Tag Archives: Interview

ERIC GLICKMAN TALKS CAMP POCK-A-WOCKNEE

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Combining the nostalgic mood of The Wonder Years, the raucousness of Superbad, and the adolescent angst of Pen15, this 300-page graphic novel juxtaposes classic, black and white, comic strip art with stories that capture the tension created when the innocence of childhood crashes into the messiness of adolescence.

Eric Glickman is part of his family’s three generations that all went to the same Jewish sleepaway camp. Following in his parents’ footsteps, Eric spent 10 summers there as a camper, waiter, and counselor. Later, his three children also went there for many summers. In this interview, Glickman discusses CAMP POCK-A-WOCKNEE AND THE DYNOMITE SUMMER OF ’77.

DIAMOND: What is CAMP POCK-A-WOCKNEE AND THE DYNOMITE SUMMER OF ’77?

ERIC GLICKMAN: Camp Pock-a-Wocknee and the DYN-O-MITE Summer of ’77 is a 300-page coming-of-age graphic novel a celebrating all of the magic, memories, and mishegas that make up summers at Jewish sleepaway camp. Mashing up a nostalgic mood similar to The Wonder Years with the teenage rambunctiousness of a Superbad, Camp Pock-a-Wocknee combines cute, black & white, comic strip-style art with an R-rated story to capture the tension created when the innocence of childhood crashes into the messiness of adolescence. 

How did this graphic novel come about as a project?

I am one of three generations that all went to the same Jewish sleepaway camp in Pennsylvania – my parents met there, my brothers and I went there, and all three of my kids went there. I went to camp for ten summers (5 as a camper, 2 as a waiter, and 3 as a counselor) and like many Jewish kids, I had some of the most memorable times of my life there. I really wanted to create a story based on those amazing memories. I worked for 8 years, writing, drawing, rewriting, redrawing and eventually inking the story of a dorky 15-year-old boy who wants to hang out with his best friends, and find a girlfriend, fall in love, and maybe, finally get to 2nd base. Andrew Benteau at Black Panel Press loved my art and my story… and the rest is history!

Tell us about Jewish sleepaway camp. Why set the story there?

Jewish sleepaway camp has all so many fantastic elements for a coming-of-age story: living in a cabin with your best friends, the ever-present possibility of a summer romance, quirky adult characters, time-honored traditions, myths & legends, and tons of activities. When I went to camp, the 8 weeks always felt like it had this great dramatic arc to them – almost like we were in a movie. And because Jewish sleepawy camp is this unique, insular world, I felt like I could share a story that was nostalgic and timeless at the same time.

Is this the first creator-owned book for you?

Yes.

Is this a kids book?

Well, I put a little burst on the cover that says “WARNING! This is NOT a book for kids”

Looking forward, what can readers expect from CAMP POCK-A-WOCKNEE AND THE DYNOMITE SUMMER OF ’77?

Right now, I just want to share this story with as many people as possible. But who knows, maybe I’ll create a sequel –  Camp Pock-a-Wocknee: The Waiter Years

In terms of audience, who is this book for?

Obviously, it is for anyone who ever went to Jewish sleepaway camp. But honestly, I think this book is for anyone who loves coming-of-age stories, the 70s, needs a good laugh, or was ever 15-years-old.         

RODNEY BARNES TALKS BLACULA: RETURN OF THE KING

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Los Angeles – the City of Angels. Two souls. One is looking for vengeance and one is looking for the truth. They have one thing in common: they are both searching for the legendary vampire Blacula. But Blacula is also on a mission…

In this interview, wrtier RODNEY BARNES discusses the first book coming from Zombie Love Studios Blacula: Return of the King.

DIAMOND: For those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us about Zombie Love Studios (ZLOS)? What are the goals and direction of your company?

RODNEY BARNES: As I started to venture more into creator-owned work, I found myself looking for the right home. Image has been terrific, but I didn’t think that they—or any publisher for that matter—would be open to publishing the sheer volume of stories I had in my head. As well, certain titles—say Blacula for instance, were so nuanced that I couldn’t figure out a pitch that would speak to all of my goals. So I decided to create my own studio where I could develop horror, mystery, and science fiction books that embodied the tone I was bringing to Blacula.

 

Tell us about embarking on your publishing journey. What led to the decision to launch a publishing house?

Well, it’s a lot tougher than I imagined lol. A lot more moving parts, and every day I’m educated on some new facet of the business. Let’s just say I’m a lot more empathetic to publishers these days. In regards to the decision, it was really about wanting the freedom to come up with an idea and immediately breathe life into it. Stories that some larger and more established publishers may not see as viable, but speak directly to my style of storytelling. That kind of freedom was what I was seeking. But freedom, as they say, costs.

 

Can you give us some insight into your upcoming title Blacula: Return of the King?

I loved the movie Blacula when I saw it way back when. As I got older and returned to it, I saw places where it was problematic. So I longed for the opportunity to not only fill those gaps, but to bring that character into the 21st century with the same elegance that Dracula and other classic monsters have been given. And in regard to the art, I can say with all honesty that Jason Shawn Alexander knocked the look of the character out of the park. And I’m pretty pleased with the story, so hopefully fans will feel the same.

 

What was it like working with the other creators on this title?

It was an honor. Jason is like a brother at this point. Our collaboration on Killadelphia and Nita Hawes Nightmare Blog has tied us together for life. He serves as creative director at Zombie Love, so when new artists and designers come through the door, I know they’re going to be great.

 

If readers could take one thing from Blacula: Return of the King, what would it be?

That stories grounded in themes of race, culture, and societal issues can be fun. Blacula: Return of the King is a labor of love. It’s brought to life by folks passionate about horror. As such, that spirit permeates every panel. This volume, Return of the King, is the first part of a trilogy, so readers will have the opportunity to become immersed in not only Prince Mamuwalde, but other monsters making their mark on a new world.

 

What other titles can we expect from ZLOS in the future?

ZLOS will be publishing:

Crownsville: A Ghost Story, set in an abandoned mental hospital.

The Butcher of Black Bottom – a mystery set in 1920s Detroit where a serial killer has set upon a small town.

Florence & Normandie – an alien attack extravaganza ignited on the infamous corner associated with the Rodney King riots.

 

All books are being published in both soft and hardcover trade editions.

Joe Glass and Matt Miner Talk ‘Young Men in Love’

By Interviews

Haphazard pirates, wayward ghosts, dashing knights, rampaging kaiju (and down-to-earth regular joes!) are all assembled here to amaze and delight you in a wildly unique anthology celebrating love between men, from an astounding array of comics creators who know exactly how it feels.

Featuring stories and art from SINA GRACE, NED BARNETT, ANTHONY OLIVEIRA, CHARLES PULLIAM-MOORE, NICK ROBLES, IAN MCGINTY, and many more, YOUNG MEN IN LOVE is a heartwarming, uplifting, and vibrant return to the glory days of romance comics! 

Coming this July from A Wave Blue World, YOUNG MEN IN LOVE is an imaginative genre mix with a gay male focus, delivering exactly what the cover promises for its audience. This title includes safe for work content; YOUNG MEN IN LOVE collects love-themed stories for adults that avoid erotica, making it teen-appropriate and a safe choice for cover-out displays. Editors JOE GLASS and MATT MINER discuss creating this heartwarming graphic novel. Read the full interview below!

For those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us what readers can expect from this book?

JOE GLASS: Honestly, this book is filled with so many wildly imaginative tales, people can expect a bit of everything. You want pirates? You got ‘em. You want ghosts and ghouls? Right here. You want thoughtful slice of life tales with messages of self-love and discovery? We got you! Everything from folklore to super sentai, all wrapped up in gorgeous artwork and beautiful words.

MATT MINER: It’s an all-ages romance book for anyone looking for a dose of optimism and charm in their life, from the most talented queer men and AMAB non binary folks in comics. It’s a book for those who might be struggling, or those who’ve overcome their struggles – it’s for everyone who ever wondered if love was something they could find. It’s love stories perfect for queer adults, straight allies, and for young people who might just be figuring things out for themselves.

How did this project come about?

MM: I’d been part of putting together multiple award-nominated anthologies with A Wave Blue World in the past, and when the idea popped in my head to do a book of mlm (men loving men) romance stories created entirely by writers and artists with a completely authentic point of view, I approached Joe, a gay writer whose work I respect a lot, to partner up and bring this book to AWBW.

JG: When Matt approached me, I was immediately sold on the idea of curating a collection of stories that told male romance from a more authentic perspective. What there is out there, and there’s some to be sure, is largely handled by straight creators or women, so the intricacies and precise inner feelings of being a young man and falling in love with other men has always felt like it was being told to us by someone else; someone other. We wanted to take a chance to tell our stories from our perspective, for all those out there who might be needing that.

Can you tell us more about the selection process for deciding which stories go in the book?

JG: As I say, authenticity was a keyword when putting this book together, so we wanted to make sure that we had queer male creators telling their stories from a more authentic and genuine perspective. We knew also that we wanted to bring as much of a diverse range of identity within that too, so made sure to reach out to creators of all parts of the spectrum of queer sexuality, ethnicity and inclusive of AMAB and AFAB men and non-binary creators.

MM: We were especially careful to guide stories to a place of romance, and not sexuality. We wanted to be sure that this is a great book for adults, but also for especially cool parents to buy for their kids.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of the process?

JG: Honestly, the most rewarding part of the process has been seeing the stories come together. We have some of the most amazing established creators and some of the most exciting new and rising voices all in this book, and seeing the stories they put together (all expertly connected by a tour de force of lettering from Lucas Gattoni) has really been an absolute joy. The next reward will be seeing how happy this book makes people…because it’s going to make a lot of people very, very happy.

MM: When I was growing up in a very small rural town, calling someone “gay” was the surefire way to get in an immediate fight. And that gross homophobia that ran so rampant through the 90s made accepting my queerness really hard. Being bisexual was especially tough, for me, because I saw the gay folks around me erase and dismiss us and the straights hate us just the same. So I was closeted for a very long time, and only a few people here or there, aside from men I’d dated, really knew.

The media of the time didn’t help much, either. I felt very, very, alone – being queer, and especially a queer man, was a punchline on TV over and over again, and positive representation was extremely hard to find. So this is a very longwinded way of getting to the point that with this book, we created the book I’d have liked to have had when I was a kid and realizing my sexual identity. I hope the book helps young queer kids feel less alone in the world.

In terms of audience, who is this book for?

JG: I know it’s such a cop out to say ‘everyone’, but it really is. We’ve seen in the young adult book market, both in terms of graphic novels and prose, that male/male romance is a very popular subgenre, so this will really appeal to anyone who loves titles like that, such as Heartstopper. But perhaps most importantly, it’s for young queer men and non-binary kids who would just like to see that love, romance and happiness are out there for them too.

What are you hoping readers take away from this book?

JG: That their future is bright. That there’s love to be had and shared, and that nothing can truly get in their way, no matter how they want to live their life, or who they want to live it with. Love, adventure, action and happiness…they’re all up for grabs.

MM: There’s hope, there’s acceptance, and there’s love out there.

The Graphic Novel Revisited

By Industry News, Interviews

Eddie Campbell (From Hell, Alec, Bacchus), Carson Grubaugh (The Strange Death of Alex Raymond) and Sean Michael Robinson (Living the Line publisher) discuss the 2020 From Hell Master Edition, and The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (2021); the commonalities of the two works, their development revision and preservation, and both artists’ continuing pursuit of boundary-pushing visual expression. This talk was recorded live as part of the American Library Association’s 2021 virtual conference. 

The Truth Needs No Embellishment to be Horrifying

By Industry News, Interviews, , , ,

One of the greats in the field of true crime literature, Harold Schechter (Deviant, The Serial Killer Files, Hell’s Princess), teams with five-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist Eric Powell (The Goon, Big Man Plans, Hillbilly) to bring you the tale of one of the most notoriously deranged serial killers in American history, Ed Gein.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is an in-depth exploration of the Gein family and what led to the creation of the necrophile who haunted the dreams of 1950s America and inspired such films as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.

Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell’s true crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, psychotic and heartbreaking events. 

ERIC POWELL is a writer and artist from Nashville, Tennessee, who has contributed work for every major publisher in the comics industry. Powell has spent his career creating and promoting the validity and importance of creator-owned comics, including his own critically acclaimed series The Goon, which launched in 1999 and quickly became an indie hit with a die-hard cult following. In collaboration with renowned filmmaker David Fincher and directors Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler of Blur Studio, Powell is now working to bring The Goon to life on the big screen as an animated feature film.

HAROLD SCHECHTER is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore and The Hum Bug, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in New York State.
 
Check out our interview with Eric Powell and Harold SChechter below!

Joe Carriker Discusses LGBTQ+ Inclusion and Superheroes

By Industry News, Interviews, , ,

Author Joe Carriker discusses his novel SACRED BAND with Francisca Goldsmith of Publisher Spotlight.

Rusty may have been a kid during that glorious age but he remembers his idol, Sentinel, saving lives and righting wrongs — until he was outed in an incredible scandal that forced him into isolation. When a gay friend of Rusty living in the Czech Republic goes missing, Rusty is forced to acknowledge that while the world’s governments claim that super teams are outdated and replaced by legal law enforcement, there are simply some places where the law doesn’t protect everyone — so he manages to find and recruit Sentinel to help him find his friend.

But the disappearance of the friend is merely one move in a terrible plot against queer youth. A team of supers may be old-fashioned, but this may be a battle requiring some incredible reinforcements.

Fore more information on SACRED BAND, click here. 

The Boys Interview: Garth Ennis Corresponds with Dear Becky

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It’s been eight years since writer Garth Ennis concluded his run on The Boys. Since that time, Ennis’ blistering take on superheroes (with co-creator with Darick Robertson), has gone from the comics’ controversial hot potato to criticially-acclaimed Amazon Prime TV show. The writer Garth Ennis, artist Russ Braun, and publisher Dynamite are returning for more! The new book is called The Boys: Dear Becky, and it promises to flesh out both the pre-history of The Boys, relive some classic moments, and move the series into the future.

In the following interview, Garth Ennis explains how this new book connects to the original run and more.

The Boys: Dear Becky

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
ISBN: 9781524119904
Price: $19.99
Genre: Superheroes
Ages: 16+

On Sale: February 23, 2020

 

DIAMOND: The original run of The Boys ended in 2012, after a whopping 90 total issues. Readers who enjoyed the pointed satire, emotional storytelling and brutal action of the book have been clamoring for more ever since. Now they’re getting the proper article. What’s it like returning to this world in 2020?

Garth Ennis: Originally I never intended to do more with The Boys at all, but for obvious reasons I’ve found myself thinking about the story and characters again over the past couple of years. There was one aspect of the original story, and one character in particular, that I never felt got a fair shake…

That character being Becky Butcher, whose demise motivates her husband Billy to do the terrible things he does—but who only actually appears in two issues of the original book. I liked writing Becky very much, almost as much as Butcher himself, and I wanted to look in greater detail at how her relatively brief appearance cast such a long shadow.

DIAMOND: Of course, this series will be perfectly approachable for new readers and the countless new fans of The Boys. However, for those who have been on this whole journey with you, Darick, Russ and co. or have caught up recently, how does this new series tie to the previous one?

Garth Ennis: So, 12 years after the events of the series, Hughie and Annie have come back to his hometown in Scotland to get married—about time, Annie might say, and she’d be right (Hughie has gotten no more decisive in the intervening period). Then a mysterious package arrives, apparently out of the blue, containing documents that shed new light on The Boys’ long-deceased leader, Billy Butcher. This is very dangerous ground for Hughie, psychologically speaking—he’s been living with the fallout of the horrifically violent times he spent with Butcher ever since. But now he has no choice but to head down the rabbit hole, back to the days when Butcher, MM, Frenchie and the Female were part of his life.

Hughie is going to find things out about Butcher that he never knew before, things that might get him looking at his erstwhile boss- and his own life, come to that—in a rather different light. But he’ll have to figure out who it is that’s trying to drag him back into the world of The Boys in the first place- and why.

DIAMOND: With The Boys back in town, exploding in the mainstream, Preacher wrapping up a strong run on TV, and Punisher books on the stands and in the works, have people finally caught up with the Garth Ennis flavor?

Garth Ennis: Long may it continue, I suppose.

The Golden Age of Heroes is Decades Past…

By Industry News, Interviews, , , , ,
Joseph D. Carriker Jr. is a game developer at Green Ronin Publishing, primarily known for his involvement in works such as the RPG books A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Blue Rose: the AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, Fantasy Age, and Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting. Along with his background in game creation, Carriker is also the writer behind SACRED BAND, a young adult novel following a team of LBGTQ+ superheroes.
 
In SACRED BAND, The golden age of heroes is decades past. The government could not condone vigilantism and now meta-humans are just citizens, albeit citizens with incredible talent, who are assisted in achieving normal lives (including finding good fits for their talents employment-wise) by a federal agency.

Rusty may have been a kid during that glorious age but he remembers his idol, Sentinel, saving lives and righting wrongs — until he was outed in an incredible scandal that forced him into isolation. When a gay friend of Rusty living in the Czech Republic goes missing, Rusty is forced to acknowledge that while the world’s governments claim that super teams are outdated and replaced by legal law enforcement, there are simply some places where the law doesn’t protect everyone — so he manages to find and recruit Sentinel to help him find his friend.

But the disappearance of the friend is merely one move in a terrible plot against queer youth. A team of supers may be old-fashioned, but this may be a battle requiring some incredible reinforcements.

In the interview below, Carriker dives deeper into this world, expanding on the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in his novel.
 
SACRED BAND will be published by Green Ronin Publishing and can be found anywhere you buy books on October 13, 2020. For more information on the books, click here.

A Conversation with Dan Fogler

By Industry News, Interviews,
Dan Fogler is an American actor best known for his films such as Balls of Fury, Fanboys, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Along with his acting career, Fogler is an avid comic book reader and life-long horror fan of works such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Crypt, and more.
 
Now, Fogler has developed his one comic book universe in the world of MOON LAKE. In this demented graphic novel Hitchcock style anthology, a mysterious portal opens in the small town of Moon Lake. Zombie dinosaurs, a mass-murdering high school cheerleader, and an inter-dimensional Sasquatch trying to save his species from extinction are all battling along the lunar radiations near this small town.
 
In the interview below, Fogler dives deeper into this world, explaining how this dark comedy came to be.
 
MOON LAKE: MIDNIGHT MUNCHIES will be published by Heavy Metal and can be found anywhere you buy books on September 15, 2020. For more information on the books, click here.