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I recently had an opportunity to get a Q & A session in with the guys over at Twighlight Uprisings (Adam De Oliveira, Mark Clark II and Rob Pincay) who produce the excellent web comic The Devils Horn; if you guys think of anything else I should have asked these guys, let me know! Well, on with the interview!

COMICATTACK: Who are you, where are you from and how did the three of you meet?

TWILIGHT UPRISINGS: We are Twilight Uprisings, a group of artists as well as friends that produce their own comics, from Newark, NJ. Our members consist of Adam De Oliveira the web designer and graduate of Bloomfield College with a degree in Computer Graphics, Mark Clark II, a writer and artist from Newark, NJ and a graduate from Rutgers University with a degree in Psychology, and Robert Pincay, an artist and writer.

We all met in High school while attending the same classes as art majors at Arts High in Newark. We also built our relationship further by collaborating on art projects for the Newark Museum, and have been friends ever since, which makes it a little over a decade.

CA: What got you into comic books?

ADAM: The great visuals and great story lines that captivate our imagination.

MARK: I can’t speak for the other guys but I think I got into comics mainly because I love to draw and I love great stories. But the one person I would say started to get me seriously involved in comics is one of my close friends who passed away a few years ago.  Although I am much more of a Manga Guy, I still enjoy reading comics.

ROB: What got me into comics was watching cartoon shows. They weren’t as in depth and detailed about a character, whereas in comics you would get all that good stuff. I first ventured into comics out of curiosity to learn more about Wolverine.

CA: What are your favorite comic book characters?

A: I enjoy Spawn and his endless struggle for love, while battling hordes of demons and making grave decisions between whats right and wrong. He faces critical points where he comes to realize that what men see as being right isn’t always the wisest decision to make, that every decision does not only come with a result but comes with a price.

M: My favorite comic book characters are… well not to sound biased but the characters in The Devil’s Horn. I don’t know why, but something about them just seems so familiar. But besides the characters from our story I like Batman, Spider-man, The Joker and Wolverine. I will read almost anything with these characters in it.

R: My favorite characters are Wolverine, Spawn, Batman, Captain America, Cable and Scrooge McDuck. Why McDuck? Well he’s just so badass being able to swim in piles of gold coins.

CA: Who are your major influences in your work?

TU: Well besides the great artists like Michaelangelo for creativity, Da Vinci for his detail, Salvador Dali style of conveying a message in his art, we all have our own different influences. All three of us are influenced by manga as well as anime but still draw some influence from comics. I [Mark] personally love the way Stefano Caseili draws. Adam also draws some of his influence from Todd Mcfarlane and Dave Devries. We also take some influences from some of the westerns like the Man With No Name series.  And basically just what we see in everyday life. These things really help influence the way we write.

CA: Your web comic Devil’s Horn is a pseudo-western.  What made you pick the western theme?

TU: Well we wanted to do something familiar, that people would want to see and hadn’t seen. We discussed not only cowboys but pirates, knights, etc. We decided on the Western theme because we haven’t seen too many new western themed stories out there. We were inspired by the Sergio Leone westerns in the way he did his fight scenes and character development and gave it on our little spin. The way the fights are traditionally done are mostly quick draw and I think today’s reader wants to see more when it comes to showing action/fight scenes. We didn’t want to do a period piece, so we broke it down and gave the characters and scenery the feel of a western without making it historically accurate. Without the restraints of making it accurate to the period, we actually have more creative freedom.

CA: Could you give our readers a little overview of the comic?

TU: The Devil’s Horn is a lawless territory set in a world where gunslingers rule. The story is about a legendary gunman, William Devlin aka Billy Devil, gathering a group of gunfighters to participate in his gunslinger tournament. He lures them all to his territory, The Devil’s Horn, with promises of wealth, respect, and one desire that will be fulfilled. So the story consists of  some of the toughest and dangerous gunslingers, shooting it out for a grand prize. But the comic becomes much deeper than that and more than just a tournament, touching on themes of family bonds and moral ambiguity.

CA: How did Devil’s Horn start?

TU: The Devil’s Horn started one late February night while Rob and I were hanging out. And I said hey you want to do a comic.  He said sure. So after much deliberation we decided to do a western theme. I came up with the title because I wanted something that would catch people’s interest and also had the western feel to it. But we still needed an important piece of the puzzle. Although we came up with the characters easy, we needed an excuse for them to interact with each other. It originally started out as a series of short stories that took place in the town.  We eventually scrapped the idea and decided on the tournament. After a few weeks, I came up with the rules for the tournament and pitched the idea to a few people and they really liked it. Then we did the research by watching a slew of western films, such as 3:10 to Yuma, The Dollars trilogy, Unforgiven and Magnificent Seven, along with documentaries, and read some short stories. This provided us guidance in creating the story and The Devil’s Horn was born.

CA: What are you future plans for Devil’s Horn?

TU: Our future plans are to of course finish the story and we hope to sign on with a publisher and actually produce a hard copy of the book. If that does not happen, then we will distribute the book ourselves. Also, we might do a mini-series of some of the characters to give the fans a more detailed look at some of their favorite character’s back stories.

CA: What else are you working on?

TU: Well there are a number of projects we are working on. I [Mark] am working on some concepts for two other solo projects plus finishing the story for The Devil’s Horn. Adam is working on two of his own stories, as well as Rob. So we have our hands full at the moment.