Several months back, I connected with Dave Dwonch on his graphic novel addition to Titan Comics’ Hard Case Crime library, The Loose End. A throwback to the crime movies that flourished in the 1990s, The Loose End focused on a hapless screenwriter caught up in a murder plot in Mexico. This October, Titan Comics releases the trade paperback (with some revisions), and since we were in San Diego, it seemed a good time to catch up with Dave at the Titan Publishing booth. He offered a bonus — a chance to add his collaborator artist Travis Hymel to the mix.
We talked about their process working together, what they might have done differently, and how a good artistic collaboration is hard to shake. As it should be.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Derek McCaw: Dave, we talked before the first issue came out. I don’t remember how many months before. I think maybe two.
Dave Dwonch: It’s tough. It’s like time means nothing the way I like to work. I’ll finish a whole four issue miniseries before even pitching it, and I think we got accepted and I think we were in issue 3. You may have even seen it well before.
Travis Hymel: You know, we were all the way done when it got finally got picked up.
Dave Dwonch: We go out on a limb a little bit, but you know it makes it so that the editorial process is a little smoother on our end. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, sorry. Titan and Hard Case, they were all in with us from the jump and it was awesome.
Travis Hymel: I was expecting some concessions, some changes, but no, really nothing. Nothing really changed at all. No dialogue either, right? You would be able to tell.
Dave Dwonch: No, the whole thing was done, yeah.
Derek McCaw: And here we are at the tail end, you’re about to have a trade paperback release.
Dave Dwonch: October, yeah.
Derek McCaw: I had talked to Dave about this, but Travis, what was it like working with Dave, and what kind of special sauce did you bring?
Travis Hymel: Well, BBQ but…
Dave Dwonch: Chipotle honey. Yeah, yeah.
Travis Hymel: Yeah, Chipotle, honey, that’s the sauce. Going back with Dave, we started working together just because we found out we actually lived really close and we bonded over drinks at a bar and Dave pitched this story to me. I was really intrigued. And one of the things art-wise that we were talking about is doing a Dave Mazzuchelli, Alex Toth kind of mash-up of art and make a kind of gritty crime story. I feel like that was a challenge to do that kind of art style.
My art, that kind of naturally goes to a more cartoony style. So this was a cool challenge. At the time I was doing some stuff for Devil’s Due, the Trailer Park Boys comic book, and it was much different art-wise going into The Loose End, but I feel like I was bringing a lot of that style to make the book more unique and a lot of storytelling. I consider myself a really good storyteller. I might not be the best or most amazing artist, but I can really make compelling pages. That will help sell the script at the same time to go along with with Dave’s script.
Dave Dwonch: Anyone that knows the book or is interested in reading the book, it’s super meta and it’s really about the creative process, writing a screenplay and actualizing that. When I was writing, I was thinking cinematically. I was thinking how do we stage this action and make it fluid and make it feel big wide screen, right? Travis really nailed that in my opinion.
Derek McCaw: As you said, like writing a screenplay, and ‘ve certainly run into a few people this year that have taken their screenplays and adapted them into graphic novels because that’s the way to go first. For somebody who does not really know, what’s the difference for you?
Dave Dwonch: I think this one was fun because I pitched it to my friend Jason Martin, who’s a dear friend. He’s a creator of the Pulp Girls line and he was like, dude, you’re writing a screenplay. And I’m like, yeah, but that’s sort of the point of this one specifically. If I can pull it off, if I can stick the landing on this, it’s going to be amazing.
And I think that we did. I always worry. I don’t really worry about the beginning of a story, like you get the concept. You have all the energy in the world. Then sometimes the wind in the sails runs out. Right?
So for me, getting the fourth issue was paramount. We did make a concession in the issue of the fourth issue that then gets sort of corrected in the trade paperback. It was just the page economy. How many pages do we have here, right? We were able to really drive home the meta aspect of it in the trade paperback.
Travis Hymel: You know, in hindsight after finishing it all, we kept talking about do we do four or five issues. I think that if we did the five, it would have really messed up the pacing.
Dave Dwonch: Travis was pushing for five. Because there’s so many big action moments in it. You could extend those action moments into a whole other issue. But I want it to punch.
There’s something about comics between the panels, in the gutter. Time does transpire between those panels, right? That’s very specific to comics. Even though I was writing a screenplay about a screenplay about a screenplay, I was also thinking how do I make this the tightest four issue comic series I could? I think we did it.
We had a lot of fun with it, too. Honestly, I’ve never had a more collaborative experience. Yes, it was due to proximity; we’re literally like ten minutes away from each other. But then if Travis had questions about the script or any of the action or anything like that or if I had questions about the art, we could get together with a coffee.
When you’re young, you find your group of comic book creator friends and you know you learn together through the process. And I think that we kind of did that during this process.
Derek McCaw: Any final thoughts from you, Travis?
Travis Hymel: You know, I feel like it was just a long process of getting this started, drawn, and then pitched. It feels surreal that it’s all over in a sense. The trade is coming out in October and it makes me very proud of what we made. But again, very surreal. To think it’s over and we’ll still hopefully work together. I mean, we live ten minutes away from each other. We’re gonna be kind of forced to see each other.
Dave Dwonch: We’ll be in each other’s lives forever. I don’t know what the next project is.
We always talk about what a sequel for The Loose End would be, and we both have opinions about how it would go and I think all of it could make a sequel, but I’m really happy with what we did in this. I mean there’s more meta to be had. There’s more action, there’s more fun, there’s more like scummy dudes, Hollywood bros. There’s stuff to say, but, you know, I think we kind of said it all in this.
Travis Hymel: I made a couple of pitches to Dave, like what if we did this, you know, if we did have the chance to do like a one shot or something. Blah blah blah is what we would do, you know.
Dave Dwonch: Totally. And then you fall in love with some of the characters and then anyone that reads the book, you know that not everyone makes it out alive. And you’re like, man, a prequel could be cool. But then we’re like, but that’s another trope that you would then throw into comics, right?
I mean, really, honestly, the thing I love about comics the most is you’re free to do whatever you want to do. And that’s the major difference between film and comics. While we have a ton of ideas, we’ll see, you know?
Derek McCaw: We look forward to seeing, thank you.
The Loose End TPB hits on October 6, 2025. Fanboy Planet is a Bookshop.org affiliate, among other online vendors. Purchases made through links on this and other pages may generate a commission for this site. Bookshop.org purchases will also be credited to Mysterious Galaxy, which contributes a portion of its profits to KPBS in San Diego.
