Review Fix Exclusive: Steve Beatty Talks ‘Realm Of The Damned’

Review Fix chats with Candlelight label owner and October File bass player, Steve Beatty, who is set to launch his new graphic novel publishing company ‘Werewolf Press’ with the release of “Realm Of The Damned,” a series written and illustrated by Alec Worley and Pye Parr.

About Realm of the Damned:

‘Realm Of The Damned’ is set in a dystopian world run by vampires and, to make things worse, the most brutal vampire ever is brought back to life.

There’s no one left to protect us from what lurks in the dark.  There’s no Hellboy, no Mulder and Scully, no Torchwood or Men in Black coming to save us.  The monsters have won.  Our world now belongs to them

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the comic?

Steve Beatty: I love graphic novels / comics but really I was getting fucking bored of what I was reading! Like here is a marvel movie, bad guy does something bad to good guy, he grows up, he seeks revenge through a cape with a super power, falls in love- are you bored yet? I thought to myself as I guess you do when you are a kid and hear a great band I wanna do this myself and make it better or at least what I like. This is what I like. It’s a lot of fun and I’m doing it. I don’t care what anyone thinks, I like it. I’m creating what I want to read, it’s fun when doing development meetings and having g discussions about how much of  a bitch do you want your lesbian vampire bitch to be.

Review Fix: What did you read as a kid?

Beatty: I read 2000 AD, Warlord, Battle Action, Tornado etc, a healthy dose of British comics, the only American comic I liked was Marvel’s Dracula. 2000 AD was just mind blowing at the time, it broke some many boundaries. Once that started I dropped everything else. World War 2 stories just didn’t match up to Judge Dredd battling human garbage in Mega City One.

Review Fix: The art is awesome- how did you decide on this particular look?

Beatty: I guess it was down to picking Simon Parr to Dio, I looked through what Simon had done and there was a particular load of art he had done and I looked at it and went  “that’s my artist.” He is amazing to work with and a very like able person, as is Alec, highly talented and nice people, easy to get on with. I like them both very much. The share the same passion and enthusiasm I have for this book so its great working together.

Review Fix: How will you manage both your comic and music career?

Beatty: Fuck knows, but I will. I work kinda 24 hours so I’m used to doing a lot and fitting it in.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy the comic the most?

Beatty: The creative process  for sure and seeing it come together has been amazing. You can have all the ideas you want but actually making them happen is what excites me, working day to day to ensure it’s the best thing we can do its what its all about. Seeing something you really like and working out how to turn great into amazing.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone check this story out?

Beatty: It’s genuinely good, I wouldn’t say it was if I didn’t think that. It’s a great story full of great characters’ with great artwork. We haven’t held back on what we thought was needed, no comprise, no annoying romances etc. I said these monsters need to be monsters,  they aren’t nice, they have no qualities , there will be no romances, no final punch-ups.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Beatty: Book two and three are in planning now and we have a new title coming which we will announce early next year. It’s a story of a man who enjoys his kills-they deserve to die you know….all of them. Who? The evil ones who walk amongst us…..howls of evil cackles as I walk into my living room from the home office,

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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