I interviewed Cisco Davis, Jr. about his groundbreaking photographic novel, The Pure and Hidden Truth.  Part paranormal thriller, part sci-fi, Davis is exploring a new way to tell his story on his own terms.

 LT:  Tell us about how you came up with the format for your  novel.

CD:  The Pure and Hidden Truth actually started out as a television show idea that I wanted to produce. Unfortunately, a low-budget production probably wouldn’t have turned out they way I originally intended so I decided to scrap the script and just write out the series as a set of novels. Somehow I got the notion that I could have illustrations to go along in the books and illustrations turned to photographs and photographs snowballed into a photographic novel. The evolution of the series baffles me every single time I think about it.

LT:   Your stories cross many boundaries, blending sci-fi with paranoramal entities, but still set in the “real world”.  What are the  advantages/disadvantages of this?

CD:  We live in a world full of fantasy. Our culture is familiar with aliens, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies, etc. I wanted to create a world that was just as openly fantastic as our imaginative cultures. That’s why I had a pair of paranormal journalist as the leads so they can cover everything from what goes bump in the night to an impending alien invasion. The only downside for me really is how far I make parallels between our universe and the Pure and Hiddenverse. Pretty soon some big differences will be noticable.

LT:  Tell our readers about your three main characters.

CD:  Art and Jillian are the two primary leads in the story and they are freelance staff writers for the popular paranormal magazine called the “Hidden Truth Magazine.” Unbeknownst to the readers of their work and their employers, Art is a werewolf and Jillian is a psychic who can see and talk to ghosts and has a whole mess of other supernatural tricks and abilities up her sleeve. Dakota Dynamite is a vigilante and vampire hunter who is immortal and currently tracking down Art in order to kill him.

LT:  How did you set the “rules” for the supernatural creatures in your story?

CD:  The rules in the Pure and Hiddenverse are tough to work with sometimes and I’m STILL in the process of getting just right. Most of the rules I come up with are to make the world more believable. Vampires for instance can be out in sunlight but only after they’ve recently fed on fresh blood — so this means that your principal or even your family doctor can be a vampire and you wouldn’t even know. Assimilation into modern society of the supernatural Otherworld is one biggest.

LT:   What challenges do you face blending photography with art?

CD:  The biggest challenge I’ve faced in creating this webcomic using photography as its artform is that photocomics aren’t that popular to begin with. Anyone can take a picture — you just point a camera at something and push a button. A lot of sacrifice goes into creating my pages because I always get some great shots that I can’t use the full photos for because my page layout is key into making the comic more attractive to look at for someone who doesn’t like photocomics. I spend a great amount of effort to keep my comic from looking like a series of static photos you could find in a family photo album.

The “show don’t tell” philosophy doesn’t apply to photocomics, “show AND tell” does. A successful photocomic has to balance both.

LT:   How did you find the actors in your cast?

CD:  Finding the actors was actually one of the easiest parts of the whole process. Since I have a background in film making and television production (I work as a news cameraman), I already had working relationships with local actors and models who were looking to get exposure. Filling extra roles took nothing more than sending a few e-mails or asking a few friends. For my principle cast however I wanted to cast people with a certain look.

So I just put an ad up on the Baltimore Craigslist with some samples of my work and got tons of responses with people looking to try out for the project since it seemed so new and unique. Most of my e-mail is flooded with people looking to star in the comic. I wish I could create a role for everyone!

LT:   What is a day of production for The Pure and Hidden Truth like?

CD:  Photoshoots for the comic are actually pretty short and limited to a few scenes at a time. We’re not a huge production and we actually pride ourselves in the fact that we don’t take ourselves too seriously when it comes to producing this comic. Basically, we show up at the location and I direct the cast based on what I know I want to happen in the scene. I stopped worrying about following my script 100% because when I get to the page-making stage it’s hard for my script to fit within the pages (I tend to write….A LOT, haha!) If you look through the pages of Truth everyone’s picture is of them talking about random, mundane things like what they had for breakfast that morning or the last movie they saw in the theater. A typical line of direction from me would be “Tell me what you had for breakfast this morning, but say it in a mean face.” Let’s just say we’re all lucky The Pure and Hidden Truth has made it this far with such a lazy approach.

LT:   What are your goals for this project?

CD:  My goal is to pad my resume with a completed project. The Pure and Hidden Truth is my premier ticket to any kind of future in the world of entertainment, be it visually or literary. It would be nice to be able to use this comic as a means to leverage funding to actually film “The Pure and Hidden Truth” as a television series pilot or made-for-TV movie. Film-making got me into this whole webcomic business and I’d definitely like to get back into the film-making part.

LT:  What kind of storylines can readers expect to see in the future?

CD:  The current “Friends in High Places” story arc sets up a series of adventures for Art, Jillian and company will go on. I want to explore a lot more of the mythology aspects of the paranormal underworld such as the history of the werewolves especially.

And I’ll announce it right here, I think the title for the next story arc in the saga will be titled “Big Bad Wolves.” Haha! I also haven’t mentioned much about witches or wizards in the Truth series yet and I’d like to get more into their role in the modern world as well.

But I think the major things readers should be on the look out for are the expansions to the Pure and Hiddenverse I’m putting together like the spin-off series “Hidden Truth Radio” and “The Peculiars.” Hidden Truth Radio is a live-action webseries that takes place in the comic universe about two paranormal radio show hosts who are co-workers of Art and Jillian. “The Peculiars” is another spin-off taking place in the same universe about a team of superheroes that is formed behind the scenes during the “Friends in High Places” arc.

LT:   Movies and books that deal with paranormal are very popular right now. Do you see this as a momentary trend, or a shift in popular thinking?

CD:  This is definitely a shift in popular thinking. The entertainment industry is strapped for new ideas, so it is only natural that everyone is starting to gravitate towards imaginative fiction because of the limitless possibilities it holds as a means of storytelling.

Plus, there’s something attractive about the “unknown” characteristic of the paranormal genre. Paranormal and supernatural entertainment is here to stay and will definitely be one of the defining popular culture standards of the 21st century.

LT:   Have you grown as an artist (photographer, writer, visual artist) since you started working on Truth?

CD:  I most definitely have. I learned not to expect too much from myself in being a creator. In the beginning I was very hard on myself and pushed myself to the brink of not being happy with anything I was putting out. But it wasn’t very long before I realized that what matters most is that I’m actually getting something done rather than nothing at all. In all honesty I have no idea what I would be doing with my life had I never decided to do this comic and I sometimes kick myself for not starting it sooner — who knows how far along I’d be in the grand scheme of things. I learned first hand that “if there’s a will, there’s a way” because the only thing that ever held me back from doing anything was myself. This project has taught me so much about myself in terms of just being a better person — the best person that I can be.

LT:   Is there anything that you’d like to add?

CD:  I just want to add that if you have a dream to do anything, follow it. Nothing is holding you back from what you want in life besides yourself.

The Pure and Hidden Truth is proof that anyone — ANYONE — can do anything they want if they put their minds to it.

 

©2009 Lori Titus

Interested in learning more about Cisco Davis Jr.’s Pure and Hidden Truth?

The story updates every Friday and the first Monday of every month. Click here:    http: www.pureandhiddentruth.com/characters

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cisco Davis, Jr., SUNDAY SPECIAL, The Pure and Hidden Truth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.