Jay Carvajal Interview!

Project Fanboy's latest interview was with creator Jay Carvajal, author of the Indie comic "The Misadventures of Clark and Jefferson" (MOCJ) published through Ape Entertainment. Jay took some time from his day to talk to us about the aforementioned title and how he got into the industry.

[B]PF: So, Jay I guess we should start by how you got into the comic book industry? [/B]

<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/images/reviews/mocj1.jpg" hspace="10" align="left">In a way it all started back when I was around five years old and started reading comic books. I grew up drawing and creating my own as a young kid and then through my pre-teen and teen years just for fun. I used to try and draw like Byrne, Miller, Perez, etc., and I created a lot of my own Wolverine and X-Men comics with some Teen Titans thrown in. A while back I got involved in the entertainment field for several years and eventually that led me to forming Cinemacomics so I could try and combine my two loves in life, comic books and movies. I started the planning for it way back in 2000 and up until just a couple years ago everything finally fell into place and I was able to go forward with my plans in a big way. What I'm starting to see now recently is a result of all that ground work and labor.

[B]PF: Is your goal to become popular on the Indie scene, or do you eventually hope to break through into mainstream comics?[/B]

My goal is to create and publish quality comic books first and foremost. If my company becomes popular then great, I'm all for that, but either way I'll be around doing my stuff for as long as there will be comic books. I think it would be a blast to get to do a book at the "big two" and if I was ever fortunate to get a chance I'd jump at it, but I'll also always do my own stuff at Cinemacomics. Despite the huge amount of work in self publishing there is a lot of freedom involved in putting out your own books that I don't ever want to give up.

[B]PF: Is this the first project you worked on?[/B]

<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/images/reviews/mocj2.jpg" hspace="10" align="right">Actually our title called Zero Hunters was my first official book we completed a while back. Then came The last Warring Angel and now we have The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson out now from Ape Entertainment. In addition to our plans for Cinemacomics I also wanted to establish relationships with other companies and fit our projects in with them when we can. Ape offered me an incredible contract and extra exposure in the marketplace plus they are great guys to work with, so in the end, how could I turn them down for this project?

[B]PF: What writers do you think influenced your work?[/B]

I think definitely the early Frank Miller work on Daredevil, Dark Knight, Ronin, etc., for a lot of my stuff in the sense that it opened up the stories in comics to me in a way that I hadn't seen before he came onto the scene. For screenplay writing I'd say my biggest influence is Lawrence Kasdan. Now, that said, I don't try at all to mimic them or their style but I know that growing up they had to have a hand in shaping me a bit just like any influences generally do. There are others of course, but those are probably the two biggest from both fields I've been involved in.

[B]PF: Is there anyone in the industry you'd like to work with?[/B]

Wow, that's a tough question! Can I take the easy route and just say "anyone"? Really, anyone that has talent and is passionate about making comic books and has the dedication to the field is great to work with. I met George Perez once many years ago at a convention and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met in addition to me being a huge idol of his, so that would be a dream come true to work with him if I was ever so lucky. I'm also a big fan of Tim Bradstreet's covers so I'd probably die from excitement if I ever saw some covers from him for my projects.

[B]PF: In the MOCJ, Clark and Jefferson are lawmen of the old west and are faced off against some pretty gnarly aliens. How did you come up with idea to have aliens stranded in the old west?[/B]

I wrote a screenplay way back in 1996 called Cowboys & Aliens (no relation to the recent comic of that name) and at the time I had wanted to do a story where I combined opposite genres to come up with something a little different. I eventually settled on cowboys versus aliens. Originally it was to be a serious type of story and after I started the screenplay I got about five pages in and the scene came up where Clark & Jefferson are walking down the dirt road toward the saloon for the big shootout and for whatever reason the thought of Clark stepping into horse poo popped into my head and from then on it was all out the window as far as a serious story goes. It morphed into an action, comedy, thriller type of story after that and really, I'm so glad it turned out like that because I have to say that these are probably my favorite characters to write now, all because of the change in tone of the story. I tend to usually write kind of dark stories and so these characters kind of pull me back to the lighter side of life when I write them which I've found is a good balance for my work.

[B]PF: The relationship between Clark and Jefferson is sometimes pretty comical, it's almost as if they're brothers and have known each other their whole lives. Was that your intent when writing the characters?[/B]

Yeah, when we see them in this story they have known each other for a few years and they've been Sheriff & Deputy for probably a couple years. They do have a brotherly type of relationship for sure and really they think of each other like family. They do bicker like family members or lifelong friends but no question they would take a bullet for each other if the chips were down. I've been told by a few people that they are reminded of Murtaugh and Riggs from the Lethal Weapon movies and that's a pretty good comparison when I think about it. I might also throw in the brothers from Silverado played by Scott Glenn and Kevin Costner and maybe a little Abbott & Costello with a pinch of the Three Stooges thrown in for good measure.

[B]PF: Can you give us any preludes as to what the future may hold in regards to a relationship for Clark and Mary?[/B]

For the short term we'll see them start to develop a relationship and where that will take them I won't really say right now for spoiler reasons. Long term, characters will come and go in this series but Clark & Jefferson will always be a constant though.

[B]PF: After the mini is complete can we expect to see more misadventures of Clark and Jefferson?[/B]

<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/images/reviews/mocj3.jpg" hspace="10" align="left">Absolutely. We actually have already started on the follow up mini series and the tentative title is The Misadventures of Clark & Jefferson: Hairy Things. I'd like to be able to do a yearly mini series with this gang and maybe an occasional one-shot. I definitely know the final story for these characters and it's quite a ways off, so it's just a matter of getting there over time. In all honesty though I'll probably write stories with these characters for the rest of my life, I love them that much.

[B]PF: Do you have any ideas of future projects you'd like to work on?[/B]

Well, right now I'm hard at work on ONE: Season 1 and also to a lesser extent the follow up to Misadventures. I say lesser extent because I'm only writing and lettering that series. After I finish ONE it's on to finishing up a project called The Disc. Then more than likely I'm off to do the long awaited follow up to Zero Hunters. I also have plenty of projects in the scripting stage and it's just a matter of time and money in getting to them.

[B]PF: Anything you'd like to give a plug for?[/B]

Sure, everyone can check out our website at [url]www.cinemacomics.com[/url] for more info and also links to where we are at such as Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, etc. We also have links there where you can read some of our books for free at Wowio and we are also working hard to get our store up and running so fans can purchase hard copies directly from us. The store should be live very shortly and will be filled with all kinds of cool stuff in addition to our comic books.

[B]PF: Thanks again for joining us Jay, we hope to see more of your work in the future.[/B]

Hey, thank you for the interview and I hope we can do this again sometime!