not a writer. HANDLEY: What the title have been? FRASER: The title was Angel and it was about a vampire who tried to redeem himself by doing good deeds. (This is decades before Buffy.) In this story, we think he's saving an abducted child, but it turns out the child is actually a demon who's abducted a man. HANDLEY: Did anyone at DC ever see the pages you created? If so, what was his or her reaction to your work? FRASER: No one from DC ever saw the work. HANDLEY: I see that you have three images posted on your site, but you mention that you did 16 in total. If you're okay with sharing all of the pages, I'd love to see what you created, and to add them to my site, with your permission. FRASER: Given how rough the artwork is I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with that. I'm not even sure I've scanned the other pages, but I'll check. (ED. NOTE: If the additional pages become available, they will be added to this interview.) HANDLEY: Were you auditioning to write the series as well, in addition to providing the artwork? FRASER: I never wrote a proposal, just the dialogue for the story and some rough breakdown pages that have gone missing. Frankly, I was so intimidated by the genius of Alan Moore's writing that I never dreamed of applying as a writer. HANDLEY: On your site, you wrote "Interestingly, the young male figure who doesn't appear that much on these three pages was a character I created. He was a benign vampire who hunted down child abductors and his name was Angel." What more can you tell us about this character? FRASER: I think everything I said about him is already covered. At one point, I'd hoped he could spin off into his own series, but I got distracted by the theatre, film and TV, and all of that material has been lost. HANDLEY: Is there anything else you can tell us that isn't covered in the above questions? FRASER: The pages are filled with swipes from everyone from Eisner to Steranko to John Totleban. I won't embarrass myself by pointing them out. If you'd like to see further work that's more up to date and completely original check out my Facebook album for the graphic novle in progress, Snake In Fridge. Archived News >

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