VODKA O’CLOCK 1804 WITH ERICA SCHULTZ & DAVE ACOSTA

AMBER LOVE 30-APR-2018 My work is supported by the generous backers at Patreon.com/amberunmasked who appreciate my reviews and my stories; and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and podcast. Also, I’m an Amazon Influencer so you can shop through my personal recommendations and buy my books with these handy links below:

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In this interview with creative team ERICA SCHULTZ and DAVE ACOSTA, we talk about the details of their comic TWELVE DEVILS DANCING, serial killers, religious cults, character development, funding the comic, and their upcoming projects. TWELVE DEVILS DANCING is being released as issues in digital format, two arcs collected in volumes one and two, then as a full compendium.

MAY181255

(W) Erica Schultz (A) Dave Acosta, Maria Sanapo, Jason Lewis, Adriana Melo (CA) Kelly Williams
Three issues in one! FBI Special Agent Callum Cooper has always tried to escape his past, but some mistakes you can’t outrun. Now retired from a fatal diagnosis, an old foe returns to torture Callum in his last days. Unable to go it alone, Callum teams up with college student, Aisha Miller, hitting the road to catch the killer before more women become his victims.

In Shops: Jul 11, 2018

We did our best not to reveal spoilers.

Erica shared the fascination with religious cults from Jim Jones to Heaven’s Gate. The psychology is something she finds interesting and used to weave through her characters. When everyone else is saying the world is a trash fire, it’s an opportunity to say what’s good out there. Protagonist Callum Cooper, a retired FBI agent, suffers from PTSD from growing up in a cult and those burdens of hiding his sexual orientation until he was a free adult.

With a story that has scenes of grotesque murder and bloodshed, Dave’s page layouts are crisp and clean with white gutters. He said this is the first comic he’s worked on that’s real world and not fantasy realms or super powered characters. This also contributed to how he approached drawing the character figures differently. Considering that the content of the story includes torturing naked women, Dave chose not to lessen the visual with “torture porn” and used better judgment so that it’s not all about objectifying the female form.

“That’s my favorite thing to draw is the acting of the characters.” – Dave Acosta

Aisha fills a sidekick role for Callum Cooper. She’s a brilliant scientist and due to terrible life decisions, can’t pursue her career. Despite her own life being a mess, she’s a grounding force back to reality for Callum.

“I want to show the innocence and naivete of the child versus what the real world is because he’s living in a bubble. Even though he’s in a cult, he’s still living in a bubble. He doesn’t know what the world is like outside of that bubble as a child until the fire happens.” – Erica Schultz

We shared our opinions on basic every day life stuff, like how wonderful it is in NJ that drivers don’t have to get out of their cars to pump their own gas. Then returned to talking about the funding for TWELVE DEVILS DANCING.

Erica made the decision to pay out of pocket for all the creative team of TWELVE DEVILS DANCING. The publisher, Action Lab Danger Zone is covering the printing which is a critical part. She shared the reality of sending out pitches to multiple publishers and then following up after some artwork was completed and facing those rejections.

Ordering Info:

Twelve Devils Dancing – MAY181255
Xena – MAY181120
Elvira – MAY181028

Links:

@ericaschultzwrites on IG, @ericaschultz42 on Twitter
http://vicespress.com/
@davedrawsgood on IG, Twitter, Tumblr

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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.