Brody's Ghost

Mark Crilley is the creator of the Akiko series as well as the young adult series Billy Clikk and Miki Falls. This month he returns to comics with his new series, Brody’s Ghost, from Dark Horse. Crilley recently spoke with Westfield’s Roger Ash about this new series.

Westfield: What was the inspiration for Brody’s Ghost?

Mark Crilley: Several different things came together for this project. I’d always wanted to do a story set in a Bladerunner-like futuristic location. I’d also never told a story involving ghosts, and wanted to see how such characters can be used to explore matters relating to death. Finally I felt that while the idea of an average person suddenly gaining superpowers had been done to death (Spider bites! Gamma radiation!), the idea of that same person very, very gradually attaining those powers through enormous self sacrifice had not been tried much. Luke in Empire Strikes Back is about the only one I can think of. I wanted to see how believable I could make the whole training process.

Westfield: Who are the main characters in the book?

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Crilley: Brody is our protagonist. He’s a young man whose world is quite literally a mess. His apartment’s like a landfill, and he’s pretty much flushing his life down the toilet following a break up. Into this comes Talia, the ghost character. She’s a girl who died of leukemia five years earlier. The concept is to make the living character, Brody, kind of half dead, whereas the dead character, Talia, is much more full of life. Finally there’s an ancient samurai ghost character, Kagemura, who will eventually serve as Brody’s mentor in unlocking his supernatural powers.

Westfield: What can you tell us about the story?

Crilley: Well, it’s a six-part story, very carefully planned out. In Book One we get to meet Brody and these other characters and see where he is, what he’s up against, and just how far he has to go. Talia needs Brody’s latent psychic abilities to help her track down a serial killer she’s been charged with apprehending. So from the get go we see this average guy getting sucked into a very dangerous world. As the books are released and the story progresses, I’ll get to do the most intense action sequences of my career. And the fact that I’ve worked the plot out so thoroughly means there will be absolutely no filler: Everything that’s in this story is there for a reason.

Westfield: Why did you decide to do this as a series of graphic novels as opposed to monthly comics?

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Crilley: You know, I never really considered the monthly comic book route, though that would have been cool. When I pitch any project I want as many different publishers to look at it as possible. Mainstream publishing houses like HarperCollins and Random House can only consider graphic novels, so that was clearly the best way to go. Also this story, like almost everything I come up with these days, has a very film-like quality: A solid beginning, middle and end, rather than a sprawling episodic tale. Graphic novels allow you to pull the reader in for a longer time and give them that “it’s like I’m watching a movie” experience.

Westfield: Are there any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to mention?

Crilley: I’ve got loads of other things I’d like to get going. Brody’s Ghost is front and center for now, though. If all goes according to plan I’ve got more than 500 pages in front of me, so I’m going to have to be cautious about taking on a second project in the years ahead.

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Crilley: I’d just like to give a big shout out to Jill Thompson, who single handedly hooked me up with the people at Dark Horse. She believed in this project almost without even knowing what it was — such was her faith in me as a comic creator. Thanks to her I’m really coming back into the comics industry in a big way. I can’t wait for this book to hit the shelves this summer. I think it’s really going to surprise people.