A few years ago, David Dastmalchian was with his longtime friend James Gunn and was preparing for a bachelor trip before Gunn’s wedding.
He was excited when he told his friend that he had a job as a writer of a Creature Commands comic for DC. Dastmalchian didn’t know that Gunn – who would soon be named head of DC Studios – was already working on his own version Creature Commands as an animated series about the monster troop.
“He says, ‘Look!’ He already had animatics and footage from his animated series,” says Dastmalchian, who worked with Gunn on The suicide squad“I was worried that my comic book series might be canceled because it’s a different Creature Commandos than what James does, and he said, ‘No, no, no. It’s perfectly fine. It exists. And publishing it is its own thing.'”
Creature Commands is just one of eight comic book projects Dastmalchian will debut in the coming year or so. That’s a staggering number for any writer, but it’s all the more impressive when you consider that comics are Dastmalchian’s side job. He is best known as a prolific character actor, working between Marvel and DC in films such as The Dark Knight And Ant Manand who has worked several times with directors such as Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan.
Between film and television projects, Dastmalchian has built up his comic portfolio in recent years and began as the creator of the horror comic Dark Horse Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster HunterA third volume in the popular series will be released in paperback later this year.
Next up is the high-profile Image Comics book Knight vs Samuraiset at the end of the 16th century. It is about magic and dragons and pits English knights against Japanese samurai… until the men realize that their leaders have lied to them and that they should actually work together. The book will be published in September and is one of Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane as a shining example for Dastmalchian in the series. Thersa Matsuura, an expert in Japanese mythology and host of the podcast Eerie Japanacts as a consultant.
Because he is known as an actor, people in the comics industry have sometimes assumed that he wanted to draw comics for prestige reasons rather than as a practical creator.
“I often feel like people are wary when they first meet me,” says Dastmalchian. “Hopefully after five or 10 minutes they realize that I’m a real comic book nerd who really loves this stuff and has a deep passion for it.”
Other upcoming projects include work on the anology DC Horror presentswhich features horror stories from the DC Universe. “We’re using a classic Batman villain, but in a really twisted, bloody way. And more importantly, the villain’s daughter, who hasn’t appeared in many comics before,” says Dastmalchian, who is working with frequent collaborator Leah Kilpatrick. The duo is also writing a piece for the Dark Horse Horror special, which Headless Horsemana story that he describes as a tribute to The horror of the AmazonHe also has a project with the new company Panick Entertainment.
Dastmalchian wrote much of his work during his free time on film and television sets and hopes to one day see it translated into other media: “I dream of projects like Knight vs Samurai, Count Crowleyand so many others that find their form on the comic pages and eventually take shape in film, television, games or other realms that we don’t even know about yet or that aren’t even coming yet.”
Below is a Jim Lee cover for Creature Commands.
Jim Lee
