Interview with Jason Browne writer of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Grave

Ben Zimmerman interviews Jason Browne.

BZ: Hi Jason how are you today?

JB: Fine Thanks.

BZ: So before we get into it can you tell our readers a little bit about your previous work?

JB: Sure. I published my first graphic novel a 136 page Original English Manga in 2011 called the Man with No Libido. It was about a guy who tired of being turned down by women all the time who gets his Libido removed so he no longer goes through the pain of rejection. It did ok. Critically it was well received but sales weren’t great. It won an award though which was nice.

BZ: Why the big break in time between The Man with No Libido and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Grave?

JB: A few reasons, some personal some professional. The world economy going to hell didn’t help at all. Like a lot of indie folk my priorities switched from comics to trying to make a living. The other reason was I had big trouble with a collaborator on another comic we were developing which left a bad taste in my mouth for collaboration in general. So I quit comics for a while and started writing prose. I started a prose book a few years and hoped to have it finished in 12 months. That was 4 years ago and I still haven’t finished it!

BZ: What made you come back to comics?

JB: I think excitement. Seeing what other people were doing and also experience. I know a lot more about comic making now then I did back then. It’s made the experience so much easier.

BZ: You mentioned having trouble with collaborators. What was it like working with Liam Naughton?

JB: It was so nice! He made it so easy to work with him. As anyone whose seen my scripts will tell you I’m very much Mr. Brass Tacks with my scripts, there is not a lot to go on but Liam seemed intuitively to get what I wanted and put it on the page. I should also say that working with Robin Jones our letterer and Chris O’Halloran our colorist was an absolute pleasure as well.

BZ: Can you tell us a bit about your inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft’s The Grave?

JB: Sure. I read ‘The Statement of Randolph Carter’ a short story by H.P. Lovecraft the granddaddy of horror himself and while I usually love Lovecraft’s stuff this one left me cold. I kept imagining what happened after the call at the end. So I decided to do some fan-fiction and write my own version using the same premise but how I would have wanted the story to end. People seem to like what I have done which is encouraging.

BZ: Doing a Lovecraftian horror after a Manga Romance is a pretty big change.

JB: True but it’s something I always wanted to do. I consider the two hardest genre’s to write in comics are Comedy and Horror. Trying to get someone to have a extreme reaction such as laughing or screaming is tremendously difficult to do. It’s why usually when I start to write something I’m instinctively drawn towards these two genres. I also didn’t want to get pigeonholed into one genre and be known as a crime guy or a horror guy etc.

BZ: What are you working on next?

JB: I have some stuff in the pot, some are closer than others to being published but for the moment nothing I want to talk about.

BZ: Thanks for the interview and good luck with The Grave!

JB: Thanks.