Diane Barker is a bisexual queer lady who hails from England but now resides in beautiful Portland, Oregon. She writes horror tales and stories with heart, and has contributed to several anthologies.
Harrison Webb is a geeky, queer, horror-loving illustrator in Portland, Oregon, and the face behind Fiendish Thingy Art. He received his MFA in Visual Development and uses his skills in watercolour, ink, and digital media to create character and creature designs, comics and more. You can subscribe to his Patreon here.
An ambitious young couple’s dream home becomes the stuff of nightmares in Uprooted, Diane and Harrison’s creepy contribution to GREEN INFERNO...
GI: You’re both old hands at comic conventions, which were one of many financial
and social streams crippled by the pandemic. How did you adjust your art life to
deal with life under quarantine?
DB: I didn't adjust too well, frankly. I'm an extrovert, so the energy I get from going
to cons and talking with folks has been sorely missed this year. I've been in and
out of depression and financially, losing conventions has been a pretty hard
blow.
Luckily, I have a day job which has helped my family survive. But for a while, I lost
the motivation and will to create. Most days I relegated myself to Animal
Crossing just to survive. Thankfully, a few friends reached out with some cool
anthology ideas and drew me back to comics!
HW: The loss of conventions hit me hard, but I leaned on making art as a way to
deal with quarantine life; as a result, I had my most artistically productive year yet! I
focused on updating my Patreon regularly to show off art I had finished or had in progress,
and I finally got around to rebranding and overhauling my website (thanks to
Diane and her website skills!). Fortunately all of that work paid off in more private commissions.
I've also been setting my sights on more anthologies like GREEN INFERNO to contribute to.
GI: There’s an “Earth fights back” theme running through much of GREEN INFERNO;
yours is no exception. Did any particular event(s) inspire it? Ever been tempted to
slaughter a few construction crews to get your dream home built, or know
anyone who did?
DB: Ha!! Okay, so this idea was born out of bingeing the British show Grand Designs-
GI: Oh yeah, that was an early quarantine favorite of my wife and mine as well!
DB: ...so a few episodes featured some arrogant rich folks who blatantly ignored the
land and their neighbors, just for their "dream home". They could have built these
massive houses anywhere, but no; they had to do it at the expense of others. I
just thought, wouldn't it be neat if nature said, "No!"
HW: I've never personally eviscerated a crew of construction workers… but I can't
say I haven't been tempted, seeing as so much beautiful open land has fallen
prey to urban sprawl these days!
Kidding, of course; though I confess I'm a nature lover who feels more at home in
a forest than in the so-called urban jungle. As such, I'm sympathetic to the idea
of nature fighting back against humans that wish to subdue or destroy it.
GI: You’re both based in Portland, and I’m sure you got a delightful opportunity, as I
did, to witness the climate crisis up close and personal with the wildfires that swept
the West coast last year. Despite the obvious: has climate change impacted you and your family?
DB: It was terrifying when those fires ignited practically all around us! I'm grateful we
weren't affected directly, though the air quality impacted me and my husband.
Breathing problems during a pandemic that attacks the lungs: not a great
combination.
That being said: I've lived in Portland for over ten years now. The climate has
been changing rapidly. We used to have mild weather with occasional snow
storms every four years or so. Now, the temperatures are chaotic. Summers are
far hotter than before. We never needed air conditioning before; now facing a
summer without one is daunting. Climate change is real and it's kicking our asses.
HW: Before I moved to Portland, I lived in Southern California. I feel like the altered
seasons were even more pronounced down there. My SoCal friends and I joked
about how California has "fire season" as part of its yearly cycle, but in all
seriousness I've witnessed the fires worsen from year to year as climate conditions
exacerbate the frequent droughts and dry out the foliage. On top of the obvious
danger and loss of both natural spaces and property, the fires make it difficult to
breathe properly. No one likes feeling like they've just inhaled a campfire.
GI: So, safe to say that 2020 was not a top-tier year..
DB: This year has been a huge challenge. I never realized how much I rely on being
outside with friends. I miss late nights at bars and singing karaoke. I miss seeing all my
friends at conventions, the folks you only get to hang out with during those times. I miss fucking Bar Con!!
The biggest take away from this year I can give? Take care of your mental health
and give yourself time to rest. This year is not normal. You can't expect your brain
to just get over it or continue like this is normal because it really isn't. We are living
through history. That is not easy.
Also, if you have the means to help those less fortunate and less privileged then
yourself, fucking do it. Signal boost, offer words of encouragement, give a few
bucks for bills, anything helps. That's how we are going to survive this.
HW: Coping with 2020 was hard. In many ways I'm STILL coping with it. As I
mentioned, art is a big part of what's kept me afloat as the world turned into a
flaming dumpster fire. I used art to express frustration and as a form of escapism;
no wonder I leaned further into making horror art this year than in the past!
I also took advantage of quarantine to study some of my influences, new and
old: greats like N.C. Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker, Kevin Wada, Stephen Gammell...
And it’s given me time to explore some hobbies again! I'm a huge nerd--a fan of
paleontology (yes, I was totally a dinosaur kid!), cryptozoology, mythology, true
crime... I'm big into horror fiction podcasts right now, and I've been diving into
audiobooks (most recently Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, some assorted
Lovecraft, various Gothic horror). I love animals and my husband, and I currently
share our home with a dog, three cats, two leopard geckos and a ball python.
GI: GREEN INFERNO is sub-titled, The World Celebrates Your Demise. How does your
piece relate to this sentiment?
DB: Uprooted takes the side of the Great Tree. A sacred place not meant for
humans. It has no qualms about taking back its land when that place is violated.
The tree has stood for hundreds of years; no petty, selfish human is going to
dislodge it from its home.
It doesn't matter how big your wallet is... nature, the climate, the planet? They
don't give a fuck.
HW: I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say that nature doesn't
appreciate being disrespected or stripped away. In many ways, Man is a
careless interloper, and that's true of the couple that decides that the tree
standing between them and their dream home is a disposable part of the
landscape, an obstacle to be overcome.
But nature is more than happy to show them how wrong they are.