Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Andrez Bergen, Depth Charging Planet Goth, Perfect Edge Books, Who Is Killing The Great Capes of Heropa

New Book Retort: Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth

Andrez Bergen writes for Bleeding Cool:

This week I finished writing my fourth novel, and it's left me somewhat battle-scarred.

While novel #3 (Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?) was all about Silver and Golden Age comic books, a future dystopia and a simple noir/pulp mystery, #4 — currently titled Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth — concerns itself with comic books too… along with a smattering of horror, mystery, domestic abuse, coming-of-age shenanigans, post-punk music, movies, organized religion, witch trials, and the 1980s.

As I say — this left me battle-scarred and I'm not entirely sure we should blame just the '80s.

The book was something I threw myself into over the past two and a half months, a beast that ended up cutting sleep ragged and eating into my dreams — hence the celery people and oversized Venus flytraps that have cameo appearances in the yarn. Some of the content (think horror/abuse, while not a significant part of the story) weighed heavy during the writing process, and much as I might admire the protagonist Mina Rapace's gumption and perseverance, I'm satisfied to have moved on.

This journey was exhausting and a tad close to home.

Still, I got to tinker with tons of references and homages within the context of the story, citing things I love and/or admire that in turn complement the tale. The trick here is to deconstruct names as well as places for clues.

I also think Mina is one of the strongest characters I've worked with to date.

And while this is intended to be a stand-alone story, it's also 5% related to Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? — Only I can't tell you why or how.

Basically set in the city of Nede (pronounced 'Needy'), we follow the course taken by an introverted high school student — who, like James Stewart in the Hollywood movie Harvey (1950) has an imaginary friend to keep her company. But how imaginary is it? And who has begun knocking off her classmates?

Sadly there's not so much more can I let on at this stage. Here is the tagline with which we're currently toying:

Welcome to the city of Nede, Australia, 1986 — where the only real monsters are people.

I'm sure something that has better flair and panache will surface during the course of copy-editing and organizing the cover art.

The image here is for the back cover, by super Japanese artist Sukapon-ta.

Our front cover is awaiting confirmation, but regardless this book is scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2014, again via Perfect Edge Books.

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