Interview With Stephen Lindsay Hates Zombies
In Those Slack-Jaw Blues, writer Stephen Lindsay and various artists explored the outrageous, seemingly impious, mixing of one baseball bat swinging Son of God with legions of the undead. Two volumes later, Jesus is searching for believers among the survivors, trying to find an elusive congregation supposed to help him, and hooking up with the only zombie that recognizes him, Laz, and a beefy, thong-wearing male stripper named King. Together they continue the good fight, not only against the ravenous undead, but also against an unholy army raised by a zombiefied angel, and time-traveling werewolves. Lucky for them, honest Abe Lincoln joins the battle, wielding a mean axe.
I admit, at first, I had my doubts. What could have easily become a blasphemous cavalcade of bad art and profanity-filled dialog has risen to a stylish–classy but cheeky–story of strong-armed salvation, unlikely faith found in the worst places, and one tall log of a president skipping through the ages to aid in mankind’s salvation. The simple but effective power of Lindsay’s straightforward narrative, exhuberantly visualized in frenetic panels by artists Steve Cobb in volume one, and Daniel Thollin in volume two, compels you to keep reading. While I wait for volumes three and four, I asked Stephen Lindsay to confess to a few questions.
How did you come up with the idea for Jesus fighting zombies?
I knew I wanted to do a zombie comic, but there were so many great zombie survival horror/drama comics out there that I knew I had to do something different. So I decided to take more of a B-Movie approach. And as with everything I do, I instantly went back to my Catholic School upbringing for inspiration (my therapist says it’s good to let it out…). The title instantly popped into my head and made me chuckle. From that moment on, it was off to the races to try to get the ideas out of my head and onto paper!
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