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Interview with...
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JMH: Where were you born and raised?
Lou: Born in Iowa, raised in Texas. Spent almost all my life in the Lone Star State.
JMH: Tell the readers about yourself...
Lou: Over 60, overweight, and overtired. ;-) I've been into comics since Mom corrupted me in '58 with an ish of MOUSE MUSKETEERS. Christian, conservative, did radio for a long time, plus other stuff.
JMH: Have you had any formal training in writing?
LOU: The only formal writing training I ever got was a course from Long Ridge Writers Group, which I took after I'd been writing for decades. Other than that, no, just winging it. Probably shows.
JMH: Who are your writing influences?
LOU: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, John Stanley, Archie Goodwin, Jim Steranko (for comics). Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Nik Cohn, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King, the Bible (in a good translation), etc., etc.
JMH: How did you break into writing comic books?
LOU: Way back when Marvel had a little feature in the middle of WHAT IF? Called Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe, I propped my friend (the now-late) Mark Gruenwald about an Inhumans story that came just before the intro of Medusa in FANTASTIC FOUR. He dug the idea and offered to let me script it. Unfortunately, after I did the story, the format of the book changed and the series was dropped. Many years later, Marvel published it as the INHUMANS SPECIAL.
JMH: What is the first comic you remember reading?
LOU: The aforementioned MOUSE MUSKETEERS from 1958. After that, you couldn't keep me away from them.
JMH: Do you read any of the new comic books that are being published today?
LOU: A few. ASTRO CITY, for one, and I'll give a look at what Mark Waid is writing, usually. Plus whenever they revive a character I'm interested in. I like some of DC's Rebirth! And we'll see how the Future Quest thing goes.
JMH: Print versus Digital. Your thoughts…
LOU: I prefer digital. If you've had to box up a zillion comic books and haul 'em cross country, you'll know what I mean.
JMH: Writer’s block. How do you get around that creature?
LOU: Usually by having about 3 things to work on and setting a quota. If I don't get at least 2 pages done a night, I guilt-trip myself. But I rotate thru three assignments, usually.
JMH: Tell the readers about your published Marvel comic...
LOU: OK. Taking off from the end of the Inhumans bit above, some years later I was in San Diego and showed Tom DeFalco copies of the Inhumans pages by me, Rich Howell, and Vince Colletta. He said Mark Gruenwald was looking for stories for AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT. I wondered what I could do, since I was fearfully behind in my Marvel reading. Then—eureka! I remembered the Swordsman, who was still seriously dead and thus didn't require any catching up on. From a few clues dropped over the years, I put together an origin story and pitched it to Gru. He loved it and, wonder of wonders, got Don Heck, who first drew the Swordsman, to pencil it. I loved the heck out of it! Sent a copy to Stan Lee and he liked it, too.
JMH: And the published work?
LOU: Outside of that, I wrote a few entries for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, and that was about it. Not for lack of trying! To some degree. I do a lot of period pieces, set in various decades from the 30's on up (in comics, at least), and that demands research online. I have a book coming out that required me to find about six likely places on Earth for magical nexuses (nexi?) to be, and that required a heap of looking. I'm going to embark sometime on a novel set in the time of Simon Bolivar, and that'll need PLENTY of research.
JMH: What is your writing process like?
LOU: My writing process is usually sitting my behind in front of a keyboard and a monitor and finding a way to squeeze out a couple of pages worth of writing per night. Do it enough and you'll find that storytelling becomes easier and easier. That means you have to switch it up!
Often they do. With the Inhumans, I wanted to present a situation in which you didn't have a “right” solution to choose from, only a bad one and a worse one. With the Swordsman, I wanted to do an anti-Communist story, but you can't be as stupid or heavy-handed with it as you could in 1963. With a horror story in CEMETERY PLOTS from Empire, I wanted specifically to debunk that “Twilight” kind of notion that vampires are romantic idols...they're just blood junkies. And so on.
JMH: Do you feel more comfortable with writing prose or comic book sequential storytelling?
LOU: Both are equally fun. Comics scripts go faster due to their graphic nature and page lengths. It's also fun to collab with an artist and see what he gives you back. With prose, it's all on you, but you have more control. And if the final product is lousy, well, look in the mirror, pal.
JMH: What are your thoughts on DC's Before Watchmen project?
LOU: I'm really past the point of caring. I cut way down on DC after the Crisis, but they keep rebooting and rebooting past the point of no return. But Rebirth, again, seems interesting. As for Marvel, I'm no longer addicted to them, so I read stuff based on its quality (at least I think so). I realize I'm not the target audience any more so that's fine.
JMH: Which mainstream characters would you like to write? Why?
LOU: Deadman would be fun to try. The original series, from STRANGE ADVENTURES thru the second BRAVE AND BOLD appearance, is my favorite comics run. It'd be great to fill in some of the gaps and take it back to the Neal Adams tough-guy character. He isn't a clown, and he's got angst enough to make the X-Men look lame. Which, come to think of it...
JMH: What future projects are in the works?
Lou: Well, at Lucky I've been lucky enough to land a BEETLE GIRL serial that'll be appearing soon, featuring a classic villain and some new ones. We're doing a story that will start with Dan Garret's origin and go on from there to Beetle Girl's origin, and I'm excited about that. Joe Singleton is doing the art, and he's tops! There's another character I've pitched, the American Defender, which is kind of like Captain America filtered thru the Spirit. If we can, we're thinking about a team of 1940s heroes called FOXFORCE. I've also done a text story for the BLACK BAT TALES that you'll be seeing later this month.
JMH: Any other writings in the pipeline?
For Empire Comics, I have a weekly online strip called DR. SEVEN coming out soon, plus some horror and humor stuff. These folks are neat, so give 'em your attention!
Ditto Heroic Comics, for whom I've done FLARE, SPARKPLUG, and LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS in the past, and I have another Flare story coming out in February.
For CHARLTON ARROW, I've had two stories (of which I'm kinda proud) in issues #1 and 4 and have a couple more which have apparently been accepted (I hope!) for future issues. They're great.
For Celebration Comics, I've written a retro story teaming up the 1950's heroes Mr. Muscles and Nature Boy, which proves to be a lot of fun.
For ACP comics, I wrote an anti-ISIS story for FORBIDDEN GALLERY #1. That one turned out really well.
For another outfit, which I'm dying to talk about but can't, I'm working on a 60-page epic starring a batch of heroes who haven't been seen since the Sixties.
JMH: How about your prose work?
LOU: For prose, from Pro Se Productions (hi, Tommy!), I've had my first book, MONSTER IN THE MANSIONS, published. It's a Frankenstein tale that begins at the end of the Shelley novel and continues thru most of the 19th Century. I have about four books either with my stories in them or which I've written entirely which are coming out hopefully between now and January. One of them is a comics history.
Also, for Airship 27, I've written the first story of Joe the hardboiled detective computer, which you can find in LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION. If you buy the physical book, it'll double as a doorstop. More Joe stories are in the offing!
Finally, I've got a Cthulu-type story in an upcoming anthology from Chuck Dixon. Enjoyed the heck out of that one. That should be it so far. Mostly online.
JMH: How can purchase your books?
Amazon.com has a lot of them, the Heroic website has my Flare / Sparkplug / League of Champions work, Comixology has FORBIDDEN GALLERY, empirecomicslab.com has DR. SEVEN, Charlton Neo has CHARLTON ARROW, Pro Se Productions and Airship 27 are handling my prose work, and...oh, yeah!...don't forget www.luckycomics.com. Buy 'em all and bolster my faltering self-image. ;-)
JMH: How can fans and publishers contact you?
Lou: Try darkmark90 at yahoo.com . No spam or I'll be very, very angry.
JMH: Anything else you would like to tell the readers?
Lou: Only that I'm having fun with a character that has roots in the Golden Age and glad you gave me the chance to do it!
JMH: Lou, thank you for your time!
Lou: My pleasure and likewise.
Discovery Lou Mougin's books here:
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/326484/Beetle-Girl-30a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/269862/Blue-Flame-1a-COLOR?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/299687/Blue-Bolt-3b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/266519/Blue-Bolt-2a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/257904/Blue-Bolt-1a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/233341/Black-Bat-Tales-4a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/223019/Black-Bat-Tales-3a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/195021/Beetle-Girl-5b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/222925/Pulp-Legends-1a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/301591/Prize-Comics-1b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/302249/Fox-Force-5b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/301590/Fox-Force-5a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/287498/Fox-Force-4b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/317030/Fox-Force-4a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/283328/Fox-Force-3a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/209831/Fox-Force-1a
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/239115/Fox-Force-2a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/201452/Beetle-Girl-8b?manufacturers_id=7565
Lou: Born in Iowa, raised in Texas. Spent almost all my life in the Lone Star State.
JMH: Tell the readers about yourself...
Lou: Over 60, overweight, and overtired. ;-) I've been into comics since Mom corrupted me in '58 with an ish of MOUSE MUSKETEERS. Christian, conservative, did radio for a long time, plus other stuff.
JMH: Have you had any formal training in writing?
LOU: The only formal writing training I ever got was a course from Long Ridge Writers Group, which I took after I'd been writing for decades. Other than that, no, just winging it. Probably shows.
JMH: Who are your writing influences?
LOU: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, John Stanley, Archie Goodwin, Jim Steranko (for comics). Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Nik Cohn, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King, the Bible (in a good translation), etc., etc.
JMH: How did you break into writing comic books?
LOU: Way back when Marvel had a little feature in the middle of WHAT IF? Called Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe, I propped my friend (the now-late) Mark Gruenwald about an Inhumans story that came just before the intro of Medusa in FANTASTIC FOUR. He dug the idea and offered to let me script it. Unfortunately, after I did the story, the format of the book changed and the series was dropped. Many years later, Marvel published it as the INHUMANS SPECIAL.
JMH: What is the first comic you remember reading?
LOU: The aforementioned MOUSE MUSKETEERS from 1958. After that, you couldn't keep me away from them.
JMH: Do you read any of the new comic books that are being published today?
LOU: A few. ASTRO CITY, for one, and I'll give a look at what Mark Waid is writing, usually. Plus whenever they revive a character I'm interested in. I like some of DC's Rebirth! And we'll see how the Future Quest thing goes.
JMH: Print versus Digital. Your thoughts…
LOU: I prefer digital. If you've had to box up a zillion comic books and haul 'em cross country, you'll know what I mean.
JMH: Writer’s block. How do you get around that creature?
LOU: Usually by having about 3 things to work on and setting a quota. If I don't get at least 2 pages done a night, I guilt-trip myself. But I rotate thru three assignments, usually.
JMH: Tell the readers about your published Marvel comic...
LOU: OK. Taking off from the end of the Inhumans bit above, some years later I was in San Diego and showed Tom DeFalco copies of the Inhumans pages by me, Rich Howell, and Vince Colletta. He said Mark Gruenwald was looking for stories for AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT. I wondered what I could do, since I was fearfully behind in my Marvel reading. Then—eureka! I remembered the Swordsman, who was still seriously dead and thus didn't require any catching up on. From a few clues dropped over the years, I put together an origin story and pitched it to Gru. He loved it and, wonder of wonders, got Don Heck, who first drew the Swordsman, to pencil it. I loved the heck out of it! Sent a copy to Stan Lee and he liked it, too.
JMH: And the published work?
LOU: Outside of that, I wrote a few entries for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, and that was about it. Not for lack of trying! To some degree. I do a lot of period pieces, set in various decades from the 30's on up (in comics, at least), and that demands research online. I have a book coming out that required me to find about six likely places on Earth for magical nexuses (nexi?) to be, and that required a heap of looking. I'm going to embark sometime on a novel set in the time of Simon Bolivar, and that'll need PLENTY of research.
JMH: What is your writing process like?
LOU: My writing process is usually sitting my behind in front of a keyboard and a monitor and finding a way to squeeze out a couple of pages worth of writing per night. Do it enough and you'll find that storytelling becomes easier and easier. That means you have to switch it up!
Often they do. With the Inhumans, I wanted to present a situation in which you didn't have a “right” solution to choose from, only a bad one and a worse one. With the Swordsman, I wanted to do an anti-Communist story, but you can't be as stupid or heavy-handed with it as you could in 1963. With a horror story in CEMETERY PLOTS from Empire, I wanted specifically to debunk that “Twilight” kind of notion that vampires are romantic idols...they're just blood junkies. And so on.
JMH: Do you feel more comfortable with writing prose or comic book sequential storytelling?
LOU: Both are equally fun. Comics scripts go faster due to their graphic nature and page lengths. It's also fun to collab with an artist and see what he gives you back. With prose, it's all on you, but you have more control. And if the final product is lousy, well, look in the mirror, pal.
JMH: What are your thoughts on DC's Before Watchmen project?
LOU: I'm really past the point of caring. I cut way down on DC after the Crisis, but they keep rebooting and rebooting past the point of no return. But Rebirth, again, seems interesting. As for Marvel, I'm no longer addicted to them, so I read stuff based on its quality (at least I think so). I realize I'm not the target audience any more so that's fine.
JMH: Which mainstream characters would you like to write? Why?
LOU: Deadman would be fun to try. The original series, from STRANGE ADVENTURES thru the second BRAVE AND BOLD appearance, is my favorite comics run. It'd be great to fill in some of the gaps and take it back to the Neal Adams tough-guy character. He isn't a clown, and he's got angst enough to make the X-Men look lame. Which, come to think of it...
JMH: What future projects are in the works?
Lou: Well, at Lucky I've been lucky enough to land a BEETLE GIRL serial that'll be appearing soon, featuring a classic villain and some new ones. We're doing a story that will start with Dan Garret's origin and go on from there to Beetle Girl's origin, and I'm excited about that. Joe Singleton is doing the art, and he's tops! There's another character I've pitched, the American Defender, which is kind of like Captain America filtered thru the Spirit. If we can, we're thinking about a team of 1940s heroes called FOXFORCE. I've also done a text story for the BLACK BAT TALES that you'll be seeing later this month.
JMH: Any other writings in the pipeline?
For Empire Comics, I have a weekly online strip called DR. SEVEN coming out soon, plus some horror and humor stuff. These folks are neat, so give 'em your attention!
Ditto Heroic Comics, for whom I've done FLARE, SPARKPLUG, and LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS in the past, and I have another Flare story coming out in February.
For CHARLTON ARROW, I've had two stories (of which I'm kinda proud) in issues #1 and 4 and have a couple more which have apparently been accepted (I hope!) for future issues. They're great.
For Celebration Comics, I've written a retro story teaming up the 1950's heroes Mr. Muscles and Nature Boy, which proves to be a lot of fun.
For ACP comics, I wrote an anti-ISIS story for FORBIDDEN GALLERY #1. That one turned out really well.
For another outfit, which I'm dying to talk about but can't, I'm working on a 60-page epic starring a batch of heroes who haven't been seen since the Sixties.
JMH: How about your prose work?
LOU: For prose, from Pro Se Productions (hi, Tommy!), I've had my first book, MONSTER IN THE MANSIONS, published. It's a Frankenstein tale that begins at the end of the Shelley novel and continues thru most of the 19th Century. I have about four books either with my stories in them or which I've written entirely which are coming out hopefully between now and January. One of them is a comics history.
Also, for Airship 27, I've written the first story of Joe the hardboiled detective computer, which you can find in LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION. If you buy the physical book, it'll double as a doorstop. More Joe stories are in the offing!
Finally, I've got a Cthulu-type story in an upcoming anthology from Chuck Dixon. Enjoyed the heck out of that one. That should be it so far. Mostly online.
JMH: How can purchase your books?
Amazon.com has a lot of them, the Heroic website has my Flare / Sparkplug / League of Champions work, Comixology has FORBIDDEN GALLERY, empirecomicslab.com has DR. SEVEN, Charlton Neo has CHARLTON ARROW, Pro Se Productions and Airship 27 are handling my prose work, and...oh, yeah!...don't forget www.luckycomics.com. Buy 'em all and bolster my faltering self-image. ;-)
JMH: How can fans and publishers contact you?
Lou: Try darkmark90 at yahoo.com . No spam or I'll be very, very angry.
JMH: Anything else you would like to tell the readers?
Lou: Only that I'm having fun with a character that has roots in the Golden Age and glad you gave me the chance to do it!
JMH: Lou, thank you for your time!
Lou: My pleasure and likewise.
Discovery Lou Mougin's books here:
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/326484/Beetle-Girl-30a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/269862/Blue-Flame-1a-COLOR?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/299687/Blue-Bolt-3b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/266519/Blue-Bolt-2a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/257904/Blue-Bolt-1a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/233341/Black-Bat-Tales-4a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/223019/Black-Bat-Tales-3a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/195021/Beetle-Girl-5b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/222925/Pulp-Legends-1a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/301591/Prize-Comics-1b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/302249/Fox-Force-5b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/301590/Fox-Force-5a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/287498/Fox-Force-4b?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/317030/Fox-Force-4a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/283328/Fox-Force-3a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/209831/Fox-Force-1a
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/239115/Fox-Force-2a?manufacturers_id=7565
www.drivethrucomics.com/product/201452/Beetle-Girl-8b?manufacturers_id=7565
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