David Doub is just like a lot of us, he’s a comic reader who had aspirations of going from only being a fan of the medium to taking part of it. The difference in his story and so many others with the same dreams is he’s making his dream a reality by self-publishing his work. After years of trying to work both with various publishers and independently, searching for co-workers online and other pitfalls along the way he has reached a goal many of the aspiring will never attain. Not only has he seen his work published but also now for sale.

Recently David sent us a copy of his book Dusk which begins to tell the compelling tale of Eve a former battered wife now in the service of a vampire named Ash and their unusual lives and relationship. David was also nice enough to answer some questions about both the book and his journey making it.

Brian - Tell us a bit about your personal history with comics. Are you a long time reader, what do you read or follow in the industry etc? 

David - Oh I’m definitely a long time reader, for almost 19 years now. I went from a Marvel Zombie (before it literally meant Zombies) to a Black and White Indy comic reader to Manga and a lot of stuff in between. I’m avid comic reader. I get ribbed my friends for having a run of Little Mermaid comics. Currently I’m reading a good amount of DC, like Trinity (I’m such a sucker for weekly comics) and Booster Gold. I’m also enjoying House of Mystery, The Sword, Echo, and Zorro. Also I’m reading some Manga like Fruits Basket, Claymore and Bastard!!!

B- Where does your inspiration for Dusk, both the use of vampires and social issues, come from? 

D - Well I’ve always been a big fan of vampire stories from Lost Boys, to Anne Rice to Vampire Hunter D. But I also played a lot of Vampire role-playing so I got a lot of inspiration from there too.

On social issues, I never really think of it like that honestly. When you say “social issue” I think of pundits on TVs just rambling away. When I write Dusk, I just try to treat it realistically as possible within that’s world’s parameters. I want the characters to respond naturally and not feel like they’re merely moving the plot along. I understand what stress can do to a person and since it’s a dark world, I think the characters would respond a little more intense to things that what we normally would. I almost imagine if the character knew it was me pulling the strings, they would seriously want to do me harm for the shit I but them through. 

B - What lead to your decision to self-publish? 

D - Different priorities from most publishers to be honest. They have to keep a look out for their best interests and I can respect that totally, but that means the person who’s going to look out for my best interests is me. Also with today’s current technology, it’s a lot easier to go at alone than it ever has been in the history of comic publishing. I’ve noticed some things are done in comics because that’s they way it’s always been done, I think doing things differently will give me an edge over my competitors. There’s a lot of comics out there, so every little bit to stand out from the crowd helps. 

B - So how did you find your artists and other collaborators for the book? 

D - The internet. Yeah, I’m a smartass at times. More specifically DigitalWebbing.com. I can never praise enough how great that site is as a resource for comic creators, be they artists or writers. I found people through that site, or information I found via that site, and they believed in the project enough to work on it. And I actually prefer people who are doing the work because they believe the story because I think you can see that show through in the art work.

Oh I did find one artist at a convention. I had a table and he was working for the con (it was CAPE for FCBD) and we started talking about stuff and now working on several projects actually.

B - You obviously have had some success finding artists to collaborate with, but as anyone looking for creative partners can attest, this is not always an easy process. Can you elaborate a bit for us on this part of your journey? How long did it take and were there any failed or bad partnerships along the way to the relationships that have worked for you? What has changed for how you look for collaborators before you began this process to now? 

D - No it’s not all easy as I made it out to be. I’ve had to go through all sorts of art samples and such. I’ve had artists disappear on me, quit on me, and loose all the pages for an entire chapter. I can’t truly fault them or be bad at them about it. I just learn from the experience and move on. Honestly Dusk has taken around 7 years to get to the point. Now mind you that I was working on it my free time for the longest time and I’ve only been working on it more seriously for the past several years. I almost think that the amount effort I was putting into the comic reflected the quality and commitment I was getting out of artists. Like maybe they could sense my level seriousness.

And sometimes life just happens. Like I was working with this good up and coming inker and he was all excited to get started on Dusk and do all the inks. Unfortunately the chronic medical issue he has wasn’t fixed by surgery like his doctors though, so he’s been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year (we met at Wizard World Texas in November). He would still love to do ink work on Dusk, but there’s not much anyone can do at the moment on his medical condition, so I have to get another inker.

B - Now that you’ve jumped into the self-publishing realm do you still consider sending things to companies when putting them together or are you set on staying self contained for now? 

D - For the time being I’m going to stay self contained. I think it would be counterproductive to be working independent while thinking about getting on with another company. That sort of split focus would mean that I’m not be giving a 100% to either side and both would suffer for that. That’s why I took a very good amount of time before deciding to go self polishing because I knew once I did I would have to fully commit to it for a good amount of time.

If you’d like more information about or want to contact David you can find him on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Comic Space and Deviant Art. If you would like to buy a copy of Dusk you can order it online or at your local shop by using ISBN number 9780578014364 or get a copy from Amazon. If you would like to win the copy of Dusk David sent us, just be the first to leave us a nice comment below and we’ll send it your way.