Tag: Interviews

Mad Cave Studios’ The Dark Pyramid Promises To Be Action-Packed! An Interview with Paul Tobin and PJ Holden.

The perfect combination of pulse-pounding adventure, chilling horror, and high-stakes mystery, The Dark Pyramid will take readers deep beneath Alaska’s Mt. Denali, where secrets as old as time threaten to change the world forever!

The Dark Pyramid 1 - Cover AMad Cave Studios
Release Date: March 12

Not to be confused with The Black Pyramid of King Amenemhat III of Egypt, Mad Cave Studios has their own ideas regarding The Dark Pyramid that’s in Alaska. Writer Paul Tobin said his boss, editor Mike Marts, came up with the idea and he filled in all the blanks. Unlike other takes, instead of exploring the conspiracy, he had better ideas. And when he partnered up with P.J. Holden, their second collaborative work together, what they fashioned will surprise readers.

This comic book miniseries will hit shelves March 2, and I spoke to them to learn more about this series. I’ve been keeping track of nearly every bit of lore regarding this mystery, and the fact other authors want to take a stab at the strange goings-on got my attention. But first, I asked about why they love writing/drawing for comics.

The Dark Pyramid - Paul Tobin
Paul Tobin (writer)

PT: Because my grandmother bought piles she got from garage sales and random buys. I’d always be digging through them to read whatever’s there. The stuff which stood out was old westerns, Tweety & Sylvester and some superhero stuff.

PJ: I remember the first time I saw a comic, it was a sort of love at first sight. I was a very reluctant reader, and it all changed one night, when the weather was bad outside, and there was this bunch in front of me. They were UK comics–Warlord, some Marvels and the like. I also remember finding a stash in a bin–I remember one had a picture of Thanos.

Continue reading “Mad Cave Studios’ The Dark Pyramid Promises To Be Action-Packed! An Interview with Paul Tobin and PJ Holden.”

Chatting with Paul McAllister about Monster House Publishing, Their Adorable Mascot Herman & The Future…

The great thing about Monster House Publishing is that they plan on testing the waters with their properties in other media fronts!

McAllister and German Herman Recycles - Monster House Publishing When Monster House Publishing gets to celebrate a milestone of being around for a solid ten years, I’m sure Founder and CEO Paul McAllister could not be any happier. He began this business after getting his first children’s book, There and Back Again, A Herman Tale, published, and realising there are others like him from his home province who love to get their ideas in print. That first challenge is often difficult!

If it had not been for the caring influence of teachers, librarians, family, and a well-timed visit to his elementary school by a local author carrying the message that “Anyone can become an author,” he very well could have slipped through the cracks. For much of his life, his ADHD and dysgraphia was a hurdle, and to see him overcome that to become the success that he is now is encouraging!

Today, Monster House Publishing aims to inspire a love of literacy in children across his home province, throughout Canada, and beyond by bringing fun and engaging stories by Maritime authors and artists to life. I had time to talk to him about how he got started, and where he’s at now since to persevere in today’s publishing climate is tough!

McAllister responded, “New Brunswick is a small province, and it’s a small industry comparatively speaking, and when I reached out to my contacts in the arts that I wanted to publish my story about Herman, I quickly found out that there wasn’t any anglophone children’s publishing company in existence‌ here. So, on a whim, I decided to self-publish. When I was registering the ISBN, through Library and Archives Canada, they asked what publishing company’s name–so right off the top of my head, I said Herman’s Monster House publishing–I made it up right there.

Continue reading “Chatting with Paul McAllister about Monster House Publishing, Their Adorable Mascot Herman & The Future…”

[Interview] Steve Kostanski on Frankie Freako and The Love for Makeup FX!

“As much as I wanted to have way more elaborate stuff in Frankie Freako, puppet wise, the bottom line is it needed to be janky…” said Steve Kostanski.

Steve Kostanski and Frankie
Frankie Freako is available to purchase on Amazon USA.

Steve Kostanski always loved the magic that film offered at an early age, and when he was creating stop motion films in the garage, little would he know it would lead to a career in the special effects industry. While some people think of him as part of the Astron-6 collective, where they create 80s-centric, no-budget, mixed-genre movies, they have done independent works too, like this filmmaker has with Freddie Freako, to realise they’re a tight group says it all. His name is also there in The Void and Manborg, where he has co-director credit.

His efforts are to be commended since he loves the medium; he watched shows like Mega Movie Magic (1997-2004) on Discovery Channel to learn how film effects were created back then. And on that fateful day where he and his buddies saw Army of Darkness, he knew what he would do for the rest of his life!

“That was when it really clicked,” said Kostanski, as I interviewed him via Zoom. “For me, it seemed like they were normal guys having fun goofing around; except somehow it became accessible. What they made stopped being this nebulous idea from Hollywood and that led to me to seriously want to make it in the film industry.

Continue reading “[Interview] Steve Kostanski on Frankie Freako and The Love for Makeup FX!”

Piercing Cameron Beyl’s The Veil and Forbidden Mysteries Answered–An Interview

Many people have said The Veil is like a lost episode of the Twilight Zone, and they’re right! The themes explored and just cinematography just nails what made this series special, and we can expect more from Cameron Beyl.

Cameron Beyl HeadshotSome movies like Cameron Beyl’s The Veil need to be savoured, and while the wait for it to arrive on home video/streaming felt long, that’s because to find the right window to release it meant waiting for a certain time of the year to arrive. People believe that the curtain separating the world of the living from the dead is at its thinnest during Halloween. Readers can check out my original review here.

As an enthusiast who has studied the behaviours of spirits through reading other case reports and participating in client-based (not the holiday style) paranormal investigations, everything told in fiction felt spot on. But in order to understand everything that went on in this film, the opportunity to interview this filmmaker to learn about his thought process made this movie what it is:

For readers unfamiliar with your work, can you please introduce yourself?

I’ve been making films, using the DIY approach, ever since I was eleven, and went to Emerson College to get a formal education. I made my feature debut with So Long, Lonesome (2009), and a couple of years later, made Here Build Your Homes. During that time, I made other short films, did commissioned jobs and also worked on documentaries. My “The Director Series,” is well known [it delved into examining notable talents like Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson -ed], and after that The Veil. Continue reading “Piercing Cameron Beyl’s The Veil and Forbidden Mysteries Answered–An Interview”

Steve Wang and an Amazing 40 Years in the Makeup Effects Industry. Reflections on the Film That Defined His Career: Kung Fu Rascals

Not everyone will be aware that Steve Wang’s career as a master creature effects artist is approaching 40 years!

Kung Fu Rascals Blu-ray
Available to preorder on Amazon USA

Steve Wang’s behind-the-scenes credits are vast, and to talk to him about the work that got him recognized as an award-winning creature creator and master FX artist was an absolute pleasure. He grew up watching shows like Ultraman, Super Sentai along with many Japanese monster movies which would later influence his creations.

One movie that helped him get recognized in Hollywood was Kung Fu Rascals, which was very DIY, funded out of his own pocket when studio support faded, and it’s now finally getting a Blu-ray treatment from Visual Vengeance, a subsidiary of Wild Eye Releasing.

This film emerged in the early 90s when the tokusatsu genre was truly getting a foothold in North America. Before then, martial arts films with stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan were all the rage. Fans wanted more, the style that transitioned out of one decade to another certainly influenced this filmmaker. He loved all those classics and they certainly had an influence on his style.

And to know more about where he came from, I had the opportunity to talk to him.

Continue reading “Steve Wang and an Amazing 40 Years in the Makeup Effects Industry. Reflections on the Film That Defined His Career: Kung Fu Rascals”

[Interview] David Elendune on Welcome To Croglin at the 2024 Victoria Fringe

Writer/director David Elendune is pretty much a regular on the Victoria theatre scene since 2009 and with this latest being his 8th, he’s more than a veteran of this world!

Outpost 31 - Welcomed to Croglin
For advance tickets, please visit Intrepid Theatre’s website.

Coming to the 2024 Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival is Outpost 31’s Welcome To Croglin. This play written and directed by David Elendune concerns a lone, unnamed, struggling artist (Jared Gowen) desperately needing to find his muse.

It appears as the ghost of Katharine Hepburn (Christina Patterson), and what she says is thus: “Some days I’m Katharine Hepburn. Some days I’m Kate. Some days I’m Katharine Hepburn pretending to be Kate. Some days I’m Kate pretending to be Katharine Hepburn. For do not be mistaken, ours is very much an egocentric profession—perfect for stupid people who like to pretend they are not stupid. But alas, never quite knowing whether they are actually any good, or just plain lucky.”

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