@’s by WIDOW’S WEB’s Raven Gregory!!!
Hey folks, Ambush Bug here with an interview with one of my good pals, Raven Gregory. Full disclosure, I’ve worked with Raven in the past on some projects with Zenescope and I respect the man very much. I’ve always found him to be a helluva writer and when I heard Raven had gone off on his own, I knew he was up to something fun. That project is WIDOW’S WEB, a new comic written by Raven Gregory, co-written by Autumn Ivy, with art by Ian Snyder. Raven is going the Kickstarter route to help fund this book and if you like the exclusive images presented with this interview, go right ahead and support this campaign with your hard earned dollars!Here’s what Raven had to say when I talked with him about WIDOW’S WEB!
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): How would you describe WIDOW'S WEB to folks who know nothing about the comic?RAVEN GREGORY (RG): It’s the classic story of boy meets girl but with a horror twist in that in this case girl may very well eat boy.
BUG: You often delve into the realm of horror and WIDOW'S WEB certainly has aspects of that. What is it about horror that makes you keep coming back to the genre of storytelling?
RG: Maybe it’s just because horror feels safe. A strange thing to say but life can get to be a pretty terrifying thing sometimes. Trying to make believe that there is something more scary that the uncertainty of the world we live in just feels right.BUG: You seem to be paying a lot of attention to setting in this book; both the setting of the bar the comic takes place in and the mysterious city of Tcesni City. What can you tell us about this city the story takes place in?
RG: Not much as it would give away a big part of the story but suffice to say the city isn’t quite what it seems.
BUG: I always found, as a gathering place of all sorts of interesting individuals, a bar is a fascinating place to set a story. What's the significance of setting the bulk of the action in this first issue in the Bad Barrel Bar? RG: A big part of this series as a whole is that the characters feel real and not feel as if they are just being put through the motions that is the plot. So setting the majority of the first issue in the bar really went a long way to building that familiarity with the characters.
BUG: How is WIDOW'S WEB different than your previous comic book work?
RG: Over the years I’ve formed this niche of always telling stories that were very personal to me. Stories that acted as a form a therapy for dealing with whatever current issue I was experiencing at a given time. Be it becoming a new father with THE WAKING, drug addiction with FLY, struggling to keep a dysfunctional family from falling apart with the WONDERLAND TRILOGY, or heartbreak with IRRESISTIBLE. Having that tie to the story has always made the stories I write very relatable to readers.Then I lost my best friend in a car accident followed by my ex-wife in a hit and run the following year and the story that came out of that was NO TOMORROW. A story that I loved but genuinely hated writing. I thought it would help...writing that story, that somehow it would make things better, but with every line I wrote it just became worse and worse.
The story itself came out beautiful with the exception of some editorial interference in the last issue but every step of the process, of dredging up all of that pain and anger and suffering and bringing it to the surface, was eight months of living hell. My kids would come into my office after school and see me curled up in my chair at my desk a blubbering mess because all that grief was just pouring out onto the page. Like I was bleeding to death and couldn’t stop the bleeding even after the story was done.So I promised myself after that I wouldn’t write stories that carried such personal emotional weight. Because that kind of story telling you just feel on a whole other level and it starts eating away at you. So while I’m still very passionate about WIDOW’S WEB it’s not coming from that kind of place. It’s coming from a more pure place of sitting down to tell a good story and letting the pieces fall where they may.
BUG: What made you decide to go the creator owned route and leave your long standing job as Executive Editor and Staff Writer at Zenescope? RG: It was just that time. My heart has always been in creator owned stories and creating my own imprint and brand allows me the freedom to do that without censorship while still maintaining creative control.
BUG: What did you learn from your time at Zenescope?
RG: I learned what really matters most when it comes to making the best story possible and that some compromises are not acceptable if you really are putting the story first.BUG: Is there a specific book/film/real life event that influenced WIDOW'S WEB's creation?
RG: The in’s and outs of relationships. The secrets people keep and the changes we are continuously trying to make to better ourselves. More than anything else it is those themes that drive the story…but with cool monsters and stuff;)
BUG: What type of comic book reader is WIDOW'S WEB made for?RG: I think Harley Quinn fans would particularly dig it. And those fans who are not particularly sensitive to the use of the word “fuck" and sex in their comics.
BUG: How did you gather the rest of the talent you've assembled to make WIDOW'S WEB possible?
RG: My good friend, Nei Ruffino, actually recommended Ian Snyder for the pencils, who I had worked with previously on TALES FROM WONDERLAND and Liezl Buenaventura on colors who I previously worked with on NO TOMORROW and on one of my favorite Zenescope titles The JUNGLE BOOK;)BUG: You're doing a Kickstarter for this book. What made you want to do this route in making this book possible? What kind of incentives are there for those wanting to support this book?
RG: The kickstarter kicks off on Feb 27th and it’s gonna be a big one. One of the promises I made myself when going the route of creator owned books was that the vision for the story not be compromised due to deadlines. So with this in mind we’re trying to get at least four issues of the six issue series in the can before releasing it nationally. So to help with the costs involved in this we’re releasing a pre-release edition of the first two issues, both of which are already complete, with some of the hottest exclusives and rewards ever to come to kickstarter.
BUG: What other projects are you currently working on?RG: My next creator owned series will be a story called SOMETHING LIKE MAGIC that’s currently experiencing the birthing pains that come with the beginning of any production. Hoping to have that out before the end of the year but first things first…WIDOW’S WEB.
BUG: Thanks, Raven. Best of luck! You can support WIDOW’S WEB by checking out the Kickstarter page and supporting the campaign!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 13 years & AICN HORROR for 4. Follow Ambush Bug on the Twitters @Mark_L_Miller.Be sure to tell your comic shop to order his new comic PIROUETTE (out now!) from Black Mask Studios!
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
