The bells have rung, the room is silent, and all await the speaker with baited breath. School is back in session after a bit of a break at “Blackwood” with “The Mourning After” and nothing will be the same again. . .unless you’re Dean Ogden. Then things are probably the same. If you slept on it back at the end of 2018, the trade is out now and issue one of the second miniseries is on its way to comic shelves next week. We had the pleasure of getting writer and artists Evan Dorkin and Veronica & Andy Fish to answer some of our questions about the series, the break, making friends at occult college, and why we should all be #teammortlake. Thanks to the three of them and Dark Horse for the opportunity. Oh, and spoilers for volume 1 of “Blackwood.”
It’s been a couple years since “Blackwood” debuted with its clever mix of occult mystery, gruesome horror, snarky and damaged protagonists, and unrelenting humor in the face of it all. Before we get into the new book, was this break a planned thing, keeping to the “Hellboy” model? Or was there a bit more calculus to it, juggling schedules and the like?
Evan Dorkin: It was really just a matter of schedules. Everyone had other projects to move onto, but we knew we were coming back to “Blackwood” as soon as possible.
Andy Fish: Has it been that long? It sure doesn’t feel it. We wrapped up the first arc late last year and then we jumped into the relaunched version of “Sabrina” for Archie Comics which is also very occult and hopefully shares some of the same readers and then back over to “Blackwood” for “Mourning After” and now we’re heading on to the second “Sabrina” arc so maybe this becomes a thing? So definitely a schedule balancing act, we didn’t want to be working on two books at the same time because we were afraid the quality would suffer, so we created the break. We love spending time on “Blackwood.”
Veronica Fish: Evan had approached me about the first series in 2012 and he had so much material, so many backstories for each character the majority of which we haven’t even gotten into yet, which is exciting. He had much more of an eighties teen horror vibe plus Kolchak the Nighstalker with a bit of Japanese Monster movie in there and it was really exciting to kick around those initial character designs and sketches. I’ve been thinking about “Blackwood” for a long time, and I forget readers don’t know all of these extra things, and it was a natural mix to bring Andy in because he’d get Evan’s references and he understood immediately what Evan was going for. When all of our schedules clicked we jumped at it.
Do you feel this break has helped rejuvenate the story from where it would have been as an ongoing or even if it had followed up the original in late-2018/early 2019?
ED: It’s more a case of revision than rejuvenation. The longer a story sits the more time you have to think about it and refine it. The first arc didn’t go exactly as planned, either – we pitched it as a five-issue series, but only got four, so we lost some material and crunched down some other stuff. That’s going to affect where you go next. Some new characters and events that weren’t expected fell into place while plotting “The Mourning After,” and the same thing is happening for my notes on the following arc. We keep pushing some of our plans back as new ideas take their place.
AF: I don’t feel like we took any break, because we were talking with Evan about the follow up almost right away, and we designed characters and fine-tuned settings during our “hiatus”. I think Evan’s story is so unique, so different, that I would be a fan of this series even if I wasn’t working on it.
VF: Initially I didn’t want to break the momentum with “Blackwood,” when the opportunity of SABRINA came along, I thought it might be good to shift gears a bit while staying in the occult magic realm. So even though schedule wise we haven’t taken a break, I do feel like doing something a bit lighter was a good pallet cleanser. Hopefully it will make arc 2 feel a little fresher to the reader.
Continued below“Blackwood’s” aesthetic is like nothing else out there, thanks your art and coloring Veronica & Andy; a dark psychedelia of the occult if you will. What’s your process and how much grief do you give Evan in transforming his scripts into this gorgeously spooky wonderland?
AF: We each have our own studio that we work in, but we begin each script doing layouts in our common ground area of the kitchen, we make a pot of coffee and act out what Evan’s written to get it into visual form, pushing each other to make the storytelling the best it can be. Often times we pull out our Eisner Artists Editions to see how Will would have done something.
VF: Thank you for such a nice compliment. After layouts we break and we each begin tackling a scene, Andy sends over art for me and then I do all the finishes so that the book looks consistent and Andy starts on the color flats and passes them back so I finish the color and then we send the pages to Greg McKenna to letter. I think it’s great having a partner with you there to give you helpful live feedback, I like that we can bounce ideas off each other.
With the color palette we can’t help but skew neon and we both love heavy, heavy inks which gives the book the overall atmosphere that we’re really happy with. We hope it comes across as both bright and dark at the same time.
“The Mourning After” is such a fantastic title for this second arc, with layers upon layers of meaning and representation. Who do you see as the subject of your title, if anyone in particular?
ED: Well, the new arc takes place the morning after the previous issue, and there’s a funeral, and some people are dead, and that’s a bummer any way you take it. That’s about as far as I was going with that.
VF: Great question. Who are we mourning? Well, the death of the Dean. We’re also mourning the death of Dennis. There really are so many layers, who knows who else we’ll be mourning in this second arc?
AF: These are good questions! I think in many ways this is Colby’s story, he has to step up, he has to be “the man” now that Dean Ogden is gone. The kids want to fix what they see is a wrong with Dennis’ death, and we have some great new characters in this one. It’s also Jamar’s story because he can’t believe what he’s getting dragged into. So much great stuff in here!
Using the metaphor of the comic, if the first arc of “Blackwood” was freshman orientation, where friends are unknown and everything is new and weird, do you see this arc as the first week of classes?
ED: It’s pretty much a continuation of the freshman orientation, since the orientation weekend was interrupted by death and disaster and a curse and a two-headed mummy chimp all that. We ended up pushing the school year back so we could deal with the repercussions of the first arc. So the actual fall semester won’t begin until the third arc. I’m fine with cutting classes as much as possible in “Blackwood.”
VF: This arc is when you realize you’re going to be “stuck” with a group of people, and you have to figure out a way to get by together. Now that the stakes are really high, they’re going to have to bond.
AF: This is Freshman Orientation 102, whatever that means. The story picks up right where we left off but so much has happened to this group of people how can they not have come together? These are battlefield friendships which last a lifetime.
How awkward can we expect Wren and the gang to be as they start getting used to each other?
ED: I don’t see them becoming close for a while, even if they have to live and work together for the sake of our stories. College can be a challenge without all the problems we’re dumping on these kids. They carried a lot of baggage into “Blackwood,” and then were given more to carry. They’ll work together, and study together, and be flippant with one another, but there’s going to be a distance between them for some time. They all have anxiety issues, they all have boundaries and secrets they’re dealing with. There are going to be barriers for a while, especially with Wren, and with Stephen. Reiko has the advantage of really wanting to be at “Blackwood,” so there’s one less thing for her to be upset about. Dennis is dead, so, he’s got that to deal with right now.
Continued belowVF: I think Wren is absolutely afraid to get close to people, so I’m sure she’ll be resistant, but when it comes down to it they’re all going to look out for each other. We’ve added a lot of little moments of tenderness in the art, so hopefully the reader can see that these characters have a building affection.
AF: Ah rose pesky kids! They think they’re doing something to help and actually they’re screwing things up
Of the new characters, in “The Mourning After” do you think people will latch onto? I’ve already found my faves but I can be swayed.
ED: Jamar isn’t a new character, but he comes more into his own in this arc, and I like how he tries to be a voice of reason in an unreasonable world – which is always going to be frustrating for him. Of the new characters, I like Professor Mortlake. He’s fun to work with, and unlike most of our cast, he’s competent and self-assured, and has some style, so he presents an alternative to the other faculty members. I don’t know if the readers will take to him, I figure that’s up to them. As a reader, or viewer, I like to pick the characters I root for because of what they do and how they act, I don’t like being told who to love just because they’re getting pushed.
I like Agent Wentworth, and I was surprised by how much page time the “mirror guy” ended up with. That wasn’t planned, it just worked out that way. The same thing happened with Professor Kratchley and his crow familiar. We have a large cast, and it keeps growing. Comics is a good medium for an ensemble approach – you’re not paying actors, you’re not stretching the design budget, and the characters register visually, unlike in prose. Hooray for comics.
VF: One of the things that makes Even such a good writer is that even with a large ensemble he makes everyone distinctive, but I’m really excited about Mortlake and Wentworth. Andy’s brother makes a cameo as one of Wentworth’s bodyguards and our friend Charles is the other one.
AF: #teammortlake
How much research goes into the development of the monsters and occult happenings, both on the scripting side, Evan, and then on the design and execution side, Veronica and Andy?
ED: It depends on the situation, and the needs of the story. Sometimes you’re making something up based on your general knowledge, sometimes you need to dive into some research. Sometimes you start grabbing stories and books to reread in the hope they spark an idea. If you’re working with an actual creature of legend, or bit of folklore, I think you should do your homework so you get it right, or at least so you can make a credible decision when you break from tradition.
But sometimes you’re just making things up. When it comes to the occult or magic, I find depicting spells and seances and rituals can be really deadening to write or read. We’ve seen so many people in robes muttering spells and reading from old tomes and quoting the Necronomicon, and most of the time none of it takes, it’s just eating up pages or screen time with business. It’s fun for the writer, I guess, but it can come off like white noise, something you have to sit through to get to the good stuff. We only have 22 pages, everyone knows they’re going to sacrifice someone or call out that demon, let’s just get to the results. That’s one way of dealing with the occult in Blackwood and Beasts of Burden, unless we need to see something specific for the plot, I prefer to sidestep the actual mumbo-jumbo talk whenever I can.
VF: A lot, but looking at too many graphic reference photos I have to cut it off and begin winging it. We watch tons of movies and have a huge archive of old comics to find inspiration. I always look at Mai the Psychic Girl and Jorge Zaffino’s WINTER WORLD when I feel stuck.
Andy’s studio is a wonderland of reference material; Toys, books, movies, as well as his brain which is an encyclopedia of this stuff. I’m glad this arc that we don’t have to draw so many bugs.
Continued belowAF: The grosser and more violent stuff I usually handle. There is a scene in a morgue and I handled all the reference for that one so Veronica didn’t have to. I also channeled a lot of Manga Horror artist Junji Ito and his work is a very strong influence on the crazier scenes.
OK, last question. Can we take this return to mean that “Blackwood” and the scooby gang are here to stay for good? Or, at least, for a good while?
VF: All the back covers from both arcs give clues to each characters’ backstory, each of which could be its own spinoff, and we’re so happy to keep making “Blackwood” stories as long as Evan and Dark Horse want us to. We just love it.
If Dark Horse doesn’t pick us up for more, I’d want Evan to just write scripts for me so I can find out what happens to all these characters.
AF: I’m in for the long haul. I want us to explore all of the back stories, I want a MORTLAKE miniseries with Colby as his sidekick and they go and solve the world’s great mysteries. Imagine Colby in a pith helmet with Mortlake exploring Mummy tombs! That would be epic!
ED: “Blackwood” was pitched as a continuing story, if not an ongoing series, so there’s more in store if we have the reader support. It would be nice to do it as an ongoing for a stretch but I don’t know if that’ll happen owing to everyone’s schedules. But we have a number of story arcs planned, and we also have the “origin” arcs for each of our original students to show what happened to upend their lives and bring them to the attention of the Blackwood recruiters. That includes Dennis, who is still dead. Poor Dennis.
