Last time we saw Neil Kleid, he was walking into the sunset after guest-blogging up a storm with us here at Blog@Newsarama. Since it’s our anniversary week, I figured I’d check in with him to see what he’s been up to and how everything’s going.

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JK: Since it’s our anniversary week, and you brought the goods when you guest-blogged with us last year, I thought it would be fun to make you a part of our anniversary celebration.

Neil: I “brought the goods” sounds like I’m a drug dealer/porn star/FedEx guy. Irregardless, I like fun, and I like anniversaries. Mine is this month!

JK: Congrats, man!

So let’s start off talking about something you have coming out soon. You’re involved in the Tales from the Crypt anthology coming out from Papercutz. How did you get involved with the project?

Neil:Well, as y’all know, Papercutz is the all-ages division of NBM Publishing, the fine company that put out my mafia history OGN, Brownsville, and is putting out my next book, The Big Kahn. As such, I’m fairly chummy with the folks there–Publisher Terry Nantier and Papercutz Editor-in-Chief Jim Salicrup. Apparently Jim digs my work and shot me an email telling me he wanted me on board, so I cobbled five or six pitches together and sent them over.

JK: You’re doing two stories–what are they about?

Neil:The first, “The Tenant,” is about a slumlord who’s forced to live in one of his properties once a tenant dies from neglect. The property he chooses is situated next to a graveyard, and during the night, he discovers that dead tenants complain just as much as live ones… and they rarely go away. My second story is a fun schizophrenic tale called “Extra Life” that focuses on how easy it is to immerse one’s self in a “Worlds of Warcraft” type environment, almost to the point where events in the game affect events in reality… although it isn’t up to me to say which is the true reality now, is it?

JK: Were you a Crypt fan before signing on? I’m too young to really remember the comics, but I do remember the HBO show, which I watched religiously.

Neil: Up front and honest? Never. I was a Twilight Zone guy and every now and then a Night Gallery man. My horror jones never got past Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but I did read a ton of the old EC reprints to gear up for the gig and screened some of the HBO episodes.

JK: When will your stories see publication?

Neil: “The Tenant” will be printed in issue #2, available for preorder in this month’s Previews for items shipping in August. It includes a tale by Marvel golden boy Fred Van Lenthe and is illustrated by Steve Mannion. I don’t have the order codes handy, but check out the cover and info at:

http://www.papercutz.com/crypt/cryptcomic2_moreinfo.html

“Extra Life” is scheduled to drop in the second OGN, now available for preorder on Amazon.

JK: You’re also involved with the Postcards anthology, which comes out at the end of this month.

Neil: I hates to correct you, John, but I believe we’re now scheduled to ship on July 17. You know. The day the last Harry Potter book comes out. Because we’re ready to kick some wizard ass.

JK: I knew that. I was, um, just testing you. Yeah, that’s it …

Jason was here a couple of months ago talking to some of the folks who contributed to it, asking them how the interpreted their particular postcard. What was on your postcard, and how did you approach the story?

Neil: The postcard Jason gave me was sent Jan. 8, 1919 to a Mrs. Earl Sheffer of Dillsburg, Penn. It reads: “Hello Gretna, How are you by this time? I got home safe … Harlan had just got up did not have the kitchen warn yet …excuse me for not writing sooner. Butchered last week now we have fish meat … we are well hope this finds you the same … Sothe.” Jason had a few ideas he impressed upon me, but my mind went immediately to a warm hearth, lit after a trying winter, perhaps, and a story in between the lines waiting to be told … but it also screamed “fugitive’ to me. The terminology of the card (”I got home safe”, and the added surprise of getting home, or, perhaps, sneaking in before Harlan woke, to find that “Harlan had just got up did not have the kitchen warn yet” along with the aforementioned “Butchered last week now we have fish meat”) means living in an area where they had little and had to go somewhere to get food.

My online research about Dillsburg said that it is situated at the convergence of major transportation routes that once made the community a focal point for agricultural products being moved to market… so I quickly composed “Intersection,” a short tale about two historical era “Thelma and Louises”–sisters Gretna and Sothe pulled a heist at a major Dillsburg market intersection and without their husband’s knowledge ripped off produce, cattle and goods out of desperation. It’s a tale of family and the need to do what it takes to help one’s own while, in the process, taking steps to help one’s self. It’s not a deep or action-packed story, but it is touching and heartwarming, and I hope that people like it.

JK: How’s Migdal David coming along?

Neil: Suh-lowly. I had to take a small break to clear the decks on some pitches and a short four page story for the upcoming House of Twelve #4 anthology, but July will bring me back to this cartoon memoir about my brother and his struggles growing up with developmental disabilities in an Orthodox Jewish home. I’m on page 66 of a 150-page OGN and am aiming to finish it as quick as I can.

JK: What can you tell us about Starstruck?

Neil: Not a hell of a lot yet as the final contracts are weeks away from signing… but I can tell you this: if you like HBO’s Entourage, and you like fun, insider-style stories, you’ll dig Starstruck. It’s an original graphic novel that’s going to be serialized on a major media web presence with major media advertising put behind it. I’m co-writing it with Marc Bernardin, writer of Wildstorm’s Highwaymen and AiT/PlanetLar’s Monster Attack Network, and it’s being illustrated by someone everyone likes. Even monsters.

JK: Where can fans meet you this summer? Any convention plans?

Neil: None, for once! I’m spending all my hard-earned cash this summer on a two-week honeymoon to Italy and Greece, and will be leaving MoCCA weekend–I might hit a party that Saturday before I go–and won’t be doing much else. My next con will probably be New York Comic-Con and then next 2008 will see me at MoCCA, SPX and perhaps my first San Diego.

JK: What else do you have going on? I read in another interview that you had a Vertigo—esque series you wanted to pitch; how’s that going?

Neil: Quietly.

I’m mostly in a production year, trying to avoid spending all my time pitching and no time creating. I’m in the middle of three projects I need to see to the finish line - Migdal David for Seraphic Press; Coffin, my first novel; and Dead Ronin, the next big time historical OGN I’m working on with Brownsville artist, Jake Allen. But in the meantime I’m finishing up “Christbusters”, the aforementioned House of Twelve short that will see print at this year’s SPX, while preparing to begin work on a new creator owned mini series I’m co-writing with Hero Happy Hour’s Dan Taylor and doing the usual “I can’t talk about X or Y” Big Two pitching.

I’m busy right now without actually having a lot to talk about. That’s new for me, I suppose.

Boy, am I gonna annoy you people in 2008, though.

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You can read more about Neil’s comic work over on his website, and follow his merry adventures through life over on his LiveJournal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Comic Books, Creators, Graphic Novels, Independent, Interviews, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.