Recently I had a chance to chat with writer and filmmaker James D. Schumacher III and illustrator Ken Knudtsen. Here’s what they had to say about their upcoming project, “Of Devils and Men”.

First, would you mind introducing yourselves and giving us an idea of what sort of projects you’ve been involved with up until now?

James D. Schumacher III

James: “My name is James D. Schumacher III, I am a Los Angeles based comic creator, screenwriter and filmmaker; and most recently I created the award-winning and popular horror comic series, Inheritance as well as wrote and directed the award-winning short film, The Astronaut.”

Ken: “Hey guys, I’m a NY-based writer and artist (Wolverine) and the creator of My Monkey’s Name is Jennifer (SLG Publishing), and have also worked on animation for projects developed by Comedy Central, Robert Reich, and PBS.”

Could you talk a bit about the themes of, “Of Devils and Men” and how they relate or depart from your previous work?

James: “Of Devils and Men’s main theme is overcoming loss. Set in the 1880’s against the backdrop of a great cataclysm that has unleashed denizens from hell out onto the burning world to hunt the last remnants of humanity. Our focus is on steam locomotive, one that carries people who are on the run from these creatures, a train that is running out of fuel and soon will stop and bring the ugliness of mankind to the forefront.

Our main characters are each suffering and in that suffering they either become the greatest people or the worst that mankind has to offer. When I wrote this script in 2011 it followed my mother’s death and I witnessed what loss did to my family and myself first hand, and this story is our story, albeit woven against the tapestry of the apocalypse.

I tend to use my art as self-introspection, almost as a form of therapy, and this process is no different than that of Inheritance or any of my films. When you see these characters, their pain, their anger, you’re seeing my despair and anguish.”

Ken: “Working within a horror setting is something new that I was eager to try.”

What brought the two of your together on this project?

Ken Knudtsen

James: “I was in attendance at Eternal Con in New York with my horror comic series, Inheritance, and quite literally the first person who introduced himself to me was Ken, so kids if you’re reading this talk to people, don’t be shy. After a little bit of talking I found out he was next to me, and then I got the chance to check out some of his artwork and was blown away by it.”

Ken: “James and I were seated next to each other at this year’s Eternal Con. In between rushes(it was very busy), we started talking about what we were each working on. James commented that he felt that my art style(I was drawing commissions at the show) would fit a horror/western he was developing. After his hellish adventure home, we picked up the discussion and started talking what would come next.”

Did you have any particular thematic or stylistic influences?

James: “I’ve always been attracted to for as long as I can remember the greats; Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, and Alan Moore, John Wagner, Sergio Leone and John Steinbeck just to name a few of many. What all of these artist did is create a story that was so involving that it pulls you effortlessly into the world by the use of characters you can easily identify with. This is something I feel is lacking in modern storytelling, thrown away for a pretty aesthetic and glacial characters to avoid hurting people’s feelings. I knew I wanted to change this.”

Ken: “I’m a huge fan of both classic and new artists, going Walt Simonson and Klaus Janson to John Paul Leon and Tommy Lee Edwards and every artist Rick Remender seems to be working with! Also, I really fucking love Dave McKean’s work.”

What was the process for developing the visual style? Was it collaborative from the ground up or was it more about capturing what you had in mind during the writing process?

James: “As a writer and filmmaker my visual process has always begun during the initial stages of writing. I’ll know if I’m on the right track with a scene or a script when I am struggling to keep up with the story as it comes pouring out of my head. This process has been the same since I was writing when I was twelve-years-old and it continues to this day. Images, colors, people, ideas will manifest during that process.

Once the script is finished, I’ll send it to the artist, in this case, Ken and usually accompanied with the script is a series of stick figure drawings of what I feel the panel structure and art setups should be, detailed ideas and concepts for characters and color usage, all that all combine to help give him the visual cues for the artwork. From that point it, Ken begins to craft his interpretation of my concepts into pages of art and in this case the outcome of this process has been absolutely incredible.

So to a certain extent is capturing what I had in mind during the writing process, but it’s also about being open to the creativity of Ken’s artwork and any idea he comes up with.”

Ken: “For me, I try to sound out what the writer is most looking for. Is it mood, or hyper detail, or single specific images…this is what helps me most when approaching something that I don’t do on my own(like My Monkey’s Name is Jennifer). James seemed really interested in creating a specific type of mood, and he really responded to the mixed media work that I was doing at Eternal Con. After James directed some instruction on creating some concept art, we talked some more to really nail down the visual approach that I am now using on the story’s pages.”

James, you’ve worked in various media including film, how do the challenges of various media differ, and where do comics fit into your creative repertoire? Do you feel there are certain stories that are better suited to comics vs film?

James: “Film is way more difficult, that’s not to say comics are easy, but the chances for problems is far less in comics. Film you’re working with dozens of people, dozens of egos, dozens of people with their own wants and opinions, and in doing so you’re required to manage time and budgets, but lead those people in the collective journey of creating a film. It’s labor-intensive working with a lot of people. Comics, on Of Devils and Men it’s Ken and I working toward this one singular goal together. It’s labor-intensive finding the absolute right artist.

Comics have always been in my life as have film. I made the leap from film to comics with my popular horror series, Inheritance with the process of adapting the film process into comics. I find that, and this may differ for some people, that comics and films are interchangeable. Both come from a golden era of visual storytelling, both rely upon the visual image to convey emotions and story. A film is created using storyboards, a majority of storyboard artists are comic book artists, so the process in creating a film versus a comic is very similar.

There are some stories that fit better in comics than they would in a film and vice versa, and that usually comes down to a storytelling device, a visual set up that was designed specifically for a film or comic that translates terribly to the screen or page. Very rarely can you not adapt one into the other, so long as the person adapting it loves the material and can approach it from a creative logic perspective.”

What are you hoping for people to take away from reading “Of Devils and Men”?

James: “Of Devils and Men is built around the very real emotions of losing my mother in 2009 after she fought numerous diseases for a majority of my life. She meant everything to me, and still in death she still does. After her death, the pain was so great and took such a toll on me that I lost an entire year of my life because I could not figure out how to cope. As I began to center back into my life, I began to take a step daily, followed by another, and another and soon I realized that even though she was gone, my life wasn’t over.”

Ken: “Selfishly? I’m hoping that my fans and soon to be fans are blown away by how my art has evolved since Jennifer and Wolverine. But as a whole, I hope that, after reading this incredible story, they can take away that both creators had a lot of fun working on this!”

Could you share your plans for your upcoming Kickstarter? What do you hope to accomplish with the funds and what sort of perks might we expect?

James: “Kickstarter is an incredible outlet for new material outside of the larger publishers to come to life, quite literally its brought about a renaissance. Kickstarter is the perfect place to bring Of Devils and Men, especially since it’s become the home for bringing to life originality and excellent storytelling outside of the realm of the big publishers.

We are going to be kickstarting Of Devils and Men to bring our brand of horror with a heart and storytelling to people around the globe. Inherently this story is about each of us, when we lose that which is most loved, and when we cannot find our way again.

Ken and I decided to create Of Devils and Men in an analogue format, we’re getting away from the over processed digital comics and going back to basics. Ink, brushes, paper, so going this route brings us and the backers a once in a lifetime opportunity to own original one-of-a-kind artwork as some of the reward tiers.”

Ken: “The Kickstarter is going up…soon…I think we’re just making sure that it’s planned and approached the right way. Don’t want to rush through this and crash right into the ground.”

Any closing thoughts or information you would like to share on upcoming projects?

James: “I’m absolutely excited to be in the midst of creating Of Devils and Men, it’s my most personal project to date and to see Ken’s incredible artwork is amazing and energizes us in the creation of this project.

On the topic of Inheritance, the new issue will release here shortly as well as new supplemental material for the Inheritance universe.”

Ken: “Well, thanks for talking to us about the book. I’m pretty fucking excited to get this going (in case you couldn’t already tell) and in people’s hands. Outside of Devils, I’m slowly putting together a noirish book that I’ll be writing and drawing, and it will have a hit man and talking dog(that might be dead, but he’s still a good boy).”

Be sure to check out James’ website for more information on “Of Devils and Men” and how to get involved with the upcoming Kickstarter. You can also see more of Ken’s fantastic art up on his blog or follow him on Twitter.