J.C. Vaughn talks about BEDTIME STORIES FOR IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN

I’ve known J.C. Vaughn for more years than I can remember. We met in person for the first time at the first NYCC, but we had already been corresponding online for years. I am always excited to shine a spotlight on anything he does. Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children is one of those projects that J.C. has been working on and off his entire career and I am very excited he stopped by First Comics News to share it with his readers.

First Comics News: When did you first come up with the idea for Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children?

J.C. Vaughn: I first came up with it during my senior year in high school and it never really left me. It was a long time until I was really able to do anything with it, but that wasn’t for lack of trying.

1^st: The title is reminiscent of Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, was this an inspiration?

JCV: Actually, I had my title and concept years before Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children came out, but how could I not love that book?

1^st: Who is Uncle Alonzo?

JCV: Alonzo Delvechio is an unemployed construction worker. He was unemployed so long that his wife began to really harass him until he did something. So he did something. He opened a daycare center in his home. So his wife left him. Now, this well-intentioned, ill-suited child care provider reads inappropriate stories to the kids.

1^st: Who is Little Jimmy?

JCV: Jimmy is one of the kids. He’s Alonzo’s nemesis. He asks questions like “How long has your wife been missing?” and so on.

1^st: Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children is a horror anthology. For fans who missed the first issue, would you say this compares to Tales of Terror and Creepy?

JCV: That’s about the nicest thing you could say to me about it. If you included Bruce Jones’ Alien Worlds, I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven. I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in republishing the great EC material including Crypt and I wrote an essay in one the Dark Horse hardcover collections of Creepy, which may be the closest I get creating for those titles, but if we’re even vaguely in the same league as them, I’d be thrilled.

All of My Ex-Boyfriends Are Monsters! Really!

1^st: How do you recruit talent to work on this project?

JCV: Blackmail. Or I’m just really annoying.

1^st: Who is contributing to issue two?

JCV: I can’t believe the level of talent we have in this one! We have three really diverse stories in terms of tone, art style, and approach. The creators include Andy Sands (Wicked West 2) and Joanna Estep (Road Song), Mark Ricketts (Nowheresville) and Micah Clark Farritor (The Living and the Dead), and I got to collaborate with Breathtaker, Mars, and Blood of the Innocent co-creator Mark Wheatley once again. And the Uncle Alonzo segments are by Mike Malbrough, who did them in #1, and Captain Action’s Ed Catto. I’m really psyched.

1^st: What is the plot of Andrew Sands & Joanna Estep “All of My Ex-Boyfriends Are Monsters! Really!”?

JCV: All of our stories are short, so I don’t want to give away too much about any of them, but this one’s humorous in tone and the title’s very accurate.

1^st: What is Mark Ricketts and Micah Clark Farritor “Renee” about?

JCV: If you have a heart, this one will find it. Beautiful, sweet, horribly sad, and not a story that one would tell to kids. So, of course, Alonzo does.

1^st: You and Mark Wheatley are working together on “Toothpick Warriors”, what is it about?

JCV: I was such a fan of Mars and later Breathtaker that I’m amazed I get to work with Mark, but we’ve actually been friends for more than 20 years, which also amazes me. This story is inspired by Japanese fable and it was a lot of fun to do.

About Author

Rik Offenberger

Rik Offenberger has worked in the comic field as a retailer, distributor, reporter, public relations coordinator, writer and publisher since 1990. He owns and operates the e-mail bases Super Hero News service, and his published works in print can be seen in The Comics Buyers Guide, Comic Retailer, Borderline Magazine, and Comics International. On the internet he has worked as a writer and/or editor for Silver Bullet Comicbooks, Comic Book Resources, Newsarama and First Comics News. He was the Public Relations Coordinator at Archie Comics for a decade. He is currently the Editor-In-Chief at G-Man Comics. For TwoMorrows Publications, Rik co-wrote The MLJ Companion with Paul Castiglia and Jon B. Cooke, charting the history of Archie’s superheroes, and for Gemstone Publishing wrote chapters of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide to Lost Universes.

See author's posts