Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, Dan Brereton, entertainment, Nocturnals, Sinister Path

Walking The Sinister Path – Dan Brereton And The New Nocturnals Graphic Novel

Published Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:42:46 -0500

The world got it's first look at Dan Brereton's Nocturnals back in 1994 in a six-part miniseries called Black Planet from Malibu Comics. Other miniseries and oneshots would follow including Witching Hour from Dark Horse, Troll Bridge and the Dark Forever from Oni Press and Carnival of Beasts from Image Comics. Now, after almost a decade, Brereton is about to release Nocturnals: The Sinister Path. I had a chance to talk to the writer/artist about his pulp infused monster mash and where Doc Horror, Halloween Girl and the Gunwitch have been.

DAN WICKLINE: For those who haven't come across them in the past, who are the Nocturnals and what do they mean to you? What do people need to know about them to jump into the new story?

DAN BRERETON: Imagine wanting to write a pulp detective story, but wanting to draw creatures and monsters – that's how this all got started. If I could do with only Nocturnals stories from here on out, I'd be perfectly happy. They have persisted in my imagination since I began working on the first comic mini-series back in 1992. Several of the characters are much older than that. The stories and characters incorporate my interests in crime fiction, horror, sci-fi and pulp adventure stories, encased in a spooky wrapper. It's a monster comic with a hard-boiled edge. The lynchpin character is Doc Horror, a mad scientist type who moonlights as an enforcer for the criminal underworld , but spends most of his time battling night creatures. Doc is a heliophobe, meaning he shuns daylight. The Nocturnals, though mostly a beneficent group, are themselves monsters, united under Doc and his daughter Evening. Eve is just a kid kid, trying to be a kid , even though her world is dark and dangerous . She also has these powerful abilities; she can attract and communicate with the departed. Her toys are all possessed by lost souls, who tell her secrets and protect her from harm. She carries them around in a plastic Jack-o-lantern. In a way, she shields herself from the dark and lethal world of her father by living as if every night is an extension of Halloween. Thus, her nickname, 'Halloween Girl'.

They are part of a group of outcast creatures who've become like family over the years –
• Polychrome is the den mother, once a vengeful wraith , she's now a pacifist ghost;
•The Gunwitch is a mute, sharpshooting revenant who acts as Doc's back up and at times, Eve's babysitter ;
•Starfish is an amphibian creature, but also a feisty teenager who isn't particularly fond of humans , and while very good with a gun in a scrape, lately prefers deep sea diving to commune with sea monsters;
• Firelion is a one-many conflagration, a pyrokenetic swordsman reborn in a lab after 85% of him was destroyed by spontaneous combustion;
• The Raccoon, AKA Bandit, genetic chimera-turned- feral gangster, whose weakness for Starfish has softened him just a little over the years.
At the outset of the story, a seemingly small event- the death of a local magistrate- sets off a chain of events leading the Nocturnals to uncover a trove of buried secrets and many other disturbing surprises.

DW: You mentioned your wife and her accident. She has been a regular at conventions for years and even has her own stuffed monster company going. How is Chartruz doing with her recovery?

DB: It's complicated – her injury is a tricky thing to treat, it turns out – a very serious procedure with several options , none of them very attractive. We are still consulting Neurosurgeons. On a day to day basis , she doesn't drive, has to watch out for overdoing it with normal daily activities . She travels as little as possible, as even slight bumps can be painful. We carry on as best we can until the proper course of treatment is determined , which is some kind of surgical procedure. It's been hard on her but she's so much tougher than she'll admit. We keep a positive attitude and carry on.

DW: We have the background on the Nocturnals, but what is happening now. What can you tell us about this new story and how does it move this universe along?

DB: Their world is about to change . Up until now, Doc Horror and his crew have been long regarded as the top dogs- even the criminal element knows better than to run afoul of them, especially the Gunwitch , whom most are terrified of – the Gunwitch is the outlaws' boogeyman. What Doc doesn't realize , but soon will- is how little he really knows about local history and it's dark secrets. Doc takes on a task he sees as a small favor to his aging crime boss friend , which turns out to be revelatory for him. Eve is dealing with a weird form of growing pains as hideous creatures fill her room as she sleeps. It may be due to her abilities expanding , it may be something dangerous- or both. Starfish has been retreating to the depths of the ocean more and more, withdrawing from the surface world and relationships- but will be pulled back after a friend turns up missing . There are forces at work all around them . The Nocs are on a collision course with a long-hidden legacy that's going to change their world for good and Ill. Ironically, as many secrets and new characters as this story uncovers, it's really just the beginning of a trilogy I didn't quite see until I was nearly done. It's a self-contained story, but touches off all these fuses we'll see exploding later in future stories. I'm really excited about exploring all these revelations and their consequences.

DW: You've been working on this new graphic novel for a while. What has the process been like and how does it feel getting to the end after 4 years?

DB: Imagine this : I began writing and concepting this one in 2007! Knowing it's currently at the printer seems very surreal, but very rewarding. I am thankful to more people than I can literally thank here. At one point, this was back in 2008, I was working on The Sinister Path- had a dozen pages painted – was really feeling like I was hitting my stride with regard to storytelling and imagery- and suddenly the project came to an abrupt halt. I had to shelve it. I remember there was a page that I'd just begun painting, taped down to my table. I refused to take that page off for two years afterward. I finally decided to stop covering it with Masonite boards with other jobs attached to them, and one night I just finished it. That's when I realized: one day I was going to complete this entire project, though I had no idea when.

Fast forward to early 2015- a very successful Kickstarter campaign ends and suddenly it's all back in motion. Again, surreal, almost unbelievable. Then, September of 2015, my wife suffers a multiple fracture of her C1 after a fall- the accident means she's in a neck collar for the better part of a year. Now I'm doing all the driving , shuttling the kids across town, to and from school- more household responsibility , which means 30 years of having been a night owl, working long hours past sun-up are over – my work schedule was scrapped. I had to learn how to be a day person and fit much more into my day. For a decade my wife had made it possible for me to work long hours. Freelancer hours! I owe so much to her, her hard work, patience and understanding- and now it's my turn to take up where she can't. My work schedule had to fit around family, not the other way around. It took months to adjust , but I did. The work began flowing again. I turned down a half dozen cover gigs and other jobs to keep the momentum on Nocturnals going. Jump to November of last fall- all the art is completed , 96 painted pages. I haven't completed a story this size in over a decade. I can't tell you how anxious it makes me for folks to be able to read it . And to get started on the follow-up.

DW: Do you write yourself a script or do you work the story out in your head as you go?

DB: While I'm always thinking about the story, tweaking it here and there to different degrees, it doesn't exist solely in my head . I have notebooks, index cards- all the stuff you can imagine when writing the outline, character motivations and arcs. Your big " set pieces". The layouts – which describe the physical layout of each page , showing action and key dialogue and emotion- those become the outline – everything starts there. They are crucial for me. I can't make a comic book happen without that set of very rough, tiny page "thumbnail" layouts. Even with a full script I gotta have the thumbnails done before I draw an actual page. Some scenes change and grow- others get tossed-out. Gradually the story comes into being as finished art. The best feeling I can describe at this time is knowing you maybe missed a spot- identifying when and where a scene is missing , one you haven't conceived yet, then going back and putting it where it belongs. When I'm writing and illustrating, it works better for me to finalize the dialogue after I can sit down and look at everything from start to finish. This time my friend, Henry Gilroy (co- exective producer and writer on Star Wars: Rebels) sat with me and we went over the entire story, me narrating as we discussed key points of dialogue and motivation. Henry has an eagle-eye for structure and excellent storytelling sensibility and he doesn't pull punches. He was a bit like a building inspector, and made sure the house I'd been hammering and sawing away at was sound – wouldn't blow over in a gale, wouldn't leak in bad weather. He pointed out the holes in the roof and the soft spots in the foundation I needed to attend to. I filled an entire pad of post-it notes, went home and wrote the first draft of dialogue and captions, then wrote the second.I'd never had that sort of help before. It was amazing to sit with another writer I trust and really dive in.

DW: After ten years of this story bouncing around your head and finally coming to life, I'm going to ask you the horrible question all creators must ask themselves. What's next? You said earlier that if you could do only Nocturnals, you would. Are you moving on to another story with them or will you be talking other projects?

DB: It's true! The instant you announce a project about to hit , the question which invariably comes is : what's next ? Readers ask it, I ask it. In this instance my answer is to continue with the next Nocturnals story, which is begging to be launched from the springboards set up in Sinister Path. In many ways , that path continues to wind its way along , and my characters must follow. Who am I kidding ? I have to follow it. I'm already writing it. I'll put out a new Art book for the summer ( IN THE NIGHT STUDIO) before I begin art chores, and Big Wow Art will launch a kickstarter for it next month, I think. A second Nocturnals crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter will follow , most likely in the Fall. This next graphic novel will probably be a little shorter in length, no more than 80 pages.

Nocturnals: The Sinister Path is in the current Previews catalog (APR171366) and will be in stores June 28th.

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