As you know here at DFAT we enjoy taking a look at upcoming Kickstarter projects so that we can get you Towelites involved with the talented people behind upcoming video games, tv shows, movies, etc. We recently stumbled across Graeme Buchan’s ‘Pumpkinface – Origins’ and it got our attention in a big way. The story hearkens back to the slasher films and comics of old and gives it a new twist.
Below, we have an interview with Buchan, who talks about the project and why he went the crowd-sourcing route to get this comic off the ground.
1) What is the story of Pumpkinface?
Pumpkinface is a villain my Creepy Scarlett series and I think he has the most interesting overall story arc so I decided to do his orign story since it’s coming up for Halloween. You won’t need to have read any of Creepy Scarlett to enjoy it since it although it ties into that world it’s a stand alone book.
2) Where did you come up with the idea for this comic?
I was looking to do a short film for Halloween a few years ago. I had the idea of the film and found the mask in a pound/dollar shop/store and so Pumpkinface was born. Every short film I made was just just to learn and also test ideas out. I then started a Pumpkinface comic book but that went awry and the character became part of the Creepy Scarlett series.
3) One of the your rewards is a Pumpkinface lego figure, any plans to go the stop-motion animation route and bring the character to life?
I really doubt I would have the patience or time to do that. It would be cool to see though. I write my stories with the idea of them being expanded and adapted into movies so that is something I hope to do in the future.
4) What got you into creating comic books?
It was just a way to get my stories out there in a visual format that was feasible to do. As my ideas got bigger it was getting hard to do short films how I wanted and feature length films are too expensive. I never thought about it because when I started learning film-making I didn’t even want to be a writer. I would adapt scripts or others would script my stories. Eventually I realised that the only way I could really do something I wanted was
to create and write it myself.
5) What are some of your favorite comics and what are you currently reading?
I grew up on things like the Beano and Dandy and those little Commando comics. There was a short lived anthology comic called Scream! and that was probably my first taste of the horror genre since I was too young to watch horror films and was more interested in action films growing up. Preacher was probably the last series I read before starting to make comics. I actually had to buy a few comics before starting Creepy Scarlett just so I could get a handle on how to panel pages and work out how to format a script. So I was pretty out of touch with comics before starting to make one.
6) Having a few successful campaigns under your belt already, what makes crowdsourcing the way to go for your projects?
I avoided doing a kickstarter until I really had to do one. Promoting and advertising an independent comic is hard and being a newcomer I really had no idea even how to. I applied to a couple publishers but I know what I’m doing doesn’t fit into current trends and even on kickstarter there are certain genres that might not be mainstream but do well there. It keeps the comic alive and I look at crowdfunding in a different way now. If you think that even selling digitally through something like Comixology who were taking nearly 70% of the sale price and kickstarter only takes 10% of the total funds, then I can offer better value and put that extra money back into the comic. The more successful it becomes the better value I can offer. If I can get it to a big enough level then I could self publish and distribute and I find that more appealing if not a longer route to take.
7) You seem to be on a roll with these comic projects, what do you have up your sleeve for your next endeavor?
Pumpkinface is the first spin-off from the creepy Scarlett series so maybe continuing that and also the Creepy Scarlett series. Next year I hope to look at doing a video game and once I have more done I would look to adapt it into an animated series and a live action movie series. Being independent and also self employed means I can focus all my attention to these things but it also means that the next book could be the last. Keeps things interesting I guess.
Make sure you check out the Kickstarter page for Pumpkinface – Origins and donate to get this project funded! Thanks again for Graeme Buchan for taking the time to talk to us!
~Chaz
