Geek Syndicate
GS: The story opens in a very all
ages way then descends into a
much darker fare. Who would you
say this book will appeal to most?
BR: The all-ages opening is
strictly intended as a counterpoint for the vicious sucker
punch of the rest of the very
adult, very nasty, story. It’s
absolutely riddled with adult
themes, and a series of very
bad things are going to happen. It’s adult sci-fi/fantasy
(depending on whether you
interpret the odd stuff as science or magic) and not meant
for children.
GS: How many chapters are you
hoping to do with Butterfly Gate?
BR: Lots. It shows ten years in
their lives in pre-determined
intervals. See next answer for
details in fact ;)
GS: The story does have a slight
time jump (I won’t spoil it by saying how much) which was a great
way to move the plot along. Can
we expect another time jump between chapters one and two?
BR: No need to worry about
spoilers; it’s one of the prime
structural parts of the series.
Each episode is six months (or
so) after the last. We advance
forward without explanation
or any catch-up and we will
find our two enfants terrible
in very different circumstances every time.
GS: I think readers will want to
read the book two or three times
to fully immerse in the story. Was
that something you intended
when working on the story?
BR: Hoped for more
than intended, I think.
Curiously, comics without
dialogue
actually read slower than
those with (well, unless
they’re just boring fight
scenes anyway). We’ve
certainly strived to layer some fairly complex
information about the
world into the panels,
whilst still keeping it
eminently readable (I
hope).
GS: Will we ever see the
adult adventures of the
brother and sister?
BR: As mentioned before, they’re ageing in
real (comics) time, so
you’ll watch them grow
up as we go. That’s fun
for Chris to play with
too. (He hates me)
GS: How far along are the
plans for chapter two?
BR: Written and in the
queue. It’s a great big
long-form and complex
piece, and I don’t get to
fix any balls-ups with
expository
dialogue
later, so I’m having to
plan very carefully as I
go. The whole piece is
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