Veterans in Horror: Interview with Giles Clarke
Giles Clarke is the founder of Uncharted Wilderness Studios, a production company focused on comics and graphic novels.
Uncharted Wilderness Studios was born out of a desire to publish engaging stories told well, and create a catalogue of memorable characters who can save the world from yet another reboot. Their premiere title, Rougarou, a horror / western is currently in stores nationwide.
Giles served 9 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. as an infantry officer, with three tours to Iraq.
He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts graduate film production program. He has worked as a production manager on the Netflix series: Moving Art, produced for Eli Roth’s streaming horror channel Crypt TV, as well as ComicCon HQ shows: Endgame, and Blame It on Science. His first produced feature film, Life in Color, starring The Walking Dead’s Josh McDermitt, premiered at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival.
As a journalist, his articles have been published in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Daily Journal, and The Orlando Sentinel.
Tell us a bit about your military service. Years? Branch? Specialty?
I served in the Marine Corps from 2001 through 2009 in the infantry. My first duty station was with 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. I deployed to Iraq twice with them. The first deployment was for the initial invasion, and the second the following year for the battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury / Operation al-Fajr), and later Operation River Blitz in the cities of Hit and Ramadi.
My next duty station was Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina where I served in the Recruit Training Regiment.
Following that I volunteered for a year-long joint tour to Iraq with the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps as part of Multi-National Corps- Iraq.
What role, if any, did reading and writing play during your military service?
Professionally, I found reading and writing to be an integral part of military service. You could never have read enough; whether it is case studies, military history, or just the latest technical manuals, there was always something you should be reading.
Deployments also offered a lot of opportunities for reading. There can be a lot of downtime that affords you the opportunity to catch up on your reading. We swapped books around the company quite a bit and I ended up reading dozens of books I probably never would have been exposed to otherwise.
Writing was of critical importance in the military. You could be the most well-read person in the entire Marine Corps, but if you are unable to communicate your thoughts and plans in a clear and concise manner, all of that theoretical knowledge will only go so far.
What inspired you to start writing?
I can’t point to any one thing. I remember writing short stories as far back as elementary school. I enjoyed creating characters and putting them in interesting situations. I remember one writing assignment in 6th grade where we had to write one paragraph off of a prompt, and I ended up writing something like six or seven pages about this clumsy monster accidently terrorizing a neighborhood. The teacher had me read it in front of the class and they all loved it. Somewhere around that time I realized I had a knack for writing.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it?
It all boils down to Halloween. I’ve loved that holiday for as long as I can remember, so gravitating into horror was probably inevitable. I have always been drawn to more of the ghost story and folklore elements of horror. It’s amazing how the folklores of so many different cultures share similar types of monsters, whether it be bigfoot, or vampires, or werewolves, etc.
I tried to highlight those commonalities in my horror / western comic: Rougarou using folklore of the United States to explain the existence of this creature.
What role, if any, does your military experience play in your writing?
It definitely influenced it. I might never have come up with the idea for Rougarou if I had not been stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina, and made so many trips down to Savannah, Georgia, where I first learned about the rougarou creature.
Savannah ended up playing the backdrop for a central part of the story, and I owe that inspiration to the Marines in some respect.
As far as a more direct role in my writing, my military experience definitely gave me the self-discipline to sit down and actually write, no matter how daunting it can seem at times. With regards to comic book creation, the organization and team leadership skills I learned in the military have been invaluable in that regard.
What is your favorite depiction of military service in all of literature? Why?
I think W.E.B. Griffin’s Brotherhood of War series is one of the best and most well-rounded depictions of the military in literature. The motivations and relationships between the characters are as relevant to today’s service as they were to the series’ World War 2 setting.
How do you feel military veterans and the broader military experience has thus far been represented in the horror genre?
It varies from story to story, but I think the military is generally portrayed favorably in many horror stories, whether in literature or in film. Granted you have some zombie films and such that are the result of military experiments gone awry, but I think in those cases it is generally an individual who is made out to be the villain as opposed to the entire military.
I think in a lot of horror stories where the military is involved, they’re usually shown to be coming in at the last minute to save the day, or at least attempting to, such as in War of the Worlds or The Blob.
The space Marines in Aliens are probably my favorite depiction of the military in horror. James Cameron really nailed it with that team. I think anyone who served has met at least one of those types of characters at some point in their career.
Who are some civilian characters in horror that you think would have made for great soldiers?
Hear me out on this, but: Jason Voorhees.
The man is tactically and technically proficient in his career field. You never hear him complain about anything. He is completely focussed on mission accomplishment and has never violated operational security in any manner. Plus, his endurance is incredible and his physical fitness must be off the charts to always be one step ahead and never out of breath.
