ARMY OF DARKNESS: ASHES 2 ASHES: Andy Hartnell Newsarama Interview (2004)

The following interview was conducted by Matt Brady and posted to Newsarama on June 15th, 2004. It is presented here for archival purposes. All text is as it was on the original post.

ARCHIVE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL POST

J. Scott Campbell's cover to Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes #1

ASH'S NEW MAN: ANDY HARTNELL TALKS ARMY OF DARKNESS

Ash is back, and so is the Army of Darkness that he thought he vanquished. July’s Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes #1 is on the horizon, and if you thought the end of Army of Darkness was the end of Ash – just wait.

Produced by Dynamite Entertainment and published by Devil’s Due, Army of Darkness is the most recent move to capitalize on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise, as well as its slightly overconfident, slightly not too bright, but eminently likable hero, Ash. Written by Andy (Danger Girl) Hartnell, with art by Nick Bradshaw, the miniseries picks up where the film ended.

Newsarama spoke with Hartnell for an inside look.

“The guys at Dynamite are fans of Danger Girl, which has a similar action-adventure-humor combination,” Hartnell told Newsarama when asked how he landed the gig in the first place. “It’s a totally different book, but that’s the tone they were looking for. J. Scott Campbell was doing a cover for Army, and he and the publisher got to talking about getting me involved with the story. It really just took off from there, very quickly. I was so familiar with the movies that it didn't take much time to begin writing.”

Like many of his contemporaries, and fans of the original films, Hartnell first saw Evil Dead and Army of Darkness on home video in the ‘80s, when the movies were able to slowly break out of their cult standing and draw a larger audience. “We had our own bootleg copies back then and watched them almost every weekend - up until the point where the tapes wore out,” Hartnell said. “I think that may have made them even more fun to watch as a kid - you had this really poor quality horror movie on an even worse quality videotape. Don't get me wrong, when I say poor quality movie, I'm talking about the shoestring budget, not the direction, execution, and perfect performance by the almighty Bruce Campbell. They were unlike anything else at the time, and still are today. They're fun to watch, not like some of the other horror films that just try to shock you. I'd much rather laugh at a severed head stuck in a vise than be disgusted by it.”

The approach cited by Harntell – the over the top stories in the films, and performances by Campbell gave the films a comic book feel, something which has to be dealt with when moving the characters and situations from film to print.

“There has to be something at stake,” Hartnell said, when asked about approaching the translation of the material. “There has to be a serious threat that Ash has to squash. But other than that, I just try to beat him senseless. I think that's the way Sam Raimi would have wanted it. There really is a somewhat complex story in this series, but the main objective is to have fun. Laugh and cringe at the mess Ash gets himself mixed up in. That's what I always loved about the films.”

That said, the films did have an R rating.

“There were two times - so far - we were asked to turn it down a notch,” Hartnell said. “Nick Bradshaw and I went a little overboard with the gore. Although when you see the book, people will probably be wondering how it could have been any more gory. It was – trust me – there were just a few extra bits and pieces of deadite flesh flying across the page.

“It's all done with a sense of humor, though. It's cartoon violence, very much like in the Evil Dead movies. I would never want people to get Ash confused with Jason or Freddy. Ash would never kill, unless what attacks is already dead!”

So – yeah, Army of Darkness did have an ending – with Ash returning to his work at S-Mart, and fighting off the last remnants of the deadites that came back with him, How do you continue from there? As anyone who’s seen the film knows, Ash has always had a problem when it comes to repeating words correctly…

“Ash did come back to S-Mart, but he did go on to admit that he may have misspoken the ‘magic words' that brought him back to the present,” Hartnell said. “That little boo-boo brought the evil back with him, and also brought him back to the present too early, not too late as in the alternate ending of the film. He's arrived in the present before he ever went on to the cabin and encountered the Necronomicon in the first place.

So now he's got to go back to that blasted cabin, force his younger self back to the past to redo the events of Army of Darkness, and then go on to destroy the book of the dead once and for all, here in the present, in order to prevent the horrible future some of us saw in the alternate ending of the film. Along the way, the ‘Promised One' is going to suffer like never before. I promise thee!”

And if you’ve never checked out that alternate ending…”post apocalyptic” barely starts to describe the world in which, Rip Van Winkle-style, awoke.

And after the first miniseries. Unless Dynamite beats Hartnell away with a stick, or throws rocks at him, he’s in. “People can always expect Ash to pull through at the end of these stories, but how much trouble is that going to get him into? As fans of the films know, Ash's ‘victories' always turn out to be more elaborate failures. The mess he's made just gets bigger and bigger. He's a knucklehead who I hope can become my own personal punching bag for many more misadventures.”

ARMY OF DARKNESS Comic Artist Nick Bradshaw Interview (2014)/Artwork Gallery

The following interview was original conducted by and posted on The Deadite Slayer tumblr on May 21st, 2014. It is reposted here for archival purposes. All text following this introduction (with the exception of an Editor's Note in Bradshaw's response for Question 3, the image captions, and the bibliography at the bottom) is copied directly from the original post, and new images have been added throughout and after. 

ORIGINAL SOURCE LINK and ARCHIVE LINK.

Below is an interview conducted with Army of Darkness artist Nick Bradshaw at Ottawa Comiccon. Nick is a comic book artist ever since the first Dynamite Entertainment issue of Army of Darkness in 2004. Nick has worked for several publishers such as Marvel and DC and his impressive resume includes Wolverine and the X-Men, Danger Girl, Re-Animator, and Guardians of the Galaxy. 

Early proposed cover art for "Evil Dead #1" by Nick Bradshaw, which ultimately became the Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes series. This image was later printed in Dynamite's Army of Darkness Sketchbook (2004) and Army of Darkness Omnibus Volume 1 (2010).

Q1: Can you start by telling us when you first saw the Evil Dead trilogy and the impression it left on you?

A: Actually I was a kid it was one of my brothers’ birthday parties and they rented it. I was young. I was probably about nine years old and they wouldn’t let me hang out and watch it with them. So the next morning I woke up early because I have seen parts of Evil Dead 2 that I like. I just started watching it on my own. I loved it. I wasn’t scared at all. I thought it was hilarious. But then I heard there was an Evil Dead one when we returned Evil Dead 2 to the rental place. So I took Evil Dead 2 back out with Evil Dead one. The video place, it was so funny. They shut down three days later so I kept the tapes. So I still had the original tapes for a long time until they came out on DVD. They were the first horror movies that I had that they just sort of hit to me and then I was finding all kinds of campy movies from the 60s and the 70s. Evil Dead just sort of opened that up to me. My dad had made me watch Alien when I was five and told me that it was like Star Trek so you know, I had already been exposed to a different type of horror movie but Evil Dead was just so much fun. I sort of look for those movies still.

Q2: When did you start honing your drawing skills which got you where you are today?

A: I was a kid and I used to start drawing Archie comics. I loved Archie comics! After that I started getting into superheros but then I started reading a whole lot of classic EC, Tales from the Crypt stuff, like Alex Toff, a whole lot of the artists at the time, House of Mystery from DC Comics, I loved all of that. So I was drawing all off of that stuff, ghost stories, monster stories, Marvel monsters I used to love drawing the big monster you know that kind of stuff I was really into. It just came from childhood and I just kept drawing my entire life. I never stopped after that.

Early "Army of Darkness" concept piece by Nick Bradshaw with colors by Etienne St. Laurent (image courtesy of Etienne St. Laurent on DeviantArt)

Q3: Could you tell us how you got involved with Dynamite Entertainment and Army of Darkness?

A: I was in college here in Ottawa actually in Algonquin where I was studying into animation and I was always drawing Army of Darkness stuff. I did like a cartoon version of Army of Darkness that I was playing around for one of my projects. Then I just started putting some of my fan art for Army of Darkness online. I was doing all kinds of drawings of Ash, different types of monsters, stuff like that. Then Dynamic* had the license from the Army of Darkness movie, Dynamite Entertainment. They had seen some of my fan art online so they contacted me and asked if I would be interested in illustrating a book. So I said yes and being a long term fan what were the odds of that to have this fan art out there and have them contact me to illustrate the book! And you know what? I was so green at the time chances are I probably shouldn’t have been illustrating a book but it got my foot in the door and it was just too much fun. Like I mean how could you say no?

*EDITORS NOTE: Dynamic Forces is Dynamite Entertainment's parent company. Dynamite was founded with the intention of being Dynamic Forces' in-house comic production/publishing division.

Original "Army of Darkness" personal piece created by Nick Bradshaw in 2010. It was later colored and used as a variant cover for Dynamite's Army of Darkness: Ash Gets Hitched #1 in 2014. 

Q4: Your artwork with Army of Darkness has now spanned for a whole decade with one of the covers for the new arc “Ash Gets Hitched” being done by yourself. Did you see your relationship with this franchise lasting this long?

A: Nope. Not really. When I had moved on, I had kind of done my bit and I was leaving for other artists to sort of tackle the projects. Steve Niles has a great creative team on the book that he’s doing right now which is awesome. And it just shows you that fans just want more of this story when you hear the rumors coming around constantly coming around that Bruce was getting asked tons of times over the course of time of the weekend. One of the rumors is it really going to happen. Are going to see it? It just shows that like the fans are there. They want to support this. They want more Army of Darkness.

Inked original artwork for Darkman vs Army of Darkness #2 by Nick Bradshaw.

Q5: You’ve done a lot more work for other comic publishing companies ever since like DC/Wildstorm and Marvel. How were you able to transition from Army of Darkness to work such as Wolverine and the X-Men?

A: I always was a big superhero fan too. I love drawing superheros, action sequences, stuff like that. It was something that I was always constantly into so transitioning…….I love action adventure. You know I’m not so much into the more serious story lines so being able to transfer into something that was again that was very epic and adventurous was a natural fit for me. I like cartoony superheroes with big explosions, monsters, sci-fi stuff. Wolverine and the X-Men had that in spades. Such a great title to jump into.

Textless artwork for Danger Girl and The Army of Darkness #1 by Nick Bradshaw.

Q6: Is there any particular piece that you did for Army of Darkness that you admire the most?

A: They were all learning experiences. One of the things that I liked about that book. It was my first gig so every page that I was working on was like I could see the experimentation which is what I enjoy the most about that series. Probably the last piece that I did for the Army of Darkness/Danger Girl, the number one cover was probably one of the most fun because they were two titles that I worked on. It was kind of fun to bring those two things together at one point so I enjoyed that a lot. I like the editor Scott Dunbier and the creative team between both of those books. They’re good friends of mine so I really enjoyed working on that too.

"Army of Darkness" character study sketches by Nick Bradshaw (from Army of Darkness Sketchbook)

Q7: As a character, what is it that you like the most about Ash and why he stands out versus penciling other characters?

A: He’s just so much fun. You know the guy will screw up and then shrug his shoulders and keep on moving. He’s such a great character. He’s a good action adventure character. He’s got every quality that as a fan you just enjoy and when you’re watching the Evil Dead movies, yeah there’s a lot of scary stuff going on but you know at the end like as soon as it starts with this guy he’s going to turn out ok. I like that about the character. As a kid every time I watch it I always thought about that. I wasn’t scared for him because the guy was such a cartoon that you know he was going to be alright by the end of it. So for me, it just sent a tone for me the type of horror movies I’ve really enjoyed. That’s what I like about him the most and Bruce pulls it off in spades.

Ash Williams head study sketches by Nick Bradshaw circa 2008.

Q8: Have you been able to meet any cast and crew members from the trilogy ever since 2004? If so, could you share your experience?

A: No I haven’t gotten to meet any. I ran into uhh….Bruce was walking through the hallway one time in Chicago and I was just too nervous to actually say anything so I haven’t had a chance to meet any of them.

Nick Bradshaw's original pencil cover artwork for Army of Darkness vs Re-Animator #1 (2005). Herbert West's glasses were removed on the final cover.

Q9: Army of Darkness has been in quite a few crossovers ever since being adapted to the comic book format. Films are generally expensive and risk takers for big studios. Do you feel that there is a lot more creativity in comics because of this or that anything just goes in comic books?

A: I just find comics as a medium for any project just great because you’re able to expand on the universe in different ways but like where you said like film is limited because it comes down to budget, availability, you know like Bruce has been involved with so many other projects. I’m sure they would have had another Army of Darkness movie sometime before but he’s been involved in so many great things. You have Bubba Ho-Tep, Burn Notice, you know everything that he’s had going on so I’m sure that when the stars align for them for film they’re able to go on in and do that project whereas a comic book you can take a piece of paper and take the character and just continue the adventures which is awesome. That’s what is just fun about comics. You can just pick it up and go.

Nick Bradshaw's inked cover for Army of Darkness (Volume 1) #10 featuring Dracula, Ash Williams, and an early concept of Eva St. George.

Q10: Do you have a dream project or an arc idea for Army of Darkness that you’d like to work on or get made?

A: Honestly being the artist that I am today now that the fact that it’s been ten years since the beginning I would probably like to take that first story arc that we did and completely redraw it and do it all again. That’s just me as a perfectionist wanting to sit there and take my art skills that I have today and be able to put it towards that project now. Because it was my first project. I was so green at that time and I’ve learned so much since then. Every time I look back at it I keep seeing ways I could tear into it and expand on it and make it better and it would be interesting. I’d love to put them side by side and have them done if I had the time. You know that would be like a bucket list just to say ok now I can make this a hundred times better.

More "Army of Darkness" character study sketches by Nick Bradshaw (from Army of Darkness Sketchbook)

Q11: Is there anything you’d like to tell the visitors of the website or Evil Dead fans in general?

A: Just keep being a fan I mean that’s what keeps it going. If we ever want to see an Army of Darkness movie or Evil Dead movie or a continuation of the series, you got to be a fan of this stuff. Just keep bugging them at the conventions for it!

Huge thanks to Nick Bradshaw, Joesph Smith and Ottawa Comiccon for making this interview happen!

Additional Artwork

Interior artwork from Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead #4 by Nick Bradshaw.

Interior artwork from Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead #4 by Nick Bradshaw.

Inked original artwork for Darkman vs Army of Darkness #4 by Nick Bradshaw.

Inked original artwork for Tales of Army of Darkness (2006) one-shot by Nick Bradshaw.

Inked original artwork for Army of Darkness (Volume 1) #6 by Nick Bradshaw.

Early "Evil Dead" comic artwork by Nick Bradshaw. This image was later printed in Dynamite's Army of Darkness Sketchbook (2004) and Army of Darkness Omnibus Volume 1 (2010).

Inked original artwork for Army of Darkness: Ash's Christmas Horror (one-shot) by Nick Bradshaw.

Inked original artwork for Darkman vs Army of Darkness #1 by Nick Bradshaw.

Nick Bradshaw's Officially Licensed ARMY OF DARKNESS Bibliography (as of 2026)

• Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes (2004) - Interior artwork and covers for Issues 1-4
• Army of Darkness Sketchbook (2004) (One-Shot) - Interior artwork and cover art
• Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes Director's Cut (2004) (One-Shot) - Interior artwork
• Army of Darkness: Shop 'Till You Drop Dead (2004) - Interior artwork for Issues 1, 2, & 4, and covers for Issues 1-4
• Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator (2005) - Interior artwork for Issues 2 & 3, covers for Issues 1-4
• Dynamic Forces Army of Darkness Trading Cards (2005) - Reuses previously published artwork from Ashes 2 Ashes and Shop 'Till You Drop Dead, as well as 1 of 1 sketch cards
• Darkman vs. Army of Darkness (2006) - Cover artwork for Issues 1-4
• Army of Darkness (Ongoing; Volume 1) (2006-2007) - Covers for Issues 5-12
• Dynamite Army of Darkness Limited Edition Lithographs (2007) - Three lithographs reusing previously published artwork
• Tales of Army of Darkness (2006) (One-Shot) - Cover art
• Army of Darkness: Ash's Christmas Horror (2008) (One-Shot) - Cover art
• Danger Girl and The Army of Darkness (2011-2012) - Cover art for Issues 1-6
• Army of Darkness: Ash Gets Hitched (2014) - Cover art for Issue 1
• Ash vs. The Army of Darkness (2017) - Cover art for Issue 0

Behind The Scenes of Palisades Toys ARMY OF DARKNESS Figures (PART 1)

The following images and information comes from Kenneth Lilly, former product designer and director at Palisades Toys. Between 2004 and 2005, Palisades Toys created two series of four inch officially licensed Army of Darkness figures, with Series 1 consisting of eight figures and Series 2 consisting of 12 figures. Through his Instagram (creatusmaximus), Lilly has been sharing behind the scenes information and images regarding the production of the Army of Darkness figure line. Also included here are notable remarks made by Lilly in the comments of these posts.

"Pit Battle Ash" (Series 2) (1:12)

An army of pics of the “Chainsaw” Ash figure, from the second series of highly detailed (and downright fun) 3.75-inch scale action figures based on the cult classic film Army of Darkness. This photo shoot (by me in 2016) uses a few varieties of pre-production and production samples. - August 14, 2025

Comment: Are those t joint hips or more of the DC direct style with the hinge?

Lilly: I’m not familiar with the DC Direct joint. This is a T-crotch with discs in the hips to allow them to go outward.

Comment 1: Was Army of Darkness ever considered for a PALz line?

Lilly 1: Yeah I think so. I think we asked about every licensor we had in an effort to expand the brand.

Comment 2: That's a shame. It seems like AOD likes to thrive in the miniature figurine front: Palisades, Super7, Mezco, so PALz would have been a good fit.

Lilly 2: Unless the Mezco stuff kinda filled that need. Coulda been why the license wasn’t able to be acquired.

"Evil Ash" (Series 2) (1:16)

An army of pics of the Evil Ash figure, from the second series of highly detailed (and downright fun) 3.75-inch scale action figures based on the cult classic film Army of Darkness. - June 7, 2025

Comment 1: What kind of reference material did MGM provide (if any) for AOD?

Lilly 1: Somehow, and I can’t remember exactly how but it wasn’t the licensor, I acquired an unbelievably good CD of a ton of reference images of the practical effects. Also took crappy screen grabs on my own.

Comment 2: So MGM didn't give you guys anything at all (save for stuff like logo elements)?

Lilly 2: Not much. It was 2003…there wasn’t a lot to be had.

"Winged Deadite" (Series 2) (1:16)

A slew of final product photos of the Winged Deadite figure, from the second series of 3.75-inch scale action figures based on the cult classic film Army of Darkness. - June 14, 2025

"Deadite Infantry" (Series 2) (1:8)

An army of pics of the Deadite Infantry figure from the second series of highly detailed (and downright fun) 3.75-inch scale action figures based on the cult classic film Army of Darkness. Sculpted by SOTA Toys. - July 25, 2025

Deadite Centurion (Series 1) (released in 2-pack with Pit Witch)

Images of the original paint master/tooling pattern of the Army of Darkness Deadite Centurion (the last few photos, sculpted at 8 inches) compared to the revised and reduced (height is just under 4 inches) new paint master/factory model. SOTA, who were sculpting these figures, gave us a reduced rate (since there were so many characters) in exchange for minimal articulation and static poses. It worked out really well as they provided a good 3D template we were able to use to re-make them as functional models overseas using some specs I created. Lots of detail in those little figures. This is a paint master so it’s meticulously hand-painted and not a production piece, but I’ve always been proud of what we did in the 3.75 inch scale. Would have loved to keep working in it. - April 15, 2025

Comment 1: Recently found a YouTube video of a collector who had the entire lineup of 8 inch AOD figs. Was really surprised to see there wasn't an Ash in that scale (although there were three versions of Evil Ash).

"Evil Dead Army of Darkness Prototype Action Figures - CIOPCC Must Sees" by Michael Crawford (posted September 6, 2022)

Lilly 1: There were Ash figures sculpted in the 2-up size. All of them actually. Maybe he wasn’t able to find those prototypes but they were created.

Comment 2: Of all the variations of Ash from the small figures? Classic, knight, S-Mart, ect.?

Lilly 2: Yeah they all started at the 2-up size.

Lilly 3: Watched it. Those were (mostly) unreleased figures or variations of figures that did come out but just looked a lot different. Some awesome stuff there.

EVIL DEAD RISE: Fright Rags T-Shirt Artwork Evolution

Early concepts, pencils, color test, and final artwork for an officially licensed Evil Dead Rise t-shirt by Zachary Jackson Brown, released by Fright Rags on June 25, 2024. 

"Intended as an homage to one of the original posters for Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, with skeleton hands reaching towards a chainsaw wielding Ash." - Zachary Jackson Brown

The Evil Dead promotional image which served as Brown's inspiration.