Daniel Corey Masters the Mystery of Moriarty: The Dark Chamber

There is a whole new game afoot from image comics and this time things are much more than they seem. Morairty is a new comic out this year from image and groundbreaking creator Daniel Corey casting the criminal mastermind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mythos in a whole new light. This week issue #4 hit comixology concluding the series explosive first arc. In honor of the release Daniel was nice enough to take a quick break from The Victorian world of murder and skullduggery to answer a few questions and shed a little more light on the Enigma that is…Moriarty.

So Moriarty: The Dark Chamber is a new comic out from Image, following the misadventures of one of the greatest villains in the history of literature. What drew you to Sherlock Holmes arch-nemesis in the first place?

Well, I love the idea of Moriarty. That’s all he really was in the original stories, an idea. He never appeared “on stage.”

Holmes spoke of Moriarty. In “The Final Problem,” Watson thinks he may have seen Moriarty – or some person – pushing through the crowd as he and Holmes depart Victoria station for the continent. That’s all we get in the way of a reliable eyewitness.

Some people theorize that Holmes imagined Moriarty out of a need for a formidable opponent. But the truth is, Sir Arthur Doyle created Moriarty as an excuse to kill off Sherlock Holmes, because Doyle was tired of writing the stories.

The idea of Moriarty is enough to entice: The one, big baddie out there, manipulating everything, causing all the problems in the world. It sparks a sense of adventure in all of us. It makes us feel that justice can be possible in the world, because one guy is the root of all our ills. But to actually take a look at the man himself, to see what makes him tick, see just what all the mystery is about, that intrigued me. So that’s why I wanted to write about him. I wanted to get into his fictional head and figure out what was going on. And since I only understand the behavior of healthy, rational human beings, Moriarty himself becomes a person that we can indentify with, to some extent. He just wants to survive and thrive, like the rest of us. His methods of doing so, however, are socially unacceptable.

Now you were actually able to get the book off the ground thanks to kickstarter  a website that  allows creators to seek out backers for funding on all kinds of different projects. What was that process like?

I’d say it’s what you make it. For me, I was incredibly stressed, and checked my email every five minutes to see if backers were coming through. But it doesn’t have to be that way for everyone else.

The Kickstarter process is a great one. I’ve heard that anyone that can raise 25% percent of their goal has something like an 80% chance of success. It’s a good place to be.

I needed those funds early on, because we were still shopping the book to publishers, and I needed to keep the workflow going. Thankfully, everything worked out, and by the time we signed with Image, we had two issues in the can. I’d recommend giving Kickstarter a shot.

Got any advice for folks interested in using kickstarter? How has the website changed since Moriarty: The Dark Chamber made its debut?

I don’t think anything has changed. I’d say go give a try if you’re looking to raise money for some artistic endeavor. You still keep all the rights to your project, and Kickstarter only gets 5% of the overall take. It’s win-win.

Just don’t be like me, and stress over counting the minutes between backers pledging in. Give yourself plenty of time, and make your goal reasonable. And promise good incentives. Just make sure you’ll be able to afford the incentives later.

Getting back to the comic, were there any characters from the vast mythos of Doyle’s Holmes novels that you wanted to use but we’re able to?

I’m picking and choosing moments to introduce characters from the original canon. The conclusion of THE DARK CHAMBER was released this week, so I’m not really letting the cat out of the bag when I say that Watson makes an appearance in our first story. But he’s not your grandmama’s Watson. When you read our Watson, you’ll know full well that we are doing a revisionist take on the mythos. Which is a blast.

I have many plans in mind, and other characters from the original stories may be showing up. But I don’t want to give away any surprises.

We’ll be back with Daniel a little later in the week to talk about going digital and what’s in store for this great new series down the road. For more on Moritarty download the latest issue of the comic from comiXology today, and keep an eye out for the first collected trade edition hitting a local comic shop near you.