A conversation with writer, producer, director Leopoldo Gout, author of the upcoming novel Ghost Radio

Q: You’re a painter/animator by training, and you’ve collaborated with James Patterson on his first graphic novel. Your first novel, GHOST RADIO, began as a graphic novel. Can you explain how you transitioned from a primarily visual artist to a novelist?

A: At heart I’m a storyteller. Anytime one tells a story, no matter what medium is used, there are certain points of the story one has to hit. In this sense, telling a story using words and metaphors is really not all that different from using color hues and lines of symmetry.

Illustrating has always been a huge part of my life, and it’s the way that I explore and mine ideas. Those ideas vary from characters that I encounter to feelings or concepts that I conjure. So with Ghost Radio, the project began with sketches that I was creating for a graphic novel. After I drew several of these images, I started to write the story meant to guide the images alongside those early ink drawings-- similar to a storyboard in film.

To my surprise, the words began to overtake the images, so much so that I had to stop and reconceptualize how the story needed to be told. It was evident to me then that the book was no longer going to be a graphic novel, and I ultimately settled on a more traditional novel format, albeit with graphics interspersed throughout.

Q: 2. The novel features a call-in show called Ghost Radio-- where listeners tell old-fashioned, slumber party-like scary stories. Are any of the stories included in the novel one’s you’ve heard before or are they all newly created for the book?

A: I grew up Mexico City. To some, it’s the most haunted place on earth--- many consider it somewhat of a vortex for the dead. I love it and to me it’s truly a magical place. There are major cultural pillars of Mexican society devoted entirely to keeping the spirits of the dead happy, and as fulfilled as they were when alive. Many may consider this spooky or crazy. For me, it’s just who I am and where I come from, and ultimately, all of it inspires me. To me, the supernatural is but only a heightened sense of what’s natural.

Our family’s first apartment in the Colonia Roma was truly a terrifying old building. The living room of our apartment is a legendary place in our family and to all the neighbors who lived in the building. Odd things happened in that room. Ghosts appeared to all of us, and I remember many, many ghost stories taking shape in that room. Many of those made it into Ghost Radio.

About 20 years later, after I had long since moved from that apartment, I came back to Mexico for a visit. I walked passed our old apartment and I felt the urge to see who lived there. The teenaged son of the tenant let me in. We talked for a bit and as we did I made my into the living room. He took me by the arm and led me out of it. When I asked him why, he told me that no one in his family went into that room. When I asked him why, he simply said, “The dead”. It still gives me chills when I think about it.

Q: 3. The protagonist of Ghost Radio, Joaquin, immigrates from Mexico to the United States after his hit call-in show gets incredibly popular. Did you model the character after your own move from Mexico to the U.S.? Is there a connection between immigrants into the US and the supernatural world which you write about?

A: Moving to the US has made me ultra sensitive to the situation most immigrants find themselves in. Not only on a political level, which is what we mostly hear about, but more importantly on a philosophical and spiritual level.

I came into this country with a backpack filled with old paint brushes, and some skills I picked up in art school. But like most immigrants, I came to this country with a calling to work and work until I made it in America. Moving back to Mexico wasn’t even an alternative for me at the time. In this sense, I think I went through what many immigrants go through. My past and upbringing, although always a part of me, was ‘over there’, on the ‘other side’. It’s both a real past, filled with memories and a way of life, but one which no longer exists for those of us who live on ‘this side’. Immigrants start with our counters reset at zero on ‘this side’. Our history doesn’t matter that much to most people.

I began to think bout how this immigrant mindset, when filtered through the stories that I tinker with, perfectly fit with the language one uses to describe the line that exists between the dead and the living. This side, that side, a ghost world, the real world, all of it just clicked, and I realized that the immigrant has more in common with ghosts than one would ever care to believe.

Just like ghosts, some people see immigrants, and to others, they are totally invisible.

Q: 4. Most of your novel takes place in the Goth era of the early 90s, and offers readers an insiders view of comic book culture and underground punk. Why did you choose this period as the setting for the novel, and how does the music and art of the time period affect the story?

A: There was something very pure about that period in the early ‘90’s. It was before the world became as connected as it is, and for the most part, people were at their core, still very old-fashioned. I like the idea of that period. We pretended to be dark because the world around us simply wasn’t. We read and listened to songs about anarchy because we really had no concept about what that really meant. We certainly didn’t think we were naïve, but in retrospect, all of our pseudo-dark posturing was really quite innocent. It was pre-9/11, and the world we know of today. It was a good time, and I thought my setting Ghost Radio back then would help put me into the mind frame I needed to capture what I was writing about.

With regard to the comic books, I was obsessed. Still am really. It’s hard to find anyone who does what I do for a living who is not obsessed with comics. Comic books and the heroes that fill them have taught people like me about the nature of good and evil, about honor and ethics, about what it means to be normal and accepted as well as a total outcast. It’s a philosophy, and to some, a religion. All perfect inspiration for my work.

Q: 5. How has your career as a producer, director, graphic novelist, and composer influenced your writing?

A: We live in a world that creatively feeds off of one medium and into another in truly special ways. The days where a writer only writes and a visual artist only paints is an older model which doesn’t really apply any longer. People’s brains work differently now, and we’re used to absorbing information from various places in a manner none of us has ever before experienced. All of this is perfectly suited to the way I work. Thankfully, all the technology is such that I get to effectively use my mind and talents in the most optimal ways, using tools which have helped hone all that I want to do. I see everything I do as a package of layers, and the visuals, the writing, the composing, all of it has to work at once, or to me, it won’t work at all.

Q: 6. Tell us about what you do at Curious Pictures.

A: I began directing commercials and music videos with my brother for Curious Pictures. My role within the company has evolved over time. I recently became a partner because I wanted to expand my focus to include more film, television, and books (which has always been my dream). I develop some amazing projects with my brother, one of which is the development of a non-profit cultural organization, called Fundación Casa Buñuel, dedicated to the restoration of film, development of screenwriting programs, and the fostering of cinema studies in Mexico City.

I also work closely with James Patterson, who has recently launched his entertainment production company in New York. My current partners at Curious opened their doors and gave me an amazing opportunity and playground that benefits all of the various interests and endeavors I have. I know I’m very lucky. I love what I do, the people I get to work with, and there is no greater feeling than seeing something we’ve worked so hard on become a reality.

Q: 7. What's next for you on this slate of projects?

A: I’m producing with Amy Kaufman (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Constant Gardener) “Days of Grace”, a movie set in Mexico City that my brother is directing. I am also producing an incredible film with James Patterson and Avi Arad (producer of Spiderman), for Columbia Pictures, titled “Maximum Ride” which is based on Patterson’s fantastic young adult franchise.

With Curious Pictures, I am working on the next Michel Gondry film (Michel directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), to be written by Dan Clowes (Ghost World). This will be Michel’s first-ever animated feature film project and he is co directing it with his son!

In regards to my original work, I write every day and I’m working on some sketches for my next graphic novel, as well as other stories I have rolling around in my head. I can’t wait to write my next novel, as it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.