Z2 Comics is a company that is building a reputation for putting out some of the most impressively crafted books of recent memory – think “Fear My Dear” by Dean Haspiel or “Carver” by Chris Hunt. They are about to release “Indoctrination” by “Hoax Hunters” and “Roche Limit” creator Michael Moreci and newcomer Matthew Battaglia, a ten issue series that debuts in June, which deals with two FBI Agents trying to solve the case of a serial killer, and have to request some, shall we say, unorthodox help along the way.
Moreci is a friend of Multiversity, and had a fun idea when I approached him about an interview for the book – what if, instead of a standard interview, he talked about his favorite media involving serial killers and how they influenced “Indoctrination?” I loved the idea, and awaited Michael’s choices. Here they are – make sure to check out the book’s website and join its mailing list to get an exclusive preview of the first issue.
Take it away, Michael!
1. Zodiac: There’s few things in this world that I’ll really dig my heels in the ground and refuse to listen to any counterargument (I’m just not that kind of guy). Believing David Fincher’s best film is 2007’s Zodiac is one of those things.
The first time I saw it, I actually didn’t like it all that much—I found it slow, a little dull, and because of that, it lulled me into thinking it was unfocused. But the more people raved about it, the more I got this nagging feeling that I’d missed something. And, boy, did I ever.
I’m not even sure where to start. There’s Fincher’s masterful tone, his meticulous control of every scene, and the way he builds suspense with such precision—elements present in all his work, but truly elevated in Zodiac. There’s the performances, which are all stellar. The atmospheric score.
But the one thing I really love, specific to “Indoctrination,” is the pit of obsession that Jake Gyllenhall’s character falls into, and how captivating his strange, and dark, journey was. To me, I think it’s human nature to be drawn to things we can’t understand, especially things that are so alien, but close, to who we are. It’s no wonder that serial killer books, movies, etc. are so popular—I mean, at the very fundamental level, these are people, just like you or me, who, for whatever reason, have decided to go around and kill people. As much as we’re horrified and disgusted by these deviants, we’re also captivated by them. Because why? Why do this? It’s not a crime of passion or a one-time act of revenge—that, at least, we can sort of wrap our heads around. But systematically murdering people? We want to know why—they why drives us crazy, as it does to Gyllenhall’s character (his journey, I’d argue, is about this as much as trying to discover the Zodiac killer’s identity), but there’s no way to connect the dots. No way to figure it out. We’ll never understand these minds, but we obsesses nonetheless. Zodiac, captures this perfectly.
2. True Detective: Okay, sure, season two had its problems (disclosure: I still liked it), but regardless of whatever anyone thought of those episodes, you can’t deny that the first season was a slice of absolute brilliance. There’s more virtues worth extolling than I can count, but one of the main things I really loved about True Detective, and this was delivered through the script and directing, was the story it told about evil spreading over everything in its proximity—that idea of sin entering the garden and poisoning it all.
Whatever the conspiracy was with that group of men who committed unthinkable acts, it wasn’t limited to its victims. That evil spread to neighbors and descendents; it seemed to literally poison the land, to the point where Rust (McConaughey’s character) says the place is “like somebody’s memory of a town, and the memory is fading.” Lines like that are no accident—everything is disappearing, dying, fading away.
“Indoctrination” is going after similar in this idea that evil has unintended consequences. Or, better yet—wider consequences. A lot of what is driving “Indoctrination” is our country’s increasingly hostile poltical rhetoric. I don’t know there’s ever been a time in U.S. history where potential heads of state have espoused such vile messages (and this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the oftentimes toxic political media). Sure, maybe it’s hard to call it evil. But it’s hard to deny that we’re seeing people use words from this dangerous culture to do evil things—violence and hatred inspired by our leaders and their supporters is becoming alarmingly commonplace. That is how the evil spreads and takes hold, by moving from words to deeds. You see a lot of this in “Indoctrination,” people using words to manipulate others—individuals who’ve been radicalized/indoctrinated—into performing terrible acts. Remember, the weapon of the serpent was mere words; it was Adam and Eve who performed the act of eating the forbidden fruit.
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3. “Nailbiter:” Josh and Mike do so many things right in this series, and that’s what makes it a consistent winner month in and month out. The plot is always so crisp, the characters strong, and Mike’s storytelling is out of this world. When looking at this book, what I really tried to learn was how Josh delivered such effective cliffhangers damn near every issue. For my money, very few people can craft a cliffhanger like Josh—he’s made it an art form. Since we’re working in the same genre, I really tried to dig deep in “Nailbiter” to see how he built his story around certain reveals and mysteries, and how those reveals and mysteries are always positioned at the end of the book to keep you wanting more.
4. Hannibal: Granted, I’m yet to finish this show, but I truly adore it (and cannot believe it lasted as long as it did on network TV). What I really love about it is how well it captures the best of the Hannibal series—the cat and more games, the sinister madman that you somehow end up cheering for, and the complicated relationships between Lecter and, well, everyone. Most of all, I loved how it played with the element of control and how control drove characters to extreme—yet believable—ends.
Control, to me, is a huge aspect of the horror genre. The slasher subgenre (which is kind of a hyperactive take on the serial killer tradition), in so many ways, is all about control. You have your villain, this unstoppable force of nature, who is able to control everything around him; he leads his victims to wherever he wants to go and does with them whatever he wishes; and, on the flipside, you have the complete lack of control with the antagonists either trapped, abandoned, lost, or whatever, and they’re at the mercy of the evil force of nature, whoever it may be (Freddy? Pinhead?). Hannibal takes this basic foundation and intellectualizes it through the relationship between Lecter and Will. I love these kinds of relationships between antagonists and protagonists, where they are clearly enemies, but they also need each other in fairly profound—and twisted—ways. Lecter and Will had this relationship, and it was tremendously satisfying.
5: Seven: Fincher. Fincher Fincher. Another masterpiece, and I can watch videos that breakdown every shot of this film (they exist, and they’re amazing) all day long. The thing is, of course, that at the heart of many great horror stories—many great cat and mouse stories—is a mystery. A whodunnit. The mystery of discovering John Doe’s identity in Seven is so frightening, and so dark, yet it’s perfectly played out and Freeman and Pitt’s investigation feels so genuine. A big part of building “Indoctrination” was infusing it with a similar mystery of who the central antagonists are and making the journey to find them, like in Seven, in as unique ways as possible and filled with plenty of twists and turns.
For all the things Matt and I are trying to do with “Indoctrination” on the more political level, we want to know that we need to wrap it all up in a unique, exciting plot—I think, personally, that we hit that mark.
