Interview: Queenie Chan on The Dreaming and more

Queenie Chan is the writer/artist of the TokyoPop OEL manga series, The Dreaming. I wrote about The Dreaming and its many virtues (as well as the OEL program, generally) a while back. For this All Hallow’s Month, I decided to chat with a few creators of horror comics, as well as those who bring them to us from the business side. This is the first interview in this series - with a few more to come.

The Dreaming, Vol. 2 is set for release in November. You should all check it out.

For those unfamiliar with The Dreaming, could you give a brief description of the series?

“The Dreaming” is a 3-book mystery-horror series from TOKYOPOP, about a series of disappearances that happen at a boarding school deep in the Australian bush. It has a bit of a influence from “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, since it’s a seminal Australian story that is fairly well-known both in Australia and around the world. In the story, a pair of identical twin sisters arrive at the school, and immediately sense something wrong with it - and the story is about their discoveries about the dark history of the school, and why the girls disappear. It some ways, it has more of a “mystery” slant than a “horror” slant, but then that depends on how you view it. I’m used to dark stories, so perhaps as the creator I didn’t find the horror-slant so big, but other people may see differently. What really matters is that they have a good time reading it, though!

Where did the idea for The Dreaming come from? How did this story gestate?

As I mentioned, it has influence from “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, but the actual way in which the story created itself is more complicated. In my mind, it was an amalgamation of 2 stories - a romantic comedy called “TwinSide” and a straight-horror story called “Block 6″. Both of these were pitched to TOKYOPOP to develop into a 3-book series, but were both rejected. However, there was potential in bits and pieces of each story, and so my then-editor suggested I combine the two and come up with a “haunted school” story. I resisted the idea at first (”haunted school” stories has got to be the most cliched and dreadful around), but I thought there was still potential in the idea, especially with the Australian slant. And that is how “The Dreaming” came about.

If you want to see both stories, they are both available on my site at http://www.queeniechan.com/. “Block 6″ is an on-going story, while “TwinSide” has been laid to rest in the graveyard.

I’d imagine you hear a lot of comparisons to Picnic at Hanging Rock, given that Australia is the setting of both stories, both are written by women, and both have disappearing girls. How do you feel about the comparisons?

I’ve been telling everyone about my influences, so it’s not really an issue. People DO notice the similarities without me telling them, but it’s more of a case of “Oh, Picnic at Hanging Rock was my favourite movie!!”. And while I take influence from that story, there are far more differences between the two than there are similarities. That’s because times have changed considerably since the story of “Picnic at Hanging Rock” came about. The original story had no definate ending or explanation, and that worked fine because that’s the type of story it is. But for me, because I have to break a single story into 3 books, there is no way I can get away with not explaining to the readers why these events at the school happen. Because of that, “The Dreaming” is actually a very plot heavy book! The first book was more about scene-setting, but in the second book, the story really kicks into gear.

Is The Dreaming your first really long-form comics work? If so, what is the process like?

Yes it is. Before it, I’ve done countless short stories, and “Block 6″ is an on-going story (at 130 pages so far; will be slated for about 300 pages). I’ve also got a number of long-form stories planned in my head that are longer than “The Dreaming”, but haven’t had a chance to commit to paper yet. So in theory, “The Dreaming” is not my first long-form comic, but it is definately the first to be published. I guess the “published” part makes all the difference.

In terms of the work process, the most important thing is probably getting the plot down! After I got the story pinned down, it’s basically writing summaries, doing the script, and then doing the rough pencils. The summaries and script are especially difficult for me, because I never script stories. When I was writing short stories, I never both to script, but now that TOKYOPOP demands scripts, I had to start writing them. It slows down my work process a bit, but it can’t be helped. After I do the rough pencils, which always differ in some way from my script, I then go straight to inks (I don’t bother to refine my pencils). After they’re done, I scan it into the computer, add the toning and dialogue, and upload it onto the server. I have to do everything myself, so it’s especially gruelling.

Are you a particular fan of horror, or was a thriller/mystery/possibly supernatural story just what you choose as the best way express what you had in mind?

No, I’m not a fan of horror in particular. I like all kinds of stories, but in the case of “The Dreaming”, it came to exist because I was specifically asked to do a “haunted school” story, so I guess my agenda was to do a “haunted school” story that isn’t terrible (unlike most haunted school stories). I enjoy drawing stories about the supernatural though - it’s just a fun subject to explore, and connected to fantasy and sci-fi, which are two “genres” that I absolutely love. It’s the idea of creating another world that interests me. I can’t say I like the way horror has become though - not so much to create a creepy atmosphere, but specifically to scare people through gore and other digusting things. People’s expectations of what horror should do has changed in these past 2 decades, and I don’t think we’re better off for it.

What makes good horror (or a good thriller) to you?

Believe it or not, momentum. A decent plot helps too, but then things like “a decent plot” and “momentum” tends to go hand-in-hand. If you’ve got momentum, it’s because your plot has been paced well, and that means you’re successful in keeping audiences interested about what’s happening. There are a number of good horror/thriller movies that do that, and it’s especially rewarding when the narrative DOESN’T fall apart at the end. I’ve seen alot of good horror/thrillers that start off with a good premise and opening act, become muddled halfway through, and end up getting really ridiculous at the end of the story. It’s a real pity, because if the plot had been properly developed through from the beginning, things like this won’t happen. A plot that starts off reeling the audience in, and then becomes a mess at the end is just going to leave a sour taste in the audience’s mouth, even if the movie is well made.

What horror/dark fantasy are you a fan of, be it in comics, movies, books?

Movies always do it for me. One of my favourite horror movies is “Rosemary’s Baby”, which I really think is a masterpiece. There are others like “The Shining” and “The Exorcist”, but apart from that, there aren’t many. I’ve avoided all slasher movies involving dead teenagers, and I’ve gotten really, really tired of the “dead wet girl” movies first started by “The Ring”. In terms of books, I love H.P. Lovecraft’s work, who really was the master of the weird. His stories have much more in common with the older strains of horror movies than the slasher and J-horror ones of recent years, and that’s why I love them.

What scared you as a child? How about as a teenager? Now?

Exactly the same things. I don’t think what you are scared of changes much with age, though you may gain a sense of perspective about it you didn’t have when you were younger. I was always scared of the paranormal as a child, and now I still am. Nothing’s changed, except that I no longer try and overcome my fear by reading ghost stories in the middle of the night. I guess I just accepted that sometimes fear is something all humans have, and you’ll have to learn to live with it.

By paranormal do you mean ghosts and things like that, or do you mean
something else? Why is the paranormal scary to you?

Definately ghosts and things like that. I guess it’s scary to me because the paranormal often can’t be explaimed by science or logic. That enough is to frighten me, especially since I had wanted to be a scientist as a child. Even as a little kid, I had found science reassuring because it explains much of the world (though not all of it). Nowadays I’m not a scientist, nor do I have any desire to be one, but what I believed as a kid still holds.

The Dreaming Vol. 2 is coming out in November. Can you leave us with a preview of the next issue?

I have some preview pages up on my website at http://www.queeniechan.com/thedreaming/ , but apart from that, I guess I can tell you that nobody disappears in this volume. I’ve been asked a number of times whether Amber or Jeanie will disappear in this volume, and I would say no, because that’s the direction the readers would expect me to take the story in. The plot also kicks in for volume 2, since the first volume was mostly scene-setting and introducing the situation and characters, so the pace is definately going to be faster. Volume 3, however, completes the circle, and makes revelations about things that were minor plot details in volume 1, which I like, because it reminds you that the story is meant to be a single story told over 3 volumes.

Anyway, I guess I can only ask you to buy volume 2 and see it for yourself!