Jamming With Bob Quinn About ‘Black Cat Social Club’

Welcome to the table!

While we talk a lot about gaming in my little corner of the Comicon site, I do occasionally get to stray into the comic world. This particular straying I’m really excited to bring you, as it focuses on witches, demons, punk rock, and the art of Bob Quinn*!

I had a chance to sit down with Bob and talk to him about Black Cat Social Club, currently available for Pre-Order, from Humanoids, Inc.

Bob Quinn: Yes of course! As a born mid westerner, there’s nothing that gives me more discomfort than talking about myself! I’m a comic book illustrator for companies such as Marvel, Dynamite, and now a couple more I can’t talk about yet.  I’ve worked on titles such as Uncanny X-men, Ms. Marvel, Way of X, Knights of X, Red Sonja, Thor, the list goes on and on and on.  Prior to my comics work I developed video games for a ton of different companies such as Disney, THQ (rip) and Activision.  Before that I was in college. Before that I was a tiny child.

Quinn: For about three of four years I would draw a daily spooky picture in October.  It was like those inktober things, but this was called drawlloween which I liked the sound of.  Sometimes it was goblins, sometimes Draculas, sometimes werewolves, but there were a lot of witches.  One day I drew a picture of a punk band full of witches jumping off of amplifiers and doing things that were generally rad.  As with most things I draw I thought to myself – What’s their story.  I came up with a very loose framework, involving them, magic spells cast by playing music, a corporate hell monsters.

But that was about as far as it got.  I was extremely busy with my other comics work and I just sort of resigned myself to the idea that this was a concept I’d have on the back burner maybe forever that I’d never have time to write.  Well, out of the blue an old co-worker named Christopher Painter, who is a very talented writer, saw the drawing and asked if he could write the story.  I kinda pitched him the really loose concepts I had and he transformed that jumbled mess into a really fun cohesive story.  He developed the characters and made them three dimensional, came up with a great scheme for the bad guys, and he has a great sense of humor which you can find on every page.  We put together a pitch packet and shipped it off to a few publishers, and much to my surprise, it hit and we ended up being able to make it.

Quinn: Good eye. You have identified the main characters.  We smartly put them on the cover.  On the drums we have Maggie who finds life to be a constant series of delights, but who is also deeply affected by mean people and tough situations.  On the bass we have Hazel, who has a great desire for magical power and musical success, but more than anything she’s really hoping to do is impress Alice… Which of course brings us to the guitarist, singer, and leader of the band, Alice.  The band is her baby, her bandmates are her family, she’s tough and takes zero crap.

Quinn: Without giving too much away, let’s say that a certain member tries to boost their magical abilities and makes a bad deal.

Quinn: It’s a self contained graphic novel, but we’ve got material for more.  There were a bunch of ideas and subplots from this book we had to leave on the cutting room floor for space and for storyline streamlining that we’re hoping to explore if we get to make another.

Quinn: You’ll have to buy them when they’re on tour.

Quinn: Thank you!  I’m on all your favorite social media platforms, and luckily I did not think ahead so there’s no consistency between the handles at all!