An Interview with Greg Carter of Abandon!

Comic title: Abandon: First Vampire
Comic URL: http://www.abandoncomic.com
Creators: Greg Carter, Writer and Executive Producer; Elliot Dombo, Artist and Director
Genre: action-romance-horror-fantasy

What is your comic about?
Abandon: First Vampire is my character-driven, action-romance story of Lamashtu, a half-human, half-demon who became the first vampire. I wanted something different from the traditional European style vampire mythology and started searching other cultures. I dug around and found the earliest mention of a specific creature with vampire-like traits was Lamashtu, who first appears in early Sumerian-Akkadian religion. There was another demon, Pazuzu, who could be called to chase her back to the underworld. So I took that and built a huge backstory about how Lamashtu becomes an vampire, how Pazuzu is sent to kill her, and they fall in love. In true Romeo & Juliet fashion everything goes horribly wrong. And continues to do so throughout time. The comic picks up the story in present day, with Lamashtu hiding in plain sight as Laila McCarthy, a professor of ancient cultures.

How did you get started making webcomics?
I got into comics late in life. I’ve never liked the spandex books. Very few of the “alternative comics” that exploded in the 80’s did much for me (except Howard the Duck). I was too busy being a musician. Later, I discovered the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics and that got me into a comic shop. From there I discovered Kabuki, by David Mack, and Strangers in Paradise, by Terry Moore, and those convinced me that I needed to tell my stories in comic form. I don’t have the attention span to write a novel, and I can’t afford to make movies, and comics were a nice blend of both. I had recently discovered webcomics as well, so I jumped right in and started posting whatever scribblings I could come up with. And, many moons later, here I am.

Five years from now, what do you see your comic becoming?
What will Abandon become? I think “franchise” is the word I’m looking for. Kidding! (Not really.) I have a lot of stories lined up. Besides telling the story in present day, I have dreams of doing historical fiction since Lamashtu has been around for thousands of years.

Tell us about your main character. What are his/her motivations? How did he/she join up with your other characters and why?
Lamashtu is enjoying her current life as college professor Laila McCarthy. She’s been alive for thousands of years and has done and seen it all. Now, since vampires are accepted in society, she just wants to be left alone while she waits to meet up with her eternal love, Pazuzu. Even though they are cursed to be apart, they are drawn together by their love. The problem is that Pazuzu is reincarnated with no memory of past lives. Laila never knows when they will cross paths or if she will recognize Pazuzu.

As a Professor of Ancient Cultures, Laila is occasionally called in as a consultant by government agencies to help identify and recover important artifacts. Kimmy Roberts is a Colonel in a U.N. Special Forces unit specially trained to deal with vampires and magic. Joan and William Winters work for the U.S. Bureau of Evil Elimination. They all live and work in Atlanta, GA.

Who is your favorite secondary character and why?
That’s easy. Autumn Winters. She is William’s twin sister (and Joan’s little sister) who was turned into a vampire when they were kids. She fell in with a bad crowd and is now totally evil. Even better, she’s twisted evil. And that is so much fun to write.

What is your favorite comic page?
This is hard - probably Autumn’s entrance. But I also like the last page in that scene. Autumn is so creepy in that last panel. Elliot does an amazing job with facial expressions and conveying emotions. I’m so lucky to have him as an artist.I have a lot of favorite pages actually.

Is there a storyline you’re looking forward to? What is it about?
I’m still enjoying this one a lot. Still adding a few twists and turns as it goes. In Volume 2, Autumn really takes center stage as a big bad. But, is she the biggest bad? And are Kimmy and William actually part of a secret shadow government conspiracy? You’ll have to wait and see. This volume is more of a “who do you trust” spy story than the current adventure which is focusing on developing the characters. And, of course, Laila will be right in the middle of the situation.

Can you give us a short explanation on how you make your pages?
I write the script and bounce ideas off of Elliot via IM as I go along. At some point I send him the “final draft”. He sends me the thumbnail layout for a page. I let him know if I need anything changed, such as more room for dialog in a certain panel. He does a finished sketch in pencils and shows that to me. Once we’re both happy, he scans it and inks digitally. He sends me a 600dpi TIFF file which I then size, letter, and tone. I end up with two “final” versions of each page - one for print and one for the web.

When it comes to your comic, what are you looking to improve upon?
Practice makes perfect and I’m putting a lot of focus at the moment on toning and lettering. But there is always room for improvement as a storyteller. Getting the characters and dialog arranged in a logical manner in every panel is much harder than it looks. Elliot and I are working very hard on synchronizing the writing and art better, and it shows in Act 2. Making comics is very much a “learn as you go” process.

Why don’t you like to call Abandon: First Vampire a “webcomic”?
I’ve found that people tend to think of newspaper-style strip comics when they hear the word “webcomic”. That’s not what I do - I make a comic book that is serialized online. But “webcomicbook” is a little clunky, so I like to say “online graphic novel”. Abandon is in print also, but it’s on the web first so I think that covers it. I don’t mind “webcomic” because it is an easily recognizable term, but it doesn’t quite fit.

Tags: abandon, akkadia, akkadian, alternative comics, ancient cultures, buffy the vampire slayer, comic, comic book, Elliot Dombo, first vampire, graphic novel, Greg Carter, manashtu, middle east, online graphic novel, pazuzu, sumeria, sumerian, vampires, webcomic