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BUZZ: First off, just to introduce yourself to the readers here, could you start off with a quick little bio of yourself and some of your career highlights thus far?
RICHARD: Sure. I--Richard Howell--am a long-time comics fan who got into the business around 1980 or so, trotting around with samples for pencilling, inking, coloring, lettering, and with some editing credits already in place. I've done work for Marvel (Vision and Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Patsy Walker, Marvel Masterworks), DC (Hawkman, All-Star Squadron), Eclipse (Liberty Project), Comico (Jonny Quest), and my own
Portia Prinz of the Glamazons, (which was later re-published by Eclipse), among others. I was the editor/packager who reintroduced Vampirella and Creepy into the 1990s, and while I was there, Ed Via approached me about what would eventually become the Claypool line. We agreed that having some already-established character as the lynchpin
of our line would be a great way to begin, and Elvira was definitely on the short list of applicable properties.
BUZZ: What made you think you could do a comic with Elvira, given DC's
previous effort with her character did not succeed?
RICHARD: Well, to be honest, neither Ed nor I thought that the DC version (Elvira's House of Mystery) was a very fair test of Elvira's suitability or potential in the comics medium. The lion's share of each of those issues was taken up by those same-old-same-old
predictable "mystery" anthology stories which didn't feature Elvira at all. I think that series actually did some damage to Elvira's value as a comic-book headliner, because too many people only remember that it wasn't popular. The point, though, is that anyone who actually wanted a comic book featuring Elvira was bound to be disappointed in the DC comic; and anyone who liked that sort of anthology "mystery" story wouldn't have cared if Elvira were the book's host or not.
BUZZ: How did you get in contact with Elvira to get the comic going?
RICHARD: I got a little help on that score from some West Coast pals whose careers involve comics and show business: Mark Evanier and Paul Dini. They took that first meeting with Mark Pierson (Elvira's personal manager), and the ball got rolling right there and then.
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RICHARD: I have issues I like more than others, naturally. I've been extremely pleased with the level of talent which we've been able to attract on the Elvira series, and I hope we'll be able to continue with that. Frank Strom, who's our main Elvira scripter, has a ferocious imagination and is a tireless collector of exploitable aspects of pop culture, so it's impossible to predict what sort of weird launching-point he's next going to use for an Elvira epic. Usually, Frank and I caucus over the phone once a month or so and bat ideas
around; some spark a story concept, some don't. Some come from me, some from him. Some come from something working between us that's hard to trace. The whole three-part "Crisis" story in #37-9 (in which Elvira got gifted with a pair of magic boots which took her to Gorilla Town, Cam-Bell, and Glamazon Island) came out of a conversation Frank
and I were having about Nancy Sinatra, and my mentioning that Elvira should get some boots like that, only magic ones. Frank seized upon the idea immediately and no matter where I tried to steer the conversation after that, Frank returned to "magic boots." It was like his mantra. Other stories come from more direct editorial advice like, “I want to see Elvira at a TV syndicator's convention” leading directly to #40's “Married to the Syndicate” or Frank's wanting to shoot Elvira into outer space resulting, with editorial clearance, in #41's “Red Scare.”
I'm also very pleased that we've been able to regularly include such widely-respected (and horribly overcommitted) talents as Paul Dini, Kurt Busiek, and Neil Vokes, who obviously are working on Elvira comics because they really want to do so, even though they're
wa-a-a-a-y overbooked elsewhere. (Is there anyone out there who doesn't know that Paul's first two published comics stories appeared in Elvira #1 and #8?) I've had creators (like Bob Wiacek and Tod Smith) call up out of the proverbial clear blue sky to ask if there's something they can do on the Elvira series, and that's very flattering. Obviously, they're mostly impressed just because it's The Elvira Comic, but if the comic itself were an embarrassment, or somehow artistically disreputable, they wouldn't want to be part of
it.
To get back to your question: I have a huge soft spot for #32-3's "The Curse of Coffinwood" and "Night of Dark Houses," mainly because I'm a huge DARK SHADOWS fan, a huge fan of Roy Thomas and Marie Severin's "Darn Shadows" spoof from SPOOF #1 (1970), to which I think this Elvira epic is heir, and I think James ( W. Fry III, the penciller) and I did a terrific job capturing exactly the type of parody we wanted to achieve. James, I should mention, is one of the great joys about working on the Elvira series, being both tremendously talented as an artist, and a great collaborator in all sorts of silly jokes, references, and back-of-the-panel gags. He really understands comedy tone and set-ups, and that's invaluable on a book like this. He also draws a very effective Elvira, and--in this story--got a wonderfully lush and complementary embellishing job by one of our undiscovered assets, Art Viscardi.
As far as the Elvira issues I didn't write (that's most of them); I got a major kick out of "Night of the Living Fruity Faces," which is an uneasy amalgamation of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and those old Funny Face drink mixes (I forget the exact circumstances of the call in which Frank and I came up with that, but I suspect we were both blasted on Sodium Benzoate and artificial coloring). Most of Frank's stuff is so off-the-wall and amusing it's hard to center on just one story; it's like an oeuvre, speeding down the street dangerously over the speed limit, in the MacabreMobile, with silly string on the windshield. I'm also very peased with the various Elvira adventures Kurt Busiek has written (or co-written) for us, ‘cause I think Kurt¹s a great humor writer and he was the first one who really captured Elvira¹s personality on the comics page. Our plots here tend to be wild and unpredictable, but it's not a great Elvira story unless it showcases Elvira's personality, which is why I'm also very pleased we get work in like Kurt's, like Jo Duffy's, like Paul's, and like Frank's. As far as those “wild” plots go, I tend to favor the stories
which feature Elvira's mega-villain Skelloween, and those with the rivalry between Elvira and DEADBEATS' own Spooky Suzie--mainly 'cause I dig all that classic Lois-and-Lana stuff.
RICHARD: Sure. The rest of the Claypool line at the moment are the two remaining FEAR CITY books, Soulsearchers & Company and Deadbeats. Soulsearchers is written by Peter David and me, with art by Dave Cockrum and Jim Mooney. It's about the wacky adventures of a group of supernatural investigators--ghostbusters, if you will--who have individual powers and off-the-wall personalities to add to the mix. Soulsearchers is an actual business in the small Connecticut town of Mystic Grove, a town which sees so much supernatural activity it's been nicknamed Fear City, so SS & Co. sees a lot of business. The team is led by Bridget Lockridge, a former Olympic athlete who'd fallen on bad times after her stage-manger mother exploited her fame and likeness to the limit, then cut her loose. Bridget is seizing control of her own life and spearheading SS &Co. as hard as she can. Her opposite umber at SS & Co. is Baraka, an Arabic fire-demon (with all sorts of flame-powers) whose lusty, hedonistic personality causes Bridget no end of problems--especially since she finds herself drawn to his lusty joie de vivre. They fight a lot, but there's an obvious attraction there. The group's younger contingent include Kelly
Hollister, a sweet but somewhat flaky local college student who's in training to be a sorceress (someday . . . !), and Janocz, a gypsy boy from the re-e-eally tiny European country of Pastramia who inherited the ability to turn into various bizarre creatures and monsters from his late father, a gypsy who was killed for having the power to turn into, well, you know. Peter P. Peterson, the team's accountant, graduated to being a full-fledged team member after the group found that he had a magic bag, out of which he can pull practically anything (and usually does). Finally, the group's founder/mascot Arnold Q. Stanley is a sarcastic, vociferous individual with questionable leadership skills, who has been permanently transformed into a prairie dog--a talking prairie dog, that is!
Soulsearchers & Company features a remarkable variety of stories, from
freewheeling parody to straight-ahead adventure, with a few surprising nods to the characters' real depths. Peter David has given full rein to his range as a writer here, and the book is always satisfying, and always surprising. The art on this series has been consistently superb, and always very lively and personable; beginning with Amanda
Conner, through Neil Vokes and John Heebink (who've each done work for Elvira also), up to the current penciller Dave Cockrum (who's done his share of Elvira stories, too). Inker Jim Mooney has been the constant factor in the artwork, lending his dark and sure tone work to the pencilling. Amanda Conner has remained as the cover artist for this
series, her breakthrough project.
Claypool also publishes Deadbeats, our vampire soap opera/adventure series. This, too, takes place in Fear City and details the highs and lows of the ongoing war between the people of Mystic Grove against the attack of a group of vampire punks known as the Deadbeats. As the story progressed, it became clear that the Deadbeats (Dodger, Colleen, Martine, and Mickey) were also in a centuries-long contention with the
forces of a predecessor: Hermano, the self-declared King of Vampires, and that the attack on the town's population was a gambit in that struggle. Central to the war is the Collier family, led by teenager Kirby and his brainy younger brother Mason. Kirby has since gotten involved with neighbor Jo Isles (and saved her brother Frank from one of the initial vampire attacks), but Kirby has lost his own brother to another vampire campaign and Mason now dwells in the caverns beneath the town, learning the ways of the undead from King Hermano. The kids' teacher, Christine Robbins, is suffering some sort of backlash that's undercut her psychic abilities and is currently undergoing a bizarre personality transformation. Kirby's father has just returned to town to continue his former ways as an unscrupulous dealer in forbidden antiquities, and the repercussions of the ravagement of the Soul-Snatcher creature include the permanent death of Deadbeat leader Dodger. The Deadbeats series involves a large complement of vivid, lively personalities, both human and undead, with large dollops of violence, action, poignance, humor, romance, and sex. The script and pencil art are by me, with spectacular inking by the wonderfully talented Ricardo Villagran. Deadbeats can seem a little overstuffed at times, but it's packed full of intelligence and heart, and has won some seriously dedicated fan attention. (Diamond Previews called it "Astonishing!") I think there's nothing else like it on the market.
Incidentally, both Ricardo's and my work can also be seen in various places in the Elvira series, too.
Claypool has also published the limited series Phantom of Fear City and three trade paperback compilations of Elvira, Soulsearchers & Company, and Deadbeats, all of which can be ordered over the Internet at: http://www.luckymojo.com/comicswarehouse5.html.