Writer Thomas Hall and artist Daniel Bradford dish all the gory details on their critically acclaimed horror titles from Blacklist Studios.

Dan Horn (CBB) - How long have you been in the comic industry respectively?

Daniel Bradford (DB) - I'd been involved with comics for a few years now as a freelance artist. Tom and I, however, had been working on potential Projects together for about 7 years now.
 
Thomas Hall (TH) - I started doing underground comics and mini-comics years and years ago, more as a social outlet as anything else. Most of my friends were into comics or made their own comics, so writing and making my own stuff was a way to connect. Daniel and I got together through some of the same group, and we found that we were drawn to the same stuff and we were both at a point where we wanted to take comics more seriously. Blacklist came out of that desire to do professional quality work, and we called ourselves "Blacklist Studios" as basically a way to market ourselves in pitching work to other publishers. When we came to the conclusion that we needed to take control of our own destiny and publish our own books, we formed Blacklist Studios LLC. and became a legitimate company.

CBB - Your current series from Blacklist Studios Robot 13 is defined as a “horror” series, but after reading it, I see that it’s really much more than that. How would you describe the series in your own words?

DB - You'd think I'd have an answer for this...
 
TH - Well, the high concept pitch for Robot 13 is that it's The Borne Identity Meets Clash of the Titans. You have a main character, our Robotic Hero, who doesn't know who he is or anything about himself except for fragmented memories. What he CAN do, however, is kick butt and use almost ANYTHING as a weapon. And like Clash of the Titans, our Hero has this journey he has to go on and at every turn, there is some ticked off creature from Greek Mythology there to stand in his way. I think the "horror" tag comes from the monsters and some of the other influences which find their way into the visuals, but it's more a story about someone looking to find out the truth about themselves.

CBB - What has the reception from critics and comic fans been like for the series?

DB - Overwhelmingly positive and supportive from critics, fans, and industry creators.

TH - Overwhelmingly positive is a good description. People have been very kind, and it's been a lot more positive than we could have expected. We thought we had a good book, but who expects to get a call from Harlan Ellison telling you he likes what you've done? Who expects MTV's Splashpage to name you one of the best comics of 2009? It's been overwhelming, for sure...

CBB – Tom, you currently reside in New Jersey, and Daniel lives in Arizona, so how did you guys first get together to work on this project?

DB - Tom saw some work of mine on a site called Megazeen and sent me an email about it. After talking for a while we noticed that we shared many of the same opinions when it comes to storytelling and decided to see what we can do together as a creative team.
 
TH - That's about it. I saw right away that Daniel was very talented, and when I got to know him a bit we just clicked in terms of what we liked and wanted to do. Robot 13 is our first Nationally released project, but we did some others prior to it. KING!, our next book, was actually something we did as a one-shot about 3 years ago for the Phoenix Comic Con and it got the ball rolling for us. But except for a few Conventions, Daniel and I do most of our work with lots of email and phone calls.

CBB - What were some of your inspirations when creating the character and story of Robot 13?

DB - Ashley Wood's robot designs really inspired me to do this book.
 
TH - Daniel and I usually start with something visual and work out from that point. He had the basic design for the Robot, and it sparked a bunch of things when we talked about it. I was reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at the time, and some of those themes came into play as well in building the back story. The Greek stuff came from a print Daniel did, where the Robot had just killed a Kraken, and when I saw it I asked Daniel about it and when he told me he had wanted to draw a "Kraken," I just had all these images of Ray Harryhausen movies and just KNEW we had to find a way to justify making all the monsters come from Greek Mythology. It all fit together very organically and very much a back-and-forth between the two of us.

CBB - You’ve made several allusions to ancient Greek mythology and 13’s origins as the titan Talos during that period. There’s a large chunk of time missing between that and the 1930’s in which 13 presently finds himself. Are we going to see the hero’s adventures in other eras in future issues, or has he been dormant that entire time?

TH - When you read the “Colossus!” mini-series, there are three time periods in play. The Ancient Greek events are alluded to, and there is the "present day" that we are in as well as some other past that Robot 13 seems to remember. Those events aren't happening "now" because he's remembering them. We will see some of his "past" adventures, sure. But I don't want to say much more than that, because it's more fun to see it unfold in the comic than to talk about it.

CBB - What else can we expect from the upcoming issues of Robot 13?

TH - There will be more monsters and more details of Robot 13's past. Those details will lead to more questions and even more monsters. It's a Hero's journey, after all. What would that be without questions and Monsters?

CBB - Are there any publishers that are dying to get their hands on this series?

TH - A lot of people like Robot 13. Some of those people have spoken to us, but until we have something in writing, it would be better to not talk about it.

CBB - Will the book remain quarterly released, or will we be able to read it monthly at some point in the near future?

DB - We're really trying hard to get these books out on a regular basis, but having day jobs and, in my case, 3 children to raise while drawing, coloring, lettering, and packaging the book, a regular schedule is nonexistent.
 
TH - That's where it is right now. Doing all the production of the book takes time. Printing the book and shipping it from China takes time too. We also don't want to do a crap job, so we push ourselves to give people a good product but again, that takes time. If we had a whole staff working for us so that I only had to write and Daniel could just pencil and ink his pages and we didn't have to also work day jobs to support ourselves, then the books would roll out. Robot 13 has only been around since May of last year, though. We'll see what the future brings.

CBB - You’re currently up for a Rondo Award for “Best Horror Comic Book.” What has that experience been like for the two of you?

DB - Surprising. Daunting and unlikely when considering the company we found ourselves with...
 
TH - Again, that's more than we could expect. Being nominated for an award like that is an honor. It makes me want to make the next story arc that much better...

CBB - Daniel, there’s a hint of Mignola in your outstanding artwork. Was he an artist that influenced your work? What other artists had an influence on your style?

DB - Very much so. But even before him I had always been very influenced by Stephen Gammell's work on Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Jae Lee, Alex Maleev, and Chris Bachalo are also very high on that list.

CBB - Thomas, what creators have influenced your writing?

TH - Comic wise, I find Grant Morrison's work inspiring. He lets his ideas just flow out and you don't get the feeling that he has any need to explain more than you see on the page. I like that. There's Neil Gaiman, but I guess everyone loves him, right? And Robert E. Howard is big for me, because he had such a poetic and visual use of words. Even in his dialogue, you could just feel like you knew more about a character than he was spelling out for you.

CBB - Ideally, where do you see Robot 13 in a year or two?

DB - Successfully wrapping up.
 
TH - A household name, maybe? You know- Batman, Spiderman, Mickey Mouse and Robot 13...

CBB - The two of you are also working on the Blacklist Studios’ King! comic. What can you tell us about that title?

DB - Nothing like R13. It's more of a comical endeavor with a bit more of a horror bend than R13 and far more absurd.
 
TH - A surreal horror story with a lot of black comedy. KING! tends to be very guerilla in a sense, because even within a story arc, every issue can almost be read alone. The main character doesn't like loose ends, so he tends to tie them up with gunfire and brass knuckles.

CBB - Which books are you guys currently reading on a regular basis?

DB - Not much recently. Really wanting to get into Walking Dead. Beasts of Burden has been a fun read for me, as well as Chew!
 
TH - Chew, Atomic Robo and Walking Dead are regular. I really like the FrankenCastle Punisher stuff and anything with Hit Monkey in it too. Other than that, I mostly read for research these days. The people in the library know me. I mean, not just the people who work there, but all the regular patrons see me and know I am reading some obscure tome on some-such. It's almost sad, really, but the attention to details is paying off so far.

 CBB - When can we expect to see other titles from you?

DB - Good question! Dunno. We're still kinda learning as we go. The other books we're working on is wicked heavy in historical research and is taking a little while to figure out how to tell them.

TH - We have other ideas. Yep. And they all will take a ton of research. Which will take time, and push schedules back even more. So we will eventually do something new, but our plates will be very full doing KING! and more Robot 13 as far as Blacklist goes for the near future. And that's fine as long as people love what we are doing. We just want to keep making comics people love, and if we do that it's all good.