Jason Ivey: Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself for those of us who are new to you and your work?

JP McLean: I’d be happy to, and thanks for inviting me. I’ve been writing full time from my home on Denman Island for ten years. Denman is one of the northern Gulf Islands off British Columbia’s coast. It’s a small island with 1200 people and only 20 square miles/50 square kilometers in area. Rural. Quiet. Ideal for writing. But we’re ferry-bound, so it’s not for everyone. I’ve written eight full-length books over two series, several short stories, and one novella. All of my stories contain elements of the supernatural, paranormal, or magic.

JI: Would you tell our readers more about Secret Sky and that fictional universe? What genre would you best describe it as?

JP McLean: *Secret Sky* is the first in the seven-book Gift Legacy series. The tagline is “Everybody wishes they could fly . . . until it happens.” The story is set in modern-day Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest, and centres around a secret society of people who can fly. Their kind are ruled by a Soviet-style Tribunal, and powerful organizations know about them, are hunting them, and Fliers are going missing. Only one Flier has ever escaped, and he returned missing an eye and his will to live. The books are urban fantasy with strong thriller elements.
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Recently, Horror Tree contributor Jason Ivey conducted an interview with the multi-talented artist/author/ballroom dancer Jennifer Anne Gordon, whose debut novel is the paranormal drama/thriller Beautiful, Frightening, Silent.

HORROR TREE: Would you mind telling our readers more about yourself?

JENNIFER A. GORDON: My name is Jennifer Gordon, my “day job” is that I am a professional ballroom dancer, performer, and instructor. Before Covid-19 I was teaching and performing full time. My fiancé (and dance partner) and I live in New Hampshire. I am a big traveler and adore taking photos of abandoned places and haunted locations. I’ve got a little dog named Lord Tubby, and a giant cat named Fat Jimmy. For years I made my living as a mixed media artist and painter as well.

HT: Beautiful, Frightening, Silent is a dark, yet poetic tale that deals with loss, guilt, and closure. Without being too personal, what inspired you to tell this particular story?

JAG: This story has been poking around in my head for about 15 years or so. It started as the simple story of what happens if someone gets away with murder yet in turn spends their life haunted by that ghost. That is still a part of this story, of course, but I found as I was writing the book my main character Adam (who was always supposed to be a supporting character) took over. His story of grief and loss became the driving force behind the story.

I have dealt with grief and loss in my life, and I understood him as a character, that profound ache. Also, for many years I was involved in an abusive relationship. During that relationship I was a stepmother. This was something that very much tied me to the person I was involved with. I was trapped or at least I felt trapped. When I did eventually get free, due to legal reasons (orders of protection etc.) I was and have been unable to ever see the girl who was my stepdaughter ever again, and I never will. So, there was also that sudden loss of a child. Though it was not a death, there was still a grief that was associated with that. I explored some of those emotions with Adam’s loss of his son, and with the toxic relationship of my “ghost” and Anthony.

 

HT: Would you visit a place like Dagger Island if it existed? Who would you like to see/speak to if given a chance to interact with again?

JAG: I would definitely visit a Dagger Island, though I wonder if it would be too much for me emotionally. I am an empath and the energy of places can sometimes be very overwhelming. During my travels I have been to abandoned psychiatric hospitals, old prisons, an executioners home, and there have been times that the energy was too much for me, and I was overwhelmed.

I imagine that Dagger Island (though fictitious) would have that effect on me. That being said, I would love to see my father again, so I would attempt a visit there, but I may not be able to spend the night.

HT: Would you consider it a fair comparison to liken Beautiful, Frightening, Silent to Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery? If so, how do you feel they are similar and how are they different?

JAG: What is strange, is that I adore Pet Cemetery and it was the first “major” book of my life that I read, but I never really thought of Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent being a similar book…yet of course it is.

At the heart of each of these stories is the heart ache of grief and trauma, so in that way they are similar. There are also parallels between the relationship of Louis and Jud (in Pet Cemetery) and Adam and Anthony (Beautiful, Frightening), as I think there is a longing with both Louis and Adam in their hearts to not just be a father, but to also be a son.

Anthony, though (In Beautiful, Frightening) is a sociopath, so any connection between my characters is ephemeral at best, and deeply manipulative at worst.

HT: Both Anthony, the island’s sole living resident and caretaker, along with Fiona, the wraith and former bride of Anthony’s are dark, yet very nuanced characters. Which of these was the most difficult to get in the mindset of? Which of these two do you consider more antagonistic?

JAG: When I started writing this book I thought of Anthony solely being the “big bad” but the more the story developed I realized that Fiona, my ghost may have been a victim during her life, but there is now much more going on inside of her. She is not the same person she was when she was murdered 60 years before. Since that moment she has lived one long very endless day. As she says herself at one point “she is not alive, but she is not really dead.

I began to think of her [Fiona] like milk that was left out too long, at some point it goes bad.

She was the harder of the two to write, on an emotional level, as she kept changing. I would have my brain wrapped around her and then she would shift. The way light and shadows can change a room throughout a day. I found her fascinating and tricky. She was an enigma even to me at times and I loved her for that.

Anthony was hard to write because I did not want him to become a caricature of a villain. There was a fine line I had to walk between who he was, and who he is now, which is a frail 82-year-old man. I didn’t want him to be likable, but I did want people to feel a range of emotions for him.

HT: Adam is a character drowning in self-loathing and an inability to forgive himself. What do you feel is the best approach for dealing with this type of grief for those out there suffering similar guilt?

JAG: I think getting help, joining a support group, seeing a therapist…any of those things. The grief Adam feels is due to insurmountable loss. It is not something that anyone can “get over”. It changes a person on every level. Adam as a character does not have the emotional strength to survive this on his own. This is due in large part to his upbringing and his addiction. So really, if Adam was a real person (in my heart he is, and he breaks my heart) he needed and deserved help long before the accident that kills his family.

HT: Beautiful, Frightening, Silent is actually your second book that you have published with Breaking Rules Publishing. Would you mind telling us about your experience/partnership with this publisher, as well as your other book Victoriana?

JAG: So Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent is my first published novel, and Victoriana is a collection of my mixed media artwork that I created several years ago. So that book is more of a coffee table book of art. Though, it does contain a lot of the same themes that I am inspired by. Images that ache with hidden stories and desires half met, characters stuck in a moment of time…

Breaking Rules Publishing is a small publishing house, that emphasizes community-based relationships between its authors, which is lovely. I have made some wonderful friends with the other writers that are published there. We have built a strong support system for each other. I have not heard of many publishers that stress this as much.

Breaking Rules also puts out several monthly magazines as well as anthologies. I have been honored to be asked to contribute a monthly column and short story for their Horror Magazine. The first issue I am published in is the July issue and it contains the first part of a serialized short story called Simulacrum. (think  American Psycho x Rules of Attraction).

As an artist I have also been able to do some cover design work with Breaking Rules as well, which has been fun.

HT:  What kind of advice would you offer to aspiring writers out there? What can you share from your own personal experience that might also prove useful to them?

JAG: I would say first and foremost before you become a writer, you should become a reader. Read everything, read outside your genre, don’t just pick up books you know you will like, try to read books you think you will hate. Read poetry, essays, articles, everything.

Then I would say, when you have a handful of authors you know you love, find out about them, see what makes them tick. I find this part to just be fascinating. I am a big fan of “knowing” the artist, not just the art.

Then I would say, write…just write. If you think it’s too weird, who cares, write. If you think “no one will want to read this” …just write, and if you think “I’ve never read anything like what I am writing” then WRITE!!!!!

HT: I noticed in the acknowledgments section that you offered thanks to your beta readers. Would you mind explaining the kind of service that beta readers offer for those of us who are unfamiliar? What do you consider are the top qualities/expectations in a great beta reader?

JAG: So, beta readers are the amazing group of people who read your work AS you are writing it, or before it’s published. These ARE NOT editors, these are the people you trust to tell you when something is not working, or if parts of the book need to be fleshed out, or if they want more (or less) of a character. They are your cheerleaders and your sounding board.

For Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent, I knew I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues and possibly very triggering things. I made sure when I was getting Beta Readers that I had people reading that had a background in psychotherapy, and social work, I had people in recovery, I had a trauma counselor…I wanted to give all the things in my book the respect they deserved. These people held me accountable for that. I also made sure to have a few people that loved Gothic Fiction, and people that hated it. Men, women, LGBTQ+, and straight, and all ages.

The qualities I look for in a beta reader are dependability, I need them to read the book, and I want honesty and trust. For me, at the end of the day my beta readers need to know they are holding a piece of my heart and soul in their hands, and be kind, but also be truthful.

HT:  Do you have any other upcoming projects that you can tell us about? How can fans learn more about you and your work?

JAG: I have my second novel that will be released on August 20th, 2020 (It’s also my birthday!). The book is called “From Daylight to Madness” and it is a Victorian Based Gothic Horror Novel. It is part one of a two-part story. It deals (in this half) primarily with how women who may have mental illness were treated in the 1870’s. Think “The Yellow Wallpaper x The Shining”.

It’s also very loosely tied to Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent, as it explores how the island became haunted. You don’t have to read both books to understand what is going on, but there will be some Easter Eggs and symbolism that readers of both books will see.

I am also about to start hosting a new podcast (with my two fabulous co-hosts Allison Martine, and Trisha Ridinger McKee). The show is called Vox Vomitus (Translation: Word Vomit) and we will be talking with best selling authors, not necessarily about what went right during their process, but all the things that have gone wrong. We will also be chatting with people about their favorite “bad books” and so much more.

The show premieres July 1st on the Authors on the Air Global Network!

HT: Thank you Ms. Gordon for your time, we appreciate it and wish you the best of success! If you would like to learn more about this multi-talented artist/author you can do so by checking out the link to her website below.  And if you would like to purchase a copy of her debut novel, Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent you can find the link for that below as well.

More Links:

Author’s Website

http://www.JenniferAnneGordon.com

Amazon link to Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent –

https://tinyurl.com/y8qq2xnb

Jamex Maxey is a Phobos award-winning author (Nobody Gets the Girl) and 2015 Piedmont Laureate, who is best-known for his dragon novel series, The Bitterwood and Dragon Apocalypse sagas. Recently, Jason Ivey had the opportunity to interview Mr. Maxey on behalf of Horror Tree about his work and his other interests.

HORROR TREE:  Looking over your bibliography reveals a fascination with dragons. What would you say makes them so appealing to you?

JAMES MAXEY: There’s a sincere answer and a more cynical one. Both are about equally parts true. The sincere—if nerdy answer—is that I was a major D&D geek from my late teens through my mid-thirties. I moved around a lot during this time, and one of the first things I did when I moved to a new area was to find a gaming store and look for games to join. It was my primary path to having a social life.

Playing AD&D [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons], I sort of hooked on to dragons as the Alpha Monster. I mean, it’s right there in the title. Yeah, I might pit my players against undead lords and wicked queens and the occasional giant, but when it came right down to it my favorite campaigns always built up to a battle with a dragon. As a DM [Dungeon Master], you need to really get into the heads of the characters you’re responsible for. If I used a dragon, I had to really put some thought into its goals and motives and personalities. Accumulating treasure indicated some sort of economic system. The fact they could speak and collected books hinted that as a race they had some sort of culture. Fleshing out these big, scaly beings to give them motives and backstories led rather directly into using these beasts in novels. I’m not ashamed to admit that some of the dragons in my books made [their] first appearances in long ago D&D campaigns.

As for a more cynical answer, well, dragon books sell. I never write a book purely to make money. I really only work on projects I feel passionate about. But, since my dragon books have a wide readership, I get a lot more fan interaction. People ask questions about my worlds that I can’t immediately answer. So, I start pondering on, say, why there were no female sky-dragons or earth-dragons in the first Bitterwood novel, which was an actual reader question. That led to me thinking about the different reproductive strategies of the dragon races, and the fact that female sky-dragons live isolated from the males became a giant plot driver in Dragonforge, and will play an even bigger role in the upcoming Dragonsgate novel.

 

HT: Bitterwood (The Bitterwood saga) and Infidel (The Dragon Apocalypse saga) are the respective protagonists of their series. Besides gender, how else are they unique? Similar? Which of them seems like the ultimate dragon slayer, i.e. could survive in either of your dragon-universes?

JM: Avoiding specifics, one of these characters doesn’t survive the events of their series and the other does. So, technically, one character wins as the survivor by default.

Stepping back into a more loose interpretation of the question, Infidel would tear through the dragons from the Bitterwood novels without even mussing her hair. She goes head to head with elemental dragons the size of islands in her own adventures. The non-magical, big flying reptiles of the Bitterwood series would get pounded into paste unless they just asked her to please not hit them anymore. She’d probably stop and talk things over with them. She’s a very reasonable person.

Her capacity to make peace with her foes is one of the central differences between Infidel and Bitterwood. Bitterwood is mostly motivated by darkness. He kills dragons because he hates them. If one begged for mercy he’d kill it just a little slower to enjoy its whimpering. Except, ‘enjoy’ isn’t quite the right word. Bitterwood doesn’t have fun in his ongoing war with dragons. There’s a reason the word bitter is part of his name. He’s cold and occasionally—cruel. He kills without remorse. He’s a psychopath. Yet, his focus and skill make him a heroic figure to other humans. He’s defined by his enemies. Since his dark urges find release in the slaughter of dragons, humans think he’s fighting on their side, but he’s not. He’s just driven to kill dragons by his own personal demons. That said, if you’re a human during the dragon age, you probably sleep better thinking that Bitterwood is out there reducing the dragon population.

Infidel, on the other hand, very much enjoys fighting whoever and whatever, but not because she hates anyone. It’s a more childish feeling of triumphing over anyone bigger who stands in her way. She’s dangerous but not sadistic. She’s fallen in among violent men in a savage land and, due to her magical gifts, happens to be really good at putting bullies in their place. She’s carefree but reckless, protected from the consequences of her choices by her enchantments. She’s got a good heart, but due to her upbringing she’s a bit selfish and walled off emotionally. She really only has one friend, and she keeps her past a secret even from him. I think she doesn’t open up and grow as a character until she starts to open up to Aurora. Until then, though she’s well into adulthood, she’s basically crashing through life as a very powerful child.

While you didn’t ask the question, if it came down to a fight between Bitterwood and Infidel, even if she was at the peak of her magical strength and toughness, Bitterwood would still win. Infidel’s powers make her sloppy. Swords bounce off her skin, so she’s never learned to duck or dodge. Her primary sword skill is hacking, which she’s amazing at, but she relies entirely on brute strength. Bitterwood, on the other hand, plans, practices, and perfects his combat skills. Assuming Infidel didn’t take him by surprise and floor him on her first punch, he’d keep out of her reach until he figured out how to use her strength against her. It’s sort of a Batman versus Superman deal. Superman would rely on his powers, but Batman would rely on his training and strategy and win out in the end.

HT: Since you brought up Bitterwood vs. Infidel, I’m curious, who do you think would win in a battle between Smaug vs. Greatshadow (The fire dragon from Dragon Apocalypse)?

JM: You know I’d be rooting for Greatshadow. Greatshadow’s primary advantage would be that he’s not stuck in one body. Smaug might kill one of his avatar bodies, but unless he could track down and vanquish Greatshadow’s soul in the abstract realms, Greatshadow could just make more avatars and keep fighting. That said, if I were tasked to actually write that story, I’d probably go the Marvel route. They’d fight each other for a while, then team-up to go fight the real enemy who’d tricked them into fighting in the first place. Better give up that pipe, Gandolf. A single match is all Greatshadow needs to find you.

HT: Besides your dragon-themed novels, you also do superhero novels too. You have a really unique take on the superhero genre with your characters like: App; the world first open-source superhero who can download body hacks, Cut Up Girl, who can make exploding clones by cutting off her arms, and Nobody, an intangible spy whose life was literally erased by a time-machine accident.

HT: Would you mind telling us more about your unique take on this genre? Do you have aspirations of writing comic books?

JM: I won’t pretend that I’m not a HUGE comic book fan. And, sure, I sometimes think of a great story I could tell if I were writing Superman or Squirrel Girl. But, ultimately, I’m devoted to telling stories in prose rather than pictures. Novels are as close as humans get to telepathy. It’s a very intimate art form, but it obviously has limits. The reason a picture is worth a thousand words is because words can sometimes be just awful at their job. I might need five thousand words of writing to explain the same information you could get from watching a thirty second YouTube video. But, the discipline of fitting infinite content into a confined form is the central struggle of all art. Taking superheroes and translating them into a medium where they aren’t quite as dominant helps me create something new and fresh. It works the other way, too. Bill Sienkiewicz adapted Moby Dick into a graphic novel. P. Craig Russel adapted Salome. They take something familiar and show it in a fresh way. That’s my goal as well.

“Novels are as close as humans get to telepathy.”

— James Maxey

I’ve always had a love of obscure and absurd characters. If DC released a hundred dollar premium hardcover Matter Eater Lad graphic novel tomorrow morning, I’d be reading that sucker by lunch time. So, one of the connecting threads among my superhero books is that I like to focus on characters with crappy superpowers. Or, maybe they have a pretty decent superpower, but have some sort of personal or moral flaw that interferes with their heroes journey.

Big Ape in my Lawless novels is a good example. His power is that he’s a big ape. He’s got some anger management issues and a serious body odor problem. His love life is a mess. He’s got a girl friend whose power is cursing at people until their hair catches on fire, literally. And, of course, he’s covered in fur. But he’s also in love with his best friend Val, though he regards her as off-limits, and during the course of his adventures his faithfulness to Jenny, his actual girlfriend, is put to the test by yet a third woman and it’s not a test he does well on. Again and again Harry (Big Ape) makes terrible decisions. And at the core of his character there’s this existential loneliness. He’s half man, half ape created by a supervillain, and the only member of his particular hybrid species. He tells Val that he won’t die, he’ll go extinct. His never ending battle to find happiness in the midst of all the insanity that surrounds him is what makes him so compelling to write about.

HT: Do you have a favorite horror/fantasy story or author? Was there any specific one that sparked your interest to become a storyteller?

JM: This is a tough one. There are very few authors who I throw myself into entirely. When I was younger, I was a big fan of Piers Anthony, and later I grew to love Terry Pratchett. But, each has such massive catalogs that after a half dozen books or so I felt like I had to move on. My reading tastes are very eclectic. I like big, dense Russian novels, quick and quirky mysteries, hard SF, humor in the vein of Pat McManus, classic novels like Middlemarch [by George Eliot] or Jude the Obscure, westerns, ghost stories, histories, graphic novels… I’m just all over the board on fiction, and my non-fiction reading choices often leave my wife rolling her eyes. Seriously? I’m reading a book about oysters? Circus freaks? Dark matter? Bicycles? The history of fonts? Why does anyone read a history of fonts? I want to read everything, which leaves me weirdly disconnected from having a favorite genre or author. I love browsing used book stores and library book sales and stumbling across a book on a subject or of a genre I never even thought of. I’m a knowledge junky.

As for a book that sparked it all, when I was very young I used to read a series of boy’s science fiction books featuring a young hero named Danny Dunn. I think I can credit them for igniting my love of science fiction. The other book that really pushed me into becoming a fantasy author was, as implied in a previous answer, the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons DM’s Guide. It laid out the elements you needed to run a good campaign: the characters, settings, goals, and rewards. And, in retrospect, the practice of designing a D&D campaign has a lot of overlap with the skills you need to develop if you want to write novels.

The very first novel I ever wrote was actually a rather pretentious “literary” novel about a homeless man. It was terrible. One of my friends that I played D&D with just flat out asked why I didn’t try writing fantasy since I was so good at being a DM. And, I thought, hmmm. And thus, my life was forever changed.

HT:  If a new reader were being introduced to your work, do have a book/series that you would recommend? Do you have any book/series you would most like to be recognized for creating?

JM: This is another tough question. My supervillain novel Burn Baby Burn is a contender. I wrote the whole first draft in a week, the book just flowing out of me seamlessly, and I still love every word of it. But, it is a story about supervillains who do some terrible things, and it has fairly explicit violence, language, and sexual content, so it’s not for everyone. If I had to pick just a single book with the broadest appeal, Greatshadow is probably the best introduction to my work. It’s got a blend of both dragons and superheroes, just plain bonkers fight scenes, and a lot of humor and a lot of heart. If you like it, you’ll probably find something to like in just about anything I’ve published.

HT: What are some of your upcoming books/projects that readers can look forward to?

JM: I’ve just finished the third draft of a novel called Dragonsgate: Devils. It’s got dungeons and dragons and dinosaurs. It’s the nerdiest thing I’ve written to date, set in my Bitterwood universe, but launching a brand new trilogy.

I’m also writing a book about how to write books. I’ve written over twenty books, taught workshops, served for a year as a Piedmont Laureate lecturing on the art of writing. I’ve written more blog posts and essays on writing than I care to count. I originally intended just to collect my essays and release them as a book, but it felt disjointed. There was no overall masterplan. So I ditched that and am banging out a unified manuscript that provides the secrets to writing fiction and making money from it.

HT: That’s actually a good segue into my final question. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers that you care to offer? Perhaps something learned from dealing with publishers, or other aspects of the writing profession?

JM: Yes. Here’s the central premise of my writing book: Turning your daydreams into dollars isn’t hard. I mean, it’s not simple, but it’s certainly doable if you’ve got an imagination and a basic command of the language. The main physical requirement is a ton of time with your butt in a chair and your hands on a keyboard. I still can’t get over it! People pay me money for making stuff up! I spend my days thinking about dragons and superheroes and somehow this pays my light bill, puts a car in my driveway, a roof over my head, and provides health insu— okay, actually the fact that my wife has a good job provides the health insurance. I’ve found some real world limits on how far I can push this grift [gift?].
Still, if you want to make some money writing books, it’s easy to get lost in the thickets of plotting and publishing and promotion, easy to have your heart sink as you contemplate fourth and fifth and sixth drafts. You’ll tear your hair out as editors quit, and publishers fold, and ten thousand books a day flood Amazon leaving your newly released book washed away in the flood of titles. But it’s okay! Don’t lose sight of the big picture! Writing ain’t rocket surgery. Making money writing fiction really comes down to a tried and true formula:

Daydreaming + Typing = Profit!

It really is that easy. The only things about the process that are even a little, tiny, eensy bit difficult are (1.) The daydreaming, (2.) The typing, and (3.) making a profit. But I’ll explain how to get around these difficulties. It’s why I’m taking the time to write a book, instead of just selling a button that says: “Daydream, Type, Profit,” and calling it a day.

HT: Thanks James for taking the time to speak to Horror Tree!

Mr. Maxey’s  forthcoming novel Dragonsgate: Devils is set to be released in 2020. If you would like to know more about his work you can do so by visiting the following links below.

Dragonsgate: the Worlds of James Maxey: This Facebook group started by a fan is a good place to hear about James Maxey’s upcoming events and newest releases.

James Maxey Amazon Page: This is where you can find all of the author’s available titles to purchase.

James Maxey: This is the author’s official website where you can learn more about him.

Editor’s Note: This interview was done a couple of years ago but never published. So, any references which seem dated can be attributed to that!

Bobby Crosby, along with his brother Chris Crosby and Illustrator Owen Gieni, are the creative minds behind the Vampires versus Zombie comic book “Last Blood.” The series premise is about a zombie outbreak that threatens to overtake the world, and vampires fearing the loss of their food source, decide to aid the humans against this mutual threat. The following interview with Bobby sheds light on the stories origins, the writer’s background, and other pertinent information.

 

JDI:  Would you mind explaining the story/concept behind ‘Last Blood’, some of its main characters, and/or anything else that you think would help to inform those of us who are unfamiliar with the series?

BC: After zombies take over the Earth, vampires must protect the last surviving humans so that they can live off of their blood. The central figure, the most important character, is someone who gets very little screen time, but everything that happens in the story is because of him, and that’s The First Zombie.

When a vampire fails to drink human blood for 65 years, which is an extremely painful process (hunger pains multiplied by a billion), they become a new creature, a zombie with the power to mentally control all the other zombies that spring from them. We find out that The First Zombie is trying to wipe out all human life on Earth and that the reason for that is to put all the vampires through the same 65 years of starvation torture that he just went through, for revenge against them for something they did to him.

JDI: With the multitude of zombie comics filling up so much space on comic shelves these days, what do you think sets yours apart from the rest, besides the obvious vampire angle?

BC: I’ve never read an entire issue of a zombie comic, so I can’t comment too much on that, but I have read descriptions of all of them and one major thing that sets “Last Blood” apart is an original concept, as you mentioned. Most zombie comics sound like most zombie movies — boring, unoriginal crap. “Last Blood” at least sounds interesting, and it’s the most popular horror comic online with a growing fan-base.

JDI: Is it true that you’re not a fan of zombie movies? If so, what made you want to do a graphic novel on the living dead? Was there anything you felt was lacking from zombie movies, or comics, that made you feel that you could offer a different perspective?

BC: I’ve only ever liked “Shaun of the Dead,” which was hilarious. The rest are mostly incredibly boring. I did a graphic novel of “Last Blood” because it will help with getting a film made. If I can’t sell the screenplay for the big bucks, I’m going to make the movie myself, and a comic book helps with both of those possibilities, especially if it’s already popular. It’s a lot easier to see the vision for the film when you can actually see it, as opposed to reading a bunch of text. And a successful comic book will help entice studios to purchase it, or a cast and crew to be involved if I make it myself.

JDI: Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself, such as your background in comics and anything else to help inform those of us who are unfamiliar with your work?

BC: I’m 26 years old and have spent most of my life in Southern California. My brother Chris and I started publishing comics when we were kids in the early ’90s. We had our first booth at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1994. I barely even remember the crap we put out back then. It was almost entirely my brother’s thing and I was just tagging along. I never liked comics — always wanted to make movies. I wrote and illustrated a comic of my own in 1993 when I was 12, which was part of our initial launch at Comicfest ’93 in Philadelphia, but it was short-lived and I did very little in comics for the next 13 years.

In August of ’06 I started writing a poker comic strip called “+EV,” which will hit the 200 strip mark this month (November). It’s the most popular poker comic online with about 5,000 daily readers. Then on Christmas Day of ’06 we ran the first page of “Last Blood,” a graphic novel which we’ll complete at a length of 112 pages in early December. It’s the most popular horror comic online with about 10,000 daily readers (rising rapidly). On Valentine’s Day of ’07 we launched “Marry Me,” a romantic comedy graphic novel about a pop star, frustrated with her love life, who goes insane and marries a random fan holding a MARRY ME sign at one of her concerts. I write it and Remy “Eisu” Mokhtar is the artist. It’s my most popular strip with about 12,000 daily readers.

JDI: As you mentioned before “Last Blood” was meant to visualize a screenplay that you and your brother Chris had co-created with one another. Would you mind sharing the story’s evolution from its origins, to where it is presently, to possibly the future of the series?

BC: My brother and I came up with the basic idea of “vampires protecting humans from zombies” in August of ’06, then I fleshed it out and came up with The First Zombie, among other things, and started writing the comic scripts in December of ’06 after hiring Owen. I’m rarely more than one page ahead with the writing and we put the pages up online as soon as they’re completed. I’ve known the vast majority of the story since before I wrote the first page, but of course many changes and additions have been made.

One major change to the ending only came a few months ago when I thought of a much cooler resolution. As far as the future goes, there’s a million different stories to tell in this universe, like the origin of The First Zombie and a more detailed look at exactly how he took over the world in that first month, and there can definitely be sequels as well. The first film/graphic novel has a specific ending and it’s certainly not a cliffhanger, but the story’s not over yet.

JDI: Do you, Chris, and Owen have any favorite character(s)? How about one that perhaps you sympathize more, or even less for?

BC: I think we’re all loving Rage right now. Grady, Mac and Murdo are other favorites. Devian’s cool too. And who doesn’t love Addison Payne? Jeez, I was recently thinking that all the characters suck and the story’s so boring, but I guess there are a couple decent ones. I sympathize the most with a character we haven’t met yet, who ends up being the hero of the entire story. I sympathize the least with The First Zombie.

JDI: Does any of the characters draw inspiration from yourself or your friends? If yes, how so?

BC: Well, Mac is named after my buddy Kevin “Mac” McDermott, an actor who has appeared on “Cheers,” “ER,” and many other hit shows. Owen was also instructed to make the character look like Mac, and of course Mac will play himself in the film if I end up directing it. That’s the only character who was inspired from anyone I know.

JDI: In casting the “Last Blood” as a film is there any “dream cast” or studio you’d like to do this with? If so, who?

BC: Well, my current #1 choice for Mattheson (pretty much the star of the film) is Henry Ian Cusick, who plays Desmond on “Lost.” Other than that, I just have a lot of fun choices, but no clear cut #1s, besides Mac.

JDI: Would you mind sharing with us the special partnership that you and the rest of your team have with www.wowio.com? How did you find out about this site and what are some of the benefits of it compared to the more traditional ways of comic book publishing?

BC: Nothing special about the partnership — I think they accept almost all book publishers. The only thing special, I guess, is that our books are dominating the top 10 list on the site, usually with five titles in the top 10, sometimes with the entire top 5. I don’t recall the first time I heard of WOWIO — we heard about it from many different sources and I wish we put our books on there sooner.

The benefits are that we get 50 cents per download per issue and all we have to do is submit the issues in an online PDF file. The only cost of it is optional advertising to drive up downloads. Much simpler than printing a lot of books when you’re often not certain they’ll be profitable.

JDI: For those interested in purchasing a copy of the Last Blood books what outlets can they find them at?

BC: Their local comic book shop, since the comic is distributed through Diamond, which most stores use. Ask for “Last Blood” from Blatant Comics. If they do not have a local comic book shop and/or if they badly want signed copies, they can order them from me on the site [www.blatantcomics.com].

JDI: Tyler [Mane] just happens to be an ex-wrestler, and although he isn’t short and stout like the character Rage, he could fit that part well.

BC: Rage doesn’t actually have to be short — he could go either way. Tyler’s great, but I don’t know if I’d want to draw the comparison even more to Sabertooth. He’d certainly be a strong choice, though, and that might work out well.

JDI: I appreciate your time in doing this interview and wish you the best with the future of this series.

BC: Thanks, buddy.

Links:

Last Blood Keenspot page

Bobby Crosby’s Comixology page

Marry Me IMDB page