Vital Cross Genre Fiction: Ain’t Worth a Shit by Jack Bantry and Robert Essig
I was introduced to Splatterpunk Zine a couple years back — got lucky and found it on Facebook. I ordered a copy and, a few weeks later, a rad zine showed up in my mailbox. Stories by Gabino Iglesias and Bracken MacLeod, among many others—it was damn good stuff. Later, I ordered Jack Bantry’s The Lucky Ones Died First, a hell of a splatterpunk-bigfoot mashup. Guess what? Bantry happens to be the sick brain behind Splatterpunk Zine. And now, he’s got a new book out with another horror fiend, Robert Essig.
Ain’t Worth a Shit is a twisted noir wrapped inside a horror costume. It follows a young woman caught up in the sex trade (unwillingly, of course) and spirals—in the best way possible—into a gruesome revenge tale. Like a lot of great horror, this one leaves gallons of blood on the floor. Brought me back to my teenage years of reading Straub and King. I’m happy to have Essig and Bantry here at Roughneck Dispatch for a debrief on this fast-paced, gruesome tale.
Robert Essig is the author of several novels, including Death Obsessed, In Black and People of the Ethereal Realm. He has published several novellas, nearly 100 short stories and edited two small press anthologies. Robert lives with his family in Southern California.
Jack Bantry is the editor of Splatterpunk Zine. He lives in a small town at the edge of the North York Moors.
Okay, guys…Give us the skinny: What the heck is ‘splatterpunk’ and how does it (or does it not) interweave with today’s noir?
Jack: Splatterpunk is probably best described as gory, violent horror fiction originating in the mid-80s. Think of writers like Fangoria columnist David J Schow, Clive Barker (particularly his classic collection The Books of Blood) and John Skipp & Craig Spector. Their seminal novel The Light at the End is a perfect example of splatterpunk.
I think any genres can combine with each other. It’s about attitude and the characters. Noir for me is about the underdog thrust into a situation by chance where he finds himself out of his depth. Obviously there’s the crime element. Ain’t Worth a Shit is an example of cross genre fiction. I think it works. Set deep in the world of sex trafficking, it’s a crime story with the lead character…your anti-hero. He’s never gonna win a fist fight or a shootout. He’s in way out of his depth. But it’s also brutal. Nasty! I was thinking of it as a crime story. I read a lot of crime. But I also like horror. Robert is a horror writer. It was going to be a horror story. I hate spoilers so I don’t wanna give too much a way.
Robert: Splatterpunk examines the brutal realities of social issues through unrelenting horror steeped in reality. No flinching, no panning away from the nitty gritty. That alone blends well with the virtues of noir. It’s a mingling of genres that is meant to be. The horrors of the underground sex trade are the perfect platform for both splatterpunk and noir, so why not shuffle them together?
Ain’t Worth a Shit is set in London, one of my favorite cities in the world, but you guys really get beneath the tourist facade. How do you know these streets so well? Tell us about why you set the book in the monetary centre of the world?
Jack: I don’t remember picking the destination for the story. I think the hotel could be in any town or city in the world. But London has that facade you mentioned. It’s easy to imagine a seedy underworld, beneath the tourist streets. I like the city. It’s easy to write about as there’s so much character.
Robert: Jack wrote the opening to the story and sent it to me. I added a little something, but was unsure what to do with it. My hope was that my addition of a little backstory would pique his interest, and it did!
He then took the story in a fascinating direction I was pleasantly surprised with and we were off to the races. I agree that it could take place in any big city, but I think since Jack started the story and the background of Issy was European, we set it in London for practical reasons in addition to London being such a great location. I think Issy would have to be an entirely different character were the story set in America, for instance.
How the hell did you to come to work together — was it Splatterpunk Zine?
Robert: It was! When I first saw the zine I just knew I had to try to get a story published in it. At the time I was writing a lot of stuff that was too extreme for most of the other zines and anthology calls that were often looking for quiet horror. I reached out to Bantry and asked if I could send him something. He passed on my first submission, but the second submission became our first collaboration, and the story turned out great.
Jack: Splatterpunk Zine was originally set up as a xeroxed zine in the style of similar publications from the ‘80s and ‘90s. All the zines had ceased to exist and I was looking for places to send my short stories. The idea of doing a zine myself crept into my head and then it had to come into existence. It quickly got a faithful following.
As I printed it myself and sold it through my website I couldn’t list it on Amazon and postage costs are expensive, so I decided to try a traditional paperback and Kindle anthology. See how sales compared, etc.
I’m now three new anthos and a “best of” down the line. Things are going well…
I’m curious how each of you became writers…Where did it start? And why the hell are you so foolish as to keep going?
Robert: I started writing in high school after a teacher showed interest in a short horror story I wrote about Thanksgiving. I had been a voracious reader for a few years by that time, but had never considered developing my own stories. I was writing Lovecraft pastiche with a heavy dose of mad scientist horror right out of old black and white movies. I stopped writing just after high school and then, when I straightened up my act a bit and decided to heed the lure of writing fiction, I started up again and haven’t looked back. There’s no stopping at this point, but I do dread things like pitching projects and promo. If the need to write wasn’t so strong I would have stopped years ago.
Jack: Good question. Why do people become writers? I’m a book lover. I’ve read continuously since my mid-teens when I discovered Stephen King. I’ve just wrote an article about why I write over at Kendall Reviews.
Lastly, convince us to download and read Ain’t Worth a Shit. What sets it apart or above other horror/noir stories of today?
Robert: It has been described as a horror story veiled as noir, or something along those lines. I think that’s accurate. It’s a dark crime story steeped in the real world, shedding light on horrible things that could be happening right now, but no one knows. We walk by buildings that hide atrocities. We see sketchy people and turn away. Bad shit is happening somewhere. Probably closer that you’d like to think. I think our love for the horror genre is what sets this story apart. We get into the nitty gritty and linger a bit. Not lovingly, mind you. This is dark stuff. But when it gets squid-ink dark our horror intuition creeps in.
Jack: First of all, I loved writing it. I had a ball. It’s a cross genre hardboiled suspenseful horror thriller. Ha! Myself and Robert are unknown to the crime scene, but hopefully crime people will give it a chance. Like I said before, it’s also nasty. There’s something for everyone. I can’t wait to hear what people think.
Thanks for the chat, gentlemen. And happy horror writing…
Buy the book on Amazon or read it on Kindle Unlimited.
If you found this post informative, enlightening, or just plain well-written, remember to ‘clap’ — clapping helps other readers find great writing on Medium.
