Sandy King Carpenter never imagined getting into the world of graphic novels.
Sure, the Los Angeles-based writer and film and TV producer enjoyed comic books and appreciated the form’s artistry, but it wasn’t until a television pitch meeting about a dozen years ago that she seriously considered diving into that realm. On that day, Carpenter sat at a large table alongside her husband, “Halloween” director and composer John Carpenter, actor and screenwriter Thomas Ian Griffith across from a bunch of industry gatekeepers to share the idea for a proposed supernatural horror series called “Asylum.”
“All the signposts were there that told us we weren’t really going to go into production,” Carpenter said during a recent phone interview. “All it took was an assistant saying, ‘Well, it’s not like you’re matching to a graphic novel or anything.’”
It was the lightbulb moment.
The Carpenters and Griffith had provided storyboards, which illustrated scenes that looked similar to a comic book.
“I said, ‘As a matter of fact, we are,’” she recalled, adding that Griffith grew wide-eyed and kicked her under the table. “He was like, ‘What are you thinking?’ Well, we always do artwork to go in and pitch any project and I said, ‘It is a graphic novel; it is a comic book.’ So why fight it? They aren’t going to make this series the way we want to so, ‘Adios.’ We don’t need to do this, we’ll write a graphic novel.”
Now, a decade later, the Carpenters’ Storm King Comics is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first issue of “Asylum.” They’re also publishing a quartet of fall releases through its various imprints, including “Death Mask.”
That book, which hit stores Sept. 19, introduces Detective Sonia Maza, who is investigating what she believes to be a series of drug-related murders before realizing she’s dealing with a solo serial killer and female vigilante. Written by Amanda Deibert (“Darkwing Duck,”…
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