Cult comic icon takes on Santa Fe.
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Ernest Fairchild is back from the dead. And, like some people with a money clip in their pocket and a foot in the grave, he's coming to Santa Fe.
Fairchild is better known as "Evil Ernie," an undead serial killer with paranormal abilities who has been resurrected to filet citizens of the City Different in
Evil Ernie in Santa Fe
, a four-part comic book series, the second installment of which arrives in stores on Nov. 2.
Evil Ernie left a considerable bloodstain on the comic industry back in the 1990s before being left for dead after Chaos! Comics went bankrupt in 2002. Comic nerds have heralded
Evil Ernie in Santa Fe
as the resurrection of both the cult icon and Chaos! Comics.
Writer Alan Grant-a comic writer based in the UK with
Batman
and
Judge Dredd
on his résumé-says
Evil Ernie in Santa Fe
was inspired after he and artist Kevin O'Neill took a debauched road trip to New Mexico.
"Yes, the rumor is true," Grant wrote in an e-mail to SFR. "We arrived in Santa Fe after ten days in ***image3***the desert and-to our everlasting shame-went a little wild. I don't remember much about it-mainly Kevin and I touring the market [the] next day on our hands and knees."
The town apparently left a big enough impression on Grant to inspire him to allow Evil Ernie to murder most of its citizens.
"Santa Fe does provide a nice, peaceful setting for the diabolical deeds of Ernie," Grant says. "But the city has its darker side too. The Kachina dolls I saw in the lobby of our hotel still haunt my nightmares."
Now it's Ernie's turn to repay the favor.
"An Evil Ernie story could be set any place and any time," Grant says. "He fulfills that part of human nature which is fascinated by violence and horror and the occult in general. Again, this was a benefit of Santa Fe-it has the sort of atmosphere where you feel that if magic does really exist, this is where it's going down."
In the series' first two issues, the city is largely relegated to murky cemeteries and dusty desert landscapes surrounded by incongruously large pine trees.
"It's difficult to put an emphasis on the setting when you're busy bringing back a character like Evil Ernie," Tommy Castillo, the comic's illustrator, says. "He is the primary focus but hopefully as the story progresses you'll start to see tidbits of the environment that he's in and ***image2***what he's going to do to the poor place."
What he has already done is create buzz in the local comic scene. "Having the city in the title definitely stirs up interest," says Jett Boynton, store manager at True Believers Comics and Gallery. "I guess he felt like he owed it to Santa Fe to send in Evil Ernie to come and wreck the place." Boynton says. "But people who pick up
Evil Ernie in Santa Fe
for the Santa Fe connection are probably not going to be as excited as the people who are just happy to see Evil Ernie is back."
Castillo is one of them. But while he is thrilled at the chance to breathe life into the undead Ernie, Castillo says he can't help but feel a twinge of guilt for unleashing the character in the City Different.
"I actually feel sorry for Santa Fe," Castillo laughs. "I'd like to apologize in advance to everyone in Santa Fe for what Ernie is going to do to that place."
