Murder mystery and fame culture collide in 'Effigy'

Constantly being around D-list former celebrities at comic-book conventions is finally paying off for Tim Seeley.

Chock full of mystery, adventure and conspiracy, the writer's new dark and funny Vertigo Comics series Effigy — debuting Wednesday with artist Marley Zarcone (Madame Xanadu) — places a one-time child star at the center of a lot of weirdness and a murder tied to an enigmatic cult that worships the famous as eternal monuments.

While Seeley tries to avoid being preachy about it, Effigy contains some observations and some barbed comments about "the weird relationship between fame culture and religion and validation," he says. "There's a lot in there and it'd be hard not to comment on it since it's so big in our culture. I always have to catch the last couple minutes of TMZ or something when my wife is watching. It's something I can't escape."

As the series opens, Chondra Jackson thinks she's finally out of the hubbub of Hollywood. As a youngster, she was all the rage on Star Cops, a live-action show centered on a talented masked kid detective named Bebe Soma. But much to the chagrin of her stage-mom manager Ginger Jackson, a sex-tape scandal sent Chondra packing back to her hometown of Effigy Mound, Ohio, where she's now a parking-enforcement officer.

Her life gets interesting again when she's called in to help investigate when a corpse is found at a Native American burial site, and it just so happens that the murder scene resembles something out of an old Star Cops episode.

Seeley explains that part of the story is Chondra figuring out this new religion that's percolating and how it relates to her TV show and her specifically — and a series of ritual sacrifices and kidnappings will take her to comic conventions as well as major landmarks such as Stonehenge and the Nazca Lines of Peru.

There is always an allure to that old life, however.

"It's hard for her to get over the fact that she spent so many of her formative years in Hollywood and being part of the system and having this 'momager' raise her," Seeley says. "No matter how much she tries to get out of it, there's part of her that's always going to be that."

Surrounded by a supporting cast that includes surly homicide detective Grant Moore, Star Cops uber-fan Edie Chacon and the odd former 1960s sci-fi writer Lawrence Lauritz, Chondra became a cop so she could be a real hero and not just an as-seen-on-TV one. Instead of being a natural detective, though, Seeley admits that "her skills come from a different set."

As things get stranger around her, he adds, "it becomes about her not being sure she's actually living a life where she's in another story — she's an actress in another story she didn't write. That's what will drag her through this, not being sure she's actually in control of her own destiny."

There's a little bit of Scientology to the cult in Effigy, but Seeley based it mostly on Lifespring, a new-agey combination of Amway and religion from the 1970s that was "really weird and fascinating," says the writer.

"Part of the thing is we'll be questioning what's the deal with this religion and there's going to be lots of weird stuff that make you ask questions. But it's all meant to be nebulous and weird — it'll take a while to figure out what the deal is. Part of the fun for me is laying the seeds on it."

A superhero scribe on DC Comics' Grayson and Batman Eternal and the writer of Image Comics' Revival and Dark Horse Comics'Sundowners, Seeley describes Effigy as "a feather in the cap," since his first Vertigo comic is joining a legacy of such influential series for him such as Shade the Changing Man and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.

"I had read edgy weird indie comics when I was a kid," Seeley says, "but to get my first Vertigo book was the realization that these things could be respected and well done and you could push the boundaries of a lot of different genres.

"To get to do one is kind of coming full circle to a degree."

Much of Effigy is influenced by conversations and fan interactions Seeley heard firsthand at conventions with cult movie icons and TV child stars of yesteryear. Star Cops has more than a little Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in its DNA, and Seeley carefully watches how old Power Rangers actors and others' lives work now with their best on-screen years sometimes behind them.

"I'm always fascinated by the world they live in," he says, "and the strange culture that goes along with having been famous once and then still living in the remnants of that world."