A Thousand Questions With. . .
A.P. Fuchs

By Eric S. Brown

Founded in 2004, Coscom Entertainment is one of a growing number of small-press publishers specializing in superhero fiction. Started by AP Fuchs as an avenue for publishing his own Axiom-Man stories, Coscom has grown into the home for several original superhero sagas. A Thousand Faces contributor Eric S. Brown sat down with Fuchs recently for a chat about the future direction of his company.

 

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR COMPANY, COSCOM ENTERTAINMENT.

Let's see. . . I've been writing since 2000 and have been in the publishing game in one way or another since 2003 when I self-published my first book via AuthorHouse and the second via iUniverse. Though the experience on the first soured me, I fell in love with the book production process. So, in 2004 I founded Coscom Entertainment, which was more like a "re-finding" as Coscom Entertainment was an in-the-back-of-my-mind publishing house since my high school days. Nowadays it's official. Originally the company was meant to be merely an avenue to publish my own work, but when Keith Gouveia approached me and asked if Coscom Entertainment would be interested in publishing a benefit anthology for the late Charles Grant, I suddenly found myself to be deep in the world of traditional publishing.

Coscom Entertainment as a traditional publisher has been through two incarnations, the first being a publisher of speculative fiction, the second being what it is now: a niche publisher of superhero and monster-themed fiction. For more information, see www.coscomentertainment.com

HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN SUPERHEROES?

Lifelong fan. I've been watching superhero cartoons since as long as I can remember and have been in and out of reading comics since 1995 or 1996.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR ORIGINAL SUPERHERO, AXIOM-MAN.

The character has been in my head for over 15 years. It was in 2005 that I decided to finally do something with him so in January of 2006 I began working on the first novel in The Axiom-man Saga and it was released in September of 2006. See www.apfuchs.com for more.

BEYOND AXIOM-MAN, WHAT OTHER SUPERHEROES ARE PUBLISHED BY COSCOM?

I have published the first two novels in The Wraith Series by Frank Dirscherl with the third due out sometime this year. I've also published two books in Jon Klement's Rush and the Grey Fox series, which he's now reincarnated under Velocity Girl and Xuan Hu at a different publisher.

DO YOU FEEL THAT ORIGINAL SUPERHERO FICTION HAS A PLACE IN TODAY’S MARKET?

It's very much a niche product right now. I'm a realist when it comes to that. Unless you have a movie coming out about your original character, you need to market continually to avid superhero fans who wouldn't mind a break from Batman or Spider-man or Superman. I think that once those who read comic-novels get a taste for new superhero fiction, they'll seek it out. I mean, there's only so many Batman or Superman stories you can tell before one becomes similar to another.

COSCOM ALSO PUBLISHES HORROR AND MONSTER FICTION – INCLUDING THE RECENTLY-RELEASED WEREWOLF NOVEL SNARL. ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT THAT PROJECT?

Yeah, go and get it.

Seriously, though, Snarl is one of those special books that really pops. It's a wonderful throwback to those classic roadside horror movies that were fun in the '80s, the kind of story that carries that chilling horror feel that makes you remember why you love monsters in the first place. To summarize it quickly, it follows a family man who is a trucker for a living. He ends up taking a job that he thinks will make him some quick cash but soon he finds himself stranded in a town called Easter Glen where a secret pact between the townspeople and werewolves has been in place for centuries. Now the pact has been broken and the werewolves are on the prowl and this poor guy's caught up in the middle of it all.

WHAT DOES COSCOM HAVE LINED UP IN TERMS OF FUTURE PUBLICATIONS?

 Many, many novels, mainly monster ones right now but so far for 2009 we have a couple zombie books due from you (Eric S. Brown), Don of the Dead by Nick Cato, the first book in a monster trilogy by Gina Ranalli, a zombie anthology edited by me called Dead Science, Cult of the Damned (the third in The Wraith series) by Frank Dirscherl plus a whole lot more. It's very exciting times here at Coscom Entertainment. We hope all those reading this will join us for the ride.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD IN TERMS OF YOUR OWN WRITING?

Too much, which is a good thing. Got the final two volumes of my Undead World Trilogy (www.undeadworldtrilogy.com ) due out in the next year plus a couple fun zombie projects I'm working on, along with what would be the fifth Axiom-man book, City of Ruin.

I KNOW THAT, LIKE MYSELF, YOU ARE A RELIGIOUS PERSON. HOW DOES YOUR FAITH AFFECT YOUR WORK?

The easy answer is, of course, wanting to bring glory to God through everything I publish. The more complex answer is trying to ensure that what I publish doesn't cross any barriers that, as a Christian, I feel I shouldn't cross (i.e. explicit language, explicit sex, etc.). Of course, some would argue that publishing books about zombies is completely anti-Christian and that I shouldn't be doing it. My answer to that, even to some of the more intimate scenes I write and/or publish, are three words: context, context, context. I mean, the Bible has sex in it, monsters (demons, anyone?) and gore. What makes it "allowable" is context.

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ERIC S BROWN is a zombie author and a comic book columnist living in NC. Some of his upcoming books include Season of Rot (Permuted Press) and Unabridged Unabashed and Undead: The Best of Eric S Brown (Library of the Living Dead Books). Both are due in 2009. Some of his other books include Cobble, The Queen, Madmen's Dreams, and Zombies: Inhuman. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times in publications ranging from Dark Wisdom to The Undead anthology series.