Geek Syndicate
Founded in 2009, Improper
Books is a UK based comic
imprint that focuses on stories that have their foundations in fairy-tale, gothic or
a hint of the macabre. For
a taste of their work, check
out the review of Porcelein: A
Gothic Fairy Tale either on the
Geek Syndicate website, or
in Issue 5 of this very magazine. Butterfly Gate is another
of the company’s output and
one that has a fairly unique
style. It has no dialogue, the
story conveyed through the
art alone.
The synopsis for the project is
as follows:
Butterfly
Gate
follows the story
of two siblings
who, after throwing
themselves
headlong into another world, must
face the brutal
reality that lies
beyond and find
their place amidst
an empire built
after a revolution
against the Gods.
If you’re interested in learning more about Butterfly Gate,
we have an elevator pitch preview later this issue, but before that, here’s an interview
with the book’s writer, Benjamin Reed.
GS: So was it always the plan to
do Butterfly Gate without dialogue?
BR: Oh god, absolutely. It
sprang into being as a small,
36
silent, nasty, little tale that
finished where (what is now)
the first episode finishes. It
then gnawed away at me,
and eventually sprang back
up again as the fully-formed
somewhat more epic tale
of what happened next, still
told only through the pictures. There’s never been any
voice or dialogue attached to
it in my head. (Apart from the
voice that goes, “You must be
crazy trying to do this. CRAZY”, but I try not to listen to
that one).
GS: Did you find the scripting
process easier or harder without
having to write dialogue?
ter voice. Going without that,
and still selling the story and
the personalities, really makes
you think about the page, the
structure, the panels, and all
the little details, in a way that
is sometimes ghosted over
when you can just say the
complex thought aloud to sell
the scene. It’s telling that the
scripts for Butterfly Gate are
getting on for a third longer
than my usual work.
GS: I got a real C.S Lewis vibe
from the opening pages. Were
those books something that influenced you when developing the
script?
BR: Yes indeed, although by
‘those books’, I’d
take that to mean
the portal fantasy
as a whole (e.g.
protagonists cross
a threshold and
enter a place that
is other), particularly the versions
of those I grew up
on - Lewis, Cooper,
Garner, etc. I confess that the ‘crossing of the wall in to
BR: Harder. Not horrendously
harder but it’s more of a struggle. If I were trying to tell a
tale that had started out with
dialogue in my head, then I
think it would be impossible
but this has never had that.
It’s tricky though but, I’m
sure, remarkably good for my
writing muscles, as counterintuitive as that may sound.
I’m a wordy writer, and I do
love me some dialogue and I
am, without flattering myself,
reasonably good at charac-
the otherness’ is very much
one of my themes, but I’m always interested in the alternative uses of the trope. I think
one of the concepts was what
would actually happen in a
harsh, foreign empire to two
Victorian children - it certainly
wouldn’t be the romanticised
version we normally see - no
one would declare them royalty or, even, be kind to them.
As we see in the second half of
the book…