work out a murder is never easy , but what if you had to do it nautical mile underwater , trapped on a station that could flood at any moment ? That ’s the premiss of Matt and Sharlene Kindt ’s new series , Dept . H. We sat down with the husband - and - wife team to discuss the serial , along with a few preview pages from the series ’ first issue .
Dept . H follows the young investigator named Mia tasked with solving a grisly murder which took post many Roman mile below the open in a cryptical ocean inquiry base that ’s facing an impending flood . Among the inscrutable creatures lounge in the dark around the station and the morose secrets shared among the crew , Mia is tasked with find out who kill the smartest man on Earth before she and her evidence are washed off into the dark depth of the ocean .
io9 : You ’re descend into Dept . total heat in the wake of the destruction of your Dark Horse serial publication , Mind MGMT . What precede you to swivel towards this very unlike , quite personal report in Dept . H ?
Matt Kindt : It was as much a response to MIND MGMT as anything . With head MGMT I literally spent four year intend about and layer that report into something really enormous . Big ideas executed on a really large scale over a long period of time . Both in terms of account and root word and also literally with the globe - cross locations and time jumping . It had everything I could possibly opine pour into it . So my outlook coming off of that was to do something … different . So I essay to push things to the opposite extreme . It ’s a murder mystery coif in a “ locked room ” science home , six miles deep in the ocean . The smartest man on Earth was killed down there and our friend , Mia , has less than 24 hours to figure out who killed him before the fundament floods and everyone ( include the evidence ) is washed away .
So in that way , this report if very single - apt — very finish orient . I ’m not lay out all the answer to every question in the universe ( MIND MGMT ) … [ express mirth ] . It ’s a smaller story about a fair sex conduct with the passing of her father under extreme condition .
say us a little bit about the assumption and the lead quality , Mia . Was it a witting decisiveness to go with another distaff lead for Dept . H ?
M. Kindt : Throughout my career I ’ve tend to gravitate toward distaff lead — because it ’s an well-off way to forthwith outstrip myself from a part . I think the cakehole that a deal of writers get into is they cease up write a protagonist that ’s just them and becomes a gumshield for their ideas and thoughts on living . I think by consciously creating a character reference that is a womanhood , a different wash , a different bringing up then myself — all of that forces me to really get outside of myself and think differently . To make this eccentric actual , rather than just an extension of me . And I think doing devote me the side welfare of hopefully being a little second secure of a person — less ego - centered . I ’m constantly trying to view events from another person ’s point of eyeshot .
What inspired you to write the serial ?
M. Kindt : I was watching the Jacque Cousteau documentary World without Sun and it all really started to come in together . Just the difficultness and challenge to dive deep into the ocean , it ’s a really unequaled and harrowing experience . outer space and get through the atmosphere is one matter . But there ’s a kind of relief when you ’re in space — the weightlessness , and freedom in some ways . But with the ocean , the deeper you go , the more claustrophobic it produce . There is literally more and more press on you the cryptical you go . It ’s that kind of visceral terror that I really wanted to tap into and see if we could capture it in mirthful book form .
What was the biggest challenge in framing the story in 2- hour clod ?
M. Kindt : Pacing is sturdy no matter how you ’re writing a 24 - page serialized comic book story . Initially I conceived of the series being 24 minute per issue . As I got into it , I substantiate it really would be better ( and much harder to write ) if each issue was one hour . So that ’s problematic . How do you get something meaningful to happen in each issue without it seeming repetitive ? We ’ll get short two - page bursts of Mia ’s backstory as we go along and that helps give the legal action more system of weights — but this is really a non - stop crimper coaster ride of a comic . And it ’s been fun to really show off how much comedian can do in such a small space .
Sharlene , what was it about Dept . H that made it the first undertaking you wanted to collaborate full meter with Matt ?
Sharlene Kindt : Matt and I had a lot of merriment working together on the Mind MGMT stories for Dark Horse Presents . It is a muckle more intriguing for me to color other creative person exploit versus my own . His lines are so different than mine , so it ’s a fun challenge to see how I can enhance his work with semblance .
Have you had any narrative or esthetic stimulus beyond your people of colour work on the series ?
S. Kindt : I do n’t have any narrative input besides Matt asking me my opinion on a few thing here and there . I have creative person comment as far as some of the costume designing and how the color should separate the narrative . For exercise , before I start water - coloring , we go through each publication and blab out a lot about the emotion we desire specific scenes to have .
What ’s been your glide path to the color and look of Dept . H ’s humans ?
S. Kindt : I wanted to use rich colour , whether they be dark or more pernicious . My personal work can be very vibrant and superimposed . With this account book , I wanted the colors to be copious , but leave room for shiny color when they could really enhance the story . I also wanted to keep the colour simple … not expend a great deal of unlike colors . I gravitate toward blues and yellows . Besides the fact that they are natural colours of the account ( urine , Mia ’s diving event cause , etc . ) , I want to use colors that counterpoint to heighten the subjects .
Dept . H is the first even monthly series you ’re providing colors for . How was accommodate to a monthly comics schedule ?
S. Kindt : The only other laughable color work I have done were little stories , so keeping to a soaked schedule is take exception . I like to work when I am feeling my most originative and inspire , but those prison term never come when a deadline is loom . [ express joy ]
Sometimes I just have to force myself to sit down down and act upon . I have afternoon tea by my mesa , put on a record , fire up a taper , put my laptop computer and phone away … and dig in .
Matt , this is the first full - fourth dimension comic strip project that you and Sharlene have work on together . What ’s the appendage been like ?
M. Kindt : It ’s been great . It is our first full - time prospicient terminus projection but it really seems like an denotation of everything we do . We ’ve been married since 1996 and when you ’re together that long and you really wish the other mortal — not just “ love ” , but like that mortal — you train a bang-up kind of stenography and agreement , and you become a really interesting originative political machine . Greater than the sum of our parts for sure . It ’s fun to bear that over into art — but it really starts with just living together , raising our girl and learning how to work out at all levels and interact in a path that makes us both happy .
When we first started this I ’d get jokes and looks from champion , sort of hinting at how it could be “ difficulty ” to work with your better half . But really , you ’ve got to be kidding . There ’s nothing more challenging than nurture a nestling from baby to teenager — if we can do that , everything else becomes a breeze !
What have you learned artistically from each other while doing the series ?
M. Kindt : [ Sharlene ’s ] colors are so promising ! And she impart blanched space on the page ! I was just joking about it the other day , reckon at the finished nontextual matter . When she first gives it to me , all I see are these foreign dispute — things I would n’t have done , ways I would n’t have painted it , and it throws me for a loop . And then the next day , I ’m flipping through the finished Page again and I ’m able to look at it for what it is : a true collaboration .
Those difference of opinion that seemed strange because they were dissimilar choice than the single I would make — those are my favorite bits . It ’s really beautiful hooey . I have a go at it that we ’re get a flavour at this art that I could n’t possibly do on my own . I ’ve been a kind of loner for so long when it comes to written material and draught comics , it really is exciting to foot up this artwork and see something that I would be incapable of reproducing on my own . It ’s a thrill .
The first issue of Dept . H is out this Wednesday , April 20th .
ComicsMatt Kindt
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
