Most people will probably recognize the byline from the covers of "Dark Shadows" fiction. The man's been applying himself to that, and I've got to say this: that's one fun gig. Besides that, though, Stephen Mark Rainey has many dark fiction (let's go so far as to say Lovecraftian) titles to his name: High Seas Cthulu and Cthulu 2012, to name a few.
He's also got a strong online presence to his..well...name. On his website - http://www.stephenmarkrainey.com/ - he offers fans free fiction, glimpses of his blogs (which vary in subject matter and are highly entertaining), and reviews. Mark is the prime example of what a writer should do day in and day out: Write.
One of the neatest things about the guy, though, is his strong love for all things daikaiju. This guy loves giant monsters as much as I do (and I can't get enough of them. Seriously, put me in front of a television with a Godzilla Marathon and I'll build a fort out of bedsheets and you can write me off for a week, easily) and writes about them with such passion. Cthulu, I suppose, would be the quintessential "giant monster", but there's a certain appeal to Japan's creations - cheese or not. Many Godzilla fans out there will agree with Mark when he declares "All Monsters Attack" to be the worst of the Godzilla movies!
If you have a few moments in your day - and let's face it, you do - stroll over to Rainey's website and read review after review of daikaiju masterpieces!Stephen Mark Rainey kicks off The Authors Speak: Giant Monster Week! We had the chance to discuss the Dark Shadows stories he's writing, as well as trending in the horror genre (basically why Cthulu rocks and Twilight sucks), and we chat Godzilla. Actually, once we began chatting daikaiju, that's where the conversation stayed.
Eric Mays: You seem to have done it all, sir! You've won awards for editing Deathrealm, you've written loads of short fiction as well as novels, you're a panelist favorite on the convention circuit, and you're a reviewer. Out of everything that you've got in your repertoire, what's the thing you love the most (and yes, I realize that it's hard to pinpoint one)?
Mark Rainey: Yes, it is hard to pinpoint, since it’s all part of the same package, more or less. I do miss Deathrealm in a lot of ways—mainly the actual physical composing of the issues, rather than reading slush, selecting and editing stories, etc. Building the issues from the ground up always appealed to my artistic side, which I don’t get to exercise much anymore, at least outside of the day job. That was my choice, of course, so I could focus more on my writing, but again, I did consider it part of the overall package. As for the writing, I’ve always had a fondness for short fiction, both reading it and writing it, and while I’ve enjoyed writing novels, the short form is probably my favorite.
MR: Yeah, as a youngster, I found Dark Shadows so deeply involving that it has stuck with me through the years like a powerful dream. The show’s setting—Collinsport, Maine—seemed so vivid, its people very real (well, at least those that weren’t of supernatural background—and maybe even some of them). I’ve particularly enjoyed the aspects of the show that were grounded in reality rather than sheer fantasy. They did that part extremely well, so when the supernatural elements came to the forefront, they struck me as very believable. Looking at the show now, I see it very differently, of course, yet so many of the elements that drew me in are still perfectly apparent: the charismatic characters, the brooding atmosphere, Robert Cobert’s incredibly eerie scoring. Despite all the gaffes and bloopers for which the series is so well known, when Dark Shadows hit on all cylinders, it surpassed anything else on TV—then and sometimes even now.
EM: It seems to me that, while loyal, the "Dark Shadows" fanbase is facing stiff (no pun intended) competition from fans of Sookie Stackhouse and fans of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series. There's something inherently more frightening about the world of "Dark Shadows". Why is that, Mark? And, do you think we'll ever return to the glory days of vamps?
MR: Well, I’m not sure there’s really any such thing as competition here; each of these properties is unique, and I don’t know how much overlap there is between fan bases. If anything, one might actually complement the other. As far as Dark Shadows goes, there just aren’t that many products vying for your hard-earned dollars. The audio dramas aren’t very expensive, and they seem to be doing quite well—certainly well enough for Big Finish to continue producing them and expanding the casts. Assuming the Burton/Depp Dark Shadows movie happens as planned, their names alone are going to propel it to prominence, at least for a time. That can’t help but have a positive impact on the franchise as a whole.
The popularity of vampires waxes and wanes but never vanishes, and there have been many high points over the past couple of decades. If by “glory days,” you mean the Dark Shadows period (1966–71)…well, it was a good one. Hammer was still producing entertaining Dracula flicks. Count Yorga and Blacula came round soon after, and they were screamingly fun in their ways. Dan Curtis produced The Night Stalker TV movie, which resulted in another movie and the now-revered TV series. But look at all the vampire waves we’ve ridden since then, propelled by Anne Rice, Fright Night, Coppola’s Dracula, Forever Knight, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, to some extent Moonlight, and now Twilight and The Vampire Diaries (which I enjoy a lot; even if it’s more 90210 than Dark Shadows, some of the old DS influence is undeniable). I don’t think vampires will ever vanish altogether, since they earn people lots of money. Thus, I hardly think the glory days have passed.
As for Dark Shadows being the among the most frightening of these fictional worlds, well, in those days, young people relied far more on the power of imagination than having everything served up on a plate in graphic detail. Despite the fact that we now see the show’s special effects as hokey, back then, they stoked the youthful imagination. Dark Shadows did quite well, too, using the power of suggestion. If they couldn’t pull it off visually, they’d make you hear it. And even though the audience was largely young, they focused a lot on internalized horror—the fear of darkness, of loss of control, the suggestion that maybe your neighbor wasn’t quite what he appeared. That was powerful stuff in a somewhat more innocent day. Still is, when you think about it, but nowadays, those fears are usually addressed using far more graphic methods, which I think often serves to desensitize rather than provoke the mind.
EM: Switching gears, but keeping on movie monsters, if I may, you used to review daikaiju movies for AboutHorror.com. As a purveryor of the "giant monster", tell our readers why they should care about this special genre.
EM: Who's the baddest of the Godzilla villains? Is there someone that you'd love to see Godzilla battle (anyone, any genre, any time)?
MR: King Ghidorah is certainly the most impressive of Godzilla’s foes. Of course, they’ve battled each other (along with other monsters) any number of times, but they’ve had some mighty good ones. Of course, there’s always been lots of clamor for Godzilla to battle Gamera, but for this, I admit, I really couldn’t care less.
EM: Why is there no daikaiju fiction? With the cult following it seems like a shoo-in. And, I'm sure there is somewhere, but it's not like it's sweeping the shelves. Have giant monsters gone the way of the dinosaurs? Let's be honest, the Toho creations aren't as scary to American audiences when they've got the torture that mascarades as horror.
MR: There actually is some daikaiju fiction out there, though primarily in the small press. Most notably, Rob Hood edited a series of volumes titled Daikaiju!, the first of which includes my story, “The Transformer of Worlds” (which is reprinted in my collection Other Gods from Dark Regions Press). Remember, beyond all else, giant monster movies are about spectacle. It’s far more impressive to watch a big beast trash a city than to read about it. The stories for most daikaiju films are fairly simple; they need to be, so that the story doesn’t overwhelm the spectacle. Not to say the story isn’t important; the best Japanese monster movies do feature engaging human dramas. But in the end, you can’t forget what it’s all about: a smashing good time.
EM: Okay, getting back on track...I could talk giant Japanese monsters all damn day! It's fair to say that you are and have been attached to the horror genre. What's happening within the genre today? I mean, I'm finding a lot of the stories recycled knock-offs, the scares flat, and the real suspense and fear replaced by copious amounts of sex and gore. Is this a good evolution or are we losing steam?
MR: For better or for worse, I can’t bring myself to read much contemporary horror fiction these days. I can scarcely think of an example that hasn’t disappointed me in recent years, so many of my bouts with literary horror are either revisiting old titles that I’m particularly fond of or hunting down something by the older masters I might not yet have read. The last “new” horror book I read was about yet another frakking psychokinetic kid. It was well-written enough, but premise-wise, it offered less than nothing new, nary a single surprise, and utterly forgettable characters. Before that, I yawned my way through a popular zombie novel. In some ways, it was a little more compelling, but—much to my surprise—quite poorly written. I read enough crap in Deathrealm’s slush pile, so I get very annoyed when something I’ve paid money for is no better than the slush.
EM: What do you think was the best decade for horror? Sorry for the left-fielder, but several people have debated this with me.MR: Literary, cinematic, or both? Don’t know that I could pinpoint a decade, actually, but I do have a great fondness for late 19th- to early-to-mid 20th-century literary horror; Lovecraft, Bierce, Leiber, Bloch, Wellman, plenty of others. I enjoyed a lot of horror out of the 80s and 90s, but little of it stands out to me the way the “old” stuff does. To me, it’s more about individual authors than years or decades. Different times produce different high and low points, and I definitely find that work from the 60s and earlier stands out as more emotionally powerful. Now, cinematically, the 60s and early 70s were a goldmine. Drive-in movie theaters and weekend matinees provided a venue for cheap but effective horror movies that I loved back then and still do. Stuff like Equinox, the aforementioned Count Yorga, The Legend of Hillbilly John, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Frogs, Food of the Gods, The Creature From Black Lake, The Abominable Dr. Phibes… Hell, the endless strings of A.I.P., Hammer, Amicus, and UPA movies (many of which included Toho releases) were unbeatable. Horror and monster movies were more an “underground” thing in the days before big, elaborate budgets and special effects. Again, it goes back to stimulating the imagination as much as serving up blood on a platter. And when they did serve up the blood, it culd be quite novel.
EM: You're a favorite panelist on the convention circuit. Is that step one in your cult following? How did you build up such a following?
This is news to me. At one time, I made the rounds at most of the major genre conventions, and I was a frequent panelist, but nowadays, due to changes in my personal situation, I just don’t have it in the budget to get out to my old favorite cons. I still go to some of the local ones that don’t require a big expenditure or that reimburse me for expenses, but I really don’t see a bunch of groupies following me around from panel to panel. Or…might this be my faulty, aging eyesight? I’m on my third pair of bifocals, you know.
EM: You're on record, Mark, as one of the many writers who does not write full-time. In fact, your day job is producing workbooks for elementary school teachers, correct? I'm finding more and more writers who are dabbling in many different things and working to fund or support their writing endeavors. Is this a sign of the publishing apocalypse? Just curious for your take.
MR: Well, with the ongoing changes in the publishing world, I think it is going to get harder for writers to sustain themselves solely by writing. There’s so much free content out there, and it’s increasing daily. Anyone and everyone can publish themselves for little overhead. Building an audience is a whole different animal, of course; to make money, writers have to be savvy business people more today than ever before. And publishers are having to adapt faster than ever to changing technology and the resulting changes in their bottom lines. Half a century ago, a publisher could look down the road and not see dramatic shifts in his product, the way it would be produced, and the size and composition of his customer base. Conversely, no one really knows how things are going to play out over this next decade. Or the coming year or two. Naturally, there will be plenty of writers and publishers who will be able to thrive, but achieving success will be a matter of foreseeing and adapting to a previously unimagined host of variables.
EM: As someone, too, that's kind of got a connection to the educational world...why do you think Americans (especially youth) aren't reading as much as once they did?
MR: The question assumes that people aren’t reading as much, but it’s largely that the nature of reading is shifting radically. Let’s start at the bottom. Children are actually being taught to read earlier and earlier. But it’s all about meeting testing requirements—memorization, rather than learning. This trend starts at preschool now and goes right up to senior high. Critical thinking is taught less and less. Again, it’s all about the tests. Teacher after teacher who has been in the system for many years tells me that creativity is no longer a part of the classroom. It’s all about those damned standards, and while no one will argue that standards need to be altogether abandoned, every teacher I know feels that high-quality teaching and learning has about gone out the window. Not to mention that 50 percent of the teacher’s job is to babysit—except that they can’t discipline the little bastards whose mission in life is to make sure everyone else is as stupid as they are. To be able to read, and read well, you must be educated. To enjoy reading, you have to be educated and imaginative, and if your imagination has been stifled in favor of memorization, you’re not very likely to pick up a book for fun. Too, the language of texting has become so normalized that it’s harder and harder for young people to absorb the rules of reading and writing; it’s very easy for them to embrace something that caters to their short attention spans rather than forcing them to devote the time and energy it takes to move beyond little word bytes.
Too, in addition to the ever-present distraction of movies and television, throw into the equation all the easily accessible, totally immersive 3-D media competing with reading material. Nothing wrong with that—in fact, I think some of it is fantastic—but it does occupy a niche for youngsters that at one time belonged to reading. A happy medium is a good thing, and I know that many individuals are able to find it. But I think that’s also getting harder to do as gaming becomes still more and more immersive.
Now, conversely, a lot of youngsters who have active imaginations are getting into reading, particularly when they find engaging material—such as Twilight or Harry Potter. I mean, look at these particular phenomena. When I was a kid, nothing could match the sheer scale of these book sales. Whether I personally care for them is irrelevant; I’m all for just about any literary property that captures and holds kids’ attention and inspires them to delve deeper into literature. Perhaps most of these kids don’t, but there will always be some that do. I hope their numbers are greater than I think they are.
EM: I've got to ask, who would win in a fight between Godzilla and Team "Twilight"?
MR: Roar, dude. Just roar.
EM: Thanks, Mark!
Seriously, if you've never read Stephen Mark Rainey, please do so. Like several writers, Mark's churning out entertaining tales for your pleasure - and they're good (otherwise I'd not recommend them). I'll start you off with one you can add to your Amazon cart: The Nightmare Frontier, for Kindle. A good, swift read for the hot summer season.
Tomorrow The Authors Speak: Giant Monster Week continues. The one and only, Jeff Burk, will join us to discuss his latest book, Super Giant Monster Time: A Choose Your Own Mindfuck Adventure story. Jeff's the author of the phenom hit, "Shatnerquake", and the editor of The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. Besides that, he's a veritable pop-culture sponge, soaking up everything and anything. We'll chat Star Trek, Punk Rock, and Giant Monsters. You won't want to miss it. Trust.
Until then, keep reading.
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