Craig Shroeder, along with artist Daniel Hooker, are getting ready to release not only their first comic collaboration together, but also the first title for Craigâs Gentleman Baby Comics, a small press imprint sure to have a whole line of amazing titles as time goes by. The ideas for “HIT!” are fresh, the writing tight and clever, and the artwork lends its own style - making this a comic to watch for! Links for their Kickstarter, main website, and more are found at the end of the interview. Hey - even some sample pages from the comic and photos of the creators! Okay, here we go:
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- Weâll start with the basic first question: what do you do when youâre not working on “HIT!”, or on future endeavors with Gentleman Baby Comics?
Both Daniel and I have day jobs. I work for the state of Florida and Daniel does graphic design. I always get self-conscious describing hobbies and what-not, but bear with me. Iâm a bit of a cinephile and I spend a lot of time watching movies and catching up on good TV shows. I also read a lot of comics. I have been reading a lot of Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire right now, I donât think there are any better writers working currently. Iâve had to balance my full-time job with writing this comic and launching Gentleman Baby Comics so that doesnât leave a whole lot of extra time. And I would be in big trouble if I didnât mention by lovely wife, Jessica (weâre about to celebrate our second anniversary), and our dog Scout.
- Give us a quick rundown of the premise for this comic. I really find it excitingly interesting!
HIT! is about Connor Connolly, orphaned as a child, he was raised by Patrick OâReilly, boss of the Irish crime syndicate in Boston. Connor becomes a brute for the mob. Their biggest muscle. Our story picks up in Hot Springs, AK., where Connor has been dispatched to perform a hit on an anonymous pair living in the suburbs. Connor is efficient and brutal, so when the plan goes sour Connor is caught off-guard. Furthermore, he discovers itâs not coincidence heâs been sent to Arkansas and a part of his past comes surging back into his life. Itâs a six-issue arc, but each issue has a kind of self-contained story that propels Connor to the eventual conclusion.
- Can you tell us about your Kickstarter, and some of the awesome gifts you can get for backing it? I really love the gift package where you can have yourself drawn into #1 as a target of a hit man. Very clever!
Weâre so excited about the Kickstarter. In just 12 days we reached our goal. We wanted to try and have some creative rewards. Thereâs some really cool comic book merch, like buttons, pins and stickers, but we wanted to do something really personal to the book. So we decided to draw some fans into the book. We have four rewards (two for men and two for women) where the backer can have their likeness drawn into a panel of the book. Of those four, we have one remaining. And for a little bit more, a backer is able to have their likeness drawn into the comic to be assassinated! We just wanted to provide some rewards that are a bit more intimate, without these backs weâd still be e-mailing ideas back and forth, so now that they are making this happen for us, we wanted to be able to give some really awesome rewards.
- Judging from the NPR interview, your meeting Daniel Hooker was almost like fate. How did you get in touch with Daniel? What drew you to his work? His style is great, and I feel a perfect fit for what Iâve seen of the book.
Yeah, it was just an opportune moment in both of our lives, unbeknownst to either of us. I had been working on HIT! for several months and needed someone to do some sample panels for me. I knew Daniel through some mutual friends though we hadnât really connected in some time. But, we were friends on Facebook and I had seen his art before. His art (to me) had a kind of fantastic and whimsical element to it, but was still grounded in reality. Even with our kind of gritty, noir comic, there is a kind of a fantastical element (that I still canât quite put my finger on) that just seemed to lend itself perfectly to the kind of comic we wanted to make. I contacted him to do some sample panels. I was (and still am) very naive to the industry and my original intentions were to sell my script to an indie publisher. After going to a few cons, I realized a majority of the indie publishers in Florida had started a label to produce their own comic. And Iâm a control freak so that immediately was an idea I was drawn to. I contacted Daniel again and asked if heâd be interested in doing the whole book. Daniel said he was so I emailed him the whole script and weâve been working on it since.
- You werenât headed straight for comics coming out of college. I was wondering - did you have any goals set at the time, before comic writing banged your door in? In other words, did you see yourself in possibly a different job, or working towards a different career?
Most definitely. I always wanted to write. I just wasnât sure what. I always loved short stories, I am a huge fan of Flannery OâConnor and Raymond Carver who write really intimate and interpersonal short stories. And I always thought that was my “thing”. I tried writing short stories, some I liked some I didnât, but the entire process just frustrated me. As a writer, and this may seem odd to people who donât write, but you kind of know when what youâre writing has the potential to be something better. For me at least, there is a kind of excitement when I hit a beat in a story that works really well and it propels me into writing more. The more good stuff I think Iâm writing, the more I write. Well, out of college, I wasnât really writing anything that I felt good about or proud of. I tried to write and I was really just getting frustrated. Then when I started dabbling with comic book scripts, something clicked and I got that feeling again. I was finally excited about what I was writing.
- I understand you got the original idea for this comic during the final phase of a “Intro to Writing Graphic Novels” class. How much of this idea is still in the finished scripts? Any interesting things that were left out or put into the story?
Yeah, it was through an online writing community called LitReactor. Iâve always liked comics and read comics, but since I canât draw a lick, it never dawned on me that there is an aspect of creating a comic book that has nothing to do with drawing. So I took this class and the final assignment was to write a one-issue comic of about twenty-two pages. The original idea for HIT! and the finished product are pretty similar. The original idea just came from a love of gangster/noir comics and movies. I was just kind of musing one day and I thought what if the most ruthless and formidable gangster I can think up, just gets brought to his knees physically and emotionally in one failed job. So I started writing this comic, which I originally intended to be just a one-shot. But as I started I realized I liked the characters a whole lot and they gave me so much room to expand the story and really pick apart the relationships between these thugs, essentially.
- Speaking of this class, what can you tell us about the experience? I know there were some amazing guests/instructors. What is the strongest thing you took from the class, in terms of the ‘big pictureâ of your writing comics?
It was a great class. It was taught by Bree Ogden who is a literary agent and comic writer out of Seattle. She was really great, both from a creative and business standpoint. The experience was really great and as far as extracting a single “big picture” take-home I really canât narrow it down. I really think the class just pulled back the curtain on comics for me. It helped me realize that there is a creative process in comic books that Iâm not only capable of but I relate to.
- The whole idea of Gangsters existing within a super power/superhero type of world is great! With this you mention films by Martin Scorsese as being a huge influence.Â
I feel like I must clarify, in that our gangsters donât have superpowers. The template for my story I wanted to be like a classic super hero vs. villain story line but set in a kind recognizable world of gangsters and thugs. So I wanted Connor to be my Batman and Patrick to be my Joker. I feel like the majority of crime stories are about thugs vs. the law or Gang 1 vs. Gang 2; I wanted to try and create a gangster story that pitted two daunting gangsters against one another to do battle like Superman vs. Lex Luthor.
That being said, Martin Scorsese is a huge influence. Iâm sure there are some subconscious parallels between my characters and his, but the part of Scorsese that I tried to emulate the most is how good he is at making you have genuine feelings for really despicable people. Thereâs not a whole lot of redeeming qualities to Joe Pesciâs Nicky Santoro in Casino, but when he gets in the corn field itâs hard not to feel for the guy. Connor does some awful things, but there is never a doubt in anyoneâs mind that he is and will remain the hero of the piece. And I think thatâs what Scorsese does at his best.
- As the writer of this upcoming series, what were some of the main themes you were trying to hit on? Also, what are some of the things you took in as inspiration for this, other than Scorsese?
Oh man, I almost want to plead the fifth here, so as not to give away the twist in Issue 1 that propels the rest of the series. But Iâll be vague and obnoxious instead: Connor, a man who has been trained to have no emotion, has lived with a sizable emotional void in his life. I kind of wanted to explore what itâs like for a guy in this world to suddenly and unexpectedly have that void fulfilled.
As far as inspiration goes, Iâve just been reading a lot! The guys who Iâve connected the most with during this whole process have been Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire. I think I like them so much because they write these really broad and ambitious stories that are so grounded and character driven. For example, Lemireâs The Underwater Welder has this really ambitious and fantastic science-fiction element that takes a complete back seat to how perfectly he explores the psyche of the main character.
- I really find your villain, Patrick OâReilly, very interesting. From his character design to what has been mentioned about him thus far, he feels like a serious man you wouldnât want to tangle with. Were there any heavy inspirations that brought this character to life?
Iâm not sure. Iâve joked with my Dad a little bit, because I didnât realize until Daniel started drawing the characters that he looks a lot like my father. (I want to go ahead and clarify, that he is not inspired by my dad. When the series progresses and Patrick gets really vile, I donât want there to be any confusion). I had the most fun with Patrick because I wanted to create a really dichotomous villain. I specifically made him look non-threatening and malleable so when he turns into a monster it is that much more unsettling. Iâm also a horror movie geek and my favorite kinds of horror movies are the kind of smart and calm psychopaths. I think thereâs just something really unnerving about a nerd in a cabbie hat screaming obscenities and ordering murders. I knew I wanted to kind of separate him from the kind of slick looking, level-headed mobsters from the movies. I always got the feeling that Don Corleone, and mobsters of his ilk, got where they were due to a mixture of moxie and finesse. I wanted to make it clear that Patrick got to where he is because heâs brutal and unstable.
- Letâs hear about some of the other main characters. Who are they, and can you tell us something about their personal motivations and/or goals for this first story?
Other than Connor and Patrick, the other main character of Issue 1 is Bradan Byrne. Bradanâs basically a prospect, heâs been Patrickâs errand boy for years and this is the first time Patrick has sent him to do something important. Connor doesnât like him and has basically worked out a plan so Bradan will have very few opportunities to screw anything up. Of course, Iâd like to tell you about the people theyâve been sent to kill, but I think it would be best if I left you in the dark, like Connor. Throughout the series though there are a number of really cool characters that Connor embraces. One who I really enjoyed writing, is named Joey “Lips” McGee, who will appear in Issue 3. He is an antagonist to Connor and I donât want to give away too much but heâs a bigger brute than Connor (and his nickname came about due to the gnarly scar that runs straight from under his nose to his chin, separating his lips into four quadrants).
- It really looks like youâve been getting some great local support on this. How has that helped in the promotion for your comic, as well as the Kickstarter?
Itâs been really awesome! Our friends and family have been outstanding, not only in the Kickstarter contributions but also in spreading the word and just providing moral support. The community (we both live in Tallahassee) has also been great. Weâve been embraced by our local comic shops and were even able to set up in one this past weekend and meet the customers, and hopefully, future fans. Then thereâs just been an outpouring of support from unexpected places. We were able to sit down with the local NPR affiliate and do an interview and that really helped get the word out. Also, I know itâs cliche to say it, but the power of social media has definitely been on our side. Weâve been promoting pretty hard on Facebook and Twitter and have gotten nothing but support from total strangers!
- I absolutely love the mask design for this book. Can you tell us what went on behind the scenes when creating the masks? Do these masks have anything to do with the characterâs personality, as far as the different animals go?
When I originally wrote the script it was two ski masks rather than a wolf and a pig. But I quickly realized how boring it is to look at two faces covered in cloth for multiple pages so I decided to change it. I wanted something that kind of represented the characters personality. At the time, I donât think I realized how fun it would be to play around with the wolf and pig masks but as I continued to write I feel like the masks really allowed me to add some cool stuff to the script. Then, once Daniel got a hold of it, it just really took off. Daniel was able to make adjustments and play with the masks even more and I think the image of the wolf and pig will be the kind of lasting image of Issue 1.
- Youâve stated youâd like to have the first issue out by Free Comic Book Day this upcoming May. How are things looking towards having this goal completed?
Good! Weâre on track as of writing this. Daniel does have a one-year old son (and another on the way) so we wanted to make sure we gave him a lot of time. Of course, thereâs always obstacles and unforeseen setbacks, but as of right now we are right on track to having this thing cranked out by the beginning of May.
- You guys also seem to have plans for a lot of convention visits, including the famous San Diego Comic Con. Do you have special plans for these conventions? What conventions are you planning on hitting this year?
It all depends on how well the Kickstarter goes. We will definitely be hitting up the ones in Florida (except MegaCon which happens in March, so we wonât be able to make that one), but depending on how well the Kickstarter goes, we will be able to expand our convention schedule. If we get enough money we are hoping to make it to some of the conventions in Georgia and some of the surrounding states. I really donât know what to expect as a vendor at these things, Iâm nervous about being overwhelmed or ill-prepared. That being said, I think we have some cool ideas: I want to get a few friends to take turns dressed like Connor and Bradan in their wolf and pig outfits and have them take pictures. I think that would be super fun and a really good way to help spread the word.
- Any future plans with Gentleman Baby Comics that you can talk about? Any ideas floating around in your head? Iâm curious to see it grow, and where you can take us.
Weâre trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we have talked about some future projects. I have one story that I canât get out of my head. Iâve talked with Daniel and he is interested in it, so hopefully when I have the time I can take these rough outlines and characters and put them together. Also, there are things I would love to try, like a great, original super hero story (who doesnât want to write a great super hero story). Right now weâre really working hard on HIT!, but I would be lying if I said we havenât already started thinking about whatâs to come.
- Well, thank you, Craig, for sitting down with these questions! I really want to thank you for joining us here, and for working on what will surely be a great title. Best of luck to you guys!
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All the info you need, including their main website!
Twitter: @Gentleman_Baby
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IMAGES AND SAMPLE PAGES FROM THE COMIC:
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Craig Scroeder, writer of ‘HIT!â and head of Gentleman Baby Comics!
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Daniel Hooker, artist for ‘HIT!â
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‘HIT!” Page 1 (uncolored).
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‘HIT!” Page 2 (uncolored).
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‘HIT!” Page 3 (uncolored).
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‘HIT!” Page 4 (uncolored).
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‘HIT!” Page 5 (uncolored).