This week sees the release of A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts from writer and colorist extraordinaire Oliver Mertz (The Monuments, First Law of Mad Science), acclaimed artist Alex Diotto (Youth, Indigo Children), and Oni Press.
Here’s the logline: Teenager Ari Ackerman loves the Washington, D.C., punk scene and is trying very hard to process the perpetual impending death (and frequent resurrections) of his cancer-stricken father. Ari’s best friend, Maya Meng, just wants to hang out and go see Jawbox play at the Black Cat. But sadly, an escalating series of unexplained deaths can really ruin a perfectly good day… Charmingly whimsical, darkly funny, and stylistically innovative, A GHOST ARM MADE OF ANGRY GHOSTS is sure to evoke all the feelings that come with being an outsider, making sense of the world around you, and finding your place in it.
To celebrate the book’s release, Oliver Mertz has dropped by to share a listicle of 12 movies that inspired A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts. You can check it out below!
A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts is a pretty wild story: basement punk shows, melting
teens, talking bowls of soup, and a bizarre murder mystery all set in the Washington, D.C. punk
scene of the 1990s. Along with artist Alex Diotto and letterer Taylor Esposito, I set out to make a
book that pulled from my own experiences growing up in the D.C. area in the ‘90s and also one
that was completely invented and weird.
There are a bunch of movies that influenced me and the tone and feel of A Ghost Arm Made of
Angry Ghosts. I’m going to go through them. Because why not?
12. Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley’s bonkers debut film is a joy from start to finish. It’s so full of incredible ideas that
build in ways that both feel earned and completely unexpected. When I saw it, it filled me with
that same type of raw brain-melting inspiration that I hadn’t felt since I was a kid watching Repo
Man or Brazil.
11. Repo Man
Speaking of Repo Man, my brother had a pretty solid video collection and he would, from time
to time, let me borrow one of his beloved VHS tapes. I remember knowing nothing about the
movie before watching it aside from the fact that Emilio Estevez was in it, and wow, is that the
perfect way to experience it. It’s a sci-fi story that only vaguely cares to be one. I wouldn’t call it
magical realism exactly, but the grounded core of the story allows for the fantastical elements
to really feel special.
The tone of Repo Man is all over A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts.
10. Clerks.
That’s Clerks. with a period. Kevin Smith’s ability to take the ordinary and make it into
something genuinely special had a profound impact on my approach to storytelling. It’s a perfect
highbrow/lowbrow balance, and it’s incredibly inviting. You just want to hang out at the Quick
Stop with Dante and Randal and talk about the Death Star. And hopefully, you’ll want to hang out with my characters Ari and Maya as they talk about Groundhog Day.
9. Groundhog Day
A simple concept done very well. Bill Murray wakes up and experiences the same day over and
over again. Through his examination of the rules of this concept, he grows as a person. There is
no one to defeat, no enemy or problem beyond the repeating day. It’s just a device to get him to
understand himself.
I really only care about a device or clever premise if it’s rooted in a character’s motivations,
choices, or sense of self.
8. Chungking Express
Wong Kar-wai is a genius, and this is one of my favourite movies of all time. I was introduced to
Chungking Express back in the 2000s through Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder video
releases. This movie broke my brain. It was a cop story, a love story, a meditation on grief, and
the most visually striking film I had ever seen. It changed what I thought a movie could be.
A similar theme popping up in this list is movies that let the plot take the backseat to character
moments. I’d rather follow a character and see how the plot develops around their choices,
rather than have the plot forced onto them.
7. Rear Window
A mystery from afar. I love how the characters are commenting on action rather than
experiencing it directly. The secondhand sense of dread and lack of agency is something I really
wanted to include in A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts.
6. The Thing
The Thing is a perfect film. One of the reasons this movie is so good is MacReady’s hat. It’s big
and goofy and really stands out. I read that Kurt Russell hated it, but John Carpenter insisted on
it. This one detail gives so much insight into MacReady as a character. The hat looks dumb. He
doesn’t care. It’s a hat. It keeps his head warm. That’s it. And that’s how pragmatic he is when
an alien wakes up in the ice and starts impersonating his team. It’s an alien. We deal with it.
I love including details that show character without having to say a lot about it.
5. Bottle Rocket
Early Wes Anderson films are so good at allowing the characters time to reflect on the choices
they’ve made up to that point. They take bold action on a personal scale and then are forced to
feel the weight of their decisions, usually with a mildly forgotten ‘60s rock track playing.
I feel like if you don’t give characters time to think about what’s happened, everything feels
weightless.
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
David Lynch understood that an audience didn’t need to know everything. They just needed to
know that a confident hand was guiding them. You’re not misunderstanding anything or feeling
something you shouldn’t. Your reaction to the art, however different from anyone else’s reaction,
is exactly the reaction you’re supposed to have.
This was a guiding principle in how I wrote A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts. If you read
the first few pages that go to some odd places and you’re still with me, I think you’ll enjoy the
rest and trust that I’m going to deliver a satisfying experience.
3. Mother
Bong Joon-ho opens the film with Kim Hye-ja hypnotically dancing in a field. We get no
immediate context for the dance, but the intention of establishing the tone is clear. Without us
knowing it yet, the dance encompassed all of the emotional weight of the rest of the film. I’m
also a sucker for a dance section in an otherwise dance-less film. Is there a dance section in A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts? Of course! Choreographed by Sarah Beth Oppenheim, artist Alex Diotto translated her real-world movement into a set of beautiful pages in the style of Gianni De Luca, who would draw the same character on a page doing different actions.
2. Submarine
Richard Ayoade’s Submarine picks up the vibe from Rushmore and makes it fully neurotic. It’s
a wonderful balance of heartfelt and absurd. It’s a story about not knowing who you are and
struggling to figure that out, and doing so through failing repeatedly. Who hasn’t had a brief, ill-
fated hat phase? Hmm. I suppose I like movies with odd hat choices.
1. Dazed and Confused
The ultimate hangout movie. You get to chill with the characters as they move through their days and not worry about things like plot or structure. The film is a tapestry of life in Texas in the mid-’70s and is made with so much love that you really feel like you’re walking around in Richard Linklater’s memories. When I first started writing A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts, I knew that I wanted the reader to have that same feeling of living with the characters, not rushing through a plot. Sure, there’s a murder mystery in the book. But that’s not the point.
Thanks to Oliver Mertz for sharing his list with us. A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts is in bookstores today and comic shops tomorrow!