VODKA O’CLOCK 1432 with @CoughlinStephen cartoonist of SANCTUARY

AMBER LOVE 13-SEPT-2014 My guest STEPHEN COUGHLIN is the creator, writer and illustrator of SANCTUARY, a comic series of animals who have undergone some experimentation. In their sanctuary, there’s been a human murder and Stephen describes this as being like Twin Peaks in the sense that it’s about how the characters live and react after the murder not about solving the murder. We ran into technical issues (as usual) on Skype so there are audio quality differences and edits just to give fair warning.

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When I first read SANCTUARY, their anthropomorphized characteristics were so strong in defining their roles, that I immediately wanted to talk about it. I think I probably tweeted quite a few panels back then. Trust me when I say that Stephen has a great grasp of character development. His background of experience includes art school and getting a job early in his career at Highlights Magazine for Children, one of my favorites as a kid that saw it in every doctor’s office. For nearly 10 years, Stephen left art and took a job in a mental health facility. A woman with a severe mental illness had originally consented and began working with him to make her life story into a graphic novel but then later she changed her mind.

In the future, SANCTUARY may eventually be released online as a webcomic and if that happens, Stephen wants to make the site dynamic with interactive elements. He has a plan for a free issue done in different art styles too.

At the end of the episode, I remind everyone to please join us at Comic Fusion’s Superhero Weekend. If you can’t contact the store via email at bids @ comicfusion.com if you would like to give them a max bid that can be incremented throughout the bidding process by a staffer. After we recorded, Stephen decided to make SHW one of his fall appearances now that he’s moved to New Jersey.

• Saturday 10/4: Nick Mockoviak, Tom Schloendorn, Charles Wilson III, and musician Sarah Donner.
• Sunday 10/5: Donna Gregory, Manda Cantillon, Stephen Coughlin and Joe Caramagna.

SANCTUARY SAMPLES

BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Brian K. Vaughn’s PRIDE OF BAGHDAD
• The new series from Action Lab Entertainment HERO CATS OF STELLAR CITY
• Darryl Cunningham’s PSYCHIATRIC TALES

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.