AMBER LOVE 27-SEP-2012 Today’s VODKA O’CLOCK episode features the delightfully energetic comic creator ERIC GRISSOM to talk about DEADHORSE and PLANET GIGANTIC. Yes, we do talk about living in New Jersey how we have a desire to leave despite the parts that are great. This is a strange common thread through Vodka O’Clock.

Download on iTunes or listen here. Don’t forget that Comic Fusion’s Superhero Weekend is only days away and online bidding for original comic art and other great items like Heroclix. All proceeds benefit SAFE in Hunterdon. Come see us, the artists, Batmobiles and cosplayers on Oct 6-7th!

Eric Grissom chats about his projects spotlighting the ongoing series DEADHORSE published by 215ink. DEADHORSE takes a man who has inherited a key and sets him off and running on an adventure that ties back to his father’s controversial past.  Is magic real or not? The bizarre city of Deadhorse, Alaska should leave you questioning that for yourself. I think if you like quirky science fiction comics like THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, then you will not want to miss out on DEADHORSE. It always surprises me when great projects don’t get tons of PR and hype.

The creative team, Grissom and artist Phil Sloan expanded to include David Halvorson as the colorist. Halvorson went back and recolored everything when they got picked up by 215ink.

Eric unfolds the layers of creating a good mystery. The notion of an unopened box is something seen repeatedly in other forms of entertainment from the popular drama MONK to the legendary movie PULP FICTION. Hollywood creator J.J. Abrams even goes into details about the draw of an unopened box in his TED talk.

Integrating flashbacks successfully is another area of writing that is discussed. In the case of comics and as seen in DEADHORSE, the color palette shifts to the past, the fashions change appropriately and characters go through a defined discovery. Some creators don’t approve of using caption boxes to date stamp and prefer to have those details unveiled through the writing or panels. The use of date stamps are used efficiently in DEADHORSE.

When to break characters and define them as individuals: DEADHORSE has a charming ensemble cast of Pike, Elise and Edgar with enough other bizarre characters to which they interact. These are decisions of authors and editors. Sometimes the characters seem to fluidly create themselves. Grissom’s character Elise will definitely have her own development and not serve a shallow “place a female character here” entity.

Enjoy our digression as we reminisce about Saturday Morning Cartoons! That’s always a fun topic for people of a certain age (since in the early 2000’s they sucked). Eric talks about the anticipation of wanting to be in front of the television at a certain day and time which is now non-existent with onDemand, Netflix and streaming though convenient devices. New comic Wednesday may be the only thing that people wait for on a regular basis unless you count waiting week-to-week for a show.

YES, around the 40:00 minute mark, you can hear Eric give his blessing for an official DEADHORSE cocktail to be created for VODKA O’CLOCK: THE BOOK! I’ve already drafted a recipe that involves spiking hot chocolate substantially. I’ll have to test it out and then shoot it over to Eric for his blessing but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be delightful.

You can meet the DEADHORSE & PLANET GIGANTIC team at the Asbury Park Comic Con and New York Comic Con.

LINKS:

Eric Grissom on Twitter.

Deadhorse comic on Twitter.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.