coffeespooning

In terms of relationships, what I miss by far the most is the raw newness, the joint obsession in the early days, the early weeks.
The eagerly anticipated and welcomed mindmeld.
That fiery acceptance of fabled tomorrow of tomorrows.
That spirited energy, electric words, electric looks, electric air, everything.
Moments that hit with such impact you know they are already carved into memory forever, no matter what else transpires.
Flowing like a celestial design of clockwork unraveling, instilling meaning in all, invigoratingly bathing everything in youth and fancy and the strength of possibility.
The unspoken validation of being/the unspoken being of validation, the painless voids filled like a wineglass early in the immortal night.

another chance to get it right

blind'd

I wrote a guest blog over here.



Old ghosts and all that jazz. My attempt at explaining a gigantic "what if" from a year ago.

my definition of: TIME

salt in the wounds.

torquemada DIABLO!

Talking with Teller of Stories Scott Marcano

posted on May 26th, 2009 in interviews

Scott Marcano is one of those people living a very interesting life. From working for MGM (Bio-Dome, anyone?) to teaching troubled teens to self-publishing graphic novels, Scott is a creative force to be reckoned with. Known in many circles as “Mister Diablo”, he keeps busy nowadays with assorted writing ventures, making his own movies, and keeping the fading art of sharing scary campfire tales from slipping away into the schizophrenia of our culture. Richard Caldwell was proud to interview him here.

Scott, you produce comics, you make movies, you go in many directions. Share with us some of your background- when did you first consider a career in the Arts?
And what exactly gave birth to Diablo- the company and the persona?

Yes, I do work in different mediums like film and comics, but to me, it all seems to boil down to the same impulse- to be an imaginative storyteller. I grew up on the west coast, just north of Los Angeles. I’ve always had a big imagination and loved to tell stories. It was probably stimulated by reading fantasy and science fiction books voraciously as a teenager. The Dragon Riders of Pern, John Carter of Mars, the works of Tolkien, CS Lewis, Asimov were some of my favorites. I was always making little comic books and writing short stories to entertain myself with.
Funny enough, however, even though I always made films and comics, I never took being a writer or filmmaker very seriously until I was in my second year of college at UC Santa Cruz. Up until that point, I think I had some misguided ambition of becoming a politician or lawyer or something awful like that. I didn’t really have the confidence to think I could actually make a real living at comics or films. I remember I was at a party and a friend of mine starting talking about how great the film program was at NYU, and suddenly it just clicked in my head- I had to go to New York and learn how to make films. After I finished my undergrad at NYU, I traveled across South America for awhile looking for adventure, then I went to graduate film school at USC. Things took off really quickly for me in film school, and I sold my first script before I completed my studies.
The Diablo persona had its origins when I was a kid. For some reason, the other kids at school always thought I had a slightly devilish look to my face- maybe it was my slanted eyes and high cheek bones, I don’t really know, but they used to tease me all the time and say I was Rosemary’s Baby or Devil Boy. I always found the notion to be somewhat amusing. Years later, as an adult, I had a job between films, teaching creative writing to middle and high school kids in South Central Los Angeles and my students (who could never pronounce my name properly to begin with) also seemed to think I looked a lot like Satan, so to make it easier on them, I told them to just call me “Mr. Diablo”.
Around the same time, I started telling them a lot ghost stories. In part to motivate them to do their work and also as a way to teach them about act structure and how to tell an entertaining story. It really took on a life of its own after that. I became a mini-celebrity at all the schools I worked at. I became “Diablo” - the ghost storytelling teacher. I put some videos up on the internet of me telling my stories and soon kids I’d never laid eyes on before were stopping me in the street and asking for my autograph.
Eventually, I started my own website, Mister Diablo’s Neighborhood (www.misterdiablo.com), and put up all my stories, videos and pages of comic books I’ve developed. Word about the website has spread to pretty much every teenager in South Central. It became so popular that a Los Angeles Unified School District official banned access to it from school computers, which has only succeeded in making it ten times more popular. So, “Diablo” has become my official horror pen name at this point. I can’t really escape it anymore, even if I tried. When the time came to start my own production company, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate moniker than Diablo Productions.

I think artists can affect more people than politicians or lawyers, or at least affect people more positively. I also think there are many a teacher who would be envious of the ability to capture and maintain the attention of students like that as well.
I read (and reviewed) your graphic novel last year, The Unwanted. Was that the first real professional stab at comics for you? And what was the process like, for you personally? Admittedly, parts of it were a bit shaky, but I have watched dozens of B-horror movies that lacked that level of imagination or characterization (nudge nudge).

Yes, I’m very lucky to have had the success with students that I’ve had. It’s been a very rewarding experience. The Unwanted was one of my first professional forays into comics. When we decided to start Diablo Productions we envisioned it as both a film and comic book company. To this end, we started developing three graphic novels simultaneously. Sadly, the artist on the first GN that was started died unexpectedly and we had to scrap it. The second one, Hum, took a bit longer to develop because we were using color and needed to be a lot more meticulous and make a lot of changes along the way to make sure the story was clear. The Unwanted ended up being the first graphic novel we published, because the story and artwork were very straight forward.

I got the idea for the story while working at a school. There was this one particularly bad class that no teacher had lasted more than a week or two in, so the administration asked me if “Diablo” wanted to take a crack at it. It was a really tough bunch of kids. They were so bad that the school had actually exiled them in this isolated area in the back of the school. I taught them for about three weeks and it was very difficult. They weren’t bad kids, but they had A LOT of issues. One thing I learned from getting to know these kids better was that most of their problems were emotional, rather than academic. All of them were from foster homes or dysfunctional families. It struck me how neither the school system or their families wanted to deal with them, how isolated they’d become in the world, they were literally Unwanted. This became the basic idea behind the story: a group of troubled kids, trapped inside an isolated juvenile detention center who are being hunted down by a relentless demon that feeds on society’s unwanted youth. Their only chance for survival is to face their tormentor and bond together to defeat it.
The characters of the kids were very much inspired by the real kids I was dealing with at the time. Although the situation in the graphic novel was very simple (perhaps a typical “B” horror movie set-up, if you will), however, I wanted the characters and themes to be complex, and to be relevant to the real world.
I think many people write off horror stories as cheesy because, unfortunately, there is a lot of poorly written and executed material out there. But horror can be quite original and enlightening. It really comes down to taking the time to be imaginative within the genre and developing good characters, you know, reaching for something more than just a bunch of stupid teens waiting to be butchered. If you look at The Exorcist for example, what made that film such a truly spectacular and chilling experience wasn’t just the flying buckets of pea soup, it was the incredible performances of the actors and the great writing of Peter Blatty that made all the characters feel very much like real people you knew and cared about. That’s what I was trying (hopefully) to bring to The Unwanted, to create a terrifying story, filled with good characters that the reader could identify and relate to.

Speaking of characters that an audience can identify with, the only films of yours I do not believe I’ve yet seen are The Fountain Clowns (with the always cool Ted Raimi) and your more recent The Journey, both of which seem like vastly different beasts than the more notorious Bio-Dome, which you also had a hand in. The Journey even sounds a bit auto-biographical. Was it flown under the Diablo Productions banner?
And having before worked as a writer/producer/director, which hat suits you personally the best?

Ted Raimi is awesome! I really enjoyed working with him, and I hope to do another film with him again soon. Yes, both The Fountain Clowns and The Journey were very different films than Bio-Dome. Although, for the record, a lot of people still come up to me and tell me that Bio-Dome is their favorite film of all time, albeit they are usually really, really stoned when they say this to me!
The Journey is a somewhat autobiographical film. It’s a romantic comedy based partly upon experiences I had while traveling from Mexico to South America by backpack one year. The inspiration came to me because I got so fed up listening to Lou Dobbs on CNN talk about how Latino immigrants are destroying this country. I felt that was a very one-sided and stereotypical view. I mean, you listen to Lou Dobbs enough and you’d think every Latino was an illegal alien.
So I made my story about a Latino character going to Mexico. I guess, it’s a reverse immigration story! The story follows the adventures of a Latino slacker who gets dumped by his PC girlfriend. After a bunch of misadventures trying to date other women, our slacker hero decides that he has to get his true love back, so he goes to Mexico to find her and winds up discovering his cultural roots along the way. The film was done under the Diablo banner, and I’m really proud of the way the film turned out. We shot on location in Mexico and won numerous awards in international film festivals. The film was picked up by Vanguard Cinema and released on DVD in February. You can rent it on Netflix, Blockbuster, or by going to our website: www.thejourneythemovie.com.
I wrote/directed and co-produced the film. Never again! It completely wore me out! If I had a choice I would not have worn so many hats, but getting the first film out under my company banner required that I take on a lot of responsibility. Fortunately, I had a lot of help from an excellent crew.
If I had to choose a single hat to wear, I would be really torn. Producing is my least favorite activity because, no matter what producers like to say about “making art”, the truth is, producing is 99% a business and marketing job. There’s really no active creativity to it, per se. Writing is great, because it’s where the rubber hits the road in terms of pure imagination. The writer has the biggest challenge of anyone involved in the film because they have to create everything from scratch. So, it’s a very exciting and challenging profession from that perspective, however, it’s also a very solitary activity. It can be lonely. You can see the toll it takes on many writers.
Directing is also very creative. And it’s very social. Being on the set and working with the actors, you’re under constant pressure. It keeps you on your toes with adrenaline pumping all the time. Directing demands constant interaction and diplomacy with people. When it’s going well, there’s nothing like it, it’s like you’re on a big adventure with the entire crew- it’s fantastic. I guess I can’t decide which I like more, that’s why I’ve pushed to direct and write my projects whenever possible.

Where did The People of the Sea come from? As it predates much of your comics work, was it your first exploration of fantasy? And would you ever return to that world?

The People of the Sea was a fantasy novel I penned a year or two before getting into comics. Your instinct is correct, it was my first serious attempt at writing fantasy. I had always wanted to write in the genre because Tolkien and CS Lewis were some of my favorite writers growing up, but I wanted to do something that was very different than the “classic” fantasy realms they helped define, you know, a world of orcs, wizards, castles and dragons, etc. So I came up with the idea of setting a fantasy story in a totally different, unique environment, in this case, upon an endless ocean. The story follows an epic journey of a lost tribe of humans that are exiled on the “endless sea” in search of an elusive paradise known as the far shore.
The heart of the tale is a love story between a young girl, who has to hide her magic abilities because she’s a woman, and a reckless young warrior she’s trying to save. I incorporated a mix of a lot of different cultures into the narrative (Mexican, Scandinavian, and Polynesian) because I wanted to show that in this strange world (just like our own) people have to learn to overcome their various ethnic prejudices and differences in order to survive. I also touched upon environmental themes in the narrative because the journey the characters go through teaches them to respect and care for the ocean.
I found writing a prose novel like this to be much more intensive than screenplay or comic writing. Normally, I can pump out a screenplay in two months or less, but writing the novel is much more involved. The details take a lot of time to describe. It took me two years. I’d love to write another novel again soon, maybe even expand on The People of the Sea; I just have to find the time. I’m actually, currently involved in adapting the novel into a graphic novel, that we’re going to start illustrating sometime next year.

Your most recent GN, Hum, also deals with exiled peoples, along with many other themes. I think when I first contacted you I described it as an archetypal fable void of archetype characters. It really is a beautiful, endearing work. I would sell it as neo-mythological. Honestly, I could find absolutely nothing wrong with the book, and I take a human level of pride at times destroying others. This is why I wanted to interview you instead of reviewing the book. I want people to read Hum.
Tell us about the collaboration. What was your working relationship with co-writer Tom Lenoci like? And the art from Renzo Podesta, who illustrates like a cross between Ted McKeever and David Mazzuchelli, where on earth did you find him?

I’m very excited about Hum and flattered by the kind things you have to say about the book. I really hope people discover the book as well! Tom Lenoci, my collaborator, is a professional actor who has appeared in several film and stage productions in Los Angeles. We had been good friends for some time. I first pitched my idea to Tom because he was an absolute sci-fi freak and I had always respected his creative work on the stage. Even though Tom had never written a Graphic Novel before, I figured his instincts would be good on a project like this because he was extremely well read in classic and science fiction literature and Tom could also bring an actor’s sensibility to the dramatic scenes between the characters.
The original idea was a bit different (it had some of the same elements as the final GN, but it involved the planet being something more like a prison). Anyhow, we brainstormed about it almost every day for a few months before finally defining the story enough to write a script. Writing the script went really well, and fast, it just seemed to all come together in our minds very easily. We used music a lot to inspire us, we really got obsessed with Portishead and The Cranes because those bands really captured the mood of the story for us (the different worlds of the Masters and Slaves). Our working relationship was very good, Tom has very different strengths and weaknesses than me- he’s very detail oriented, whereas I tend to go a mile a minute. We clashed at times, we both wanted to kill each other at different times, but it was a very healthy collaboration and we remained good friends throughout.
Renzo, our artist, was incredible. I had never heard of him before the project began. I chanced upon him while looking for an illustrator at an international artists website. I saw his portfolio and was blown away. We actually had several artists audition for the job, but Renzo’s work really stood out because his style was so unique, it was dreamlike. I’d really never seen anything quite like it before. Renzo turned out to a great guy to work with, very easygoing and hard working. He had fantastic ideas. I hope to do another book with Renzo, he’s an amazing talent.

Do you think many of your stories contain lofty messages?

Yeah, I guess I’m a bit of an idealist, so I do try to infuse lofty themes into my stories (Bio-Dome not withstanding), but my goal is always to explore the human condition and give some hope to our struggles. I think you’re always on solid footing as an artist when you try to say something that is meaningful in your work. Even if you come up a bit shy, you always end up investing in a worthwhile endeavor.
A lot of folk’s ambition in the comic and film world is purely to make a lot of moolah, and I think that’s very sad. Stories are gifts to be shared. There’s nothing more fulfilling than to have someone come up and tell you, “Your story touched me.” I’m really fortunate to have been able to do that to a certain extent with my work. I feel really blessed, even if I am a bit of a “Diablo”.

Not to end on such a loaded question, but I can’t believe we finished this dialogue without once bringing up the bit about the championship water ballet instructor. Maybe next time? And thank you for talking with ComicNews.Info, Scott. Please, let us know when your next story is ready to be told. We like a good story.

Sorry we didn’t get to the water ballet instructor story. It is a pretty hilarious tale. Next time for sure!

torchbearing for fun and profit

I was approached to write for a new print magazine, that seems to focus on video games, computer games, and role-playing games, which is funny as I do not mess with any of that hodgepodge hoodoo. My pieces will be of the rant variety.

As for comicnews.info, I have a growing stack of reviews to get to, having just interviewed the screenwriter for Bio-Dome, I now have another interview with an artist almost complete, and three more interviews on the books. We are quietly opening our doors to begin reviewing things other than comics and film. I had to pull back from things after Shelly's suicide, and the increased day job fun following half of the inbreds getting their stupid arses fired from the hotel. Now that I am cutting my teeth once more, Gary and I have decided to widen the aims of the site, allowing for articles on games, books and novels, albums, tech gadgetry, and anything else that strikes our fancy. The philosophy remains the same, more Mom & Pop and less Uncle Tom; but we hope to continue growing the site into a proper news webzine for all things concerning art, entertainment and information. A true spotlight for commentary on popular culture, running the gamut from Gonzo to philosophical in perspective.

Interestingly, months ago I wrote a couple of pieces for a new Euro-literary journal, and am pleased to report that the debut issue is soon to arrive.


I realize I am averaging perhaps ten hours of sleep per week.

the Lottery Party XXI

the Lottery Party: Onward Christians Soldiers

posted on May 20th, 2009 in columns
by Richard Caldwell, Managing Catholic guilt with a bottle of rot gut

“When in the company of polite strangers, one should refrain from discussions of politics or religion.”

I don’t know who said that, but it’s bullocks, if you ask me. I’ll hit politics later, but for now, I want to share some observations regarding religion in comics. I am using here comic books as my defining case, but I believe this well applies to other media.

A curious, though undeniable fact of religious portrayal in the majority of modern works of Western fiction (beit in terms of mythology or theology) is the special treatment given to Christianity. I won’t say if this in and of itself is either a good thing or bad, but the truth does not wash with the general need of the average Christian mindset to see itself as persecuted. Unclench your fists and hear me out.
With Christianity as the seeming exception to the rule, all religions can be freely utilized by writers and artists without fear of being labeled a zealot or the equivalent of a bible-thumper. One of my favorite characters from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods novel was his take on Horus, but would anyone accuse Gaiman of following the Cult of Ra? You can read regular adventures of Thor or Hercules without presuming the creators involved belong to some bizarre Teutonic or Greek Orthodox sect. Even the Babylonian Gilgamesh had his shot, thanks to one of Walt Simonson’s runs on the Avengers back when. How cool would it be to read a mainstream book featuring the other epic strongman, Samson? This would never happen, as even the likelihood would cause too much debate. Meanwhile, the biggest of many differences between the Archie series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its Mirage predecessor, was the rampant New Age theologies injected into the Archie version. Even Jewish mysticism has been used many a time as a plot point, most recently in the pages of Top Cow’s Witchblade series. Nothing offensive or arguable there, on any counts. And yet Alan Moore, lest we forget, his own troubles with DC began with his rejected script for a guest appearance by Jesus Christ in the pages of Swamp Thing. Why?

When Christianity is shown in mainstream comic books, it is usually a very thin line walked, with nondescript accentuations on the basic premises of a higher good versus cartoonish representations of demonic evils. For example, I cite the entire Spawn property. In other cases of mainstream exhibition, the usage is borderline subliminal. How many readers picked up on the sublime clues that Chuck Dixon was writing Nightwing as being a devout Catholic? Equally, when comics that are specifically Christian in aim are released, they have never proven to be solid sellers, regardless of the fact that Christianity (including all of its many denominations) is the largest religion In America, by far. In the 80’s Marvel gave us the biographical comic of the life of Pope John Paul II, as well as the lesser known Mother Teresa comic shown above. No follow ups were warranted. Every year of the past couple of decades, if not going back further, there is somewhere a new startup publisher hellbent on putting out Christian comics, and none to my knowledge have ever survived a year. Nobody wants to be preached to, apparently.
So to push my argument, without outright trying to sell the Christian ideology as a belief system, why can the vast history of excellent imagery and settings not be more openly explored? Read your Old Testament (the admittedly funner Testament), god created MONSTERS, in the forms of Behemoth and Leviathan (aka Moby Dick). Why can’t we read about the Fantastic Four or the Challengers of the Unknown butting heads with the Behemoth? Why is it that Christian concepts cannot be exampled in comics with a level of research beyond a couple of hours of randomly surfing cable television, without people getting their scapulars in a knot? How neat would it be to read of the X-men clashing with the Grigori?
There are growing attempts to this end, and always sparking the dreaded case of controversy. Gaiman toyed excellently with many a religious construct in his Sandman series, including staples of Christian lore. Grant Morrison reportedly received death threats after his using of hosts of angels in his since-unmatched run on JLA. Actually, a few of the early stable of writers from Vertigo have tried to brave these stormy waters, always to mixed results.
A more recent and ongoing attempt is by RS Carbonneau in his Zoroaster in Aethiopia strip.

All I’m saying, is that there truthfully is a wealth of untapped story potential within the Christian mythologies, but as long as such remains un-P.C. by the standards of our status quo, a door is being ridiculously slammed shut on interested creators everywhere.

mongrel

Madness
Of
Night
Grows
Real
Everybody
Laughs

Grunts

A Review of Arcana's Grunts Vol. 1

posted on May 20th, 2009 in reviews

Comic Book Review: Grunts Vol. 1 Trade
created by Shannon Eric Denton & Keith Giffen
written by Shannon Eric Denton, Dwight L. MacPherson, Jimmie Robinson, etc.
illustrated by Matt Jacobs
published by Arcana Studios
reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Grunts Volume 1 is a collection of the grit-abundant mini-series along with dozens of pages of bonus material, introducing us to an American army unit stuck neck deep in World War II fun. Created by the infamous and legendary Keith Giffen and rising comics writer/editor Shannon Eric Denton, this book aims to be as pulpish as war comics can get, throwing in a touch of the sci-fi vibe bringing to mind the weird combat tales of times past.
The bulk of the story is divided into two parts, with the first detailing a battle against a surprising new weapon of the nazis. The concluding segment moves the story to present day, showing the long term repercussions of such dastardly bio-genetic warfare. This is all well and good, though I wish Giffen had contributed more to the tale.
The main story has as intermission a collection of short stories- each from a different writer- which should serve as a strike against the editor of this book ever getting another paycheck. This may sound mean on my part, but if you are going to allow different creators to take a crack at the same property, how hard would it be to make certain they were not telling the same story over and over? Granted, there were some cases where any plot at all was completely indiscernible. The stories by the above mentioned MacPherson and Robinson were standouts, showing honest attempts at a wonderful characterization, however. All of the short stories seemed to be set chronologically prior to the meat of the book, which added to the confusion, for me. Perhaps they were wanting to pay homage to Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos and Sgt. Rock’s Easy Company, but all they accomplished was instilling the burningly immediate desire to pull out those old classics from Bob Kanigher, Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby, Russ Heath, Alex Toth, etc. to see what war comics could/should be.
The art, on the other hand, was carried throughout by the fantastic Matt Jacobs. He is clearly influenced by greats from the past, notably some Kurtzman, and at times his linework was reminiscent of Frank Miller, from that brief era just prior to Miller’s use of blades as inking implements. The violence and flow of the storytelling were very well structured, and served well a saving grace for the book.
A movie is reportedly in the works, and I imagine will focus more on the certain science fiction aspects from the main portion of the comic. Unless producers only have time to read short stories, in which case the film will be just as lame as this. A homage is one thing, but redundancy is something else entirely.

Super Human Resources

Reviewing Super Human Resources 1-4

posted on May 20th, 2009 in reviews

Super Human Resources #’s 1-4
Written by Ken Marcus
Illustrated by Justin Bleep & Joey Mason
Published by Ape Entertainment
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Super Human Resources is the epic story of Tim, who has found employ as an office temp with the illustrious Super Crises International.

In a quick take, the presentation is a different spin on the mundanely corporate side of a corporate-sponsored super-hero team, though in its own right, it is ingenious. Just when you think all possible avenues of the super-hero genre have been covered and recycled to death, a work like this sneaks on by to yank out your funny bone and hit you over the head with it. A range of characters and the nonstop interplay of one-liners is on par with the Mike Judge movie, “Office Space”, or the Ben Edlund cartoon, “The Tick”.

Although not quite a direct parody in my opinion, as unconsidered puns and scenarios constantly play forth to pull you into a world where defending justice from maniacal villains could warrant you an audit just as the copier down the hall gains sentience and a bloodlust to boot. All of this amidst the expected ‘office hook-ups’, ‘office parties’, and ‘office psychopaths bent on world conquest’.
Indeed, the normalcy given to such concepts as aliens sharing water cooler moments with talking swamps gives the flow of the narrative a vibe that is both relevantly absurdist and comfortable. The everyman that is Tim having to cope with anything from reformed criminals turned administrative assistants to playing secret santa for someone capable of blotting out the sun, it all makes for fun fodder.

The comedy is remarkable, but the art is very animated, and for once I mean this in a good way. The loose yet mathematical linework, providing for imaginatively expressive nuances of form, remind me a bit more of the Brit illustrator Ian Pollock than of some syndicated cartoon.
I would hate for this story to be used as a pitch for an animated series, however, as multiple talents necessary for bringing it to the small screen would delineate the completeness of Super Human Resources, pocket protector-wearing office clerks lusting after other-dimensional princesses, et al.
My biggest complaint would be targeted at the publisher, whose marketing persons seem in need of unhealthy doses of Viagra. Great books are coming from that house, but they will not sell if people do not hear about them.

All in all, a fun read.

The series is drawing to a close, with a collected trade in coming months. If you want to find something worthwhile in Diamond’s Previews, this is it.
I suggest you do so, or face demotion to the mailroom.

http://www.superhumanresources.com

To be fair, that review originally ran about 6 months ago, prior to #1's release. The final issue is soon to be in the hands of readers and the trade will be in next month's edition of Diamond's Previews. If you read the comic, you would agree it deserves my added push.
Yea, I think I was the first person to review the entire mini. And fun fact- Jacqui, the letterer, is the granddaughter of Green Lantern creator Martin Nodell.
Even though the trade won't be available to the public for a couple months I somehow scored a copy before the artist. I am actually hoping to meet with the creative team at ChicagoCon this coming August, for beer and philosophy.

torquemada china

Talking with JM Ringuet

posted on May 18th, 2009 in interviews

J M Ringuet is a true artist, having explored the crafts of writing, drawing, coloring and painting for everything from traditional comic books to computer games to graphic design for bands to production art for films, and now- digital comics. Currently, Ringuet’s color work can be seen in the upcoming Lords Of Misrule from Radical, collecting the infamous cult hit series. He speaks here of his experiences and his trade with Richard Caldwell.

I love talking with what I call “myriad artists”, namely, creative-types who bravely take on multiple genres and multiple mediums. You certainly fill that bill. Among many other things, you are currently coloring The Lords of Misrule collection for Radical, but can you take us back in time? Did you always have such creative leanings?

I told my mother when I was 7 that I wanted to be a comic artist. So I guess that would mean I always wanted to be an artist but more than anything I think I always wanted to tell stories. Basically I wanted to tell people how I was seeing things around me. I discovered later that there are a lot of ways to tell stories, and coloring is one way to tell, or help tell stories.

Did you go the collegiate route, or are you primarily self-taught? What artists, what works, influenced you in your impressionable years?

I studied a bit in some very bad art schools but I mostly learned everything by myself. I was not in a creative environment so it was mostly working by myself and trying to learn things by trying them.
What influences I got came from books that I could find… the earliest influences were probably Herge, William Vance, Frazetta, Kirby, Buscema inked by Alcala, then later Steranko (who by the way did some awesome covers for Radical), Sienkiewicz, Miller, Bisley and the great Mike Mignola. I never tried to emulate those artists directly but tried to understand why I liked what they were doing. I’m still trying to understand now. Obviously Frazetta and Bisley especially were big influences for my coloring, as well as some classic painters.

It is my understanding that you are something of a globetrotter. Is this by design, or by fate? And does exposure to such ranging cultures have much of an affect on what you do, how you work?

Yes I lived on almost every continent (well at least 4 of them), and it is both by design and by fate. I like to discover new places and new cultures (and not as a tourist), so every time I had a chance to go somewhere I didn’t know I just went. It really affected the way I see things in general, I can’t think in terms of nations or borders anymore and I look at everything globally. Art wise I think I got influenced directly by my environment so it probably shows in different ways, although it’s difficult for me to say what they are. For example the fact that I lived in Derby, England, which is just a few hours away from where the action of Lords of Misrule is taking place gave me a real feel for the mood, the tones, the light. I didn’t have to do research, I had a real instinct for how I thought it should look. Right now I’m looking at a lot of traditional ink Chinese paintings and it directly affects the way I draw and especially ink.

You have some years of experience in the video game industry. How did that come about for you, and what are some titles you have worked on?
Being a newer storytelling medium, is the work aesthetically satisfying, or is it more trial and error?

It came by accident, mostly the fact that I could not get a foot in the door at any comic publishers in Europe at the time and that game companies were hungry for talent. It was a very well payed, extremely unrewarding experience. I worked on a variety of games, notable ones would be Tomb Raider 2, Battle Realms and Clive Barker’s Jericho.
The problem with video game companies is that they are not controlled by artists or creators, and it’s extremely difficult for anybody inside of a company to have a creative input. I have had a lot more input in games now that I work freelance than I ever had when I was an employee- go figure. Video game work has also become unbelievably technical and the only artistic job is at the concept art level (designing visually how the game will look like). Luckily that’s what I’m doing now as a freelance artist, so I’m free of the technical grind and I can focus on creating cool visuals. I have done recently some concepts for a Larry Niven-written video game project called Freefall, and I’m gearing up to work with a movie director (who should remain nameless for now) on an ambitious game movie tie-in.
If Radical ventures in the video game business I’ll also be there to do concept for them.

So what was your first comics gig? You’ve landed some really fun books, like your work with Jonathan Hickman at Image, and Radical seems intent on pushing generally quality materials.

My real first paid comic gig ever was 2 pages in a surf magazine, and that wasn’t half-bad. My first pro job though was coloring Death Comes To Dillinger for creator James Patrick, with line art by Se7enhedd. A very nice atmospheric horror western that allowed me to do some crazy painting with a different technique than the usual flats-channels-gradients. That is the same kind of painted technique I used for Lords of Misrule.
Radical was extremely demanding about the quality and the consistency of the coloring. They really care about the artistic value of their books. Editor Dave Elliott and Art Director Jeremy Berger were always in close contact with me to make sure the coloring would always be as good as possible. Great guys to work with.
From the beginning I was really keen to work for Radical because of the insane amount of quality they have in every book. It was a really great collaboration.

Was it at all intimidating, not just in adding a dimension to a work that had been previously released, but to do so over dynamic artists like Snejbjerg and Erskine?

Coloring is never really intimidating for me. Coloring over beautiful line art from Peter and Gary is just inspiring. I knew everything was already there and worked by itself, I just had to create the mood, the atmosphere, the music score. It made my work that much easier quite frankly. Working with great line artists is always a great experience.

If you yourself could travel back in time, with the experience and knowledge you have now, are there any projects you would love to take another crack at?

No.

Right on. So in addition to The Lords of Misrule trade, is there anything else in the works that you’d care to mention? More of your line art, mayhaps?

I’m doing a lot of other things at the moment, including some graphic design work and concept art, but for comics proper I am working on my own project called ‘Stolen Suns’ that will be exclusively distributed on mobile platforms such as the i-phone and the Android phones, among others. It’s a graphic novel about a rock band, a gothic mystical epic or maybe just a rock ‘n roll soap opera. It should be out this year through Iverse comics. You can follow the development of the project at: http://comicnews.info/www.stolensuns.blogspot.com
All the other things are under wraps at the moment but I don’t have any printed projects planned, I’m going digital and see where it goes.

Ride the waves, hombre. Thanks for talking with ComicNews.Info.

the Fro!

Comic Book Reviews: The Fro

posted on May 14th, 2009 in reviews

The Fro- Origin GN
Created & Written by Chris Harden
Illustrated by Alfa Robbi & Anang Setyawan
Coloured by Jang
Published by Arcana Studios
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

The Fro, an engaging new graphic novel from Chris Harden and company, is the story of harmony, in the spiritual sense as well as audio.
We are introduced to Tom Dull, everyman (read: LOSER), lackluster waiter by day and by night- a karaoke regular with dreams as big as the world. Risking his life to save a stranger, Tom himself is saved and given the means to become not just a rockstar, but a rockstar superhero. In having possibility thrown his way, over the following weeks he must learn balance between a budding musical career and the pressing need to right the wrongs of misplaced karma.
Obviously, with a moniker like the Fro one is expecting something more comedic and possibly even exploitative than what you will read here. Although the story is light-hearted enough as to appeal to fans of the Peter Parker archetype, there is pleasantly no pot or potty jokes in this story. Lines are never crossed into parody/spoof territory (although maybe homage…). In fact, the only retainer of the misbegotten 70’s pop culture here is in the sense of good vibes versus bad vibes, presented in a very casual and friendly Buddhistic manner.
Literally, Tom Dull becomes the chosen champion of an order of Buddhist monks, with the musically-empowered abilities of the Fro giving him new direction in life, as well as the strength to see it through. Following of course, this here origin story, wherein he must prove his place, prove to himself, that not only does he deserve the new role given, but that he can actually get the job done. As origin stories go, this is a wonderfully well thought out read.
The art team is far, far more than just competent, showcasing an extremely fun visual style while rhythmically pacing a fantastic storytelling prowess. God knows I love me some consistency in sequential media, and Robbi and Setyawan seem to be total professionals. I want to give special kudos to the color-work of Jang, whose hues and tones were bright and solid and masterful. There were points for me where much of the mood of the book was not just polished in the colors, it was defined by the colors. A great creative team, and I hope to see all of their names again soon. My only complaint were a handful of lettering glitches scattered throughout, but as the book was just picked up by Arcana, maybe a final edit will help nullify the kinks.

All said, this book was overflowing with personality, and to elevate things even moreso, as a concluding chapter we are offered a prose story detailing the historical mythos, showing the origin scenario from an even broader perspective. A surprisingly good finish to a super fun comic.
Dig the jam and you will not be let down.

http://www.the-fro.com/

enamour

glistens, it alleviates
stands me down and obliges my hate
the steel of my eyes
the sanctity of my pride
am I that relic tarnished?
am I the forces unharnessed?

by this dream of my unloved enamour'd?

humored past defenestrates
my impassioned dreams lost, while I wait
the broken hand fights
while the starry wisdom dies
am I the blood on her hands?
am I flying without her dance?

by this dream of my unloved enamour'd?

calm, the thoughts and the moods
quiet old songs and blessing's fortitude
the message in the bottle was despair and
the despair of the bottle was a message
my shade forgiven,
with humility granting her sovereign passage.

though empathy complicates
sodomizing life is tempting fate
the questioning lies
are graced by her love, always refined
am I yearning reprimand?
am I reaching for dead lament?

by this dream of my unloved enamour'd?

solitaire and the grasping

I work weekends nonstop, from friday evening til monday morning, the longest of my shifts.
Today, instead of sleeping I chose to reread my collected volume of Rimbaud.

I am tired, exhausted- spiritually and emotionally more than the physical.

I want nothing, I need nothing.


Genuflections to the past, I am whole.

null'd Golliwog

Jack Kirby once said something to the effect of, "Comics will break your heart."

I have said before how I wasted too many years with blue on my collar, picking cotton and living off of cheap bourbon. Bringing in just enough shells to fix my vices for a day longer. I did not bone serious on writing til a few years ago, specifically after my encounters with Shelly.
She was put in the ground some days back, and I really miss her badly, having over the last number of days run a gamut of emotions I would never have guessed I could still access. She saw me taking my writing, pushing it and pulling it. Outside of comix, I wrote briefly for a geo-political site called BeforeTheFlood, co-founded by an expatriate friend of mine and shut down forcibly by the FCC and the Justice Department. I was also an early contributor to the original key23 site, which has since evolved into an entirely different creature altogether. The numerous articles and essays I wrote for the two sites are completely lost now in the magick of the webs and the ever-changing of the guards. I keep copies of everything nowadays, of course.
It was months after our split in the Fall of '07 though, and following some fun with another priceless fem, when the box of mini-comix I had created ten long fucking years earlier had been destroyed, prompting me to re-examine my love for funny books. Over the past couple of years or so, I have thrown myself head-first into comix journalism.
I spent almost half a year drawing for a small publisher that went belly up before anything saw print. Actually, I was raped in that deal, but I got out before the real pain set in for others.
I began contributing to comicnews.info, writing my still-extant bi-weekly column, and tons of reviews and interviews. I started researching news stories, and pitching in on marketing for the site, all of which eventually landed me my gig as Managing Editor thereabouts. Currently, Gary Rodrigue, the founder and Editor in Chief, and I have a crew of eleven. In the meantime, I had also written fake news stories for a comedy site called the Cult of Qelqoth, comic book reviews for the comicreviewers site, and film reviews and stories for the vampirenewspaper site, all of which were destroyed by the rampant laziness and immaturity of every other contributor. All three websites eventually received killing blows from hackers.
I wrote a short-lived column and contributed news for the at one time impressive popthought site, which as I type is in the process of permanent dissolution, due entirely to incompetent management. More recently, I wrote articles, essays, and reviews for another, poplitiko.
The driving force behind poplitiko was a good friend of mine, who had also roped me into a handful of side gigs (a piece for a book on the Jack the Ripper slayings, illustrating a medieval book of verse poetry, writing a short story for a horror anthology, and a set of prose for a non-fiction book on Lovecraft). Because of my falling out with said driving force, all of those projects are scrapped. Needless to say, I do not support drama.
I always left it to the day work to leave me feeling used and abused. The older I get, the more I lose my work ethic, the less sacrifices I am willing to make. My creative efforts will not be molested by the fucking incapacities of others.
I still have comicnews.info, I still have my own writing intentions. I do not however, anymore possess the willingness to give my trust to another human being ever again.

Kirby the King was right- comics, and art in general, will break your heart. So lose the heart and you then no longer have anything to lose.

torquemada irons

Talking with Director Timo Vuorensola

posted on May 6th, 2009 in interviews

Timo Vuorensola, Director with the Finnish 3d studio Energia Productions, is making the kind of movies every reader of ComicNews.Info needs more of. Iron Sky, currently in production, covers such ground as alternate history, science-fiction, and a healthy bit of humor. Nazis on the moon, baby. Through the magic of the interwebz, Timo was kind enough to share some words with Richard Caldwell.

Hello Timo. By reading your blogs and assorted online writings, it is clear that you are not just a filmmaker, but a true movie buff as well. You are very knowledgeable and passionate about the medium, and its history.
How did you get started on this path? Did you grow up around the cinema?

I think I’ve been more or less interested in film for all of my life. Just quite lately, after meeting my soon-to-be-wife Essi (with whom I write our blog Zombie Room), I really started to turn my interest into actually trying to understand the why’s and how’s of it. She’s a real film nerd, and I get excited about nerddom of all types, especially if I happen to have genuine interest on the topic.
I started my personal film-nerdism back in the 80’s watching Sky Channel’s TV-series Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man etc., which most of them have been lately turned into major features (waiting for He-Man’s remake to be announced), and then got my vibes out of stuff like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future. My first real cinegasm I experienced after watching David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Man, I re-watch the entire Twin Peaks series every couple of years- it truly holds up well.
You mention multiple genres, and I imagine in this day and age it is easy to have a wide ranging dilection no matter the environment. We really do live in the future.
Getting started, did you spend time in academia, or did you just fall in with like-minded persons?

I fell in with like-minded, indeed. First time I started doing a film was back at art class in college, when we were supposed to make a short film in 2 weeks. It took me 1.5 years, but I was happy with what came out (”The Norwegian Whore”, 1998). After that I had been playing a lot of live-action role-playing games, and got invited into Samuli Torssonen’s short film Star Wreck V: The Lost Contact as an actor, but - being the loud-mouthed me as I am, I was invited to direct the next feature film, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning.

And Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning took off, like an explosion of cool. Was it really the first feature ever released online?

To be honest, I’ve understood that one Machinima feature had been released before Star Wreck for free online distribution, but I don’t actually know which it was. Star Wreck was the first to gain international attention around it.

Was it the success of that picture that led to the formation of a full studio? And were the creators of Star Wreck upset that you did so well with their baby?

Quite soon after we had released Star Wreck we realized that we had more money coming in from selling the DVD’s than was allowed by Finnish law without paying taxes, so we started a company. After a while we started to think what to do with the company, and decided to make more movies, since it was such fun the first time. Everybody that had been working on Star Wreck supported our idea to build upon our success, and we had said that whatever money we gain from Star Wreck will be used into the production of the next film. So it didn’t make us rich, but gave us the momentum to build our own company and start our next film production, and help us focus on film instead of doing odd jobs as we had done during the production of Star Wreck.

Which brings us to Iron Sky. I first encountered the trailer last year, and was absolutely and wholeheartedly floored. You have been working on this for some years, right? How was such a premise birthed?

Yes, Iron Sky has been quite a long project already, and we still have some more years to go before it’s done, but things are looking quite good now. The premise of Iron Sky was born during the production of Star Wreck, after one, quite a long and hard shooting day in a sauna. Our scriptwriter had came up with the idea of doing a film about Moon Nazis, and shared it with us. We were a bit reluctant, at first, to take the idea and start working on it, but quite soon we started to realize it’s enormous possibilities, and decided to take the idea and push it forward. It wasn’t, though, until we found our scriptwriter Johanna Sinisalo, the story was actually born out of the premise.

I think the blending of genres like that, it really is a kind of cinematic meta-fiction. What research have you yourself done, for your part in the production? Does the work stray much from your personal interests?

For Iron Sky, I’ve read a lot on secret Nazi weapons and conspiracy theories, specifically about Nazi UFO myth. We’ve also organized a team of about 10 people who’ve created a WIKI for Iron Sky research. We’re also using our community of Iron Sky at Wreckamovie to gather more information. There’s plenty of it also available on the Internet. All together, we have a quite big team of people looking into the subject. Personally, I’ve also been interested in the story setup where one assumes that a conspiracy theory *would* be true - and if it was, how would it actually show. I’ve been interested in Nazi myth and how Nazis are treated in pop culture during the last 50 years, but I’m not a war enthusiastic myself, and don’t know too much about the details - more interested on the high concept level of Nazis and totalitarianism, and how it shows its face in today’s world.

So from what wells do you draw your creative inspiration? You mentioned the indescribable Lynch, but what other works have you encountered that move you, that push you, that compel you to create?

I was just going through the films that have actually inspired me to become a filmmaker, or keep on being a filmmaker, or even in becoming a better filmmaker.
Apart from Lynch, there are some. Usually, I’m inspired by genre films made by non-genre filmmakers - best science fiction comes from non-sci-fi directors, best zombie films from non-zombie filmmakers, etc. I’m always inspired by surprising and bold films, that shake the deck of what we’ve grown accustomed to. Thus, I like Kubrick and Verhoeven, to give a few names.

To play the futurist for a moment, where would you like to see Iron Sky, and Energia Productions, go?
What other types of stories and styles would you like to explore, in years to come?

I hope that Iron Sky would launch Energia Productions into one of the internationally acclaimed film production houses out there, and make it possible for us to explore various interesting genre topics in the future.
Already in the works I have a Nazi Zombie horror film called Das Dead (yeah, Zombies in U-Boat), another Star Wreck is in the works and I’ve also been thinking about working on one piece about an alternative Cold War scenario.
So, interesting films with strong concepts, and hopefully we’ll get better and better at making them.

Well, from what I’ve seen thus far, everything from your studio looks phenomenal, from the innovative CGI work to the side gigs playing with adverts and music vids. Great stuff.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with ComicNews.Info, Timo.

Thank you, Richard.

the Lottery Party XX

the Lottery Party: Limbo

posted on May 6th, 2009 in columns
by Richard Caldwell, Managing Menace

Hi, readers.

I want to propose something.
In my years of rabid fanboyerizing, I have come across some curious things, some troubling things. I want to talk about some truly great comics lost at sea. MIA icons and lost opportunities. Things that I know I am not alone in missing. These are unmatched megaliths, with history.

The Fighting American.
Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in the early 1950’s, Fighting American was the story of war hero turned patriotic reporter Johnny Flagg, whose clash with a Communist conspiracy lands him forcibly in a deathbed. His less extroverted younger brother, Nelson, agrees to undergo a government experiment involving mind transferal, allowing him to then take over the technologically enhanced corpse of Johnny and thereby become the heroic Fighting American.
The short-lived original series, one of the earliest examples of a creator-owned comic book property, strangely took on an increasingly surreal voice as the stories progressed, arguably to the point of self parody.
Later collected into a single volume by Marvel in 1989, the Fighting American was as inspired by the earlier Simon and Kirby creation Captain America as it was by the cold war dominating the news of the day.
Having since received a handful of attempted revivals which suffered not any true sense of legacy, this fantastic character with a world of potential currently remains quite sadly unexplored.

The Micronauts.
Originally a toyline from the esteemed MEGO Corporation in the 1970’s, a license was attained by Marvel for what would become an institution of a comic property, created by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden.
The stories presented a ragtag team of misplaced and disenfranchised adventurers in their attempts to fight the good fight for freedom in their microscopic universe. Specifically, a time traveller joins forces with surviving members of a royal family, as well as the super cool warrior Acroyear, to battle the empirical threat of Baron Karza in the shared Microverse. While a noteworthy list of incredible writers and artists contributed to the premise, eventually the license died out only to be relaunched years later by multiple confusing claimants to the property, most notably Byron Preiss and Devil’s Due. While Marvel yet claims copyright over certain of the characters, technically the license is officially owned by toy manufacturer Abrams/Gentile Entertainment (AGE). As such, the Micronauts are currently lost in funny book litigation limbo.
Though primarily published by houses that dealt more often with superheroes, this is incredibly imaginative science fiction, and a precursor in many ways to later successful properties such as G.I.Joe, Thundercats and Transformers.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
First published by Tower Comics in the mid 1960’s, many of the stories were created by legendary comics artist Wally Wood. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves) were a super-powered team of heroes operating under U.N. delegation (hello, Stormwatch) who have since appeared under numerous incarnations from an embarrassingly wide variety of publishers. The characters- Dynamo, NoMan, Menthor, Lightning, Raven, Vulcan and the Undersea Agent have developed a strong cult following over the years, for being among the first titles to show such extraordinary characters also as regular personas. Aided by the highly-trained soldiers of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad, the heroes combat such global threats as the conqueror Warlord and his race of underground Subterraneans, the evil criminal network of S.P.I.D.E.R., and the Communist enforcer Red Star.
Again, an unbelievable assortment of some of the strongest creators in the business have worked on the property in decades past, but new materials have not been brought to life for too long a time now. Closely relegated by copyright holder John Carbonaro since the 1980’s, the license may now be entirely in the air following the unfortunate passing of Carbonaro just earlier this year.

What if somebody with the inclinations and means necessary were ready, willing and able to rescue iconic cult favorites such as these, and give them life once more? What if a new universe/imprint could be created specifically to provide shelter for timeless comics that we love, despite the flawed and failed attempts by many conflicted publishers past? What if we could somehow give second chances to deserving creations, economy be damned?
What if what if what if? And don't get me started on Miracle/Marvel Man.

anyone with legitimate ideas regarding rescue missions from litigation hell…

absolved

she died yesterday
I met her on Wikipedia, at the start of 2005
we were re-writing all of the Lovecraft related entries
we learned we were in the same city and began a phone dialogue
she commissioned a painting from me
we met at a dive bar, we and her husband
she was then the age I am now
all three of us being March fifteenth babes, strangely
the three of us drank 5 bottles of red wine that night and
we drove him to the airport, for a business flight
returning to their house, she and I
engaged each other for three days and three nights
never leaving the bed
lithe and lissome, she taught me Baudelaire
we explored the tantric
it continued for almost three years, and I never knew
if he was ignorant, or just scared
to displease her

Shrapnel 5

Comic Book Reviews: Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising #5

posted on May 5th, 2009 in reviews

Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising #5
Created by Mark Long & Nick Sagan
Written by M. Zachary Sherman
Illustrated by Bagus Hutomo & Leos “Okita” Ng
Published by Radical Publishing
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

In this extended-sized finale to the Venusian battle for independence, former Marine Vijaya has solidified her role as leader to the rebellion forces, facing down ghosts of the past and ready to deal out a crushing blow to the federalist forces of the Earth Alliance.
Having stood their ground for months of explosive sci-fi combat, the Venusian colonists and Martian allies are low on ammo and willing to fight face to face in final defense of their domed city. The Earth Alliance is fastly losing control of the situation, lines are crossed and betrayers step forth.
God this is good.
War is generally bloody hell, and the story of Aristeia Rising by no means holds back, biting shell casings hard as tough decisions are demanded and blasted bodies pile up on all sides. This is well beyond the point of no return.
Writer Sherman has come unto his own here, giving us a story with desperate odds and full-on spirit, and one is loosely reminded of our own American Revolution against the British way back when. Freedom at whatever the cost. From his dialogue here:
“Run and gun. In the back, in the head, I don’t care. I know it sounds heartless, but if the guy next to you falls, no one stops to help, understood? We’re all they’ve got down there. We must not fail.”

And as strong as the art for this series began, the gradual evolution is a thing greater than tortured beauty. The sad, exhausted eyes of the victors sells it. Hutomo and Okita are craftsmen in every sense of the term. Every single page is a work of tremendous sequential art. From basic page design and POV to the moody colours and dynamic FX, they know damn well what they are doing.

Aristeia Rising is the first of three chapters to the Shrapnel space saga, and with an upcoming game from co-creator Long’s own Zombie Studios also in the works, Radical is closing this chapter with a double-sized tale at no extra cost. As interplanetary war stories go, this makes the clone wars look exactly like what it is, namely children’s fare. If you like your science fiction respectfully mature and broad in scope, human with somewhat political undertones, this is for you. If you feel you’ve outgrown the Halo series, this is for you. If you just like good action-adventure narratives, buy this book.
Let’s see where Vijaya goes next, shall we?

torquemada rob'd

Talking with Bobby Nash

posted on May 5th, 2009 in interviews

An imaginative force to be reckoned with, Bobby Nash is a hard-working author, cartoonist and funny book writer whose solid ethics are gaining him new fans every day. Referred to as “Roy Thomas 2.0″ by some, Bobby was nice enough to be interviewed here by Richard Caldwell.

Bobby, your notorious success at robbing banks aside, when did you first make the conscious decision to pursue a career as a writer?

I actually started with the dream of being a comic book artist way back in middle school. And since you can’t draw a comic unless someone writes it, I started writing stories for me to draw. They were pretty bad, all things considered, but I kept producing. Then some of my artistic friends started asking me to write stories for them to draw. Although I was writing quite a bit I never thought of myself as a writer until one day when a good friend of mine told me something that changed everything.
He suggested that I was a much better writer than artist and asked had I ever considered focusing on the writing. I replied that I wasn’t a writer, but he pointed out all the stories I had already done. At that point I realized that I was, a writer. When I started focusing on it, I got better at it and eventually started getting work. That was in the early 90’s.
The robbing banks thing is just a hobby.

What motivates you? What inspires you?

Deadlines. Nothing motivates quite like a looming deadline. I’m also motivated to finish something once I start it. I get these stories swirling around in my head and I have to get them out and written down. The hardest part for me is sitting down and getting started. Once I’m writing I’m usually good to go.
I’m inspired by everything. Books, comics, movies, TV, even people. It’s hard to go through life and not take inspiration from the things going on around me. I have gotten entire story ideas just from listening to groups of people interact. I love telling stories so anything that helps me do that is inspiration.
If you’re looking for specifics, with comic books I was inspired by the 60’s Spiderman cartoon (which I saw in reruns in the 70’s). The Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman really launched my love affair with comic book super heroes. That led me to the books. The first comics that I recall owning came in a three pack. Spiderman issues 192, 193, & 194 by Wolfman and Pollard (I think). Great stuff. I got into the Avengers with Stern, Buscema, and Palmer, Byrne on Fantastic Four, Miller on Daredevil, Simonson on Thor, and Wolfman and Perez on Titans. For the prose writing, I am inspired by novels I read from Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Peter David, Alex Kava, Kyle Mills, Stephen J. Cannell and on and on. And real life. There’s inspiration everywhere.

With all the genres you’ve tackled, is there a favorite work? And do you have any regrets? As in, if you could swipe the Cosmic Cube and leap back in time, is there something you would love a second chance at, with the knowledge and experience you have today?

I’ve been lucky enough to work in multiple genres, which has been incredible. I’ve talked to some writers who tell me they have not been so fortunate. For the novels, I find the suspense thrillers are the ones I really gravitate toward. For comics the sky is the limit. I don’t know if I have a favorite work. I mean, it’s hard to choose between your babies, you know. Each project I’ve done holds a special place in my heart. Evil Ways, Lance Star: Sky Ranger, and Domino Lady are all pretty high up on the list. I’m revisiting the characters from each of those so they really stuck with me.
Regrets? I’m sure I have a few. Who doesn’t, right? One of the biggest regrets is that I didn’t put as much effort into being a writer sooner. I used to start and abandon projects frequently before I was ever published. It took deadlines and working with an editor and publisher to make me realize the level of attention needed to do my job. Even now I don’t feel I’m working hard enough sometimes. If I could go back in time I would tell the younger me to focus…

In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud alluded to the fact that all who persist in creating have something to say, beyond the confines of the story or work itself.
Do you agree with the sentiment?
Not 100%. While it is true that I sometimes use my stories to illustrate a point, my main goal is to entertain. I’m writing entertainment first and foremost.

Many folks have taken note of your strong knack for maintaining a wide online presence and general networking. You remember faces and names, and remain professionally polite to all, excepting of course rookie getaway drivers. Have you ever considered working behind the scenes, such as editing or marketing for whatever publisher?

I’m only impolite to the getaway drivers that don’t get away.
I appreciate the kind words on this subject as I put a lot of effort into promotion. I realized fairly quickly that no one was going to promote my work to my satisfaction but me. That’s not meant as a put down by any means. I’ve worked with publishers who promote, which is a great thing. Still, they have more than just my book to promote so it’s up to me as a creator to let people know my books are out there. Especially when a book has been out for awhile. My novel, Evil Ways, was released in 2005, but I still promote it today because it is still available. Obviously, books that are out of print don’t get much of a push because there are none available.
Promotion is a delicate balance. I discussed with a friend recently how it’s a fine line between being good at passing along information and being a pest by doing it too much. I don’t think I’ve become a pest yet and I rely on my friends to tell me when I’m posting and emailing too much or too often. I try to be as widely accessible as possible. I answer all of my emails and do several conventions, events, and signings a year. I really enjoy meeting the fans of my work as well as fans of comics and novels in general. I try to treat everyone the way I want to be treated so I try to be as professional as possible. I like to think that being positive and friendly helps.
As for doing promotion for others, I’ve only given it the briefest of thoughts. I have had offers from others before to hire me to do that, but nothing has ever really come from it. Maybe one day I could get do that as a job. I don’t know. All of my marketing and promotional skills are purely self taught. I’ve not had any professional marketing training. I do occasionally repost information about my friends’ projects. It takes no time at all to repost something to help get the word out. I think we as creators should work together to help promote one another more than we do.
I’ve never really considered editing. I don’t know if that’s an area in which I would excel.

Creatively, what directions are your personal interests taking you? What stories do you want to tell?

Good question. I just want to tell good stories and have them reach the widest audience possible.

I have more suspense thriller novels in me that I want to write. Not that my personal interests involve murder and mayhem, but I do so love to write about that particular subject. The pulp adventures are also still an area of interest. I’ve got more Lance Star: Sky Ranger short stories, comics, and a novel coming down the pike. All of that is really exciting. I also have started a sequel to Evil Ways that I really need to make time to finish. There are some company owned characters out there I would love to take a crack at in both comic and novel forms. Maybe one day that will happen.

So if you were to die tomorrow in yet another police shootout, what is the one thing you would want the world to know about you?

I would want the world to know that I was happy to be here and that I love what I do.

I would also like to let everyone know that my novel Evil Ways is still available. I have some short stories I wrote still available in Lance Star: Sky Ranger Vol. 1, Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, Full Throttle Space Tales Vol. 2: Space Sirens, and Sentinels: Alternate Visions. You can find information about all of them on my various websites.

the only one...

s.

invisible, the world becomes

a puzzle completed, a riddle solved

a joke misheard

stolen, time traverses away

into kinetic poundings of the heart

into bombastic glances

over empty'd bottles

burn't, the ashes awash

in baptismal rains, unwanted


forgotten.

thunderous, are the words

never sang

Smart Bullets

Comic Book Reviews: Smart Bullets #1

posted on May 4th, 2009 in reviews

Smart Bullets #1
Written by Justin Fox & John C. Narcomey Jr.
Illustrated by Jacob Crippen
Published by High Tower Comics
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

I am thoroughly impressed.
The first issue of Smart Bullets presents an assuredly hard boiled start to a violent mystery, sparking enough fires to keep an interest towards the next installment.
In three acts, we meet a scientist under the protection of one bad mother, the two on a high speed run to parts unknown. We meet a tough lady who survives an assault only to suffer a case of self-protection gone screwy. Then we meet the illustrious Johnny Rose, retired thief of impeccable style, as his home is raided by a gang of powerful thugs looking to play some ransom and probably not on their way to bible study.
The plot is fast, the dialogue is very well handled. We are given a strong, bitter taste of the characters, while saving as many details as possible for further down the road. We know what we need to know. Narcomey is listed as creator, co-writer and editor, so I blame him for the coolness of what I will call “modern pulp cowboy noir”. Guns and knives and exploding vehicles are a great introduction to show what degrees of action a series will be aiming for.
The art by Crippen is just fantastic. Well measured and refined, his characters look gritty and expressive. The comic is in black and white, so my only complaint would be for a bit more fleshed backgrounds to fill the void. This is a small gripe, mind you, as this guy draws better than a few of the artists cashing checks from the big two, in my opinion. His women and vehicles look like he took the time for some serious photo reference. There are, however, just enough nipples in the story so as to maybe not let your kids read this one. This does not, of course, detract from one’s reading pleasure. The grittier ink effects in the opening pages were the standout for me, visually. Please explore this.
Very promising stuff. Lots of characters, lots of action, some great lines of dialogue. Read it or miss out on a damn good thing.

sugarfree jazz and heroin

NO!

none of this, in my mind, equates to music...

No rap. Without exception, rap and hip hop are retarded. Fight illiteracy. Evolve.

No R&B. Rhythm and blues (not to be confused with old blues) are naught but begging and/or bragging where concerns sex. Certain of the older motown stuff is nice, primarily for its appreciation of innuendo.

No modern country/western. If there is no criminal record, then it ain't country.

No hairspray "rock warrior" metal. Even respectable strippers no longer pay it heed.

No nu-metal. Adults writing thrashing 3-chord songs as background noise for teen angst, no thank you.

No jam/folk bands. The Grateful Dead, Phish, etc. Mellow grooves are pure denial in a world as cold as ours.

No easy listening/top 40/muzac. Vanilla is as vanilla does.

No acoustic guitar coffee shoppe rock, especially from self-proclaimed dykes, because they all sound alike. Nobody wants to read your sad love poems either. There was only one Jeff Buckley, and he is dead.

No power pop/emo. Just grow up. Fill the emptiness of your songs and lifestyle with knowledge, and you will go farther than the silly need to look different will ever take you.

No steel drums. This, by default, excludes most rastafarian music.

No gospel. Keep your silly faith to yourself.

No marching bands. It sodomizes otherwise classical instruments.


Everything else is fantastic.

Motion Comix of the Gods

Motion Comix of the Gods: Chapter Three

posted on May 1st, 2009 in interviews

In this four part series, Richard Caldwell risks life and limb to unveil a behind the scenes look into the actual making of a motion comic. Cardboard Gods, a troika of creative Brits, stands as stoic vanguard for this relatively new presentation of sequential art. From start to finish, Phil Stark, Ben Sheppard and Mat Startup guide us through their trials, tribulations and bar tabs conquered so that they can share their industrious vision of commoners going all superhero. While the big boys are now throwing their hats into the ring hoping to make a buck, Cardboard Gods comes from the savage heart.

This is how it’s done…

[warning: explicit language]

Chapter Three: Inaction

Tell us about setting- does the story dictate location, or are locations kept in mind?

Ben- Locations come as the story is written, simple as that. We knew for issue 2 that we wanted to take the action outside to get a good look at the world our heroes live in, and also just to open things up a bit- but no, the story comes first.

Phil- The story absolutely dictates location. Wherever I write in my head usually is where the Gods will end up in the actual Issue. It can be a ballache though, for instance in Issue #2 there is a scene in a cafe. Obviously we needed to shoot the plates of the caff for us to be in. I traveled into every shitty cafe in the East End of London asking them politely if I could take a few photographs. The response I got was consistently ‘Fuck Off’. We are still wondering what we are going to do about that.

Still, it should be noted that we do not sway. There hasn’t even been talk of changing the location. If it’s written and gets the nod from both Head Writers then it pretty much stays in no matter how hard it might make the process.

Are there crew members in addition to the other performers? Is it a matter of convincing friends to play along, or will there be needs later on that may call for persons of distinct skills, beit models or techs? Is much spontaneity employed on “set”?

Ben- No crew, just us. Startup takes the majority of the snaps, but obviously when the need is there I or Stark will shoot the thing too. In post, I believe Startup has a lacky he gets to “do things”, but I don’t want to dig any deeper into that for fear of the sordid mess I may very likely find.

As for the performers, I have to say there has been no begging involved; people are usually up for it. And although beggars can’t be choosers, in his case they really can, because we’re not going to let just anyone be in this thing if they’re not up to the job.
That said, since issue one came out people are pretty eager. So we’re quite spoilt.

Phil- Mat is essentially cameraman, director, editor and animator all rolled into one jolly fun bundle. We take it in turns to do some of the shooting but, truth be told, I’m not the biggest fan of the shooting process…I’m happier cheering from the sidelines and talking too much to be honest.

As for our cast, that’s a different kettle of fish all together. In Issue #1 we needed a gaggle of, what the script described as, Cunts. I had an acting friend called Gareth who was more than happy to play the main gobby little shit. The rest of the guys are just local friends of myself or Ben. None of them are actors aside from the little cunt and we were all really impressed by them. It isn’t easy to be directed by three different guys and reacting to nothing. They had no frame of reference either so did sterling work I think.

Spontaneity on set is something that we three deploy. The actors have their notes and we do our best to let them take a run at it. We shoot and shoot and shoot so if we don’t want anything then it ends up in the editing bin. I don’t think the actors are bitter if one of their suggestions don’t make it in. I think they respect us as the creators of the piece and just let us get on with it for the most part.

Ben- Also it must be said that everyone we got in for the first issue were all really excellent- I think we were all surprised how good some of them were. I’ll go as far as use the term ‘natural’. because it’s a very strange way of acting and how you come across is largely down to a natural ability to capture a moment, then exaggerate it in front of the lens. which is harder than it sounds.

And the toys? What equipment is used on the road, unless this is trade secret territory…

Ben- Equipment-wise, I’ll leave answering that to someone who doesn’t still think a toaster is the height of technical accomplishment. But then I love my toast, so it’s all relevant.

I love my toast as well. How much forethought is given to specifics- wardrobes, props, etc?

Ben- A lot of thought is given to pretty much everything you see on screen. Wardrobe especially is heavily discussed and variations are considered in terms of the tone of the issue, the characters and so on.

Phil- That’s an interesting question because, to begin with anyway, I don’t recall any of us deciding on our ‘look’. Mat always wanted his character to be very simply dressed in a black t-shirt, jeans and a hoodie and I think Ben had the idea of Benassi being a little crumpled and rough around the edges. My clothes in issue 1 are pretty much what I was wearing anyway on the day of the first shoot. For issue 2 (and onwards) I have created a much more specific look for the Doc. That’ll be revealed in time…steady on ladies.

What about production schedules, is it a matter of getting a group of characters together, or might there be issues pending the actual locations?
Who cracks the whip the loudest?

Ben- It all comes down to when are the three of us all free. I don’t think we shoot half as much as any of us want, but it all comes down to availability. We’ve never shot any scenes with more than one guest star at a time, so that keeps things manageable. Whip cracking- I’m basically ready to drop pretty much anything in order to get a session done, so there’s not much need for it from my end.. giving or receiving for that matter. And when we’re all there and doing it, issues of motivation don’t come into it- we’re all there to do a job.
And it’s always cool when we hook up anyway, so that’s a plus.

Phil- The more actors we employ the tougher it gets. For issue 1 we had (including us) nine speaking parts and that was a nightmare getting everyone together…it’s hard enough getting the three of us in one room as it is. We decided that issue 2 would be, for the most part, a three hander…as it’s a character piece I think that’s appropriate. It also allows the shooting schedule to be a lot quicker. Put it this way…it took us 10 months to shoot issue 1…so far we are 4 months into shooting issue 2 and we are all but done. As I said before, locations are written and then desperately searched for. It can and often is a pain in the brown eye but that’s the process. It’s going to get much worse as well.

Who cracks the whip loudest? I think the other guys will agree that I am the ballbreaker of the group. Not that the boys aren’t proactive, as they certainly are, but we agreed earlier on that we needed a Producer. That’s me. I call the guys and filter news in between the both. I also am in charge of making contacts out there in the wide world of comics. I love it. Cardboard Gods is my life at the moment…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What was the biggest stroke of luck thus far? The biggest bane? Can you see the process fine tune itself with experience?

Phil- Firstly, I reckon the process will get both easier and harder as we go along. The simple stuff will get simpler and the tough stuff…well, I don’t even want to think about that yet. To say we get ambitious is an understatement. But that is what it’s all about.

As for stroke of luck? I’m not sure. Personally I think that the closest that comes to a ‘Stroke of Luck’ moment is when we came up with the chair through head bit in issue 1. It was done on the fly and, when I have screened it for people at least, it is one of the bits that gets a cheer. I’m also VERY pleased with the Epilogue of issue 1. Mat did that pretty much on his own and I think it is both beautiful and haunting. The fact that we are even doing this and people are watching it? That’s the biggest stroke of luck of all.

Ben- Off the top of my head, I’m thinking the biggest stroke of luck is to actually have, as I mentioned, people coming in willing to spend a day having orders barked at them by us three, really put their back into it and be not afraid to make a fool of themselves… and then actually turning out a really good performance. So we’ve been really lucky thus far.

As for any banes- again, I’ll have to repeat myself and say, for me it’s not being able to do this all day everyday and just get it DONE. The slow speed of a shoot is totally necessary, it’s naturally a lengthy process, but it is soooo frustrating sometimes. Not often at the time because you’re just focusing on the moment, but in between, when you just want to shoot more and you have to wait. Waiting is the hardest part, to quote that song.

Phil- The biggest bane is that we simply don’t see enough of each other. I wake up nights angry that we haven’t wrapped shooting or that we haven’t cut a trailer or whatever. That is nobody’s fault. We all have jobs and lives outside of this…I just wish we could work faster and better.
Really, the main bane is that we all care too much, I think!

[Next Week- Chapter Four: FX Witchery]