Check Out David Lucarelli’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Lucarelli.

Hi David, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. I came out to Los Angeles in 1989 and got a B.S. in Recording Arts from USC. After graduation I worked my way up in various recording studios from being a runner to being an ADR Mixer for film and television. In the 2000’s I played guitar in the local hard rock band Dame Fortune. When I got married and had a son, I switched my creative focus to being a writer. I’ve written and produced a couple of award winning plays, Doctor Zomba’s Ghost Show, and Crude. I’ve also been writing comic books and graphic novels for the past decade plus. The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade trilogy is a YA coming of age Gothic adventure inspired by the real life Gorbals vampire incident. Tinseltown is a period crime drama about one of the first female police officers in Hollywood. It’s also a tribute to my mother, Miriam Lucarelli, who proudly served as a Pittsburgh Police Officer. Most recently I wrote Doctor Zomba’s Ghostly Tales, a horror anthology that’s a modern twist on the old E.C. Comics meets The Twilight Zone. Currently, I’m working on a comics short story for a weird western anthology called “The Death of Red Mask.” As soon as that’s done, I’ll turn my full attention to the third Tinseltown graphic novel, Tinseltown: Lady Killer.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, the past seven years has been a strange time for the entertainment industry in general. I’m hopeful that the local film and television industry gets back on its feet. I’ve had to expand my skill set to include recording audio books, audio dramas and video games to survive. Between the pandemic, the dual strikes, the streaming consolidation, the LA fires, and the rise of AI, it’s been a perfect storm. The expanded tax credits, particularly for post production, the promise of a federal tax credit, and the fact that this year’s box office seems to be healthier than it has been in a few years all give me hope that Hollywood’s glory days may come back.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For more than twenty years, I’ve had the privilege of working with top writers, directors, actors and producers as they add, change or re-record lines of dialogue and voice over. I’ve worked on everything from The Simpsons to some of the Marvel movies. It’s given me a pretty well honed ear, for when it comes to writing my own dialogue in my comics, plays and short stories. Like Mark Twain, I believe “the difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” I’m probably best known for Tinseltown, which was the number one selling comic for the publisher and which everyone tells me should be a film or television show. It was inspired by some historical circumstances at Universal Studios in the silent film era. The studio actually had some of the first female police officers. They acted as across between security guards who solved petty crimes, and kept the extras in line, and curiosities who were there to assist and amuse the tourists. In Tinseltown, officer Abigail Moore is the daughter of a fallen officer for the LAPD. She wants to become a real officer, but in the meantime, working at Utopia Studios is as close as she can get, and she finds real trouble in a town where nothing is what it seems! I’m a storyteller. Everything I do, from writing songs, to recording ADR, and audio books to making comics is me either telling stories or helping others tell theirs. Whether writing horror, or a period crime drama, my stories tend to be about misfits who are seeking their place in a world that is at best indifferent and frequently actively hostile to their very existence.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You won’t be the same person you were at twenty five as you’ll be at fifty five. You won’t want the same things out of life. After recording and releasing three CDs and a live DVD with Dame Fortune, after a decade of trying to get a record deal, I fell in love with the woman who would become my wife and she became pregnant with my son. Suddenly, what I had been trying to accomplish, ie get a record deal and tour the world was the last thing I wanted to do. I needed to find a way to express myself creatively and still be there to raise my son. I’m a life long fan of the comic book medium, and I knew I didn’t want to die without having made some comics. That’s actually not a bad metric to choose your creative direction. Ask yourself, if you died tomorrow, what would you regret not having done with your life.

Pricing:

• Tinseltown Volume 1: Director’s Cut $20.00
• Tinseltown Volume 2: Losing the Light $25
• Doctor Zomba’s Ghostly Tales #1 $15
• The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade Trilogy $45
• The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade Volume 1 $19.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AbacabStudios
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidLucarelli5532
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.b.lucarelli
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucarelli-david-b615042
• Twitter: @DavidLucarelli
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@damefortune
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524045