EPISODE 227: Get Shooked Part 3 with Kevin Grevioux
TRT 18:39
Kevin Grevioux has a voice that’s unforgettable.
CLIP Nothing like a nice plasma bath.
It purrs with a bassy rumble that could register on the R ichter scale.
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BETH ACCOMANDO Welcome back to listener supported KPBS Cinema Junkie, I'm Beth Accomando.
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BETH ACCOMANDO Kevin Grevioux has a voice perfectly tuned to villainy or anything that requires a sense of gravitas. But vocal villainy is not his main gig. He’s a multi-hyphenated talent with credits as an actor, screenwriter, director, publisher, and comic book writer. For the final episode of Cinema Junkie's three-part series focused on the talented trio of Black Com!x Day's Get Shooked: New Masters of Horror panel, I speak with Grevioux about his latest projects, owning your own IPs, and monsters.
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Kevin Grevioux not only played a badass lycan in the "Underworld" film series but he co-created the franchise with Len Wiseman. Grevioux has an impressive and imposing physical presence on screen and a voice that seems to pull octaves from a depth that mere mortals can never reach. He fell in love with horror at a young age and immediately developed an empathy for the monsters.
For the Black Com!x Day panel he will be focusing on his work in the upcoming crowd-funded project Shook! A Black Horror Anthology. He will be contributing a a pair of stories including one called Ezra the hunter. We’ll discuss the story as well as the allure of horror and why he likes to write comic books. I need to take one quick break so just sit back, relax, and get ready to enjoy my conversation with Kevin Grevioux.
CLIP Listen, Black Beetle, you are outnumbered, so open the doors and we will go easy on you… You will go easy on me? [laughs]
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BETH ACCOMANDO Welcome back to Cinema Junkie. As with Rodney Barnes and John Jennings, my previous guests from the Black Comix Day panel, Grevioux is a multi-hyphenate creator. All three will all be appearing on a panel called "Get Shooked! New Masters of Horror and all three will have stories in the anthology. I asked him about how he got involved with the project which represents a collaboration between Bradley Golden and Marcus H. Roberts of Second Sight Publishing and Professor John Jennings of John Jennings Studio.
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Yes, I met Bradley and Marcus at a convention, I think it was in Alabama about a year ago, two ago, and they broached me with the subject and I thought it was a good idea. And so I decided to donate a story or two and that's how we began.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And so what were the stories that you decided to write?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
One is called Ezra the Hunter and another one is going to be Bass Reeves, monster Hunter. And so I kind of reimagined the character Bass Reeves as a monster hunter of the supernatural in the Old West and I thought that was a good idea.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And what was the appeal to you of participating in this?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I've always loved horror and ever since I was like six years old, it's always been held a fascination for me. And so when they approached me with this and I've done a couple of horror comics in the past and looking at the array of talent that they were able to bring to bear, I actually said it was a no brainer. So I told them I was down and that's all she wrote.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And what do you think it is about horror that attracts you?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
You know what, maybe it's the design level of some of the creatures that might be it. There's nothing that's extension about it necessarily. It's just they're fun. They're fun. I mean, I think my first introduction of horror was probably well, I should say my first introduction of monsters were probably dinosaurs because they were real monsters. And that always held some fascination for me. And then you start to look at some of the cartoons that were existed at the time I was a kid, like Scooby Doo…
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KEVIN GREVIOUX
Things like that. And then I'm one of those individuals who's old enough to remember Dark Shadows when it came on television.
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KEVIN GREVIOUX
And so I was as avid a watcher of that as I could be at a young age, but that was cool too, and then The Munsters.
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BETH ACCOMANDO
And you've worked in film and in multiple mediums. So what is it in particular about comics that appeals to you in terms of either the kinds of stories you can tell or the way that you can tell them?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I think comics represent the ultimate form of storytelling because they're both visual and they're pros oriented as well as mixture of writing and visuals. And I think that since your budget isn't as high as if in television or movies, you can really tell any story within our limited budget. And I think that at least in the beginning, comic book writers were given a lot of latitude creatively and so the sky was the limit in terms of creativity. And that's what I liked about it.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And Shook is kind of riffing off of or inspired by the old EC comics. And was that something that you were reading at some point and inspired you in any way?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I think when I first started my interest in the comic books wasn't all through my childhood. I think, like most boys back then, by the time I was ten, I had some comics, you know what I'm saying? Maybe I could think of ten stories that I had, or ten books or something like that. But I really didn't get into comic books until I was twelve. And a buddy of mine, and we're still friends to this day, when we first moved into the neighborhood, as a gesture of friendship, he lent me an old EC reprint. And so when Bradley and Marcus started promoting Shook, I saw the trade dress and I said, okay, well, that's kind of an homage to EC Comics, which is pretty cool.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And you have also started your own imprints astounding Studios and Dark Storm? Yes. What prompted you to do that and why do you feel that's important?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Well, I think nowadays it's all about creating IPs and owning IPs and creating them under your own creative umbrella. And so after my experiences with Underworld, my thing was you need to have some ownership of these IPS so you can do different things or various things with them. When I did my next film, I Frankenstein.
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KEVIN GREVIOUX
My thing was to base it off of a comic book that I did, and that way you maintain more ownership, the money's are better. I wrongly thought you would have more creative control, and that's not necessarily the case, but it did afford me that much more respect and establish myself as that much more of a creator in a different medium, you know what I'm saying? And it just allows you to expand the breadth of your creativity, your creative palette, your creative influence and footprint in the industry. Since then, it's like film, television, comic books, animation, video games, I've kind of done it all. And that's the key, I think this is success. So definitely creating your own IP, or IPs is a step towards that kind of freedom and latitude.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Well, you brought up Underworld, which seems to tap into exactly what you were talking about as a kid with this fascination with monsters. You got vampires and werewolves. So tell me a little bit about kind of what led you to that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Well, one of my philosophies when it comes to creating is what has it been done before or what hasn't been done well? And there had never been really a vampire versus werewolf movie in the same sense.
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KEVIN GREVIOUX
My biggest influence was most likely the House of Frankenstein and the House of Dracula, and Frankenstein used to wolfman when all the monsters were fighting universal monsters. So my thing was, well, how can I translate that to a cool film and basically use it as a metaphor for race relations, interracial dating, things like that. And so that's how that came about, and it worked out well.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And even got a little Shakespeare in there, too, right?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Yes.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And you've also worked with Marvel, and what is that experience like in terms of you have your own imprint and you've worked with comics there, but working with a massive big comic books publisher like Marvel, what was that experience like?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
It is what it is. I think everyone gets there 15 minutes with Marvel, and you go there, you try to put your best foot forward within the parameters that they set before you. And it was fun. It was a bucket list item that was able to cross off, which was good, but now it's time to move on to Greener Passers.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And although I haven't heard it yet, I understand you voiced The Vault Keeper for an audio book. You seem especially well suited to that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Yeah, that's what they tell me. Yeah, that was vault of horror. I did that probably, what, two or three years pre pandemic. And that was very fun. I was able to come up with a voice that they liked. We were able to do that. It seemed to have gotten a lot of decent responses. I like that.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And is voice work something that you enjoy doing?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Yes, most definitely. It's not as easy to get as people think. They think because you have a unique voice or what have you, that work is going to be thrown at you. But that's not necessarily the case. Like a lot of these creative industries or mediums there, it's very incestuous, very incestuous. So it can be difficult to get jobs even if you have the tools.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And you're going to be at Black Comics day. What is the importance to you about having a convention that focuses on black comics?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I think it's important to show the wide range of talents that we as a people have, is not relegated to just sports or music. There are also other things as well in which we have made great strides, and I think this show highlights that, which is always important.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And your panel is in addition to be specifically on Shook, it really is looking to horror. And I'm just wondering, do you feel there's something about horror that lends itself especially to dealing with maybe some of the real world issues that in a way that makes them go ahead?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I think that good horror, like good science fiction, can always be used as a metaphor for something else, something larger. I think, as you know, Godzilla, for instance…
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KEVIN GREVIOUX
… Was a metaphor for the horrors that the Japanese had to deal with when it came to the dropping of the atomic bombs. So horror can be that as well. But it does not always have to be that way, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes you want to look at it as just an escape, a fun escape from reality. It doesn't have to delve into the anguish that people feel on a macro cosmic level or whatever. Sometimes it's just, hey, it's just fun. And that's what I like about it, to be honest. When I was a kid, I always wanted the master to live at the end. I would get upset when he was killed. Why can't you live some more? Why can't he survive and get rid of all these humans or whatever? I always thought that was fun, but yeah, as you grow older, you understand how people relate the horror. It's just that I wanted to use the horror characters like an underworld and I Frankenstein as the hero and kind of shift from what they had traditionally been to something new and different.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Yeah, I always cried when the monsters died, not when humans did, but yeah, well, and also, I think the appeal about horror, even if it's not something that has an overt social message, is horror, at least for me, when I was growing up, always seemed to be something that was a little transgressive and a little forbidden. And in terms of being rebellious and stuff, I mean, it seemed like it was always something that was special to escape to.
KEVIN GREVIOUX
Yeah, that's true. Very true.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Do you have any other upcoming projects that you wanted to talk about?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
I have a lot of things, most of which I can't talk about. One of the things that has been announced, I directed my first film this past year, well, last year, and it's about to be released sometime in the spring. In addition, we're also doing a TV show based on the property, so that would be another fun thing. And I sold the screenplay to 50 Cents’ Company, and so me and my partner, Dallas Jackson, are in the middle of writing that, and we will probably shoot that sometime later this year or early next year. So there are a lot of cool things on the horizon.
BETH ACCOMANDO
When you write a comic, what is the process of you working with whoever illustrates it?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
It's pretty straightforward. I'll ask for specific character designs of the characters, getting my little notes or whatever, and I write full scripts. I've learned over the years you're hiring writers, artists to do specific things, so you let them do what they do. And so after I hand them the script and give them all of my concomitant notes, I essentially let them go. And unless something is glaring, I live with what I get. And what I get is usually pretty good, if not excellent. I try to make it as painless as possible.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And have you seen the art or illustrations yet for the two pieces you did for Shook?
KEVIN GREVIOUX
For the first one, yes, the second one, no. I should be getting a cover in soon, and we'll start shortly thereafter, but yes.
BETH ACCOMANDO
All right. Well, I want to thank you very much for talking about your work.
KEVIN GREVIOUX
All right. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
BETH ACCOMANDO
That was Kevin Grevioux. His stories in Shook A Black Horror Anthology will be out later this year.
Also coming later this year, Grevioux will make his feature film directing debut with King of Killers. He will appear at Black Comix Day Sunday Feb 12 for Get Shooked The New Masters of Horror. If you have not listened to the previous episodes with Grevioux’s co-panelists I urge you to do so because Barnes and Jennings are brilliant Black creators as well.
That wraps up another edition of KPBS listener supported Cinema Junkie. Remember to check out Cinema Junkie’s archives including a collection of podcasts highlighting Black films and filmmakers over the past century. You can find videos and more podcasts at kpbs-dot-org-slash-cinema-junkie.
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Till our next film fix, I’m Beth Accomando your resident Cinema Junkie.
