For the past three years, Utopixia Studio and the Gravestone comic book, have brought us during the month of October, the “Gravestone’s Halloween Special” series. This special stories, developed to be released as an exclusive online comic, follows the Gravestone saga, in between the printed comic releases. Each “Halloween Special” has had it’s own set of characters and storylines, and here at GravestoneComic.com have decided to get to know more in depth about the inspiration and development of this special series. We had the opportunity to talk to the creative team behind Gravestone(Danny Jimenez & Eric Ramos), to get to know a little bit more about these releases.
GravestoneComic.com: For the past few years, Utopixia Studio has released a few “Halloween Specials”, following Gravestone and his allies and rivals. But there’s a few difference between those releases and the comic book releases. Can you talk more about those differences.
Danny Jiménez: As you know, Gravestone is a really dark comic book. It was a natural thing to bring Halloween into our story. We have worked on the “Dark Origins” series, but wanted to give something for free to the people. Something that can add to our main story, as well as develop new characters. Releasing it online, just makes us go back to the roots of Gravestone, as it began as an online comic book.
Eric Ramos: Halloween is a special occasion in the Gravestone saga. For the past three years he has encountered a few characters that have challenged him in terms of strength and wiseness. This online releases have allowed us to expand the story and path of the Gravestone saga, besides the printed comic book series. And more important than that, it has allowed us to work with a lot of local artists, artists that don’t normally work with us on the printed books. It has been a really good professional experience.
GravestoneComic.com: I was about to ask about that. Every “Halloween Special” seems to feature different artists. Can you tell me more about how did this started?
Eric Ramos: Well, here in Puerto Rico, you get to know most of the artists involved in the comic book industry. Even though every year there are more and more people involved, there is a sense of community. We have been fortunate enough to work together with a few of the best local artists, and the relationship that we have developed, gave the chance to work directly with them in these releases.
Danny Jiménez: We have worked with great friends who have become regulars here at Utopixia, like Luis Julián Torruellas and Joey Di Arts, but we have also been fortunate enought to work with awesome artists like David Emanuelli, Tico Jiménez and international artists like Audrea Crebs. Every Halloween special is unique, because the people working every edition are, for the most part, unique to that year’s special.
GravestoneComic.com: Why halloween?
Eric Ramos: Why not? (laughs). Gravestone thrives in darkness, and there is not a more dark holiday than halloween. For the past editions, we have worked with different halloween customs, like the ones in Mexico for our “Baile de los Muertos” release in 2014. This year, we wanted to be at home. We explore Halloween, thru the spirit of Puerto Rico.
GravestoneComic.com: The “Halloween Specials” have seen a share of new characters. Can you elaborate more on them?
Danny Jiménez: We like to read about different spooky characters in culture. That’s the inspiration behind characters like “The Scarecrow” and “Lady Parka”. In fact, “The Scarecrow” was part of the Gravestone posse, if you will, and there’s a reason why he’s not anymore, and you will have to read more to find out. But we wanted to take a bit of halloween culture from around the world and mix it in the Gravestone Universe.
GravestoneComic.com: So, what can we expect from this year story?
Eric Ramos: Well, there will be familiar faces showing up. We suggest you read once again our past “Halloween Specials”, because you will see a few of the characters return. For this edition, we wanted to explore our own culture. So that means if you live here, or have family here in Puerto Rico, you will be familiarized with a lot of the story.
Danny Jiménez: Each “Halloween Special” adds a little bit of momentum to the Gravestone saga, and this year it’s even special, since it hits so close to home. We have worked hard on this story, and hope that everyone who, either has been following Gravestone since it’s inception or has just tuned in to the story, to have an awesome experience reading the story.
GravestoneComic.com: And, after this…what can we expect?
Danny Jiménez: We are already working on the next printed comic book, and we will continue to visit the island and beyond the promote the brand. It is a really fun time to be in this industry and the Gravestone saga it’s just getting better and better. We want to thank everyone for the support and urge them to continue sharing inviting people into our universe.
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