Torturing Clive Barker

When I walked in, one of the masters of horror was having his makeup done after what may have been a particulary brutal TV interview. One that had Clive Barker calling it "a different form of torture."

I was hoping our talk would be better, and it was. The man who brought us "Hellraiser," "Lord of Illusions" and "Candyman" was actually a nice guy. As a long-time comic book collector, he counts himself among the faithful here at Comic-Con.

"I spend $200 every Wednesday on comics," says Barker. "I'm not just here saying I'm a comic book fan; I'm a comic book freak!"

Like-minded freaks will also enjoy the new "Jericho" video game that Barker also helped design. A first-person shooter, it also adds supernatural elements. You play the ghost of a character that is killed 20 minutes into the game! That character then possesses others around them, using their different attributes (like telekinesis and pyrokinesis) to take out the bad guys.

Understanding story structure, Barker believes that games nowadays must have a certain level of "sophistication" and "passion" to succeed and surpass the "sameness" that occupies many of today's shooter-type games.

"The passion of novels, the passion of comic books, [and] the passion of storytelling is being poured into this game," says Barker.  "The game allows for a length of storytelling that you can't get in movies."

The storyline, the graphics, the gameplay, and even the music all had Barker's stamp of approval. 

-- Jevon Phillips