Creators Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo made waves together with their Eisner-winning series Afterlift from 2020. Now, they’re reconvening for a brand-new ComiXology Originals series called The All-Nighter.
The book, which was first announced back in July, focuses on vampires who sometimes moonlight as superheroes. More specifically, we follow Alex, a burger-flipping vampire, as he and his friend’s Joy, Cynthia, and Ian agree to blend into human society and don capes to start fighting bad guys.
To better understand the series, I spoke to Loo via email. We talked about character design, how he approached this work differently than Afterlift, and much more. Ready to take a bite of this tantalizing series? The first two issues of this five-part miniseries are available here.
Courtesy of ComiXology.
AIPT: What do you hope people take away from The All-Nighter?
Jason Loo: I think a lot of people going into The All-Nighter will realize this is not just another superhero comic. Monster fans will get a huge kick out of our series.
AIPT: If you were to describe The All-Nighter in 2 words or less what would those words be?
JL: “Monster revival”, so get ready!
AIPT: Since Afterlift, did you approach the visual style of this book in a different way? Or, did you try anything new with the visual storytelling with Allnighter?
JL: After the successes of Afterlift, I bought myself an iPad and made a new year’s resolution back in 2019 to start working digitally. The All-Nighter is my first comic series working on iPad with Procreate and it’s been a learning curve for me as I try to maintain the same look I had drawing with my pens and markers. I got more comfortable after every issue.
AIPT: This book features vampires, but I need to know Jason, what is your favorite Halloween monster?
JL: Do swamp creatures count? I loved Swamp Thing when I was a kid. Aside from Slimer from Ghostbusters, he was one of the few good monsters I wasn’t afraid of and I’d trust him to scare away evil monsters like the boogeymen and even ghosts!
AIPT: There are numerous well-blocked scenes giving readers the perfect angle on a character, what goes into drawing the reader into each character’s experience?
JL: I think it’s just getting the acting and mood right for each dialogue/scene. In a way, I’m trying to frame scenes like we’re shooting a TV drama series since we’re working on a ComiXology Originals series where characters can’t spill out of a panel. It’s some really good storyboarding that could potentially be used for our eventual Amazon TV series!
Courtesy of ComiXology.
AIPT: There’s a very cool creature/costume design in the book, the character revealed at the end of #3 might be my favorite, how did you approach giving each character a unique look?
JL: I had to figure out how creative and imaginative each monster, including our main heroes Alex and Joy, would be when coming up with their costumes. First, I would dig into what kind of superheroes they would be inspired by from the fictional superhero comics/movies in our series then see how well they would execute their costumes by themselves. Alex is a huge geek, so of course, his costume would look as cool as a cosplayer at a comic convention, while Joy is only half into the superhero stuff so half of her costume is what she can find in her closet. Any monsters with massive, hairy hands will have poorly-tailor-made tights.
AIPT: It’s too early to be asking this but, do you and Chip have a trilogy in mind for ComiXology since this is your second series with them?
JL: Well, we ARE currently working on the second arc to The All-Nighter, so….maybe? Chip, as well as Paris, Aditya, and Allison have been amazing to work with. We all just click!
AIPT: It’s a pandemic, but if you were to attend a Halloween party what would you go as this year?
JL: I mean, I’m definitely not this year…but maybe The Crow but with a Mandalorian helmet so I can mask up.
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