Clive Barker’s Jericho: Q & A with Clive BarkerHauntedHouse.com presents an interview with Clive Barker regarding one of his latest projects, Clive Barker's Jericho.
Q: You're both a writer and artist. Have you supplied much of the concept art for the games you've made? What else have you supplied? How much work do you actually leave to the developers to imagine? CB: I like to contribute both images and story to the game’s projects I get involved with. Often the images are simply sketches to illustrate my thoughts for the for the designers. It’s certainly useful to be able to ‘talk’ in both words and pictures. Q: There are definite ultimate evils in your work but there's little sign of good. Does this reflect something of your own outlook on the world? CB: I disagree with the observation that there is little sign of good in my work. I would point to novels like ‘Imagica’ and ‘Weaveworld’ both of which have very powerful heroes and heroines. So too, do the stories I write for all ages, ‘The Thief of Always’ for instance, has a very strong hero called Harvey who stands up to a much stronger enemy the way the biblical David stood up to Goliath. And in the ‘Abarat’ books, of which there are presently two of the five novels published, there is an entire band of good guys who surround our human heroine, Candy Quackenbush. Needless to say, the good guys are hopelessly outnumbered, but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? Q: How does your setting in the Middle East tie in with the current history and politics of the area? Is there anything you're trying to say with the title? CB: I’ve liked the Jericho idea since it first came into my head because it marries up two of my passions (History and Horror). Our protagonist’s journey through slices of other times in the game, their progress bringing them steadily closer to the Great Adversary who sits at the center of this Labyrinth of Time. Q: Your "walls within walls within walls" description of Jericho gives the impression of Lovecraft-style extra-dimensional chambers, deliberate paradoxes that the human mind can't quite grasp, giving an edge of confusion to your nameless horror. Can a game represent this repeatedly looped world effectively?
CB: There is indeed a connection in the game to the kind of vast architectural spaces evoked in the work of H.P. Lovecraft. But that’s where the similarity ends I think. Lovecraft methodology was to continually hit at the presence of vast unnamable and indescribable forces, which as far as I’m concerned gets a little old after a time. There’s only so many occasions in a book when the author can tell me that the monster was so terrible he doesn’t have words to describe it before I become irritated. Right from the beginning of my career as an Imaginer, I’ve always taken great delight in presenting the reader, or in the case of ‘Hellraiser,’ the spectator, with precisely imagined and elegantly photographed villains. I’m not interested in a beast that the creator claims he can’t show me. Q: Can you tell us why you’re excited about the Jericho videogame? CB: I’m excited about the game because the story is I believe fresh and because of that we have a greater chance of scaring the S*** out of the players around the world! I’d carrying the idea of Jericho around in my head before I’d even talked to Brian about the project, so I feel very close to it. I’d love people to think of Jericho the way I thought of, let’s say ‘Alien’, when that movie was about to come out. Teased with glimpses but never given the whole monstrous truth until the story was told on the screen. Jericho should be the same. Unique and terrifying. Check out Clive Barker's Jericho This Fall from Codemasters! |
