Creator Interview: Gregory M. Guity on Alleycat 2.0

Rob speaks to Gregory M. Guity about Alleycat 2.0 and creating comics...

A couple of weeks back I sent a tweet out asking if any comic creators would like to answer some questions about their work. Whilst I didn't expect anyone to reply, the response was phenomenal. One such creator who got in touch was Gregory M. Guity who wanted to wax lyrical about his comic creation - Alleycat 2.0

Alleycat 2.0 is Guity's experiment at writing a comic. It's a comic filled with a dark and gritty story that drops you straight into the heart of the action. Featuring a cast of anthropomorphic animals, Alleycat 2.0 follows the titular Alleycat 2.0 as he battles his nemesis the crime lord - Cerebrus. While other comics give you a long-winded origin story or a mass deluge of exposition to read. Alleycat 2.0 gives you the here and now with bite-sized chunks of what you need to know. 

I recently sent Gregory some questions about Alleycat 2.0 and its creation, and this is what he had to say...

Hi Gregory, thank you for speaking to me about Alleycat 2.0.

GG - "My pleasure, thank YOU for showing this interest in my comic; I relish the opportunity to talk about it!"

What can you tell us about Alleycat 2.0 and its world?

GG - "Well, as I mention in the Foreword of the one-shot, originally this story was part of an anthology a writing buddy and I were putting together; it was gonna be this collection of various stories to show different facets of comic writing we could do for other publishers. That anthology has stalled for now, but this story was completed before that happened. As time went on I decided that instead of anything from Marvel or DC, Alleycat 2.0 WAS the comic I wanted to be writing and that’s when the world-building started. I don’t want to give away TOO much about that yet because I’m working on getting that ongoing series off the ground now, so hopefully, we can return to that question real soon. But this “Pilot” is indeed the launching pad for what’s to come."

From reading Alleycat 2.0: Pilot you can see that it's heavily influenced by plenty of 1990s Saturday morning cartoons, with a heavy dose of Batman thrown in. What were your main influences in creating this story? 

GG - "There is a lifelong love of cartoons and comics that went into the creation of Alleycat 2.0. In particular, I wanted to combine the second-generation hero aspect of “Batman Beyond” – if not the far-flung future aspect of it – with one of the anthro heroes I grew up on, in this case, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, which Batman co-creator Bob Kane had created back in 1960. It was a simple formula: A caped cat crusader and a mouse sidekick, geared up with a car that can take to the sky or sea just as well, and some gimmicked pistols. We don’t see the Alleycat’s ride do all that in this Pilot but the Smart Pistols do get their chance to shine!

Beyond those two, I spent a youth drawing a lot of animal superheroes inspired by Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Mighty Mouse, Danger Mouse, SWAT Kats, and Darkwing Duck in particular."

This issue also plays out via in-media-res as we see Alleycat 2.0 confronting his arch-nemesis. Did you encounter any challenges in writing the narrative in this way? 

GG - "Honestly it was the easiest thing. That in-media-res feeling was key to the anthology I and my writing partner were planning. What inspired that anthology was “The Very Best of Marvel Comics” and it was literally assembled as though you went to the comic book shop, picked up some 10 comics or so at different parts of their respective stories and took them home.

I never understood the necessity of “jumping on points” or the problem with big, intimidating 3-digit numbers on the cover of a comic. When I was growing up you just picked up a comic and dove in. It could have been at the start of a story, the middle, the ending (Mine mimics the summation of a yearlong story, not unlike “Long Halloween” “Dark Victory” or “Hush”) but you weren’t concerned about it, you saw this cover with colourful characters jumping right into the mix so you did too! With “Alleycat 2.0: Pilot,” I knew exactly what the main course of the story was – the second Alleycat confronting Cerberus, and the discoveries that come with it – and it came to me with ease."

We also see your team up with illustrator Kent Clark, who utilises a black & white colour scheme, as well as some solid line work to bring the script to life. What was it like working with Clark? 

GG - "Every time he sent me a finished character design based on my own drawings (some of those prospective characters in the final page were drawn by me and others by him), or a finished page it was like Christmas! He was AMAZING, I cannot overstate how grateful I was he took a chance on this story and how much skill he brought to it. He’s since moved on from Alleycat 2.0 but he’ll always be a big part of wherever it goes from here."

Come Alleycat’s conclusion you mention that a quote from J.M. DeMatteis is inspiring you to keep on creating and that your desire to write for Marvel /DC has cooled down. If you could go back in time what advice would you give your past self? 

GG - "J.M. DeMatteis is one of the absolute BEST at the all-ages style of writing/storytelling that characterized my comic reading experience growing up. I’ve always believed that the all-ages style is crucial to growing the comic book audience. Get’em young and you can keep’em for life. That’s why Alleycat 2.0 is written the way it is. I wanted to write something that a grownup and a kid could be reading while standing next to each other and have both enjoy the experience…

But getting to what he said in that quote…what I took away from it was, understanding that everything will have its time when it’s ready, is something that I believed even when I DIDN’T REALLY believe it, and even when I was getting majorly impatient waiting for that proverbial ship to come in. I originally wrote that story in my 20s, spent a portion of my 30s getting it illustrated, the rest of my 30s holding onto it and now it’s just…time to tell the world. If I could tell anything to my past self, I’d tell him to stay his course, he’s right not to let go and the reason he’s right not to let go of the idea of comic book writing and the Alleycat is that the idea hasn’t let go of HIM."

And finally, will Alleycat 2.0 return? And what can we expect to see from ourselves in the future? 

GG - "If I have my way the Alleycat will be back! I’m working on getting an ongoing series happening, my plan is it’ll be on the web in regular instalments with collections to follow. It’ll expand on the events of this Pilot and it’ll be a fun ride! Thank you again for sending me these questions and allowing me to discuss them."

I would like to thank Gregory M. Guity for taking the time to answer my questions. 

If you want to check out Alleycat 2.0: Pilot yourself then it is available via digital and print-on-demand by clicking here. 

You can also follow the writer over on Twitter: @WriterComicNYer

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Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev