Interview with Devin Faraci
KILLER INSIDE ME
Jon: Devin, I’m a huge fan of the work of Jim Thompson, my favorite is THE ALCOHOLICS. What made you pick THE KILLER INSIDE ME to do an adaptation of?
Devin: IDW had already chosen it! Chris Ryall came to me; he knew my writing and listened to my podcast, where I said I was a big fan of Jim Thompson. He had the rights to this book and took a chance on me.
Jon: I don’t like to even guess what was going on in Thompson’s head when he wrote the book. And having seen the film adaptation I don’t think I would have wanted to be around Casey Affleck while they were filming. Did Lou Ford get into your head while you wrote this?
Photo taken from Devin’s Twitter page
Devin: It would be really cool to say yes, and that I became a dark, dangerous man for the last few months, but the reality is that I found myself more in Jim Thompson’s head than Lou’s. I was trying to understand how Thompson approached story and character, and transpose that on to the comic book page.
Jon: The Darwyn Cooke adaptations of the Parker books by Richard Stark were a huge hit. There are also a number of other great crime novels being adapted and some great original crime comics coming out right now as well. Do you feel any pressure to try and live up to these?
Devin: This was my first time writing a comic – I couldn’t even imagine trying to live up to Darwyn Cooke, one of the greats of all time. Anyway, I had my hands full trying to not screw up Thompson!
Jon: There are some really violent scenes in the book, how did you decide how best to show these? The movie didn’t pull any punches (so to speak) and was disturbing to watch.
Devin: We get to that in issue 2, and it was a thing I thought about a lot. I was at Sundance when the movie version debuted, so I know first hand just how negative the reaction to that scene was. I want to get across the impact while not being totally offensive, and while being aware that violence against women is a story point that carries a lot of weight in the current climate. I hope we handled it responsibly while also keeping the scene disturbing and heavy.
Jon: Would you consider Lou Ford a sociopath or more of a psychopath?
Devin: He’s definitely a psychopath. His sickness leads him to mess with people, and it makes him escalate that into more and more terrible and random acts of violence.
Jon: Do you think in the real world people like this could exist for long periods of time without running into problems, like getting arrested or killed?
Devin: Man, people like this are running for president today.
Jon: How did you guys get the wonderful essay from Stephen King?
Devin: That was all Chris Ryall! Joe Hill, King’s son, writes a book for IDW, so Chris had some access.
Jon: If this is a hit and you can do more what book would you consider next?
Devin: Yes! I have been having the best time writing this comic. I want to write more comics in general, and I would love to do more Thompson. I’d really like to take a crack at THE GETAWAY, which has a very different ending in the novel than the movie versions have.
Jon: What other crime fiction authors do you enjoy?
Devin: I love James Ellroy and Elmore Leonard. I really dig the RIPLEY books by Patricia Highsmith. Ed Brubaker was an inspiration for this series. Don Winslow kicks ass, and I have a copy of THE CARTEL sitting in my ‘to read’ pile.
Follow Devin on Twitter:
@devincf
