I'm a big fan of Jamie S. Rich. He's currently the Senior Editor over at Vertigo, but I first met him when I interviewed him about his book Madame Frankenstein and the excellent Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks. He couldn't have been nicer, and I was psyched to see him get the gig at Vertigo.
That gig actually meant that Jamie couldn't continue hosting this new webseries "Back to the Gutters," which is a shame, because it's pretty great. The show features in-depth interviews with comic creators. The series will air weekly over February and March, and the first episode hit this week--you can watch it above.
You can head to backtothegutters.com to get more information and to watch all the episodes. Here's more from the press release:
Comics writer and Vertigo Senior Editor Jamie S. Rich and producer/director Ryan McCluskey are reteaming for a new comics-interview webseries -- and this time they're joined by Benjamin Dewey.
"Back to the Gutters" launches Friday, Feb. 17th at http://backtothegutters.com , with Rich interviewing comics artist Dewey (AUTUMNLANDS: TOOTH & CLAW, "The Tragedy Series"). The next nine 20-minute episodes will debut weekly -- released every Friday through February and March.
New video interviews already shot for the season include:
• Joelle Jones (LADY KILLER, SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN)
• Sierra Hahn (Editor, Boom Studios)
• Jeff Parker (AQUAMAN, BATMAN '66)
• Ibrahim Moustafa (HIGH CRIMES)
• Robbi Rodriguez (SPIDER-GWEN)
• Randy Bowen (Bowen Designs)
• Emi Lennox (PLUTONA, EMITOWN)
• Steve Lieber ( THE FIX,WHITEOUT)
• and Jamie S Rich ... interviewed by his frequent collaborator Joelle Jones.
"Our intent with 'Back the Gutters' is to peel back the page a bit and show you the creators behind your favorite comics -- both as artists and as people," said Rich. "We're going to dig down to uncover the motivations behind choosing comics as a profession, and the personalities that bring these stories to life, so that we can start to see the art and the artist as a singular unit."
Behind-the-camera personnel include Jason Hickox (camera/editing) and Grant Petersen (sound).
Rich's hire mid-shoot as a Senior Editor at Vertigo required the team to recruit a new host mid-stream. "We started out interviewing Ben, who is just a terrific talent," McCluskey said, "and the last three shows are hosted by Ben -- because we lost Jamie to Vertigo in the middle of shooting."
Each "Back to the Gutters" episode is 20 minutes long, but there's a wealth of cutting-room floor material that may get released down the line. "For Randy Bowen alone, we had nearly five hours in the rough edit," said Hickox, who shot and edited the webseries. "Getting that interview down to 20 minutes was painful -- but what you're left with is a great peek into his process. The same holds true for all of our guests. They're a great mix of veterans and up-and-comers."