I pulled up to Coffin Comics HQ, a fairly nondescript building in Mesa, AZ, and was greeted in the parking lot - - not by handlers, staff, secretaries, etc. - - but by the comics industry legend himself, Brian Pulido. This is the overlord of the Sworn, the award-winning creator behind Lady Death one of the most iconic graphic female characters of all time. My first impression of him held true through the entire interview: an eminently likable, engaging, energetic, unpretentious guy with tremendous love for what he does. Over the course of the facility tour and the conversation, he showed himself to be a knowledgeable, reverent, passionate music fan, with deep roots in the classic eras of Punk and Metal, especially Thrash.
I also got an insider’s look at a hard-working, business-savvy entrepreneur who is fully invested in his legacy, his people, and his creations. As we walked from room to room and met his crew, he asked each of them to name their favorite bands, eliciting answers including New Kids on the Block, Misfits, classic-era Aerosmith, Green Day, Led Zeppelin, and Black-album Metallica. Interestingly, Brian Pulido never volunteered his favorite, so I didn’t ask.
The Coffin facility is seriously impressive - - even a bit overwhelming. Lady Death is everywhere, naturally, but there are also plenty of skulls, and images of his other beloved properties, including Evil Ernie, La Muerta, Smiley, and Hellwitch. Of course the conference room table is coffin-shaped, and everything everywhere is black. In other words. . . Coffin Comics is the most Metal workplace imaginable.
It’s quite a feat to remain humble inside of a painstakingly-curated and maintained shrine to your creative accomplishments, but Pulido manages to pull it off. He’s clearly - - deservedly - - proud of his legacy and what he’s built. He gave an appreciative nod when I likened his legion of Sworn followers to the KISS Army, as if that was exactly what he was working to achieve.
After the tour, we settled at a table in the Brian Pulido Archives room to talk Metal and Comics.
Brian Pulido: When I was a kid, music was super-serious for me. I graduated high school in '80. I was into American Hard Rock, Heavy Metal for the time, and Punk. But my view of Disco was: I hated it. Here's a strange, true story: in High School, I was voted "Mr. Rock n' Roll," and my girlfriend was "Miss Disco;" she was the best Disco dancer. And I would be like, "There's no way I'm dancing to that shit. What the hell!" Of course, like 10 years later, it was like, "Disco's fun, everything's fun, relax." I like what I like, and I can have a totally serious conversation about me being a musical snob, and my worldview is the right view, but I don't take it seriously. I know I'm right, but I totally don't care.
Jack:
I was the same way, but I was like, "How am I such a musical snob, while also loving the Ramones?" It doesn't compute.
BP: It makes sense. Johnny Ramone had such a sound. They're great. Speaking of the Ramones, it's a subject I adore. I was going around like an average skateboarder in Ohio, and I ran with such a mischievous crew, and we were punky kinda guys, and this girl came up to us and was like, "You know what, you remind me of those Punk rockers in the UK." And I didn't know what that meant at all, so when I went back to Jersey, I investigated. So this was late Summer, 1977. This is happening. The Sex Pistols first record's coming out, so I sorta got right on the curve. So I actually have a little Punk Rock shelf, and I got Ramones, Blondie, Suicide, Dead Boys - - cause all of the New York stuff started coming out. And then, if memory serves, around that fall, "Never Mind the Bollocks" came out, the Clash's first record. . . Yeah, Love it.
BP: My musical snobbery says this: Detroit, New York, and UK Punk is OG. It all stems from that. California stuff is fine, and anything that came after is fine, but that's the stuff.
JM: Not even Washington DC?
BP: I'm less familiar, so that's where my snobbery comes in. I have a pal, Bill McKay, who's a comic artist, and he was from Washington DC, and it all blew up around him, I was just less familiar. So my snobbery was informed by my geography.
As a Jersey kid, I would look up to New York, and go to New York on the weekends, go see shows as soon as I possibly could.
Since we're talking about history a bit. Since your background is so strong with Metal, Punk, and Music, and of course, Comics; it all bleeds together - -
BP: - - and Horror films.
JM: Right! Metal and Horror has always co-existed.
BP: Look at Black Sabbath. It's named after a Mario Bava anthology film. Fantastic.
JM: So where did it begin for you? Where did you realize, "This is what I'm gonna do with my life?"
BP: For comics and stuff, well that's interesting. I know that I enjoyed Horror movies from a very young age because my mom turned me on to them. And I don't know the genesis event of where I saw comics and became enamored by them, but I was really young, even before I could read. And I always enjoyed the interplay of words and pictures. On a page, regardless of how it was drawn, my mind could further illuminate it and draw it. What's neat about comics is, you have to do the work. You read it and you do the brushstrokes; you bring it alive. When you watch a film, it does all the work for you, and you experience it. So that was one of the attractions I had as a kid. And I think was more of a booky, chess club kinda kid, so reading always made a lot of sense to me. But the wondrous imagination that comics, and the Horror films, and then the music started bleeding in.
One of the seminal musical experiences I had as a kid, I think it was the summer of 1967, and my sister was having a Sweet Sixteen birthday party, and it was crashed by the Hell's Angels, which actually was OK; it was fine. And the musical backdrop that I recall was The Doors' "Light My Fire," so it was distinct for me. And the first record that I adopted - - that I bought with my own money - - was a Sly and the Family Stone record. So I think I started right.
And then I also early on got into the Stones. I remember "It's Only Rock n' Roll" on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert, and these guys were all dressed up as sailors, and they were in a bubble, and I loved that distinctly. So that time, the early 70s, a lot of what was on the radio was just phenomenal. The range would be that great American Hard Rock, stuff like Bad Company, Kansas, but also for me, I must admit I liked the Soul and R n' B of the time. All of it kinda worked.
But what started dominating for me - - I became a skater - - was Aerosmith, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, and maybe the event that really sparked that was Cal Jam. So, Cal Jam was this humongous festival that was on TV for 2 days. And if memory serves, Black Sabbath was one of the headliners. But I think a lot of these bands played. So I'm going along enjoying my Hard Rock, and then a pal named Mickey Dicks turned me on to Van Halen's first record and Judas Priest, "Unleashed in the East." Like I might have been listening to Ted Nugent and Aerosmith, but this was a different sound. I would be like 15 or 16 listening to "Victim of Changes" and "Grinder." And at that young age, I would just groove on lead guitar licks. It seemed to explain everything, if that makes sense. And I haven't even attempted to play an instrument, but I've always been a fan. Edward Van Halen? That's crazy. It's a very long and winding answer. . .
JM: No, those are great answers. So what about Maiden and Metallica? How big of a change was discovering those guys?
BP: Let's see, I discovered Maiden in September of 1980, buying their first record, not even knowing who they were, it was just the look of the first record, "Iron Maiden;" that freaky Eddie. And then I put it on, and it further defined things. Now keep in mind that I as already listening to Priest. And I realized that there was this new musical movement of Heavy Music occurring in the UK, so my curiosity started bringing me in that direction. And I'm definitely proud to brag and say that I saw Maiden the first time they hit America - - twice. They were opening up for Van Halen. And they came into America in the NY area, and they left through NY. I got to see them twice. I still have the tickets, and I believe that was in support of Killers.
JM: I hate you, by the way. That is incredible.
BP: (laughs) Real story. I still have the tickets! So I guess at that point in time, I was just a musical fan. I probably liked everything except Country, Pop - - modern Country at the time. But where my soul lived would be Punk and Metal. But my look was mainly Punk. So I would go in to Metal environments in 1979 and 80 as a Punk, and I gotta tell you, the tribe wasn't having it at the time. And it was funny; people would be like, "What's up with you, punk?" And I would be like, "Dude, I'm here, I'm singing the lyrics, I'm enjoying myself." Now it's very mixed, but it wasn't back then, it was very segmented.
By about the mid-80s to late 80s - - Metallica and Megadeth; the Thrash transition. As much as I enjoyed Priest and Maiden and still do to this day, I was a person who liked Punk and who liked Metal. And these were two tribes that didn't interact. And then suddenly, there came this new musical form that embraced both of the things that I liked. I don't know the exact moment, but it might have been a Megadeth record where I first really became aware of this new style called Thrash. But as soon as I got it. . . My first Metallica record was "Ride the Lightning," as it came out, so I was unaware prior. So anything that was kinda fast. Overkill was right around within a year of that as well. So Thrash sort of explained everything for me, you know, the two loves together, and it was unabashed. Remember, I started out as a Punk, with people hating on it, but here was a musical form that was interested in speed and attitude. And I was sort of unaware of, let's take Metallica, for example, their influences. A lot of their influences were the little-known NWOBHM players, you know, Diamond Head, etc. I was less aware of it; I was more aware of the commercial guys. So I think that's how it all came together for me.
More bragging, I got to see Megadeth very early; I think it was a Megaforce Records party, and I saw Anthrax very early. I actually didn't see Metallica until the mid-90s, believe it or not. And that whole era. . . I went to L'Amours, and their house band Wrathchild were phenomenal live.
Another recollection of the time, now we're in the late 80s, is the phenomenon of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal as the dominant musical form of the Jersey Shore. You can go to a place like the Royal Manor and see Twisted Sister with 6,000 Metalheads. It was insane. That'd be a Thursday night. Like, Twisted would play in that whole tri-state area and thousands of people would show up. And Dee Snider, man, if you didn't show the right respect, whether you were in the crowd or the opening band, he would eat you alive. I don't remember who the act was, but Twisted came on, and he was nuts about the band before them. "If you don't show respect for Twisted Sister, man fuck you!" And he would get the crowd all hyped. So it was a different Twisted; it was less the commercial-ready, but man, that edgy Twisted. . . All the pre-first record. I think "You Can't Stop Rock n' Roll" really captures the type of energy they were throwing out there before they committed further, when they got into "Stay Hungry," it was more of a commercial vibe, but that early stuff was really aggressive.
JM: There's a great documentary too - - You've probably seen it. (We Are Twisted Fucking Sister)
BP: Yeah, it's great, man. It brought back so many memories, because it was crazy, dude! Can you imagine this day and age like 6,000 people on a Thursday night? You know, it's like what maybe Hip-Hop is today. I mean, it was the dominant musical form. Everybody was into it. Like they were seeing. . . White Lion. . . whatever they were into.
JM: The Jersey Shore was a legendary scene.
BP: I felt really lucky for the time, and it's probably relative to a lot of music fans. I kinda wish I was born 5 years earlier, 'cause as a Jersey Shore kid, I would look to what was going on in New York in the punk scene, and I just so wished that I got to go to CBGB's in 1975, and I never got to go until 1980. And that was great, but you know, the stuff that was going on back then was the birth of New York Punk, so. . . Blondie, Dead Boys, Suicide, you know, the end of the Velvet Underground; I would have loved to have been there. And New York is not like that at all anymore. You gotta be a millionaire to live there, and it's all like Gap stores and sushi bars. It's not these little hovels where artisans could live and develop and do stuff like that, it just doesn't exist anymore.
JM: We've talked about some cultural milestones. Beyond Metallica and Megadeth, what are some other things - - in music and in comics - - that were light posts on your way to becoming what you are today.
BP: Well, we spoke a bit about music and how that backdrop of Thrash i particular coincided with me starting to be a creative person in comics. I think what was going off for me in my life was, I had graduated college, and at a young age, I was like, "Wait, where's my job? Why aren't I a director for Universal Pictures or something?" And I found myself treading water in life, as we all do. I was working in the film business as a production assistant. And I did start out as the kid who got coffee, but then I started accumulating a skill that was heading me towards a craft called Assistant Director. And I was getting very good at it. And I was working on music videos and pieces of movies and commercials. Some of the fun music videos, I worked with a director named Paul Rachtman who directed "Man in the Box," and I was involved with videos for KISS, Queensryche, Danger Danger, Trixter, Trouble, Testament - - on the Rock side. And then on the Hip-Hop side, Heavy D and the Boyz comes to mind. . .
But I literally woke up one day and said, "I don't like doing this. I'm good at it, but I don't like doing it." That coincided with, I'm enjoying Thrash, and kinda looking at comics as a way of expression. What I thought about comics, and it still remains true to this day is: ultimately, no one tells me how to do a comic. Like, it's not a multi-million dollar movie where you'd have a lot of people telling you what to do. One of the joys of comics is, you could write a panel and say, "And then the universe exploded," and it didn't take much effort. To bring that to life in a motion picture is just a whole nother thing. So I was immediately attracted to that. And my hobby. . . I was a comic book collector then, I'm a comic book collector now. . . I decided to take a run at it.
And so the first comic book I wrote was an adaptation of a screenplay I wrote called "Evil Ernie." So this was all, I think I'm 26 or 27, something like that. "It's time," I'm thinking. I'm like, "Come on, kid. Get going. You've graduated college, get off your butt. Start making your play. Instead of just working for The Man, get up, get going; make it." So I saw comics as a possible means. As luck would have it, me declaring that I'm gonna make Evil Ernie and then getting it to print was maybe a 3 year journey, but once it came out, it caught on enough, it became a little cult-ish kind of a thing, that right off-the-bat it started going, and I felt rewarded for this creative guess.
JM: And so where was Evil Ernie being distributed?
BP: Evil Ernie. . I presented a package to a company called Malibu, and they took it on, but I got to at the time retain all the rights. So it was then distributed internationally to comic book shops throughout North America and England and English-speaking European countries. And ultimately, through time, Evil Ernie was adapted to Italian, French - - which I think is funny, and German.
Comics was kinda like. . . the natural way of expressing for me. Although I enjoy music, I'd never. . . I mean now I'd like to play, but back then it never occurred to me, being more of a book-ish person, it seemed more of a way to make my stake, if that makes sense.
So I think that was the confluence. For sure, music played a role. Even to this day, I feel like, the type of music I'm hearing and enjoying, I'm trying to get that on the page somehow.
JM: And of course, Lady Death was born from Evil Ernie. Did you know when you came up with her that "This is gonna be my life, this is gonna be a massive phenomena?"
BP: No. When I invented Lady Death. . . you can even see a picture of it (Brian walks to a wall to point out a picture of Evil Ernie with Lady Death), in the early incarnation of the character, she was actually modeled after Christina Applegate. As a creative person, I'm really new at the game, and so I said, "She has to operate inside of a genre." There was this confluence of influences. . . The women on my mind were Ann-Margret, Satana, and in particular, Vampira. And, whether I knew it consciously or not, what I appeared to be attracted to in those women were that they were inordinately dominant, and they weren't tethered to a man. All the Goth ladies that we liked and grew up with were very domestic. . . Morticia Addams, Lily Munster. . . What made them acceptable is that they were tethered. And at a very unconscious level, I said that Lady Death. . . she's an Alpha. She's never tethered to a man. A man is kind of a tool to her, possibly. There could be romance, there could be vulnerability.
And that's kind of a crazy play, if you think about it. And particularly Vampira, what I liked about her was, she was not domesticated, never tethered to a man, and that's in her limited portrayal onscreen and in her life. And as crazy as that sounds, I wouldn't know this, but I think that distinction possibly has kept Lady Death going? I don't know. So, to answer your question, Lady Death was brought into Evil Ernie as a guest star to provide a motivation. Behind every great man is a great woman. So I designed Lady Death as Evil Ernie's idea of the ideal woman. And so that's how she came out where she's full-figured, voluptuous, very dominant, telling everybody what to do. He liked that. It wasn't always falling on his shoulders.
I didn't know that she could be this popular, but I know that I would bring comic book prints of maybe 8 of Evil Ernie and 1 print of Lady Death, and I would notice at the end of a convention that we sold a lot more of Lady Death than Evil Ernie. And it just told me something.
So when Lady Death finally got her own comic in February of '94, in Lady Death: The Reckoning #1, that thing instantaneously was a life-changing event. Just instantly, literally in front of our face, myself and Stephen Hughes, the illustrator, who passed in 2000, we were at a comic book convention in New York, and we saw the cover price of that comic book go from $3.50 to $9 at the end of that weekend, and it just kept going. I mean, Lady Death #1 dominated the Wizzard top collectible chart; it was like #1 for 21 months. Lady Death plus the character, Shi, plus the re-emergence of Vampirella, the press dubbed that group the "Bad Girls in Comics" phase, and that was just another ride for three years, with all the imitators and that kind of stuff. . . But no, I didn't have a guess (laughs) to be honest with you.
JM: And it seems like she's bigger now than ever. Talk to me about some of the exciting stuff you're doing through Kickstarter with Lady Death and your other projects.
BP: There was a time where the Brian Pulido as we know him today was a little dormant. And I had actually licensed the right to publish the character to another publisher. This came at a time when I actually had a health issue. I kinda woke up with nerve damage in 2009, and it took about 7 months to get it diagnosed, and I was completely obsessed with trying to understand what was going on. And I alleged that during that time my former publisher took advantage of the circumstance, and wasn't doing right by my household.
So I tried to sort that out, and it couldn't be sorted out through reasonable means, so I actually litigated. I litigated, they litigated. And there was something during the litigation that I realized that I got my life back. Now, litigation's not pleasant for anyone, but there was something really wonderful about it (laughs) because in the end, we settled, and part of it was, I got complete clear title and control of my character back.
So that was good, but then the question was, would people care? So I actually went around and I interviewed all the top comics retailers, and I really took a look at the landscape. And I said, "How are we gonna get back in?" Should we go the normal comics route, normal distribution, etc.? And I'd seen a couple of friends, particularly a friend named Jimmy Palmiotti, using crowdfunding, Kickstarter in particular, as a way of getting his projects funded. And he was doing some way out stuff, like, he was doing some crazy crab girl comic, and it's not exactly what people would expect. He and his wife were doing Harley Quinn for DC, you know, so wow, what are you doing over here? You can make that successful!
So taking a cue from him, and actually some advice, we launched the first Lady Death Kickstarter. And it was completely successful for its time. And, I'd kinda previously determined: that's where we're going. The original incarnation of Kickstarter is a funding tool, and I'm clear on that. But really, what it's evolved into is, it's a pre-order tool, and it's a way to connect with a giant community of people, that is bigger than the conventional. . . or different than the conventional comic store market. And we just went hogwild.
And now are very rigorous. . . launch a campaign, close the campaign, get everything printed, get everything delivered, and it's a 12-week cycle. Very methodical. And we use all the normal business principles: good quality customer service, be your word, own up to your mistakes, print high quality. . . so we try to use those tools, that I don't think go out of style, to keep building it and building it. And I don't know where the future lies. . . this year's been truly incredible in crowdfunding for us. We dominate with 8 of the top 10 comic book Kickstarter campaigns of all time. And I actually didn't even know that; somebody told on the last day of the Blasphemy Anthem campaign. I don't know what the future holds, but I know that we're still hungry, the mission continues, and my zest to tell her story continues. Like, I'm literally plotted for the next 5 years solid. So I always have that experience where I'm always super-behind what I want to present.
JM: So this interview is being done at the end of 2019. What's 2020 looking like from Brian Pulido and Coffin Comics? Not just for Lady Death, but for all of the other characters on your roster.
BP: Well, 2020's an exciting year. First of all, for Lady Death, we're presenting two new chapters. Chapter 11 coming out February 19th is called "Malevolent Decimation." And then Chapter 12, which will come out in August, is called "Treacherous Infamy- -"
JM: Very Metal! Sorry for interrupting, but those are very Metal titles.
BP: (laughs) Always Metal. I mean, my objective is, it's always gotta sound Metal. The names have been "Chaos Rules," "Damnation Game," Extinction Express," "Unholy Ruin," "Merciless Onslaught," in a tip to the old Metal Church, etc. And we just finished "Blasphemy Anthem" before that, "Scorched Earth" before that, "Nightmare Symphony," so it's all little nods.
But what's fun in Lady Death in 2020 is. . . she began as an evil character in Evil Ernie. And that has always been inside her. And it returns in 2020. Lady Death is the villain in her own comic book throughout 2020. So longtime fans will want to see that energy. I've written stuff that I've had to pass through my wife, I'm like, "Should we really. . .?" And she's like, "Ohhh yeahh." So that's that piece.
We have chapter 6 of La Muerta called "Retaliation," which, being the 6th chapter, is actually the climax of all previous chapters. And then we have another character who's gaining popularity, named Hellwitch. And she's having her 3rd chapter called, and that is called "Sacreligious." That brings her past together with her present, and really cues things up for 2021, where Lady Death and Hellwitch have the grudge match fight, in the Fall of 2021.
JM: Wow. Spoilers.
BP: Spoilers, sorry! You heard it here! Things will continue apace for Coffin, I'll make some appearances at some major conventions. Really, where I'm having fun is building our company, incremental improvements on what some people consider boring stuff, like process improvements and shipping and all that kinda stuff. I love mail order. I mean, there've been times where. . . I wrote it, I fostered it, and I'm even helping pack it and shipping it. I've been part of the whole process. So that's kinda what we're looking forward to. More of the same, but bigger and more evil.
JM: So you have Brian Pulido the boss, and the business guy, and the guy who's signing checks and running Kickstarters. .. How does that affect Brian Pulido, the creative guy? You know, the guy who sits down with a blank sheet of paper and makes something?
BP: That's a fair question. I appreciate that. You know, it's interesting. Sometimes it's in balance, sometimes it's not. You read "Blasphemy Anthem," I gotta tell you, to write a story like that with all the various characters and for everybody to have a piece and get a moment, it really takes a lot of revision. I mean, we actually scratched a whole draft, and kept going at it. So, the experience recently has been, where the creative is, I'm doing it on a Saturday. So I'm doing all business stuff and keeping the wheels going and the plates spinning, and working in this nice quiet space on a Saturday. And so what what I'm putting myself up to in 2020 is realigning and recreating how I do my own business, where that creative part, that quiet that I require, gets my A priority, instead of the Z priority. So to the surface, it hasn't really impacted things, but in terms of quality of life, I have to shift back. And that's the honest answer.
One of the things we've all been doing is really working hard on process. We have created a new possibility. We're coming to the end of our first 5 years. We've executed and achieved the plan - - exceeded the 5-year plan. And now, it's the formulation of the next 5-year plan. And we know the outcome we're after, it's like, how do you get there? So our outcome is. . . the possibility of 10,000 regular customers. For a comic book company - - even Marvel would be happy to have 10,000 regulars, honestly. So we see outcome; how do we get there?
Even when I don't love it, I love it all. I like the creation, I do like working on process stuff, it's really fun. Working with the artist, working with the creative folks, coming in, supporting sales marketing, working with the warehouse, I really enjoy it all. I like that we've been able to express ourselves in this space. We've even had an event earlier this year called Fiendfest, and we're having another one in 2021 called Swornfest. So all of it's just been a remarkable expression. Thankfully, my wife and I are always doing projects. This is one element of our life, we actually have other business ventures outside of this. So, it's a good use of a human being (laughs).
JM: That's great stuff, man. I have three hours more of questions, but we'll cut it here. Why don't you take us out with one last message to comic fans and Metal fans alike.
BP: Remember: there is no justice, there is just us.
Official website: Official page: https://www.ladydeathuniverse.com/
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