During my time as comics editor, I think I’ve gotten pretty good at describing books in the “blank meets blank” format. Here, for instance, is how I’d describe NIGHTS, a new book from writer Wyatt Kennedy and artist Luigi Formisano:
True Blood meets Kids meets Oblivion meets Drop Dead Fred
And yet as brilliant as that is — even if I do say so myself — it pales in comparison to NIGHTS‘ true impact. (Having read the first three issues, it’s already a favorite of the whole year). But here’s what you need to know going in: in an alternate world (there’s 31 states, and monsters are real), newly-orphaned Vince Okonma relocates to Florida with his cousin, becoming friends with “the greatest vampire who’s ever lived” in a madcap urban gothic adventure. Seriously, nothing can prepare you for this poignant and devastating tale of friendship, young love, and what it all really means.
Before issue #1 drops next week (October 11) from Image Comics, both Kennedy and Formisano were kind enough to give us the deep dive into NIGHTS. That includes the layers of worldbuilding, their novel spin on supernatural creatures, the many thematic ideas and motifs at play here, and balancing a rich cast of compelling figures.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Wyatt, I really loved Bolero. And I see a lot of thematic connections with NIGHTS (starting fresh, found family, unconventional lifestyles, etc.) Do you think there’s some spiritual connection between the two books?
Wyatt Kennedy: [laughs] More than you might even initially think, but I’m not gonna spoil anything. But the spiritual connection is definitely there, yeah! With Bolero, I wanted to create characters who genuinely love each other despite the friction of a…let’s say “messy” protagonist. Here, it was important for me to setup the family dynamic of the lead four (Vince, Gray, Ivory, and Matt) as being built on a very genuine and palpable love for each other. In the initial idea for the book, the characters were older, a bit messier and meaner and I felt like I was just kind of repeating myself. Then Luigi and I were talking about growing up and there was kind of this pause and I was like “We need to age Vince down, don’t we?” And honestly after that, everything just kinda fell into place.
AIPT: What was the genesis for having just 31 states and a Florida owned by Spain? What’s this offer as a storytelling framework, and how much do we eventually get to discover about the whys behind this drastic new world?
WK: Honestly, it’s one of those things that’s not super deep conception wise. We wanted an alternate world setting that felt distinct just enough but we could also play around with how technology and pop culture has been changed, but really from the page one intro what I wanted get across is that this is an idealized world. It’s a world where the more we learn about it, I’d want people to wish they could live there. Things like World War I and II never occurred, nor any major war since. It’s not like there’s absolute peace and America’s influence is far from stellar, but that’s stuff to expect later in the series. We’ll explore some interesting alternate historical moments as they pertain to the characters — Gray especially. But really, the main thing is that this is a pretty zen and peaceful world, which is what will hopefully make the impending supernatural threats feel more frightening.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: There’s some neat “rules” here, like the 25-year “limit” for ghosts. What’s that do for the book — does it make it feel novel or distinct from so many horror stories out there?
WK: Everything early on is about setting the table for the characters to react to and in some cases attempt to overcome. With the ghost rule, since one of the leads who is personally among my favorites is a ghost, we’re using it to explore what it’s like living with limited time, even after death. Trying to make sense of what you might’ve done wrong or what you need to do to “move on.” And to me it’s even richer since we’re exploring it with a character who’s a kind of a happy- go-lucky fella at first glance.
AIPT: I simply love the dialogue here; it’s funny and builds so much of the personalities throughout the book. Is that a big focus for you, and how do you get it to be so fluid, funny, and revealing?
WK: Honestly, I think the dialogue initially comes first when I’m just writing the script, but when we get into the lettering phase, I remove a lot. I despise comics where it feels like the writer is just cramming a novella into a single panel. It does a disservice to the artist, and I think it ruins pacing. I honestly get the most joy when I’m writing panels or entire pages where there’s no dialogue because I think a controlled silence to give the reader a second to breathe, and just really feel engulfed in the world we’re making is one of my favorite feelings when I’m reading or watching anything and I wanna give that same experience back to the reader. As far as getting it fluid, you know sometimes I’ll write something and I envision the characters faces a certain way, and then when Luigi turns in the pages he’ll run with it or adjust it in a way that (often) surpasses the original idea and I just pivot to fit that. I feel I’ve got a tight grip on the characters voices, and I love things like Richard Linklater movies like Dazed and Confused or the “Before trilogy,” where characters just talk about everything and how it reveals so much.
Luigi Formisano: Thanks to Wyatt’s dialogues. I was able to bring the characters to life easily, believe it or not but every time he sends a new script my way I can imagine them in my head chatting and arguing and it’s so fun [laughs]
AIPT: How much of this “monsters in the open” is maybe an allegory for inclusion and acceptance? Or does it speak to some larger event/trend in our world?
WK: Personally, if someone wants to interpret it that way, I won’t tell them that they’re wrong, but it was never on my mind while making this book. I’m not always a fan of “ is an allegory for racism or prejudice” and going back to the mindset of making an ideal world, it just made sense to me. I mean, if you were just walking your dog and you saw a vampire or a ghost just bumming a smoke, you’d be like, “Shit that’s neat. What a neat world I live in.”
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Wyatt and Luigi, did you have any specific influences here (I’m getting Lost Boys and Stranger Things)? How do those filter in or inform the story here?
WK: I don’t think we’ve ever talked about Stranger Things or even Lost Boys when we were making this book. Did we? I’m not really an avid watcher of the series. I dropped off mid-way through season two; it just wasn’t my thing. And I’ve never actually seen Lost Boys, but my wife and I are watching it this Halloween!
LF: Yeah, I don’t remember mentioning Stranger Things, but my biggest inspiration at first was Linklater’s “Boyhood’s” vibe, because there is a load of crazy stuff going on (vampires, ghosts, you name it) and I wanted everything else to be grounded and reliable, a solid foundation for all the craziness to build on.
WK: Yeah, I think we both like that element of “mundanity” that makes a story feel real. It’s a balance I think, because we’ll talk about crazy stuff and we reference FLCL, and Del Toro movies, and video games but that has to compliment a scene of, like, Vince getting a waffle stuck in the toaster and fishing it out with a fork.
AIPT: Wyatt, what was the collaboration process like, and what did the art do to help you tell this story? (I’m thinking especially about moments like that awesome use of The Stampeders song in issue #1.)
WK: Oh, it’s great. I just write a million drafts of a single issue, gaslight Luigi into thinking it’s the “final” draft, then send him another one to make him feel like he’s crazy.
AIPT, Similarly, for you Luigi: what was it like working w/ Wyatt? And how did his script and insight help you in making the look of this book?
LF: Speaking of crazy…It might sound made up, but you can’t even imagine how much I enjoy working together. Never a dull moment, it’s like a constant stream of ideas, creativity, 90s anime obsession, video games, cartoons and a questionable passion for bathing suits. We get each other, his words can really light up my art.
WK: Ew, gross Luigi. No, but seriously he is one of the greatest artists in the world. We talk almost every day about the book, stuff we wanna see, stuff we’ve never seen in something from a mainstream comic and he’s so used to my bizarre demands at this point. He’s also, like, my best friend. So you know, there’s that. That helps. Like, this isn’t “Wyatt Kennedy’s NIGHTS” it’s Kennedy and Formisano’s (or Formisano and Kennedy to appease Luigi’s ego) NIGHTS.
LF: I’ll allow it.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: You do a good job in maintaining a pretty big and compelling cast, and everyone gets ample spotlight. Do you see a “lead” in this story, or someone who emerged as the most compelling character for you personally?
WK: I mean, in the beginning it’s definitely Vince. He’s the audience surrogate, and I think he’s just a dorky kid that anyone can relate to. I’d say by the mid-eason point (issue #5). it’s a two-hander with Gray and Vince, together. I’m sure people will flock to Gray because she’s a rude kleptomaniac vampire, but my hope is that everyone will have their own favorite character and light up when they get the spotlight. Even characters you’d think wouldn’t get a solo issue probably will in the future.
AIPT: For Luigi: How do you try and balance things so there’s lots of light and playfulness but also a really dark and menacing sense to everything?
LF: I do my best to honor the title, NIGHTS, and to keep it as dark, weird, creepy and gothic as possible, while Wyatt keeps writing these funny and amazing characters, and I think that’s where the balance comes from.
WK: I think we’ve only ever had a handful of disagreements, but then I have a good long cry, then I realize he was right the whole time.
LF: True story: on my phone, my predictive text says, “FOR FUCK’S SAKE WYATT,” even on a good day
AIPT: Similarly, I love the way characters are built and developed here — everyone is smart and funny and earnest. How much does that start visually and then that design or style choice builds the personalities?
LF: Sometimes we know how a character will look in the story, and based on the need we have for it we outline its personality – some other times, we do the opposite, finding some logic in our modus operandi is impossible.
AIPT: Without spoiling too much, the book seems to play around with timelines/time jumps. Why was that the right direction for this story, and were there concerned you’d do too much or lose folks?
WK: I try not to dwell if we’ll lose folks or not. I think it breeds a fear in the work, and then in turn an ambitious book might feel inclined to take less chances to appease a broader audience. This is a weird book for fuckin’ weirdos. The timelines aren’t something we’re gonna bounce across a whole lot in the beginning, but it’s mainly there right now to let readers know, “This is where we’re going” and we hope after such a mellow start to issue #1, when people get to that last page, it knocks them on their ass and they go, “Oh, this is not that I thought it would be.”
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: This is a horror book but it comes to the genre with more playful tones and a frenetic energy. Are we in a kind of “heyday” for horror, and this book adds to that, or is this book waving the flag for something more inventive for the genre?
WK: I mean, I’m obsessed with horror. I’m currently developing a horror mini-series with my editor (and wife) on this book, Alana Fox, that we’re both very excited for. It’s a straight horror, no comedy, but the way we’re doing it visually is something I haven’t seen much explored in western comics and I’m really excited for it. I think there’s a lot of great horror comics right now, but I think the horror aspect of this book encapsulates maybe 35% of the overall book. I’m a huge Sam Raimi fan and even his non-horror work always has that *one* scene where he can’t help himself, and I love moments like that. Like the Doc Ock hospital sequence in Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest horror sequences ever made, but Spider-Man 2 isn’t a horror movie, ya know? NIGHTS is like that to me, where it’s got horror elements, some issues will be front to back horror, but its meant to show its a wide world with a variety of tones we’re gonna play with.
LF: Exactly, if you look at the biggest horrors of all time — Alien, The Thing — they never take themselves too seriously, they are filled with genuinely funny scenes, which is relatable. Humour can be used as a coping mechanism, which in this context keeps the watcher, or the reader, on its toes. We are doing our best to keep the balance between the two worlds, without interfering with its personality and brand
AIPT: And speaking of characters, I think Gray is a real stand out — she’s bold and dynamic. What can you tell us about her and the larger role she plays in the story (feel free to be as spoiler-y or not as you want)?
WK: I mean, Gray is best girl! Her journey over the series is one of my favorite parts of the series, and you’re gonna see her evolve in so many ways both physically and emotionally over the course of things. She’s definitely a major driving force to the end game of the series and its climax, but she’s just one peace of the larger threat that’s looming. I think you’ll see her first big change (and a lot more backstory on her) in issue 5, which is one of the craziest issues of the series. Plus, Luigi likes to draw the pretty lady, right?
LF: [Laughs] Love me some Gray. The moment I read Wyatt’s pitch, I fell in love with her.
Her energy breaks the page and gets to the reader with the strength of kick in the face!
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