Brian Gonsar is an award-winning producer with an impressive portfolio that includes feature films, music videos, art installations, and even a Super Bowl commercial. He is also a self-proclaimed donut enthusiast who has traveled the world in search of the best doughnut. Given his diverse background, it is fitting that Brian’s first graphic novel is titled “Dracula’s Brunch Club.” This whimsical children’s book, as Brian describes it, “is a perfect combination for kids who want scary stories without actually being scared.”
With his book releasing on August 26th, we sat down with Brian to discuss his creative beginnings, his love of the culinary delights that are donuts, and his first graphic novel. So, let’s welcome Producer, writer Brian Gonsar to GVN Talking Comics.
Creative Beginnings
GVN: Thank you, Brian, for sharing a small part of your day with us. Since this is our first opportunity to visit, let’s start with your creative beginnings. You have made a career out of producing not only TV commercials, live events, music videos, and feature films (not to forget books), what did you intend to focus on early on, and how did those desires become so widespread into so many facets of creation?
BRIAN: Thanks for having me! I’m someone who loves creating things. In college, I was really drawn to music videos. If one came on TV (yes, they used to play on TV), I could probably tell you who directed it. As a film major, I had access to tons of equipment and began shooting videos for indie artists around the NYC area. Fast forward to 2021 – I was writing Dracula’s Brunch Club, which is a funny, kid-friendly, twisted origin story of why vampires like blood. I saw a music video for All Time Low’s song, “Monster,” and thought “that’s the style in my head for this graphic novel!” I did some online stalking to find out that Keenan (the illustrator) created it and reached out to see if I could beg him to partner with me on this. Luckily, he was really interested in working on a graphic novel.
For the Love of Donuts
GVN: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention your love of donuts. In this respect my wife would be a member of that club. I’m pretty sure she would leave me if I didn’t respect her love of Krispy Krème. How did your fascination for these boundless pastries of goodness get its start?
BRIAN: The Donut Brunch Club welcomes everyone! (Though, I can’t say the same for the Scone Enthusiasts Club.) As far as where my infatuation started, it was growing up in central Pennsylvania. And while our culinary diversity was severely lacking, it more than made up for it in the baked goods department. But it was when I started traveling a ton for work that I started making it a priority to visit a new donut shop each trip. It was a fun excursion for me and people started to associate me with donuts. They’d ask for recommendations, view my donut blog, and if they were traveling with me, they knew they’d get a donut at some point. That love seeped into my “creator” side and the integration into this twisted vampire story made complete sense in my sugar-coated mind. I mean, it makes total sense that vampires would get their all-night energy from blood orange jelly donuts, right?
Writing Children’s Books
GVN: As I mentioned, besides your work in television and film, you have written a number of children’s stories that capture both children and adults. As you sit down to create a story, do you write to just entertain or do you hope to impart a lesson along the way?
BRIAN: I am not one to try and hit someone over the head with a message. We get enough of that on a daily basis. My goal is to entertain and make someone laugh. But if I can influence someone’s thinking for the better, I’ll certainly try. So I prefer to have my characters lead by example. They don’t say they are doing something because it’s good – they just do it because it’s part of their character and kids will see that. For example, Count Dracula’s lack of jelly not only hurts the energy-level of his fellow vampires, but it also jeopardizes the promise he made to his human friend, Elena, that he’d donate a year’s supply of jelly donuts for her charity auction to help sick kids. At the end, you can see how he makes good on his word to help those in need as well as his vampire friends…just in a different way than we expected.
Dracula’s Brunch Club
GVN: Your first graphic novel is coming out in August with Dracula’s Brunch Club, illustrated by Keenan Gaybba. How did this story come to fruition, and was Keenan always your first choice to bring it to life?
BRIAN: This story took me about a year to write. As I went along, I was always on the lookout of who could bring this to life, as my stick-figure characters wouldn’t cut it. The moment I saw Keenan’s work with the All Time Low music video, I knew he was my first choice. It evoked that 90’s Cartoon Network vibe, which I thought was nostalgic and visually interesting. A bunch of people online have even said it reminded them of Gravity Falls. Keenan’s coloring style has a level of polish to it and the expressions he brought to each character enhanced the humor and playfulness so much, I fear the book would have fallen flat with anyone else.
Working with Oni Press
GVN: You are working with the good folks at Oni Press on this book. How did this collaboration come about? (hard to go wrong working with Oni Press).
BRIAN: Oni Press has been absolutely fantastic to work with. My agent was the one who made the connection with Grace, my editor, and she totally ‘got’ the book and my stupid humor. She was our guide and guru throughout the project. The Oni team has really rallied around the book, elevating the design, pushing the release date up earlier than planned, getting it in the Scholastic Book Fairs (which is a huge feat for a debut author), generating some good PR, and even throwing a donut brunch at ALA!
I also always envisioned the cover of this book to be very graphic in nature. The book Smile and Guts always caught my eye in stores due to the bright color and simple, graphic image. I wanted something like that too but know showing your main character on the cover is a big marketing box to check. Luckily, the Oni Press team saw eye-to-eye with the vision, which Keenan and I were very excited about.
A Foreword by Kevin Jonas
GVN: You have Kevin Jonas from the Jonas Brothers writing the foreword for the book, which might be cool for kids by itself. How did you get Kevin’s participation?
BRIAN: Actually, he was the one who gave me the idea for a foreword. He’s my brother-in-law (our wives are sisters), so I have a little bit of an “in.” But, like me, he’s very creative. He’s always pitching movies, tv shows, apps, etc. We share a love of music videos and beyond the family relationship, we’re just good friends. He’s very supportive of everyone in the family who is doing something creative (like my wife who released her debut book At the Kitchen Sink in April, our sister-in-law who has her own clothing boutique, our bro-in-law who is a great DJ, etc). Kevin did grow up around comics and sees his daughter’s (my niece’s) bringing them home, so it was more than just a random stamp of approval – he really does love comics and graphic novels. And if you look closely, you’ll find him drawn into the book (very Where’s Waldo of us, I know).
Upcoming Projects
GVN: I want to thank you again Brian for your time. In closing, I want to give you the opportunity to talk one last time about Dracula’s Brunch Club and any other projects you might want our readers to know about.
BRIAN: If you have a kid that loves spooky stories, but doesn’t want to be scared, this book is for you. It’s a comedy in a spooky wrapper that feels like it could be a cartoon. It takes all the vampire tropes you know and love and twists them around, giving it a fresh take. I’m super proud of it and I hope it’ll entertain a lot of kids and adults out there and lead to more books. Oh…and donuts. Remember there’s lots of donuts.
As far as what’s next, I’m currently working on another middle grade graphic novel that falls in the “spooky-parody-featuring-food” world as well as a YA graphic novel with Keenan that we’re describing as Midnight in Paris meets emo music. Can you smell the angst?
Oni Press’s Dracula’s Brunch Club by Brian Gonsar and Keenan Gaybba hits stands on August 25th.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 60 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove headfirst over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 21-year-old young man with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
