By Mike Luoma • 5/22/09

Declaration Of Independents: Bruce Brown

Bruce Brown is the creator of Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom and Jack and The Zombie Box due to be released by Arcana Studios. He's currently co-writer with Dwight MacPherson on M-Theory and Interagents, now available from Th3rd World Studios. His Mwumba is an all-ages comic, the story of a little girl named Cassandra; the ruler of the jungle Mwumba. Brown is also the writer of the webcomic The Porch. CosmicBookNews' Mike Luoma and Brown chatted about his work for our ongoing “Declaration Of Independents”:

CosmicBookNews: Your early work Mwumba is an all-ages comic. Can you tell me more about the book?

Bruce Brown: Mwumba was one of the first books I ever did and I am immensely proud of it. It is an all-ages book about a little girl named Cassandra who is the ruler of the jungle Mwumba. Her whole world is threatened by a monster who moves into the jungle and breaks sacred Mwumban law; eating vegetables. It is a delightful little story with art done by the amazing Eduardo Savid and Zoran Cvetkovic. It is one of the most visually stunning all-ages books I have ever seen.

I actually brought my sister in on the book to help co write it. I thought it would be fun to work with her on a project and I think it offered her a look into what I love to do. Currently, I am looking to find a publisher for Mwumba. I haven't had the time lately to focus on it, but I am confident I will be able to find Mwumba a home hopefully soon.

CosmicBookNews: Let's talk about Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom – coming soon. Fill us in a little bit on the story?

Bruce Brown: Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom is a book I have coming out with Arcana Studios; it is an all ages Lovecraft story about a six year old Howard Lovecraft. After visiting his father in Butler Sanitarium, young Howard Lovecraft ignores his father's warning and uses the legendary Necronomicon to open a portal to a strange frozen world filled with horrifying creatures and grave danger!

I had co-written several books with Dwight L. Macpherson and he approached me about doing a Lovecraftian book together. He asked if I had ever read any Lovecraft and I can honestly say I hadn't. So, he strongly recommended I take a "crash course" in the author's work. Once I started reading his work, I quickly saw why he is considered one of the founding fathers of modern horror.

As a writer, whenever I find an author I like, it tends to peak my curiosity about the man or woman behind the story. So, I began to read up on Lovecraft himself and was struck by the fact that his father suffered a complete mental breakdown and how he was haunted by that. If you think along the lines of Batman, you think of how a traumatic event altered a young man's path forever. Somewhere in thinking about the impact of his father's illness had on him as a child I came upon the idea for a short story. I wrote a short story for Arcana’s horror anthology, Velvet Rope about a young Howard Lovecraft and the moment his father suffered his mental breakdown. From there, I became enamored with the idea of making a young Howard Lovecraft the hero of a story and from that idea, the Frozen Kingdom was born.

As far as the status of the book, it is finishing completion and I can honestly say I am extremely proud of the end result. If you are a Lovecraft fan, this book will be a must read! If you are not a Lovecraft fan, it would be a great book to start with. I am dying to hear people's reaction to it!

CosmicBookNews: You're co writer with Dwight MacPherson on Interagents and M-Theory. How did you come to work with MacPherson? What's it like co-writing a title – how do you share writing duties?

Bruce Brown: I have co-written three projects with Dwight. We met on Arcana's forum and have been friends ever since. We both share a love of this genre and I admire Dwight’s skill as a writer. For years, we have always talked comics and bounced ideas off one another for our work. When I was in between projects, Dwight asked if I would co-write a book with him. I had attempted to co-write with another author before and it didn't work out well. However, I was actually very excited about working with Dwight on a book.

In M-Theory, Dwight had already worked out the script and he had to whittle it down to three issues from his original four. So, I was able to not only add my flavor to the book, but also add scenes to it which weren't previously in the book. Dwight was very open to my suggestions and ideas. On Interagents, Dwight had several ideas on a retro-super hero book; he even had created characters for it, but that was about it. He told me the premise for the book and he allowed me to basically work up the script. Once I did that, he came in, added and removed scenes and gave it his flavor to it. In a way, my involvement in Interagents was the opposite of M-Theory.

Yet in the end, both were thoroughly enjoyable projects and Dwight was fun to work with. Dwight is an extremely talented writer and everyone should check out his work on IDW's Grimm right now.

CosmicBookNews: The Porch your web comic on Drunk Duck is fun. Not quite as static as, say, Dinosaur Comics, but your boys don't move a whole lot, lol! What's the inspiration for The Porch?

Bruce Brown: The Porch, in many ways, is my guilty pleasure. For those people who don't know about The Porch, it is a web comic about four guys sitting on a porch and talking fan boy stuff. The Porch tackles topics like what kind of special toilets would the Fantastic Four need to topics like, was Alan Moore really against the Watchmen movie because he feared a porno spin off of his work? You get the gist. The idea came about because it dawned on me, what comic fan hasn't engaged in one of these discussions so, why don't I make a web comic out of it.

As far as The Porch's "unique art" that was actually a practical decision. I had lots of trouble trying to find an artist who would do a web comic about four guys sitting on a porch and drinking beer. I think the thing sealed it was when I would interview artists and tell them these guys never leave the porch. It’s hard to get an artist who wants to draw four guys in one spot and nothing happens! Ha! So, eventually a friend of mine offered to draw four pages for me and that was it. So, that is the real reason the art is always the same. It honestly hasn’t affected the success of the web comic too much since we get around 1,000 readers a week.

CosmicBookNews: How do you find the right artist for a project? Do you write with an artist in mind? Or do you find your artist after the script is complete?

Bruce Brown: Well, I learned the hard way that you have to tailor the right artist to the right story. An artist can be perfect for one book and completely wrong for another. I tend to write the story first and then find the artist. However, I can honestly say that I wanted to work with Renzo Podesta on a project and Howard Lovecraft was the perfect choice. So, in a way, I had the artist in mind first before I had the script written on one project.

CosmicBookNews: We've seen some independent creators working with Hollywood. Have you seen any interest in your work? Any chance of an animated Mwumba for example?

Bruce Brown: You know, there has been "interest" in some of my work, but until something concrete happens, what does that really mean? To me, why focus on it. Just do what you love and create and if something happens great. If nothing happens at least I am happy with my work.

CosmicBookNews: What writers are you into? Who inspires you creatively? Music? Movies? TV?

Bruce Brown: Honestly, I have writers I enjoy reading and movies that I love. But to be honest, I take inspiration from things in real life like my wife and kids. For example, my four year old stepson suddenly became obsessed with Scooby Doo. At first I thought, cool! However, five zillion episodes later, I thought I was going to lose my mind. The experience gave me the inspiration to write Jack and The Zombie Box which is coming out with Arcana studios. So real life seems to trigger inspiration to me more than anything else.

CosmicBookNews: Did you want to be a writer first or a comic book writer? When did the writing bug bite you?

Bruce Brown: I definitely wanted to be a comic book writer first. A few years ago, I entered a comic book writing contest that Marvel was having and even though nothing came of it, I caught the bug. It wasn't long after, that I became very passionate about this and have been fairly driven on it since. To this day, it is an incredible thrill to me to create characters and the world they live in.

CosmicBookNews: What can we expect in the future from Bruce Brown?

Bruce Brown: I would have to say to expect variety. I want people to enjoy my all ages work and I am looking forward to showing other kinds of tales I can tell. If people think that I solely do all ages books, I have few surprises in store for them soon!

CosmicBookNews: What do you see in the future for independent comics?

Bruce Brown: I honestly don't know. I know some people think eventually everything will be online and books will vanish. However, I am old fashioned and think there is something magical about holding a book in your hand. As far as the future of comics, I think the greatest challenge for this genre is getting younger readers back into comics. That’s quite a herculean task considering all the options of entertainment young people have today. But I think for this genre to survive, it will need a passing of the torch to a younger generation of comics fan.

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