Shooting his way into the wild frontier of the comic-book industry is THE TOURETTE COWBOY, written and drawn by former Fango intern sHANE tEa fRENCH. A tale that blends gunpowder and gore with soiled doves and saddle leather, this is not you’re grandpa’s Wild West. We recently caught up with French via Pony Express to get the scoop on his blood ’n’ bullets bonanza, published by Dalton Gang Press and available at Amazon.com.

FANGORIA: What was the genesis of THE TOURETTE COWBOY?

SHANE TEA FRENCH: Basically, a few years ago I was hanging with my art-school friend Paul Bryant, who now owns J&P Comics [603 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA], and we were talking about Oliver Sacks and some of his books on OCD and Tourette’s syndrome. Paul said, “What if your tic made you the fastest draw in the West?” The idea kinda blew me away, that your tic could make you the best at something, whether it’s obsessively lining your peas up on your dinner plate or whatever.

So the next day, I started writing a script for what I wanted to turn into a movie. It was a few more years later that I actually began working on it while I was an art PA on Sylvester Stallone’s boxing TV show, THE CONTENDER. All I had to do [on the show] was answer phones and make photocopies, so I drew it as well and as fast as I could. I didn’t take too much time on it, and just gave the story a lot of plot holes that I could fill in as I went on in later issues. This graphic novel is almost just the setup for what could become a much cooler story at a later date, and one that would get more and more gory as it goes along.

Anyhoo, I met the publishers, Nathan Wrann and Kimberley Dalton of Dalton Gang Productions/Press, at a FANGORIA convention a few years ago when they were selling their film HUNTING SEASON in the dealer’s room; it really surprised me with its raw intensity. So I told them that I also lived in Conneticut, and that when they made another horror film they should get ahold of me, which they did when production on their horror film BURNING INSIDE began, featuring special effects by [STAKE LAND’s] Brian Spears. Plus, it was distributed by James Felix McKenney’s Channel Midnight Releasing! So we do have some splatterpunk cred among us, even though this is a Western comic at heart! But it’s a bloody heart.

FANG: It’s interesting how you blend the Western and horror genres with black comedy.

FRENCH: By issue #2, there’s a graphic shootout in a saloon where you can tell I love the horror genre and have a sick sense of humor. The story thus far is [one where] humor and tragedy walk hand in hand. TOM AND JERRY taught us that at a very young age…or was it Shakespeare?

FANG: Are there any artists or comic books you were inspired by?

FRENCH: I am a total Marvel fan! I like my characters flawed and full of conflict and angst. Some of my favorite comic-book artists are probably Chris Bachalo, Arthur Adams, Steve McNiven and too many more to mention or bore readers with. I grew up drawing The Punisher and X-Men in junior high, making photocopied comics and selling them to whoever wanted one, but I don’t think you can see any real influence on my drawings other than being “comic book-y.” I was truly just blasting through, not spending a lot of time on it, but people say that roughness is what they like. If I knew someone would want to publish it one day, I’d have been much more patient, spent a whole day on one page or panel, as opposed to doing about four pages a day or more. The next comic we have planned will look a million times better, and be strictly horror…and there will be titties.

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