‘Amityville: The Roots of Evil’ is an upcoming comic from Finnish comic book writer, Hannu Kesola and Spanish artist, Jaime Martinez.
We caught up with the writer to talk more about this upcoming title.
Horror News Network: How did you get involved with this project?
Hannu Kesola: I always try to keep myself busy when it comes to writing comic books or graphic novels. During late summer I had just finished writing four issue crime fiction miniseries and I was thinking about different horror franchises and how cool it would be to do comic adaptations of one. Amityville Horror soon popped into my mind as a franchise that hadn’t had a comic. Right away I contacted director, Andrew Jones, who directed the film “Amityville Asylum.” I told him about my idea to expand the franchise to comic books and he was excited about the idea.
After I contacted Andrew I got busy with couple of other shorter horror comics. It wasn’t until November that I sat down and started to write the series. Originally I intended to do prequel story to Amityville Asylum, but eventually my story took live of its own and it’s more like an independent story that takes its influences of the actual DeFeo murders that happened 1974. So this story has nothing to do with the alleged Lutz family experiences on the house and in the “universe” where my story happens, the Lutz’s never lived on the house.
Horror News Network: In what year does Amityville: The Roots of Evil take place?
Hannu Kesola: Amityville: The Roots of Evil takes mostly place in the year 2004; 30 years after the DeFeo murders took place. During the three issue miniseries we also visit the year 1974 and early 1900s to explore what really started the “Amityville curse.” Reason I set the story to 2004 was basically that it left me a chance to do little references to Andrew’s movie. 2004 sounded like a good idea, and why not, I was 20 back then so it was good times. 🙂
Horror News Network: Can you tell us about the main characters in this series?
Hannu Kesola: The main characters are newlywed couple Tom and Anna who move to the house after it’s been abandoned for a decade. They know about the history of the house, but buy it anyway as they could never afford to house like that anywhere else. Tom, as a teacher, is having his summer vacation so he starts to renovate the house while Anna is at work. Soon, Tom starts to see things. Shapes, forms visions that shouldn’t be there and he soon becomes familiar with Amityville’s roots of evil.
Horror News Network: Which publisher is attached to this project?
Hannu Kesola: Although I have fully written the series, we are just beginning the art process. There is a great team attached to this series. Jaime Martínez Rodríguez is penciling, I’m also handling the inks and Cris Thompson is doing the colors. I haven’t submitted our story yet the publishers because I need more art sample pages to go along with the script.
I first thought about running Kickstarter campaign for this series as I see its potential, but probably I will submit it to few selected publishers first before I look into the Kickstarter option.
I spent the last two weeks submitting my biker comic book miniseries the publishers and I have my 2012 original, giallo themed, graphic novel “Night Screams for Mercy” coming out in January internationally by British SST Publications, so I have been little busy, but now I have 100% time to concentrate on this project.
Horror News Network: Can you talk a bit about the artwork of Jaime Martínez Rodríguez?
Hannu Kesola: I run into Jaime’s work on Facebook and I immediately knew that I have found my artist to Amityville if he just had the time to do it. I contacted him and luckily he was as excited about the project as I was. I think that Jaime’s style fits perfectly to horror titles and I think that other people think that way too as he was just nominated on the “best scene” category on 2014 Horror Comic Awards from Roman Ritual that he illustrated.
Horror News Network: Where can our readers find out more about this series?
Hannu Kesola: Best way to get the latest news about this series is to follow my Facebook writer page (www.facebook.com/writerhannukesola) or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/hannu_kesola). All the new followers are highly appreciated as publishers always appreciate a good following.
Horror News Network: In closing, what would you like to say about Amityville: The Roots of Evil?
Hannu Kesola: I hope horror comic fans and Amityville fans find my series interesting. My stories aren’t always the goriest or the most action packed as I rely more on good story driven stories. Of course there is horror and gore, but it’s also a story about young couple, hot summer and all the pressures that come when you move to a house where is shitload of things to do before you can call it a home. When you mix all those together with a great art I think I got a good cocktail to an Amityville story that people can enjoy.
Horror News Network: Thanks for your time, Hannu. Best of luck with this book.
