Barking About Dog Eaters
Malcolm Wong
By Mark Turner
By Louise Cochran-Mason
Baltimore-born Malcolm Wong is a writer, music video director, adventure script) at ScreenwritingExpo5. This award meant that they
sculptor, and producer (with Cross World Connections). He is also would adapt and publish Dog Eaters as a comic series and graphic
a minority owner of Sea Lion Books. He currently lives in Japan.
novel. The Dabel Brothers got on the indie publishing map with the
“Hedge Knight,” a prequel to George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones.”
His dystopian Dog Eaters started life as a screenplay, but after
winning the Creative Screen-writing prize at the 2006 Screenwriter’s At that time, the Dabel Brothers were riding high, but they had
Expo 5, it was adapted into a six-issue comic book series (and later a history of jumping from one publishing partner to another,
a graphic novel). The series worked its way through several pub- almost one a year, starting with Image, moving on to Devil’s
lishers to arrive at its current self-published form.
Due, Alias, and Red Eagle, before going completely on their own
at the time they awarded me the Dabel Brothers Award for Dog
He is currently working to raise Dog Eaters’ profile and raise funds Eaters. Shortly after, they signed a deal with Marvel. The first two
to continue its second printing. He also makes videos and music issues of Dog Eaters were published before the Dabel Brothers
to help promote the series.
and Marvel “mutually agreed” to part ways. It seemed that DB was
dead, but again demonstrating their Lazarus-like powers, they
SP!: WHAT IS DOG EATERS ABOUT?
came back, striking a deal with Del Rey, an imprint of Random
House, which extended their amazing pinballing journey from
MW: This is a story set 175 years after the Die Off in the American one major publisher to the next. With the promise of Dog Eaters
Southwest. The surviving human population consists of scattered being a Del Rey graphic novel release, things never looked better.
nomadic tribes, isolated casino cities, and roving swarms of preda- Issue Three came out. Then there was yet another change. The
tory bandits. The Black Dog Clan is maki