EXCLUSIVE: Chuck Palahniuk Talks Fight Club 2 And Shares The New Trailer

Dark Horse Comics and the Blue Bird of Happiness have provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive first look at the latest trailer for Fight Club 2, which will be released to bookstores everywhere as a hardcover graphic novel next week from the publisher.

The hardcover is already available through your local comic shop, so if you want to pop into a comics specialty store to get an "early" copy of the book which collects Dark Horse's miniseries from writer Chuck Palahniuk, artist Cameron Stewart, colorist Dave Stewart (no relation), and cover artist David Mack, you can.

To celebrate the release of the trailer, Palahniuk joined ComicBook.com to answer five quick, pithy questions about the collected edition. Warning: That last question has a heck of a spoiler for the end of the book.

Along with the release of Fight Club 2, Palahniuk is launching a signing tour. You can see the dates for that tour, along with some art from the comic, below. The cover is from David Mack and interior art is by Cameron Stewart.

Throughout the course of this book you've talked about the influence of comics professionals in its early development. Have you heard any feedback now that the book is out and you're a comics writer?

While the crew for Fight Club was filming, members approached me to say the project was unlike anything they'd ever shot. They seemed happy to be applying their skills to a story that wasn't formulaic and geared toward the biggest summer crowds.

With Fight Club 2, I got to share in that evil creative joy, with [editor] Scott Allie and Cameron Stewart, I was always pushing. "Can we depict a condom filled with stale urine, held by a child?" "Can we depict Amazon.com selling nuclear warheads?" "How about we put penises in the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination?" So far I've heard very little from readers, but praise or condemnation pale when compared with the fun of creating.

We talked in our first interview about the decision to obscure some of the text and art with pills and the like. Toward the end of the series, some of the stuff that was obscured seemed pretty important. Was that about challenging the audience, or keeping it mysterious, or a little of both?

Don't overlook the metaphor. Here we've got candy and drugs and sentimental rose petals obscuring the bits of profundity and insight. Just as such things preclude awareness in real life. I'm tired of obvious social engineering. For example: Genocide = Bad. My readers are smart. They don't need to be spoon fed an agenda.

Now that you've seen these characters on-model in the comics for so long, do they feel like home? Or are there still echoes of whatever you originally saw in your head?

You use the verbs "seen" and "saw" and I don't conceive of my characters that way. I imagine them as systems for acquiring power. Each is a little machine designed to attract love and therefore dominate others, just as each of us are. What they look like, even their gender, matters not.

Now that it's all collected in one big, impressive hardcover edition, do you want to offer your disclaimer here for anybody who uses it to whack somebody with?

You should Google the crime statistics on how many people have been beaten to death with copies of Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest. It's obvious that guns don't kill people, big fat literary novels kill people.

How did it feel to see that final page? It, ah...doesn't seem like something you'd want to hang on the wall, as such.

Hey, that last page shows a happy dog and a happy Tyler Durden and a huge diamond ring. Life doesn't get much sweeter. Best of all, it pays off the biggest image and set-up from the first issue.

Mind you, my father and his father both died young from gun violence. To paraphrase Andy Warhol, eventually everyone will get shot.

Tuesday, June 28 – Seattle
4:00pm - Elliott Bay Book Company
SIGNING ONLY
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
Store phone: 206-624-6600
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/
*Tickets will go on-sale on May 6, 2016

Thursday, June 30 – San Francisco
4:00pm - The Booksmith
SIGNING ONLY
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Store phone: 415-863-8688
https://www.booksmith.com/event/chuckp2016
Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2546444

Saturday, July 2 – Los Angeles
3:00pm - Book Soup
SIGNING ONLY
8818 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Store phone: 310-659-3110
https://www.booksoup.com/
Tickets: https://www.booksoup.com/event/chuck-palahniuk-signs-fight-club-2-graphic-novel

Sunday, July 3rd - Los Angeles

11:00am - Hypno Comics

1803 E. Main Street
Ventura, CA 93001
Phone: 805-651-9767

Tuesday, July 5 – St. Louis
3:00pm - Left Bank Books
SIGNING ONLY
399 N. Euclid Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63108
Store phone: 314-367-6731
Tickets: left-bank.com/palahniuk

Thursday, July 7 – Ann Arbor
4:00pm - Nicola's Books
SIGNING ONLY
2513 Jackson Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Store phone: 734-662-0600
https://www.nicolasbooks.com/
Tickets: https://www.nicolasbooks.com/event/fight-club-2-chuck-palahniuk

Saturday, July 9 – Louisville
3:00pm - Carmichael's Bookstore
SIGNING ONLY
2720 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
Store phone: 502-896-6950
https://www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/event/chuck-palahniuk-carmichaels
*Tickets will go on-sale on May 15, 2016

Monday, July 11 – New Orleans
5:00pm - Garden District Book Shop
SIGNING ONLY
2727 Prytania Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
Store phone: 504-895-2266
https://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com/
Updated Ticket LInk: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chuck-palahniuk-booksigning-tickets-24981566538

Wednesday, July 13 – Durham, NC
4:00pm - Regulator Bookshop
SIGNING ONLY
720 Ninth Street
Durham, NC 27705
Store phone: 919-286-2700
Tickets: https://www.regulatorbookshop.com/event/chuck-palahniuk-fight-club-2-graphic-novel

Friday, July 15 – New York City
5:00pm - The Strand Bookstore
SIGNING ONLY
828 Broadway at 12th Street
New York, NY
Store phone: 212-473-1452
www.strandbooks.com/event/chuck-palahniuk-fight-club-2

Sunday, July 17 – Boston
2:00pm - Brookline Booksmith
SIGNING ONLY
279 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Store phone: 617-566-6660
Tickets: https://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/events/2016-06/chuck-palahniuk-fight-club-2/
*Tickets will go on-sale on May 4, 2016