September 3 – 9: “What can thriller writers learn from the comics industry?”

With so many authors moonlighting as comic book writers these days, the Thriller Rountable couldn’t help but ask: “What can thriller writers learn from the comics industry?” ITW Members Liam Sweeny, Lisa Black, Jeff Mariotte, and J. H. Bográn join us this week to discuss the inevitable overlap between comics and thrillers. Scroll down to the “comments” section and follow along!

Lisa Black has spent over twenty years in forensic science, first at the coroner’s office in Cleveland, Ohio and now as a certified latent print examiner and CSI at a Florida police department. Her books have been translated into six languages. One reached the New York Times bestseller’s list and one has been optioned for film. The first two, written as Elizabeth Becka, were followed by seven Theresa MacLean forensic thrillers. Her current Gardiner & Renner series includes That Darkness, Unpunished, Perish, and, in August 2018, Suffer the Children.

Liam Sweeny is an author and graphic designer from the Capital Region of New York State. His work has appeared both online and in print, in such periodicals as Spinetingler Magazine, Thuglit, All Due Respect, Pulp Modern and So It Goes: the Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. He is the author of the collection Dead Man’s Switch and the detective thriller Welcome Back, Jack.

J. H. Bográn, is a bilingual author of novels, short stories, and screenplays. In addition, he contributes columns for several notable publications, including Yale Global, The Big Thrill, and TopShelf Magazine. He works at Habitat for Humanity Honduras, and as a part-time college professor of writing, Spanish, and English as a foreign language. Follow him on Twitter (@jhbogran).

Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil’s Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet, and more. With partner and wife Marsheila Rockwell, he wrote the science fiction/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and the video game tie-in Mafia III: Plain of Jars, and has published numerous short stories. He also writes comics, including the long-running horror/Western series Desperadoes and original graphic novels Zombie Cop and Fade to Black. He was VP of Marketing for Image Comics/WildStorm, Senior Editor for DC Comics/WildStorm, and the first Editor-in-Chief for IDW Publishing.