
1) What are your own origins, Russ? Well in the beginning there was a big bang, POW!, and somewhere in the middle I was spawned, Ha! I started writing at an early age, mostly fiction, thanks to D&D. I was fascinated by their stories and artwork, and set out to write similar stories as a DM for the local kids. I soon learned I had a knack for writing and others wanted to hear my stories, so fast-forward to college, and its here where I really started working on fine-tuning my prose.
2) What inspired you to create, ‘The Showdown’? I read a lot of EC Comics growing up, and I appreciate they didn’t end on some moral high note, just the monster staring out at the reader and you’re like, oh, f*ck, that’s not going to be good! I also feel like lowbrow art and the underbelly of society isn't acknowledged enough in comics today. The Showdown addresses that. It’s not PC. The good guy doesn’t win. No Hollywood ending. No riding off into the sunset. I wanted to represent the bad guy for once. The Showdown was inspired by that, plus Dante’s Inferno of course.
3) Can you briefly tell us what this horror comic is all about? On the surface, it’s a race through Dante’s nine circles of Hell. Imagine if you will, a world were infamous monsters such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies race through Dante’s Inferno in a death match called, “The Showdown”. The winner gets the chance to raise hell on earth once again. Its fantastic horror meets campy grindhouse. But underneath all that, it is a revenge piece at heart – against society’s hypocrisy and self-righteousness – like Dante Alighieri would have liked.

5) If you could get a celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your wares, who would you choose, and why would you want to choose this particular person? First person that comes to mind would be a puppet, the Crypt Keeper. His introduction of horror stories always brought a smile to my face and he would do The Showdown justice. As for a living person, Elvira’s still got it, and there are two reasons why I would be honored if the Mistress of the Dark had a few choice words to say about the comic.
6) What have you learned about yourself through this endeavor? And were there any unforeseen obstacles you had to contend with along the way? I started writing The Showdown in 2008, and the graphic novel was picked up by Broken Icon Comics and is being published in October, so I discovered I’m a pretty damn persistent person. I think I always knew that, but working on a project that took seven years to complete verifies that notion. My, or any other artist for that matter, major hurdle would be money. It doesn’t grow on trees, boys and girls, and unfortunately it takes a lot of it to compete in this industry. But I wouldn’t call that an obstacle, rather a speed bump.

8) If ‘The Showdown’ has a motto, what do you think it would be? Live fast and die hard. I actually have a similar tattoo I got when I was just a lad. The Showdown has a lot of my personality in it, like most of my stories, and that motto fits perfect, if I do say so myself.
And on that great note, dear reader, I'd like to thank Russ for telling us about his graphic novel, The Showdown, before directing you towards his website, facebook, and twitter pages.
THE SHOWDOWN - ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, DIE!
Reviewed by David Andrews
on
October 16, 2015
Rating:
