Tak Toyoshima, the man behind Secret Asian Man, has, after a lengthy absence decided to relaunch a book he started way back in the 1990s- The Couch. I asked him a few questions about the book and his plans.
1. What's the book about?
The Couch is a sci-fi murder mystery that involves punk rock, retribution and reincarnation. A punk kid named Jesse is shot dead on his Couch by a mysterious hooded killer. Jesse's blood mixes with all the crap you find in your couch: hair, dead skin cells, finger nails, pizza crumbs … and spontaneously a gooey life form emerges and the Couch is born. It has no idea what it is but it knows that it is hungry. But soon it realizes the more it eats (by absorbing things into its body) the more memories it gains from the people and things around it. When it realizes that it is Jesse reincarnated it proceeds to try to solve its own murder.
2. Why has it been on hiatus so long?
I got distracted. I started working on The Tick. Then soon after I started Secret Asian Man and it became my main focus. I've always wanted to finish The Couch but I realized the reason why I never did was because I didn't have time to draw it myself. So I decided to hook up with an illustrator whose style I thought was a great match for The Couch, dusted off the script and voila, we created a 16 page preview edition that we are currently pitching to publishers,
3. What are the plans for the book going forward?
We want to find a good publisher who will let us produce The Couch as a one shot graphic novel. Around 140 pages. Full color if they let us.
Meanwhile we premiered the book at the Boston Comic Con in early May and lined up some local signings at Comicazi, Million Year Picnic and New England Comics. We're also going down to the ComicConn in Connecticut on August 27.
Here's a sneak peek:
