Let me tell you about a NEW favorite series of mine, sure to be one of yours as well. Brimstone is another cool comic series by Zenescope Entertainment. Here is a synopsis for you:
Brimstone: With his dying breath, an Indian Shaman unleashes an ancient curse upon his murderers, the miners of Brimstone, as well as the richest gold stake ever found in the High Sierras. A week later, the town is overrun and its communication lines cut. With all the honest men fighting the Civil War, the desperate mining investors put together a collection of outlaws, killers and thieves to re-take Brimstone … by any means necessary. Led by “The Viper,” a brooding gunslinger whose brutal exploits are the stuff of Western legend, the vicious posse finds the bullet-ridden town littered with dismembered corpses but its gold stores untouched. In Brimstone, the most feared men in the West have finally found the very heart of fear.
Now let me introduce you to the crew behind this awesome series!
Brian McCarthy
ComicBooked: Who has inspired you?
Brian McCarthy: My inspirations are wide and varied, but for this project, I’d have to say that I was really inspired by the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Cameron’s Aliens, Arthur Suydam’s Marvel Zombies and Jae Lee’s work in the Dark Tower series. Devour that material and then read Brimstone and it will all be crystal clear.
ComicBooked: Who all have you done work for?
Brian McCarthy: Mostly, my work is self-generated and then I go find a buyer or audience. Both Michael and I have been in that position lots of times, writing on spec, so Brimstone was a chance for us to oversee the whole process from beginning to end and produce work that we could truly call our own. It’s been an exciting process. Michael and I also have several bio-books coming this summer from Bluewater Comics, including biographies of Stephen King, Keith Richards, JRR Tolkien and Stephen Hawking.
ComicBooked: Who do you wish to work with or for?
Brian McCarthy: Alan Moore, Joss Whedon, Damen Lindelof to name a few. Mike Mignola, as well. Having researched and written the Richards book for Bluewater, I would love to adapt his book, LIFE, as a full-on graphic novel.
ComicBooked: How can your fans reach you and see your work?
Brian McCarthy: I’m pretty active on the Brimstone Facebook page, (www.facebook.com/brimstonefans), so you can reach me anytime there. Both Michael and I are pretty responsive. Other than that, grab a copy of the Brimstone or the biographies from Bluewater and enjoy!
ComicBooked: What would you like to tell fans?
Brian McCarthy: First and foremost, I’d like to say thank you for your support! There’s a lot of books you could choose to read and we really appreciate that you took the time and money to read Brimstone. We hope you continue to find books off the beaten path to read. There are so many exciting and talented writers and artists producing great work that you’ll be well rewarded if you look beyond the DC and Marvel superhero books.
ComicBooked: Where were you born and where do you live now?
Brian McCarthy: I was born in the land of the Midnight Sun, Fairbanks, Alaska. Since leaving there for college I’ve travelled all around the US and worked in a variety of fields — theater, film, photography, app design — any avenue that I could find to tell a story. Right now I live in Los Angeles, CA with my wife and daughter and stay up late worrying the stories I dream up might actually come true some day.
Bernie Lee~
ComicBooked: Who has inspired you?
Bernie Lee: Definitely Heisler and Comicraft, from the days when lettering started to be done on computers.
ComicBooked: Who all have you done work for?
Bernie Lee: IDW, Zenescope, Moonstone, Bluewater, Strika to name a few. I’m privileged to get to know these top publishers and work with the creative talents involved.
ComicBooked: Who do you wish to work with or for?
Bernie Lee: Marvel, DC, Image, Dynamite and the other big boys, although currently I have more work than I can handle at times! Might be looking to get a partner and rule the world!
ComicBooked: How can your fans reach you and see your work?
Bernie Lee: All my work to highlight are at http://leehawke.deviantart.com/
ComicBooked: What would you like to tell fans?
Bernie Lee: Thanks for the accolades over the years. Please drop by and add me to your watchlist on Deviantart!
MICHAEL LENT
Bio:
I was one of those kids that if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never gave the same answer twice. I would become obsessed with things but only for six month increments, so I guess it was inevitable that I’d become a writer.
I tried law school, Wall Street, and copywriting for ad firms, before finally accepting my fate. At one point, I took a five month backpacking trip through Europe where I did a lot of soul searching and came back to an internship at MTV in New York where cool producers like John Payson, Mark Pellington and the late Ted Demme encouraged me to write scripts for the On-Air Promo dept. You’d write something on a Tuesday and they’d say, “Nice job. We’re gonna shoot it Thursday. Come along.” What I didn’t know is that they planned to have me on camera as an extra in the spots, which for a writer is kind of a cruel death since writers on camera tend to look like they’ve been catapulted from Jupiter and were blinded and lobotomized during re-entry. I am no exception. One time I played a homeless guy sleeping in a dumpster in a pretend alley. It was so hot under all the klieg lights and with all those layers of Salvation Army clothes that I started drinking the Thunderbird Liquor they gave me as a prop. I was working on the third prop bottle by the time they got to my shot. By that time I had decided I was a method wino, so my pants were around my ankles and my fly was open. I may have soiled myself, too. I had to be helped out of the dumpster and came out muttering about a conspiracy to limit the global
supply of Yoohoo. I think it’s been all downhill since then.
With Brimstone neither Brian nor I take anything for granted. We have some ideas about continuing the series beyond #7 but we’ll let the readers decide our fate. So far, people really like the book and reviews have been great. At the least, we hope to bring attention to non-super hero titles like Brimstone, cool indie publishers like Zenescope and recognition especially to artist Hyunsang Michael Cho who penciled, inked and colored more than 750 panels during a 16 month period. IMHO, he is what the Eisner is about and I hope readers and the industry as a whole will continue to take note of his work. I always remember that there are very talented writers out there who may never earn a dime for their efforts, yet persevere. On the other hand, writers like Neil Gaiman, Richard Price, and Stephen King inspire me to aspire and keep stretching myself as a writer. On a personal level it’s my wife Sonia and kids Willem and Sophia Skye who remind me what’s important. I write every day – sometimes into the wee hours of the night. My Grandma Mary gave me my work ethic.
Mike Raicht and I wrote the TPB Prey for Marvel back in 07. That book is selling for like a penny on Amazon so the price is right for people to check that out, especially since a Hollywood production company bought the rights to make a 3-D movie. I also did some writing on a really cool game called SCAPS Agent that can be played for free. If you liked Tron, SCAPS Agent is for you.
In 09 I was up in the Arctic freezing my pens off with the drivers from the History Channel’s Ice Road Truckers. On Thin Ice is the book that came out of that experience.
Brian and I have four graphic bios coming out for Bluewater/Orbit including Stephen King, Keith Richards, JRR Tolkien and Stephen Hawking. I also work
with Bernie Lee, publisher of Twilight Pop.
Best way is to contact me via on my Facebook page or Brimstone fans (also on FB). We’ll be on the Zenescope panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year.
Michael Cho
Comic Booked: Who has inspired you?
Michael Cho: When I was a child, I was living in Korea, and it was really hard to get the hands on American comic books; which is why most of the kids, including me, was reading a lot of Japanese Mangas. As long as the comic book world goes, I admire Toriyama Akira, the creator of Dragon Ball series. The Doctor Slump series was the major reason I wanted to become an artist in the first place. As I grew up, I admired more comic book artists like Urasawa Naoki and Takehiko Inoue, who are known for 20th Century Boy, Slamdunk, and Vegabond, but they weren’t enough because I wanted to cover more ground with my art. So I started investigating other type of artists. I admire Justin Sweet and Frank Frazetta. BTW – Our art director on Brimstone, Lance Laspina, made the Frazetta documentary Painting With Fire, so it was great working with him especially for this reason.
Comic Booked: Who all have you done work for?
Michael Cho: I’ve been working on freelance basis, and still am. Some game companies and publishers like Bluewater where I did the cover for the JRR Tolkien book that’s coming out later this year. Also, Twilight Pop,
pencils, inks and color for On Thin Ice. That one came out last November.
Comic Booked: Who do you wish to work with or for?
Michael Cho: Haven’t thought of that, cause I just want whomever I can fit my style into. However, I’d love to work for/with game companies or motion picture companies in the future, as concept artist and/or sequential artist. But eventually, my goal is not to be working for someone, but to have my own friends and partners that I can work with in making comic books, game, or even movies.
Comic Booked: How can your fans reach you and see your work?
Michael Cho: I have an old, almost abandoned website, ha ha, which I intent to update soon as soon as I have a chance to gather some more presentable works. http://hmichaelcho.com You can reach me at mail@hmichaelcho.com, please do write any time, I’d be glad to talk.
Or better yet, add me in facebook by using chssahs@gmail.com
Comic Booked: What would you like to tell fans?
Michael Cho: Thanks for reading the book, #1 is just an introduction of a lot more interesting and crazy things to come!!
stay with us!!
Comic Booked: If you want you can let fans where you were born, where you live now, outside interests, how old you are.
Michael Cho: I was born in Seoul, Korea. After my highschool, I studied art in New York and Philadelphia, lived in Tucson, AZ and Glendale, CA. Well, I’m back in Korea now. I’m 30 years old.
Brimstone crew with Robert Kirkman
My cosplay for the crew! Annabelle will also be making an appearance at SDCC next week while the crew is signing. Look for her and come by and get a picture with this new sexy character and the crew! :
Be sure to pick up the latest issue and back issue as well, and keep up with Brimstone! You’re sure to love it. We hope to see you in San Diego! Be sure to hit up your local comic book store or zenescope.com to pick this series up TODAY.
Stop by their fan page and give them a like on facebook by clicking here
As Always, Keep your eyes where they should be, in a comic book~Smiles, Brieanna Brock
Awesome interview Brie. 😀
thanks jeremy 😉