JP: Obviously, the first question is Who is
Saint Germaine?
GR: Saint Germaine is a legendary name. He’s long been associated with being
a magician in the era of the Mages that quite often held royal court. Saint Germaine was
perhaps the most famous and well known. The legacy of Saint Germaine lives on in such
mysterious organizations as the Knights Templar, the Masonic Brotherhood, and he was
definitely present at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who were the rulers when
the Reign of Terror was unleashed in France.
JP: So, Saint Germaine is really an actual
person?
GR: Of that, there’s no doubt. Where the speculation came in at was that he
claimed he was an immortal. No one ever saw him eat food, show any signs of aging, or
succumb to any worldly vices. His claim at the time was that he was already at least a
1000 years old and he often quoted historical events as if he were there. He claimed to
have certain powers such as alchemy, prophecy, and other more magical skills. He was well
known through all of Europe and he set the stage for other court appointed mages such as
Cagliostro and even Casanova.
JP: What’s the setting of the story?
Is it modern times?
GR: It’s set in current day although there will be some flashbacks to the
past, which of course, are his versions of the Saint As the story develops, we find out
why and who is he currently and how that ties into the past as well as the present and of
course, the possible future.
JP: What’s the focus of the series, at
least at the beginning?
GR: As we begin to learn more about Saint Germaine, we also learn more about the
world he inhabits. He claims to have lived all these years and we also find out that there
are others who reportedly have as well. One of this is a woman called Lilith. Actually,
the first story arc focuses on her as much as it does Saint Germaine and there’s a
good reason for that which is unveiled as the series progresses. Saint Germaine may not
always be the focal character in all the storylines but somehow, they always revolve
around him.
JP: Vince Locke is illustrating the series,
so fans can expect some really great artwork. How did he happen to come on board.
GR: Vince and I have been planning to do something together for years. He was one
of the original artists at Caliber when we started but then he did a lot of work for DC
which kept him busy. He did Sandman for a year, the mini-series, American Freaks, a story
arc in Sandman Mystery Theatre and has spent the last year and a half doing a special
project for DC called The History of Violence which is something like 300 pages long and
is a special book format that they’re releasing sometime soon. So, it was a process
of just waiting until his schedule cleared up.
JP: Why the two covers for the first issue?
GR: As I said, the first story arc centers on Lilith but the series focuses on
Saint Germaine himself. It seemed to be appropriate to do a cover on each for the first
issue. We plan on releasing both in equal numbers so there’s not a rare one or
anything like that. Vince always does such great covers, we wanted to show him off a
little bit.
JP: Some people may be surprised to
see that you’re writing this series. Most of them probably don’t realize that
you’ve written quite a few comics in the past.
GR: Well, my name hasn’t been on most of them. I used a variety of different
names. See one of the problems with being the publisher is that most artists aren’t
going to question what you’re doing....they want the work. So, by using
pseudonyms, I
got a better feeling for how the artists really felt which was important because at that
time, we didn’t have any kind of editorial staff....I was the editor.
JP: Is it different now?
GR: Oh yeah. Now, there’s 3-4 people that might read it before it goes to
the artists And with the people we have here and the relationships we’ve developed,
they’re not worried about offending anyone. If something’s wrong,
something’s wrong. It’s better to know before it gets drawn and printed then
afterwards.
JP: Yet you have established yourself as a
writer. Your first series was Baker Street?
GR: That was the first comics work I did and I worked with Guy Davis on that one.
Eventually, he took over the entire book and then I edited. I wrote quite a few other
books but probably the one people know the best is Renfield. Hopefully, it will soon be
Saint Germaine.
JP: Although you created Saint Germaine and
are writing it, you’ve created other series for Caliber that you’re not writing.
Why this one?
GR: I created the basic premises for Raven Chronicles, Searchers, Inferno, Level
X, and others but here at Caliber, there’s so many of us involved in the projects,
that the line gets a little blurry sometimes. When it’s a book developed inhouse, we
get together and try to see where we can take it....and we usually want to take it
somewhere different than where other books have gone. On Saint Germaine, I had more of a
definite direction I wanted to go in
JP: Anything else you’d like to add.
GR: I think it will be a fun series. It’ll be
sophisticated but not self-indulgent. It should appeal to fans of most Caliber books such
as Kabuki, Renfield, Bandy Man as well as the line of Vertigo books from DC. It should
have mass appeal to people who like good stories about fascinating characters.
Saint Germaine. It is a legendary name. Long
associated with being a magician in the era of the Mages, the legacy of Saint Germaine
lives on in such mysterious organizations as the Knights Templar and the Masonic
Brotherhood. Revered by men such as Casanova and Cagliostro, even Frederick the Great
called him "The Man who Could Not Die." Now, Caliber Comics has developed a new,
ongoing series featuring the man who calls himself Saint Germaine. Could it possibly be
the mage of the 1700s? Read the book.
