Having written both countless X-Men comics as well as working on The Mandalorian, Christopher Yost already has a rather stacked CV. But with Unnatural Order, his latest project publishing via Vault Comics, he may have even outdone himself with an especially novel hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy.
To truly and fully dissect Unnatural Order, we’d pretty much have to spoil everything. But since we’re not totally heartless, we can say it involves a terrible villain, The Druid, wreaking havoc in the ancient realm of Hibernia. A group of noble heroes stand up to fight back, and the resulting tale is a bloody and epic battle than spans space and time and has us rethinking the very nature of history and reality. If that sounds like a tad bit of an oversell, Unnatural Order really is a vital new series, and one that’ll have you second guessing what really comes next.
Unnatural Order #1 is due out today, November 1. In the lead up, Yost answered a few of our questions, including working with artist Val Rodrigues, why The Druid is such a great big bad, and the debut issue’s massive retail orders, among other topics and tidbits.
Cover to issue #1 by Val Rodrigues. Courtesy of Vault Comics.
AIPT: What’s the elevator pitch for Unnatural Order?
Christopher Yost: We’re been going with “Zero Dark Thirty meets Lord of the Rings” for the most part. This is a tricky book to talk about without spoiling things for a lot of reasons… but in Unnatural Order, the world has been transformed by the magical powers of the Druid, and a group of freedom fighters are seeking out the one man the Druid seems to fear, a prisoner that holds the key to putting things back the way they’re supposed to be. By the time you get to the end of the first issue, you’ll start to see that ‘how the world is supposed to be’ is a pretty subjective idea.
AIPT:You’ve done some TV and films as of late, including The Mandalorian. What about this story made you want to come back to comics? Did this story demand to be a comic?
CY: I’ve always wanted to do a more fantasy oriented book, with magic and dragons and the like, with all the action and humor that I generally try and put into things. But I wanted to have a more modern element butting heads with this fantasy world, I realized that was the story I wanted to tell. Regular people reacting to the supernatural is a lot of what I love, and I’m trying to do that here. I think these are the kinds of stories that comics do the best, to be honest. There are realities in TV and film that come down to time and money. With Unnatural Order, I have more room to grow the characters and explore the world, and my budget is unlimited – until artist Val Rodrigues kills me.
AIPT:There’s so much history packed into this book. What about the stories and culture around the actual Hibernia was so compelling to you?
CY: It’s a time and place that’s popped up in a lot of stories I grew up with, it’s an easy familiar setting – but you’ll see as the story progresses, things are a lot bigger than just Hibernia. By the end, things expand. Or contract, depending on your point of view. Part of the reason for choosing it was to kind of flip those tropes on their heads as well, by the time you get to the end of issue 3, the heroes and locations get examined in a different way. I’m not trying to be cryptic, I swear. This isn’t a time travel story. This isn’t a multiverse story. It’s something different.
Courtesy of Vault Comics.
AIPT: The book’s “big bad” is a figure called The Druid. What can you tease about him, and what makes him such a deeply unsettling figure?
CY: There’s a bit of a cold open in issue one where we meet him for the first time, it’s a primal, hopefully disturbing bit that sets the tone for what’s to come. But After that scene, something changes in the world. Evil wizards are supposed to speak and behave in a certain matter. The Druid, a man named Iodoc, doesn’t act like your typical power hungry magic user. Iodoc’s got a lot more going on, and is coming at his world conquering from a different point of view. Although he’s still a sadistic monster that enjoys pulling out intestines, setting people on fire and making the organic matter in your stomach grow into a tree exploding you from the inside out. He enjoys that a lot. He’s a lot older than he looks, too.
AIPT: Similarly, there’s a kind of running “threat” that things aren’t as they’re meant to be. Does that sense maybe connect with some idea or feeling that’s pervasive in our own time?
CY: I think we can all look to the horrors of the modern world and think, “This is not how the world is supposed to be.” In the case of Unnatural Order, it’s a very literal feeling. Everything would be a lot simpler, honestly. If we knew everything was wrong, but there was a reason for it. Our heroes know that the world was never meant to be ruled by the wizard. The man we’ll initially know as the Prisoner, he knows the world was never meant to exist the way it is.
AIPT: Our “adventuring party,” as it were, is made up of a diverse cast of warriors, each with their own motivation to battle The Druid. What makes this configuration interesting to you? And is there a standout from the group in terms of who is most fun to write and maybe also plays a bigger role?
CY: Not to sound like a broken record, but I love the tropes of fantasy adventures. So does the Druid. If everything feels familiar, like you’ve seen it before… it’s because the Druid has too. You’ve got Gunther the Barbarian, Caden the Archer, Octavious the Soldier, Eadgyd the Warrior, and Adrina the Sorceress. It almost sounds like someone made them up, doesn’t it? Weird.
Courtesy of Vault Comics.
AIPT: There’s a big twist/reveal at the end of #1 that reworks our understanding of the hero group. We don’t want to spoil it, but why opt for that turn/move specifically and what does it do for the story proper?
CY: I always considered the first issue a “zero” issue honestly, but that’s probably because I read a lot of 90’s comics. The last page, when Gunther and Eadgyd find the Prisoner, it turns the world on its head, but by the end of the second issue you’ll know what’s happening, we’re not going to draw out the mystery too much. The hope was to create a compelling twist and reason for people to pick up the next issue, to really get people wrapped up in the WTF mystery of it all.
AIPT: Stemming from the earlier question, the book also plays around with history. What kind of story potential do you get in comparing contrasting peoples like this, and/or what are you saying in reshaping our own times?
CY: This is a story that takes place in the real world, and we want to give it real world context. History exists as we know it. The people and the places that we reference, they ground a very unreal story in reality I hope, and give readers who don’t ordinarily get into fantasy a context and something familiar to go with all the crazy magic stuff. But after the fourth issue, we’re going to start writing a new history.
AIPT: What was it like working with Val Rodrigues. What did their art and style do in terms of helping to shape and craft this story and the larger world?
CY: Val is amazing and has been doing incredible work on this book, which has some fairly complicated stuff in it. I get pages back from him and they literally take my breath away. A comic book artist is a director, character designer, set designer, background artist, set dresser, they’re every single role on the film set basically, all in one. All the respect in the world, and Val’s been crushing it. We’re lucky to have him.
Courtesy of Vault Comics.
AIPT: A little birdy told us this book earned some record-breaking orders from retailers. Does that put added pressure on you at all?
CY: For sure. There’s always a pressure to deliver a book people are going to enjoy, and not get shit on via twitter or whatever it is these days. But Vault made an incredibly bold and smart business decision to get this book out there, to get eyes on it, to get it in people’s hands. They’ve done their part, so I hope that I held up on mine. I know Val did.
AIPT: What can you tease about the action and highlights in issue #2 and beyond?
CY: Issue 2 really explains what this world it, who the main character is and the stakes for literally the entire planet. A man who doesn’t belong has to traverse a strange world, make allies, and fight his way to the Druid in order to put things right. There’s all manner of terrifying monsters, a three-headed dragon, the dangers of pissing off a zealot sorceress, and one very confused soldier at the center of it all.
AIPT: Can you finish this: You should only read Unnatural Order if (BLANK).
YOST: I can’t. There’s no reason not to read Unnatural Order. It’s got adventure, scares, a few laughs, incredible art, evil wizards, giant tree monsters, a werewolf, it’s got mystery, it’s got beheadings and disembowelment, and it’s got a United States Navy Seal at the center of it all asking what the actual f**k is going on?!
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