Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dynamite, entertainment, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Matt Triano, The Devilers

"Frog Demons Making Obscene Gestures" – Joshua Hale Fialkov Talks The Devilers

Published Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:00:31 -0500

The new series the Devilers from Joshua Hale Fialkov and Matt Triano sold out quickly and has been getting very positive reviews. The first in Dynamite's new Creators Unleashed line, the series has kicked things off the right way. Byron Brewer talked to Fialkov about the launch and how it is working with Triano.

BYRON BREWER: Josh, were you surprised by the very positive fan and critical reaction to Devilers #1? It was the talk of my comic shop!

JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV: It's always really gratifying when people like the weirdo stuff I do. Probably the best part, though, is that it continued to prove that this market is hungry for the new and the different.

BB: There has been (and I did it as well) much made about the art of Matt Triano and comparisons to the late, great Gene Colan. What is it like working with a talent like Matt?

JHF: Matt is brilliantly talented, and, most excitingly, he's still so young! He's got a lifetime of genius work ahead of him, and I'm just thrilled to get in on the ground floor like this.

BB: In situations like Devilers, where the art is especially important to conveying the mood, do you find yourself (like writers did for Colan) writing toward his strengths of realism and eerie mood?

JHF: Oh sure. I've learned what Matt really excels at, and I try to put as much of that in as possible. Specifically, frog demons making obscene gestures.

BB: We are coming to issue #4. Can you bring the vaunted "new readers" up to date with our very real battle of good vs. evil in this miniseries?

JHF: Our team is deep in the confines of hell, and find themselves standing face to face with someone, well, not quite what they expected in the throne room of Satan himself. We've started to learn their secrets, but the biggest secret is yet to come.

BB: Issue #4, as I said, and it is solicited that a Deviler is about to die. Really?

JHF: Oh, yeah, dead dead deadski.

BB: With its success thus far, would you be interested in writing Devilers as an ongoing should that happen?

JHF: With the response like it's been, ANYTHING is possible.

BB: Is it hard to maintain an aura of necessary optimism in a hell-centric book such as this? How do you do that?

JHF: I think part of it comes from these characters who won't stop fighting no matter what happens. They're committed to saving the world and themselves, and that's something you can really hang on to.

BB: What is ahead in new projects for Joshua Hale Fialkov?