Comics fans, always follow your hearts. (And maybe your eyes, too.)
That’s the only reason, while browsing Bluesky one day last week, that I discovered Down North Where No One Goes. The brain-child of writer-artist Ramón Perales (with a scripting assist from Will Aickman), mere previews of Down North Where No One Goes struck me with its rich, vivid colors; Mœbius-esque scope and world-building; and folksy charm and magic. (Not to mention the gorgeous main cover by Artyom Trakhanov of First Knife fame.) But it was also the story that eventually caught me, a seemingly simple narrative that hinted at a deep well of humanity and charm. I’ll let Perales take it from here:
In the midst of a war into the far future, where our history is only prehistory, we follow a mercenary sent to raid some fisherman’s village, but everything goes South (heh…) quickly before he is forced to travel to the unknown North…
The end result is a proper journey, as Down North Where No One Goes takes you along head-first into this unknown but oddly familiar and compelling realm. It’s a place where history and time seemed to have condensed, and where things aren’t so easy/direct even as they retain the heft and weight of all truly great travel stories. If you have the wind and the courage to follow along, Down North Where No One Goes will not only satisfy your hunger for adventure, but have you thinking about ideas of community, history, the span of human development, and the stories we tell ourselves to understand it all.
Down North Where No One Goes will be available digitally starting today, October 10 — grab your copy here. Then, in November, physical copies will be made available at the UK’s Thought Bubble Festival.
AIPT: The best stories are something simple and direct under all those layers and sparkle. What is Down North… at its very core/to its most simplified essence? My guess: it’s basically a coming-of-age story.
Ramón Perales: Oh, I would love to know what made you think that! HAHA! Without spoiling too much, I think I would say that it’s a travel story. An unlikely anti-hero, a mysterious world he truly doesn’t understand, perilous adventures and, most of all, a bunch of characters each weirder than the last. But it’s also an exculpation letter, depending who you ask.
AIPT: For my money, you’ve got the title of the year. Where did it come from, and what’s it do to prime readers for what to expect from the actual story?
RP: Oh, thank you! Before the title was important, the story had another title, more boring and descriptive [title] that I won’t say now. But at some point, when I was daydreaming about this supposed land where our characters must go, I thought that surely there must exist some songs and poems about it by the people of the time. And surely they speak of how nothing lives there, and how the air is poison, and how no one that goes there returns… And so the title came to me; you can think of it as a verse of one of these songs. Maybe I’ll write it at some point.
AIPT: You spent some time teasing/releasing pages. Why take that approach with a book like this – is it just the nature of being an indie comics creator right now?
RP: It may be. Although I’m sure there are better ways than mine; I think it’s more the nature of being on social media. You definitely have no marketing campaign paid by a publisher, and even if you collaborate with an indie one, you definitely are the one marketing your creation. This might have been even more important without a crowdfunding campaign, which has proven to be very helpful in terms of catching eyes for your comic.
AIPT: The world here feels perfectly formed even if we don’t clearly know everything just yet. How much world-building did you do before getting into the writing process – is there some huge story bible somewhere you’ve used?
RP: There wasn’t one for the most part… at least until past September. I’ve been ruminating this story for at least three years, and the world and overarching setting for a couple more. Most of that lived in my head until I reached my good friend Will to helped me with the script. Then, I sat down and wrote it to him for an hour, and realized it was the first time all of that was real. I’m afraid, though, most of it will remain unknown to the reader, possibly forever.
AIPT: I also quite enjoyed your Webtoon series, Litanies to Stars. Do you feel like those are connected somehow, even in terms of themes or vibes?
RP: Oh, boy! I love this question. You see, that (quite outdated!) webcomic consists of a story called Ash Corvus and the Witch of Mirrors, which functions as the first story in the Litanies to Stars series. After I made it, I realized what I really wanted was to make better, bigger, more real comics (in paper!), so I moved on to other things.
But time passed and I came back to my science-fantasy tales, which I consider to be part of that series and universe, and Down North… is, in fact, one of them. Thorough readers might find out exactly what links the two of them…
AIPT: There seems to be a few cultures blended together to create this world. (I see “standard” European fantasy but also Indigenous tribes from the American Southwest). How do you decide what to “borrow” from and how to blend these inspirations?
RP: I try to be both careful and respectful when taking inspiration based on real cultures and civilizations. Will has helped me a lot in that regard. Sometimes those cultures can give a clue about the land they inhabit, and the ancestors that may have had, but for the most part, I try to follow a certain logic to this world. How would this culture naturally develop here; who may have influenced them, why would they choose to dress like this? All these questions have answers that are unimportant to the story but important to me. They’re important because they mean there is some cohesion behind it all.
AIPT: In addition to a great Artyom Trakhanov cover, I get some real First Knife vibes from this story. Is that a reference for you – is there anything else specifically that influenced the look/feel of this world?
RP: First Knife. I adore that book. It’s partly at fault for this story existing at all; I don’t think it would without Simon Roy kindly signing me those lovely staples five years ago. But besides the admiration, I think that there are a lot of shared sensibilities between their story and mine, and above all, some shared references and inspirations.
[As for inspirations], mine would be, to the surprise of nobody, Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä and Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. I cannot escape how deep those works touched me, and how deep their roots go in my stories.
AIPT: I really resonated with both the dialogue and narration here – it feels appropriately epic but still relatable. How do you approach writing all of that, and why is that feeling so important to this story?
RP: I’m sure many will hate me for saying this, but I only write the script after all the pages are drawn and inked. I know more or less what the characters must say, but in my comics, visual narration directs the script, and that helps me get the flow I want. However, this is the first story I’ve made in which narration is so important; it has to convey what the narrator wants, but also depict him with his flaws and compliment the action tonally. That is why Will revises and rewrites the script. When I worked on my story for the Book of Fuligin anthology, Will and I worked together with this methodology and it felt great. I knew the script needed his masterful touch here, and believe me, it was the right choice.
AIPT: Do you have a favorite moment or page/panel from the debut issue – something that speaks to the larger story of Down North…?
RP: I think one of my favorite panels would be the protagonist cleaning his sword in page nine because of how silly and slightly deformed he looks. I love how some dramatic moments can be slightly balanced with those silly looks in comics. I’m also really fond of how I presented the rebels! But if you want something that speaks of the larger story, I’ll have to say the two final pages then.
AIPT: What’s the long-term future like for Down North… the book/story? How deep do you want to go?
RP: This story already has a written ending. In five issues similar to this one, it will be done, and then I’ll finally compile every sci-fi tale I’ve done under the aforementioned Litanies to Stars anthology. That will be over 300 pages of both published and unpublished work. After that, I may take a rest…
AIPT: Is there anything else we should know about the story, comics, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.?
RP: Read the title carefully. Study the maps closely. Also, read Gene Wolfe!
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