Next Month sees the release of a brand new horror book I couldn’t be more excited about. ‘Plunder’ from BOOM! Studios, written by Swifty Lang (Feeding Ground) and drawn by Skuds Mckinley reinvents the pirate genre. Seriously this isn’t the swashbuckling Pirates from the Caribbean, these are the pirates of Captain Phillips. They are cut throat, dangerous, and fearless until they find a research vessel harboring some unknown horror. We caught up with writer, Swifty Lang to talk all things horror, inspiration, and John Carpenter.
Bloody-Disgusting: Horror at its best seems to boil down to a loss of control and a degradation of the human form into something based solely on survival. Already, “Plunder” has self-serving pirates, with no rules, and no respect so how else did you work these themes into the book?
Swifty Lang: When the pirates board The Seeker, even though they are a lawless bunch, there is certainly a hierarchical structure. Pirates operate within this book in a very similar way to street gangs, with a very clear leader. What distinguishes the internal cohesion is these aren’t just random people who have joined up, they’re family. Clan is incredibly important, and not just a metaphorical tribe, but literally cousins and extended family. This makes ties run incredibly deep, but also brings up all the internal jealousy and history that family members have. If there is respect, and there is, it is closer to allegiance.