We are delighted to be joined by writer Patrick Coyle. Patrick is the creator of Bixby Grant. With the launch of the Kickstarter for Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone #2, we got to chat with Patrick all about Bixby Grant.
Hi Patrick, it’s so nice to have you here with us. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Patrick Coyle: Thanks for having me! I’m a life-long comics fan and creator, as well as a father, husband and designer.
I started making my own comics at the age of 8, and even started a publishing company with some friends in middle school. We put out four quarterly issues of a superhero anthology featuring original characters called Andromeda Comics, each issue about one hundred pages. We “printed” them using the photocopier at my father’s office.
After college, I fell into a career as a UX/UI Designer, but still loved comics. So when I met comics and animation veteran Shannon Eric Denton, we decided to create one of the first online indie comics publishers, Komikwerks. We published comics online for about ten years, and put out five print anthologies featuring stories from creators like Eisner-winner and comics legend Keith Giffen, Dwayne McDuffie, Eric Canete, and hundreds more.
I had to put Komikwerks on the back-burner when life got too busy, but a few years ago I decided to start making comics again, but my comics, not publishing other people’s. And that comic is Bixby Grant, Private Eye – a comic I’ve wanted to make for thirty years!
Can you tell us about the origins of Bixby Grant?
PC: When I read the first appearance of the Great Lakes Avengers (it’s a real thing – google it!), there was a character named Mr. Immortal – he was recently in the She-Hulk show – and his only power was, you guessed it, he can’t die. He falls off a building, breaks all his bones, but they snap back into place and he’s fine. I liked the simplicity of that powerset, as well as the fact that the character isn’t invulnerable like the Hulk or Superman but ultimately just as immortal. I thought it would be a fun concept to run with.
So I thought about what kind of person would be immortal, and eventually ended up in the mythical/monster category, settling on a mummy. After considering several occupations for my new character, like adventurer, super hero, etc., I settled on detective. When I was sketching ideas, there was something really cool about a man wrapped in bandages with a fedora and trenchcoat. He looked tough, like he’s been through some bad stuff, and someone that’s not going to take any guff.
And thus, Bixby Grant was born! Over the years, the concept had a lot of time to percolate and develop, and we got to where it is today: Bixby Grant was a beat cop in the 1930s who busted up a heist at the natural history museum and unleashed the curse of the pharaoh, becoming a living, immortal mummy.
I love film noir, pulp heroes, and hard-boiled detective stories. I also love monsters, horror, and action. Without realizing it, I mashed all those things up into one concept. And here we are!
What can you tell us about RNM Press?
PC: RNM press is my publishing company. RNM stands for Robots, Ninjas, & Monkeys, the three things that can make any comic better. : )
When I decided to get back into creating comics, I decided that I wasn’t going to wait for a publisher to accept a submission, and potentially dictate the terms of ownership and distribution. I’ve self-published before, and I figured I could do it again, so I started RNM Press to take control of my own destiny.
Who is Bixby Grant?
PC: Bixby Grant is a man with no reason to live, but no way to die. As an immortal living mummy, he’s outlived all his family and friends, and his glory days are long behind him. He just wants to be left alone to drink and smoke his troubles away.
But Bix is also Harbor City’s greatest detective and a local legend, so people won’t leave him alone. Over the last one hundred years, the city has become a magnet for the supernatural, the mystical and the monstrous. And no one can handle those kinds of cases better than Bixby Grant.
What can you tell us about Diego?
PC: Diego Diaz is a rockabilly vampire. He doesn’t take life seriously, and only cares about playing rock and roll. He’s renounced the typical vampiric ways, doesn’t kill or bite people, and only drinks animal blood from ethically raised animals.
Being a nightowl, Diego works a myriad of odd jobs around town, so he’s got his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in Harbor City. This comes in handy for Bixby Grant, who has occasionally used Diego as an informant. But Diego desperately wants to help Bix on his latest case, and Bix isn’t having it.
How did Gonzalo Martínez, Arthur Hesli and Heather Antos join the team?
PC: I met Gonzalo through a friend of a friend; My Komikwerks buddy Shanon Eric Denton introduced me to artist Geraldo Borges (Nightwing, Thunderbolts), who in turn introduced me to Gonzalo. We did a “tryout” project together, a short story that wound up as the back-up story in the first Bixby Grant OGN, Wolf, She Cried! We found that we work well together and have been collaborating now for several years. Gonzalo does what all great artists do: they take the script they’re given and transform it into something better than I could imagine.
Arthur I also met through Geraldo. Arthur has been working with Marvel on Thunderbolts and now on Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt. He is a joy to work with, too. Arthur created a unique “full-color noir” look for the Bixby Grant comics that I think makes the book really stand out.
Originally, I spoke to Heather Antos as a Kickstarter consultant when I was trying to figure out how I was going to go about producing and distributing my new comics a few years ago. Then, when I got serious about publishing I decided I should hire an editor to guide the process and help me get my story and script in good shape. I talked to a few people, but based on the conversations I had with her, along with her amazing track record at Marvel and IDW, Heather felt like the right person for the job. Lucky for me, she was willing and available, and we’ve been working together now for a few years.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic work of Gonzalo Ruggieri, who is the artist of the backup story, Zombietown. I became aware of his work first in the Image comic Rumble a few years ago, and then I backed a sketchbook he published on Kickstarter. When the time came to find an artist for Z-Town, I thought his painterly style really meshed with the tone we were looking for, and I reached out to him with a DM, and he was into it! And now here we are with part two of Zombietown.
How would you describe Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone?
PC: Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Wolf, She Cried, our first OGN, was what I called “monster noir”. It was structured like a typical noir detective story. It was a one-and-done 72-page graphic novel.
Fangs & Brimstone, however, is a six-issue series, with more of a “buddy action” vibe. It’s a murder mystery, as someone is murdering members of the corrupt mayor’s reelection campaign using cult daggers. The “buddy” part is that we’ve got an uneasy partnership between Bixby Grant and Diego Diaz as they dodge the police, interrogate suspects, and uncover Bix’s connection to the murder weapon and his long-lost brother.
As you are crowdfunding Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone and dealing directly with consumers, does that make Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone special for you?
PC: The very nature of crowdfunding a project means that the backers who fund the project like it and want to make it happen – and it’s not just friends and family. As a creator, to know that hundreds of people are enjoying what the team and I are making is so encouraging and gratifying! We’ve built a nice following of steady readers, who I call “Mummy Chums”, and I could not be more grateful for them. They are my people!
What can you tell us about Zombietown?
PC: Zombietown is the back-up story in the Fangs & Brimstone series. Each issue has an eight-page chapter of this story, which follows Harbor City police detective Maritza Ramirez as she investigates the disappearance of her father, beloved police Captain Jorge Ramirez.
A new tip takes her into a section of Harbor City known as Zombietown, a five square block area that was fenced off and left for dead after a zombie outbreak years ago. As Det. Ramirez snoops around the zombie-infested streets of Z-Town, she’ll discover that maybe the father she’s always idolized wasn’t as squeaky clean as she’s been led to believe…
Do you have a favourite Kickstarter reward?
PC: For returning backers, I like the “All Covers” reward – you get Fangs & Brimstone #2 with the main cover by Gonzalo Martinez, the “Pulp Action” cover by Dean Kotz, and the “Zombietown” variant by Star Wars and Star Trek cover artist Megan Huang, and you save five bucks versus buying them individually!
For new backers, my favorite is the “Catch-Up” reward – you get the 72-page graphic novel Wolf, She Cried! Plus issue #1 and #2 of Fangs & Brimstone, all for five bucks off!
What can comic fans expect from Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone #2?
PC: Readers can expect cops, shotguns, demon dogs, cat burglars, protestors, secret vaults, the necronomicon, and a few new friends as Bix and Diego dig further into the murder they stumbled upon in issue #1.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
PC: If you like Hellboy, B.P.R.D., The Spirit, The Shadow, Batman: The Animated Series, The Goon, The Rocketeer, or Atomic Robo, then Bixby Grant, Private Eye is in your wheelhouse. I hope you’ll give Bix a shot!
We would like to say thank you to Patrick for chatting with us, and we wish him the best of luck with Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone #2.
Feel free to check out the Bixby Grant, Private Eye: Fangs & Brimstone #2 Kickstarter.
