With the first issue of Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man, in stores now from Dark Horse Comics, we are delighted to be joined by Ben Stenbeck again. Ben Stenbeck is a writer and artist who has worked on many comics, including Our Bones Dust, Baltimore, Frankenstein Underground, Koshchei and Hellboy.
Hi Ben, it’s so great to have you here with us again.
You created The Lands Unknown Universe with Mike Mignola. Can you tell what it was like creating The Lands Unknown Universe?
Just a lot of fun. To be clear, it really was all Mike setting up the world initially. We just sort of agreed on what kind of world we wanted to work on and a few small details, but Mike spent a long time developing this world while I was still working on other things, So most of my contribution is what you will be seeing in my books.
How would you describe The Lands Unknown Universe?
It’s an open fantasy/ folktale world where Mike and I can go as nuts as we want. I think if there were too many chefs involved it might go off course, but between the two of us we share enough common sensibilities to keep the world consistent. The great thing about it being an entire world is Mike and I can do whatever we like for a long time without ever needing to bump into each other.
What can you tell us about The Skinless Man?
I don’t give away any of his back story in this series. You’ll have to stick with me for a while to find out more, but he’s a bad guy. He’s been making bad choices most of his life.
Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man sounds very different from Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown. Is it important to you that The Lands Unknown Universe is diverse?
Definitely, right from the start, I was very conscious of not trying to copy what Mike is doing. I have to approach this as telling my own stories my own way and hope that I produce something that compliments what Mike is doing. The positive reaction to Issue one of Skinless Man feels like I hit the right sort of balance there. So that’s encouraging.
What can you tell us about Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man?
This was a story that felt like a great way to introduce small bits of information that will be a part of a larger story. Also it had a whole bunch of ideas I’d been sitting on for awhile and really wanted to draw. It’s a fun fantasy story full of interesting cultures and monsters and swords and magic and talking animals.
Any teasers about what we can expect from The Lands Unknown Universe in the future?
A lot of what I’m doing after this is focussed on the old man listening to this story. It’s sort of my take on a Conan the barbarian type character. I’m almost finished penciling the first issue, and i don’t think I’ve ever had more fun drawing comics.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Please give Lands Unknown The Skinless Man issue 1 a try. If it seems like something you ‘might’ like then you definitely will. And if you already have it in your Pull List, Thank You! I really appreciate it.
We would like to say a big thank you to Ben for chatting with us and wish him the best of luck with the release of Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man.
