The following is an interview with Eisner-nominated creator Dan Goldman regarding his recent Eisner Award nomination for Red Light Properties: Unfinished Business, published through the newly launched publishing imprint of his studio, Kinjin Storylab. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Goldman about what defines a Kinjin Storylab project, the recent release of the Red Light Properties deluxe hardcover, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: First and foremost, congratulations on your recent Eisner nomination for Red Light Properties: Unfinished Business! What can you tell us about the genesis behind Kinjin Storylab, and what do you feel best defines a Kinjin title?
Dan Goldman: Thanks, Barbra! Having your first release as a publisher get nominated already feels like a win.
Kinjin Storylab has been my creative studio where I’ve produced all my comics, animation, and video games work since 2014, but this new publishing arm was formed last year specifically to bring Red Light Properties back into the world. And with that decision, I immediately felt zapped by something both old and new: that auteur-driven DIY ethos that flowered so many original stories I love.
What makes a Kinjin Storylab title? Uncompromising works that push boundaries in form, subject, and execution is a start. Design-forward books that celebrate the physical reading experience, whether that’s a double-wide landscape hardcover that you fall into the moment you open it, or manga-sized done-in-one comic singles ready for backpacks and bookstores.
It’s less of a brand mission, more of an energy. We plan to publish works that feel like they’re on fire with a life of their own, multifaceted and character-driven stories you can hold up to the light and examine from different angles. To wit: Red Light Properties is very much me using the genre trope of haunted houses to talk about the cannibal greed of late capitalism.
BD: How would you describe your creative process in bringing Red Light Properties to life on the page, and how do you feel that your career spanning various entertainment mediums has influenced your work within the sequential art medium?
DG: This is maybe weird, but I actually write full scripts as though someone else is going to draw them, then I pass the script from one compartment of my brain to another. Probably it’s because I wrote scripts for other people before I was confident enough to draw my own comics, but that’s how the cement set, and trying to create comics from an incomplete script is a recipe for anxiety.
In my writing process, everything flows upwards: from the story’s “Big Idea” to its themes, from themes to characters, and from characters into story. This is how I build a series where all the characters express different aspects of the same Big Idea; once you place well-built characters into a scene together, they organically harmonize or spark off each other; sometimes, they’ll even write themselves and ignore your outline. That’s usually where the best surprises come from.
Dialogue for me has always been the most fun part. It’s my favorite part, the best lines coming in usually when I’m lettering and rewriting for the thousandth time on the page. Designing larger multi-story series can get out of control pretty quickly, so I lean on tools like Miro and Scrivener to help me visualize character series, big moments, overall structure. Big stories like Red Light Properties have definitely benefited over the years from my work in other mediums, whether it’s choice design from narrative video games or mapping out seasons of TV.
My art-making process has been fully digital since like 2002, though my toolset is always evolving. RLP was the first work of mine to incorporate virtual sets made with (rudimentary) 3D models. I’m now deep into working with Unreal Engine for that, though my new production models haven’t made it into published work yet. Soon!
Drawing in Procreate on iPad was another quantum leap for me: a more naturalistic interface allowed my drawings to get looser, making me a better cartoonist when I’d always considered myself an illustrator. I love this change.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums – no matter the genre. How do you feel that Jude and Cecilia’s story may connect with and impact today’s readers, and what, if any, conversations do you hope that it might inspire?
DG: When we meet Jude and Ceci, it’s thirty seconds after their marriage has hit a brick wall at full speed and nobody is okay. But running a family business means you’re stuck with each other, as much as you both want to cut bait. With no other choice or backup plan, they have to make this situation work without killing each other or turning their son Turi into an unhappy person. We all have our struggles, our burdens, but it’s what we do with them and the grace we find for each other in the process that allows us to continue.
BD: You recently launched a deluxe hardcover edition of the project. What are you most excited for readers to experience with this collected edition?
DG: With Unfinished Business, I’m excited not only for 100-plus pages of unpublished comics to finally see the light, but also how the whole book is knit together as a bingeable season. I created an additional 40 pages of epistolary storytelling just for this edition that ties the whole experience together while adding new dangling threads that I am just now tugging on in the series’ second season that we’re producing via Kinjin Storylab now.
BD: Are there any additional projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
DG: Following up on the Eisner-nominated Red Light Properties: Unfinished Business hardcover, I’m producing and publishing stories from our second season series and prepping the first of those singles for print. Ahead of that, the whole Kinjin Storylab team is currently in pre-production on our second graphic novel, Monsey Blues, which will be out early next year.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for readers to learn more about Red Light Properties: Unfinished Business and your work with Kinjin Storylab?
DG: I’d recommend a free subscription to Kinjin Storylab (kinjin.co/signup/). Instead of another promotional email, we use our newsletter as part of our publishing loop: we send you new comics as they’re being produced – plus short stories, serialized novellas, audio adaptations – and yes, you’ll also be the first to know whenever our next beautiful book is available for preorder.
