Michael D. Davis

Hekate is thrilled to be working with Michael D. Davis, a young, talented writer who illustrates his own work, melding present with the era of James Thurber and classic crime. Coming soon is volume one of his hard boiled Count Whorton Collection. He has agreed to answer a few questions. All images included here are his.

When did you start to write? When did you start to draw?

I started to draw when I was ten or eleven. Because of my horrible asthma and awful allergies, I was always what you’d call an indoor kid, not that I was interested much in the sports hooliganism or outdoor rambunctiousness like other tykes my age. My favorite past time was television and lucky for me I had (self-proclaimed) old parents that introduced me to wonderful older cartoons my favorite being the looney tunes. I’d watch them over and over again until I just started drawing them. I’d pause the TV and sit sketching Bugs Bunny playing the piano.

I started writing in high school. Up till then, I was the black sheep in a family of voracious readers. I was usually watching TV or movies, ones that my peers hadn’t even heard of. While the other high schoolers were out cruising and fighting city hall against that city-wide dancing ban (I can only assume) I was at home watching Mash reruns, old Vincent Price or Humphrey Bogart movies, and other older entertainments. I eventually started looking into the writers of the movies and TV shows I loved and that led me to the books they were adapted from. When I finally read Dashiell Hammett, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and Donald Westlake in high school I knew what I wanted to do. I took every English and Art course I could (ignoring all other classes) even taking a few advanced creative ones the teachers made up for me. My first story (an awful story in retrospect) I sent off in my junior year to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to get my first rejection of many to come. 

What is your creative routine like?

I don’t honestly have one. With my various Illnesses, it throws things off day to day, so I don’t really do anything at the same time every day. Which is cool because I don’t really think writing is like that. It may help to sit down at the same time every day, but with me anyway the story comes when it comes. I often write at night, I don’t particularly know why. However, I’ve written at my typewriter at four in the afternoon and four in the morning, but I’ve also written a complete short story on a small note pad while I sat in a waiting room. So, like I said, it comes when it comes, no special routine.

However, the way I write is pretty routine. I write the story either longhand on a legal pad, or on one of my various typewriters. I revise it. Then type it again on the computer which gives me a second chance to go over it. And I’m not the best grammar or punctuation reviser I’m more of a does this word sound good with this word sort of person. I then print it out. My mom reads it, which she’s read tons and tons of books and she tells me whether its crap or not. Then I send it off someplace.

Your stories, while contemporary, are reminiscent of a hard boiled style from a classic era. Who are your influences?

I have many, many, many influences. James M. Cain, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Neil Simon, Ed Gorman, Gregory Mcdonald, Horace McCcoy, John D. MacDonald, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Roald Dahl, Billy Wilder, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and so many others. My top author of all time is Donald E. Westlake, no matter what pen name he’s writing under.

I’m also highly influenced by film and TV, especially in the Count Whorton series. Some that I love are: The Cheap Detective, Murder By Death, Clue, The Maltese Falcon, The Ladykillers (original and remake), Stakeout, The Nice Guys, Peeper, Columbo, and Rockford Files  

Your character names are wonderful. How did you come by these?

I love names, some of them I just come across, others I search for, and some I just make up. Elmore Leonard always had great names for his characters like Chili Palmer from Get Shorty and a lot of older movies have great names as well. The Cheap Detective has Peter Falk playing a guy named Lou Peckinpaugh, which is one of the greatest names ever. I have a fairly common name so I refuse to give my characters common names. I’m constantly searching for good names, I have stacks and stacks of phone books, I look on baby name sites and I even try to make up my own like Groucho did with Rufus T. Firefly. But sometimes it falls in your lap, like the other day I was watching a show and on the credits a guys last name was After. I know I can use that name someway or other.

Do you draw as much as you write?

I draw way more than I write. Writing has to come to you and it takes brainpower. You have to sew each word together to make the sentences sound good and the story live. Drawing, on the other hand, I don’t need much idea at all, I just start sketching. I don’t write every day, but I do draw twice at least every day. I draw once in my big sketchbook, where I’ve been doing these comic cartoon sketches lately, and once in a little notepad. I never miss a day; I’ve had shingles and a fever and still done two drawings. Today is day 873 in my big sketchbook and 682 in my little one. The little drawings started in a funny way. One day I drew on this small pad and taped the picture in the fridge as a joke. The next day I did the same only to the bathroom and now I’ve been putting the little drawings around the house for over 680 days. I’ve also made a goal for all my little drawings in the year of 2020 to be the character of Little Gooby Goober which I came up with. I thought it would be a cool challenge to draw him wearing or doing something else for 365 days.

Do you see art and writing as different? If so, please explain.

I see them as different as they are different mediums, but they are ultimately doing the same thing and that is telling a story. A story can be told in a multitude of ways from word of mouth, reading, TV and film, painting or cartoons.