Talking ‘Fiends Of The Western Front: Wilde West’ With Ian Edginton And Tiernen Trevallion

by Rachel Bellwoar

Author, poet, and… most likely to team up with a vampire against a fallen angel? If you answered “Oscar Wilde,” then there’s a good chance you read Fiends of the Western Front: Wilde West “Prologue” in the 2000 AD Prog #2310. Now writer Ian Edginton and artist,Tiernen Trevallion are about to launch a multi-part Wilde West strip and you can learn more about in the following interview:

Rachel Bellwoar: It’s always a treat when historical figures pop up in Westerns. Usually it’s the same names, like Calamity Jane and Wyatt Earp. What made you choose Oscar Wilde (besides the chance to call this strip “Wilde West”)?

Ian Edginton: For this series I wanted to get Constanta out of Europe and put him in unfamiliar circumstances, so the USA and the West in particular felt like the right choice. He’s out for revenge on someone who wronged him so it already has a Gothic Western feel. I also felt that he needed a foil to react against and, being a vampire, someone to watch his back in the daylight hours.

As you said there were the usual contenders – but I wanted unusual contenders, and I decided that if I tweaked dates just right he could cross paths with Oscar Wilde who was in the USA at the time on a lecture tour. It also makes for a highly unlikely pairing which is where a lot of the fun lies!

Bellwoar: Oscar isn’t exactly known for his cowboy dress. Were you able to experiment with his attire at all for this strip?

Edginton: No, he is not, and that does get pointed out! He does start out wearing a purple crushed velvet suit that is until Constanta burns it.

Tiernen Trevallion: Dear Oscar may be disappointed that necessity forced a more practical change of attire.

Edginton: Also — Oscar may have seemed effete but he cut quite a figure, he was broadly built and at 6’ 3” was tall for a man back then. There’s also an apocryphal story of him pulling a gun on the Marquis of Queensbury, the father of his lover who wanted to give him a sound thrashing! I don’t know if it’s true but I love the idea.

Bellwoar: What kind of pair are Oscar and Constanta and will they be joined by any other familiar faces?

Edginton: At first they are chalk and cheese to each other but as time goes on, they get past those surface notions as they learn more about each other. Oscar finds that despite seemingly being a monster, Constanta is an earnest man of honour. He has come to America to visit his own justice on someone who has hurt the people in his care.

Likewise Constanta judges Wilde on his character and actions not his manner or sexuality. To be a clearly gay man in the face of a hypocritical Victorian society takes courage and Constanta realises that. They are both outsiders.

We will see some other familiar faces but not from history… and yes, I’m deliberately being cryptic!

Bellwoar: In the “Prologue” you created with Warren Pleece and Simon Bowland, Ian, Oscar claims that his mother had “The Sight.” Is that based on historical record?

Edginton: Alas, no. That was a bit of artistic license…or was it?

Bellwoar: Ultimately this strip is called Fiends of the Western Front. Can we expect some new fiends in this story?

Edginton: Indeed we can! There are new monsters both human and otherwise. We will also be revisiting a slew of characters from a previous series that I wrote for 2000 AD a few years ago. Again, I am keeping it vague as I don’t want to spoil the reveal!