



His tales are populated by vampires, angels, demons, goblins, swamp creatures, elves, and talking bears. Whether the story is high adventure, supernatural slice-of-life or, more often than not, a combination, his comics are character-driven pieces with protagonists readers can't help but cheer on.



Burned out after years of indie comics publishing, Moore stepped away from comics in 2013. A renewed and reinvigorated Moore recently launched a Patreon to produce new work featuring both his cult-favorite and fresh creations.



Moore's most popular series is “Boneyard,” which ran for over two dozen issues. It is the story of Michael Paris, a regular guy who inherits a cemetery, only to find it populated by an assortment of friendly monster misfits, including megalomaniacal minor demon Glump, and the 2,000-year-old vampire Abbey, for whom Paris quickly falls.



Other series include “Far West,” a Sergio Leone-meets-J.R.R. Tolkien western the follows the adventures of the bounty hunting elf Meg and her talking bear partner, Phil. The eponymous heroines of “Fire and Brimstone” are a demon and an angel who accidentally released hordes of dangerous demons and fallen angels, and are now tasked with recapturing these otherworldly fugitives.

Humor, heart, and Halloween define Richard Moore's work.His tales are populated by vampires, angels, demons, goblins, swamp creatures, elves, and talking bears. Whether the story is high adventure, supernatural slice-of-life or, more often than not, a combination, his comics are character-driven pieces with protagonists readers can't help but cheer on.Burned out after years of indie comics publishing, Moore stepped away from comics in 2013. A renewed and reinvigorated Moore recently launched a Patreon to produce new work featuring both his cult-favorite and fresh creations.Moore's most popular series is “Boneyard,” which ran for over two dozen issues. It is the story of Michael Paris, a regular guy who inherits a cemetery, only to find it populated by an assortment of friendly monster misfits, including megalomaniacal minor demon Glump, and the 2,000-year-old vampire Abbey, for whom Paris quickly falls.Other series include “Far West,” a Sergio Leone-meets-J.R.R. Tolkien western the follows the adventures of the bounty hunting elf Meg and her talking bear partner, Phil. The eponymous heroines of “Fire and Brimstone” are a demon and an angel who accidentally released hordes of dangerous demons and fallen angels, and are now tasked with recapturing these otherworldly fugitives.





The Swerve had the opportunity to interview Moore and learn more about his creative process and what readers can expect from his Patreon.







The Swerve Magazine: As a fan of your work, it is great to have you producing comics again. What is the allure of comics for you? What initially led you to create your comics and pursue that as a profession years ago?







Richard Moore: Naivete? Foolish optimism? Basically, I wanted to tell stories. I originally wanted to be a filmmaker, but I had no money for film school and no money for equipment to do it on my own. But I could draw (sort of). So I thought I'd give comics a shot. The foolish part was thinking I could make a living in independent comics since I wasn't interested in writing or drawing superheroes.







SM: Looking at the dates on the Patreon teasers, most of those strips were from 2016 and 2017. It seems that this return to comics has been in the works for a while, why do you feel now the right launch time for the Patreon?







RM: I wanted to have not only the teasers done, but also have a buffer of material built up before the launch. Whenever I had a break between commissions, I'd squeeze in some work for the Patreon page. I'd have liked a slightly larger buffer, but then we spent $1200 on emergency veterinary care for a stray cat, so I thought, "You know, this really is the ideal time to do this thing."







SM: As someone who creates the full comic yourself, what is your process? Is the

As someone who creates the full comic yourself, what is your process? Is thestory fully structured before you start drawing it, or do the visuals affect the narrative during the execution?





RM: Story always comes first. I might have some new characters I can't wait to draw or some bit of action I think will be fun, but I don't so much as outline a panel until I have a full script--although when I'm writing for myself, that really means a detailed outline with page breaks and all the dialogue worked out. I do panel breakdowns in the margins as I write, thumbnails with action crudely blocked in, which makes it a much longer and more difficult process, but I need to know the exact way panels will flow on the page as I go. Especially when I'm doing comedy.







SM: It has been five years since the last “Boneyard” was published, and longer for a number of your other series. How has the time away affected any of your prior plans for stories or characters?







RM: It made me realize how much I wanted to get to certain storylines. Much of what I did prior to leaving was really to set up upcoming arcs...which of course never happened. I was careful to give at least the impression that things had wrapped up, to give readers a sense of closure, but I knew that things weren't what they seemed: There was a huge reveal that was left all...unrevealed.







SM: You have said that just doing one thing for too long drives you crazy, so you are doing shorts and long-form stories on the Patreon, and you alternated mini-series in the past. You have produced more “Boneyard” than any of other series. What is it about those characters and that world that compels you to keep telling their stories?







RM: Pragmatically, “Boneyard” was the first of my titles to be picked up as an ongoing series. But personally, it's just such fertile ground for my kinds of stories. I've always loved monsters and horror movies, and I love comedy. “Boneyard” lets me play with both. There are more potential stories there than I'll ever have time to get to. Plus, I just love the characters. They're larger than life (most of them), but they all have the same quirks and ridiculous personal problems—often self-created--that we all have to deal with.







SM: While you have stated that you intend to print these comics at some point in the future, does creating them as webcomics give you greater freedom in plotting as the stories don't have to fit into rigid individual issue page counts?







RM: Oh, absolutely. The artificial limits of comics--number of pages per issue, and number of issues per storyline—have incredibly compromising effects on the medium. For the first time, I'm telling stories as they want to be told; I don't have to cut gags, or reactions, or even whole scenes to meet arbitrary industry requirements. Just being able to linger on significant moments is huge, and I think will make for a more rewarding and immersive experience for readers.







SM: In one of the countdown strips, Fire is celebrating that the Patreon has "no gatekeepers! No editors, no distributors or retailers." Did you experience a lot of pressure from your past publishers to maintain certain guidelines or resistance from stores unwilling to carry more



mature material?







RM: On certain titles. My work tends to skew mature, which is fine for “Far West” or “The Pound”—those characters lead hard, dangerous lives; they don't live in G-rated worlds. Getting retailers to stock them wasn't a problem, making retailers aware of them was. But with “Boneyard,” yeah, there was always pressure to keep it super clean. Mostly to make sure it remained as appealing as possible to TV and movie developers. But I still got the occasional finger wagged at me, for a bare butt here or a bit of risque language there. You can't please everyone, and only a fool would try. Is that a saying? It should be.







SM: Your first long-form story for the Patreon is “Creep's End.” What can readers expect from this new series?







RM: “Creep's End” is one of three titles that share a common fantasy world (the others being “Gobs” and “Goody Gumdrop”). It's my take on Wonderland or Oz, where strange adventures force themselves on a main character who'd rather be napping or getting drunk with her friends. I love discovering this world as I go, a world totally free of the restraints of our reality. And Marna is my favorite kind of hero: one who wants nothing to do with being a hero. I can relate to that.







In the opening story, Marna finds herself literally caught in the middle of a magical war between feuding witches. When her cat is accidentally turned into a giant purring thing, she reluctantly gets involved, but soon learns that someone behind the scenes is pulling people's strings, orchestrating the magical conflict for their own purposes. So there's mystery, action (most of it inept and bumbling), comedy, and a disturbing amount of frogs.







SM: In previous interviews and blog posts, you have talked about how the faerie arc and “The Bigenning” were laying the groundwork for major events in “Boneyard.” Will you be expanding on this universe-building when “Boneyard” claims the long-form spot or do you have another story planned first?







RM: I'm using the shorts (while “Creep's End” is playing out) to introduce a few characters I never had time to introduce while on a publishing schedule, and to do a little foreshadowing. When “Creep's End” wraps and “Boneyard” takes over the long-form slot, we'll be going directly into the big arc I set up with the last printed storyline. It's a bit of a kick in the gut emotionally—I hope readers are up for it. But I think it'll be fun for readers to go back over the shorts and "The Bigenning" to look for the hints and clues I left.







Richard Moore's Patreon page, which also includes links to free archives of his previously-published works:



https://www.patreon.com/richardmoore