Pop culture fans know Tyler Mane from his roles as Sabretooth in X-Men (2000) and as Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and Halloween 2 (2009), while wrestling fans also remember him for time in WCW. Those performances just scratch the surface of Mane’s career, and today he adds a new endeavour to his resume with the Kickstarter launch of his new comic book, The Last Spartan: Red Tape.
In the gritty underground world of Downtown Atlanta, an unexpected vigilante operates outside the
bounds of government bureaucracy. Frank Kane, the lone survivor of a massacred outlaw biker club, places his new life and freedom at risk by pursuing a lost child. Down the rabbit hole into the shadow world of human trafficking, Frank’s Spartan maxim of ‘discipline, honor, and courage’ is put to the ultimate test when he joins forces with an unlikely ally, undercover decoy Amanda Harper. At odds as often as they work together, Frank is out to save one at all costs and Amanda is out to save them all. But together, it becomes a larger mission to liberate as many victims of human trafficking as possible.
Tyler Mane was kind enough to answer some questions via email about The Last Spartan: Red Tape.
Andy Burns: Tyler, you’ve played Sabretooth, and you’ve played Michael Myers, two very cool and classic characters. And now you’re an actual comic book character. What’s it been like for you to see yourself drawn and coloured?
Tyler Mane: Seeing myself as Sabretooth and Michael Myers, was, of course, a dream come true. Bringing to life an iconic character, and being on set for that process, was a huge opportunity and I loved every minute of it. For the comic, it was the opposite. We sent off a script and the artists started bringing ME to life, and they’re REALLY GOOD AT IT, so that was a little insane. But I’ll be honest, after the first few pages, it stopped being “me” so much and I started to only see “Frank.”
Andy Burns: How did you become a part of The Last Spartan: Red Tape?
Tyler Mane: The novel The Last Spartan came across my desk about 15 years ago and I became friends with its author John Saunders. It was a compelling story about a man on a mission, and as I was telling my friends David Hayter and Tom DeSanto (both from my X-Men days) about the property, they both suggested that it would make a really good comic. So we hired Christopher Priest to write it and here we are!
Andy Burns: Human trafficking is such a horrible crime, and I think we’re only learning more and more about it. Tell me about your familiarity with the subject prior to The Last Spartan: Red Tape.
Tyler Mane: I knew it existed, but like most people, I thought it happened “somewhere else.” I had no idea about the depth of the problem world-wide, much less here in the United States. And it was honestly through our research for The Last Spartan: Red Tape that I became so passionate about the cause! We’ve been working on this comic since 2020 and the articles and news links that have poured in are shocking and horrific.
Andy Burns: You’re working with Christopher Priest, a well-known and well-regarded comic book writer. How did the two of you collaborate together? What was your working relationship like?
Tyler Mane: We brought the novel and a general idea of how we wanted to expand on the world for the visual comic book medium to Priest and had some meetings about breaking the story and his vision for where he wanted it to go. Then, Christopher started cranking out the script. He’s a brilliant human being and through our work we’ve become really good friends!
Andy Burns: Were you a comic book fan growing up? If so, what books did you gravitate towards? And what, if anything, have you been reading lately?
Tyler Mane: If you follow me on Instagram, @therealtylermane you’ll see the story of how I got my first taste of comics and how they really helped me as a kid. I was a total escapist and so I was always looking for a way to get out of the real world, plus I’m dyslexic and comics are a great way to get better at reading with how the word balloons have smaller chunks of text. More recently, because of my wife’s years of editing for Top Cow and Image, it’s been more Image stuff, like Saga and The Walking Dead, but the Marc Silvestri Deadly Duo was crazy good!
Andy Burns: The Last Spartan: Red Tape is going the Kickstarter route, which is becoming increasingly beneficial for all sorts of creators. Why does it make sense to Kickstarter this particular project?
Tyler Mane: Kickstarter is a great community that has come out to support indie projects like ours, and through the years Renae and I have gotten very excited about supporting projects that we wanted to help on multiple platforms. Since we’re already funded and the book is almost complete, we thought we’d take it directly to the fans this time!
Andy Burns: What sorts of perks can fans expect when they back The Last Spartan: Red Tape?
Tyler Mane: We have a soft cover, a hard cover, and a deluxe hardcover with slipcase, as well as a script book of Christopher’s work. There are some foil covers, a Halloween homage cover (for my horror fans), T-shirts, and a REALLY cool 3-D stand featuring our Marc Silvestri cover, but probably my personal favorite is Coffee & Comics, where we include a bag of Deliver Fund’s Thriver’s Coffee to help raise awareness to put an end to human trafficking.
Andy Burns: Considering the time of year and the fact that I’m a massive fan of Rob Zombie’s Halloween films, I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t ask you two questions about the films, so I hope you’ll indulge me. First off, you stepped into the role of an iconic character with Michael Myers. What appealed to you about taking on that challenge?
Tyler Mane: The way Rob explained that he was going to be a three-dimensional character and a product of his environment really excited me. And of course, I knew that with Rob at the helm, they would be the most brutal and intense yet.
Andy Burns: Halloween II got a bit of a bad rap when it was released. I spoke to Rob about it not long afterwards, and he talked about the challenges of making both those films. I’ve really come around on the second one, which I didn’t love on first viewing but which I finally “got” a few years later. It’s a pretty intense examination of trauma. How do you look back on making both those films, and maybe especially the second?
Tyler Mane: I think the thing about horror films is that they’re cathartic, right? Everyone starts off the first movie shiny and happy and then the Boogeyman comes and at the end, even though there’s been a lot of trauma, the good guys “Win.” I think the thing with the way Rob envisioned everything through a gritty lens, his first film still leaves you unsettled, and then for the second the point is that for someone who’s experienced that level of trauma there is no “happily ever after.” You START damaged and it only gets WAY worse from there. And at the end of the second one, there’s less catharsis because really, no one wins and for a viewer that’s confusing. But it’s Rob, and I think it’s brilliant.
Andy Burns: Finally, with Halloween upon us and Biff Bam Pop!’s 31 Days of Horror currently running, what is your favourite scary movie, and why?
Tyler Mane: Okay, it’s JAWS. And I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t even want to go in the bathtub for two weeks after watching it the first time as a kid. I still don’t want to go on a cruise to this day! While we were filming Troy with Brad Pitt,we had to take these little dinghies out to the big warships and we were all wearing heavy leather that would have sunk like an anchor, and it was in the middle of a LITERAL GREAT WHITE BREEDING GROUND off of Malta. I have probably never been more legitimately terrified for my life. If I fell overboard, I was basically chum for Bruce. I’ve watched JAWS a thousand times and maybe that’s why I loved playing Michael so much. He’s kind of the human version of that shark. Relentless, unstoppable, hides in the dark, and has a great theme song!
Thanks to Tyler Mane for his time, and to Melissa Meszaros for making it happen. Learn more about supporting The Last Spartan: Red Tape here.