Geek Syndicate
Here’s a bit about comic writer Frank Barbiere from his own website: Originally from New Jersey, he is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in English & Creative Writing, as well as a Master’s in English Education. Barbiere has published a number of titles independently via his Atlas Incognita brand and currently writes the critically acclaimed comic book Five Ghosts, published monthly by Image Comics. Other current projects currently include The White Suits and Blackout, both from Dark Horse Comics. Geek Syndicate took the opportunity to chat to the writer about Five Ghosts … GS: Tell us a bit about yourself, if you would. FB: My name’s Frank and I write comics. I grew up in NJ, but currently live in Brooklyn, NY. I used to be an English teacher, which I’d like to believe informs my writing a bit, but these days I’m mainly writing comics and having a blast doing so. Some of my passions as a creator are story, why we tell stories, the craft of writing itself, and of course comics. GS: What was it that initially got you interested in comics? FB: For some reason comics always resonated with me. I was lucky enough to have a comic book shop in my town growing up, so I started reading monthly comics around the age of seven. This got me very invested, and growing up I was a total Marvel kid--I think the timely arrival of the X-Men cartoon helped with that. I think comics are such a great medium and not limited by budget like film--you can literally do anything on the page. GS: Pretend we’ve never heard of Five Ghosts. What’s your elevator pitch? FB: Five Ghosts is the story of an Indiana Jones-esque treasure hunter who can channel the powers of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Merlin, Musashi Miyamoto, and Dracula. I find that telling people about these literary characters tends to immediately hook their interest! GS: Five Ghosts features five literary “ghosts” that possess Fabian Gray. Where did this idea originally come from? Was it just born from a love of classic fiction, or something more? FB: When I was conceiving Five Ghosts I knew I wanted to write a period piece (the story takes place in an amorphous “1930’s” setting) about a thief. I liked the character of a charismatic thief-someone who wasn’t necessarily a “good” guy, but had a purpose and got into adventures--but I knew I needed something a bit more interesting as a “hook.” I thought maybe he should have “Sherlock Holmes” type powers, like hyper-attentiveness, logic. Then I had the idea to have the character be able to channel Sherlock Holmes some way--and then I thought, why stop there? As it turns out this was a great way to steer the direction of the story into the literary and really explore how we interact with fiction, etc. GS: The Five Ghosts are the Archer, the Samurai, the Wizard, the Vampire, and the Detective. Who were the archetypes for each ghost? What made you choose this group of characters to possess Fabian? FB: I literally was trying to think of recognizable characters that would have abilities that would be useful. These ones stuck out to me and seem to have struck a chord with readers! GS: The reveal of Iago shows us that the Five Ghosts aren’t the only literary figures in the story. Can the reader expect even more characters to pop up from classic literature? FB: Absolutely. Part of the fun of playing in this literary world is to bring in many different elements from it. We’ll be really ramping up some literary appearances in our new arc, LOST COASTLINES, and the main villains of the series are all fun analogues for literary and historical figures. GS: With the success of the first fiveissue miniseries, Five Ghosts became an ongoing series with issue six expected in October. Have you been surprised at how receptive readers were to the book and how successful it was? FB: We always wanted to do an ongoing series, but it’s just so risky in today’s market. We were absolutely floored by the reception--we were so worried we wouldn’t be able to find a readership to sustain the book, but are amazed and so thankful that people seem to enjoy where ???e?????????%?e????????????????? ??????????????????????????
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