Hoorah!

M. Zachary Sherman

By Mia MacHatton
August 1, 2006

I first met Zack Sherman when he brought finished pages of SOCOM SEAL Team Seven to my office. The book was in the process of switching over to Image for publishing, and he was showing us the pages to peruse. The second time I met Zack was at WonderCon this year at the Image booth. I was immediately struck by how intelligent and funny he is. We hit it off immediately, and have been friends ever since. Zack is also an interesting paradox in some ways; he refers to himself as a free-thinking Marine. That's right, Zack not only works for Industrial Light & Magic, but is also a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. SOCOM SEAL Team Seven is much like Zack — intelligent, well-written, with a humorous side in addition to an good look at both politics and the life of a Navy SEAL. Zack was good enough to indulge me in an interview for Sequential Tart.

Sequential Tart: What was the first comic you ever read? What do you continue to read today?

M. Zachary Sherman: What's weird is I remember reading comics at a really early age, but since we were a military family, we moved around a lot so some of that is a blur. The one comic that stands out in my memory is Byrne's Man of Steel mini that re-launched Superman back in '86. That was such a fantastic series that I still have those actual issues in my short boxes today. Byrne, especially old Byrne, was always an inspiration as a young creative guy. His senses of sci fi mingled with classic super-hero themes were so inspirational that I've followed that series for the last 20 years. As for what I read, it's a mixed bag as of late. I'm very happy to see Hal Jordan back and GL Corp coming into its own again. Current events in Daredevil are as close to the feel of the Miller run as one could get without yelling plagiarism, so I am all over that! Image stuff, especially Godland by Casey and I'm in love with Remender's Fear Agent, but I'm all over the place with my titles!

ST: What are some of your favorite comics or comic creators?

MZS: The truth is, I fell out of comics about 13 years ago and got back into them about the time Powers came out in 2000, so I'm kinda behind — I'm still catching up with everyone. Right now, Civil War from Marvel has piqued my interest, for sure. I love to see how different writers portray conflicts between characters we all know and love. Millar did a great job with this, but I'm so miffed that Iron Man is always the asshole. Why is that? Every time a jerk is needed, they turn to Iron Man. He's a drunk, not an idiot. I'd love to see Tony stand up to — well, that's another story. Anywho —

Mark Waid's run on JLA was very inspiring! The Tower of Babel arc was quite an impressive storyline that just kicked ass. I was like "No way!" when Bruce saw his parents' empty graves! That story, as well as his Captain America "anything" (I love his Cap stuff!) really made an impact on me.

Waid, Loeb, Brubaker, Millar, and Reed are really great writers. Very solid stuff from all of them, and, no matter what book they're on, I'll check it out. I think the reason for that is you can tell in their writing how much fun they're actually having with their jobs.

ST: Conventions are part and parcel to any comic book career. What are your favorite conventions? Any interesting convention experiences (like how at WonderCon we got drunk and ran around downtown San Francisco)?

MZS: Yeah, that was fun! Cons are awesome! I love the different groups of people from so many different walks of life you get to meet at cons. And I love meeting the fans. Once they find out I worked on Star Wars and some of the other films, some of them can get a little "clingy" but that's totally OK, because I was that kid when I was little! I was the geek-kid with a tricorder and a phaser, so I cut the fans a bunch of slack.

Having worked with some pretty big names in Hollywood, I don't get too star-struck anymore, but the day I met Mike Zeck, I almost crapped myself. Here was the guy who drew the best Punisher story ever as well as the coolest GI Joe covers of all time and he was like, "Can I draw something for you, kid?" I don't think I made one bit of sense when I actually got my face to work that day.

One of my favorite experiences though, after the Star Wars: Visionaries book came out and I killed Mon Mothma's son in the Entrenched story, I actually had a woman dressed as Mon Mothma come up and chastise me about killing her son! HAHAHAHAHA! Okkaaaaayyyy, I thought, but I played along. Luckily, she wasn't too crazy, she was very sweet, well, for a member of the Rebellion and all ....

ST: What are your greatest influences as a writer?

MZS: People like James Cameron and Laurence Kasdan were true inspirations for my writing. Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, two of the most amazing movies from my childhood. He was so good at capturing the human moments with these over-the-top heroes in situations no one could ever imagine themselves in. And Cameron did the same thing. He never treated the audience like idiots and never spoke down to them. He was able to create a feel for his characters in environments, no matter how insane they were, we could believe in. Hudson in Aliens is the audience and we all identify with him because if that were us, we'd be like let's get the hell outta here too! That being said, my father was a huge influence on my writing as well. A very intelligent man, he was also a sci fi buff. When, in the '70s, my friends were going to see The Rescuers, my sister and I would be dragged off to see Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. How can that not influence you? And, we were never really scared because dad always told us it was fake, make-believe stuff like we played in the yard. Except I didn't have 12 foot tall acid-dripping toys in my back 40 … Either way, he was also a big influence.

But it's really Chuck Dixon who inspired me to get into comics. I know that sounds weird after loving Byrne and Superman and all that, but the guy wrote 70 issues of Nightwing without fail and kept the artistic integrity of the book the entire time! 70 issues! That's unheard of nowadays! I was a devoted reader on that title and was enthralled by every issue. Not only did he make Dick Grayson , someone I had grown up with as Robin, an interesting young adult, but he really nailed the coming into manhood angst we all get at that age. Rebelling against a father, moving out on your own, finding yourself. Very well done and especially hard to do in a comic-bookie way while tying the characters in that universe together. I'm a huge Dixon fan and I feel he helped pave the way for Bendis and Brubaker who bring a real-life sense of drama and character to super hero comics.

ST: Do you think that there are certain kinds of stories that are better told in one media than in another? What does the comics medium offer you that other media does not offer?

MZS: I think the major problem with trying to tell comic book stories on film, whether it be TV or theatrical, is, as creators, we're embarrassed by our comics. There's a bit of the geek in all of us that says, "No one's gonna like this cuz it's geeky." And some of that is true. We should embrace the creations we've made. Sure, in the '50s Batman had a huge glass dome on his head and fought aliens with a sword, but that's part of it. Heck, the Fantastic Four is a perfect example of that type of goofiness. A fantastic sci fi book that's been around for years, with an amazing set of stories (the Byrne run — whew!) as well as being the original "family" in comics. Some of it was perfect, the relationship between Johnny and Ben, but other parts were ridiculous because they changed stuff they thought was goofy. But some comic stuff is just goofy, and that works okay in print, like Reed turning into a giant beach ball and bouncing around but in motion, it's kinda laughable. But if we embrace its goof-factor as what we actually do enjoy about our comics, it becomes part of the culture and the film art form as a whole.

Some changes are made so the films will make money with a broader audience than just the comic fans. No doubt that film made money, but is it what we, as fans of the FF, wanted? No, because studios always feel the need to "change" what "doesn't work" in comics to suit that broader audience. Why the hell did they change the origin of the Punisher? Talk about the easiest story in the world to write! Ugh, but I actually like that film, it's like a guilty pleasure for me, like listening to Journey or something ... But sometimes these "things" get changed and it's actually a better movie. The X-Men movie is a perfect example of that.

And fans need to realize that as well. No money, no comic movies (so stop downloading them and go see them, by the way!) — it's called the motion picture "business" for a reason. Make it too expensive and no studio makes any money. But comics allow you to do anything the writer can envision and the artist can draw — And it still costs only the page rate! Someone asked me if I'd like to see a ST7 movie. I dunno ... It's a comic and that's what it was meant to be. An ST7 film would cost so much money, I don't know if they'd ever do it well. If done by the right people, it might kick ass, who knows? But it's a comic book, plain and simple and it will always be that and I'm proud of it.

ST: What sort of work/projects would you ideally like to be involved with?

MZS: I would kill to write Nick Fury. I love that character. I know there have been several tries with that one, but I think I can make it stick this time. The world and its comic readers have grown up a bit and Nick is a very adult character making decisions that have to do with very adult situations. Secret Wars was a perfect example of what that character can be. That could have been the first six issues of a Nick book. He has so much potential to be as cool as he was in the '60s, but no one is really doing anything with him, he's a back-up sidekick for Cap. We'll see what the future holds for him. And of course Cap has always been an amazing book I've followed for years, even through the House that Dripped Dough and Cap-Wolf, so I would love a shot at that one day.

I would also kill to write for Hal Jordan. I've been screaming for years for them to bring him back, now he's here! But from DC, my favorite book is Superman/Batman. That book has captured, thanks to Loeb, the most true-to-the character versions of those two comic staples, in my opinion. The giant robot thing was goofy, but I love that book. I would love to follow in his footsteps!

And GI Joe .... I love GI Joe, always have. I'm a massive admirer of that book and would love a chance to write for that series.

With that being said, I still have my own creator-owned books I'm working on and I love those stories. It's fun to play with other people's toys, but in the end, you need to have some of your own, too.

ST: If money, materials, time, and psychological breakdowns were not issues, what would your dream project be (in any medium)?

MZS: Man, my dream projects? Okay, here we go — First, comics: Nick Fury, Cap, GL, and Supes/Bats, GI Joe. 'Nuff said! Film: Not much anymore, but — ! I really want to write the CG version of the Green Lantern, ala Pixar, but more realistic, like Final Fantasy. That is the only way you can do that movie for under 500 mil and make it kick ass! Imagine all the stuff you could do in that movie? You wouldn't be tied to people in suits with rubber heads on greenscreen. You could do Mogo, for example, and make him awesome! Sallak, Kilowog, these would be amazing in CG! Pirates [of the Caribbean] 2 and 3 really raised the bar for CG creatures in live-action, but those movies together are costing over 500 million dollars! AAAAHHHHHH!!!! Plus, The Incredibles proved people would go see an adult-type story in CG. Make it WB, make it!!! But for God's sake, please keep it away from Jack Black! Please don't make it a comedy!!

ST: How does your career in film doing digital effects inform your writing and artistic sensibilities?

MZS: As a digital effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic, I had the opportunity to work on some pretty kick ass projects in recent years but without any kind of creative input. It's hard to sit there, pouring your blood into something you're not crazy about and try to keep upbeat about it. But that's the job. You keep yourself motivated because of a work ethic; the artistic integrity of your work is all that matters. Being creative, I think about how I would improve or change a show personally, but you don't get that opportunity in the role of digital effects artist because you're there to help augment and improve creators' visions to be what they've envisioned their films to be. And I did that very happily because you learn so much by just sitting in a room and listening to the decisions being made by people like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay and Joe Johnston. Most of all, you learn what works and why. In some cases, you learn what not to do, as well. It has definitely helped.

Writing for comics has finally allowed me the ability to be that creative force behind projects where I am the "director" of sorts. When working on creator-owned material, you have to approve layouts and final pencils, work with a conceptual designer on the look and feel of the book, and maintain artistic integrity. No one else is going to do that for you. And with some of the other company's properties, you get to tell the kinds of stories you've seen those characters doing for years in your head. It's nice to finally get some of my visions out there in projects everyone seems really excited about reading and being a part of.

ST: You are a member of the Marine Corps Reserve. What led you to your decision to join the military? How does that background inform your world/artistic view?

MZS: That is an answer that would fill too many pages. My father was career Navy, my grandfather was a merchant marine during WWII and we can trace our lineage all the way back to General T. Sherman, so there was a sense of pride about it. Plus the fact the world changed around me and needed people to defend it didn't hurt either. But truthfully, to some extent, I just wanted something different in my life. I had been working for a major corporation making million dollar films by slaving away at a computer all day for eight years and I wanted to push myself to the limit. So I picked the Marine Corps. It's really helped me to realize what's important in life. I got back from bootcamp to ILM and listened to some of the "gripes" these people had. "My chair's too hard," "my desk is too short" and I thought, "Damn, is this the way I sounded before I left?" These huge problems in the scheme of the big picture seemed so microscopic to me now. It's allowed me to view the world with the eyes of one who knows what life is really worth. It's also allowed me a broader vision of the world around me as well as an ability to draw from a different part of myself I never knew existed. In boot camp, I asked a Buddhist priest, how could one be a Buddhist and a Marine at the same time? He told me the Buddhist soldier knows how precious life is because he knows exactly how quickly it can be taken away. Powerful words to live by.

ST: How did you come about to the decision to write a story about the Navy SEALs? What was the inspiration behind it?

MZS: You don't know how much shit I get from fellow Marines for having written a book about the SEALs ... But it was just an obvious leap. They're the best warriors on the planet and originally, I was going to create a SHIELD-like organization for the book, but I decided it would be more interesting to base the book in reality with the sci fi overtones thrust upon the characters and watch them squirm.

ST: For those who aren't familiar with SOCOM SEAL Team Seven, could you explain what the book is about? What should they know before picking up the book?

MZS: First of all, it is not based on the video game SOCOM Navy Seals from Sony! It is not a video game comic!

I've had people ask me that and no, it's just an unfortunate similarity with the reality of the Navy nomenclature. It's a science fiction/Tom Clancy-type comic ... In a nutshell, Atlantis, pissed at us for the way we've been treating their world, invades the mainland to subjugate humanity. But why now? What have we done? Current military operations in the Middle East have ruined the gulf streams and endangered the inhabitants of the oceans and we come to find the actions of the enemy weren't their actions at all. I don't want to give too much away, it is a mystery as well, but it's not want you think it is. It's not jingoistic, either. It's not flag-waving rah rah, if anything it's about not trusting our government blindly. About what knowing the facts can do for you, but it's also an environmental book. I feel very strongly about the environment and feel we're destroying resources for purely financial gain on this planet.

ST: How did you research such a book? What do you think is the biggest misconception about the Navy SEALs?

MZS: Where do I start? Forget about all the military detail for a second …. Atlantis alone could fill volumes! The research on this subject alone took months! I read everything I could just so I knew I wasn't ripping off something I had seen or read before. After careful research, I found the city of Atlantis that Plato theorized about sank somewhere near where ancient Sumeria should have been. Realizing Sumeria was the beginning of all civilizations, I thought how cool would it be if Atlantians based their entire society on the writings they found in the rubble of this doomed culture? Reality dictates it's probably a city that collapsed during a massive tsunami and was destroyed, allowing its remains to sink into the oceans. Ancient Sumerian texts speak of massive floods rising from the fury of their gods and, interestingly enough, one of those gods was Nammu the Sumerian sea goddess. Credited as being the mother of the other gods and the creator of the earth and heavens, I thought how perfect was that, so I made her the primary deity for the Atlantians. Plus it's right smack dab in the middle of one of the hottest war zones in history, so that made it perfect for the book. With the massive amounts of fighting we've been doing in the Middle East, the environmental impacts on that region must be as dangerous and threatening to an oceanic civilization as a nuclear war could be to us.

Then there was the military angle. I felt I needed to be as accurate in writing as I could be, making sure that the details in everything I did were as spot-on as I could get. At the same time, there is a line between exciting drama and a boring military procedure — what makes a better scene? I believe it's the artist's (writer/director) perception of the moment and the style in which it's portrayed that makes the difference. There is definitely a fine line there that's pretty easy to cross.

I try very hard not to cross that line too much because the last thing you want are the people you're trying to portray, laughing at all of your hard work and dismissing it as crap. These operators work very hard at what they do and I think it would be disrespectful not to show them the decency to do the research and get the details right. Best thing about writing SEALs is they deploy on some pretty electrifying operations, so sometimes when you think you're making a big technical error, you're really not.

I've read every book I could get my hands on, done hundreds of hours of research, seen every documentary, interviewed and spoken to retired SEALs, conversed with people and friends who have worked with SEALs, my sister is in the Navy, I'm a Marine, and I am also very lucky to have a 26-plus year Navy veteran who was a technical advisor at my beckon call (thanks Dad!). With that much info at my fingertips, I hope I've made it as realistic and exciting as possible.

The biggest misconception about SEALs is that they're all stupid, macho fartheads. Not true. There is no place in the Special Forces community for those types of people. They wash out pretty early. Yes, they're there to whoop it on when they have to, but everyone needs to remember these guys are chosen for their intelligence and their ability to solve problems under the harshest of conditions. Problems no one else can solve. They're the best-trained soldiers on the planet. Next to the Marines of the newly formed MARSOC, that is ... hoorah Marines!

ST: Is SOCOM SEAL Team Seven politically informed by our current situation in the Middle East?

MZS: It definitely is, for sure. Without getting all political in my comic book interview, let me just say this — I may be a Marine, but knowing what I know now, I sure as hell don't trust the current administration at all. If you read between the lines of ST7, you'll see the realities of the world from this Marine's point of view.

Our current political environment was such a motivator for the President's actions in my book, I actually went back and re-wrote some of it based on the current administration. As a nation, we are torn, and so are the characters in the book. They want to follow orders, but they know doing so will eradicate an entire species from the face of the planet. What would you do?

ST: You've said that you plan on making SEAL Team Seven a series of graphic novels. What are some of the themes you plan on exploring in the sequels? Will you be expanding on the relationships of the characters in the first book, or will you be using new characters?

MZS: The characters in the first book will be back, but they have a personnel spot to fill in the platoon. Since they aren't a "normal" SEAL Team at the end of book one, they have the ability to pick and choose who they want in that shooter's slot. The sci fi overtones are all still there and stronger than ever, but book two gets into some of the superstitions of the Muslim religion, focusing on their faith and theological history. No, there aren't any comics of Mohammed here, but I do touch upon their undying patriotism and beliefs.

Book three is back to the political side a bit, but in an alternate WWII setting with time traveling Nazis and updated tech for the SS and Gestapo ... Alex Jaeger did an amazing job with those designs, just you wait and see!

ST: You not only work at Industrial Light & Magic doing digital effects, but you've also penned a Star Wars story for Dark Horse. What was the focus of that particular short story? How were you approached to do such a story?

MZS: Funny thing was, I kinda elbowed my way into that one! My good buddy Alex Jaeger is an art director at ILM and he, as well as several others from the ILMM Art Department, was approached to do this anthology book for Dark Horse corresponding with the Star Wars: Episode three release. Alex, admittedly, is no writer but one of the best damn artists on the planet, so when we talked about the project, I offered my help as writer-guy. He had a basic idea of what he wanted to draw and based on that, I started coming up with specifics on paper. It was a pretty kick ass story about a single Clone Trooper who doesn't get the Order 66 command to kill everyone, so he tries to help a Jedi escape the invasion thus beginning what we would now call the Rebellion. Dark Horse wasn't too keen on it, so Jaeger wanted to pull out. He was very busy at the time and didn't want to draw something he didn't want to draw, so not wanting to lose the chance to write what would become my first published comic story, I told him we should take the weekend and we'd think about a different story. That following Monday, we saw each other in the hallways and yelled "Hoth!" at the same time. He and I both didn't want to write about Luke and Han, all that had been done to death and neiter one of us are new trilogy fans, so I came up with the idea of using the Ralph McQuarie painting of all the troops down in the ice trenches as the basis of our story (it's also panel two, page one of the final comic, btw). Who were these guys? What were their backgrounds? Where were they from? We settled on the devices Jaeger knew he wanted to draw, like the lading of the Imperial troopers, and then I wrote the script. I was fresh out of USMC boot, so I had a connection to this kind of story and settled on using the "letter home to mom" as the device to get us through the exposition and into this young man's head. All of what he tells his mom is very similar to a letter I wrote to my own mom some time ago ... And I really wanted a rebel soldier to spit blood on that shiny, black Vader helmet! That was one thing I had never seen in the Star Wars universe before! HA! That took some serious cajoling of Jaeger to get him to draw! Seriously, it was an amazing experience. From working with the Lucasfilm continuity guys, saying "No, the Falcon wasn't in hangar 10, it was in hangar 7" and Dark Horse editor Jeremy Barlow giving some great suggestions on tightening up the script. He was very cool; I hope I get another chance to work with him.

ST: Could you talk a bit about any projects you've got coming up in the near future?

MZS: I've got some pitches together for a project I'm not allowed to talk about and those are currently being evaluated by an editor, as well as helping another company try and get a couple of other titles off the ground. I'm writing a script for an ex-ILMer based on his comic idea about giant robots in the future which will be a huge story once we get done and I'm also developing three different creator-owned titles for Image, with one based in the same universe as SEAL Team Seven. It's a covert-spy book with sci-fi/superhero overtones. Imagine what the CIA would do if we found out the Russians were breeding supervillains with plans to take over the world? They'd send in my guy and you'd get a kick ass spy story the likes of which we haven't seen since the days of classic Steranko. I've also got an adventure series and a space fantasy series I'm currently looking for artists for. You can check out my web site at http://www.mzacharysherman.com for more details, plus feel free to drop me a line in the "contact me" section! I love to talk to the fans about comics, movies, Star Wars, I'm just crazy busy, so it might take a day or so for me to respond, but I will!

ST: What advice would you give to someone trying to make it in the industry?

MZS: Slow and steady wins the race. Don't give up. Let all those yahoos out there who want it "now now now" burn themselves out and go away. It's up to you to stay motivated and together. That's for any aspect of life, especially your dreams. As a writer, write what you'd like to read. Don't be swayed by what your friends tell you (unless it's good! HA!), but really try and stay true to the types of comics you want to have in your collection. Wanna read a book about frogmen kicking ass against the underwater kingdom of Atlantis? Then write it. And don't be this guy — "Yeah, I have a great idea for a comic" and never put anything on paper. Don't be the talker of the group, be the doer. Chicks dig that, by the way — a guy that can get things done! And don't wait around for someone to "discover" you either, get it done yourself. James Cameron said the only thing he fears is a blank screen starring back at him. It's hard work, but if you want it, frickin' do it. Hell, I'm the one that got bored with ILM and joined the Marine Corps for cripes' sake! If it's important enough for to open your mouth and say to people you want to do something, it should be important enough to you to give up drinking on a Friday night to actually do it.

But enough of the standard line crap ....

Network. Make friends. Go to cons and meet people. Ask them to read your stuff. I met Bob Shreck at a WonderCon a million years ago and told him I wanted to write Nightwing. He looked at me and could tell I was actually serious and said, "Well, do it and send it to me." He gave me his card and guess what? I did. I wrote a 22-paged Nightwing sample and mailed it to him. About three weeks later, I got a copy of my script back with his hand-written notes on it! He had actually taken the time to print it out and go through it! What an amazing learning tool for a beginning comic writer! I still have it today ... You have to realize editors want to hire good people, it makes them look good. You just need to prove to them you don't suck. Think of the millions of people that want to write for comics? How many people have said "Man, I wanna write for Spider-Man"? Do it better than the next guy, and suddenly you're workin' in the biz. That being said, don't expect that treatment from everyone you meet. I think I got really lucky there, so please don't flood poor Bob's office with packages!

Also, don't be the guy that stands there in uncomfortable silence, the hanger-on guy. Talk about intelligent stuff with the people you respect. After standing in line for five hours to meet Frank Miller, ask him some intelligent questions, don't just say "I love you man!" and run away ... Think about what you actually want to know, what he could tell you that would help you out as a writer. If you respect Loeb, Bendis, or anyone who you know is going to be at a con, sit down and make out a list of questions beforehand, pick the top two you might have time to get an answer to, and ask them if you get the chance.

I was told very early on it takes three things to succeed in comics. You have to be good, fast and easy to get along with. If you can do that, you're golden.

ST: Anything else I've forgotten?

MZS: Oh my God, are you kidding?! No one's actually going to get to this question; I totally expect them to be asleep by now!

ST: Can I have a dollar?

MZS: Uh, no! I'm a struggling comic book writer, I don't have a dollar!

M. Zachary Sherman — Official website
Image Comics