Blair Butler is a writer, comedienne and woman of a thousand cool T-Shirts. Blair made a name for herself doing stand up comedy and writing for G4TV’s, X-Play. From there she moved on to more writing, directing, producing and on camera work for X-Play and Attack of the Show. Blair is the host of AotS’s “Fresh Ink” segment that covers comics. I tracked the elusive (aka busy) uber-nerd down by using my “Kraven like” tracking skills (aka email) and we talked about…
Blair Butler: I’m kinda both. I’ve always thought of myself as a writer/producer. I really got in to writing for TV from stand up. I’ve been lucky enough to do on camera and behind the scenes. I can be a hyphenate. I did a Comedy Central stand up [show] and that’s how I wound up moving from writer to [working] in front of the camera occasionally here [at G4TV].
CraveOnline: Are you planning to do more stand up comedy?
Blair Butler: I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a lot of time, but stand up is something that even when I am 70 I’ll still do. It’s a pretty great way to do your own writing without any sort of editorial interference whatsoever [and] absolutely get your point across unfiltered, which is nice.
CraveOnline: Where do you think the current fascination with the undead, zombies and visible intestines is coming from?
Blair Butler: I think we are in a zombie renaissance. 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead brought back the “Fast Moving Zombie” in a major way. We had all become accustomed to “Slow Moving Zombies” and then those [films] made the fast running zombie a star again. In comics it’s the slow moving zombie but done with a level of detail and complexity that has rarely been seen in film. When you have [comics] like The Walking Dead, which is such an in depth look at how hard it is to survive past the initial zombie outbreak and what day to day life would be like after a zombie apocalypse. I think that book is really great. Then you also have stuff like IDW’s Zombies: Feast, which was kind of like a good old [George] Romero style zombie book but a pretty fun zombie book. Then you get the truly out of left field book that leaves my jaw on the floor, Marvel Zombies. It’s one of those things where go I don’t know how this got green lit but its kind of awesome. They have Captain America eating peoples brains [and] Spider-Man with one leg swinging around…
CraveOnline: When they put Howard the Duck in there. I was thinking , what?
Blair Butler: [With] Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness, you’ve got all your undead needs met in one extremely complex package.
CraveOnline: What do you think of the flood of multi-company crossovers?
Blair Butler: I’m not a fan of those sort of crossovers, like Wolverine vs, The Darkness that kind of thing. Not because they are poorly executed but just because it always feels to me like such a forced concept. The only crossover that I have really enjoyed was the Planetary one shot about Batman (Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth) which was great. I know a lot of people like the JLA/Avengers stuff that George Perez did. I have to admit that I really enjoyed Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness because I think the art is really great.
CraveOnline: And it’s a perfect place to have the Punisher show up, he just belongs there.
CraveOnline: With some of the writers and artists turning up the violence and sex, do you think we’ll see another no holds barred, EC Comics era?
Blair Butler: For example, you have a comic like The Boys which to me pushes the envelope as far as they think the mainstream companies are willing to take it. Then you have of course the Avatar Comics which are just jaw droppingly out there. I think there is absolutely an audience for that. They sort of want people to riff on that darkness and it’s still new. I think its getting a little played out with Garth Ennis out preachering, Preacher. I think that comics still appeal to a lot of adults and we want to see that reflected. There are great indie comics that deal with stuff that’s just as bleak and realistic. Like Optic Nerve #8 to me that is disturbing without having any supernatural element. It’s a slice of life about High School humiliation that is so painful. I think it’s more than a trend. It’s the evolution of the marketplace, but I think people are also doing a return to more innocent fare in a really interesting way. All Star Superman embraces all that goofy stuff that seems so hokey in the 70’s. To me that comic succeeds admirably in making those goofy elements really palatable and having an artist like Frank Quietly absolutely sells it.
CraveOnline: I picked up this issue of Moon Knight recently, primarily because Captain America on the cover and I was thinking, great art.
Blair Butler: It was probably a forced Civil War tie in. I don’t like the idea that Captain America is busy leading the resistance but has time to drop by Marc Spector’s apartment to say “I don’t like you. I don’t like what you do and I’m watching you. But seriously I’m really busy running from the law.”
Blair Butler: I think with events like Civil War and even events like One Year Later and 52, you just run in to this wall that’s the integrity of a single book vs. the overall need to make money. For better or worse the tie-in’s sell because people go “oh I don’t want miss something”. I find it frustrating as a reader but I know that a lot of publishers feel that they have to do that and that is reflected in the sales.
Blair Butler: As a fan of comics I chafe at these big event arcs. I find that it imposes this grand world changing thing on a title that you read and enjoy on its own, and that almost makes it incumbent on you to buy the other books otherwise you don’t understand why the hell Cap is dropping in to Marc Spector’s house to yell at him.
Blair Butler: You have Steve McNiven’s art which is gorgeous. You have a comic that appeals to the big media, to your CNN, your Colbert Report and to getting your books out there in the media and selling tons of copies. From a publishers profitability standpoint it makes total sense. On the other hand I had a huge problem with Civil War because as much as I know the world at large is like “Captain America and Iron Man fighting, awesome”. I find it contrary to how these characters would normally behave. It seems to me so counter intuitive that Iron Man would be employing Venom and a bunch of villains to fight the heroes. Or that they would be so draconian in their efforts to take down their friends. I find it to be an idea that was imposed on characters and sort of made them behave in ways that to me seemed contrary to the very principles they stand for. On the other hand it moved a ton of books for Marvel and got them a ton of publicity.
CraveOnline: Since we are talking about Marvel (where nobody stays dead for long)… How long do you think Cap’s going to stay dead?
Blair Butler: Well let me put it to you this way, Ed Brubaker brought back Bucky and Foggy Nelson in the last couple of months. I’m guessing not very long. I don’t think Cap as a costume will be dead very long and I don’t think Steve Rogers as a character will be dead for long.
CraveOnline: As well as Ghost Rider did this year do you think we will be seeing a bunch of C-listers hitting the screen soon?
Blair Butler: Absolutely. The fact that there is an Ant-Man movie right there answers your question.
CraveOnline: Do you think comics as a whole are getting better or the movies are getting better or both?
Blair Butler: I think the movies are hit or miss. I think the technology is advancing and that’s going to open the doors for more adaptations at less financial risk for companies. I think we’re in a great time for comics. I think there is so much out there. You get incredible indie books like Fun Home, relatively challenging stuff like Pride of Baghdad and then you’ve got everything from Vertigo comics to superheroes to your riskier stuff like Marvel Zombies. It’s a really cool time because people in the entertainment industry at large are going to comics as source material and I think that’s good for the industry. It’s not good in every circumstance but overall it’s getting people to look seriously at comics in a way that they didn’t before.
Blair Butler: I think she might be. I also think she might only be seen in Lee’s head. Hopefully she’s back in a tangible form. I have enough faith in the story telling for Battlestar Galactica so that when they throw a curve ball I know they will be able to pay it off. I can’t wait for 2008.
