Spotlight: Meat Wagon

“Fingers are tasty, but it likes eyes best. No sharp bones to choke it.”

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Early in pre-production of our premiere issue, Escape From Jesus Island fan Jeff Ansell posted on our Facebook wall, suggesting a mutant whose only form of mobility was to drag itself with its arms. Four days later, Mortimer unveiled this freak and we let you, the fans, name him.

Bill McLean’s name submission, Meat Wagon, dominated in our most lopsided Name The Mutant contest yet, earning more than three times as many votes as the closest competitor. The fans had spoken. Meat Wagon was the newest resident of Jesus Island.

When we create a new mutant, I first develop the backstory. I always envision a 24-page prequel comic about each character. What is his/her story?

Meat Wagon was a simple one. I knew exactly where he would go the second I saw him. His name only reinforced it. He’s a scavenger in the tunnels beneath the ReGen Corp testing facility on Malsum Island. I immediately pictured wagon wheel tracks in a pool of blood. I envisioned running down a tunnel away from this thing, while it pulls itself after you with alarming speed.

This mutant features heavily in Episode 1, when a group of animal rights activists breaks into the Malsum Island Research Facility and comes face to face with Meat Wagon. Without the input from our fans, this character would not exist.

He is: Meat Wagon