 WIZARD UNIVERSE WEEKLY FEATURES |  | [IMAGE SPOTLIGHT:] 'GUERILLAS' | Brahm Revel goes ape with his new series
Be sure to check out the end of the interview for PREVIEW PAGES
| | | By Kevin Mahadeo | | Posted 8/21/08 | |  | | ![[IMAGE SPOTLIGHT:] 'GUERILLAS'](http://ep.yimg.com/ip/I/wizarduniverse_2059_1250338812)
Get ready for some seriously literal guerilla warfare in Guerillas, a new nine-issue miniseries by writer and artist Brahm Revel.
The play-on-words title swings along with a troop of Special Forces in the Vietnam War—a troop made up entirely of chimpanzees that is. Revel took some time out from hanging with the apes to chat with us about his new series, monkey movies and about Nazi Baboons of the S.S.
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So, Guerillas, obviously a play on words as the series stars guerillas.
REVEL: Yes. Well, technically chimpanzees, but yes, it is a play on words. It's about a secret experimental fighting unit that gets put into place to cut down American casualties. These would be like disposable infantry.
Monkeys always get the short end of the stick. Firing them into space, and now sending them off to war.
REVEL: Yeah. They sent them into space to make sure it was safe. They spray them with aerosols and other things for chemicals tests. So, why not teach them how to fight the war and send them off instead? [Laughs]
Let's talk a little about the characters. There's a main human character, an army private, who I guess serves as the eyes to the world?
REVEL: Well, there's the main character who gets caught up with them, and his name is John Francis Clayton. He's a new recruit who is a meek, not-really-made-for-war type of guy. He falls in with them accidentally. So, you follow him and the chimps, who actually don't talk. It's trying to be semi-realistic in that respect. Chimps don't have the vocal chords to make human sounds, so there's no talking. So, he's caught up with them and going around trying to stay alive. Later on there's another platoon going after the chimps because the chimps have kind of gone AWOL. That platoon serve as more of a Greek chorus to comment on the situation and ramifications of putting animals in place of humans—all the different discussions that could go on. The guy with the chimps is more of the inter-personal relationship commentator between man and animal.
Well, what's that relationship like? What are the chimps like as a ground and how do they treat Private Clayton?
REVEL: Well, there's a hierarchal standing within the chimpanzee family unit—and that's partially why they were used [for this experiment] because there's a partial hierarchal standard in the army. So, since Clayton is technically the higher life-form, this is a role reversal and he's the lowest rung on the ladder within the chimp troop. He's also not a very good soldier in the first place, so the idea is that he's going to become a man by living with the chimps. So, that's there relationship. The guys who are following them are the commentators. You have one who is like, "F--k this, I don't want to fight this war." Then there's another guy who is like, "Oh no. This is against God." There's also the real military man who is just offended that they're taking his job, which he's put his life around.
Well, I have to ask, the idea is great, but how on Earth did you come up with this? What spurred you think, "What if monkeys were fighting our wars?"
REVEL: I've had this idea for a while. I didn't come up with the name first and the play on words wasn't really the initial idea. That came up later on, and once I did I was like, "Oh great. Someone's going to do this. It's obvious." But I think it went back to "Saving Private Ryan." I saw that and it was more a pulpy war movie. I originally thought it'd be World War II and chimpanzees fighting Nazis would be great—the ubermen versus these sub-human animals. It would have been more of an action comic that wouldn't have to explain much. But the more I started sitting with the idea and thinking about it, it started to make sense that it'd take place in a jungle and be like jungle warfare because chimps are adapted to that environment and can move through the trees. And Vietnam is just sitting there, and it was more of desperate war that we weren't winning, so maybe an idea like that would happen where someone would go that extra mile and say, "We tried a whole bunch of other things, why not?" When I finally did think of guerillas, it fit because it was a guerilla war, really. All of that was a perfect storm that made more sense. It also has that kind of satirical slant, you know? Sending trained monkeys into war. That could fit in a 1960s political comic about Vietnam ideologies.
It came together logistically and there are layers beyond just the face value of it.
REVEL: Yeah. A lot of it was just seeing how the soldiers were walking through the bombed-out battlefield in single file. I just visually connected that with seeing a troop of chimps rolling through some grassland in the jungle. It just visually matched up for me. Also, there's some references to the older magazine pulps. I actually came across a lot of stuff that was like Nazi Baboons of the S.S. raping female prisoners and stuff like that.
Wow. That's… just… wow.
REVEL: Yeah. And the '50s and early '60s had these pulpy men magazines with insane, crazy, occult Nazi stuff. It's like the do now with Star and the Inquirer. The forerunner of stuff like that. But back when they were still putting them out as stories and not passed it off as fact.
Okay, obviously there's reasons why you chose chimps to play this role, but do you personally like monkeys and weird monkey movies?
REVEL: [Laughs] Which weird monkey movies?
You know, like "Dunston Checks In"... Wow. I can't believe I just actually used "Dunston Check In."
REVEL: [Laughs] I like the one "Every Which Way But Loose." Truthfully, everyone loves monkeys. I went to art school, and I did some painting of monkeys. Part of my idea was making paintings like the dogs playing poker. Everyone kind of likes that. No wife wants their husband to have that up in their house, but everyone kind of likes it. Just like everyone likes chimps because they're like funny little fake humans. People like to see them dressed up as humans and smoking cigarettes and stuff like that. Everyone loves monkeys, so if I can five percent of everyone, I'll be alright.
Also be sure to check out REVEL'S WEB SITE!
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