Tag: H.P. Lovecraft

Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Russell Nohelty and Laurie Foster about Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell

Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Russell Nohelty and Laurie Foster about Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell

Our latest SquadCast interview takes place with a pair of comic creators working to fund their latest project, and it is a great concept.

For several years now, writer and editor Russell Nohelty has been working on the multiple volumes of his anthology series Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell for a few years now, and as the project transitions to the next phase he has partnered with Laurie Foster and Unlikely Heroes Studios to repackage the books in an even more accessible format with added material.

The crowdfunding campaign for this special release is running on Backerkit until March 21st.

We spoke with both Russell and Laurie about the project, H.P. Lovecraft and the challenges that his legacy presents in the current social climate, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff.

Russell is an author with credits such as Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, The Godsverse Chronicles, and The Obsidian Spindle Saga, as well as being the editor for the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell anthology series. He has also contributed to a bunch of anthologies including:  Cthulhu Invades Oz, Monsters and Other Scary Shit, Parallel Worlds, The Edgar Allan Poe Chronicles to name a few.

Laurie is an editor, inker, publisher, cosplayer, and pretty much everything else that you can think of. She runs Unlikely Heroes Studios and if the day has a Y at the end, she is probably running a crowdfunding campaign somewhere.

This conversation focused on the campaign for the excellent Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell, but it also ventured into the realms of the horror genre in general, representation in publishing, and nerdy favorites.

We hope you enjoy the conversation:


What is Cthulhu is Hard to Spell?

Continue reading “Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Russell Nohelty and Laurie Foster about Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell”

With Further Ado #111: Wheatley’s The Witch of Everwhen

With Further Ado #111: Wheatley’s The Witch of Everwhen

Some people are just overflowing with talent, and when it spills over to other media, it’s a truly wondrous thing. Mark Wheatley is one of those people.  You may know him as an award-winning comics creator, a frequent exhibitor at San Diego Comic-Con & Baltimore Comic-Con, or as an industrious entrepreneur.  Knowing all those things about him, I was even more impressed when he told me about his newest project, a song & music video called The Witch of Everwhen.  Checkout the teaser trailer:

 

 

Wheatley is working out the details for the full-fledged Witch of Everwhen video debut. The announcement should be made soon, and you can keep up with it all here at the Mark Wheatley Gallery.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because he’s created music videos before for previous projects like Dance with Your Brothers , Surrender and Earth’s Farewell.  But nonetheless, I had to find out more.

Ed Catto: This is a fascinating project – tell me how The Witch of Everwhen came about!

Mark Wheatley: I have been composing and recording music for as long as I have been writing and drawing comics professionally. In my early days looking for work in New York, while I was beating the pavement to show my portfolio to art directors and editors, I was also sending demo tapes to A&R reps at the various music companies. I was doing this right up until I landed my first monthly comic series, MARS.

The only musical “success” I had during that period was one of my tunes was picked for airplay on WNEW and one of their DJs was calling me to brainstorm how I would get more attention for my music. But when Marc Hempel and I signed our MARS contract [with First Comics], I decided that the time required to write and pencil a monthly comic was going to eat my life, and I stopped recording and sending out demo tapes. So, of course, two weeks after I signed the MARS contract Capitol Records offered me a three record deal, and I had to turn it down. A few months later, Columbia Records offered me a one record deal. Both of these offers would require me to also hit the road for live tours, so it was just impossible. After that, aside from recording some soundtrack music for radio and TV commercials, my musical efforts were limited to recording theme songs for my comic book creations. Continue reading “With Further Ado #111: Wheatley’s The Witch of Everwhen”

Spotlight Interview with Comic Writer Paul Storrie

Spotlight Interview with Comic Writer Paul Storrie

Hi Folks!

We are back with another in depth interview with a comic book pro. This time we were lucky enough to spend some time talking with comic writer Paul Storrie.

Paul has written for DC, Marvel, IDW, Moonstone Books, Source Point Press, and others. He is well known for his original character Robyn of Sherwood.

He will have two publications coming to comic shops in the next couple of months. First, on February 12th the long awaited collection of the Gotham Girls mini-series will be published by DC Comics as Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls. It is written by Paul Storrie with pencils by Jennifer Graves, inks by J. Bone, colors by Trish Mulvihill, and letters by Tim Harkins and Phil Felix. The covers of the five issue series that was originally published in 2002 were done by Shane Glines and Rian Hughes.

Coming to stores in March is the second adventure of Elgven, the Viking Queen in Viking Queen: Sleepers in Shadow, written by Paul. It is published by Source Point Press and is drawn by Kristen Cella with colors by Sean Seal. It will be in stores on March 25th.

Below you will find the audio recording of our conversation with Paul. It is a great listen. We travel through his experiences with these two books and cover his thoughts on some other issues too.

We also transcribed the majority of the interview for you, but there are still somethings that you will only find in the audio.

 

Pop Culture Squad: I know you have two books coming out soon, so let’s take them in chronological order. First coming out in February is a collected paperback of your Gotham Girls series. It is being collected as Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls. Congratulations. I know it has been a long time coming. So, what do you remember about how this mini-series came to you and the origins of it getting done?

Paul Storrie: Well, it was interesting because I had done a couple of issues of Batman Beyond. One of which saw print and other one did not, because the TV show was canceled. They pulled the plug on the comic almost immediately thereafter. So, I was doing that, and I think I had done at least one Cass Cain Batgirl inventory story and my Justice League Adventure story at that point. I was pretty comfortable in the “animated series” universe.

One day the link came up, on what in those days must have been a message board that I was on, and I watched some of the Gotham Girls web series that was playing on the Warner Brothers animation website. I watched a couple of them, and I thought “Wow, why aren’t they doing a Gotham Girls comic to go along with the web series?” It seemed like it would be a synergistic kind of thing. Continue reading “Spotlight Interview with Comic Writer Paul Storrie”

With Further Ado #054: Summer Reading

I am worried that at this point in my life, the notion of leisurely reading on a summer day is more myth than reality. I still read a lot (too much?), but I don’t really seem to have those lazy-lay-about-days any more.  Still – summer’s in that home stretch, and I’m always optimistic.  Let’s not give up! And here’s a few new reading ideas for all of us:  Continue reading “With Further Ado #054: Summer Reading”