Birdman, forthcoming in MADHOUSE

Original Story llustration by Aeron Alfrey

​Birdman
 
What is your story about?
 
Birdman is a story about a serial killer, love for his pet bird, justice, and solitary confinement. The story explores the impact of loneliness on Birdman, but also how he reacts when he secretly contacts another patient also restrained in the Crisis Stabilization Ward.
 
Ultimately, the tale has to do with wings and freedom. There’s sewing in the backstory, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
 
Where did you get the idea for your story?
 
Well, I didn’t get it from the Birdman movie starring Michael Keaton. My tale was written about two years ago, long before Hollywood started filming and making special effects based on a superhero. My protagonist is no superhero although he is heroic in his own way. Still, the movie was nice coincidence, especially since it appears that wings are integral to their story, and mine.
 
The original idea came from a notebook of storylines I’ve kept over the years. This particular idea was over ten years old, and initially had an angel arriving on Earth to start the apocalypse. However, I had speculated, if that angel were somehow trapped, the apocalypse could be forestalled. And, if that angel were judged to be a man, he would certainly end up in a madhouse.
 
So, ultimately the question became a practical one: how do you trap an angel if it is an emissary of God? Or what if he isn’t? What happens if the angel happens to connect up with a serial killer who loves birds.
 
Read the story, Birdman by R.B. Payne in the forthcoming, and highly anticipated, MADHOUSE anthology edited by Brad C. Hodson and Benjamin Kane Ethridge.
 
Coming soon from Dark Regions Press.