Written by Neil Greenaway

At Denver Comic Con 2016 I had the chance to sit down and talk with Abrahm Akin of the Ugly Tree comic series about his take on publishing indie comics. This interview originally ran on Bleeding Cool on 6/19/2016, and you can read their version of it here.

Abrahm Akin at Denver Comic Con 2016 (1).

Neil Greenaway: We are standing here at Denver Comic Con 2016 with Abrahm Akin talking about his book The Ugly Tree. So for those that might not know, can you give us a quick synopsis of what the book is about?

Abrahm Akin: The book is about a young woman who must team up with horrifying monsters to save her family from a madman.

NG: Ok and you have two issues out so far how is the progress on the third one going?

AA: It’s going slowly. I’ve been working on these new trading cards based on the series, and I have been doing the layouts on issue 3. So it will be a while but I am getting past it.

NG: Very good. Let’s talk about the trading cards, how did that project come up?

AA: Well I was in a convention in Kansas City and I just happened to buy a box with some trading cards in it and thought, this is so awesome. They were Evil Ernie and Lady Death which I love, and I went – man, I should make some trading cards. Then, once I started to do the drawings, then I said, I’m going to paint these. Because usually the book is cell shaded. I keep the coloring very limited because it is time consuming. So, I thought, I will make these nice and overly painted. So that is kind of where the time consuming comes in. Each one will be 11 by 17 inch print that is fully painted and then also a trading card as well. So once it’s all done, once the project is all done I will have both of those.

NG: Awesome. And how is that project coming along?

AA: It’s coming along really well. I have three more to do and I’ll be done.

NG: Are there any other projects you are working on aside from the Ugly Tree comic and trading cards?

AA: I do a podcast about horror movies, which isn’t Ugly Tree related, but it all is connected. It’s called Meet Your Monsters and all it is, I show my friends old horror movies and then I find out if they like them or they don’t. Usually they don’t. Our first episode was Slaughter High, which not many people have seen, but if you like shitty horror movies it’s a good one.

NG: Feeding off that briefly, what’s the best bad horror movie that you have watched on your podcast?

AA: Ooo, that’s a good one. We’ve done about 60 so far. Some of them are legitimately good movies. I try to mix it up so I can’t say they’re all bad. I have always been a big fan of Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and Re-Animator.

Abrahm Akin at Denver Comic Con 2016 (2).

NG: Ok, I’m a huge Re-Animator fan.

AA: It’s a great movie.

NG: You are clearly a man of taste. If people wanted to find you online and see more of your stuff, where would they go?

AA: The best place to go at the moment is The Ugly Tree on Facebook. There is an Ugly Tree website, but I’m still working the kinks out of it. There’s a lot of stuff that needs done. There is some stuff that you can look at, but Facebook is a better way to go.

NG: I think that wraps it up for us. Thank you for your time.

The Ugly Tree comics by Abrahm Akin at Denver Comic Con 2016.

Creator Conversations

An Interview With Abrahm Akin of The Ugly Tree (Denver Comic Con 2016)

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