10 QUESTIONS WITH SAINT JAMES COMICS

Who is Saint James Comics? Glad you asked! It’s a breakout indie comic publisher created by college drinking buddies Jesse James Young and Robert James Russell with a ferocious passion for telling high octane entertainment tales. Started in 2009, the dynamic duo has already built a library of seven titles with inventive premises and engaging characters in such genres as sci-fi, fantasy and edgy horror that will keep you coming back for more. Move aside DC and Marvel, and get ready to meet the new kids on the block …

1) Comics is a tough business to make a living at. Now that you’re business partners, have the long hours and lack of income created any strain on the friendship? How do you keep the dream afloat til the world wakes to your talent?

JESSE: I don't think it's strained our relationship. We've been pretty smart about how we spend our money to ensure we aren't just losing it all. We understand that it takes a while to be successful in comics and at the end of the day, we are able to take the creativity inside our heads onto the page in the form of quality color comics. That’s really been our main goal – getting our stories “out there”.

ROBERT: Jesse and I are even closer now, I think. We manage everything together, and have the company’s best interest at heart when we make decisions.  I think we recognized that a long time ago. Part of the reason we started the company together was recognizing how well we work together. We both have our strengths and we balance each other out in very good ways.  I think that’s the key.


 

2) You have quickly amassed some pretty impressive and diverse titles in your library – and in color, nonetheless! Tell us about your flagship title, Ex Occultus?

ROBERT: The original idea for Ex Occultus came to me as a spin-off of a now-shelved novel I was tinkering with featuring vampires in the Wild West. The main character of that story was a man named Hollander, and I thought to myself: “What would his previous adventures look like? Who would have taught him the ropes of this supernatural world?”

So I started developing this idea of a Victorian mash-up of Indian Jones, the X-Files, with some Lovecraft thrown in for good measure, and instantly fell in love.  The ultimate goal is to make these fun, grand adventures that just hook readers in. I think we’ve accomplished that so far by offering things no one else does.

3) You have a nice little feature - an online journal (called "Wakefield's Journal") that provides additional mini "back stories" on your main character in Ex Occultus. How popular has this been with fans so far?

JESSE: Everyone seems to like it. It's allowed people who have enjoyed the first two one-shots to get to know the characters a little more. Since we put them out monthly, it gives people something new to read while we are working on the next one shot.

ROBERT: Plus we get to see a range of talented artists take over the mantle of drawing these characters – staying true to their designs, but doing them in their own style. I think that’s always a fun approach, when you see various styles of the same character, and I think that’s part of the reason people come back for more. I also think it’s been such a hit because the stories are short and fun. You don’t need to have to read the one-shots to “get” them; however, if you have, it’s just that much cooler.

4) You use different artists on the Ex Occultus one-shots. How do you find them? Any rising stars we should keep an eye on?

JESSE: We get submissions from artists, we post ads on craigslist, and I search through Deviant Art. We just try to find up-and-coming, talented people who share the same passions as we do that want to be involved. So far we've been lucky to have amazing artists on all the one-shots. We've just started work on a new one-shot drawn by Sean Hill. Sean did our latest journal story and he did an incredible job; we can't wait to see him tackle the full issue.


5) "Youth is Sweet" is fairly bold in that it features a sixty-something hero whose murky past as a covert agent comes back to haunt him when the government learns he is still alive. What was the inspiration for this series? The plot sounds so good, do you really think you can wrap it up in just 6 issues?

JESSE: Rob came to me one day and said "What would Jason Bourne be like when he's sixty?"

ROBERT: Yeah, I mean, I thought to myself, “What would happen with Jason Bourne after the credits roll on The Bourne Ultimatum?” Presumably this guy’s so badass, he’s going to live to be an old fogey, so what then?

I liked the idea that he was part of this covert team during the Cold War, they faked their deaths, and now, well into their sixties, they’re being hunted down by a ruthless band of young mercenaries. And I wanted to present the story as these old guys relying on their wits while these young guys rely on their gadgets/technology.  In that sort of battle, who would win? Just because you have the latest gizmo, doesn’t mean you’re going to necessarily come out on top. Jeff Pfaller and I have managed to tell a really epic story in six issues that I promise won’t disappoint. Oh, and there will be lots of explosions. HA!


6) Having published an End Times anthology, I was naturally drawn to your series called T  he Strange – a post-Apocalyptic tale that takes place nearly 2,000 years after the Rapture where all but one human have fled underground while demons inhabit the world. This one sounds like it would ma ke a great TV series. What can you tell us about The Strange?

JESSE: The Strange is probably one of my favorite comics we have and I've been enjoying it with each new issue. Since I don't write on this one, I actually never know what’s coming next so I'm just as surprised as the readers when I see a new issue. I think J.R. Fleming is doing an incredible job with the art and some of the recent issues have been amazing. She does a great job at creating this very eerie world.

RR: Jeff Pfaller (who co-writes Youth is Sweet with me) and I wanted to do something very different with this one. There are a lot of apocalyptic tales out there so we wanted to make something unique, and we settled on the whole Rapture angle of the story. So, the idea we had was that the earth is now like the Wild West – some towns are demon-heavy and they hate humans, some demons are human-sympathizers, little cults are everywhere – but basically, the whole world is populated by creatures and people not good enough to go to Heaven, so presumably everyone’s going to be a little grouchy.

The main character, John, is missing and arm and fights with a shovel. His best friend is a pig demon named Gog.  Once we got the basic idea down, then we set out to create all these rules of the world – like demons can only REALLY be killed when buried under ground, chloroform works wonders on them…fun stuff like that.  And the humans…well, there are still these monstrous settlements of them underground but those who were banished for whatever reason, like our hero, John, they’re the ones roaming around, trying to find a backdoor into Heaven, which is the ultimate plot of the series.


7) You are getting set to re-release your second title - Indego Blue - which is a futuristic tale about an "ultimate weapon" who decides to go against the totalitarian government that created him in a gene-splicing experiment. Besides changing from b&w to full color, what else is new about the series?

JESSE: We've only put out the first issue so far and while we were working on the 2nd issue, we realized that the series really needed to be in color. It looked great in B&W, but color just really makes it POP. So we've decided to go back and color the first issue, re-release it, and then put out the 2nd issue immediately after. It's still the same story it's always been, we just decided to go back and do it the way we always wanted to do it.

ROBERT: Howard Russell’s art is unbelievable, and we really struggled initially with whether we should present the book in B&W or color.  We got some great feedback when we initially released, but Howard came back and showed us what he could do with color and…well, you’ll have to wait and see. But it really takes this comic to a whole other level and it is REALLY going to attract an even bigger audience.  Other than the color, though, like Jesse said, fans can expect the series to remain faithful to its original vision – why change a good thing? :)


8) What other undiscovered gems do you have in your library that would appeal to indie comic fans?

JESSE: We’re really excited for MinuteMen – it’s a great time-travel book with incredible art by Savannah Ervin that we really think offers something new to fans of sci-fi. The first issue is complete and we’re just working to get ahead on Issue #2 before it is released. We even have a sneak preview of the first issue on our website.

9) Are you working on any new stories – or are you at 100% capacity with the 7 titles you have in development? Do you accept submissions from other creators?

JESSE: As writers, we are always working on new stories – that’s one of the tough things about being a writer. You always have new ideas and want to work on them but it's important to finish the things you've started so we are focusing on our current titles for now, with Ex Occultus being our main focus. We do accept submissions and eventually we would love to publish other people's stories, but at the current time we only have the time and resources to focus on the ones we are already working on.


10) Last call. Where can we buy your comics and where can we follow Saint James online?

JESSE: You can buy them through www.TFAW.com, Indy Planet, Drive Thru Comics, WOWIO, Panelfly and in over 28 stores in 11 states.

ROBERT: We put out a mailing list every two weeks with new info on what's going on and our newsletter exclusively features The Strange. Also you can follow us on twitter at Twitter.com/saintjamesco

Thanks Jesse and Robert. Continued success and keep it coming!


Bob Heske is creator of The Night Projectionist, a vampire horror series by publisher Studio 407 with film rights optioned by Myriad Pictures. Through his Heske Horror shingle, Bob self-published his critically acclaimed horror series Cold Blooded Chillers. Bob’s trade paperback Bone Chiller (a “best of” CBC anthology) won a Bronze medal in the horror category at the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards. His “end times” anthology 2012: Final Prayer was released on November 13, 2009. Bob’s works are available online at Amazon.com, Zaldiva.com, ComixPress, IndyPlanet, HeavyInk, SmallZone, DriveThruComics, WOWIO.com and YuDu.com (store). You can email Bob at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .