Once & Future #1 featured Interviews 

Kieron Gillen Talks About Arthurian Horror in “Once & Future”

By | August 14th, 2019
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

The legend of King Arthur has been through many incarnations, from T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King” to Monty Python and the Holy Grail to, of course, an anime girl. But renowned comic writer Kieron Gillen is now turning it into supernatural horror with “Once and Future,” out this Wednesday. We spoke with Kieron on the comic, his inspirations, and the driving forces behind it.

What inspired or influenced Once & Future?

Kieron Gillen: There’s two sets of influences. One is when the idea strikes you and you think it might work, so you put it in a file, then put that file away in a basement. Then BOOM! basically called me one day and said “Dan Mora is free and would like to work with you.” So the real inspiration is: I wanted to do a book with Dan.

But years previously I was just chewing over the adventure genre after watching the third The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, the one set in China. I was thinking “this is a bit dodgy, turning a piece of founding Chinese culture into a monster.” And then I made the very obvious next step – that’s as true if you do it with an Egyptian mummy. The colonialism is baked in. And I kept thinking there’s so much in this genre – the action-adventure, the lore – how do you do that sort of genre without anything that makes you go “ew?” So instead of using another culture and turning it into the boogeyman, I wanted to use something from the British Isles. That’s really the core idea, what happens, then the conceptual underpinnings.

After I started talking about doing a book with Dan, I had to develop it, which meant finding a lead. Who’s going to be thrown into this world? Then I thought: what have (A) I never written and (B) you don’t see enough in culture, as well as (C) what is meaningful to me. My grandmother lived around the corner from me and was a very meaningful person in my life, so I thought that’s an interesting relationship, having a grandmother and a teen doing a kind of Indiana Jones thing, so that’s the backdrop.

From the title alone, it’s clear that this comic will heavily involve Arthurian mythology. What new directions are you hoping to go with the classic mythos? What new twists are you hoping to put on it?

KG: Taking it into horror is the real thing. It’s got this pop horror theme take on the Arthurian mythos, starting with a minor piece of Arthurian lore (at least minor in that it’s not Excalibur) in the case of the Questing Beast. You see that in the first issue, and then you’ll get the idea where we are. I tend to talk a lot about the craft, so in our case it’s “meet Duncan, meet Bridgette, meet the antagonist briefly, show them investigating something, show what the monster looks like. How are we going to treat the horror element?” Then we get the underpinning of the ideas we’re going with. Without giving too much away, I don’t think people have really used the Arthurian mythos with the level of horror we’re going for.

In issue 1, we’re introduced to the protagonist and his grandmother, while getting our first look at the antagonists. Who or what inspired the characters, if anything?

KG: The original core was me just thinking about me and my gran, her who came over from Ireland when she was very young to work, while I was this working-class-background but heading more academic kid, then we build from there. My gran was very superstitious, and Bridgette is not. The best part of Bridgette for me is how much she dislikes the monsters she hunts, like “These are just stupid.” I found myself thinking about Granny Weatherwax from the “Discworld” books; it’s kind of like Granny Weatherwax’s mentality with a bit of Nanny Ogg’s physicality – a mix between being a hardass and a lovely pleasant lady in the demeanour. The fundamental relationship between Duncan and Bridgette is: Bridgette is basically unflappable while Duncan has a Scooby Doo energy and really has no idea what’s going on. For me, it’s finding who’s my favorite characters to write together, giving them ways to interact together and travel the world, that’s the magic.

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Are there any current or historical events that inspired or influenced any parts of the story?

KG: I mean, I’d be foolish to say that Brexit doesn’t play a little role, a sense of urgency around the plot. It’s a story about identity in the British Isles, examining what it means to be “British.” But I guess the main historical influence is the British Isles and the meta history. I’m interested in how the stories have changed over time, so you go back to the original history and the earlier stories, and what elements have come in and what stories have been used at different times. It was all that history that’s an influence.

Tell us a little about the rest of the team behind this comic.

KG: Well, obviously I mentioned Dan Mora a few times. He’s one of the most exciting new artists – not “new” new, but he’s coming in and increasingly tearing it up. He’s very energetic in the action scenes, does all these great expressions, and draws really hot people. He does horror, he does action, he does character work, he’s a really interesting designer. The best part of being a comic book writer is getting to work with artists. Tamra, the colorist, who I love, she’s got so many styles she can work in. Tamra knows when to be very graphic and when to twist the pallet into something decadent. I deliberately wrote the part where I want to use some coloring tricks; like when the characters enter the horror part, we go to these purples and greens where things just feel a little “wrong.” There’s a real energy there.

Is there any theme or message you’re really hoping to convey in Once & Future?

KG: I talk a little about the politics of it, and I don’t want to oversell the politics of it; despite the fact that it’s around Brexit and nationalists are the bad guys, it’s very much a horror adventure comic that uses a lot of that as background building. But really, half my work has different pushes and pulls. It’s got a message, but I really want readers to have a good time. How can I make adventure fiction work in the modern day? I want to find different angles and ways to make it work, so I hope people like it.

Are there any other projects you’re working on that you can tell us about?

KG: Well, “Die” has just come back, came out on Wednesday. People are very excited about that, the arc is continuing. And there’s a book called “Ludicrats” that I announced at Image years ago, but I can’t say much about it. It’s a very playful book about parent’s imagination, like an X-rated Neverending Story. The second issue is almost drawn for that.

Thank you once again to Kieron for taking the time to speak with us. You can find “Once & Future” #1 at your local comic shop or on comiXology today.


Robbie Pleasant

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