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***** Interview with Shon C. Bury, Writer/Creator of Shon C. Bury's Nox, from Narwain Publishing. Interviewed by: Paul Dale Roberts, Publisher www.jazmaonline.com Question: Shon, you've just returned from a very long break from comics. What have you been doing during that time and what prompted your return? I have been gone a long time. Almost six years since my last published comic. I've been staying busy, and--to be honest--I was so busy with my other pursuits, I didn't even realize I wasn't writing comics for the first couple years. What prompted my "hiatus" were a couple different things. Divorce and a return to college where the two biggies, but I also started getting involved in the Seattle poetry community. I spent a few years writing poetry, helping organize the annual festival as a board member, organizing and hosting shows. Generally just having fun with that kind of thing. Between that, my day job, and goofing around with my son...six years passed very quickly. I didn't even realize I wasn't collecting--let alone writing-- comics until about two years ago. Then the bug started up again. True lovers of comics have a bug...it starts itching even when they know there are greener pastures in other mediums. I have that bug. So I started scratching it. Getting back in contact with a few people. Dusting off a few of my old creator-owned proposals. I tentatively tried to slip back into Marvel and DC, but found that most of the editors I had worked with where gone. And, to be honest, I wasn't overly excited about becoming a professional proposal writer for the big two during this second phase of my career. Once I realized that, I dusted off my creator-owned proposals again and got in touch with the talent agency Sequential Studios to start putting my creative teams together. Shon C. Bury's Nox was the one (of about three) projects that got up and moving...and eventually found a home in Narwain's very diverse line of comics. Question: You finished your degree in English and spent many years writing poetry...how did this affect your comic book writing, if at all? It had a tremendous effect. From the top down. Whole worlds opened up to me both creatively and stylistically. Comics are already a minimalist, visual medium. In poetry...one hears over and over to "show, don't tell" and "go where the pain is." The white of the page is as important as the actual words. Concise, visual, active sentence structure. Invaluable. I've also done a ton of performance poetry, so most of my work was written to be spoken. To be successful, I had to develop an ear for spoken language. This has helped my dialog tremendously. Question: Shon, what's the word on your new comic book Nox? Give us a briefing about this comic book. Sure. Nox--or "Shon C. Bury's Nox," as it's officially called--is basically Joseph Campbell's Hero Cycle mapped onto a modern world filled with over-educated urban hipsters. The protagonist and his supporting cast find themselves following the cycle of a hero's journey as it's mapped out by Joseph Campbell in his Hero with a Thousand Faces. The characters are all very everyman...and since the protagonist, Joey, is a Comparative Mythology student, he knows exactly what's going on every step of the way. He may not know the exact event that's going to occur or how it's going to occur, but he knows where he's at in his journey once he identifies it. In that way, it's a bit deconstructive. But not so much. Along the way, Joey and his sidekick encounter mystical gurus, magical creatures, goddesses, demons...the works. During the pitch stage, Nox made the rounds in San Diego and the usual creator-owned gauntlet this past year. It was picked up by Narwain around Christmas--and the first issue is scheduled to see print in May. It's a five issue miniseries that will run bi- monthly. Question: You've had a slight title change since you originally penned the deal with Narwain. What prompted that? Yes. Originally, the book was titled just plain "Threshold." Based on Campbell's Hero Cycle and the crossing of the "Threshold of Adventure." However, someone brought it to my attention that that title is already in use by a small comic company. We tried to go with "Shon C. Bury's Threshold" but that ended up not being a clear enough distinction. So...Nox. As in the Latin word for night. It fits equally as well as "Threshold." I have to say, Narwain was quick to respond to this title faux pas once it was brought to their attention. They had multiple emails sitting in my inbox within minutes of discovering this. They wanted the title situation resolved that instant. The whole change took a few hours, and they where so great about it. It was late afternoon here when all this occurred, so with a nine hour time difference in Italy the Narwain staff was really burning the midnight oil. That's dedication. My hats off to them for that. Question: Who are the artists on Shon C. Bury's Nox? Brazilian artist Allan Goldman is the penciler on the book. Allan is represented by Sequential Studios--which, I should probably mention, I'm now part owner of. Allan is one of our best pencilers. And one of our fastest. Not only is his work beautiful, but he can consistently turn out a page a day. Something of a rarity these days. I can't even verbalize just how amazing I think Allan is. But I'm sure you can see by the sample pages. My first act as new partner of Sequential Studios was to steal Allan for myself. I think his work is so amazing that I refused to let an inker get anywhere near his amazing line work. And that's where Ed Waysek comes in the picture. Ed is a graduate of Kubert's. And an amazing graphic designer as well as colorist. The things he can do with Photoshop...my head just hurts thinking about him explaining it to me. This is Ed's first professional comic book credit, but you wouldn't know by his level of quality. Every page Ed's busting his chops to take Allan's pencils straight to colors. This provides a whole new world of complications to a colorist's job, but Ed makes things work. He's a great guy--and a bit of a Swiss army knife. Multifunctional. Question: Tell us about the characters in Nox. Joey's the protagonist. If he was played in a movie, he'd be plaid by a young John Cusack or Buffy's Nicolas Brendon. Joey's working towards his PhD in Comparative Mythology, so when all these very Hero Cycle things begin to happen to him...he's painfully aware of what's going on. And he's an everyman. Everymen are awesome characters to write because they ask the questions the readers ask. I get a lot of mileage from him looking the reader in the eye and breaking things down for them. In an academic or scientific way. Then there's Bobby. Accept no substitutes; he's Jack Black ala High Fidelity. He's also an everyman, but cast in the much more typical roll as comic relief. He's working on his PhD in Physics, but isn't the best student in the world. He spends much of his time trying to prove that he is not the sidekick of the story...when he clearly is, in fact, the sidekick. These two are aided on their journey by a number of characters, chief among them being The Nun. Think Dolph Lundgren in a Catholic nun's habit and you're thinking right. He's the first mystical "wise man" that Joey and Bobby encounter prior to crossing the "Threshold of Adventure." He has all kinds of mystical knowledge and trinkets...and is incapable of taking a punch. You'll have to read the book to meet the other characters. I don't want to spoil any forthcoming goodness. Question: What conventions will you be attending? I'll be at Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con April 1st and 2nd. Booth #431. I'll have tons of preview art from Nox. I'll also have tons of samples from other Sequential Studios artists. I'm back in the habit of hitting San Diego annually. I also want to start hitting Chicago and NY, funds allowing. I love those two cities. Question: How can someone contact you? My contact information can be found on the Sequential Studios website: http://www.guybrush73.com/sequentialstudios_portfolio/ . Please email. I hate phones. Question: What are your hobbies and recreational activities? Writing, mostly. And reading. I used to avidly perform poetry, but had to give that up when I decided to focus on comics. I really like, honestly, putting books together. I've done all the editorial and art director chores on Nox. Which comes with the territory on a creator-owned book, but I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy it. I'm also a bit of a junky for classic movies. All said...I live a very sedentary life where work blurs into play. Question: If you can have 6 dinner guests, 3 fictional and 3 real-life from any time period, who would those 6 people be and why? Hrm. I'd have to go with Joss Wedon, Buffy co-producer and staff writer Marti Noxon, and actor James Marsters...so I can freak out every time he talks without the British accent. Fictional? I'm sticking with the Buffy/vampire theme: Kate Becksale's character from Underworld. Love the vampire chicks. Willow Rosenberg from the 5th season of Buffy because she's smart, funny, powerful, adorable, and ADORABLE. I'd like to get Joss drunk and say surley things to him like: "Joss! How 'bout a Willow movie or at least a comic? Hello, OBVIOUS much?" Then ask James what he thinks about it all. To round off the fictional gang...and to make a really bizarre Buffy party of it...I'll go with 6th Season Spike...just to see him freak out every time James Marsters talks without a British accent. Question: Your taste seems to be evenly split between gothic and comedy. Do these two interests ever enter into your stories? Mm. A bit in Nox. Definitely the comedy--though Nox is not a comedy in the genre sense. I'm putting a project together right now where gothic horror and comedy collide like a PB&J sandwich. The scripts are flowing out of me, but it's premature to discuss more right now. Question: If you could go into any time machine, what year would you stop at and tell us why. Good question. Right now, I'm very obsessed with Great-Depression Era America. Roughly 1928 - 1941. I think I'd like to visit around '36...just to glimpse the daily realities of that era. Not just in small town America, but also to see how Roosevelt's New Deal was coming along...and to see how America and her allies where really looking at Nazi Germany. I wouldn't want to stay long, mind you, but that would be fascinating. Question: What TV shows, movies, cartoons do you like? You may be surprised to hear this, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my all-time favorite TV show. I'm a Netflix guy, so I don't wade through a lot of the cable crap, but also so I can be more selective in what I watch. I'm a big fan of Babylon 5. Star Trek: Enterprise ended before its time. As is Arrested Development. If you haven't already, please check out the anime Kino's Journey. Carnival, Dead Like Me, and Six Feet Under...HBO's on a roll. But movies? As I mentioned, I'm a classics junky. I also love Woody Allen movies. Breakfast at Tiffanies. The Apartment. Annie Hall. Deconstructing Harry. I'm oddly drawn to John Cusack movies as well: High Fidelity and Gross Point Blank. I'll watch anything that Owen Wilson plays in or Wes Anderson writes/directs. Question: What books do you enjoy? So many. I'm an avid reader. I'm always reading a book on mythology our comparative mythology. I've read everything that Joseph Campbell's written. Obviously the Hero with a Thousand Faces. But I have also read all of his "Masks of Gods" books, The Power of Myth, etc. I'll also read anything by Anthropologist Jeremy Narby. His book The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge is a mind blower. Other books of interest...anything to do with String Theory, New Physics/Zen. Books like The Elegant Universe and The Dancing Wu Li Masters. I research a lot of these things and throw it into the hopper that is my imagination. I also read a lot of poetry, Existentialism, and classics. I have a pretty mean collection of Utopic and Distopic literature. Also a big fan of "transgressive" writers like Chuck Palaniuk and Brett Easton Ellis. Choke and Glamarama (respectively) are simply amazing. Question: And what books are you reading right now? The last of Steven King's Gunslinger books...which has turned out much better than I expected. I'm reading up on Gothic Literature and architecture for that forthcoming project I mentioned earlier. I'm also researching this thing called the "Akashic field"...although the names of the two books I'm reading elude me right now. Question: What comic books do you read now? I'm not reading many floppies at the moment, but I read tons of trades. I've finally caught up on all the Conan trades from Dark Horse. Awesome. I'm an avid Invincible and Noble Causes reader...actually Jay Fearber, the creator/writer of NC...is a client of Sequential Studios. Starting with issue #19, Sequential Studios artist John Bosco begins his run as penciler. End plug. Other trades I'm collecting...just finished buying up Preacher and Sandman (finally). I'm starting on Cerebus , Age of Bronse, and Love and Rockets. I do go and grab floppies of Planetary, Teen Titans, and The Outsiders. I love those books in a very special way. Otherwise, I'm not much of a floppy guy. Question: What gives you your creative energy? Beats me. It just swells up...and it's best to release at regular intervals. I find energy drink and complex B vitamins help as well. Question: If Nox became a movie, who would play Joey and Bobby? A young John Cusack or Nicolas Brendon would play Joey...because that's who I modeled Joey after. Bobby...is Jack Black. Accept no substitutes. Question: What can we expect from Shon C. Bury in what you referred to as the "second phase of your career"? Lot's of comics. Although I'm interested in writing superheroes for the big two...my main focus is on my own stuff. Looking back at the first phase of my career...I see a lot of mistakes made both in how I was writing stories and how I managed myself. I was in my early and mid-twenties. I didn't know **** about writing. Or life. I've spent the last six years wisely honing my writing, developing a voice...and looking at the world through a much broader and more experienced lens. I hope it shows in what I have in store for the readers. Question: This ends the interview, any encouraging words of wisdom? If it doesn't work the way you wanted it to begin, you can always start over. Thanks for the interview, Paul. I hope you check out the book. ***** Interview with Dan Schaffer, Writer of Dogwitch! Interviewed by: Paul Dale Roberts, Publisher www.jazmaonline.com Q: What was the first comic book you ever read? A: It was either the first issue of 2000AD, or the graphic novel adaptation of ALIEN by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson. I can't remember which came first. It was probably 2000AD. That launched in 1978, I think. Q: Dan...you have wonderful news; you have placed the thirteen page pilot of Dogwitch online. Why did you do this? A: I'm a bit slow out of the gate, though, I should have done it four years ago when the series started, but it seems like a good idea to give readers and retailers a chance to view your work thoroughly before asking them to blindly buy it. Reason I'm doing it now anyway is mainly to celebrate the end of the series. The third trade comes out this year, and the first one has almost sold out, so I thought it would be nice to have some Dogwitch stuff out there that's free and easily accessible. Q: I was going to review your online comic book, but there is no need to, the comic book speaks for itself...it falls into the category of 'excellence' and throw in the words outstanding and perfection too! How did you come up with the concept of Dogwitch? A: I dunno. How do you explain stuff like that? I always say that creativity happens when two random ideas collide and produce a third, which then screams constantly until you either play with it or kill it. Dogwitch screamed louder than anything else at the time. It's a mishmash of ideas glued together with blood and spit. Q: I was stunned by the artwork on Dogwitch, who is the artist? A: It's me, man. I'm the artist as well. I'm omni-functional. Q: Will you be placing more comic books online for fans? A: Hopefully. I'll certainly be posting an extensive online preview of the new book (THE SCRIBBLER) when it comes out later this year. Q: What is the URL address for us to read Dogwitch online? A: You can get there from the front page of my website: www.danielschaffer.com Q: What future projects do you have going on? A: There's an original graphic novel in the works for Image called THE SCRIBBLER. That'll be completed in June or July and shipping later in the year. That's my full time job at the moment. After that, maybe another graphic novel, or another series, I'm not sure. I'm still juggling ideas. Q: How can people contact you? A: My email is on the website - www.danielschaffer.com Or I'm on Livejournal - http://danschaffer.livejournal.com And MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/danschaffer Or you can talk to me on my message board, Spitting Nails - http://p105.ezboard.com/bspittingnails I'm pretty easy to find. Q: What is your website address? A: www.danielschaffer.com www.dogwitch.com Q: Please brief readers on what Dogwitch is all about? A: Dogwitch is a comic book series following the exploits of an exiled witch and snuff movie superstar called Violet Grimm. It's about 21st century electric sex-magick. It's eye-candy on the surface, post-modern schlock-horror underneath, with a bit of a feminist streak through the middle. The blurb goes like this - Violet Grimm, outcast sorceress and arcane fetish-witch superstar, has jammed a firecracker in the eye of acceptable modern witchcraft. Banished deep into the evil Banewoods for daring to practice her own unique brand of Molotov Magick, Violet continues to stretch the boundaries of accepted 21st Century witchcraft. As tales of bad sex and dangerous voodoo spread her infamy through the Banewoods, she captures the attention of a multitude of weirdoes and demons and resigns herself to a B-movie splatterfest lifestyle, making provocative home videos for a berserk fan base in the pursuit of arcane knowledge. Violet is the Garbo of witches, a reclusive legend in a depraved, gory, funny and fiendishly sexy world. Q: Who are the main characters of Dogwitch? A: Violet Grimm, she's the Dogwitch. She's flanked by her familiars, a rough talking, chain-smoking plushy dog called Ralph, and a disfigured Victorian psychic doll called Dolores. One of these acts as a voice of reason, her conscience, while the other feeds her psychoses. It's not always clear which is which. She has an on off relationship with a suit-wearing demon called Mr. Kinky who shows up here and there throughout the series, and she's kind of got a pet child, which is actually a bunch of dead Sprites stitched together and reanimated. She calls it Pod. It lives in the attic. Q: How can readers get back issues of Dogwitch? A: The publishers, SIRIUS, still hold extensive stocks, although some single issues have sold out. The entire series is collected in three trade paperbacks, all available online from Amazon. There are links to other online stores on my website, along with all the Diamond order codes. Q: What are your hobbies and recreational activities? A: Well, I guess I write more than I can ever draw, so you could say writing stuff that will never see the light of day is kind of my hobby. Q: What TV shows, movies, cartoons do you like? A: I go for any TV shows that I think are well written. I don't have a preference for any specific genre. I was a big fan of SEX AND THE CITY and BUFFY when they were running. These days I watch SCRUBS, LOST, THE L WORD. I like trashy stuff too. I just watched the entire five-season rerun of LA FEMME NIKITA on the Sci-Fi Channel just for the sheer fu$$$ of it. That show's got it's own brand of logic that doesn't apply to anything else in the world. Q: What books do you enjoy? A: You know back when the beat writers started to cause trouble, the biggest criticism held against writers like Jack Kerouac was that they weren't writing - they were typing. Well, I'm a big fan of typing. I love books that don't necessarily have a formula plot, but instead are more of a platform for a writer to spill his guts. The plot is something that happens almost accidentally. So, I'm a Bukowski fan. And Henry Miller. Both these guys were kind of brutal and arrogant, but they're tapped so deep into the fundamental essence of existence that their words still resonate with undeniable truths even today. I like John Fante. He wrote one of my favourite books, ASK THE DUST. Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favourite authors. Q: What comic books do you read now? A: I read a lot of IMAGE comics. The last comic book I bought was the BLACK HOLE collection by Charles burns. This may sound crazy but I try not to read too many comics. I want to bring new ideas and styles to the medium, so I find it necessary to avoid accidental absorption or adoption of someone else's style. Saying that, I have read a lot of comics, I just don't read that many while I'm working on one of my own, which is all the time these days. Q: What gives you your creative energy? A: I don't know. Creative energy goes off like lightning inside your brain. It's never ceases to amaze me how it can get you to move your arse even when your body feels like it's had enough. Q: If Dogwitch became a movie, who would play the character parts and why? A: I'm notoriously crap at this question. Violet is alive and kicking inside my head and she's partially based on my partner, Jen, so it's difficult to replace that image with anything else. Let's say Angelina Jolie, just 'cause that's what everyone else always says. Same goes for the other characters, although I reckon Dolores might sound a bit like Juliet Landau doing her Victorian cockney routine. Ralph is possibly from Brooklyn. Question: This ends the interview, any encouraging words of wisdom? A: I got nothing, but Violet says, "If someone tells you they're making order out of chaos, then they've probably already got you believing that there's something wrong with chaos." _________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- COMICS OBSCURA Mike Curtis shandafa@cyberback.com [COMICS OBSCURA are facts Mike Curtis has dug out during his 30 years of collecting Superman and writing about comics. His website for his comic imprint is www.shandafantasyarts.net ] LUTHOR HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS BIZARRO I'm proud to include an OBSCURA item that I was responsible for. In the 1980's, HARVEY COMICS made a comeback and advertised for new talent. I sent in several story ideas and got a job as a writer. One day, I got an assignment for an 8 page RICHIE RICH story. I wanted to start off with something different, but at one point RICHIE was appearing in THIRTY TWO different titles each year from Harvey. What could I do with Richie that had never been done before? So I looked at another character with thousands of stories published, one I knew quite well. SUPERMAN. What had SUPERMAN done that RICHIE RICH hadn't? And I got the answer. BIZARRO. So I created BILLY BROKE, Richie's "Bizarro" duplicate. Where everything Richie touched made money, everything Billy touched would LOSE money. The new character went over well with editor Ken Selig, and he asked me for an extra one page BILLY BROKE story for the same issue. . _________________________________________________________________ Thanks for subscribing to the Comic Book Network Electronic Magazine (CBEM) --------------------------->Disclaimer<--------------------------- This is an ANNOUNCE only mailing list, only the Editor can send messages to the list. No one else has access to the subscriber list. Replies to these messages will be received by the Editor ONLY, so you must CC: individual contributors if you want them to get your E-Mail. The E-mail to the E-mag MAY be used in future issues at the Editor's discretion UNLESS you specifically request that they not be. It is our policy to withhold names and/or Addresses, by request only, from letters of comment. All contributors are required to use their real name and have a valid Email address for their columns to be published. Send Email comments to: ComicBkNet@aol.com Material for inclusion in the Emag - press releases, solicitations, column submissions, Letters to the Editor, guesses for the trivia contest should be sent to ComicBkNet@aol.com The EDITOR, not the submitter, has final approval and edit rights on ALL material. Printed comic books and advanced copies for review in the Emag should be sent via US Mail or UPS to David L. LeBlanc 84 Heather Circle Jefferson, MA 01522-1419 TO Subscribe send a message FROM the intended address to: ComicBookNetworkEmag-subscribe@yahoogroups.com TO Unsubscribe send a message FROM the address to be dropped to: ComicBookNetworkEmag-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com You may also unsubscribe from the Egroups Web page at the short cut below. Shortcut URL to the Egroup page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ComicBookNetworkEmag All contents COPYRIGHT 2006 The Comic Book Network. 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| << April01, 2006 - [ComicBookNetwork E-Mag] CBEM 569.5 |
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