Brian Ferrara Interview!

Brian Ferrara, president and Editor-in-Chief of Terminal Press spoke with Project Fanboy about how he got into the industry and TP’s dark, edgy and graphic comic books such as Silent Assassin as well as some of the more disturbingly humorous books such as Crowpsey / Rufus and Cleveland.

[B]Steven: So Brian, thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us how you got into the comic book industry?[/B]

<img src="/images/interviews/ddd_tp.gif" align="left" hspace="15">Brian: Uninformed and inspired, with my head down swinging my arms wildly. I've always written comics, since I was a child scratching out blood splatters in my notebooks with a red crayon. I gave up on drawing though because my artwork is terrible and I try not to kid myself too much. About seven years ago I was headstrong and self-assured enough to commit myself to fulfilling a childhood fantasy and that pretty much brings us up to speed.

[B]Steven: In your book Silent Assassin, your main character is a mute that seems to have led a pretty troubled life. What can you tell us about him?[/B]

Brian: I can tell you how challenging it is to write a mute character. Very. Silent Assassin is a character who does some very bad things, but at the same time you can sympathize with him. He's had a troubled life that was out of his control and it led him down a path filled with a lot of violence and interactions with bad people, but as the story and the character develop he's faced with some choices that may redeem his past actions. The story has a lot to do with playing the hand you are dealt in life and the point at which personal responsibility comes into play.

[B]Steven: The blurb for Crowpsey – Rufus & Cleveland talks of a “a baby-eating rhinoceros with an alcoholic lemur and the angriest guy to ever have a crow jammed in his eye socket”. What inspired Ken Knudtsen to come up with such a strange concept for a comic book?[/B]

Brian: In a word- Vodka.

[B]Steven: Your Debbie Does Dallas debut is an adult oriented title based off of the classic adult movie, however the two seem very different. According to the TP site, Debbie will battle her way through hordes of the living dead?? What can you tell us of the differences between the comic title and the classic movie?[/B]

Brian: It would be easier to tell you about the similarities. Debbie is still a hot blond cheerleader. Pretty much everything else after that point is an artistic reinterpretation.

[B]Steven: How do you feel about re-writing one of the most well known classic adult features into a comic book? You've said before that the two really don't have much to do with each other, did you do this to lessen what you feel you may have to live up to?[/B]

Brian: I think it is an honor to get to work on such an iconic property. The comic being so different from the movie really has less to do with living up to the previous incarnation and more to do with the overall concept of the project. Artistic reinterpretations of iconic adult cinema. We wanted to utilize the brand recognition and mythos of these classics and at the same time utilize the freedom of the comic medium and the talents of comic creators. What I could play with in the comic would cost millions of dollars in special effects on film.

[B]Steven: Do you plan to let this association with Arrow Productions essentially take over TP with the adult titles you're anticipating to release, or will you continue publishing your other works as well? [/B]

Brian: We have always, since we started, mixed publishing original titles with creative licensed projects. We just released Killing Tree Quarterly, an original western by Keith McCleary who is also writing the reinterpretation of Deep Throat. We'll be putting out an Encore Edition of Tony Fleecs's In My Lifetime right before his version of Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here gets released. A new 300 page Silent Assassin book is in the works along with a bunch of titles we've yet to speak about. Plus, once we finish up the project with Arrow, we'll be starting another TP style licensed project.

[B]Steven: I see you made it to the NY Comic Convention, did you make your goal of having any of your other adult title rewrites ready for this near summer convention that you mentioned in your interview on [url]www.comicmonsters.com?[/url][/B]

Brian: The NY con was the first time the Debbie book was available at a comic con. It had previously only been available at the Adult Entertainment Expo. We'll be debuting Candy Stripers and Johnny Wadd at the San Diego Con and follow those up from summer to fall with the rest of the books. We'll be releasing more info on those as we get closer to the convention.

[B]Steven: Who do you feel inspired your own work?[/B]

Brian: I was inspired by the books I used to read growing up more than any particular creator. Heavy Metal, Mad magazine, Wolverine and Punisher from Marvel, Lobo and Batman from DC, Evil Ernie, The Crow, The Tick, Turtles. All the stuff that was intelligent, edgy, violent, funny or a bit off-kilter. Also, throwing in some hot women didn't hurt.

[B]Steven: Not including your own TP titles, what do you regularly pick up to read?[/B]

<img src="/images/interviews/tp_logo.jpg" align="right">Brian: I mostly grab my books from artist alley and small press at the cons. The comic shops near me are kinda shitty. Anytime I can get into Manhattan I'll go to Midtown Comics to shop, but unfortunately that's not as regularly as it used to be. I'm a fan of Rex Mundi from Dark Horse.

[B]Steven: If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice about your career, what would it be?[/B]

Brian: Don't get drunk and fight with critics on message boards.

[B]Steven: What do you think is your best work, and what do you think is your worst work?[/B]

Brian: My best work isn't out yet. It would definitely be the Silent Assassin graphic novel Narek and I have been working on for the past few years. It will be the work I am most proud of once it is released sometime this century. My worst work probably exists in the archived folders on my hard drive and will thankfully never see the light of day. As far as the published stuff, I definitely have a least favorite. I'll just say that when you let a licensor alter your script, they aren't the ones who take the beating you will inevitably get from the critics. On the bright side, that lesson helped shape the Arrow project into what it has become and I am very happy with that.

[B]Steven: For nearly everyone I've interviewed there has been someone out there that they admire and would love to work with. Who would you pick?[/B]

Brian: Growing up I used to stare at the poster above my bed of a sneering Lobo atop a mound of bullet shells. Right next to it was my signed Melting Pot print from the Words and Pictures museum. Both were done by Simon Bisley, so in the interest of fulfilling more childhood fantasies, I would have to work on something with him.

[B]Steven: As readers, many of us don't get a chance to see what some writers are really like in real life. Has anyone you've met in the industry turned out to be not quite what you expected? [/B]

Brian: When it comes to not what I expected, it's actually been very positive experiences. Not that I thought anyone would be a dick, but I was surprised to find out how accessible and down to earth some of these guys were. At the recent NY Con, Kevin Eastman couldn't have been a cooler guy and hooked me up with a stack of awesome books. He was another one of my favorites between Heavy Metal and Turtles, so it was motivating for him to be so positive about our titles and generally cool to us.

[B]Steven: Anything you'd like to plug, or shout outs you'd like to make before we let you go?[/B]

Brian: I'd like to shout out to my homies on the east side! That and to our website, terminalpress.com, because you can get all our books there.

[B]Steven: Thanks again for talking to us Brian. Good luck with your future works.[/B]