ComicBitsOnline.com

 Tom Pinchuk is the writer of  Hybrid Bastards,the artist,Kate Gleasheen,I’ve already interviewed so now it’s time to find out more about the writer!

Terry:Tom,you lived in Singapore and are currently at Boston University in the US.  Were you born in Singapore or simply living there?

Tom:I was born in New York and my family moved to Singapore while I was an infant. I lived there until I was 11.

Terry:In Singapore you would have had the opportunity to see a lot of Manga,Manhua as well as US comics -any in particular that you really enjoyed?

Tom:It’s funny - - I’ve never reflected on that opportunity until justnow. I was into comics before I could read, but didn’t become aserious fan until the 90’s X-Men cartoon made me a Marvel Zombie forover ten years. Before that, I remember going through Manhua and Mangadigests at the barbershop, getting the gist of the stories even thoughI couldn’t understand the characters. Dialogue wasn’t especiallyimportant to following Dragonball Z, in particular.

Singapore’s very metropolitan, so I was also exposed to European comics like Tin Tin,Asterix, Dennis the Menace (the

UK one) and even some Fumetti.

Terry:Any influences based on these comics?

 

Tom:Like a lot of things in Singapore, I didn’t appreciate the variety I saw until years later. I suppose I saw at an early age that there weredifferent approaches to comics, something I didn’t fully comprehend until reading Scott McCloud’s UNDERSTANDING COMICS. That book has been a tremendous influence on my work - - I’m still making connections from it, even years later.

My comics writing influences aren’t terribly obscure: Frank Miller,Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Joe Kelly.

Terry:At what point did you decide to start writing and was the intention to write comics or work in other genres?

Tom:I’d always been making up stories: it went from putting my toysthrough scenes to having longer stories for creative writing class. Istarted writing comic scripts in middle school, but I had a “story”notebook for a while before that. I didn’t have the end product inmind initially, but I got the idea of “this story should be a comic,this one should prose” early on.

Terry:I know you’ve had work published elsewhere -can you tell me alittle about this?

Tom:I’ve written a mini-series RUIN for Alterna Comics - -http://www.alternacomics.com/ruin.htm — that’s a completely differentkind of story. The plot goes like this: 

Decades after conquering the world, the dreaded overlord CARNUS isplagued by maddening boredom. He wants another enemy. But be careful what youwish for, because the killing machine BLACK ZERO has just awakened,years too late. Its mission: destroy Carnus.

You can see a mythological influence again here since the story’s notabout “good vs. evil” so much as two forces of nature colliding.Readers will quickly see that Mike Gallagher, the illustrator, is a total lunatic.

I also did a short, titled “What I Am”, with Kurt Belcher in the firstissue of Alterna’s anthology, ALTERNA TALES.  It’s a psychologicalhorror story about a frustrated computer programmer, a monstertormenting a city and the terrible connection the two have.

You see more of it at

 

 

 http://www.alternacomics.com/alternatales.htm

 

 

 

Terry:Can I ask how Hybrid Bastards came about as a concept?

 

 

Tom:I’d read the Greco-Roman myths as a boy, but was always confused bycertain parts. “Zeus met her… and, later on, there was Hercules,”and other euphemisms along that line.  I was only seeing thebowdlerized versions but didn’t realize it until taking Latin in high school, where I got a real rude awakening.

The uncensored myths were full of very bizarre sexuality: the pantheonis inbred, Athena is born fully-grown from Zeus’ head, bestialityproduces wretched creatures like the minotaur, and so on. What I foundparticularly amusing was how Zeus hid his affairs with mortal women byassuming magical disguises. He’d appear to one maiden as a swan andcome upon another as - - and I’m not making this up - - a goldenshower. I figured all of that was ripe for spoofing, and that was the kernel of the idea.

Terry:Was it easy to convert the HB concept into a comic script?

 

 

Tom:Yeah, I intended it to play to comics’ strengths. I wrote full scriptsinitially, but soon shifted to page breakdowns (or Marvel-stylescripting) as we went along. Kate comes from a fine-arts backgroundand I found that worked more to her style. Plus, it fostered aspontaneity that was better suited to the story’s tone. She could takethe pages in her own direction and then I’d get dialogue ideas I wouldn’t have gotten if it was all nailed down from the beginning.

Terry:And your collaboration with Kate;had you seen her work and wanted to work with her or was it Archaia Studio Press that threw you both together as a team?

 

Tom:Our “secret origin” is unusual. Her folks are my godparents, but I’dnever actually met her until recently. One day, my Mom said, “Oh, I was just talking to Mrs. Glasheen and we talked about how Kate’sgetting into comics,” and I was just baffled that we’d never metbefore. So I quickly got in touch with her and we corresponded for awhile. Eventually, I mentioned that I had this idea and, with plenty of steps in between, here we are.

Terry:So,Hybrid Bastards -is this a one-off or series  -and have youany future spin-offs planned or is the story all self-contained?

Tom:The story works on its own. I’ve got some ideas for more stories, butwe wanted to make this one the best it could be.  A lot of comics getso far ahead of themselves - - thinking about issue #100 before issue#1 - - that they read more like extended prologues, so we pouredeverything into this like it was our one and only shot.  I thinkreaders will appreciate that and, hopefully, they’ll be left wantingto see more of the bastards. 

Terry:Can you tell us what HB is about?

 

 

 

Tom:Years ago, ZEUS’ wife cast a vengeful spell that made him fall in lustwith every inanimate object in sight. Now, the king of the gods’hybrid bastards wander the world. Embarrassed, he dispatches goons to‘take care’ of these problem children, but a handful manages to escape.

 

 

Now, COTTON, a smarmy cloth patchwork; CARMINE, a timidautomobile; COREY, a self-loathing apple; and WALTER, a belligerentstack of bricks, seek their father’s love. Through schemes bothingenious and idiotic, will they force their negligent father to recognize them?

Terry:With all the other comics out there do you think HB will be unique enough to compete?

Tom:I think so. I’ve yet to explain the premise to anyone who hasn’tstruggled to keep from cracking up. It’s a book that’s hard to fitinto the standard “it’s this meets that” high-concept and the fans I met at Wizard World Chicago liked that a lot.

Terry:once HBs is complete what next -more for Archaia?

 

Tom:It’s up in the air right now. I’m putting some pitches together rightnow and we’ll see if anyone wants them. I’d love to work with Archaia again.

Terry:A big question I know but where do you see yourself in ten years -still writing comics or working in other mediums?

Tom:I’ve got a lot of goals and working regularly in comics is one ofthem. Hopefully, I’ll have that then. My major’s in Film and I’ve beenpursuing that field, as well as a few other things.  I think it’s anecessity to work in several disciplines in this multi-media era, whenyou have novelists hopping into comics and cartoonists directingfeature films. You find what stories work best where - - some storiesin comics, others in video games, and so on - - and it also fosters a real creative cross-pollination.

Ten years ago I was living in Singapore with no idea that I’d be moving back to America, let alone eventually going to college in Boston, so who knows.

Terry:Okay big sell -why should comic fans buy HB?

 

Tom:It’s a comic for high-brow and low-brow audiences, slamming theesoteric and the ridiculous together into something that defiesdescription. The premise is thoroughly bizarre and it’s only thebeginning of something truly unpredictable - - the absurdity escalatesfrom panel to panel, from page to page. Readers will get their money’s worth.

Terry:Any Zen style final words?

 

Tom:Never be afraid to make mistakes. 

Terry:Tom,best of luck with HB!

 

Tom:Thanks a bunch Terry.