SLOW CITY BLUES is an ongoing series following Detective John Loris, who gets trapped inside his imagination after a horrible accident causes him to try and take his own life. John instead ends up in Slow City, a construct of his mind’s eye, a place where anything is possible – except a way out. There, he must battle his deeply-rooted inner demons and examine who he truly was before entering this purgatory.
I had the privilege to sit down with Samuel Haine And John Livesay to talk about this new series and how it came about!
Samuel Haine came up with the premise for Slow City Blues after being turned down for a staff writing position at a video game company in 2013. Soon after, he saved up enough money waiting tables to commission the first set of sample pages while living off food stamps. From those first pages, he was introduced to John Livesay, who liked the story, but knew the art needed direction and Sam needed guidance. John connected Sam with Legendary Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who taught Sam the ins and outs of writing for comics – what Sam calls the “Shooter School of Storytelling.” John, acting as Coordinator, put together the art team, as well as landed a host of A-list cover artists. Sam found that the world of Slow City helped him reflect and better understand what was happening in the world and his part in it. He hopes the story connects in an authentic manner and inspires tough conversations and loving introspection.
This amazingly fun series also sports some world-class artwork on the variant covers, including David Finch, Paul Pope, Derrick Chew, Doug Mahnke, Brett Booth, Julian Totino Tedesco, Francesco Mattina, Yasmine Putri, Howard Porter, Phillip Tan, Cary Nord, Pat Olliffe, and Randy Green.
To purchase this series click here, anyone who purchases the early bird special in the first 48 hours will be entered to win a piece of original artwork!
I hope you enjoy the interview below!
*I must apologize that the first few minutes of the interview were cut off due to ZOOM not starting the recording automatically as it was supposed to. However, the missing video content was covered in the text above.
