On 10/11/16, we interviewed artist and author Dave Davenport about his MM paranormal comic Feral and the Ghost Skater for our second annual Graphic Novel / Web Comic week. More info about Dave and his work at the end.
See it on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/permalink/569170763229872/
J. Scott Coatsworth We’ll be starting at noon Pacific, in about an hour. :)
J. Scott Coatsworth Welcome to day two of our Graphic Novel /Web Comic Week. We have Dave Davenport here, creator of “Feral and the Ghost Skater”, among other works.
J. Scott Coatsworth Dave, are you here?
Dave Davenport yes I am
Dave Davenport How is it going?
Dave Davenport lol
J. Scott Coatsworth Good! Glad to have you. :)
Dave Davenport thanks for having me
Dave Davenport ]
J. Scott Coatsworth Wanna start by telling us a little about yourself – who you are, how you got into comics?
Dave Davenport Ok
Dave Davenport I grew up in the san francisco bay area, though I’ve lived all over california’currently in los angeles
Dave Davenport always read comics, and been a sci-fi and monster junkie
Dave Davenport Made some sci fi comics in college but forgot about making them once I graduated… I went into animation for a while
Dave Davenport in the late 90s I met Justin Hall who encouraged me to make comics again
Dave Davenport we collaborated on a gay erotic anthology series in the 2000s
Dave Davenport called Hard to Swallow
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL
J. Scott Coatsworth Nice. :)
J. Scott Coatsworth Was it sci fi?
Dave Davenport it was gay erotic, with a focus on tall tales…. though Justin went more autobiographical as it went on
J. Scott Coatsworth If anyone has questions for Dave, please message them to me.
Dave Davenport and I developed some horror and sci-fi stories…
Dave Davenport mostly horror, gay erotic horror, though there was kaiju stuff, which straddles the genres of horror and sci fi
J. Scott Coatsworth Kaiju? I’m not familiar with that…
Dave Davenport What? lol
J. Scott Coatsworth *googling*
Dave Davenport Kaiju is the japanese term for giant monster
J. Scott Coatsworth “Kaijū (怪獣 kaijū?) (from Japanese “strange beast”)[1] is a Japanese film genre that features monsters, usually attacking a major Japanese city, engaging other monsters in battle, attacking the globe, or possibly another city (Godzilla (1998)). It is a subgenre of tokusatsu (special effects-based) entertainment.”
J. Scott Coatsworth So Godzilla and friends. :P
Dave Davenport When I finish the current horror series I am doing now I plan to tackle the sci-fi story I started in college
Dave Davenport You didn’t see Pacific Rim?
J. Scott Coatsworth No. *googling again*
J. Scott Coatsworth looks interesting
Dave Davenport I thought that popularized the term Kaiju… anyways, the first story I did for Hard to Swallow was godzilla and King Kong having a lover’s quarrel
Dave Davenport When we collected the series this year I did a new story that was a follow up to that, sort of book-ending my work with hard to swallow
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL I like that.
Dave Davenport Guillermo Del Toro!
J. Scott Coatsworth :)
J. Scott Coatsworth So was that Feral and the Ghost Skater?
Dave Davenport no, that was called Gigantic.
Dave Davenport Feral and the Ghost Skater is about a couple of gay werewolves, the ghost of a skate boarder, and some secondary characters of various types
Dave Davenport Mostly set in a city that’s a cross between san francisco and santa cruz
Dave Davenport though some stories have been set in the 4 corners area of the southwest (bringing in native peoples mythologies)\
J. Scott Coatsworth So what’s the storyline about? That’s the one who brought you to my attention.
Dave Davenport and some in the supernatural world, of course
Dave Davenport It started out in hard to swallow. the first story was pretty raunchy
J. Scott Coatsworth Supernatural is good. :)
Dave Davenport a werewolf tries to jump a skater he wants to bang, but flies right trhough him
Dave Davenport so the ghost leads him to his grave where he can dig up his corpse…
Dave Davenport it sounds a lot worse than it reads
Dave Davenport :)
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL
Dave Davenport anyways, there’s a bond between the skater and this werewolf
J. Scott Coatsworth Um… yeah. :P
Dave Davenport it turns out that ther’s another guy, this lover of the skater when he was alive
Dave Davenport has his finger he found at the accident site that killed the skater
J. Scott Coatsworth Ah hence the cover.
Dave Davenport it’s sort of a talisman… he can summon the ghost with it, and because of this bond between the ghost and the werewolf, he can summon the werewolf (named Feral) as well
Dave Davenport with each story I wrote, the character stuff got bigger and the sex less important to the story.
Dave Davenport 2nd story brought in the 3rd guy (Doug) and the finger
Dave Davenport 3rd story was an origin story for Feral
J. Scott Coatsworth I like when the story takes over. :)
Dave Davenport 4th was the longest yet with Doug as the star… and he doesn’t realize it until a later story, but he gets infected with the werewolf virus
Dave Davenport Stray bullet is the story I’ve been doing since the Hard to swallow run
J. Scott Coatsworth On Feral… you said you liked sci fi – how did you get into paranormal?
Dave Davenport It’s going to be a graphic novel eventually
Dave Davenport I actually love the mythos, and the rules of it all. I used to be a dungeon master (you know, for dungeons and dragons) and I loved the monster manuals
Dave Davenport I also love HP lovecraft
Dave Davenport who made sci fi/horror hybrid stories
J. Scott Coatsworth Yeah I used to play D&D back in the day :P
Dave Davenport After seeing Ringu (the japanese original the Ring was a remake of)
Dave Davenport I devoured every book and sequel
Dave Davenport I really got into the backstory behind Sadako… there’s so much there that isn’t on-screen
Dave Davenport That sort of supernatural world-building… that ends up very cyber-punk in the books… was very inspiring to me
J. Scott Coatsworth How many books have you put out?
J. Scott Coatsworth And do do you self publish?
Dave Davenport My character Doug has a sleeve tattoo of “ringu” in fact
Dave Davenport I do, though northwest press published the collected volume of Hard to Swallow
J. Scott Coatsworth So you’re a hybrid. :)
Dave Davenport There were 4 hard to swallows, each with a feral story. I did a solo comic somewhere in there that had 2 non-sexual stories, and one of the 2 was a Feral story
Dave Davenport I did 2 self published issues of feral after “Hard to Swallow”
Dave Davenport they are part of the “stray bullet” story
Dave Davenport I applied for the queer press grant with those and won
Dave Davenport and have decided to re-edit them to better fit the graphic novel, so they are not available currently.
Dave Davenport But on Patreon I have been doing a chapter from the overall story
Dave Davenport I’ve been posting a page a week, and the last page goes up next monday!
Dave Davenport Then there will be a new book available.
J. Scott Coatsworth I know a lot of graphic artists use patreon – what’s your Patreon page?
Dave Davenport https://www.patreon.com/dogspunk
Dave Davenport There are other stories up there in addition to “Feral”
Dave Davenport most of it is free to read, though people are certainly welcome to become a patron. Ny bit helps
Dave Davenport any
J. Scott Coatsworth How has your experience been with Patreon? I’ve thought about trying it, but it seems like it works better for artists who have something more tangible to offer their patrons…
Dave Davenport I love it. we can talk mechanics later, or I can steer you towards some people who are good examples of what to do.
Dave Davenport There are podcasters and webcasters on there too
Dave Davenport all sorts of creators
J. Scott Coatsworth I know Alex Woolfson has been really happy with it. :)
Dave Davenport it’s meant to benefit web-creators, that’s it’s stated purpose
Dave Davenport it’s why I started posting as a webcomic, so I would fit the model… it’s a great service
Dave Davenport and Alx is the poster child
Dave Davenport alex
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL yeah, he kinda is. We have him back here tomorrow.
J. Scott Coatsworth Do you do your own illustrations?
Dave Davenport yes, that is what I went to college for, I have a BA in illustration
J. Scott Coatsworth That’s awesome, but it means double the work, right?
Dave Davenport yes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way
J. Scott Coatsworth It also gives you control, right?
Dave Davenport I’m doing a sci-fi pin up and short 1 page comic right now too I forgot to mention… well it’s about sci fi, not actually sci fi
Dave Davenport yes… I can see maybe writing and having someone else draw my stuff, but I’ve got too many stories to be drawing someone else’s
J. Scott Coatsworth I thought I saw somewhere that you were involved in the tattoo business, too?
J. Scott Coatsworth Or am I wrong?
Dave Davenport yes, I own a small tattoo shop. Here’s that pin up, done in a tattoo layout, so nice segue
J. Scott Coatsworth :)
J. Scott Coatsworth Is that the “day job”?
Dave Davenport Yes, though I spend much more time on the comics.
Dave Davenport Which is kind of dumb, because tattooing pays much better ;)
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL… I know how that goes. I have a day job too. And it pays much better than writing.
Dave Davenport I have had opportunity to tattoo my characters on people many times, which is really cool
J. Scott Coatsworth LOL… talk about branding!
J. Scott Coatsworth ;)
J. Scott Coatsworth So I think that’s about all the questions I have for you. Where can we get your comics? And are any in print, for folks who like to have a physical copy?
Dave Davenport Right now northwest press for the Hard to Swallow collection http://northwestpress.com/
Dave Davenport The new issue of feral and the ghost skater will premiere at Los Angles Comic Con at the end of the month, and be available on my website after that. People can check out all of my stuff on Patreon wherer there will always be news posted https://www.patreon.com/dogspunk
Dave Davenport And all of my webcomics are also here at my self-publishing website http://marginalizedpublications.com/index.html
J. Scott Coatsworth Awesome. Thanks so much for spending an hour with us. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to post them here.
J. Scott Coatsworth We will also post a copy of this transcript on our website under the interviews section.
Dave Davenport Thanks for the talk! :)
J. Scott Coatsworth :)
Dave Davenport
Today: Dave Davenport – author of “Feral and the Ghost Skater”, will join us at Noon Pacific:
My comics I am most known for is called “Feral and the Ghost Skater”, it’s an erotic horror story. Originally it was about a gay werewolf that falls for the ghost of a dead skateboarder, but in the second story a character who was the lover of the skater when he was alive came into the story, and eventually became the main character, though it focuses on the trio and their lives.
The stories started out in the anthology “Hard to Swallow comics” which was the baby of me and Justin Hall. After we wrapped that anthology up, I graduated the stories to full color, and more longform stories. I am currently working on a graphic novel called “stray bullet”, which I won the 2015 Prism comics queer press grant with. I am wrapping up a chapter of it on my Patreon page, and will be posting each page there, one page a week (https://www.patreon.com/dogspunk).
Stray Bullet was inspired by “the experimental cure” by Brad Parker, which was a fun thought about lycanthropy being a cure for aids. My story explores this further, involving werewolves, ghosts, skateboarders, the tribal spirits of the wolf and coyote, a dragon, a handful of healthcare workers, a gay paradise in the afterlife, a puppy party, some moral quandries, some hot sex, and I hope a lot of fun.
Patreon – View Comic:
https://www.patreon.com/dogspunk