Kevin Shinick — the host and time-traveling detective of the Emmy-winning series Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, Emmy-winning writer behind Robot Chicken, and celebrated author — is writing and starring in HOST MORTEM. Shinick is joined by artist Damien Torres (Marvel Crisis Protocol), colorist Pippa Bowland (Judge Dredd, Project Cryptid), and letterer Taylor Esposito (Red Hood and The Outlaws). The 180+ page graphic novel is coming soon to Kickstarter from Clover Press, the publisher behind countless acclaimed graphic novels, art books and novels including The Marvel Art Of line of books, Ricardo Delgado’s Dracula, Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll, and Craig Yoe’s Woman & Man+. 

 

HOST MORTEM follows TV hosts, Kevin Shinick (Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?) and Greg Lee (Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?) who are transported to the year 1947 by a time portal at comic con. They soon find themselves enmeshed in a murder mystery involving Humphrey Bogart’s legendary noir film The Big Sleep. When one of the stars winds up dead, Kevin and Greg’s knowledge of random trivia might be the key to solving this Hollywood caper. 

 

Shinick says, “Between the two of us, Greg and I have hosted a number of game shows. As a result, we have a lot of random trivia floating around in our heads and I always wished I could put that knowledge to better use other than just, “Hey, did you know the singular of spaghetti it spaghetto?” And since we both played fake detectives on Carmen Sandiego (me a time traveling detective and Greg a classic gumshoe detective) I got to wondering how we might fare with an actual murder? The ultimate question being, “Are hosts really smart? Or do they just have the answers?” Lee adds, “The premise of two fake detective game show hosts from the 1990’s having to solve a series of real murders in the 1940’s seemed like a novel idea so we thought we might be onto something. Now, thanks to Kevin’s amazing talent writing comic books and our combined experience with game show shenanigans I get to star alongside my pal in Host Mortem! Which involves time travel, film noir, game show trivia and lots of comedy because, spoiler alert, we’re not as good at solving murders as we think.

 

Jace is joined by Kevin to talk about the project, his love of film noir and the impetus of the project with Greg Lee. Plus Kevin mentions coming up with the perfect title.