There's Only One Week Left to Back ROOM SERVICE! And We've Got Some Fancy New Covers And a LOT of News For you!
James Tynion IV is teaming up with Elsa Charretier and PK Colinet for ROOM SERVICE, a Kickstarter that will fund a short horror film, a comic book, and an art-book!
For those keeping score at home, yes, I’m still on the road. Next stop? The incredible Thought Bubble Comic Arts Festival. I hope I’ll see you there. I’m at Table 23 in Bubbleboy Hall!
But first I’ve got some news about the ROOM SERVICE Kickstarter campaign. There’s just one week left to support the project and today we crossed a major milestone: the project now has over $100,000 of funding. That means we’re unlocking the variant cover by Martin Simmonds and 20 more pages in the Art-Book! But wait, there’s more!!!
To celebrate this milestone as we head into the final week of the campaign, we’re adding SIX new covers by all-star artists:
Cover B - Elsa Charretier
Cover C - Martin Simmonds
Cover D - Cliff Chiang
Cover E - Francesco Francavilla
Cover F - Rafael Albuquerque
Cover G - Jim Mahfood
They’re all available as add-ons at the standard Add-On Cover Price of €10. We’re also offering a ROOM SERVICE “Cover Set” featuring All Standard Covers (which does not include the foil cover), at a discount. You can get the full set of standard ROOM SERVICE covers for €80. Or if you have already pledged and want to add the variant covers, just click on manage your pledge, then pick the covers you want most to be in your collection. Your Add-On options are each cover for €10 – or you can go all in and add the full set of standard ROOM SERVICE covers for €50, if you’ve already pledged to get the regular cover.
It’s incredible to me that more than 800 people have come together to support the film and comic, with a week to go. The Substack community has been absolutely instrumental in the success of the project and so PK, Elsa, and I wanted to bring you behind-the-scenes. Today I have an interview with Elsa, who is doing storyboards for the film and also drawing the comic itself. Next week, I’ll be back with an interview with PK and a surprise. I’ll also have some exciting non-ROOM SERVICE news, too, because I’m full of evil plans for the Tiny Onion Empire.
If you haven't already, head on over to Kickstarter and back the project.
This next week is going to really impact the final film and how our budget supports our vision for the movie. Thank you all for your support.
And now, without further ado, here’s my interview with the very very talented Elsa Charretier.
JT: Elsa- you’re doing storyboards for ROOM SERVICE. We’ve talked a few times about the ways you had to throw out your comic book instincts to work on Storyboards, but I’m interested in the opposite side of the question - Is there anything from your work on series like NOVEMBER or LOVE EVERLASTING that you feel helped specifically prepare you for this kind of work?
EC: The mere fact that I have the drawing skills to translate into pictures what PK was telling me is thanks to all of this past work. That may sound a bit like, duh, but to me in this instance, the drawing part matters more than my storytelling skills (which is not always true when we talk about comics). One of the assumed goals of these boards isn’t only to communicate intent with our future crew, but to sell the project. To prospective Kickstarter backers, to producers, to actors or anyone we’re trying to enroll in this project. They have to look good and raw and sexy. NOVEMBER was instrumental in me reaching that violence and grittiness that I had never tapped into that came in so handy for ROOM SERVICE. LOVE EVERLASTING on the other hand, sort of brought me back to an animated roundness that I was able to use for our less grizzly scenes.
JT: On the second day of the Kickstarter campaign, we decided we needed to make a comic to help kick the project into overdrive. You knocked out an amazing cover in just a few hours, and I’m interested in how that kind of time-crunch changes your approach to work. What kind of steps in the process do you have to throw out to get to a finished product quickly?
EC: That’s a very interesting question and I imagine the answer would greatly vary from artist to artist depending on what part of their process is the most time-consuming. For me it’s not so much the idea stage, I rarely have trouble getting inspired. It’s not so much the drawing or inking either. While of course there are exceptions, I’m pretty comfortable with both. What usually gives me the most trouble is making all the parts of a drawing fit together. This is a little technical, but let’s say the arm of Character A works best at a certain angle. If it’s harmonious with Character B’s gesture, then great. But more often than not, it isn’t. So you have to tweak the gesture. But then maybe now it doesn’t work with Character C. It’s a sort of puzzle that you solve one tweak at a time and the minutes can add up. I love doing it but when time is of the essence, I’ll revert to a single character and simple background. That has its set of complications because you want that piece to be as interesting as a 3-character group shot but overall, it’ll still be quicker to turn in.
JT: You’ve created a bunch of art for ROOM SERVICE. The Art Book will include your storyboards and document the making of the film. But there’s also a Kickstarter exclusive poster, a ROOM SERVICE print, and of course your covers for ROOM SERVICE: THE COMIC. How did you decide what story elements to showcase for each piece of art?
EC: I’m trying to cover all the aspects of the story. We’ve got the horrific factor, of course, but I couldn’t exactly get too much into it without entering spoiler territory. So with my cover for the comic I sort of tiptoed around the role of the Caretaker. The audience knows that he provides all sorts of gruesome experiences to the ultra-wealthy and we also know that the comic will be exploring the depth of his depravity and the system he devised. I dived right into that.
The print is a look at the story of the short movie itself, beyond the broader concept of the world. I zoom in on the relationship of the two main characters. And this relationship is full of layers. There’s incredible tension between them, understandably so, given the situation the man finds himself in. It was fun for me to dive into the “sexier” aspect of ROOM SERVICE and have the viewer wonder “how the heck does a beautiful, confident woman fit into all of this?”
As for the poster, the composition and style are quite different from the other two pieces. And frankly, pretty different from the style I’m maybe most known for. I really went with my guts and laid out the whole illustration in one go. The goal of a movie poster is the same as a for a comic book cover: attract the viewer and intrigue them. I brought all the characters together and used the German Expressionist homage and the visual possibilities it offers to establish the trio’s dynamic. The large, loaming figure of the Caretaker, the woman, proud and threatening, and the man, the prey at the center of this awful play.
Lo and behold, I do have a few more bits of news to drop on you all before the weekend. I’m going to go into all of this in a bit more detail at the top of next week, like I said before… BUT WHILE I HAVE YOU…
THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE: NIGHTMARE COUNTY is coming back with a new arc in 2023! We’re calling it THE GLASS HOUSE. Lisandro and I are hard at work crafting all sorts of new nightmares for you all. And The Corinthian has got a cat! What more could a horror comic fan ask for?! You can read more at AIPT.
Annnnnnd, we’ve got a surprise treat for all of you Department of Truth fans out there! This December, we’re surprise dropping a special reprint of our fan-favorite Bigfoot issues from DOT #10-11… These are the stories that inspired the entire DOT Wild Fictions series here on Substack! So we decided to call the whole thing THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS SPECIAL #1! You can read more here! Tell your LCS you want a copy of it now… Especially if you’re a Spawn fan. What does Spawn have to do with Bigfoot? ASIDE FROM EVERYTHING?!?! Well, this December, Spawn is taking over covers of the entire Image Comics line, and do you REALLY think Department of Truth would sit that out?! We’ll be revealing Martin Simmonds STUNNING Spawn Cover for DOT very shortly. Stay tuned.
But SOMEHOW, I have an EVEN BIGGER bit of news coming next Monday! Just after Thought Bubble! So, I’ll be frantically writing the next one of these posts from the train back to London from Harrogate, after I have fully lost my mind. But until then…
Remember there’s just one week to back the Kickstarter.
James Tynion IV
London, ENG-A-LAND
11.10.22
Shit yea!