EXCLUSIVE! VJ Boyd talks GHOST COP


While attending this year’s Comic-Con International I was able to sit down with a talented television writer and comic book creator, VJ Boyd.

UTF: What can you tell us about Ghost Cop?

VJ Boyd: Ghost Cop is a three issue series. It’s collected in a trade paperback right now. It’s about a hard boiled 1940s detective, a Sam Spade type who gets killed by a serial killer he’s chasing in the 40s, then comes back as a ghost, but in 2014.

There’s the mystery of, “Wait, why am I back as a ghost now?” It turns out, the killings of the murderer who killed him appear to be continuing. Is he a ghost? How is this happening? Add to that, he ends up meeting a living cop, a Detective named Laticia who can see visions. It’s sci-fi meets noir with a kind of Powers tone.

Ghost Cop Widescreen

UTF: All right, let’s talk the creative process. How did you come up with the idea for the comic book?

VJ Boyd: I write for the TV show, Justified, and during the first season we would sit around at lunch just making up titles for shows that could be really good in the 90s . Someone said Ghost Cop. Then I pitched, “Oh, Scott Bakula should star in it. Well, you know what it should be that in this world, ghosts can only be seen by those who have killed someone, whether in the line of duty or murder,” and everyone else thought that was silly. I was like, “Well, I’ll show you. I’ll write a comic about that.” And so I did.

UTF: My next question would be about the artist, Christian DiBari. How did your paths cross?

VJ Boyd: Christian DiBari was hired by my friend Luke Keith who funded the project. I think they met at a Con, and Christian worked on another book for him, and he said, “Hey. You’re perfect for this. You have a very noir style.” So I looked at his character samples based on my scripts, and I was like, “It’s great.” We ended up having him do ten pages and we brought it here to Comic-Con. We shopped it around to several small publishers including Antarctic [Press], and they seemed very excited about it.

Ghost Cop 1_C Widescreen

UTF: Excellent. As someone who’s worked in the entertainment industry, we have lots of fanboys and fangirls that come to our site who have a desire to write for a living. Do you have any words of advice for them?

VJ Boyd: I would say the number one thing is to keep reading and writing. A lot of people may move to Hollywood or to New York depending on what they’re pursuing, and they’ll just concentrate on trying to get that break. But you need to make sure you’re spending time writing because you have to have new samples. Every time you write you’re getting better.

I think what helped me was when I was an assistant for several years getting people coffee and things like that just to make contacts, but then when the time came and someone said, “Can I read your stuff,” and I had several quality samples to show them.

I want to take the time to thank Mr. VJ Boyd for chatting with me. It was a great pleasure and I speak for the rest of the UTF staff when I say we’ve checked out Ghost Cop and yes it is awesome!

So what did you think of the interview my fellow fanboys and fangirls?

Sound off with your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!