What can’t you find on Kickstarter? I mean, one of the most successful campaigns even run was for potato salad! That may sound like a slam, but honestly it is praise for what this site offers as opportunity for people with a dream and a need for some help. Some may think that the site is only populated with start-ups and amateur filmmakers, but one of the biggest draws for Kickstarter is the chance to help support creators we enjoy that want to venture away from the standard model with a project. This is what drew comics creator Daniel Way (Wolverine: Origins) and his collaborators, the horror filmmaking sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska, to using the site for their next project. I had a chance to sit down with the trio for one of the craziest and most fun times as we talked about their project, their collaboration, and how they plan to celebrate reaching their goal.

NERDIST: Gentlman and ladies, thank you so much for talking to us today about the book, the Kickstarter campaign, and all the fun you seem to be having along the way.

SYLVIA SOSKA: Well of course! It’s hard not to have fun with kill-crazy nymphos attacking. That’s pretty much a great day just waiting for you.

N: For those who may want some insight without having to travel away to Kickstarter for it, tell us what the book is and what it is about a little bit.

JEN SOSKA: Before any of us starts. Can I swear?

N: Oh yeah, go right ahead.

JS: Oh good, I’ve been basically holding my breath this whole time. [Laughs] One of you guys can explain it. I’m just relieved I can swear.

SS: That’s all she has to add to the conversation, we are in a terrible state already. [Laughs.] Good f***ing God.

JS: See, I freed up your vocabulary.

SS: Well, for those who do not know the history, Jen and I both love Daniel’s work so much that we had a brain explosion when he mentioned us on Twitter and said he liked our stuff. So after that we were introduced by a mutual friend , and now we have this book, Kill-Crazy Nymphos ATTACK! which is just about as uncensored as it gets. It is a very graphic novel about this scientist who just really wants to f*** chicks and is basically trying to make a legal date rape drug, but he’s a shitty scientist and as disgusting as a human being can come. So, he makes this serum, but it ends up going horribly badly and he ends up with these kill-crazy nymphos attacking.

JS: That’s so eloquent.

SS: I read the synopsis, unlike her. She is Ben Affleck-ing my Matt Damon right now.

[Image: The Star]

It’s hard not to have fun with kill-crazy nymphos attacking. That’s pretty much a great day just waiting for you.

DW: Yeah…that pretty much covers that. [Laughs] We really wanted to do something that is like a riff on an exploitation film or grindhouse picture. Those movies are great. I love them and The Twins love them because they go so over-the-top but are really great tools for social commentary. Some of the original behind-the-scenes conversations for this book were just about all these different drugs that had come out over the course of years that are just vanity drugs. The only thing anyone cares about are the short term gains from them. We don’t really know how they will affect us, or the people that take them, or even the f***ing human genome. We just do it because we want it, and science is something we can use to get what we want. It’s a very dangerous path to go down and that’s what we are trying to point out here.

JS: We try to do that with a lot of our films, if you have seen any of our films. At the surface level they are this one thing of dropkick-to-the-cock excitement, but if you stop and think about them there really is a lot of social commentary going on. With Kill-Crazy Nymphos we try to explore that there is a big demand to f*** chicks out there, but really at what cost? [Laughs]

DW: Well, we have this cast of characters that are just wild and over the top, but again that is in hopes to prove a point. It’s to populate the story with a lot of different points of view. So, while it may come across as being entirely chaotic, we can do that because we have actually laid out a really solid story first. So, we can riff and f*** around a lot because it is not like we are going to lose the thread in the chaos, we already had it nailed down before coming up with scenes or the little tangents you can get lost in as a writer. Basically we said “we want to make this point, this point, and this point. Great, now we can make it this huge f***ing mess.” I gotta say it’s coming together pretty f***ing great. Every time we commit to something or I see pages from Rob [Dumo, the books artist], it is not only exactly what I wanted but better than I thought it was going to be.

N: Was the idea always one you wanted to make into a comic, or was there a point with Jen and Sylvia involved, that you thought about trying to make a film out of it?

DW: I came up with this idea several years ago, maybe 8 or 9 years ago, and at one point I was working with a small indie film outfit and we were considering doing it. To do what we really wanted to do with it was really beyond all of our capabilities at that point, though. So after that I briefly considered doing it as a comic book instead, but it still really felt like something was missing from the story and I couldn’t quite execute what I wanted. So the idea gestated for a long time, and I picked it back up after a while and decided I would take another swing at it. So, for inspiration I wound up putting on Dead Hooker In A Trunk, The Twins’ first film, to see if it could knock anything loose. I mentioned this on Twitter, and that’s where this all started. So we started talking, and I mentioned this idea which we started looking at rather in depth, and they really were able to help finally fill in the blanks. We decided we have to do this and we have to do it fast. That’s one of the great things about working in comics, is we work so quickly, faster than anybody. Would we like to do it as a film? Hell yeah! It would be a great f***ing movie.

[Twins nod enthusiastically in unison.]

DW: The twins would absolutely destroy on something like this, but first thing’s first. We all know from experience that if a story starts off as a graphic novel it tends to have a leg up on other productions in the queue. It also just helps with getting everything set up, like casting and everything. All you have to do is flip open the book and say, “It needs to be like this.” Usually if a major studio does decide to get involved in a project, it is always helpful to have pictures to go along with the idea. So, the story started off as a film, then it became a comic book, but it only became a comic book because of my association with some filmmakers. [Laughs] That’s comics for ya.

N: Being writers and directors and creators that have seen success in your fields, why go to Kickstarter for this project instead of a comics publisher?

DW: I have written a lot of comic books, and a lot of comic books for Marvel. I have been in the business quite a while and have talked to a lot of retailers, paying attention to how the market and ordering works for retailers. In my opinion this kind of deep genre project tends to get under-ordered and under-represented in comic book stores. Retailers tend to rely on mainstream superhero books to keep their lights on, so a large amount of them don’t try to build that genre audience for their stores. So, what you get is them saying “Oh, ok, I’ll order a shelf copy,” or whatever, which really doesn’t help. Whereas, you put it on Kickstarter, and The Twins are so good at self-promotion and marketing, thank God.

JS: It’s because we’re shameless.

DW: [Laughs] They have a huge following, and that huge following is made up of fans of this type of material. One of the major draws is you are getting it right from the source. It’s a direct feed. I think another reason it works so well as a comic instead of a film, and their fans will love it so much, is because a film would have more people involved and it would get diluted. This book is about as pure of the dope as you are going to get. So because we are able to be as extreme as we want with the content, and don’t have to worry about what is “safe for public consumption,” or retailers getting skiddish about having this book on their shelves where kids can get at it. This just goes straight to the person’s house who bought it. This really the perfect kind of comic book project for Kickstarter.

With Kill-Crazy Nymphos we try to explore that there is a big demand to f*** chicks out there, but really at what cost?

SS: I couldn’t agree more, and we couldn’t believe how fast it went. People were just rabid and so involved in it. That’s kind of one of the really cool things about Kickstarter is you can actually be involved in it if you supported the project it in any way. We reached out to everybody and made sure everyone was in contact. It’s really cool because we started in grassroots and it’s nice to see that is still a way art is getting made.

JS: Also, our fans have been asking us for ages to do a Kickstarter, and we would always tell them that it would only be for the right project. I love how this Kickstarter is set up, are not just buying the book but you are getting yourself in the book and these incentives are things fans would buy when the book was out anyway.

SS: You wouldn’t believe how many e-mails Jen and I get asking us to murder them in the book. We finally filled that niche market with this book.

JS: It’s just super exciting to see how into everyone gets and how excited they are. I am such a nerd for this kind of thing.

DW: This is what is great with teaming up with them. I never would have thought of that, and there wouldn’t have been any point in trying it, but with them it just really knocked out any sort of restraint. We could do anything, and the fans are just eating it up.

SS: Well, the goal is $200,000 so we can throw a wrap party, because you want to party with the three of us. It’s going to be f***ing ridiculous.

DW: Yeah, that would be a lot of fun.

N: So with all of this positive feedback and rabid desire to be eviscerated in the pages of your comic, are you looking to make a continuing series, or are you content with getting the one book made?

DW: Well, we have discussed that there is always the possibility for, like, Kill-Crazy Nymphos Attack Again! or something. [Laughs] Its not impossible and the door is not closed on that, but we have discussed 2,3, maybe 5 different things we want to do together, and that sounds great to me. Collaboration really is one of the greatest things about working in this medium. Being able to work with other highly creative people, create something, and get it out there so quickly. So when you find someone you can work with, and makes the whole process easier, and makes the product better, that is something you hold onto. I’ve worked with some people and it is trying, but there are others you can work with where it stops being work and it is pure enjoyment. This has been great. One of us hits a wall, and another takes a chainsaw to it and we all keep going.

N: Are there any other projects you are also working on that you would like to talk about?

DW: I mean, we have other things going on, yes. Do you want us to just go through all of them?

[Image: Comic Vine]

Would we like to do it as a film? Hell yeah…The Twins would absolutely destroy on something like this.

N: With a Powerpoint presentation, if at all possible.

DW: [Laughs] I’ll go first, but I can’t actually talk about a lot of the stuff I’m working on. [Laughs] I would love to, but I am just NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement] up the ass, really. I can talk about my book at Dark Horse. I have a graphic novel at Dark Horse called Gun Theory, that should be coming out at some point this year. That’s a book by me and John Proctor that is a really dark crime story about a contract killer who, over the years, has been so good at his job and going unnoticed that he has basically become a ghost. This makes it so people can’t actually see him, and because they can’t see him he is perfect at his job. One day he meets a woman who does see him, which brings him back into focus, and back onto the mortal coil. This drastically changes his life and work for the worse, or maybe for the better because this guy is a piece of shit. [Laughs] You guys go ahead, though, it seems like every time I talk to you, you’re just coming back from somewhere or off to somewhere.

JS: That’s just how we avoid you, Dan. We’ve never actually gone anywhere. [Laughs] Well, we did just get back from L.A. where we were shooting something that I can’t talk about, but I’m going to keep posting photos that don’t break my NDR…NDA?

DW: I don’t know if the Canadian version is an NDR, but here it is NDA.

JS: NDA! No, the Canadian version would be an ND Double A…NDA, eh?

[Silence]

SS: The jokes are better in the comic, I swear.

JS: But anyway, that will be out in October if it goes, but until then we will keep putting really obscure hints up.

SS: It was for TV, which was really exciting because we’ve never done TV before. Other than that, though, our new movie is coming out this year. It is an action movie called Vendetta, starring Dean Cain, Paul “The Big Show” White, and Michael Eklund. If you had told me 2 weeks before we went to camera that Dean Cain is the baddest motherf***er on this planet I probably would have laughed in your face. It’s true, though, that dude is so badass.

JS: We really love the Punisher, and for whatever reason no one has given us a Punisher movie yet, so literally this is a Tim Bradstreet style Punisher. The lighting, the shots, everything.

SS: Don’t give away all of our secrets! That is coming out, and it is our most bloody movie to date. Which is saying something if you have seen any of our movies before. We are also producing this awesome documentary on pornography by the people actually in the adult industry.

JS: It’s called The Unbearable Lightness Of Boning. It’s directed by Nicole McClure, who is another amazing female directress and stars Tommy Pistol.

N: I will be the first to say I would love to see The Twins direct a Punisher movie and will push what little-to-no-contacts I have on that.

JS: Yes! Please! Also we would love to do something with Deadpool. We are such fans it is ridiculous. You have no idea how excited we are that they are filming in Vancouver. Maybe appear in one of the movies. You could easily find a place for identical twins in Deadpool. I mean he could totally f–

SS: Finish that sentence for himself.

N: Now, you have some exciting news about the end of this month?

DW: Yes, I am going to be up in Vancouver at the end of the month visiting the set for Deadpool, as well as being up there for Free Comic Book Day, but to celebrate hitting our first funding goal, we are planning on throwing a huge pre-party for the Apocalyptic-sized party we want to have if we hit our ultimate goal. So that is going to be happening in Vancouver on April 30^th.

JS: It’s going to be at the Rio Theatre in East Vancouver and some things I can say will be there include cosplay burlesque dancers, or strippers if you decide to tuck some money in there. There is this one Thor that strips to Thunderstruck…it’s really good. [Laughs] Isn’t that what he should strip to–dance to–whatever– I respect him– totally. [Laughs]

[Image: Brutal As Hell]

When you find someone you can work with and makes the whole process easier…that is something you hold onto.

As of this writing the campaign for Kill-Crazy Nymphos ATTACK! has acquired over $33,000, with an initial goal of $30,000. Daniel and the Twins promise more content, more incentives, and the party-to-end-all-parties for backers that help them get to $200,000 before May 8th.

Interested in supporting the book? Let us know in the comments below, and then do so over at the Kickstarter page. Be sure to keep an eye on the Twitter pages for Daniel and The Soska Twins for more information on the party at the end of the month, and if you end up going, be sure to rub it in my face over at my twitter page, @MattDelhauer.