‘Watson and Holmes’ an interview with Brandon Perlow

I had the privilege to be contacted by New Paradigm studios president Brandon Perlow in reference to their new book ‘Watson and Holmes.’ He was a great guy to talk to via email and agreed to an interview about his company, the smash book, and what else they have coming down the pipeline.
(sorry this took me an extra day to get up I have been on the road)

Comics Heating Up- So who are New Paradigm studios? When we’re you founded? What were your goals for company?

Brandon Perlow – I founded NPS 2 years ago. Our publishing goals are to tell cutting edge stories with art to match! I want our stories to be a “new paradigm”. I like how Image and Boom are doing work, I want my projects to rival the best they make, and eventually make a book that might eclipse what they are doing. You have to aim high. It tells you how good they are, that they are the golden standards. I don’t want to be the biggest, but I’d like to have my books on the top racks and have folks who may have left comics or haven’t thought of reading comics- to read our books.

CHU- How are Watson and Holmes different than the traditional characters we all know? What are their back story?

BP- Watson and Holmes is the first african-american version of the characters (If you dont count Geordi LaForge as Watson in the Holodeck of STNG) in modern day Harlem. Holmes is still essentially the same character, but not raised in British wealth. Being brought up in the inner city gives him a slightly different demeanor than other recent versions on TV. He’s more like Basil Rathbone than Cumberbatch. As brilliant and charismatic as he is, he doesn’t totally steal the show. Watson is the “narrator” of the series and mostly his POV. Our Watson is not the “dude in distress” that Sherlock has to rescue. We plan to bring really cool and new takes on many of the canon characters. Lestrade in issue 2 has been re-imagined as well, and a refreshing-realistic take IMHO.

CHU-Who came up with the idea for the book? Who brought the concept to life? Wasn’t this originally supposed to be released digitally only?

BP- I came up with the idea 3 years ago on New Years Eve with Paul Mendoza. Then I developed some ideas for the characters and series. Paul wrote the outline. Justin Gabrie, our senior editor, brought Karl Bollers on the series to write and further develop it. Im not a writer, and Paul is more suited to writing other genres. The series was originally digital only. We sold thru Comicsplus (Iverse) and eventually went to Amazon and ITunes , and got in early to Comixology Submit for independent creators.

CHU- So the book was released to shops two weeks ago and overnight it was going for big money online, did this surprise you?

Bp- I’m pretty surprised. There’s still some in the shops, and we’re “refilling” our excess copies we ordered to some shops. So they’ll be a few hundred more in the shops total. But the numbers were wrong. We only printed 3388 for diamond, not 3888. Its a little more than that if you include the kickstarter variants and excess printing. Its funny I haven’t seen our limited self-printed Black &White Noir Editions get ebayed. We only made 500 of #1 last year (and probably a little more than half were sold. The rest were comps for reviewers/shops) and 275 of 2 and 3.

CHU- Why does Watson get top billing? Holmes is usually the alpha male and Watson usually plays second fiddle?

BP- Our version is different, as Watson is more of a partner than sidekick. Our Watson wasn’t a medic, he’s a ex-pararescueman, the equivalent of special forces training with medic skills. These are the guys that come in to rescue special forces and other military folk. His need to help people is in his blood. Watson is also the guy that most folks can relate to. He’s smart and disciplined, something that is achievable. Watson brings his skills and instincts to the table. Holmes is a gifted genius, and to have his mental skills takes more than good training. He can “see” things “photographically” in his head and make connections.

CHU- How many issues is the book slated for. How far out do you have art and stories for the book?

BP- We are working on 5 and 6 right now. We would love to be on-going for at least 30 issues

CHU-What was the process like trying to get the book distributed through Diamond?

BP- Tough. Lots of paperwork. Having 3 issues done. It helps that our Senior Editor Justin Gabrie has a Marvel pedigree as an editor and years in the publishing department. I couldn’t get in Diamond without him.

CHU- I know the initial print run was roughly 3888 copies, and the second issue was less. Tell us about the final order cut off process and how it affected the book.

BP- 3388. We had issue one preview in the MAY ‘13 issue of previews. That came out around the 3rd week of April. I was at C2E2 to check out the show, and to meet with press and shops to promote the book. It didnt help that FCBD was early that month, retailers were frazzled. I had till the 3rd week of May or so to get shops to order the books, and I would receive a total order around June 2-4th from Diamond of how many books were ordered. Now we didn’t send the order to the printers till June 27th (I got my copies around July 4th). So while trying to get things ready for issue 1, we also tried (not very successfully) getting press and pre-orders for 2! So this month I got my numbers after getting my extra copies of #1 to my studio, only to find a 40 percent decrease. Many shops immediately just order less from the first issue as a matter of business. So here’s the problem. We sell out of our low print run of #1 (yay?) and there’s no way to add orders on #2 because they are already pre-ordering #3! So I have to wait for a sell-out of #2 (which will CERTAINLY happen) and make a new order for a reprint. This is also another problem. It costs me more per copy for a lower print run. The more orders I get, the lower my per issue costs are because of offset printing. So if my second print run is roughly the same as my first, it would cost me WAY more than to just have the first order be twice as large. So I may have to just order double, and personally ship the boxes to Diamond (on my own expense ) to fill the back-orders. If Diamond would allow small indies to have Final Cut off to be the week before printing, I think it could make a difference for publishers and retailers. It would buy us more time to contact shops and press. That almost extra “month” till printing can mean possibly double sales. Diamond is not making it easy for new publisher to set up for success. Just for note Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, maybe Boom have the 2 month or so FOC.
Sorry for the long-winded answer!

CHU- You have mentioned in our previous conversation that Chuck Dixon and Larry Stroman are working on the book jn the future. What are they doing for the book?

BP- Larry Stroman is the artist for issue #5, (written by Karl) and Chuck Dixon is writing an issue past #7(Hannibal Tabu/ Steven Grant -writers, Dennis Calero -artist)

CHU- The reaction to the book has been pretty positive. What could be done to get awareness up on the book.?

BP- More tweets. More folks spreading the good word! Be nice if CBR, IGN, The Comics Beat and Newsarama would cover us too. Trying to get the “HipHop” entertainment press aware of our series. That’s pretty tough. Same with TV-Radio. I’ve been pleasantly surprised “Bleeding Cool” gives us some press. Just updated, Looks like Newsarama will do a story on us, they contacted my creative team.

CHU- Other than Watson and Holmes, what other comics are New Paradigm working on?

BP- We are working on “The Rockthrower” – A 6 issue limited series “ A jewish baseball scout see’s a kid in the Palestinian territories
throwing rocks impressively at IDF soldiers on tv, and decides to recruit him as a baseball pitcher.” Written by Karl Bollers – based on a story by Brandon Perlow. Layouts by Dave Ross (West Coast Avengers) with finishes by Gene DeCicco and colors by Ivan Santillan. We will have a kickstarter for it shortly. Issue #1 is free on our website.

We have a webcomic done by the brilliant young artist F.Lee called “Justice is Nocturnal”. Its pretty much crime noir-mixed with greek mythological creatures. We’re looking to make that an actual comic or OGN eventually.

Theres a 3rd title we have with Vito Delsante that we will reveal more about in the fall.

Our fourth series is NIMBUS , which has taken forever due to problem solving the series and more art direction. This is my passion project. Paul Mendoza is writing and assisting with art on this . Its an epic science fiction series that will be in a painted style.

Big thanks to Brandon for taking the time out to talk about the book ‘Watson and Holmes.’ Make sure to check out their other stuff at http://www.newparadigmstudios.com/