Hey there everyone.

I’m happy to announce that I am launching yet another interview series tonight and I have an excellent, witty writer to kick the series off.

Just a quick note/Public Service Announcement before we get under way properly. I link to a lot of other articles in my posts, so WordPress users please check your Spam folders in your Setting Menus and approve any links/pingbacks that you find from me to improve the visibility of your own blog posts, as well as mine, it’s a win win for us both 😉

Please let me introduce you all to comic book/graphic novel writer Kevin Given, as he takes us into the dark and mysterious world of “Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter”.

Enjoy folks and don’t have nightmares, do sleep well 🙂

 

Hi there Kevin, thank you for joining us here today to talk about your action adventure comic book creations and writing experiences.

Thanks for having me and this opportunity to share my comic books with your readers. If you’re interested I review comic books for two sites: Comic Crusaders and Comics for Sinners.

Let’s start first with your “Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter” series. Please tell us all about Karl, how he ended up becoming a vampire hunter and what crazy adventures lies in store for him across the course of your comic book adventures.

With Karl Vincent, I was watching an old Don Knotts movie called The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and the thought came to mind “What if Don Knotts were a Vampire Hunter?” In a flash, I committed this idea to paper, and developed the character to look like myself. Other influences included the old Night Stalker TV series with Darren McGavin, and the original Fright Night movies with Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale.

The novel and future comic book adaptation (all Karl Vincent comics on Indyplanet, novels on Amazon) Foul Blood tells us how Karl Became a Vampire Hunter. Dead bodies are showing up behind the night club First Impressions decapitated and drained of blood. Is there a vampire loose in Boston? David Reynolds, a serial killer that Karl arrested years ago has escaped. Is he behind the murders? The second victim was Paul Sweetheart Sachitella, a mobster with ties to club owner Leo The Freezer Kowalski – is Leo involved?

This story reads like the old noir style works of Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler so it’s a noir/horror mash-up of genres and, even though this is a horror/comedy I wanted a gritty sense of realism so I based my serial killer David Reynolds on the real serial killer Danny Rolling, known of as the Gainesville Ripper and Leo, the Freezer Kowalski, who owns the cross dressing club First Impressions and was a hitman for the mob, on the real mafia hitman Richard the Iceman Kuklinski.

The first novel in the series was Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis and I discuss this novel in depth, as well as the making of the movie, on my YouTube show Comics: Let’s Talk episodes 6 and 7. Basically Karl is visited by the ghost of his arch-nemesis Sebastian Vasilis, whom he killed a couple of years earlier to recruit him on a mission to stop the resurrection of the deadliest vampires known to mankind: The Hebrew Lilith, the Egyptian Sekhmet and the Hindu Kali. If all three are resurrected they will form an unholy female trinity that will see all vampires gain more power and take over mankind. Lilith has already been resurrected. Now, with the help of a few friends he must prevent the others from being resurrected or Vampires will become many times more powerful than they are now. His friends include a former President of the United States, now a vampire and vampire hunter himself. An immortal and his daughter; a Ninja warrior; an Egyptian peasant and the ghost of a vampire that he killed years ago. It’s an off-beat quirky horror comedy in the tradition of True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, From Dusk til Dawn, and Lost Boys. or The Magnificent Seven meet Fearless Vampire Killers.

The current comic book I’m working on with my brand-new artist, Rodolfo Ezequiel, Is Dracula Rising, in true noir style, Karl is visited by a mysterious lady in black who convinces him to go to a cemetery in order to kill the vampire Loew (homage to the Vampire’s Kiss with Nicolas Cage) only to pass out and find himself back in his office with his arm bandaged as blood has been drawn from it. It turns out that the lady in black is actually Dracula’s daughter, Dominica. Why would a vampire draw blood from Karl instead of just drinking it? You’ll have to buy the comics to find out. Issue one is available on Indyplanet, the Black and White version is free digitally. Art for that issue is by Dennis Magnant, whom I’ve known since High School. Karl and his vampire hunting friends have to find the equality crystals before Dracula obtains them for the Equality Equinox.

How is Karl Vincent different and/or similar to other vampire hunters and the vampire myths he encounters?

Karl is a bumbling oaf of a vampire hunter. He wets his pants every time he sees a vampire. Although he seems to stumble along he always, somehow, manages to get the job done. There’s an animated trailer on my YouTube channel, animation by SKG studios, which showcases Karl on a vampire hunt. This aspect of Karl was inspired by Fright Night’s Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). Even though he’s afraid of them he still feels it’s his duty to hunt these deadly creatures of the night. When he announced his intentions to hunt nosferatu to his son’s class on career day his son, Keith, became a laughing stalk to his classmates so now Keith won’t even talk to his father, one of the recurring subplots to the series is Karl trying to re-connect with his son, also the rest of his family since his wife, Barbara now wants a divorce. He was also a detective with the Boston Police Department and lost his job over his obsession with hunting vampires.

What was the first comic book that you ever read which drew you into the world of comic books?

Fantastic 4 #48, the coming of Galactus. There were no comic stores in those days, it was hard to get back issues, so I would find as many as I could at pawn shops and second-hand stores, plus buy the reprint issues Marvel’s Greatest Comics to catch up on the whole series, I became an FF fanatic!

Who has had the biggest influence on your comics career, and how has that person changed your work/life?

Jack, the King, Kirby, along with Stan Lee. Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, Rich Buckler, Len Wien, Bernie Wrightson, Herb Trimpe, Sam Glanzman, quite a few more, but these are my biggest influences. They enhanced my imagination, even more so than the authors whose novels I read and the film makers whose movies I’ve seen.

If your Karl Vincent comic books were to be made into film series (or even a TV series), who would you cast in the lead roles?

Funny you should ask that, the major motion picture is in production now with a script by yours truly and starring yours truly as Karl Vincent, you can check the IMDB Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis page for the entire cast and crew. It’s being produced by Crisp Film Works out of Lakeland Florida. There are two Facebook pages: Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter, which is my page and Crisp Film Works page Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis which chronicles the making of this film, also see my column Given to Me on the Comics for Sinners website which I use to talk about the making of this film. We even have one of the Walking Dead actresses, Anja Akstin, in the film as Stacy Hamilton.

I wrote the script with Sam Raimi in mind to produce/direct and Bruce Campbell in mind to play Karl with Robert Downey Jr. in mind for Sebastian Vasilis. I also thought about Randy Quaid for President Lyndon Johnson (this was before the LBJ biopic) and Jennifer Aniston as Barbara (just one of my personal fantasy’s lol.) and Jessica Biel as Kate Bryant.

What would you choose as your own personal mascot or spirit animal when it comes to you and your style of writing?

What else? A bat.

What do you think most characterizes or defines your writing? Do you have any writing quirks or themes that constantly crop up in your stories?

I think I’m good at creating page turners. If you read one of my novels or comics I keep you guessing on each page as to what’s going to happen next. I also like to go against the grain and try not to fall into clichés (though overall, it’s unavoidable, there is some in everything ever written or filmed). For instance, most vampire movies have a beautiful young lady, usually a blonde, attacked and killed by the main vampire. There’s a scene like that in Last Rites, but the young blonde isn’t…nah, I don’t want to give it away, read it and find out, lol.

I like to use real obscure, but real, locations, for instance our female ninja warrior Kate Bryant, who is part Japanese, along with my immortal witch Athena Timon has to recover one of the equality crystals at Aokigahara (青木ヶ原) Japan’s suicide forest in Dracula Rising. Other members of the team have to find the Crystal’s also at real locations that are creepy. I have several in mind but haven’t decided yet were to send them.

(Sample Artwork From Dracula Rising/Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter Series)

What do you find the most difficult thing about writing? And what do you find the easiest?

The most difficult thing is actually sitting in front of my lap-top and putting the words to print. The easiest is coming up with the stories. I had Foul Blood in my head for years before I rendered it to my flash drive. The Dracula Rising story is in my head and me and Rodolfo are using the Marvel method to put it to paper.

Describe to us your typical work routine and how you go about the process of creating the scripts for your comic books, along with how you collaborate/interact with the illustrators for them.

Right now, I’m busy working about 60 hours a week just to pay Rodolfo so, like I said, we’re using the Marvel method. I send him a page of dialog and he draws it.

(More sample artwork from Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter)

What tools or programs do you use to create your comic scripts and what makes them the “right tools” for you?

I’m using Comic Life 3 and Final Draft, what makes them right is I simply haven’t seen anything else, lol, plus they’re both affordable.

Get the latest version of Final Draft here

Who are some of the authors, actors, filmmakers and/or historical figures that inspire you?

Authors: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, the aforementioned noir authors (also Agatha Christie in that genre,) Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Clifford D. Simak, Ernest Hemingway (I read a lot as a kid, not just comics, lol.)

Film makers: Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Gene Roddenberry, Rod Serling, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock and James Whale. Todd Browning deserves kudos, though not for Dracula, the Spanish version was better directed with George Melford. Browning did good with atmosphere but not really with the pacing of the Lugosi version. This was Lugosi’s sell all the way, without him that film might not have succeeded. Where Browning deserves kudos is with Freaks. I know it might be sad to say but that film took so many chances. I doubt it could get made that way today.

Historical figures: Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy (massive kudos for the Cuban Missile Crises), George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, Martin Luther King Jr. (at one time, as a teenager, I could quote the I have a dream speech), Nelson Mandella. Generally, people who overcame the odds to succeed.

What sort of research do you do to write your comic books?

Reading tons of comics, reviewing comics for the Comic Crusaders and Comics for Sinners websites. And, like I said, finding weird creepy real places to put/set my stories.

Why do you write? What inspired you to become a comic book writer?

As soon as I read Fantastic 4 #48 I began writing, I created my own comic book universe when I was 12 years old with characters like The Crimson Crusher and Powerhouse, my universes answer to the Hulk and Superman (though I think Powerhouse has been taken since then). The difference between them and their counterparts is that, instead of a weak scientist with brains, Crimson Crusher was a punch drunk (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) boxer whose intelligence actually increased when he transformed. (I found it interesting that Kenneth Johnson wanted to make the Hulk red when he produced the old CBS series, because my character was red) and with Powerhouse the character’s secret identity wasn’t known. There were several people in the ongoing storyline that could have been in Powerhouse, 3 men and 3 women, though I don’t remember their names. All of this and more from the mind of a 12-year-old boy. Lol.

What keeps you motivated during creative slumps? How do you deal with Writers Block?

I don’t really have slumps, I have the ideas in my head for years sometimes before I commit them to print. I haven’t experienced Writers Block yet. I have ideas for another 5 or 6 Karl Vincent novels in my head now, plus I have a Western idea I’m working on (I have to start reading westerns to get to know that genre, notice I didn’t site Louis L’Amour as an influence, lol, maybe soon) and a Science Fiction idea I’m working on.

You have access to a time machine. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Save your money, so you can quit working and write full time.

(More sample artwork from Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter)

How do you spend your free time when you are not writing?

Working, to pay my artist.

Tell us more about your upcoming projects. Are you working on anything specific or have plans in the pipeline?

Dracula Rising. The second issue is almost done. Going to work on the third issue soon.

Finally, are there any nuggets of wisdom that you can impart to other aspiring comic book writers?

Submit your ideas and don’t give up! After being rejected by all the main comic book companies, get a program like Comic Life 3, and it’s affordable, upload your comics to Indyplanet then hit the comic book convention circuit. You may not succeed the first time around, but if your stuff is good, it will get noticed by someone eventually.

And that’s a wrap! Thank you Kevin for a very entertaining time, we can’t wait to check out the antics of Mr Karl Vincent and find out what is currently ‘at stake’ for him and his vampire friends/fiends 😉

Bio:-

Kevin Given attended The University of Maine System, Presque-Isle/Orono sites as a Speech/Communications major and graduated from the New England School of Communications. He has studied with the “Long Ridge Writers group” and “Writers Boot Camp”. Kevin has been a radio announcer since he was fourteen years old when he started working at the local college radio station, from there he moved on to his hometown radio station of WHOU radio, Houlton, Maine. Kevin has been a DJ in Maine, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California. Kevin’s most popular radio show was “Legends of Rock” which he produced and hosted during 2003 – 2007. This was a show that profiled classic rock stars. The show was broadcast on the “American Radio Network” and heard world wide on the web through KCLA-FM.com.

Kevin has written a book about his personal struggles with weight loss and how he lost over sixty pounds with the help of a personal trainer called “Lose Weight, Feel Great”. He became a personal trainer to help others do the same through The Private Trainers Association (www.propta.com). Kevin has turned his love for movies into the “Absent Friends” series of books, which looks at the film careers of movie icons that have passed on, such as Paul Newman and Charlton Heston. Kevin is also an avid Science Fiction fan and has written his first trivia book on Sci-Fi called “The Great Science Fiction Trivia Quiz Book”. Look for Kevin’s column “Given to Me” on the “Comics for Sinners” website.

You can connect with Kevin via the following Social Media channels:-

Comic Crusaders:- Comic Book Reviews by Kevin Given
Comics For Sinners (FB):- Comics for Sinners (FB)
Comics For Sinners (Website):- Comics For Sinners – Articles by Kevin Given
IndyPlanet:- Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter written by Kevin Given (IndyPlanet)
Facebook:- Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter (FB)
LinkedIn:- Kevin Given (LinkedIn)
YouTube:- Kevin Given YouTube Channel

You can buy his books and comic books here:-

Buy Kevin Given’s books in the UK/Europe

Buy Kevin Given’s books in the US/Rest of the World

If you too would like to be interviewed on my blog at TooFullToWrite and you are a comic book writer/graphic novelist with a book or a series of books that you would like us to chat about then fill out the Contact Me form here with your details and we can arrange a future interview slot.

Still want more? Well, when writing books and especially comic books/graphic novels, the purpose is all about creating memorable and exciting characters that leave a legacy behind them. For more articles on the theme of ‘Legend’ then check out the links by my fellow bloggers below:-

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