by Damon Martin
For every Geoff Johns and Jim Lee in the comic book industry there are a thousand writers and artists just hoping to climb, scratch or claw their way onto the radars of a major publisher like DC or Marvel. The role of independent comics however has served as a rich creative breeding ground where there is no corporate bottom line to meet or concerns that stories are too graphic or gritty to land on the page. With that freedom also comes the kind of passion that is lost in the more mainstream comic world, since, as most independent comic book writers and artists will tell you, no one is making millions from self-publication.
Michael Easton is a life-long comic book fan and writer, who worked for DC/Vertigo when he co-penned the graphic novel The Green Woman with award winning author Peter Straub. As much as Easton loved working on that book, there is a certain freedom that comes with a self-published work like his 2008 graphic novel, Soul Stealer, which is a 500-plus page gothic story following an immortal warrior named Kalan, with wonderful art provided by Christopher Shy.
The freedom allowed Easton to tell the story in his own words, without worry that a publisher would tell him something was too graphic or that he needed to cut pages. He told his story to a very specific audience, but those that read it stuck by him, and that’s one reason why independent comics will always hold a special place in the industry.
“You end up having a lot of late night phone calls with Shanghai when you’re going through the printing process. You end up talking at 3 o’clock in the morning about how you want your color bleeds going. But we set this up because it was going to be a freedom issue. Nobody was going to let us do a 550-page, large format, hardcover comic book, but that’s where I think the independent business is going,” Easton said when speaking at San Diego Comic-Con. “Digital comics are great, but if you offer people something extra, you offer the large format, you put in sketches, you put in outtakes, you put in an audio track, posters, things like what were doing, I think you’ll get a collector audience.”
Those late nights also included writing sessions till all hours as he listened to Radiohead and Jeff Buckley for inspiration. The end result paid off because the collectors picked up on Soul Stealer and it has become a cult classic among comic book enthusiasts. Easton admits his book wouldn’t have been the same if he’d had to conform to certain standards required by many major publishers.
“Some of the comic companies now are having very specific regulations about what you can and can’t do. And with Chris, I mean he’s the ultimate graphic artist…you want somebody who’s going to bleed on the page with you. The horror has to be horrific, and the violence has to be violent, and the beautiful, passionate sexual element has to be there too. You can’t always do that when you’re worrying about some kind of censorship issue and things like that. We don’t have that, we have complete freedom,” said Easton. “We did the book exactly like how we wanted to do it.”
Part of the reason Easton is able to do the things he’s able to in his books is because writing is his passion but it doesn’t always pay his bills. During the daytime hours, Easton has been an actor for most of his adult life, working on several television shows including soap operas like General Hospital and One Life to Live. Not needing to bow down to the almighty dollar has given Easton the flexibility to tell his stories the way he wants to. It’s also allowed him to keep his stories personal. He’s never has to sell to the highest bidder because he had to make rent.
“I’m very fortunate to have a day job. This allows me to do everything the way I want to do it. We’ve had film companies come to us, and in another life I would have optioned this thing off a long time ago, but having the day job has allowed me the financial independence to say I’m waiting for the right people to look at this. Waiting until Christopher Nolan sees this or Ridley Scott or James Cameron, we really want to be turned down by all of those people before we would go somewhere else,” Easton commented. “You only get one shot. It really is a passion, and it’s a passion to take something like this to another level.”
With Soul Stealer now available in a special one-shot hard cover edition, Easton is moving onto his next story called Credence, about a New York City cop which he has described as “Californication meets The Bad Lieutenant.” Long-term, Easton would love to see his newest creation land on television alongside shows like Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy – the kind of edgy shows that push the envelope and have developed loyal and deeply involved fans.
“We’ve done about 135-pages, it’s going to be a long graphic novel…the story stops when it needs to stop. It’s got a real great, edgy feel. Everyone right now is talking about movies, but I love what’s going on with TV right now. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Justified, Californication. and Weeds. I think it’s the most interesting storytelling,” Easton said. “I think if Shakespeare wrote today he would have written The Sopranos, he would be David Chase. He would tell the story the way he wanted to. So where Soul Stealer was this big epic film, Credence is going in the other direction. Let’s do a gritty little movie. I live in New York, so it has that ‘70s kind of French Connection feel to it.”
Easton hopes to debut Credence this October at the New York Comic Con, and if there’s one thing to say about this particular independent comic book maker – he’s definitely going to do it his own way.
For more on Michael Easton’s work visit: michaeleaston.com/
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