With the release of Scott Hoffman’s post-apocalyptic comic series Wag #5, being digitally released from Comixology Originals today, we are delighted that the writer shared his list of inspirations with us for the comic series Wag. Issue five of Wag is out today, written by Scott Hoffman, art by Juan Bobillo, lettering by Steve Wands and cover by Rian Hughes and Juan Bobillo.
Mad Max directed by George Miller – I’ve always had a fascination with Mad Max, with a particular fondness for Beyond Thunderdome (possibly for landing in a sweet spot of my impressionable years). It’s a future that’s thrilling, brutal, and of course, to paraphrase a theory on the genre: “we love post-apocalyptic stories because we tell ones in which WE are the survivors.”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_mad%2520max
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore – I love Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing for a few reasons, but the one I come back to is the language. He delivers action and drama on the surface, but bubbling underneath are meditations on the world, love and the nature of our existence. Issues like “My Blue Heaven” seems to transcend superhero conventions altogether and gift us with something poetic, magical and almost completely internalized.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy – The Road was one of the first works in my memory that really focused on the existential agony of life in a broken, post-apocalyptic society. While I wanted to divert from the despair of the Road and present a world that clung to moments of rebirth and beauty, Wag also wouldn’t exist without it.
Ronin by Frank Miller – Ronin is another unique take on dystopia, one that mixes ancestry, our primal, barbaric nature, and technology in a way that I hoped Wag could even come close to mimicking. I love the eccentric relationships, the sometime terse, brutal language, and the quiet yet savage antihero.
Annihilation/The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer – Jeff VanderMeer is an author who I come back to often for his prose itself, and The Southern Reach Trilogy in particular is a fever-dream in which words themselves haunt us. It’s a Heart of Darkness-esque trip into the wilderness that acts as a metaphor for a journey into ourselves, and I love the way that it, in moments, successfully descends into near abstraction.
A Wind Named Amnesia directed by Kazuo Yamazaki – I returned to this emotional, quiet and seemingly little-known anime multiple times while working on Wag. I love the sparse environments, the nostalgic tone and the idea of a group of quirky oddballs coming together through necessity. It really conjures a feeling, something I above all else hope my books can do.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108570/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_0_q_a%2520wind%2520named%2520amne
We would like to say thank you to Scott for sharing his list of inspirations with us. We wish the whole of the Wag team the best of the luck with the release of Wag #5.
