Phone
+1 (223) 241-3627
jake@jacobkeiter.com
I’m Tony DiGerolamo and I’m the author of The Pineys, a comedy/horror book series about a family of South Jersey hunters that hunt the kin of the Jersey Devil. Previously, I wrote for the Simpsons comic books at Bongo and various other comic book projects over the years, especially my own. I started as a screenwriter and I worked in television. I created a TV show based in Philadelphia called The Comic Book Show where we covered conventions and interviewed various big name comic talent in the early 90’s. During one interview with Brian Capullo, he said something that stuck with me, “Comic books are the poor man’s film medium.” And I was like, “Hey! I’m poor! I could do that!” So although I had toyed with the idea, I decided to aggressively pursue doing my own comic. After the Comic Book Show ended, I self-published Jersey Devil. This eventually led me to do a second comic, a fantasy comic called The Travelers, which was picked up by Kenzerco. For a few years, I worked with Kenzerco doing the Travelers, going to gaming cons and writing game material for them. Sometime after, I got my gig at the Simpsons and I worked off and on in comic books ever since. My most recent comic book work is in Jetta Raye Adventures.
Everything really. I enjoyed the Simpsons because I was such a fan of the show. But mostly, I love working on my own stuff. I try to maintain a high bar for my own work at all times. Right now, I’m totally addicted to writing The Pineys.
Writing your own stuff is always more rewarding because your so invested. Ultimately, you’re just a hired hand elsewhere. Doesn’t mean it’s not fun, but there are always limits. With your own stuff, there are no limits.
Depends upon what you mean when you say “popularity”. In South Jersey, The Pineys and stories about the Jersey Devil are a known commodity as well-known as those names. Everyone down this way grows up with the folktales, especially if you go camping in the Pine Barrens. I choose to focus on regional stories because I love them and with my limited resources I can concentrate on just doing events here. I’m averaging about five signings/talks/conventions a month. Today’s market is solely based on internet findings and media sharing. I see you have adapted well I’m creating multiple websites and establishing a web series. Do you prefer this new media wave or prefer something a little more old school? There were a handful advantages under the old system, but production itself was more arduous. Once you got in Diamond and spread the word, you could do moderately okay sometimes. The boom and bust cycle hurt that more than anything. The Internet has, overall, been a God send to creators. What it has destroyed are the big companies. Audiences have atomized and niche audiences have broken down into subniches and sub-subniches and beyond. Overall, you probably won’t be a comic book superstar raking in big cash, but you can make some good money if you build your fan base. It’s the difference between working for a company or yourself. The latter is where we’re headed in comics and it’s great, but it’s also a lot of work. The moment you stop is the moment your money stops rolling in. If you’re wondering why well-known comic creators at the big companies are lazy, complaining morons sometimes, it’s because they are usually lazy complaining morons that want other people to do most of their work. They want to live in a bubble where a paycheck isn’t a problem and they can just create and forget about things like promoting and market forces. Unfortunately, for many of them, that creates an entitled class of grown talent-children who grow more and more tone deaf with each passing year. The truly great creators do both, leveraging the money and fame of their “company gigs” to make their own creations.
I’m doing three books a year: March, July and October, so mark your calendars! The Pineys is a term that was coined in the late 1800’s by Philadelphia newspaper elites to look down upon the farmers in South Jersey. (It was initially like calling someone a rube or a hillbilly.) Over the years, the people of South Jersey co-opted the term and now it’s a term of endearment to anyone that lives in the Pine Barrens, which is why there are T-shirts and bumper stickers that say stuff like “Piney Power” and “Piney Pride” this way. The legend of the Jersey Devil looms large in The Pineys. The original folktale (of which their are many variations) goes something like this: Mother Leeds, who lived in Leeds Point, NJ, was the 13th child in her family and back in the 1730’s, she had 13 children. The last one was born a horrible monster (the Jersey Devil) it ate the family, flew out the chimney and has been haunting the Pine Barrens ever since. In my story, Mother Leeds is a witch and she opens the portals of Hell flooding the Pine Barrens with devils. In the neighboring village of Abe’s Hat, NJ, the villagers formed a secret hunting society to hunt down the devils and send them back to Hell. Their ancestors continue the Hunt to this day. So that’s the basis of the series and then the stories take place within that framework. And since there are hundreds of folktales that take place in the Pine Barrens (some relating to the Jersey Devil and some not) I have a lot to draw from. You can also find some of these urban legends online and in places like Weird NJ magazine. Additionally, the history of South Jersey often provides great fodder, since there are so many old towns that got swallowed up by the Pine Barrens. Amitol was a town near my favorite ice cream place (Royal Crowne) in Hammonton, NJ. It was used to make explosives in World War 1, later they built a race track, but today it’s all gone. The ruins of the race track are in the woods, mostly forgotten since it’s hey-day in the 1930s.
I finished the draft to Book 11 and it’s coming out in March. That will feature one of the famous witches from South Jersey folklore. Book 12 is almost finished and part of it will center around the legendary town of Ong’s Hat. It’s what I named the character’s town, Abe’s Hat, after. Weird stuff happens in the Pine Barrens and a bunch of weird stuff happened in Ong’s Hat.
Look, if you want to make money, sell real estate. Most people that want to do a book see an author sitting around a table selling books, signing copies and being admired. THAT’S what they want. That moment. (And that’s a nice moment, btw.) But, unfortunately, that’s not what being a writer is about. That’s like wanting to be a chef, but only being there to take the finished dish out of the oven and watch people enjoy it. Being a writer is about sitting around and thinking. It requires concentration and focus, mostly alone. Like any artist, a writer knows when they’ve had a breakthrough. No one else is there for it and many people won’t even UNDERSTAND it because they haven’t spent hours thinking and thinking. So creatively, if you’re having these breakthroughs, you’re winning. Separate, but right next to that, is keeping yourself from starving. Doing that solely on writing is hard. Even if you’re ghostwriting, let’s say, as I often do. I do good work, but I’m only ghostwriting for the money. Period. And yeah, it can be good. Being a hired hand, your work might be good too, but it will never, ever be as good as something you’re invested in. So for me, literary success means being able to eventually succeed on your work and being known for that work. As an artist, you don’t really know if it will happen. For some, it happens long after their dead. But even though you’re not around for that, that’s an achievement. That makes you immortal.
Depends upon where you are, but mostly be true to your creations and yourself. Many creators are volatile piles of energy that react too much. I think people need to process and think more. Don’t get too caught up in social media and trends. Touch some grass and make sure your work reflects your own voice, not that of someone or something you think you SHOULD sound like. Understand, it is a tough road. You will make mistakes and go down the wrong path. (This is why you should try not to be so volatile.) Be your own person and question it all. Here’s a test: Look at the sort of people that agree with you. If all the major corporations and horrible people in the world are gung-ho for what you’re doing and saying, maybe you ought to wonder why. I’m not saying that what corporations do is inherently evil, but I’ve seen plenty of company-men-type creators that stopped thinking and growing for a paycheck. Be wary and never stop learning. Because about every twenty years or so, everything really changes. And once you’ve seen that change two or three times, you realize you should really take more care in what your work says to people and what you’re trying to do. But if you’re just starting, learn the basics. Stick with the basics. Read and analyze the classics. Understand how they work first.
The Pineys Book 11, 12 and 13. Beyond that, I’ve got some ideas and probably will have some other gigs, but we’ll see. I’m building my video channel on YouTube, Bitchute, Rumble and Odysee, so if you want to see me mouth off about movies or just about anything, tune in. My dog, Joan of Arc, is my cohost. I’m happy to offer advice direct to writers. Feel free to ask a question, I always need ideas for videos. Also, more webcomics on The Webcomic Factory and Super Frat. |
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