We are delighted to be joined by Amy Chase, Bevan Thomas, Chuck Harp, Coni Yovaniniz, Illuminated, John Konrad, Luis Santamarina, Mariah McCourt, Nathaniel Wilson, Nick Mamatas, Reetta Linjama, Rodrigo Vargas, Tayson Martindale and Van Jensen. With the BackerKit campaign live for the Perfect Crime Party anthology. We got to chat with a number of the contributors to the anthology.
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Amy Chase: Sure! My name is Amy Chase, and I’ve been writing comics for about 8 years now. I’ve written for licenses like Dungeons & Dragons, My Little Pony, and Archie Horror as well as participating in about a dozen different anthologies by this point. I love monsters, puns, and unlikely heroes, which I think our story for Perfect Crime Party encapsulates exceptionally.
Bevan Thomas: My name is Bevan Thomas, and I have been an author and editor on numerous comic book anthologies. I especially love to write fantasy and science fiction, as I’m fascinated by all the different worlds we can create with our minds, and how these impossible worlds can be used to tell stories that are personally meaningful and emotionally true. However, I also love to adapt my style to a wide range of genres. I created Epic Canadiana, a series of comics anthologies from Cloudscape Comics that pay tribute to classic 1940s Canadian superheroes, and which won Cloudscape the Gene Day Award at the 2016 Joe Shuster Awards. I live in Vancouver with my wife, the artist Reetta Linjama.
Chuck Harp: I’m Chuck Harp and I’m a comics writer, amongst other mediums, and was a Mad Cave Studios Talent Hunt winner. I’ve had work published online, in print, and even had a play and web series produced. When not writing comics, I’m scribbling about skateboarding for various websites and magazines.
Coni Yovaniniz: Hi! I’m Coni Yovaniniz, and I’m a comic artist and Astronomy MSc from Santiago, Chile. I’ve been making comics for over 10 years, which is WILD to say out loud, but it’s been a lot of fun!
Illuminated: I’m Illuminated, I’m a cartoonist from Italy. I’ve been self-publishing and sharing comics online semi-regularly for the past five years, mostly short stories in a number of genres, all characterized by a coat of comedy paint.
John Konrad: My name is John Konrad and I’m a cartoonist based in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve been creating comics since I was in high school, including a weekly strip for my college newspaper and a self-published coming-of-age webcomic.
Luis Santamarina: Hi, my name is Luis Santamarina – Mitomante, and I am a comic book artist and colorist based in Argentina.
Mariah McCourt: Once upon a time, there lived a white haired mom who loved telling stories and worked in comics for over twenty years. She edited and wrote a lot of different books while drawing hedgie and cephalopods and obsessively drinks tea to this day.
Nathaniel Wilson: I’m Nathaniel Wison, a comic artist and illustrator in NYC. I mostly draw horror type things and cute fuzzy kittens. Raccoons sometimes. A dog here and there. And lots of worms. I just noticed how many times I’m choosing to draw worms and wormy things lately. I should probably unpack that.
Nick Mamatas: I’m Nick Mamatas, mostly a prose writer of horror, dark fantasy, and crime short stories and the occasional novel. My fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, McSweeney’s, Tor.com, and many other venues. I also wrote the Lovecraftian crime novel I Am Providence and the speculative thriller The Second Shooter.
Reetta Linjama: I’m Reetta Linjama, a Finnish artist based in Vancouver, Canada. I’m a bit of a jack of all trades as an animator and illustrator, but character performance and humour are a throughline in my work. I did the art for ’The Good Word’ in Perfect Crime Party.
Rodrigo Vargas: Hello there! I’m Rodrigo Vargas and I’m just a little guy living in Chile. Nice to meet you, readers! What’ve you been up to? I bet something fun. Like getting ready to back certain crowdfunding campaigns? Me too!
Tayson Martindale: My name is Tayson Martindale and I am a cartoonist from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada!)
Van Jensen: I’m a longtime comics writer, doing both my own series and graphic novels like ARCA, Tear Us Apart and Two Dead as well as characters like James Bond, Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman. I’m also a novelist—my debut book, Godfall, is currently being adapted into a TV series at Amazon with Ron Howard directing.
How did you get involved with Perfect Crime Party?
Amy Chase: I’ve pitched several times to previous Iron Circus anthologies but haven’t gotten in before now. When this book’s theme was announced, my friend Tango approached me and asked if we could collaborate on a pitch. For those who don’t know Tango, she’s an absolute artistic phenom with some serious writing chops as well — she’s got some covers and interiors under her belt with TMNT, Godzilla, Power Rangers, and Archie. We’re also both HUGE fans of Buffy, so there was never a doubt in our minds that we weren’t doing something with a vampire in it. And I’m so grateful our pitch was accepted!
Bevan Thomas: Reetta and I have been huge fans of Iron Circus Comics for years, and have really wanted to be part of one of their anthologies. When we heard that they were looking for submissions for light-hearted crime stories, we were intrigued. I started brainstorming a crime caper instantly, and we sent something their way.
Chuck Harp: I’ve been following Iron Circus for some time now, so when I saw there was a possibility to be published with them I jumped at the chance. And luckily they accepted me into the fold.
Coni Yovaniniz: We found out through the Cartoonist Co-Op that submissions were open for this! The concept for the anthology sounded really fun, so Rodrigo and I got right to plotting our own little story. I’m really glad we got in, because it turned out great!
Illuminated: I simply had the luck to come across their call for submissions, and answered with a short story I was already planning to publish on my own. It fit perfectly the mold of what they were looking for, crime centric stories with a lighthearted touch, so I went for it.
John Konrad: I got involved with Perfect Crime Party through The Cartoonist Co-Op, which Kel is also a member of. The Co-Op introduced me to the call for submissions and I knew right away that I wanted to contribute.
Luis Santamarina: I’ve been wanting to collaborate with Chuck Harp, and After trying our luck with various anthologies, we finally found our perfect match with Perfect Crime Party.
Mariah McCourt: Iron Circus put out the call for a “cozy mystery” anthology and I was on that so fast I think I pitched PRYM & BURN with Jules Rivera in about a week. I was so thrilled when they accepted it! I’ve always wanted to do a cozy mystery and work with Iron Circus, so it was just the best timing.
Nathaniel Wilson: I had a great time working on a story I wrote and drew that was accepted into Iron Circus’ 2018 comic anthology, FTL Y’ALL: Tales from the Age of the $200 Warp Drive (It’s a really good collection, so go buy one if you’ve not already). I was eager to do another, and the call for entries for Perfect Crime Party went out when I finally had some time I could devote to a new project.
Nick Mamatas: I edit manga scripts as part of my day job, and many of my co-workers are artists or otherwise involved in the indie comics scene. We saw the call for submissions, and a couple of co-workers lamented not having any ideas. Well, I had plenty of published crime fiction, and so we decided to pitch by submitting my short story “The Twenty-One Foot Rule” while my collaborator Jules Valera submitted their comic art and lettering portfolio. Our pitch involved a murder rather than a heist or caper, so the submission stood out, and now here we all are.
Reetta Linjama: Even though I also self-publish comics, it’s usually nicer to only have to worry about the art, and when there’s a client or publisher with a solid track record you know you can concentrate on what you do best. My spouse Bevan Thomas and I have been collaborating on comics for years, having fun with different genres. We had applied to a couple of Iron Circus Comics anthologies previously and this one ended up being a great fit.
Rodrigo Vargas: I think I saw it on the Cartoonist Co-Op, they’re great folks doing good work for comic makers everywhere. Check them out!
Tayson Martindale: I’m always keeping an eye on the stuff Iron Circus puts out because they have great books! I saw the call they put out to join this anthology project and I had just the character and story ready to roll for it, so I reached out!
Van Jensen: Another writer suggested I do it, because I have a background as a crime journalist. And I’d been looking for a way to convince my old friend and longtime editorial cartoonist Neal Obermeyer to draw some comics, so it came together perfectly.
Can you tell us all about your story for Perfect Crime Party?
Amy Chase: “Play It Again” is our love letter to monsters and their own humanity, plus a chance to play with vampire lore and put it into a heist setting. When immortal punk bloodsucker Jules discovers that a collector of antiquities has the last surviving copy of his old band’s vinyl LP, he takes matters into his own hands to get it back. But when vampires need an invitation to even cross the threshold of a home, how is he supposed to break in? Tango and I co-wrote this one and had a blast coming up with all the twists on vampire tradition to serve as obstacles for the caper. Tango also did all the inks, with Xenon Honchar on colors and Noah Stephens on letters.
Bevan Thomas: Like with many of my comics, I wrote it and Reetta illustrated it. “The Good Word” is about a con artist who is selling an elixir that he claims was what made the saintly patriarchs of the Bible healthy and long-lived. I have always been fascinated by religious beliefs and how those beliefs are often exploited, so I wanted to write a story in which someone concocts a Biblical con. “The Good Word” is about faith, lies, and how the person who can tell the best story is often the person who wins.
Chuck Harp: My story is about a group of young graffiti writers who must concoct a plan to get new supplies after a mishap in a trainyard. It has humor, action, twists, and a whole lot of paint. But ultimately the story surrounds the idea of what artists will do to obtain their creative goals, regardless of age or medium.
Coni Yovaniniz: I can’t tell you all about it because I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s a story about school kids and trading card games! The “king” has full control over the game, and our protagonist has to find a way to defeat him once and for all…you’ll have to read it to find out how!
Illuminated: “Psikotika Will Strike at Midnight” is a pastiche of the Italian “Fumetto Nero” genre, crime comics focused on masked criminals that exploded in popularity in the sixties. Those stories tended to be extremely bleak and gruesome, but mine has a heavy comedic and surreal bent to it, a Naked Gun energy almost.
John Konrad: My story, “Darling Doesn’t Know,” is a noir screwball comedy set during the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s about a celebrity couple that resort to murder to inherit each other’s fortunes. What they don’t realize is that both of them are flat broke.
Luis Santamarina: It’s a light-hearted story about young artists who run out of supplies and how they solve the problem.
Mariah McCourt: A historical tale of unlikely friendship and vengeance set deep in the city of Victorian Edinburgh.
Nathaniel Wilson: It involves a, not mad, but righteously sour scientist who decides he has a duty to use his bioengineering skills to combat his city’s anti-homeless, hostile architecture initiatives. It’s gross, but it comes from a place of caring and a need to help. What I mean is, it’s soft and gooey inside. Like a Resse’s cup filled with larvae tartare that is surprisingly pleasant to the palate.
Nick Mamatas: It is based on “The Twenty-One Foot Rule”, a prose work first published in the crime magazine Dark Yonder. The twenty-one foot rule is essentially a folk belief held among police officers that someone with a hidden knife can get it out and stab them before they can draw their own firearm and stop them…if the stabber is within twenty-one feet. This is part of why police seem prone to firing on people who may in fact be unarmed.
Reetta Linjama: A ne’er-do-well gets alerted to the weak spots in his saviour scam. Bevan wrote some theatrical reveals and characters who have a mind of their own — my challenge was to draw people putting on a totally different persona from who they actually are. I think that will make our story stand up to a re-read. It also makes me imagine there could easily be continuing twists for these characters someday. I really hope readers are as entertained by them as I was drawing them!
Rodrigo Vargas: Me and Coni Yovaniniz wrote this little comic called Spirit Duplicator. It’s inspired by trading card games, zine making and a lot of anime. It’s actually a story about disarming unbalanced political systems in favor of creating something better. I think it’s a fun story.
Tayson Martindale: It’s a Clue-style whodunnit set in the North Pole. Bruce Justice is our detective and he specializes in mythical homicide. Santa’s latest hotshot reindeer, Bluedolph, has been murdered, and the suspects have been gathered in Claus Mansion for the big reveal!
Van Jensen: Our story is about a newspaper crime reporter who decides to use everything he’s learned about crime to commit one of his own. It’s about the long, slow death of print media and the cynicism that comes with covering crime for a living. Probably the most grounded story in the anthology, with some stunning art from Neal.
What has it been like working with Kel McDonald and Iron Circus Comics?
Amy Chase: Kel has been doing a Herculean amount of coordination for this project across all the creative teams, and I’m both grateful and impressed. Iron Circus Comics has immense experience in not only crowdfunding but anthology curation too, so the process has been well-organized and efficient, and we were really encouraged to tell the stories we wanted to tell. It’s honestly been an honor being a part of this and having them share their platform to give all of these established and upcoming voices a chance to shine, including our humble little Team Vampire Heist.
Bevan Thomas: It’s been a wonderful working experience. It can be easy for an editor to over-edit, shaping the story to their style rather than the style of the writer and artist. Kel’s feedback has been insightful but not too extensive, giving us a lot of scope to do our own thing. The whole process has run very smoothly.
Chuck Harp: Working with Kel and Iron Circus Comics has been fantastic! They are not an incredible group of professionals, but they provide some great insight into comics in general.
Coni Yovaniniz: It’s been good! We also worked with Kel McDonald for The Lizard Prince and Other South American Stories, an anthology of South American folktales not too long ago, so it’s been good to work with them again!
Illuminated: Kel was great to work with, and they were very hands off in terms of content; the story I wanted to tell is the story being published.
John Konrad: Kel provided great notes for each draft that I sent them, and really helped keep my story tight and effective. This is my first time working with Iron Circus and it’s been a very seamless process. They’ve been great at balancing the logistics of publishing and letting the creators just worry about creating, which is just what you want from a publisher.
Luis Santamarina: They’re an incredibly dedicated editor who went above and beyond to ensure we felt cared for throughout this project.
Mariah McCourt: Kel has been a fantastic editor, supportive and kind.
Nathaniel Wilson: It’s been great! Communicating with them and Hye who’s doing production design/print tech has been super easy.
Nick Mamatas: It’s great! Of course that is easy for me to say because all I had to do was hand in a script and based on a story I’d written years prior. Then Jules had to provide pencils, then inked pages, and then they had to letter and color those pages. As Kel said, “You can miss all the deadlines except the last one,” which is a good way to run a comic book project, but Jules had to hit many more benchmarks than I did. Once the script was filed, I was basically an innocent bystander.
Reetta Linjama: Iron Circus probably has the most reach of any client comics I’ve done so far, so I wanted to meet their expectations. The major expectations were deservedly the deadlines, because even with the long schedule of this book, the many different lifelines of an artist tend to clog the calendar. I had to stretch a couple of them, but as a whole the comic came together exactly as planned. I appreciated having practically free reins for the art and how we were kept informed of project developments.
Rodrigo Vargas: Coni and I worked with Kel previously for one of the Cautionary Fables books with central and south American creators. It was great then and it’s great now. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again. Hi Kel!
Tayson Martindale: Wonderful! I’ve been given a lot of creative freedom with my story and they have made so many awesome suggestions while collaborating during the editing process to sharpen the flow and communication of the panels. It’s been a treat!
Van Jensen: They’re great. Super professional but also just laser focused on making good comics.
As Perfect Crime Party is being crowdfunded and dealing directly with consumers, does that make Perfect Crime Party more special for you?
Amy Chase: I always love how crowdfunding makes it easier for the creators to see the exact type of demand for a project and get it directly into readers’ hands through these efforts. Every project I’ve worked on has had something special about it, and Perfect Crime Party is no different! And knowing the immense trust Iron Circus has built from their audience has me confident folks will be getting to enjoy this anthology in their own hands very soon.
Bevan Thomas: I love crowdfunded projects. I’m part of Cloudscape Comics, and a lot of our books are crowdfunded, and many of the books I buy are through crowdfunded projects. The process makes so many more idiosyncratic, personalized projects possible, and it’s so marvelous to have this direct connection between the author/artist and the consumer.
Chuck Harp: Absolutely! Being able to bring our stories directly to the people who want it makes this all the more exciting to me. Being able to see the interest of people instantly is terrifying, but also incredibly exciting. And hopefully this might just bring about new fans who were not aware of us before.
Coni Yovaniniz: There’s something exciting about crowdfunding that lets you publish and see books that maybe wouldn’t be published through more “traditional” means. It’s certainly more special for backers, seeing that they’re directly helping this book become a real thing!
Illuminated: My entire life in comics so far has been sharing stuff online and through crowdfunding, so Perfect Crime Party isn’t exactly special in that specific way. Personally for me, it’s having Iron Circus behind our backs what’s special, as it is the first time one of my stories is shared through a known and beloved publisher in the sector. I’m getting a special kind of buzz from that.
John Konrad: It does! I think it’s amazing that Iron Circus has built up this readership of indie comics readers, and that those readers are excited to back a project like this. The comics scene thrives on that kind of grassroots support. I create for myself, but more accurately I create for readers, so I love that readers get some kind of involvement and ownership in the project.
Luis Santamarina: Indie projects have a certain magic that always resonates with me. It’s a pure, unfiltered form of communication.
Mariah McCourt: It does! I love anthologies in general because you get to see so many different takes on a theme, which is always fun and interesting. And going directly to readers means we’re sharing our stories with the people who want them right off the bat. I think that always feels more special.
Nathaniel Wilson: Certainly. Supporters of a given crowdfunded project have pledged an investment into the success of that campaign’s outcome because they really want what’s offered and want it to succeed.
Nick Mamatas: Honestly, I felt very pleased to go to the wonderful Silver Sprocket, an amazing and wonderfully curated comic shop in San Francisco, and see Iron Circus titles on the shelves. It is exciting that readers are ready to support independent projects, and Iron Circus has a perfect record of fulfilling projects, but nothing beats the idea of someone walking into a store and being intrigued by a book they didn’t previously know existed.
Reetta Linjama: Every single backer has a hand in making this book happen. I don’t worry about whether my own comics will have readers before I make them, but with so many creators involved, seeing a project build up and gather more participants is always a thrill. If a digital crowd was forming while I was still working on the comic it would actually put terrible pressure on me, but with the book finished except for printing, it feels great being given that trust.
Rodrigo Vargas: Yes. ‘Specially if you sign up for the campaign right now and get free domestic shipping. That’s a frickin’ steal!
Tayson Martindale: It’s definitely a cool thing to see interest in the book happening in real time. Making comics can be an island, and when you send your book out sometimes it feels like it just floats off into the void. So being able to see readers support the book and connect with it is pretty awesome.
Van Jensen: The special thing is that you’re getting some pure creative vision from a group of great creators, with no corporate vicissitudes in the way.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Amy Chase: I hope everyone has a chance to check out Perfect Crime Party and be surprised by all the ways the rules can be bent and broken — not just when it comes to crime but also storytelling. Also, be sure to look closely at the song titles on the vinyl record in “Play It Again” because they are pretty darn funny, if I do say so myself.
Also, if folks want to follow any more of my upcoming comics collabs, I’ll be updating my website with new announcements at amythunderjam.com. Thank you so much for the feature!
Bevan Thomas: Every contributor to Perfect Crime Party took the anthology’s premise of a “light-hearted crime caper” in their own exciting, unique direction. Almost every genre can be found here (fantasy crimes, funny animal crimes, historical crimes…), along with some of the strangest acts of larceny imaginable, everything from guerilla gardening to copyright theft to liberating a sacred bull from Minoan Crete. If you enjoy creative comics about clever crimes, then take a look at Perfect Crime Party.
Chuck Harp: I just want to say thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy, and in some cases connect with, our great crime anthology. Keep reading!
Coni Yovaniniz: Just to look forward to the crowdfunding campaign when it’s out! There’s many fun stories in there, so I think you’ll have a great time. And if you’re a reader who wants to make comics someday, try looking for anthologies to apply to, they’re a great way to show your work and meet new people!
Illuminated: I have the pleasure of sharing this anthology with many creators I consider myself a fan of, to the point where, if I wasn’t part of it, I would still give it my support. I think this will be one hell of a ride.
John Konrad: It’s easy for me to get tunnel vision when working on a project, but once I submitted my pages and looked at some of the other stories in Perfect Crime Party I wanted the book in my hands even more. So poke around and look into everyone in this anthology, not just the people highlighted here!
Luis Santamarina: Don’t forget to support indie creators! Projects like this deserve all the love. So go and click the link to the campaign.
Mariah McCourt: Be kind and make good trouble.
Nathaniel Wilson: Please support the campaign! The contributors have already gotten to see a preview copy that includes everyone’s work, so I can honestly say that the whole thing is dope. I for one can’t wait for it to be printed and have a copy on my shelf. And stop picking at that thing. You could go too deep and turn yourself inside out. Just put chili powder on your fingers. If that doesn’t discourage you, there’s nothing else I can suggest.
Reetta Linjama: The variety in Perfect Crime Party is staggering. We did the time so you could do the crime, because this campaign’s a steal!
Rodrigo Vargas: I know it’s called Perfect Crime Party, but if you’re able, please pay for it and don’t steal it from people at conventions. Everyone worked very hard to make the best stories possible and they deserve not to get their comics stolen.
Tayson Martindale: Thank you for reading! Comics is by far my favourite vehicle to tell stories. Hope you enjoy the stories in this fun little (actually, BIG – 300 + pages) anthology!
Van Jensen: As always, I appreciate you checking out anything I work on!
We would like to say thank you to Amy Chase, Bevan Thomas, Chuck Harp, Coni Yovaniniz, Illuminated, John Konrad, Luis Santamarina, Mariah McCourt, Nathaniel Wilson, Nick Mamatas, Reetta Linjama, Rodrigo Vargas, Tayson Martindale and Van Jensen chatting with us. We would like to wish them the best of luck with the Perfect Crime Party anthology BackerKit campaign.
Feel free to check out the BackerKit campaign.
