Out this week from Image Comics, the first collected edition of “Umbral” arrives in stores. Collecting the first six issues, known as ‘Out of the Shadows,’ the book stars young Rascal as she fights against the rise of a shadowy foe in her home, known as the Umbral. An epic fantasy series by Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten, the book begins at quite a relentless pace and doesn’t let up for the duration of the first volume as quite a strong new story within a genre of ever-growing popularity.
Read on as we chat with Antony Johnston about the first book of “Umbral.” There are some mild spoilers in there, but nothing that would inherently ruin your enjoyment of the book (which you should pick up this Wednesday in all fine comic emporiums). You can also get the first issue for free digitally from Image, or for $0.99 on Comixology (I’m told it will be free by Wednesday as a promotion for the collection, though).
So, UMBRAL’s first arc is out and in the world for people to consume! Antony, to start us off, how are you feeling about how the first arc has been, and been received?
Antony Johnston: I think overall, I’m chalking this one up as a success. Storywise, I did everything I wanted to in this first story arc. And the feedback from our readers, and even reviewers, has been almost universally positive — especially after issue #6. So that’s awesome.
If there’s one thing that bugged me, and continues to do so, it’s how many people simply haven’t heard of UMBRAL, and say it “flew under the radar.” It feels like there’s a huge audience out there who would love this book, if only they knew it existed…!
What would you say were the unexpected challenges that presented themselves along the way, particularly in the form of creating new fantasy?
AJ: The biggest challenge with a fantasy story is always the worldbuilding; putting the myths and legends together, mapping the world, making sure everything fits and makes sense, and is relevant to the story you want to tell. That took many months of work with UMBRAL, but it was worth it.
But it wasn’t really “unexpected”. I knew it would be like that when we started. So I think perhaps the thing that’s surprised me the most isn’t really a challenge, but simply how much fun I’m having. I mean, I always enjoy my own books, of course! But there are times writing UMBRAL, or when I get art from Chris, when I just sit there with a big grin on my face. That’s always nice.
Looking at the first arc, I think it’s fair to say that the series largely defied at least my expectations of what it would be about. You and Chris teased a lot but still managed to pull out quite a few tricks along the way, so with a series where things literally hide in the shadows, what do you find is the give and take between you and your readership?
AJ: I’d be interested to know how it defied your expectations, exactly. Apart from our little fake-out with Prince Arthir in issue #1, we’ve been fairly upfront about what kind of book UMBRAL is, and that you should expect… well, the unexpected, I guess. We do try to keep things moving, keep people on their toes.
Most people seem to have responded well to that. I think maybe readers aren’t used to a fantasy story that also pulls in mystery and horror elements, as well? Perhaps that’s what’s thrown some people.
Additionally, I’ve noticed that the more into the series we get, the less comparable to other fantasy stories we get. You mention a few in particular in the letters of issue #6, but what do you think are the biggest hurdles you have to overcome when carving out your corner within the fantasy market that already has a few giants?
AJ: I genuinely don’t worry about that, it’s so far beyond my control. I think most people would agree that UMBRAL is the kind of story only Chris and I could tell. I don’t mean that in an egotistical way, just that we both have distinctive styles and tastes, and those things define our work together.
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Combine that with a pretty unusual set of characters, and a fantasy world that we’ve built entirely from scratch, and we have a good case for being unlike any other fantasy story.
We did get some early reviewers who said it was “just a standard fantasy world”, which kind of baffled me. I’m sitting there thinking, “Did you actually read past the map…?!”
Lets talk about Rascal a bit, our heroine. Rascal is put in a rather difficult position very early on in the series, and she’s not quite a reluctant hero but she does take a bit of nudging. What is it about Rascal that you find particularly works in terms of being our savior?
AJ: I like that she simply doesn’t want to be a hero, or the centre of attention, and really wishes someone else had been saddled with this shit. She’s practical, selfish, and cynical.
Of course, what she doesn’t realise is that these are perfect traits for someone in her position — you just know that she’ll try to do the right thing. She might fail, she might make the wrong decision, and she’ll definitely complain while she’s doing it. But once she understands the stakes, she won’t turn her back on it.
Dalone is another interesting character, as his identity in the series has shifted a few times in how we view him. With a character that has tricks up his sleeve in a book where shadows can take the shape of others, how do you find keeping track of all the twists and turns?
AJ: Well, it’s easy for me, because I know the truth…!
It’s taken some willpower to keep Dalone’s secrets hidden, rather than just blurt them out. And believe me, there are even more to come. But that’s the joy of a character like him — he’s the definition of a man with hidden depths, and I’ve loved making readers second-guess their own judgement about Dalone.
Six issues in and assuredly the characters have found their voices, but I’d assume that they came from a place of inspiration. From where you first saw Rascal and co. to now, have these characters and personality moved beyond where you originally envisioned them?
AJ: Rascal has actually turned out braver, and brasher (if you can believe that!) than I expected when I started; Dalone is *less* brave and confident than I first envisioned; and Shayim is, well, a lot funnier than I initially imagined her.
I think Profoss Munty is actually the biggest surprise, for me; when I first created him, there was no suggestion of him being an ex-soldier. But as I dug further into the world history, and the idea of the eternal Azqari-Yuilangan war came to me, it made sense that Munty would have been forged in that particular fire and escaped to become an academic.
Speaking of voices, one thing I found interesting about the series is the way in which characters spoke differently from one another, each for a variety of reasons. Was it difficult to come up with unique forms of speech for the characters? (Particularly with Shayim, who I thought was just a typo at first.)
AJ: I love writing Shayim. She basically speaks English like I speak French — well enough to be understood by a native, but relying entirely on infinitives, imperatives, and incomplete grammar. It’s the first time I’ve written someone who talks like that for any length of time, and it’s a lot of fun.
As for the rest of the characters, it’s something that comes kind of naturally to me. It’s in WASTELAND, too, and even THE FUSE to a lesser extent — I think about how a character will speak according to their station and personality, occasionally making notes with guidelines for their mannerisms, and then I just sort of crack on and write it.
Honestly, dialogue is a weird area for me. I know I’m quite good at it, but I can’t actually tell you why or how in any detail. It just comes naturally.
One of my favorite sequences of the book is in issue #5, where it is explained why things are the way they are, which is intriguing because a lot of fantasy says “we just have magic in the world, deal with it.” What were the challenges in creating a specific set of creation mythology for the series?
Continued belowAJ: Are you sure about that? Because for the first four issues, it seemed all I heard was critics saying, “What the hell’s going on? Why haven’t we been given an indexed 1000-year timeline of Fendin’s history yet? Any proper fantasy book would have told us what all these legends are at the start!”
Which is bollocks, of course. It’s a classic case of what you want being bad for you — if we’d started UMBRAL with the mythology scene from issue #5, readers would have been bored witless, and it would have ruined much of the book’s mystery to boot.
I actually avoid explaining “how magic works” as much as possible, because this isn’t ARS MAGICA, you know? Hell, it’s not even D&D.
Yes, I have guidelines and quasi-rules for my own use to maintain consistency, but they’re not some kind of handbook for magic. Or, before you ask, for public consumption.
On that same thread, is it difficult to balance the give and take of how much readers should know about how this world “works”, particularly since some characters don’t even believe these things as truth?
AJ: Right, exactly. Even in #5, when Profoss Munty is talking about the Shadow War and Culin’s Calamity, we realise that Dalone’s version of those legends is quite different. And we’ll deal with that more in Book Two, by the way.
So yes, that means we can’t give too much away to the reader; we can’t say, “Well, this is the definitive truth,” because that would spoil a large part of the story.
Besides, what is truth, man? What is it *really*? I mean, when you truly think about it…
The book has its own set of magic and mysticism throughout, and I particularly like the way it is lettered. How did everyone on the book work together in order to give the series its own unique take on that aspect?
AJ: The “magic speech” is something I worked on with our letterer Thomas Mauer. I’ve always thought pictograms would be a cool way to show magic, and make the reader understand that it’s an alien concept, not just a bunch of fake latin words. Magic in this world is literally meaningless to the uninitiated.
I was a professional graphic designer for many years, which means doing stuff like that is actually fairly simple for me. It’s a bit of an advantage, I guess.
The book ends in a place where there certainly seems like a lot of room for growth and for adventure. What can you tease about what is to come with the next arc?
AJ: We’re working on Book Two, THE DARK PATH, right now. It takes our unlikely heroes through the ‘Bulaswode’: a strange, misty forest full of dangers and weird creatures, including the deadly Silvali riders, called Wodelings.
Rascal will have to face her past, and battle against a sense of hopelessness. Dalone’s own past will return to literally haunt his nightmares. As for Shayim and Munty… well, they’ve got their own secrets to worry about.
By the end of it, none of them — especially Rascal — will ever be the same again. Would you expect anything less?
