INTERVIEWS
6-20-10: BOOM Kids! Editor Aaron Sparrow Talks Kids' Comics With Secret Identity
This week Secret Identity got a chance to talk to BOOM Kids! Editor Aaron Sparrow about the line and the success it’s had so far.
Secret Identity: It’s been over a year since the BOOM Kids! imprint was launched. Could you talk a little about how the imprint came about and why you thought it was the right time to launch a kids’ imprint?
Aaron Sparrow: Well, there's always been a huge concern that comic readership as a whole is getting older, and that there's a lack of new readers to keep the medium growing. The prevailing sentiment of the industry seemed to be that kids don't read comics anymore. The industry seems to have accepted that as an insurmountable fact, and so they stopped tailoring content to the kids market...a self-fulfilling property if ever there was one. I think our CEO, Ross Richie, took a look at that conventional wisdom and rejected it. After all, he was a kid when he picked up his first copy of “Fantastic Four,” and became a lifelong comic fan. So the idea was a simple one: if you take great properties like the classic Disney characters and the blockbuster Pixar films, and craft engaging stories, why WOULDN'T you be able to get kids back in the comic book stores? Not to mention that the entire BOOM! attitude, from Ross to Mark Waid on down through editorial, is "Don't tell us what we can't do!"
You’ve had a string of first-issue sellouts with BOOM Kids! Is it safe to say the first year has been a success?
The retailer and fan response has been overwhelming. We've got the most savvy and determined Marketing Director in the industry today, Chip Mosher, and he really got these properties out there and the retailers took notice. The fans showed up to buy the books, but it was the retailers who took the ball and ran with it, and ordered the books to make sure they got into the kids hands.
What kind of response have you gotten from parents so far?
They've been great. BOOM! does a lot of conventions around the country, and every time I've been at the booth I have parents come up and thank us for putting out a line that they feel comfortable reading with their children. Comic fans naturally want to pass on their love of the medium to their children, but many say they didn't feel that there were many books they felt comfortable reading with them. Seeing parents excited about our books and passing that on to their kids is probably the best part of my job.
You’ve worked with Disney/Pixar for a while now with the BOOM Kids! line. Has it been difficult to work with licensed properties, or have you been given a lot of freedom with them?
Whenever two companies get together, there's going to be growing pains as you figure out what the direction is going to be for the line, and get used to working with each other. That being said, we have been given a lot of freedom to tell new stories, and to be trusted with some of the greatest characters ever created is a great honor. From the Muppets to Woody and Buzz to Uncle Scrooge and Darkwing Duck, there are some of the most recognizable characters on the planet...and we get to play in that sandbox and add to the canon. What could be better than that?
Recently we’ve seen spin-offs of the major Disney lines, like “Ultraheroes” and “Wizards of Mickey,” both of which started as arcs in your core Disney books. Is that part of the strategy for those core books moving forward, to introduce new series through them?
We're certainly not ruling it out, although we're careful to not over-saturate the market. Not every story we do is intended to spin out into its own series, but if the demand is there, we certainly will. If fan response is overwhelming to something, we'd consider a spin off. We're in the business of pleasing our fans first and foremost.
In addition to the licensed kids' properties you’re currently working with, will you be launching new properties as well through BOOM Kids?
Is this where I use the obligatory "I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you" line? I'm just going to smile slyly and tell you that's all you're getting out of me at this point.
Can you talk a bit about your newsstand strategy and how that ties into getting kids access to your books?
Getting our comics into the hands of kids everywhere is super important to us. Bigger companies than us have been felled by going big in the newsstand. We've been very careful making gradual steps into that market and it has paid off tremendously. There is definitely room to grow there.
Finally, how is it that BOOM! continues to launch new ventures and be innovative in a time where a lot of companies are ducking and covering?
We're too darn stubborn to know when to quit? Actually, I think the best time to attack is when the market seems to be in retreat. We've made what to some might look like big gambles and they've paid off for us. Play big or go home!
Secret identity would like to thank Aaron Sparrow for taking time to talk with us about the BOOM Kids! line. For more information, head over to www.boom-kids.com.
6-11-10: Todd C. Rowland of Alderac Entertainment
Todd C. Rowland of Alderac Entertainment Group took some time to talk with Matman about how a non gamer can enjoy this new game and some of the things to look for when playing ‘Dust Tactics’!
Secret Identity: Please describe the world of Dust Tactics! From what I know in my history, World War Two ended in 1945!
Todd: Indeed it did. However, the Valkyrie plot was a success in this timeline, eliminating Hitler and causing the Axis forces to make much better strategic decisions in the long term.
In creating this ‘alternate history’, is there a point where you as creators said 'if this happens the result will be this?'
Todd: Paolo Parente is the father of Dust, and he's put a lot of thought into the repercussions of the extended war, and the new technology that results. One thing to note is that while the world does change, the people are still the same generation that fought the war then, and you'll see it in the characters.
If you could, describe the play of the game. What style of game is it and is it comparable to anything else out there?
Todd: It's essentially a skirmish game, with really amazing miniatures. The base box set features the battle over a secret Antarctic base, and comes with a battle book that lets you recreate specific missions in the battle, such as reconnaissance, securing the elevator, etc. You can also create custom missions using the reversible ground tiles and objects like ammo crates that make for cover, just assign a value to the army (i.e. everyone gets 250 points worth of troops) and off you go.
Each unit has their own equipment, and every single figure is custom sculpted, so you'll always know exactly which one you're shooting at, it's not just "generic rifleman."
Gaming and comic books are suffering from the same thing and that is potential fans are caught up in other things. How do you hope to get the word out about Dust Tactics?
Todd:We're kicking it off by targeting right at the player base for this type of game. Gen Con Indianapolis, the largest game convention in the US, will feature the Dust Tactics Gen Con Skirmish, where players can learn the game, play a battle, get exclusive figures, and compete over the weekend. The side (Allies or Axis) with the most winners over the weekend will receive even more prizes. At the same time we're doing a very large push to hobby game stores, including the exclusive German "Loth" walker.
It seems that World War Two was the last world conflict between an easily definable good and evil element. Is this why you chose this point in history to base the game?
Todd: There's always a sort of romantic vision of WWII, where as you said there were definable good and evil. But there are also the other elements, the new technology that was so advanced from the last great war, the larger than life leaders and heroes, the music of the era, etc. It just makes for a great setting. And while there have been a few other games to do alternate WWII settings, we thought we could make one even better.
What are some of the situations and characters the player will get to play?
Todd: The base game features several units and mechs, as well as Captain Joseph Brown and Sigrid Von Thaler, who you have met in the Dust Wars comics. Other major characters will make appearances in expansions. The first one, Artillery Strike, is already in preparation, and will introduce command groups and more. The heroes, like Joe, bring special abilities to the game, and can augment other units or go it alone.
As a non-gamer, what will attract me and others to this game?
Todd: Everyone I've shown my prototype to, who are not gamers, couldn't put the figures down. I really can't express what an amazing job the sculptors did with this. You can see the rivets on the walkers... it’s that detailed! It's a beautiful game and the rules are extremely simple, yet the individual weapons and skills of the units provide a great deal of strategy. The ability to customize missions and army sizes allows for tons of replay as well.
Will it be easy for someone like me to pick up the game or do I need to have years of gaming experience?
Todd: Not at all. As mentioned above the rules are fairly simple. If you can see someone, you can shoot them! You might not hit, due to cover and the like, but there are simple line-of-sight rules, the modular board has squares that show how far units can move and how much space they can take up, etc.
We really hope you'll give Dust Tactics a try at your friendly local game store. And if you come by Gen Con, be sure to swing by the AEG booth and say hi, we'd love to meet you all!
For more information on Dust Tactics, you can go to a few places. For information about Alderac you can go to www.alderac.com. To see more of the Dust Tactics campaign and roll out, just go to www.dust-tactics.com.
Sincere thanks goes to Todd for spending a few minutes with us. This is a very busy time for him, getting the game ready and gearing up to make a big splash at Gen Con this summer!
5-23-10: Brendan McGinley Talks Funny Business With Secret Identity
SI: Brendan, how did Bankshot Comics came together and the other creators who are part of it?
Brendan McGinley: Legends about us being summoned at midnight with a candle formed from the tallow of sacrificed virgins are, of course, poppycock. Bankshot grew naturally from theDose humor anthology. Most of the artists are people whose work I admired on creative message boards, or referrals from there. The bulk of my collaborators are in Argentina, a few from the Philippines. The other writers tend to be people I've worked with at Wizard or other places around comics. It's a big, fun mutual admiration society.
You have a bunch of different projects going on right now at Bankshot. Can you tell us a little about them?
Sure, we put up something new every day, so you can either read a title one installment a week (admittedly, a rough pace) or enjoy the collected issue all at once in the galleries.
Sundays are She's Famous Now, an anti-romantic comedy about a young man who gets a second chance at his high school crush after she becomes the world's most famous pop star. The problem is he's too nice to do what's necessary to win her heart when he's competing with 3 billion other males. Fortunately, he has an amoral roommate with a plan and a vision.
Monday is when we update Hannibal Goes to Rome, the epic tale of the Carthaginian commander's march over the Alps with elephants. You'd better catch up though, because he's already slaughtered Roman consular armies twice and is about to make winter hard for Scipio.
Tuesday is Invisible Inc. day, when all the conspiracy theories come out to play! A reporter has discovered that the real reason supervillains don't try to take over the world anymore is they succeeded decades ago. We're doing the first arc right now, "Yellow Journalism."
Prose Wednesday is a break from the comics to read written essays...about comics. Or sometimes recipes. Or maybe comedic screeds. It's a pot luck thing until I get hopping on some prose fiction.
Thursday is when the pages of Dose run. We've just started the one non-humorous or satirical tale in that anthology, called "Strychnine Kiss." It's sort of a post-apocalyptic mob feminist thing. That sounds too vague to read. Basically, it's born of my love for Grim Jack, and it's a hard-boiled woman in a city where the mafia and the government are the same thing.
Fridays are for Citizen X: The Mission. That's a western set in a world where Carthage beat Rome and went on to establish their own empire. A frustrated young cop insists on pursuing his own path against his nobleman father's wishes, and gets sent to the western frontier in Ireland to keep a steady hand on tensions between the civilized settlers and the local savages.
Saturday is just old school sketches, pages from aborted projects, character designs, maybe pictures of pretty ladies, which I've learned that artists rather enjoy drawing.
On Heist, you collaborated with friend of Secret Identity Josh Elder (Mail Order Ninja).
Yes, we originally were going to pitch Heist to DC, then tweaked it into an Epic pitch for Marvel (or maybe it was the reverse). I remember that it was going to be a group heist for Epic, and at DC, we just wanted to introduce a terrific new villain who broke into the JLA satellite with no problems, and we were going to explain this no-name just waltzing in because he was so damned good no one in the DC Universe had ever seen him even though he'd been around for years. We thought we were clever, because we weren't 25 yet. Now we're old enough to see nobody cares.
When Josh and I met as DC interns, the company was putting out this epic mini-series called Haven. It was like 9 or 10 issues. I never read it, but the art was aces. There were 9 or 10 issues of this story about aliens coming to Earth and the Justice League was in it. As I understand it, they bought it after receiving the pitch at a convention, which never, ever, ever happens. So that was, to us, sort of like watching your neighbor strike gold. You start thinking about chucking a pick-axe in your own back yard, you know? Here we are, editorial interns, surely we can make a good pitch for a super-villain mini starring the JLA. In 2004 there weren't a lot of super-villain titles; it's been explored a bit since then. It's quite a fun subgenre, really. You get to see what drives all these people to do different criminal activities, and then stick a metaphorical power onto it, which is how the best superheroes work as well, when their power is bound up in their nature.
Anyway, the idea came from our talking about what a hypocrite Batman is to keep sticking Joker in Arkham knowing full well he'll get out and murder dozens of innocents every time. The inherent failure of soap opera like that is you either build a better prison until the Joker becomes utterly super-super-superhuman by escaping, or Batman's just a jerk who's sacrificing Gotham's citizens on the altar of his moral principles. Josh also gets offended by some story I've never read where Superman would rather let Lois Lane die than kill someone for the same reason. It was like "Remember back in the '30s and '40s when those guys got the job done?"
That got us talking about how the villains were just as stupid to keep getting out and seeking revenge, so we came up with the idea that any effective criminal would do everything he could to avoid the cops. Once you're truly pro, you don't nurse your grudge, you go off and successfully commit crimes.
I'm not sure if we ever submitted it to the Big Two because DC had a bit of a structural shift and stopped wanting to hear from interns, but either way we shelved it until one day I started tinkering with the idea of what Geist was stealing from the Justice League, and I realized that there's a fairy tale that very, very effectively flips into a riches-to-rags story. Then I basically ripped the entire DC pitch out, smashed it into the first issue, and made the rest into Boy Meets Power, Boy Loses Power, Boy Gets Power Back. That's the thing I really like about these DC and Marvel pitches I've done; once you have to retool them so you're not just doing an independent version of Arachnid Lad, you start to go off in crazy directions, you're no longer trying to write the fare that editors say they want.
Josh liked what I'd done, and I remember he pointed out quite rightly that once you've taken over the world, you get trapped by it. Congratulations, you've mutinied. You have the helm. Where are you going to steer the ship? So power isn't necessarily the most desirable thing, because even for a villain, with power comes responsibility. If you want to keep everything the way you want it, maintenance is required. That's no good for a thrill-addicted thief.
But the thing I'm most proud of in that series is what happens thereafter. There's a very hard left into a different sort of comic entirely for an issue, and yet, it's utterly essential to Geist's development, it's really a fulfillment of his utter adrenaline exhaustion and inability to be impressed anymore. It just came to me to express the frustrations Josh and I were feeling by 2006 or so.
Heist is now available in print as well over at Indy Planet. Will you be collecting all of your current webcomics in print?
Yes, we're just waiting to get the covers in for Invisible, Inc. and then those two issues will be available as well. The way we're doing that one is fun -- I've based the characters off my friends and family, so they'll be posing for my good friend Ryan Brenizer, who's one of the country's top wedding & portraiture photographers these days, and we're going to come up with some really hot fumetti covers for the "Yellow Journalism" arc. But we're at the mercy of a few schedules, so that'll happen sometime this year. It will either be print on demand, or, cross your fingers, someone who's expressed interest in it will pick it up.
Hannibal Goes to Rome, we're talking with Jim & Kris over at Shadowline about whether they'd like to take that to print with Image next year, so the bigger the audience we can build now the better chance we have at that.
What else do I have? Dose? Yes, Dose was the print one that moved to the web, and I think I'll do a short-run of issue #3 followed by print-on-demand. That's about all you can hope for from a humor anthology. That's this summer.
Ultimately, everything gets to print, you just need to build up a few issues before you launch one. The web and print audiences aren't nearly synonymous, so you can't count on your online readership to run out and buy an issue and then still want the next one in six months, you need that six-shooter release for a book like Heist, or a cannonade in TPB form.
You’ve also got projects going on outside of Bankshot, and one of them is near and dear to our hearts. We here at Secret Identity grew up reading Cracked. How did you get involved with Cracked.com?
This is a little funny, because I decided to get Dose together in 2006. Mad was always an influence -- according to my mom, it's the first thing I ever read -- and I think we all know Cracked was a pretty painful imitator that eked by on its focus on comics whereas Mad was more TV & movies, mainstream pop culture. Kids aren't dumb. They know when someone's trying too hard, and while Cracked could be funny, it was the kind of funny of hearing a comedian do a flawless impression of a funnier comedian.
So I'm sitting at my desk in 2006, knowing I'm about to do a humor anthology, and I wonder, "Is Cracked abandoned? What are the odds I could get those rights for a buck and put out something not trying so hard to be Mad?" I look it up on Google, and...oh, "Coming tomorrow: CRACKED.COM!" And of course, it's very sharply put together, with guys like Jay Pinkerton and now Seanbaby, basically internet comedy dream team. They've got a pretty solid row of columnists, and their editors know how to be funny, which is a pre-requisite that gets overlooked a lot in publishing: knowledge of the topic. The impossible has happened in our lives: Cracked is finally funnier than Mad.
So I titled mine Dose and thought no more on it until I saw last year they were taking submissions. I'd been reading and loved the new direction, so I fired out a few, and got some very nice emails from Dan O'Brien and Robert Brockway asking me to keep doing what I was doing. They also saw I made comics and asked me if I'd illustrate some articles from their forthcoming book, which I was more than happy to do. I've been very, very lucky, and they've been very, very good to me, featuring a lot of my Topics and slinging work my way. Don't tell Cracked how in love with it I am, or it will take me for all the work I can do. It's the best feeling in the world when the people who crack you up tell you they think you're funny.
I mean, other than dating a 23-year-old, it's the best feeling in the world.
When you’re not working on a project, what are some of your favorite comics to read?
Honestly? I don't read anything anymore except what gets passed in front of me or what my friends make. Although I'm pretty thrilled Green Lantern is finally everything I wanted it to be when I was 14. And I'll read anything Grant Morrison writes.
I share a lot of sensibilities with Valerie D'Orazio so I seek out her stuff. She and David Gallaher have been very big supporters, and good friends, directing a lot of people to Hannibal and Invisible, Inc. I genuinely like their work, though I'd probably end up supporting it anyway if I didn't, in more vaguely recommended terms like, "They're very presentable people! Their shoes are shiny."
I love Chris Ward's writing and wish he'd do more comics, certainly more humor comics. I follow Evan Dorkin because, well...cripes, look at Dose. I'm a huge Love & Rockets fan, which is a heartbreakingly true book about life and love and art and punk and poverty and good friends who go away but you will remember those people your entire existence.
Since you’re in the New York area, will we be seeing you at New York Comic Con in October?
Yes, I'm at most of the New York comic scene stuff. Or I was. Maybe those scoundrels are gathering in dark corners without me. Anyway, I won't have a booth, but I'm usually wandering around in a tuxedo. Your sister will pretend not to be attracted to me, but that is what we both want you to think.
Is there any other news or projects you want to let people know about?
Well, they're a little delayed by costs, but comics down the pike are:
REAPING PROFIT (black comedy): The world's greatest salesman talks his way into the Grim Reaper gig, but literally defies Fate to pursue the woman he loves.
BLACK AMBULANCES (suspense/thriller): A misanthropic EMT pursues a fleet of mysterious ambulances whose victims never arrive at the hospital.
DOUBLE FALSEHOOD (superhero): It's a Shakespearean superhero romance. Assume we're going to dodge everything that sounds awful about that concept. Andres Ponce, who draws Heist, turned in a real pretty issue. and it's going to be a collaborative affair, a different artist each chapter. I promise to lean on everything fantastic about Shakespeare and not try to jam a comic page full of thees and thous unless someone's talking like a Kirby character.
Thanks to Brendan for taking time to chat with us. To keep up to date on what's going on with him, head over to www.brendanmcginley.com.
5-16-10: Jess Hartley Talks With Secret Identity About The Shattered Glass Project
SI: For those who haven’t checked out your previous work, can you talk a bit about the kinds of stories you write, and the subjects you like to deal with?
Jess Hartley: Certainly! Thanks for asking. I think of my style as "specializing in gaming, horror, romance, and the unlikely place where they all messily collide." Many of my readers first got to know my work from my game-products for White Wolf, which tend to have a dark, sensual edge to them. I've got a big soft spot for traditional folklore and mythology, and retelling old stories in new ways. But the one thing I always try to bring into a story - no matter how dark - is the human element: the aspect of characters, be they heroes or villains, that makes readers identify with them, at least a little bit. I think that makes the victories sweeter and the tragedies more poignant.
In terms of types of products, I've written more than three dozen RPG products over the past ten years, ranging from novels to games to supplements. I've also contributed to several anthologies or non-game-related materials, I co-host a podcast (Pulp Gamer's Out of Character - www.pulpgamer.com) and write an online geek advice and etiquette column.
I like to think of myself as a Jack-of-all-Trades when it comes to wordsmithing. It's not the form or the theme that's as important, as whether I feel passionately about the project and can really give it my all.
Shattered Glass is a pretty unique approach to both publishing and reader involvement. Can you give us the details on how people can get involved and what they receive for supporting the project?
The Shattered Glass Project is based on a Patronage model of directly reader-sustained fiction. I am writing an urban fae short story (10K words at minimum) with strong supernatural elements. I am going to make that story available to a select group of Patrons, and only to them for at least one year from the start date of the Project (March 20, 2010.) For the Patronage enrollment period (which for Shattered Glass, runs throughout the season of Spring 2010 (March 21st to June 20th), readers who want to be a part of the Project can sign up for a Shattered Glass Patronage and make one of three levels of donations, each with corresponding benefits.
* Virtual Patronage ($5) - Virtual Patrons will receive a .pdf copy of Shattered Glass when it is complete, along with a .jpg version of the poem I've written to accompany it.
* Artisan Patronage ($25) - Artisan Patrons will receive a physical copy of Shattered Glass when it is complete, along with a hand-written, wax-sealed Thank You letter and physical version of the poem, From Shattered Glass.
*Personae Patronage ($150) - Personae Patrons receive all of the benefits of Artisan Patronage, plus their name and likeness will be represented in Shattered Glass as a character. (NOTE: Personae Patronages are closed for Shattered Glass. Interested parties are welcome to write and express their interest, and those who contact us will be given first chance to participate at this level should future opportunities arise.)
There's a contribute button on the Shattered Glass Project page or folks can contact me about becoming involved (jess@jesshartley.com). I've been able to work with some prospective-Patrons who weren't able to use the standard Paypal format. I really want to accommodate everyone who wants to be a part of the Project, if it's within my power to do so.
How has the response to the project been so far?
Amazing, to be honest. This Project seems to have really struck a chord with readers who are interested in dark, modern fantasy, those who are curious about the possibilities of alternative publishing paradigms, and those want a more intimate connection with their fiction-creator. Not only have we received Patronages from Europe, from Canada, and from all across the US, but the response from online media (podcasts, news sites and bloggers) has been fantastic as well.
We're receiving a great deal of encouragement on this experiment, and I really would love to say a big "Thank You" to everyone who's supported us through Patronages, through publicity or offering their advice and experiences to make this as smooth a path as possible.
"THANK YOU!"
In terms of the story itself, you’ve described Shattered Glass as an “urban fae” story. Can you elaborate on that?
Urban fae is a subset of Urban Fantasy (sometimes refered to as Contemporary Supernatural Fantasy or Modern Paranormal Fiction). It refers to a genre where fantasy elements (specifically "fae" or "fairies") are incorporated into a story set in a modern, mostly-like-the-real-world setting. I'm a big fan of retelling fairy tales, but this will be a modern, unique story that will incorporate strong elements found in traditional legends and folklore about the fae. Fairies, fae-folk, elves and the like... but think modern, fast-paced, and dark.
My inspirations in this genre include Charles de Lint, Jim Butcher, C.E. Murphy, Emma Bull, Laurel K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Lilith Saintcrow and Kelley Armstrong.
You mentioned that this project came about in part because of the death of your laptop, but also because of your desire to experiment with direct marketing. How do you view the current publishing landscape, and do you see yourself continuing explore non-traditional publishing if the Shattered Glass project proves successful?
I believe strongly that exploring new options doesn't mean abandoning or scrapping traditional ones. I'm a big supporter of traditional mainstream publishing, and will continue to freelance and write for established publishers regardless of the success of the Shattered Glass Project. But I do think that modern technology offers writers and readers opportunities that weren't available even 5 years ago, and that it would be a shame to not explore those opportunities to their fullest potential. That's one of the reasons I refer to The Project as a "fae fiction experiment". I really don't know what to expect from it; I've got some ideas and some instincts and some principles to apply, but beyond that, I'm just doing my best to create something magic and seeing how it all turns out.
I think that, like everyone else, the publishing industry is feeling the pinch of the current economic situation, and has to be more aware than ever of the possible risks and returns on any project they undertake. Unfortunately, that means that more and more of the industry's attention must be placed on projects with a fairly high assurance of strong return, and there is less and less opportunity for things like short stories, novellas, poetry and the like. These are areas that I think are ideally suited for being provided directly from writer to reader.
They're also very well suited for giving readers something special - we're currently experimenting with hand-binding, paper-making and other artisan skills, hoping to incorporate those elements into the physical copies of Shattered Glass, to make them little works of art for our Patrons.
I don't want to promise anything publicly yet, because like any experiment, I'm sure challenges we haven't thought of will arise, but our goal is to really create something unique and precious for our Patrons. And yes, if the demand seems to be there, I would love to continue experimenting with reader-sustained fiction projects beyond Shattered Glass. We'll just have to see if that seems to be something the readership wants, past this first short story.
How do you plan to keep supporters involved during the creation process?
A few weeks ago, I wrote a letter to all of my Patrons, thanking them for their support, updating them on where the Project was in the creative process, and gifting them with a poem I'd written using some of the thematic elements and imagery I'm going to be using in the story itself. I invited them all to write me with any thoughts they'd like to share about the poem or the Project itself. I also keep my website, Livejournal and Twitter (jesshartley) updated with progress on the Project, in addition to posting about interviews like this one which may reveal additional information updates on the Project's progress.
I'm really striving for a very "open-door" policy with my Patrons; I want them to know that this Project wouldn't be happening without them, and that they're a very important part of the process.
We’ve interviewed you twice at conventions where you were a gaming guest. Are you still active in the convention scene, and where can people see you this year?
Yes, I love the convention scene; it's my recharge, my chance to actually make contact with readers and gamers face-to-face, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. This year, at the end of May, I'll be out in Toronto for Anime North. This is my third year at AN, and they give a great show. Although their roots are (as the name suggests) in Anime, their gaming department is really growing by leaps and bounds, and they've got some great things planned for this year.
Then in October, I'll be travelling to Reno, Nevada for SnafuCon. It's my first year as a guest there, but I've heard wonderful stuff about SnafuCon, and can't wait to get a chance to visit with the folks there.
At both conventions, I plan to be doing panels on everything from the gaming industry to fiction to etiquette, and I'm always available to answer questions or sign books between panels.
That's all the conventions on my line-up for the rest of the year, but I'd love to add more to my itinerary, so if there are events out there that would like a gaming/fiction guest - please feel free to contact me.
In addition to Shattered Glass, what are the other projects you are currently working on, and where can we find out about them?
I just finished an episodic fiction project for Mind Storm Labs, based in their Alpha Omega game system. The Adventures of Little Yoshida is a 9-part fiction series, following a story arc I created for one of their canon characters, Little Yoshida. The first episode is available through their online store, and a new episode will be released each month until the series is finished, early next year. All the episodes are included in the purchase price, so you buy one time and get to enjoy new fiction for the next nine months!
As well, essays I contributed are a part of Green Ronin's "Family Games: The Best 100", and "The Bones: Us and Our Dice", which is a collection of stories from and about gamers and their favorite polyhedrals. And I'm still writing "One Geek to Another", my geek etiquette and advice column, which is featured on my website and syndicated on Pen And Paper Games and Ideology of Madness.
I've got some other projects going, but they're all currently under NDA, unfortunately. I try to keep folks up to date on them through my blog, Twitter and LiveJournal, as well as my Facebook Fan Page. So check there for updates as they become available.
Our thanks to Jess for taking time to talk with us about “The Shattered Glass Project.” For more info on the project, head over to www.jesshartley.com.
4-17-10: Meet Jorge Pacheco (Sing To The Jetson's Theme)
Secret Identity: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us!
Jorge Pacheco: I just checked out the website. Thanks for making me a part of it.
So tell us about yourself. I see you're a graduate of the Joe Kubert School?
Yes, I graduated in May of 1986 and I have been working professionally ever since.
How old were you when you said “I'm going to be an artist?"
I was about 2 years old when I drew on my parents’ walls in crayon. Probably then.
You have done work for many companies we know of like DC Comics, Hanna Barbera, and Warner Bros. As an artist, did you ever feel stifled doing art like someone else wants you to?
Not all all! I really just enjoy drawing. I think you learn by drawing almost anything, whether it be Fred Flintstone or Caspar, the Friendly Ghost. Of course, I would rather draw in my own style (whatever that is) and my own creator-owned characters, but it’s much easier to get work drawing characters that have already been created, not to mention that when working for the bigger companies, the money is usually better.
So who were your influences? On your site I see a little Kyle Baker, some Jack Kirby and a touch of Erik Larsen. Am i close?
Wowww, I love all those guys’ work that you mentioned. Thank you! I think every week, I have a new influence, but I do think everything begins with Jack Kirby. He’s my all time favorite, but there have been so many influences...it’s hard to narrow it down to just a couple.
On your site you have tons of pictures of you and your family. Have they always been supportive of your work have they been?
Yeah, and no! I think in many ways throughout the years, I am the only one who has really believed in me. Nobody understands the passion and long, long hours I put in for the little pay, but I believe in myself and know that I will make it "big" one day...it just takes time.
Are you the cool artist dad?
I am a work-at-home Dad and I really love it. My son is now almost 2 1/2 years old and he is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
We found out about you from the boys at Hero Envy. Keith Gleason was so excited to get you as the artist for their Hero Envy comic. How did you guys hook up?
We hooked up over the DrawingBoard.org website and I feel very fortunate to be working with Keith and the whole Hero Envy gang.
What is or would be your dream project?
Working on my own creator-owned project and making a good living. I’m currently getting together some more "realistic pages" to show the major companies. You will see by my website that most of my work has been on the humor side. ( Please check out my website at, www.pachecotoons.com) I think the super hero market is bigger and it may be a little easier to get steady work.
Anything else we can share with our audience?
I just feel fortunate to make a living doing what I love and hopefully I am giving a little joy to those who read my books.
Our big thanks to Jorge for taking the time to chat with us. To see more of his work go to his website at www.pachecotoons.com.
3-30-10: Elizabeth Massie Is The Interview!
Secret Identity: You may be a new comer to writing comics, but not to writing! You're a real, live novelist. Was writing something you always wanted to do?
Elizabeth: I’ve wanted to do lots of things – visual arts, acting, singing (and I still do all those to a smaller degree) but writing always rose to the top of that creative cauldron. I always found myself daydreaming stories and jotting them down, especially when I was young and sitting in a class that had me bored. It took me a while to get published, though. With the exception of stories in my college publications, it wasn’t until I was 30 that I had my first piece of fiction accepted by a magazine. For anyone who thinks it has to be now or never, chances are you aren’t really meant to be a published writer after all.
And you are not just a writer... you are an award winning author. And that is better than just a writer! You’re a two time winner of the Bram Stroker Award, not bad. What books were they for and what was it that you think made them 'award winning'?
My first Stoker was for my novella, “Stephen,” which appeared in the first Borderlands anthology. It was extremely edgy and surreal, almost a dark fairytale, though it was set in a recognizable time and place – a rehabilitation center – with two main characters who were victims of their circumstances yet took drastic steps to change them. Readers told me that the tale horrified them while stirring emotions of compassion. My second Stoker was for my novel Sineater. Very different story from “Stephen” in that it wasn’t meant to be surreal but very real. It tells the tale of a boy in the Appalachians whose community is bound up very tightly in religious mythologies and traditions, and of the boy from the “outside” who moves there and challenges everything he encounters. As with “Stephen,” the characters in Sineater seemed to touch and move the readers. Bottom line - I think it was the characters that readers and voters liked most. I was honored and humbled to have my works recognized this way.
AND, you're also an artist! As I looked around your site I was introduced to the crazy and very imaginative world of Skeeryvilletown. Tell us a little about it and tell me more about 3-Eyed Devil Cat!
3-Eyed Devil Cat is one of two sideshow freaks who escaped the circus and ended up in Skeeryvilletown. How 3-Eyed Devil Cat got there is anyone’s guess; he doesn’t really move. I’m guessing Fire Breathing Dog ‘O Death (the other freak) put 3-Eyed Devil Cat on a dolly and wheeled him there. Skeeryvilletown has a population of other bizarre characters – Boo Boy, Rattie, Wolfie, Battie, the Witch Sisters, Little Furry Run-No, and more. Here is a link to the Skeeryvilletown Café Press shop, where some of the characters can be found on shirts, calendars, mugs, hats, and more. My favorite item is the “12 Faces of 3-Eyed Devil Cat” wall clock. http://www.cafepress.com/Skeeryvilletown . Heh!
Wowza! Horror novels, devil cats, and a Necon whore? You are very busy...
Elizabeth: Indeedy-do!
I did a review of ‘Julie Walker Is The Phantom’ and thought you did a great job with the book. What I loved about it was you made a woman character (two actually) very strong and adventurous in a time when women were not encouraged to be more than housewives or secretaries. Where did this story idea come from?
Elizabeth: First of all, I was approached by the folks at Moonstone to do a Julie Walker comic book. Very cool, since she’s had very little air time (understandably so, however; after all her brother is the Phantom and is a very busy guy.) However, the premise was….what would happen if Kit was suddenly unable to do his job?
With that in mind, I decided I wanted to write a comic set in the 19th century. I’ve always admired Nellie Bly (real name – Elizabeth Jane Cochran; I’m sure my interest in her has nothing to do with the fact that I’m also named Elizabeth Jane) and her no-nonsense approach to life; her determination to do what she felt she had to do regardless of the sex stereotype roadblocks people tried to put in her way. She was one of the first investigative reporters, socially aware, adventure-minded. I thought it would be great to pair up two dynamic women – Julie and Nellie – in such a way that the strengths and courage and skills of each were highlighted without either being diminished. And a race around the world? What a great venue for a tale.
I wasn't sure if this was your first work in comics, but if so, I wonder how did it come about? Did moonstone come looking for you or you approach them?
Moonstone approached me. I’d written several short stories for other Moonstone anthologies – The Night Stalker, Zorro, the Spider – so they already had a feel for my writing style and approach.
I know the writing process is different for novels and comics! For you was it a big drastic change in how you normally write?
A story is a story, regardless of the format. I came up with the idea the same way I always do…just thinking it through over and over for a while. But the actual writing process, as you say, is quite different. I first wrote the story out as a very detailed synopsis (as I often do with novels) but then had to break it up into pages and the pages into panels. I wanted to make sure the big “Boom!” panel came on a left hand page so the reader would (hopefully?) be surprised when it happened. I had to really condense what I would have otherwise expounded upon, since space is limited for dialogue and narration. I guess in a way it’s like story-boarding a movie script.
You can learn a lot about someone by reading their 'About Me' page. You were a bad student who wanted to be spanked by the Beatles and you also wanted to marry Peter Tork of the Monkees! Wow. So i guess my question is...why Peter? Davy was cute, Mickey was funny and Mike was sooo brooding and serious. Peter?
When you’re 13, and a sensitive, shy kid like I was, I always went for the guys who seemed the most “safe.” Davy was cute, yes. Mickey was funny and Mike was brooding (and married!), but Peter was goofy and cute and seemed to the most harmless!
I hope we can expect to see anymore comic work from you in the future.
I’m working on an 11-page Moon Man comic for Moonstone at the moment for their new Pulp Fiction line, which will debut this year. I’m also writing a Moon Man story that will be produced in “wide vision format” as part of a pulp anthology. Illustrations for these will be by Cortney Skinner. I have a super-hero gal story coming up in Moonstone’s Chicks in Capes anthology this spring. My character, Silver Slut, is a whole lot of fun; a teenaged girl who has all the power and responsibility of super-heroism dropped into her lap when all she wanted to do was graduate from high school and go to art school. There is a lot of humor in the story. I’d love to do an actual comic featuring her at some point in time. Or a comic story set in Skeeryvilletown. Who knows?
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us and letting our listeners and readers get to know you a little better.
Thanks! It was fun.
Sincere thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time to chat with us. To find out more you can go to her official home on the web at www.elizabethmassie.com.
3-6-10: Archaia's Stephen Christy Talks Fraggle Rock With Secret Identity
We here at Secret Identity have long been fans of Archaia, having met some of the great people there a few years ago at the Kids' Comic Con. 2009 was an interesting year for the company, as Archaia went through some restructuring on the administrative side, which included a break from publishing for a few months. When things ramped back up in June of last year, Archaia emerged with a strong team and a publishing strategy that included a healthy mix of single issue comics, double-sized collected editions and graphic novels. Since then, books like “Awakening,” “Mouse Guard,” “Days Missing” and “Titanium Rain” have been regularly discussed on our podcast.
Given Archaia's reputation for quality, it was no surprise that the Jim Henson Company felt Archaia would be a great fit for a new line of comics based on some of Henson's most popular properties. The first of those comics will be hitting store shelves in April, with the debut of “Fraggle Rock” #1. This past week Secret Identity caught up with Archaia's Director of Development Stephen Christy, who gave us the details on the Henson deal, the upcoming “Fraggle Rock” series, and Archaia's publishing strategies in both print and digital mediums.
Secret Identity: When Archaia resumed full-time publishing back in June, you had some new strategies around double sized issues and collected editions. Can you talk a bit about some of those choices and what we can expect to see in the future?
Stephen Christy: Definitely! As we all know, what the entire industry has been seeing the last decade has been a move away from the traditional “monthly” model of comics where a title is broken into 22-page chunks and serialized over a number of months and a move toward the more permanent graphic novel/trade paperback format. Sales of comics have generally fallen over the last decade while sales of graphic novels and trade paperbacks continue to rise.
With this in mind, when we re-launched Archaia last year we really wanted to stand out from the crowd of mainstream comic book companies and focus more specifically on hardcover graphic novels. This allows us to give our readers a higher production value in the books that they’re reading with a lower price point than most other companies, as you’ll rarely see any Archaia graphic novel over $19.95 or $24.95. It wasn’t so much of a new strategy for us as much as a refocusing on what’s important, which is creating lasting sequential storytelling that won’t disappear off of shelves the month after it’s out.
You also dropped a bombshell in June with the announcement of the Henson partnership. How did that come about?
Haha… if this was the podcast you’d have that song “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” playing in the background of this answer! The Henson partnership came about through a friendship that I’d developed with Joe LeFavi, formerly Henson’s Director of Development. Joe and I had known each other for about a year before we made the official announcement, and the partnership came about by us proving to him that Archaia was the only company that would provide the attention, production value, respect and TLC to these properties that we all grew up loving.
From the very beginning of our discussions with Henson we weren’t treating this like a normal comics licensing deal, it was a partnership through and through. Archaia is in a long-term partnership not just to develop comics based on classic Henson properties such as “Fraggle Rock,” “The Dark Crystal”and “Labyrinth” but to also co-develop new and original properties, including some incredible material from Henson’s vaults that I can’t quite talk about yet. Suffice it to say, it’s going to be an exciting few years for fans of Henson comics!
We'll be seeing the fruits of that new partnership soon, as “Fraggle Rock” #1 will be hitting stores in April. Can you tell us a bit about the series?
It’s a three-issue miniseries that’s an anthology. Each issue will have one 20-page lead story that we’re treating like a “lost episode” of the original TV show, and two 4-6 page backup stories per issue that we’ve invited some great talent to be a part of. So each issue will be about 10 pages longer than most mainstream comics, and retail for $3.95. The book will also be in the awesome 8” x 8” trim size that “Mouse Guard” is in, which is a great format to play with from a storytelling standpoint.
How are you making this “Fraggle Rock” series accessible for readers who may not be familiar with the TV show?
Well, thankfully “Fraggle Rock” is a very different show than… say, “Lost”… It’s not a very hard show to figure out in terms of who the characters are and what the situation of the show is. That being said, we’re definitely going out of our way to make sure that people who have never read or seen anything about the show before can pick up a book and not have a problem getting into it.
One of the things that I’m really excited about and is going to be a great introduction to the world of “Fraggle” is our “Mouse Guard”/”Fraggle Rock” Free Comic Book Day flip book, which is coming out on, you guessed it, Free Comic Book Day. That’s going to be not only a great introduction to the world of Fraggles (and “Mouse Guard”!) but it’ll also give readers a sense of the tone and style that we’re trying to take with this series. Oh, and did I mention it’s free?
You've got several creators who will be contributing to the “Fraggle Rock” comics, including some newcomers. Can you tell us a bit about the folks behind “Fraggle Rock?”
I love anthologies, and one of the great things about doing this first series as an anthology is that we have an awesome mix of new talent who are literally getting their first professionally published work in the book, to talents like Jeffrey Brown and Jeremy Love who are well-known in the indie comics world and have a ton of great experience. When we hire people for this series we hire not just “big” people whose work we admire, but younger up-and-comers people that we want to mentor and give a chance to shine, much in the same way we do on the creator-owned side at Archaia.
With some of the Henson projects, as well as titles like “Gunnerkrigg Court,” it seems like you are really expanding your kids' offerings. Is that a conscious part of Archaia's strategy moving forward?
It’s not so much about putting out books specifically for kids as it is putting out graphic novels that truly are all-ages, in every sense of the word. I think “Mouse Guard” is the best example of this… it’s incredibly beautiful and intricate on an artistic level yet there’s fans of that book as young as 5 and as old as 75. The best stories, the one that really stick with us, are the ones that can appeal to multiple generations at the same time. It sounds lofty, but that’s definitely something we care about and it’s a direction that you’re going to continue to see Archaia move in the next few years.
Archaia has also embraced digital downloads, as most of your titles are available over at Drive Thru Comics. Has that been a successful initiative, and do you plan on continuing to digitally distribute?
Our digital strategy is one of the most important parts of Archaia’s publishing plans over the next few years. PJ Bickett, our CEO, comes from a digital development background and I think he knows better than a lot of other company owners in the business how important digital is.
The whole reason that Archaia exists is not just to simply make comics but to hopefully create books that can bring new readers into the medium. We do that by putting as big an emphasis possible on not just on quality but on creativity and accessibility. It doesn’t matter to us if new readers are finding our books in bookstores, on an iPhone or iPad, on a Kindle or at their local comic shop. The only important thing is that they’re finding our books, and that after reading and enjoying them that they branch out to our other titles and all the wonderful books that are also available from other publishers. So yes, in terms of generating new readers and bringing new people to the Archaia brand, it’s been an incredibly successful initiative.
As we move into 2010, can you tell us about a few of the projects we can look forward to?
Well, for Henson fans the thing that I’m most excited about is that we’re bringing the Jim Henson classics “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth” to comics this fall. Not only that, but we’ve enlisted Brian Froud, the original conceptual designer and the heart and soul of the original films, to do covers and art direction for the titles. This is the first time since his book “World of the Dark Crystal” that Brian is publicly returning to this universe in a big way, and I promise that fans of both movies won’t be disappointed.
We’re playing for keeps with all of these books, including “Fraggle Rock”… we want these titles to be read 20 years from now, the same way the movies and TV show are still capturing new fans almost 25 years after their release.
Secret Identity would like to thank Stephen Christy for taking time to talk with us. “Fraggle Rock” #1 is slated to arrive in stores on April 28th, followed by the Free Comic Book Day preview on May 1. To keep up on all the latest Archaia news, head over to www.archaia.com.
2-21-10: Dan Goldman Talks Red Light Properties
Secret Identity: Let' start with the basics, Dan. For those who haven’t checked out the comic yet, what’s the premise of “Red Light Properties?”
Dan Goldman: “Red Light Properties” is the first book in a series that tells the story of a small real estate firm on Miami Beach that exorcises haunted houses that sit stagnant on the market, and then connects them with victims of foreclosure who need a place to live.
The firm is run by the Tobins, a married couple in the process of splitting up on page one. Cecilia is the broker who runs the real estate part of the business, and Jude handles “the ghost shit”. His psychic abilities are “enhanced” by various plant substances used by tribal shamans that psychotropically boost his sensitivities and allow him to enter the spirit world to exorcise the dead from the real estate they are trying to sell.
And since the Tobins’ personal and professional lives are all tangled together, the horror elements balance nicely with the character drama.
“Red Light Properties” is currently being serialized on Tor.com every Tuesday from January through June; you can being with the first chapter by visiting www.redlightproperties.com.
What inspired you to create “Red Light Properties?”
The nugget of the story, the agency and the main characters, came to me while drinking a glass of water in 2001 while living in a crappy old house in Brooklyn; I wrote about the genesis here.
All that said, “RLP” is really a smoothie of much of my experiences, relationships and flavors; that makes it very personal while being entirely fiction. Everything I’d done and every project I’ve ever worked on has contributed to this series.
This is a story you’ve been working on for a number of years. How much has it changed since the original idea?
A lot actually; since I’ve been tooling with this for a long time over the years, it’s gone through many rewrites. The first draft actually took place in Brooklyn, NY; some of those stories have evolved nicely into a backstory I’ll slowly reveal over the course of the series.
Some of the supporting cast has changed a bit, particulary Kako, who readers haven’t met yet; his role was filled by another cat who’s been moved to enter the tale around Vol. 5 now. I’ve been working on these characters and the larger story for nine years and the elements that were always truest have stayed firmly in place.
You’ve set the story in Miami and you’ve really incorporated a lot of the cultural elements from the area. What was it about Miami that made it the right setting for “Red light Properties?”
I grew up there, and the Miami portrayed on TV and in magazines is really only a few blocks of a much stranger place. When I first saw the pilot for “Dexter” on Showtime, I could see that story and my characters walking similar streets... Behind the postcard pastel-and-neon image, there are layers and layers of darkness to the city, and it’s fertile enough to tell a wide range of stories.
Being one of the pioneers of webcomics, how do you feel the medium has changed over the past few years?
As uncomfortable as I am calling myself a pioneer, I do think web/digital comics are clearly coming into their own. Devices are catching up with the ideas, and the digital marketplace everyone was waiting for will keep arriving in different shapes/platforms for a while. Not only that, but the population of potential readers carrying all manner of web-enables screens in their purses and pockets show how large the digital comics audience really can be.
With “Red Light Properties” you’re at the forefront of what Tor.com is doing with their new reader. How did you end up working with them?
I did a story for Tor that premiered on Obama’s Inauguration Day called “Yes We Will”; I had a really good experience with them... and I’ve been in touch with their editor since, poking about longer-form original works. One day Pablo invited me out for a nice dinner and I explained RLP and my vision for the way I’d present it. The reader is something that grew out of that dinner. Tor was intent on building a comics reader into their site to accommodate one direction their acquisitions were moving, so it was serendipitous when I showed Pablo some work I’d done for another project that incorporated the “panel reveal” thing that “RLP” does... and he was wowed. After consulting with them for a few months while getting “RLP” together, we were able to build the ability to advance panel-by-panel into Tor’s reader, and the response has been staggeringly positive thus far.
Can you give us a few hints about what we can expect as the story unfolds over the next few months?
You’ll get to see the “RLP” crew doing what they have to do to save their own building from foreclosure and pushing themselves and each other to their limits in the process. I promise you’ll laugh, cry and be very very afraid by the end.
We'd like to thank Dan for taking time out of his insanely busy schedule to chat with us about “Red Light Properties.” Visit www.redlightproperties.com every Tuesday for the latest updates to the comic, and check out www.dangoldman.net for info on all of Dan's projects. Click on the player below to see a great video on the process behind “Red Light Properties.”
1-8-09: Tony DeZuniga "Just Another Job!"
Secret Identity:In the late 1960’s / 70’s there was a huge influx of Pilipino artists entering comics. Creators like yourself, Alfred Alcala, Nestor Redondo, Alex Nino and Gary Talaoc brought a unique style to comics. Who or what were the influences of an artist in the Philippines in your youth?
Tony DeZuniga: In the Philippines, everybody wanted to learn the style of Francisco Coching, he's like the Father of Filipino Comics. He's a very good story teller and great artist.
As a kid all I read were war comics and that is where I discovered you and the others. Not that I’m complaining, but why did you all end up there?
As new artist, you don't have much choice whatever they assign to you, that's your work. We can't complain.
In February of 1971 Jonah Hex first appeared in all star western # 10. the creation is credited to you and writer John Albino! As the artist on a character defined by his look, what were your contributions?
I was the one who design him. John Albano gave me the freedom to do the design and one day I was at the doctor's office and I saw the half man half skeleton and I decided it would be cool to have that kind of design for Jonah Hex and the readers loved it.
After you left Jonah Hex (Weird Western Tales) and moved onto other things, did you keep track of Jonah and his adventures?
Not really because for me, Jonah Hex was just another job.
A few years back, you got to return to the world of Jonah Hex with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray! What was it like to work with their vision?
Of course Jimmy and Justin are still young blood! There's more actions and I think they really know what they're doing and where they're going.
Later this year the Jonah Hex movie hits theaters. I’m wondering what you’ll think when you see your name up on the big screen?
I'm really happy that they chose Jonah Hex on top of all other comic characters and I'm very flattered so I hope it will be a hit!
Our thanks to Tony for taking the time to chat with us. Look for Tony's return to Jonah Hex in May with the hardcover No Way Back written by Jimmy and Justin.
12-4-09: Raven Gregory Talks 'The Waking' With Secret Identity
Secret Identity: Raven, how does it feel to be bringing the Wonderland trilogy to a close?
Raven Gregory: It’s really kind of surreal. The emotions keep changing every day. I feel like I’m in high school again. I can’t wait for it to be over but on the other hand I can see how much I’m going to miss these characters. They’ve really become real for me which I like to think is biggest goal for any writer. Then there’s my partners in crime. Dan Leister and Nei Ruffino. Both who have become great friends of mine and have just grown to such amazing heights from when we first started. It’s so wonderful to watch them come into their own, but there really is a bitter sweet sorrow that once this is over, it’ll probably be some time before we jam on something together again. Nei is becoming a huge star over at DC with “Supergirl,” and all the “Blackest Night” crossovers, and I can really see the sky being the limit for her. Dan Leister is going on to be the regular artist for Tim Seely’s “Hack/Slash,” and I can’t wait to see how he handles Cassie Hack. “Hack/Slash” is one of my favorite books.
You’re getting ready to launch “The Waking” as your next big project. Can you give us an overview of the story?
In New York City four detectives investigating two random murders begin to discover clues that the victims of these heinous crimes may actually be returning to avenge their own deaths. Now, in a race against time they must discover those responsible for the murders and uncover the supernatural source behind the “wakings.”
What attracted you to the zombie genre as the subject for your new project?
The idea of trying something more in line with the genre’s roots really appealed to me. A lot of the early zombie lore like EC Comics, Frankenstein, Poe, and Lovecraft focused on these creatures coming back from the dead as beings controlled by others or searching for those who had wronged them. I wanted to play with that concept versus the standardized zombie take we have going around today. Taking that idea and running with it felt like a story that might work out nicely.
Was the story something you had kicking around in your head for a while, or is it fairly new?
It’s something I came up with back when I was writing my first creator owned book, “The Gift.” I tried to get it into production more than a few times, but something would always come up and derail the book. So, I kept it in the drawer and kept polishing it for years. Then after “Wonderland” became such a hit at Zenescope I pitched them the idea and they dug it—and here we are.
You take an interesting approach to the narrative in “The Waking,” with two seemingly unrelated stories converging. Was that your plan from the start, or did the story start to write itself that way once you got started?
It was part of the plan from the beginning to make sure the narrator had a strong voice that the reader could relate to on some level, so as you grew to know the character in the story along with the narration that exposed you to how the character thought, it would flesh him out in a way that would really drive the characterization and the story forward to an ending that the readers would really feel.
Vic Drujiniu’s pencils look amazing on this book. How did you end up hooking up with him for this project?
We worked on a few stories in the past. He did “Grimm Fairy Tales” #30, “Tales From Wonderland: Alice” one shot, and “Tales From Wonderland: Hatter” part 2. I’ve always been a huge fan of his work as his rendering really fleshes out the characters and brings them to life on a whole other level.
What are some of the pros and cons of writing a completely original IP like “The Waking” as opposed to putting a twist on existing IP like “Alice in Wonderland?”
The biggest con is that with “Wonderland” you have that safety net of an established audience. The book has really developed a massive following and you can feel safe that if you tell a good story the book will do well. When doing original work you never really know for sure which side of the coin is going to turn up. You promote it the best you can and put it out there and that’s really all you can do. So it really does have that jumping out of an airplane experience which is exciting, but at the same time extremely nerve racking. The biggest pro is it's a whole new universe, and there are all new rules and all the restraints that apply to one world don't apply to another so you're free to go crazy all over again but in a new fresh way.
In addition to “The Waking,” you also have “Sci-Fi and Fantasy Illustrated” coming up. What can you tell us about that project?
Me and the guys at Zenescope are huge fans of Sci-Fi anthologies, and bringing this project out is just a huge thing for us right now. It helps us diversify the lineup a bit, while staying true to what we all love—a good story.
Secret Identity would like to thank Raven Gregory for talking with us about "The Waking" and all things Zenescope. "The Waking" is available for pre-order in the December "Previews," and the first issue will be shipping in February. For more on "The Waking" and the rest of Zenescope's current and future lineup, head over to www.zenescope.com.
8-28-09: Bob Heske Interview
By now hopefully you’ve read our review of Bob Heske’s “Bone Chiller,” a great horror anthology that features a collection of twisted short stories by Bob and a handful of different artists (if you haven’t read the review, click here). I recently had the good fortune of catching up with Bob about “Bone Chiller” and some of the other projects he’s involved with, as well as how he got into the comics industry.
SI: How did the 'Heske Horror' line of comics come about?
Bob Heske: I kinda backed into it. Back in 2007, I pitched a treatment to Alex Leung (Associate Producer of “Around the World In 80 Days” and also the bloke who helped bring THE RING horror franchise to the US) for a unique vampire tale. Since I was already doing a polish of a film script for him, Alex was kind enough to read the treatment. He told me that he really liked it, and that it would make a great … COMIC BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL!! Alex had recently established his STUDIO 407 indie comic shingle and was sorting through a number of quality submissions. So, I dusted off the treatment, threw away my Robert McKee screenwriting CD, and started writing a 4-issue series from the perspective of a comic book writer. While working on THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST (that’s the title of the vampire original graphic novel, or “OGN”), one of my short film scripts called THE WAITING ROOM was optioned and made into a short film starring Richard Schiff and Izabella Miko. I was a bit disappointed that the original story was altered quite a bit, so I decided to do a comic book version of the original tale wrapped into an indie horror comic series which I called COLD BLOODED CHILLERS: Tales of Suburban Murder and Malice.
I found that I could transform many of my stories into comic book format – for the price of producing one film short (and directing it badly, since I was an inexperienced filmmaker) I could create a 3-issue indie horror series and a “best of” anthology trade paperback for @ $10,000.00. While finishing up on THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST, I forged ahead with my CHILLERS franchise and actually completed it before THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST was finalized (the OGN is due out this Fall).
What was your experience like breaking into the comics industry as an independent publisher?
Rewarding personally, but not so much financially. On a personal note, I learned a lot and I was able to get it all done with a computer, an Internet connection, and creative “can-do” drive and passion. In just over a year I have made connections with publishers, artists, writers, distributors and other comic visionaries world-wide. It’s been flat-out fantastic. On the financial side, well … suffice it to say that so far this venture has been a bit of a tax write-off. Although I hope to make a profit (or break even) in year three. We’ll see!
Can you tell us more about how about how "The Night Projectionist" ended up optioned as a film?
At the time THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST was being developed, STUDIO 407 was sharing office space with MYRIAD PICTURES and had a first-look deal set up with this indie film production house and distributor. One of STUDIO 407’s projects – HYBRID – had already been picked up and was in pre-production. Apparently, some execs saw the galleys for THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST and were impressed enough to take a gander at the full story. They really liked the premise, felt it was marketable and unique, and decided to option the story for film. Currently, the project is in early pre-production. We expect the film to be released in 2011 in the funding falls into place and the script is up to par.
You've embraced digital comics as a form of distribution for your stories. How successful has that been so far?
Define “successful”. OK, I’m dodging the question a bit. In terms of pure sales, not successful – yet. Although, on DriveThruComics.com my anthology BONE CHILLER is #8 in the Horror genre (among 580+ books) for PDF downloads. Also, my COLD BLOODED CHILLERS and BONE CHILLER e-preview books on MyEbook.com have combined for 350,000 in total hits in a little over 6 months. So to me, in terms of awareness and getting the product “out there,” it’s been fairly successful. But to turn brand awareness into a net profit – I’m not there yet.
I should also mention that the first issue of THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST was released in February and has sold about 800-900 copies to date. Sadly, it wasn’t enough to merit Diamond carrying issues 2-4 in their Previews catalog since they raised their sales threshold a shitload last December. But I should mention that, at the time, the book had not been picked up to be made into a movie. The OGN (which is amazingly drawn by Diego Yapura with colors by Jorge Blanco) will be released this Fall and I’m hoping sales will be pretty good, which will also bring fans to my HESKE HORROR comic floppies and trade paperbacks.
(Point of Clarification: THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST is published and distributed by STUDIO 407 and my other books are self-published and sold under my HESKE HORROR brand.)
In reading "Bone Chiller," I really enjoyed some of the Lovecraftian twists you put on your stories. Who are some of your other literary influences?
You’ve already hit on one. Rod Serling, Stephen King, William Goldman, Joe Hill (LOCKE & KEY, HEART SHAPED BOX, 20th CENTURY GHOSTS) are others. A lot of my horror shorts are like a sniper’s bullet – fast, unexpected, and lethal. I really love the short story genre, particularly for graphic horror anthologies.
How about horror movies? What are some of your favorites you draw inspiration from?
For me, the Granddaddy of Horror is the original HALLOWEEN directed by John Carpenter and starring a not-yet-discovered bombshell nymph named Jamie Lee Curtis (circa 1978). Most recently, EDENLAKE gave me a scare. It’s a UK indie horror flick where there “monsters” are a band of unruly tweens who terrorize a young couple on romantic holiday. This one is definitely worth renting! Others in my fave five list: THE EXORCIST(1973), THE OMEN (1976), and THE RING (2002).
When you're not writing your own storeis, what comics are you currently following?
I just finished reading THE SURROGATES. I also enjoy indie comics put out by STUDIO 407 (HYBRID, SMUGGLING SPIRITS, NETHERWORLD), AZUREK STUDIOS (PIECES, HELIX), and INSOMNIA PUBLICATIONS (CANCERTOWN).
What’s coming up next for you, and where can people go to keep up with your projects?
Up next for Heske Horror is an End Times anthology called 2012: FINAL PRAYER. It features submissions from writers and artists from all over the world (US, UK, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, etc.) providing their creative perspectives about “what happens on 12/21/12 at 11:11 GST” (the end of the Mayan “long count” calendar which some deem to be either apocalyptic or transformative for the human race). It also includes a few narrative shorts by horror writers describing what happens “the day after” – as well as some brief essays from published 2012 book authors. Look for it this October. For more details, visit www.coldbloodedchillers.com.
7-6-09: Roger Langridge - From New Zealand With Love
Secret Identity: Before we talk about your current project, lets talk about the New Zealander who now lives in England.
Roger: I've been living in London for about 17 years now - I first came here from New Zealand because I wanted to be a cartoonist and, in those pre - Internet days, it helped to live in a country that actually had a comic industry. Now, probably not so much... but I've planted roots here now and I don't think I could ever go back for very long. I've been doing comics since I could hold a pencil, just about, but my first published work outside New Zealand was in 1990 - Art d'Ecco #1, for Fantagraphics. And I've worked for just about everyone since. Pre-Muppets, my best-known work was probably Fred the Clown, which was a web strip and a self-published comic book for a few years. The more or less definitive collection was ultimately published by Fantagraphics (those guys again!).
Secret Identity: Perfect segue… tell us about the project that got you on the map; Fred The Clown. Once i read it I didn't know what to think other than I liked it; funny, sad and a bit creepy. Where did this idea come from?
Roger: Life, dear boy, life! And I'm a huge fan of silent movie great Buster Keaton, whose melancholy expression accompanied his comedy constantly, and made it ten times funnier than if he'd been Jim Carrey-ing it up. Lesson learned: melancholia enhances comedy. Also, it partly comes from the British comedy tradition: British comedy heroes ten to be losers, flawed characters, characters trapped in hopeless situations without the self-knowledge to change themselves. I've never liked brash, confident comedians like Bob Hope... give me a loser every time.
Secret Identity: It seems every British artist or writer (natural or import) works on or near either Doctor Who or Judge Dredd and you are no exception. Tell us about the Straitjacket Fits?
Roger: That was a strip set in the world of Judge Dredd. In 1990 / 91 (I forget the exact date) I had made an appointment to see Peter Hogan, who was then the editor of a magazine called Revolver - they ran things like Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes' Dare and Milligan & McCarthy's Rogan Gosh. But on the day I showed up for my appointment, I was informed at the desk that Peter had been fired. Steve McManus, the editor of the Judge Dredd Megazine, kindly met with me instead - and after a chat, he invited me to submit a one page gag strip idea, which I did. I can't remember what it was called now, but Steve decided it needed another writer, so he paired me up with his editorial assistant, David Bishop, a fellow New Zealander, and my submission got tweaked into what became The Straitjacket Fits. (The name comes from a New Zealand band who were around at the time.) Eventually voted the least popular strip they ever ran - a badge I wear with perverse pride!
Secret Identity: As we draw closer to your current project, what were your first memories of the Muppet show?
Roger: I don't know if I can nail down a specific first memory. It's the overall tone I remember, really. I do recall recording the Spike Milligan episode - just the audio, by putting a cassette recorder right up next to the television speaker - and listening to it over and over again. I did that a lot, not just with the Muppets, but with comedy of all kinds. I wonder what happened to those tapes...
Secret Identity: Since it's now out in the open, when and how did you get the job on the Muppet Show comic book from Boom Studios?
Roger: It started a few years ago now, when I was doing a bit of illustration work for the now-defunct Disney Adventures Magazine. They'd been running some Mickey Mouse cartoons by Glenn McCoy that were drawn in a raggedy, underground-ish sort of style, and they were popular enough that they were looking to try a similar treatment with some other Disney properties, so they approached me at that point to take the job on - having seen my other work like Fred the Clown and noticing that I was already doing vaudeville sketches and made-up songs, presumably. So I did about 15 pages of that before the magazine was cancelled, only one of which was ever published - a Fozzie Bear one-pager. I was really disappointed that the work never saw the light of day, and thought that was the end of it, but those pages must have been circulating behind the scenes, because Boom eventually approached me to pick up more or less where I'd left off. And here we are!
Secret Identity: I and I think many fans want to thank you for capturing the feel of the show. The way everything revolves around the production but most important and this was a big selling point, you don't draw legs and feet!
Roger: They show up occasionally! But yes, it's not really an action-oriented strip. The faces are what carry the story most of the time. The fact that focusing on the faces evokes the puppetry of the show is a happy coincidence.
Secret Identity: Are there any Muppets you love to draw and any that give you trouble?
Roger: Love to draw: I'm finally getting the hang of Miss Piggy after a shaky couple of issues. Really hard to capture, but engaging because of the challenge (I guess that one comes under "gives me trouble" as well!) Crazy Harry is a slippery one to capture for some reason. I always have to have a few tries every time I draw him.
Secret Identity: After the Muppets, what's next for you? And please say more Muppets!!!!
Roger: More Muppets. Really, it's a full-time gig - Boom are breaking it up into four-issue chunks for marketing reasons, but as far as my schedule is concerned, it's an ongoing monthly. I've got a few things coming up which I was working on before the Muppets started filling every waking moment: a handful of Captain America backup stories in Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, written by me and drawn by Craig Rousseau, featuring a World War Two version of MODOK; a two-pager that's just come out in Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size #1, written by me and drawn by Jeff Parker; a short story called "Venus in Fur" for an anthology called Snow Stories, edited by Mike Getsiv; a short piece in Strange Eggs Jumps the Shark, written by Chris Reilly and drawn by me, published by Slave Labor Graphics; and a "Mugwhump the Great" short story in IDW's upcoming Act-i-Vate Primer, a prequel to my web strip (currently on hiatus as I try to get ahead on all things Muppet).
Our big thanks to Roger for taking the time to talk with us. For more information, please go to http://www.hotelfred.co.uk/
1-12-09: The World According to Kelly Yates!
Kelly Yates has got a busy February! First up, he and his studio mates at Tsunami Studios will be meeting and greeting at New York Comic Con and a few days later, his Amber Atoms # 1 will hit the stands the following Wednesday. A few weeks back, Secret Identity stalked, found and forced an interview with Kelly. Our thanks to him for taking the time and not filing the restraining order!
Secret Identity: I made my way around your site I thought 'holy cow' this guy is good! Your doodles page shows an incredible variety of styles... old school Marvel, manga and a wide variety of beautiful women. So, which is the real Kelly Yates?
Kelly: I think my “real” artwork will always be an evolution of styles, but I believe that work I’m doing on Amber Atoms is the direction I want my style to develop. Hopefully, every time I put my pencil to paper I’m learning something new and never know when that might push you into another direction.
Secret Identity: As I flipped thru Previews Guide, I was drawn to the full 2 page Amber Atoms layout. Tell us about the world of Madissome and Amber Atoms!
Kelly: Amber is a young girl in her late teens or early 20’s who still lives at home with her parents. She dreams of leaving her remote home planet of Madisomme and getting out into the real galaxy. However, she doesn’t receive any encouragement from her parents and feels stuck working in her father’s salvage yard business. What Amber doesn’t know is her father is actually trying to protect her from the history of the “Atoms” family name out in the galaxy, but everything changes that in issue #1.
Secret Identity: How long has this idea been germinating in your head and hands?
Kelly: The basic idea for Amber Atoms has been in my head for about 10 years, but I only really started to put it down on paper a few years ago. Like a lot of ideas, they need to mature and develop and I wanted to get a few issues in the can before submitting to any companies. I had 3 issues written, penciled and inked before I even submitted Amber Atoms to Image Comics.
Secret Identity: How does it feel to see the ad in Previews and think "wow it's finally coming out?
Kelly: It’s an incredibly amazing feeling to see Amber Atoms in Previews and for Image to support me with the double-page spread was even more awesome! But now reality sets in and so does the pressure of deadlines and completing future issues.
Secret identity: Who do you think will enjoy this story? It has a Flash Gordon feel to it with a very strong and beautiful heroine. Will it appeal to female readers?
Kelly: I certainly hope Amber Atoms will appeal to female readers because of the strong female lead character, but I hope it also appeals to the core comic book fan base. I approached Amber Atoms from more of an all-ages comic. Not necessarily a kid’s comics, but kids could certainly read it.
Secret Identity: A late congrats on fatherhood. Has being a father given you a different view on life and your work? Think about this! Issac has the cool father that draws comic books.
Kelly: Yeah, now I have to make the money because those new Spider-Man toys are getting expensive. Seriously, Isaac is truly a blessing and having him certainly helps me focus or what’s important. Material things don’t matter as much nor the 30 long boxes I have of comics.
Secret Identity: So we'll see you at New York Comic Con in February?
Kelly: Yes, I will be attending the New York Comic Con where I’ll be setting up with my studio mates from Tsunami Studios. Come by and visit.
12-12-08: Introducing... Chris and Alan Hebert
Secret Identity: Lazerman is a very funny look at the other side of superheroin'. The stuff we don't see like bad landings and misjudged good deeds. Where did this idea come from?
Alan: I came up with the idea of Lazerman way back in 1992. Back then, every new super hero seemed to be dark and gritty. I wanted something that felt "classic" but also something that I could lightly spoof the superhero genre with. Every kid who reads comics dreams about becoming a hero himself at one point. That's what Lazerman is: A comic book reader, who actually gets superpowers. I wanted him to be very innocent and a bit naive, going around the "real world" acting like a silver-age style hero.
Secret Identity: I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you two are brothers. How is it working with your sibling on a book? Any fights? Different opinions?
Chris: The only times we really fight are when I suggest a dialogue change...although I've actually contributed one or two really funny lines!
Alan: Actually, I think it's funny. We don't fight over Lazerman all that much, not like we do compared to other things <laughs>. We are very close compared to most brothers, we grew up best friends. We share just about every hobby and interest with each other. Being that close, we of course have our fights, but when we work on the comic, we tend to see eye to eye on most stuff.
Chris: You see, we've developed an interesting way of working. Generally, Alan writes fairly broad direction, and then kind of lets me lay it out my own way. He kind of trusts me to improvise a bit between the script and the finished pencils from a story telling standpoint, play with the timing, ect. I think it lends itself to a more natural feeling story. For the most part, it's HIS story, so I never really overstep what he has planned, sometimes we just have a healthy back and for about HOW to tell certain parts of it.
Secret Identity: I literally pulled this book out of a pile of self published books and the story and art really stood out. What do you think sets Lazerman apart from other comics?
Chris: Well I think there are alot of books that try to be "cool" or "badass"...we're the only one I know of that actually revels in un-adulterated GEEKishness. Very few people TRY to make thier hero akward. He's a lovable loser, really.
Secret identity: Lazerman has a nice feel to it. It reads much like Atomic Robo and i love the Robo! How are you guys able to put together a FUN comic book?
Chris: I think alot of it comes from our personalities...we're fun-loving folk...it's what we look for in our entertainment.
Alan: It's been designed with the hard core comic book reader in mind, for the love of comics we have. The good, the bad, and even the dopey things in the genre. This comic says 'Embrace it, love it all". How can that not be fun?
Secret Identity: Your company HB Comics is not just a one trick pony. You have another book coming out next summer called Vindication that your brother is writing. Can you tell us a little about it?
Chris: Ah, my book! I actually am the writer for that one, even though I am the artist for Lazerman...I have a strange rule for myself that I won't take on both roles for any book. Vindication is a team book that will expand greatly on the universe we've introduced in Lazerman. It deals with how the world reacts and changes now that all these super-heroic elements are introduced, and how people deal with super-powered beings suddenly being a real. A team ends up forming to try to confront those who try to take advantages of the world's growing pains. The book isn't quite as light hearted as Lazerman, the tone is more like a traditional modern comic...with my sly wit, of course.
Secret identity: In the top left corner i saw this is only a four issue limited series. Now i get sad and begin to swear (!@#$%). After the four, will we be seeing more of Lazerman?
Chris: Well we wouldn't want you all upset and swearing, now would we? Actually, there's some good news for you. Lazerman was always conceived as an ongoing series, but when we started serious work on the books with intention of actually releasing them, it became obvious we'd be racing the clock to get a monthly series done consistently. I actually made the suggestion that we publish them an arc at a time, so that we could take a few months in between story arcs if we needed to, to catch up. It was important to us that above all else we wouldn't say it was a monthly book if we had no way to assure we would actually have them done monthly. When we printed our "pre-release" run for conventions and such, we had the "limited series" tag on there, always with the intention of following it up with another "limited series" for every subsequent arc. Once we stated hitting conventions with the book, and we signed up with Enemi, and everything else, we decided to drop the limited series tag and just keep it a bimonthly series. Future printings of the book will replace that "limited series" tag with a new one keeping track of their story arc.
Secret Identity: For our listeners who know nothing about Lazerman, what can you say to make them interested in this book?
Chris: It's about a comic book geek who, after a bizarre accident, ends up with super powers of his own. So, he does what any comic book geek would do...he tries to be a superhero, like in his favorite comics. Of course, the world doesn't work like it does in comics, so things don't quite go like he plans. Basically, he has to learn that there is more to being a super hero than just having superpowers. As Matman said, it's a FUN book...we're trying to capture the lighthearted innocence that you don't find in comics anymore. It's totally unashamed of the "geekier" elements of super hero books...and because the main character is a geek himself, we get to bring an element of satire to it. In short, Lazerman is to the Superhero comics, what Shaun of the Dead is to Zombie movies...it lovingly satirizes the genre while also fitting neatly into it.
Our thanks to Chris and Alan for taking the time to chat with us. For more information on Lazerman, just go to www.hbcomics.com.
12-02-08: Kat Cahill... the Interview!
Secret Identity: I love your avatar. With the cuteness, music, comics and Japanese monster thing...you must be beating the guys off with a stick or at least a guitar.
KAT: It looks fantastic on paper doesn't it? The reality is not so much.
Secret Identity: So what's a nice girl like you doing writing comic books? Isn't this a guys thing?
KAT: I do think that the perception is that comics are a guy thing, but there actually are a good number of female creators. Of course, women are far outnumbered by men in the field, but that can be said of nearly all creative professions. The Guerrilla Girls once pointed out that "less than 3% of the artists in the Met Museum are women, but 83% of the nudes are female." Mind you, I do think things are improving, but very slowly.
Secret Identity: Tell us about the origins of Gallant Girl. Where did this idea come from?
KAT: "I Hate Gallant Girl" was originally an entry for Shadowline's "Who Wants to Create a Super-Heroine?" contest. When I heard about the competition, I brainstormed a few ideas and IHGG was by far the best of the lot. The premise comes from the observation that, even in this modern era, women are still often judged more on looks than talent. I figured that would hold true for super-heroes as well and from that an idea was born.
Secret Identity: What got you into comics as a youngster, assuming you were young when you got into them?
KAT: The first comic book I read cover to cover was "Maus." That was in seventh grade so I think that I would still qualify as a youngster at that point. A teacher of mine actually recommended it to me and I was reluctant at first because of the "just for boys" comic stereotype we already talked about. After that, I read a number of the Chris Claremont penned X-Men books because my brother owned them. Rogue was my favorite character by the way.
Secret Identity: On your My Space page I see a healthy obsession with Mothra. Of all the incredible Toho characters, why the big moth?
KAT: My brother and I used to watch Creature Double Feature when we were little. For some reason we could never allow ourselves to like the exact same thing. He claimed Godzilla first so I took Mothra by default since they were the two "good guy" monsters. Then that just sort of played out through our lives. Even when we got the Godzilla NES game, I only played it as Mothra. The fact that Mothra is a girl monster doesn't hurt either.
Secret Identity: I also see and hear you're in a band? Tell us about Renfield? The song on your page sounds a little Tom Waits meets the Dead Milkmen.
KAT: I joined Renfield about three years ago, but they have actually played around Los Angeles for a good number of years. Part of what attracted me to the band is that they put on a really fun live show. I hate when I shell out ten to twenty bucks and the band just plays in jeans and t-shirts. So I was already enjoying the show when I realized that they were performing a song about "The Killing Joke" from the Crown Prince of Crime's perspective. I pretty much demanded to play guitar for them after that. As a side note, we performed in San Diego during the last Comic Con so I was signing at the Shadowline booth during the day then rocking at night. It was a load of fun.
Secret Identity: The Dead Kennedys and the Talking Heads? That's pretty eclectic taste.
KAT: To me they are both punk bands. Obviously one is a lot more hard core than the other, but Talking Heads were one of the first CBGB groups and toured with the Ramones so I do feel that they have a certain amount of street cred. If you combine David Byrne with East Bay Ray, you come pretty close to the way that I play guitar.
Secret Identity: You are very proud of your Gretch hollow body, eh?
KAT: That's my weapon of choice for Renfield even on the heavy songs. Distortion causes the guitar to shriek like a wounded elephant. It's a great effect. Then I can roll back the tone for a nice jazz sound or crank it for rockabilly twang. Despite the reputation, a Gretsch can be a really versatile guitar.
Secret Identity: What other comic work can we expect to see from you?
KAT: First, I would love to write a second series of "I Hate Gallant Girl", but that will depend upon sales. I know that Kris, Jim, Seth and I all want it to continue so we shall see what happens. I am also working on a pitch for a sci-fi themed love story, but I want to keep that under wraps for now. Of course, I would be interested to see what I could do with either a DC or a Marvel title, but it isn't as though they have offered or anything. Oh yeah, and I want to try my hand at a steam punk story at some point.
Secret Identity: So what would be your dream project?
KAT: I would love to create an animated television show pitched at teens and young adults. One of my biggest inspirations to move into the field of comic books and animation was Hayao Miyazaki. If I could put out something half as good as he has, I would be overjoyed.
Secret Identity: And all this time i forgot to tell you how much i loved I Hate Gallant Girl!
KAT: Thank you. I hope you enjoy the rest of the series just as much. I know those of us involved are all exceptionally proud of it.
9-24-08: Talkin' with Andy Schmidt!
Andy Schmidt took a chance when he left Marvel. As an editor he not only saw what made great comics, he also saw what made great creators. He began the Comic's Experience to help aspiring creators to fulfill their dreams and recently was named Senior editor at IDW. With his free minute, Andy used the email to chat with Secret Identity and ...
Secret Identity: According to Joe Caramagna, you’re a very nice guy. Truth?
Andy: He's full of hate and lies.
Secret Identity: You had a long and very successful run as an editor at Marvel. What was it that made you say goodbye?
Andy: First, thanks, that's nice of you to say. I hope most readers thought it was successful (if they notice editor credits, that is). This is a funny question. No matter how I answer it, I always feel like there's a hidden implication that I'm trying to stick it to Marvel or holding back something. But the truth is, I was interested in doing more than the job description allowed and I was having a kid and I wanted to stay at home with him when he was born. But the fact of the matter is, I owe my career to Marvel Comics and specifically to Tom Brevoort there. He's not only a great boss but a tremendous mentor as well. But I loved that job and a very big part of me was sad to leave it even though I was excited about doing some of my own things.
Secret Identity: You are now the director of Comics Experience! This is an incredible way for hopeful writers and artists to find out what it takes to get noticed in the comics industry. How did this all come about?
Andy: I'll try to give you the short version. I was already teaching classes through MoCCA (The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) when one of my students there suggested I do the comics teaching thing as my own business. He really liked the course and thought it was something that there would always be a need for. I looked into it, built a website, found class space, etc. etc. and off we went!
Secret Identity: You have gathered an incredible cast of talent to help teach this course; Dan Slott, Fabien Nicieza, Chris Bautista just to name a few. How do you pick and choose who will teach? How cool to learn from someone like Dan Slott.
Andy: To be fair, Fab and Chris are guest speakers, coming in only one night for each class. But Dan and Mike Siglain from DC Comics are the full on week-to-week teachers now. It's pretty simple really, I think about who has the know how, the teaching experience, and who I would want to take the classes from myself, and then I go ask 'em! Fortunately, Dan and Mike both said yes!
Secret Identity: Like any entertainment field, i would think creators would be fearful of training and assisting who could ultimately be their replacement. Have you ever run into that attitude?
Andy: Not really. That's stupid. All the guys I know get a really great creative boost from teaching. I know the more I see gears turning in my student’s heads, the more excited I get about my own projects. I believe that's true for everyone else who's come into speak with the classes.
Secret Identity: Along with Comics Experience, you are now the Senior Editor at IDW. I'm not too familiar with them. Other than Doctor Who, Doctor Who Classics, Doctor Who - the Forgotten, Star Trek Year Four, Ghost Whisperer, Dreamland Chronicles and 30 Days Of Night i don't read much IDW (hehe). With G.I. Joe now coming in, this must be an incredible time there.
Andy: Absolutely! It's very exciting. Actually, just last month we officially became the fourth largest publisher in the industry both in sales and copies sold, finally beating out Image Comics. Nothing against Image, but it's been a long time since there's been a different #4 on the list. I'm spearheading G.I. Joe and it's incredibly exciting to be on the ground floor of something like this (I mean, the second time around). The company is growing and people there are amazingly talented. Oh, and don't forget Transformers and Terminator: Salvation! We do those too!
Secret Identity: The thing that sets IDW apart from the others is the quality of the books. Not just the creators and subject matter, but the paper quality, coloring, you name it. It's all top notch. As an editor that must make you very proud.
Andy: There were three things when I started talking with Chris Ryall and Ted Adams at IDW that really impressed me. The first was their willingness to take the interview process at a pace I was comfortable with (I'd been on my own doing freelance for a year and with my kid, so I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to go back to a full time position, much less move across the country). They were awesome to deal with and very in tune with my needs. The second thing was how they treat their creators. i made a lot of phone calls to see if creators were paid on time, paid all their royalties (this is sadly a big problem in our little industry, many publishers really don't keep clean books), and how they were treated personally and creatively. Across the board, all the creators I spoke with had only rave reviews of IDW. That was extremely important to me. And the last thing was exactly what you're talking about--the quality of the printing, the design, and the care that goes into each and every issue of those books. No other publisher puts out a comic that feels valuable on day one. Someone recently told me that IDW comics feel strange--they feel too good to be comics. Then we both laughed, but he's kind of right. I'm used to comics being printed on lower quality paper, and so they felt weird. But they you realize, oh, that's because they fell good and sturdy and look beautiful!
Secret Identity: When you first started out at Marvel those many moons ago, did you ever imagine your career would end up where it is now? Plus living in San Diego!
Andy: No. When I took the job at Marvel, the company was bleeding editors. I honestly thought I would be lucky to last three months, but I knew I had to take the chance or I'd kick myself for the rest of my life.
Our thanks to Andy! We wish him continued success in the future!
9-15-08: Creator Sean Boyle Talks HDL
Back at ConnectiCon 2008 in August, Max and Brian were introduced to a new rpg system called HDL. The game provided a flexible system of rules that could be applied to any genre or setting, making it very adaptable. We wanted to know more, so we tracked down Sean Boyle, the creator of the HDL roleplaying game, and the co-founder of Tremorworks, the company publishing the game. Sean recently took some time to chat with Secret Identity about the game, and what sets it apart from other rpgs.
SI: How does HDL differentiate itself from other rpgs?
Sean: In developing the system, I tried to take a number of directions to do just that. To start with, the focus of the HDL system is a combination of realism and simplicity. I always say, "If it works this way in real life, that's how it works in the game." Of course, it's impossible to be entirely realistic and perfectly simple at the same time, but I feel we've struck a really good balance between the two. As a universal system, HDL is also highly adaptable and flexible; there are no classes or levels, and character creation is point-based, so players can make pretty much anything they want; they can create a concept, rather than an archetype. Of course, this sort of game mechanic isn't totally unique, but HDL takes a few new directions init with the variety of stats and the addition of the Energy mechanic, which allows for "pushing" certain attempts or exerting additional effort.
Also, the main book, which in conjunction with the cards, is all you need to play. The books themselves are slim and inexpensive, so not only do players not need to rifle through tons of material to find what they're looking for, but they also don't need to spend a fortune just to play a game. The cards really add a lot to the game. People constantly mention that the cards are "optional," but they really aren't when it comes down to it. I can't even count the number of times the cards have saved my players; since the focus is on realism, combat can be extremely deadly, and without cards someone will die. But they do more than save lives in a fight, they also give players additional experience and role-playing opportunities, and really add a lot to the game overall.
While I could go on about what I think makes HDL unique, I'll just add one more thing: ESPers. The HDL Basic Rules includes rules for creating ESPers, powerful psychics and telekinetics. While ESPers aren't the main focus of the system, they are certainly powerful and exciting to play, with a wide variety of abilities.
What is the core mechanic of the HDL system?
At the core of the HDL system is its namesake: "Half Die Level." This was a system I developed to drastically simplify stat and skill checks, allowing a range of rolls without always using the same die or handful of dice, and without using the ubiquitous "number of successes" mechanic. Any check, be it a stat check, a skill check, or a combat roll, is made by rolling the die associated with the relevant stat, and then adding either another stat or a skill rating. The HDL determines what is rolled, based on the stat being half the maximum roll ("half the die level"). So, a stat of 5 is HDL 5, which is 1d10, HDL 6 is 1d12, and so on. There are no d20's, and once you get above HDL 6 multiple dice are used (HDL 7 is 1d8+1d6). Typically, stats range from 1 to 10, so the range of rolls seldom gets out of hand. The Basic Rules includes a table of up to HDL 60, but we've never gone that high, and my players rarely need to refer to the table anyway.
How long has the game been in the works?
I actually started developing the game in 1999, when I started to get frustrated by the limitations of every other game I'd played. Every RPG had its pluses, but none of them were simple or realistic, and seemed so arbitrary. No one could ever really make the character they wanted, and had to do everything within a narrow set of rules. So I decided to start developing my own "perfect" role-playing system. It's been an ongoing process, and it's undergone some really drastic changes since its early days. And, as anyone will tell you, game design is an ongoing process, even after a game is released, so the system has continued to evolve since its release in 2006.
What supplements are currently available for HDL?
Right now we have the main book and the cards, and we have three game settings. First is Demongate High, which is a supernatural high school setting where players are students with a variety of supernatural powers, like Summoners, Spirit Energists, and Holy Chosen. There's also Perfect Horizon, which I call "cyberpop" (it's not as gritty and dark as the cyberpunk genre, but the world is far from perfect and just as dangerous), inspired by manga and anime such as Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. Finally, we have our just-released setting, LUCID: Dreamscape Reality. This one is actually based on an idea I've been dwelling on for at least 13 years: what if rare, special individuals had the ability to enter reality from their dreams, and control it as if controlling a lucid dream? Players have this ability which they can use to control reality in an almost Matrix-style way, while fighting the mysterious creatures called Shadows, which hunt down Dreamers and make them disappear. LUCID is sort of a mini-setting, in that it can be applied to any other setting, but I think it's also the most open. Campaigns can take place in reality, fantastic dream worlds, or a combination of the two; Dreamers can travel through time, create their own worlds, and do virtually anything (given enough practice).
You guys jumped right into developing an HDL application for the new iPhone. What is the app, and how did it come about?
We actually have a couple of iPhone apps: the free HDL CharGen, which is a simple aide to character creation and helps quickly calculate derived stats; and HDL Touch, which is an HDL-based dice roller, so not only do you not need your handful of dice, but you also don't need to remember what HDL 7 is. Both of the apps were developed by Silverstreak Software, the developer who is also working to develop an online character generator that we hope to roll out soon, which allows players to build and save their characters online and contribute to an ever-growing database of characters for use as NPCs or reference for other players. The two iPhone/iPod Touch apps came out of that development, more as matters of convenience than anything else. Since several items in HDL (derived stats and HDL) are derived from other sources, it can be helpful to have a quick "cheat sheet" or, in this case, tool on your phone or iPod.
You also developed conversion rules to take characters from D&D. How easy is it to move a character into HDL from D&D?
Well, based on the fact that the D&D Conversion Guide is only 8 pages long, I'd say it's pretty simple! Like I said before, the goal of HDL is to be simple, so converting from any other system is fairly easy, depending on whether you just rebuild a character concept or try to directly convert every single rule. Of course, when going between systems, there's bound to be a few hiccups. For instance, the HDL system doesn't have a full magic system yet (but it will when the Options Guide is released), so when converting from D&D players need to make a choice as to how they want magic to work (the guide offers a few suggestions). I've converted a bunch of my old D&D characters over, and after conversion they become much more interesting, more a concept than a pile of classes; they become real characters. Having tried multiple times to convert characters from one system to another, I can say that converting to HDL is the easiest time I've had, mainly because the rules are so flexible already.
What do have coming up for HDL?
We're always looking to the future and developing new HDL material, so we have a vast array of upcoming stuff. In the near future, we have the HDL Options Guide, which will include tons of additional options for play, new Backgrounds, new ESPer abilities, a bestiary, and a
full-fledged magic system. It promises to be a great companion to the HDL Basic rules and any setting or campaign. There's also a supplement for Demongate High, which will include over a hundred new creatures, both demonic and angelic, as well as even more types of powers than are in the original DgH setting. I'm also working on a free HDL setting based on the webcomic I've been doing since 1999 called Darkbolt (www.darkbolt.com), which will be available for download via the Tremorworks and Darkbolt sites. In the Darkbolt setting, virtually any type of creature or character can be made, with any "cool anime power" you can think of.
Where can people go to get more info about HDL?
The Tremorworks website, www.tremorworks.com, would be the first place to go. I'd recommend visiting the forums and asking questions there if anyone has anything specific they'd like to know about HDL, Tremorworks, or any of our other games.
Secret Identity would like to thank Sean for taking time to talk with about HDL. Keep an eye on the news page for more exciting announcements about HDL in the future!
7-6-08: Unsung Heroes of Comic Books--Bob Almond Talks Inking with Secret Identity
Bob Almond is a well-known commodity in the inking community, having been around since the early nineties. His long list of credits include stints on Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Black Panther, JSA and most recently, Quasar. In recent years, Bob has also taken it upon himself to become an advocate for inkers, in an effort to raise awareness and understanding of the profession.
This year, Bob put together (with a little help from his friends) the first annual Inkwell Awards, created to recognize some of the best and brightest in the inking field. Bob recently took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to Secret Identity about the Inkwell Awards, and the oft misunderstood craft of inking.
SI: Do you think inking is misunderstood by most fans?
BA: Oh certainly. The problem is that the craft of inking was created exclusively as part of the 'conveyor belt' production process to speed things up. It allowed the popular artists to do more jobs by not inking themselves. So the general public doesn't have a reference point when they hear about inking. With writing, editing, lettering, coloring, they know what that pertains to and even penciling denotes the need for drawing. But inking? They think we fill in blacks,trace, even color. It's a constant effort to inform and educate.
SI: How do you describe inking to someone not familiar with it?
BA: Inkers are artists who reinterpret the pencil art using ink and tools. Sometimes that means they need to 'finish' the drawing because it's very loose or sketchy. Or this may mean they need to elaborate or fix some of the drawing or they may need to stay more faithful tothe tight pencil lines. But even so, they use line weights, light sources and shadows, textures, etc. to further enhance what's already rendered to make the image better and clearer for printing. That's the goal anyway.
SI: How did you get your start in inking?
BA: After I graduated in 1990 I mailed out penciling samples and received countless rejections. But I tried inking samples one time and later showed those samples to Jim Starlin. He happened to be then writing Warlock and the Infinity Watch and knew that inker Terry Austin would be departing the series. So after having me try-out inking over the penciller Angel Medina's samples and talking to his editor he was able to get me hired at Marvel in late '91. Right place, right time. I was fortunate that I didn't need to wait as long pounding the pavement as others have.
SI: Who have been some of your favorite artists to work with?
BA: Sal Velluto, Mike Lilly, Angel, Pat Olliffe, Kevin West, Leanord Kirk, Geof Isherwood, Tom Grindberg, and I'm sure to be forgetting someone.
SI: Are there particular artists that you would like to ink but haven't gotten the chance to?
BA: Doing commissions has been fun because it's allowed me to ink folks I've always wanted to ink but never had a chance and probably never will like Gene Colan, George Perez, Jim Starlin, Adam Hughes, John Romita, Shane Glines, Dan Jurgens, Dick Ayers, Don Perlin, Paul Ryan,MC Wyman, George Tuska, Samuel Clarke Hawbaker, Herb Trimpe, Bob Budiansky, Mark Beachum, and so many others. Whether commissions or official assignments, though, I still hope to one day ink Bernie Wrightson, John Byrne, Michael Golden, Tom Raney, Bob Layton, CarlosPacheco, and so many others.
SI: What inker's work is really impressing you right now?
BA: John Dell, Tim Townsend, Sandra Hope, Wayne Faucher, Mark Morales, somany....there's a lot of talent out there.
SI: How did the inkwell awards come about?
BA: I grew disappointed with how inkers were getting less credit than they used to like in solicitations and cover credits on collections, the Eisner's combined the 'inker' category into a 'penciller/inker' team category instead, and how the practice of skipping the craft of inking and jumping from penciling straight to color was becoming more prevalent. Ink artists were worried and they are not in a position with any leverage to do anything. So instead of more grumbling, I thought I'd do something positive as a sign of recognition for what we do and appreciation for the artists and their history. Someone had to. And the site also helps the general confusion about what we do by defining and describing it on a few areas. This may not inspire any long term change in the community but it's a start.
SI: Who helped you make the inkwell awards a reality?
BA: Well, I originally created the awards as a topic in my 'Inkblots' column in SKETCH MAGAZINE and my editor Bill Nichols suggested that I ask the inkers on the Yahoo group Inkwell mailing list for feedback. That was such a positive experience that I promptly contacted my committee members and contributors and we made it all a reality very quickly.
SI: What can fans do to support their favorite inkers?
BA: They can plug the site by posting online and word of mouth and vote. If you see sites that don't list the inker in review credits, in sample art credits, etc. let them know. The more we're in the public eyes the better. They can let editors and pencillers know which inkers do a great job in their opinion and what inker brings out the best of some pencillers. If the fans are not happy with some art that is not inked because it looks muddy or light or sketchy then let the editors know and don't support the title. It's all about quality comic book production. If the quality isn't there and it shows in the sales then it could put more ink artists to work. If not, it could become a lost art form.
Please visit the site at http://www.inkwellawards.com and show inkers some love! Our blood runs black!
Many thanks to Bob Almond for taking time to talk to us. Below is the list of winners for the 2008 Inkwell Awards:
FAVORITE INKER (RETRO)
Terry Austin (winner-tie)
Joe Sinnot (winner-tie)
Tom Palmer (runner-up)
FAVORITE INKER (MODERN)
Tim Townsend (winner)
Danny Miki (runner-up)
FAVORITE FINISHER/EMBELLISHER (RETRO)
Tom Palmer (winner)
Joe Sinnott (runner-up)
FAVORITE FINISHER/EMBELLISHER (MODERN)
Kevin Nowlan (winner)
Norm Rapmond (runner-up)
MOST-ADAPTABLE INKER
Tim Townsend (winner)
Danny Miki (runner-up)
MOST PROLIFIC INKER
Danny Miki (winner)
Joe Sinnott (runner-up)
PROPS AWARD
Danny Miki (winner)
Mark Irwin (runner-up)
THE CALL OF DUTY AWARD
Bob Almond (winner)
Tim Townsend (runner-up)
MVP AWARD
Danny Miki (winner)
Tim Townsend (runner-up)
THE JOE SINNOTT AWARD
Joe Sinnot (winner)
Al Williamson (runner-up)
6-30-08: David A. Flanary Talks PistolFist
David A. Flanary, Jr. is the co-writer of PistolFist, a comic about a runaway slave who becomes a hero during the American Revolution. The book is releasing this July, and David took some time to talk to us about the series and the challenges the book faced on the way to its upcoming release.
Secret Identity: For the uninitiated, can you give us the synopsis of PistolFist: Revolutionary Warrior?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: Absolutely. PistolFist is essentially the story of a runaway slave, set during the American Revolution. This former slave, Salem Attucks, is the fictional brother of real-life Crispus Attucks, who died during the Boston Massacre. Crispus' death looms pretty large over Salem, who becomes a masked hero fighting the British Empire. Over the course of the story, Salem comes into contact with a large number of real-life personalities, including Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and, of course, Benjamin Franklin, who serves as our co-protagonist.
Secret Identity: When you were first batting ideas for this story around, did you come up with the setting or the character first?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: I remember speaking about this topic to J.S. Earls, who created the character. J.S. is a big fan of period stories, such as Zorro, and wondered why nobody had ever attempted to create a superhero tale set during the American Revolution. The character of PistolFist grew quite organically out of the setting.
I actually didn't enter the picture as co-writer of the series until after J.S. Earls had completed a rough draft for PistolFist #1. He read one of my prose short stories, A Monument to Suffering, which was published in The Sorrow: Stories in Honor of the National Association to Protect Children. Once J.S. decided that he needed a co-writer, he immediately contacted me. At that time, both setting and character were already firmly in place.
Secret Identity: While Pistolfist: Revolutionary Warrior is a work of fiction, the story has a lot of ties to real historical events and people. How difficult is it to weave the fictional and non-fictional events together?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: Not as difficult as you might think. PistolFist almost had to be co-written by J.S. Earls and myself, because his basic nature and my background made the blending of fact and fiction quite simple. J.S. is a meticulous researcher. Once he set his sight on historical fiction, he spent hours researching the people, places, and events that shaped the American Revolution. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in History, and spent a great deal of time studying the American Revolution in college.
Secret Identity: What are some of the themes in Pistolfist that could be applied to what’s happening around the world today?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: That's a pretty loaded question.
I think the notion of freedom is at the top of that list. Freedom has become a bit of a slogan, a word everybody uses but few people ponder. PistolFist serves, I believe, as a reminder of a time when we did not have the luxury to take freedom for granted. How someone applies that reminder to modern situations really depends on his/her individual viewpoint. That is one of the wonderful things about PistolFist: the themes the story deals with can mean different things to different people.
Secret Identity: Pistolfist has had a very interesting publishing history. How did the title end up with Bluewater Productions?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: Originally, PistolFist was scheduled to be released by Alias Comics. Alias went so far as to publish the first issue in October of 2006. The second issue was delayed for a while. Then, Alias sent out a press release to inform everybody that they would restructure the company and become a Christian publisher. Despite a positive critical response, PistolFist ended up being a victim of circumstance.
Thankfully, Darren Davis, president of Bluewater Productions, was a fan of what he saw of PistolFist. I'm unsure if Mr. Davis first contacted J.S. Earls, or vice versa, but an agreement was reached, and here we are.
Secret Identity: Rumor has it that Pistolfist may also be branching into other mediums as well. Can you give us the latest on where else we may see the character in the future?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: Last time I spoke to J.S. Earls, there was nothing concrete to report. Still, the concept of PistolFist lends itself to all sorts of mediums. It would certainly work as a motion picture or even a television series. Frankly, I could imagine PistolFist branching out into animation. PistolFist is so universal and versatile that it could be adapted to suit any medium.
Some time ago, I actually suggested to J.S. Earls that PistolFist should become an old-fashioned pulp magazine. I've always been a big fan of The Shadow and Doc Savage, and feel that PistolFist would work really well in that genre.
Right now, however, the future of PistolFist is wide open.
Secret Identity: Where can people go to stay informed about Pistolfist?
David A. Flanary, Jr.: To stay informed about the upcoming mini-series, check out the official website of Bluewater Productions at www.bluewaterprod.com. J.S. Earls' Storyline Studios is another excellent sources of information, and can be found at www.freewebs.com/storylinestudios. Finally, my own website is a fantastic resource if you want to stay informed about PistolFist, or any of my other projects, and can be found at www.freewebs.com/the_rage.
Our thanks to David for taking time to chat with us!
5-25-08: Finnish-ing up With Temo Vuorensola
Fans of the sci–fi comedy film Star Wreck already know who Timo Vuorensola is. For those who don’t Timo, welcome! Timo is the director of the soon to be classic Iron Sky! And thru the magic of the world wide interweb, Timo chats with us about being from Finland, Iron Sky and the incredible undertaking of making a feature film. And of course our thanks for taking time to chat with us.
Secret Identity: This is an alternate history where the Nazis went to the moon towards the end of World War II. Where did this idea come from?
Timo: It was born, as most good ideas from Finland, in sauna. We were sitting there with Jarmo Puskala who also wrote Star Wreck, and he popped up this idea of Nazis on the moon. The idea sounded so wicked and intriguing, that we wanted to start building it. It's an interesting mix of fiction, conspiracy theories and fact.
Secret Identity: Being Finnish, do you have a different view or thoughts about World War II than those in America or Canada?
Timo: I wouldn't say that on WW2 we have different views. We all agree that the National Socialism was history's greatest mistake. Finland has its own history with Nazis - we were oppressed by them, but never allied with them, although we were fighting against the Russia at the same time. That wasn't the proudest part in our history.
Secret Identity: The Iron Sky clip we've been watching has a 1950's sci- fi look and feel to it. Is this by plan or is this just how it turned out?
Timo: Let's say that I wanted to create a film that's stylistically interesting. We will definitively take influences from 50's type of films in general, and clash them together with today's filmmaking traditions, and hopefully come up with something new and interesting.
Secret Identity: On the site, you ask for people to help as part of the production team. How can they get involved and what are you looking for?
Timo: The way to work with us is to join the production via an internet platform we've built just for this, called Wreck A Movie (www.wreckamovie.com). It's a collaborative film production platform, where the film will be sliced into tasks and the community is asked to bring their ideas and creativity to the production. Later on we are looking to expand the platform to accept all kind of films to be set up there for filmmakers to find communities around them.
Secret Identity: What is it about the Nazis that make them so scary and relevant today? We know thru history the horror and atrocities that were committed, but what is it?
Timo: Probably because as everybody thought after the war that 'never again', but we've been seeing that kind of activism rising up in all corners of the world ever since, and Totalitarism is on the rise again. It's scary, 'cuz it's so close to where certain things are leading the world to.
Secret Identity: Will the finished film look like it does in the trailer?
Timo: The demo teaser is more like animated concept art instead of being actual material from the film.
Secret Identity: You have a great site with war bonds posters and blueprint sketches. How fun was it to recreate things like this with a bit of a ‘spin’ on them?
Timo: It was totally hilarious. We've always been very much working on stuff that we find fun and hilarious, crazy ideas that keep us alive.
Secret Identity: What are your hopes for Iron Sky? Is there a plan or hope for it to be on the big screen or will it just be a web movie?
Timo: We are aiming for the big screens, first and foremost, but are also seeking for an intelligent internet distribution option. Right now, all the big players are way in the woods with their VOD and Internet video plans, we might need to teach them a thing or two :)
5-2-08: Rebekah Isaccs Gets Drafted - The Interview
Secret Identity: Nice spelling on the first name. My daughter is an Old Testament spelling Rebekah!
Rebekah: Let's hear it for old-school Rebekah! You have good taste in names, my friend. I have to laugh when people assume my spelling is the new, trendy take on the "original." Hah! And since you seem to be familiar with the Old Testament, you can probably tell my parents thought they were being pretty clever putting Rebekah with Isaac(s).
Secret Identity: Since we cleared up the name thing, tell us a little about yourself?
Rebekah: I grew up in a tiny mountain town where no one really reads comics. I've always been into sci-fi, fantasy, and video games and I've drawn since I could hold a pencil, but it wasn't until I read Watchmen at about 16 that I knew I wanted to draw comics. Since then I've been devouring every title I can get my hands on. When I'm not doing that I'm still playing way too many games, geeking out over Lost with my boyfriend, and studying Italian for when I flee to Sicily and am never heard from again.
Secret Identity: So how does a girl get into the ‘man's only’ world of comic books?
Rebekah: I'm still not sure I'm fully in it yet, but attending Savannah College of Art and Design really helped. The professors there, though mostly male, are incredibly open-minded to women in comics and really bust their butts to help ALL their students find work. They never pigeonhole people, say, expect all the guys to draw superheroes and all the girls to draw manga. I'm sure I would have given up a long time ago if I hadn't had that support network in school.
Secret Identity: Has your gender ever gotten in the way of being taken serious as an artist?
Rebekah: Good question. I think very few people in comics knowingly harbor prejudice towards female artists, but it definitely still exists subconsciously. A comment I get often in portfolio reviews from male artists or editors is "wow, you draw like a guy!" I take that for what it is - a well-meaning compliment - but it's still makes me a little sad that there's still a "way" that women are expected to draw. I don't think I've ever had a problem being taken seriously, per se, but it has been difficult for people to see me not as a female comic book artist, but just as a comic book artist, plain and simple.
Secret Identity: Tell us about your previous comic book work or where we may have seen you before.
Rebekah: To be honest, I'm still pretty green, so I'm doubly grateful that Devil's Due took a chance on me as a series artist. I drew a graphic novel last year for the new Twilight Zone series for younger readers that'll be published in 2009. I'm a little embarrassed by my work on it, but at least it's a sign that I'm improving and learning from my mistakes. After that, I did 3 guest issues on Hack/Slash for the Tub Club arc. That was awesome; hot chicks, a giant flesh-stealing snake monster, and lots of good old-fashioned gore! It wasn't even like work!
Secret Identity: So how did you get the job on Drafted? I mean, this is a big book for Devil’s Due!
Rebekah: I had originally gotten in with Devil's Due when my former SCAD classmate Mike Bear (GI Joe and soon Voltron) recommended me for the guest issues on Hack/Slash. I sent over my scant portfolio and did a pin-up of Cassie that (writer) Tim Seeley really liked. After my 3 months on that were over, Drafted really just came out of the blue. Mike O'Sullivan (editor for both titles) asked me if I'd be up for another project, I said heck yeah, and there ya have it!
Secret Identity: Have you been reading Drafted?
Rebekah: I hate to admit it, but I read it for the first time after I was hired on. It has just slipped under my radar somehow, which is insane because I'm always looking for good sci-fi comics ... and believe me, this is the best out there. I go back through and reread sections periodically to remind myself of the character's histories and motivations. That's what I love about this series, it's not about airbrushed, veneered Ken and Barbie dolls running around in space, it's about real people!
Secret Identity: Well, good luck on Drafted and thanks for taking the time to chat with us!
Rebekah: Always glad to hear from Drafted fans! I just checked out your link and browsed around your site for the first time, actually. Looks like you've got tons of great stuff! I have a feeling I'm gonna be procrastinating there for a while!
Look for the first Drafted trade coming soon. When you’re done and wanting more (because it’s that good), look for Rebekah’s first issue hitting the stands next month! To get a sample of her incredible art, go to her online gallery at http://rebekahann.deviantart.com/. Our thanks to Rebekah for not reading the Devil's Due "Don't talk to Secret Identity'" memo.
4-9-08: Monkeying Around With James Vining!
Secret Identity: So who is the real James Vining?
James: I graduated from SCAD in 2000 and joined the Coast Guard so I could live in Alaska for a bit. Once my tour was up, I used the money I saved to work on First in Space without the little inconvenience of a day job. Currently I'm working full time illustrating flash games and going to school here in Indianapolis for my masters degree.
Secret Identity: First In Space is like nothing I’ve read before. Were you a comic book fan as a kid?
James: I didn't get into comics until junior high or so. Up until that point I was more interested in animation and strip cartoons. My first comics purchase included an issue of Batman, X-Men, and a back issue of Cerebus the Aardvark and Ninja Turtles. I did the whole Image thing and lost interest for a while-basically until college. That's where I was exposed to stuff that I'd never heard of before and got excited about comics again.
Secret Identity: It’s not obvious who your influences are, so please tell us…
James: Hard to say. There are folks that I like a lot, but "influences" implies that I'm trying on some level to be like them. Believe me, I tried for a while to be as awesome a draughtsman as Mark Schultz, or as brilliant a designer as Durwin Talon or Brian Stelfreeze but I quickly realized that I was going to drive myself nuts, so I came to the conclusion that I was better off trying to draw like me. I looked at Bruce Timm stuff when I decided to do First in Space because I wanted a more sustainable style for my first book.
Secret Identity: Where did the idea for First In Space come about?
James: I made a doodle at work one day of an angry chimp in a space suit with the title "First in Space." I thought that might be a good subject for my first book, so after some really awful fictional versions, I decided to do a little research and stuck with trying to make a little more historical based fiction.
Secret Identity: Did the story end the way you started it or did it change as you were writing it?
James: I pretty much knew that it had to end with Ham in the zoo. The point of the story is the disposable nature of not only the space animals, but those we use to achieve any ends. We have short memories and little appreciation for the sacrifices that are made in our names, militarily, scientifically, even interpersonally.
Secret Identity: As an animal lover, I never thought of the emotional toll or disposable lives these poor animals had. Was this what you were looking to get across?
James: See the above comment. Yeah, I hoped I'd get some of that across. Hopefully more people get that. I have read some reviews that are angry that I didn't push it further, but I didn't want to find myself pushing an agenda. The best way to get people to shut down is to tell them how to think about something. It's better if they come to your conclusions naturally, without conflict.
Secret Identity: What reaction have you gotten in the press or from the readers of First In Space?
James: It's been very positive. Schools and libraries have been picking it up pretty well, and there are lots of space enthusiasts. And I can't say enough nice things about Oni Press. They've been really great and supportive and have been good about nurturing my next project along. It's nice to be a part of that family because I have such good company creatively and personally.
Secret Identity: So other than this interview, what are you working on now?
James: Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in my thesis project. I've done my research for the next book which will likely be about Von Braun. It'll be a busy summer for me!
Our thanks to James for taking time away from the important things in life and chating with us. First In Space can be found at any online books shops or the Sixteen Acres Library In Springfield, MA. For more about James you can go to www.firstinspace.com.
3-16-08: Thomas Boatwright, the Interview!
Secret Identity: So who is this banjo playin, comic drawin’ guy from North Carolina?
Thomas: My name is Thomas Anderson Boatwright. I am 27 years old. I was born and raised here in North Carolina. I am an only child so I spent a lot of time alone making up stories with my toys. Not just "this guy punches this guy" but epics. I spent an entire summer once acting out a Ninja Turtles saga. I read a few comics my Dad had leftover form his time collecting them. He had sold all but a grocery bag by the time I got to them. I watched a lot of cartoons and daytime TV. Comic strips made more of an impact on me than comic books. It wasnt until about 2001 I got serious about making art a career. I took a few classes at a community college and spent a year at the Kubert School in New Jersey.
About the banjo… I've always loved old time music, so when drawing became more of a job and less just for fun, I picked up playing Clawhammer banjo back in March 07.
Secret Identity: How did you first hook up with your partner in crime, Ryan Rubio?
Thomas: I first worked with Ryan while he was writing the script for a monster movie I was doing concept art for. The movie fell through, but we enjoyed working together. He saw an image that I drew of a guy and his creepy sidekick killing a vampire in a crypt. We tossed ideas back and forth on that until we created Cemetery Blues. We self-published a three issue mini-series called Cemetery Blues: The Curse of Wallace Manor.
Ryan and I pitched Cemetery Blues to them and we all decided that a sequel was in order. If that sold well enough, they would package the first series and this new one in a trade. The first issue of Cemetery Blues: The Haunting of Hernesberg was released on January 16th 08.
Secret Identity: Your art style is both beautiful and a bit creepy at the same time and I mean that as a compliment. Where did this style come from?
Thomas: I've always been drawn to creepy stuff. Halloween is my favorite time of the year. I got a collection of Charles Addams cartoons when I was young. I discovered Edward Gorey a few years back when I realized the opening cartoon of Mystery was based on his art.
When I first got serious into doing comics, I was looking at all sorts of guys. And think Bruce Timm and Mike Mignola were the biggest. I sort of rediscovered Guy Davis though, and came at comics from another angle. I stopped trying to be somebody else and started drawing the way I draw. I figured I would just let it develop over time, which it has. I was just looking back at the first Cemetery Blues art compared to what just came and I've grown by leaps and bounds.
Secret Identity: I first became aware of your work when your bosses at Image sent us scans and pages of Edgar Allen Poo! Title and concept alone give it a 5 out of 5. How did you get involved with the book?
Thomas: Dwight MacPherson needed a fill-in artist for one of his webcomics, WHACKED! I sent him some links to what i had at the time and he gave me a three page script. When that was done he told me he had a project that my art would be perfect for. He liked my art and got me in on his next project "The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo". It started as a webcomic and then Shadowline Image Comics picked it up as an original graphic novel. It was published in August 07.
I didn’t get Edgar Allan Poo at first, but after seeing the characters as drawn by other artists, I saw the potential of what I could do with it. I really liked the idea of drawing Victorian mice in a city built out of Christmas decorations.
We started doing it as a weekly webcomic on Drunkduck.com. After finishing the first chapter/issue, we pitched it all around. Jim Valentino got back with us and wanted to do it as a graphic novel. It came out August last year. A second book is in the works, but I'm only doing the cover. Dwight has his good friend Avery Butterworth doing the interiors this time.
Secret Identity: What was the reaction to your art when that book hit the stands?
Thomas: General praise. There were a couple of people who would rather have had David Hartman, who did the cover art, do the interiors. For the most part however, reviews favored the art. Sometimes even more so than the story.
Secret Identity: Your current project is the above mentioned Cemetery Blues, a book you not only draw but authored with Ryan Can you tell us about this book?
Thomas: Cemetery Blues follows Ridley and Falstaff, two low-life henchman who work for the ghost of legendary monster hunter, Wilhelm Lear. It’s a horror comedy following in the footsteps of the films from Hammer Studios.
This is a sequel to a previous Cemetery Blues story that Ryan and I self-published in 2006. The first one was called The Curse of Wallace Manor and this one, now from Image Comics Shadowline, is called the Haunting of Hernesberg.
To find out more, or to contact Thomas, use any of the links below. Our thanks to Mr. Boatwright for taking the time to chat with us, via the world wide internet!
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/taboatwright
Deviant art profile: http://boatwright.deviantart.com/
and blog: http://boatwrightartwork.blogspot.com/
2-14-08: BioWare's Drew Karpyshyn on Mass Effect
Drew Karpyshyn has worked as a writer for BioWare on many of their most successful games, including Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the OldRepublic. Most recently, Drew was the lead writer on the award winning Mass Effect, which has sold over 1.5 million copies to date. Secret Identity chatted with Drew about the game and the universe that he helped create.
SI: Having been the lead writer for both Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) and Mass Effect, how did the writing process on KOTOR inform what you did with Mass Effect?
Drew: Obviously with each game we see the writing process evolving and improving. BioWare has always excelled with branching narrative storylines, ever since the days of Baldur's Gate. However, with KOTOR we made the dramatic leap to full non-player voice over, which forced us to change our writing style to make it more cinematic; dialog became tighter and punchier. This paved the way for us to add player voice over in Mass Effect, and to once again take another step towards a fully immersive dialog experience.
SI: Mass Effect is a game that players can experience in a myriad of different ways. How do you craft a story that people will be approaching from multiple angles?
Drew: Branching narrative is the most difficult part of writing BioWare style games; it really is something unique to the games industry. To manage it, we have a team of writers who are each responsible for a specific area, planet or region in the game, as well as a lead writer who oversees the writing process and helps to keep all those different areas and player choices on track. There isn't any real secret to it, however; it's just a talent the BioWare writers have developed over years of creating our unique style of games.
SI: In Mass Effect, players always have two NPCs in their party, which they pick from a roster of six. How difficult is it to make each NPC interesting enough that players will want to experience playing with each of them, as opposed to always picking the same two and overlooking the others?
Drew: The interesting thing about the NPCs is that we don't actually worry about players picking only their two favorites and using them all the time; if that happens, we're okay with that. What we focus on is making each character unique from each other character, and interesting on their own merits. That way we insure every player will have two (at least) party members they care about. Often, of course, players are intrigued by 3, 4 or more different party members, but we don't specifically set out to make this happen.
SI: It was great to see that Captain Anderson is the main character in the prequel novel Revelation. Was he always intended for the prequel story, or did that decision come about during the development of the game?
Drew: Anderson existed in the game before the novel was even begun. It took us almost 4 years to create Mass Effect, but only about a year to go from blank page to on the shelves for the novel, so the game had to come first. When I set out to do the novel, I knew I wanted to introduce Saren to the readers, and I knew I needed a strong, moral center in the novel to balance Saren's actions. Anderson - the player's mentor in the game - seemed like a perfect fit, and his history with Saren was already part of his background. All the pieces just fell into place.
SI: You’ve written games and novels based in the Forgotten Realms and Star Wars universes, both of which have established “rules” that you must play within. Do you find it liberating to write in the Mass Effect universe, in which you are making most of the rules?
Drew: There are good and bad elements to working in your own setting as opposed to an established setting. Obviously, Star Wars and Forgotten Realms have a huge audience, and as a fan of both settings I understand what readers are looking for when they pick up a SW or FR novel. With Mass Effect, the audience isn't established, so as an author you're taking more of a risk... you hope your instincts are correct, but you're never quite sure if you know what the fans really want. Also, the freedom to create everything from scratch also comes with a responsibility to explain everything so the reader can follow the action. For example, I don't have to explain the Force in a SW novel, but when I mention biotics in Revelation, I knew readers would need some exposition to help them grasp the concept.
SI: Is there anything you do differently when writing for a game like Neverwinter Nights, which has the potential for user created content, as opposed to KOTOR or Mass Effect, which do not?
Drew: We treat the user created content separately from what we are doing, so they don't really overlap. We used the same process on NWN to create the stories (and on the Hordes of the Underdark expansion) as we did on KOTOR and Mass Effect. The end user tools have more of an impact on the technical side of the game than the writing.
SI: Are there plans to take the Mass Effect into other mediums, either in-house or through licensing, such as comics or pen-and-paper RPGs?
Drew: Obviously we've already expanded into novels, so we are open to exploring other mediums with Mass Effect. However, there are no official plans in place at the moment.
SI: Last, but not least: Will the second installment of Mass Effect pick up immediately after the events of the first game, or will it be similar to KOTOR 2 where it will take place in a different time period, but feature cameos by some members of the original cast?
Drew: I can't say too much about ME 2, but you will expect to see both familiar and new faces. And of course, Shepard (your Shepard!) will be the main character.
Thanks again to Drew for taking time to answer our questions! For more info on Drew, head over to http://www.drewkarpyshyn.com. To find out more about Mass Effect, check out http://masseffect.bioware.com/
2-5-07: Talkin' Tardis with Gary Russell
Gary Russell is a lucky man! He was able to take his boyhood passion and turn it into a career. Lucky for us, Gary took the time to chat with Secret Identity. As recent converts to the good Doctor, Gary was able to help us with some questions we had. After all, Doctor Who has over 40 years of history, ten doctors and oh, head hurts! Help us Gary!
Secret Identity: When did you first discover the good doctor?
Gary: When I was but a babe, sat in front of the TV with my brothers watching William Hartnell turn into Patrick Troughton. Not that I realized what a momentous occasion that was then, to me it was an old man falling over but I can picture it vividly. The next few years kinda passed me by until 1968 and evil of the Daleks getting a repeat. From then on, I was hooked. That music, that credits sequence. Daleks! Old houses! Explosions! The Emperor! And Troughton. What wasn’t to fall in love with?
Secret Identity: For a British TV fan was / is it hard to follow the constant changing of doctors? In the states, we can't handle change in anything, including our stories.
Gary: Nope, easy because change was such a fundamental part of the programme. The supporting cast changed almost annually so when even the lead hanged, it really wasn’t a big deal. I mean, obviously each new Doctor is a HUUUUGE deal, but in terms of public acceptance, it was nothing. Perhaps it’s why we accepted every one of Blake Carrington’s kids growing new faces every so often 20 years later.
Secret Identity: Did your parents ever tell you "Dr. Who will rot your brains" or "all that knowledge won't get you anywhere?" If so, how was the gloating?
Gary: No at all. My mother was incredibly supportive of my love of Doctor Who right from the word go because it inspired me to be creative from a very early age. I was writing my own Doctor Who stories with Jon Pertwee’s Doctor from Day One. I was a very early reader too, I could read well from the age of three, if not a bit before, and lapped up books of all kinds, and that was because my love for Doctor Who inspired me to explore. She was less keen on Marvel Comics it has to be said, but every cloud and all that. And I’ve loved comics for over two thirds of my life now. I blame Roy Thomas and Rich Buckler for that.
Secret Identity: Since so much time had passed from the end and resurgence a few years back, were UK audiences clamoring for a return or was it just a pleasant surprise?
Gary: Like so many things in life, I’m not sure people realized how much they wanted Doctor Who until it was delivered to them on a plate. And to stretch that metaphor to death, it was a meal served up on the finest china, cooked with the finest spices and tasting of pure heaven, all of which is down to Russell T Davies, who just understood, on the nose, exactly what Doctor Who needed to be in 2005 that it wasn’t in 1963, 73, 83 or 89. Now I think people (and be people I mean the general viewing public rather than us hardcore fans) can’t imagine it not being here. And there’s finally a new Doctor to inspire this generation of kids to be creative and not mundane. And going by the pictures and letters that wend their way Cardiffwards, creativity is utterly the primary thing Doctor Who inspires, followed by loyalty and a basic feeling of all-round goodness. Russell is the Willy Wonka of TV without the bad hair or Ooompa Loompas, but with the wit, charm and imagination to fire the kids up. Actually, sometimes, the rest of us do feel a bit like Oompa Loompas. Minus the chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate....
Secret Identity: This may be a hard one, given the history, but whowas your favorite Doctor and why?
Gary: Jon Pertwee, ‘cos he’s the one I grew up adoring. No contest.
Secret Identity: Let’s talk current times. Tell us about your involvement with IDW's Doctor
Who comic, which is coming out in January.
Gary: They asked and I said yes. No one in Cardiff had heard of IDW but I had ‘cos of their CSI stuff and I knew the Star Trek license was theirs too, so I raved and cheered and generally explained in irrational terms how brilliant they’d be, and how important the show would be to a smaller company. And I think Chris Ryall charmed the pants of everyone, too. That helped.
Secret Identity: Why do you think the last three seasons of Doctor Who have struck on with American fans where past seasons didn't?
Gary: You know, I’m not sure. The oft-lauded stuff about it being appealing because of its British eccentricity is a bit hackneyed as an explanation and if that was the reason, the 1996 Paul McGann Fox TV Movie (which I still adore) would’ve worked cos it had that in bagfulls. Why has the new show worked then? I think it happened at the right time, and because it’s good. Russell, Julie Gardner and everyone else are never quiet about their love for anything Joss Wheedon, Smallville, Supernatural and shows like that. Fantasy TV now made for a wider audience. And Doctor Who is utterly the most unique show! There’s nothing like it, nor will there ever be. And no one need try, ‘cos this version’s not going away.