Moriarty: The Dark Chamber, Volume I |
Moriarty: The Dark Chamber Vol I (Image Comics, 2011)
Creative Team: Daniel Corey, Creator and Writer; Anthony
Diecidue, Artist; Dave Lanphear, Letters & Design; and Perry Freeze, Colors
(Issues 3 & 4)
Spoilers: Kept to a minimum so you can enjoy the story too!
While at the Long Beach Comic Con and Horror Show this past
November, it was fortuitous that Bryant Dillon of Fanboy Comics introduced me
to Daniel Corey, creator and writer of Moriarty: The Dark Chamber. Corey was just getting ready to leave the con for the
day, but he had a few moments to give me a quick overview of his story, which
intrigued me for the spy elements. I took home the volume as well as a promise
from Corey that I could interview him for a blog post after I had the
opportunity to read the novel.
Last week, I sent off an email full of questions for Corey's
consideration and Corey was kind enough to answer all of them in depth. Below
is that interview. I'll follow up with a review to fill in any gaps that the
interview did not address.
Spyfi & Superspies: Can you tell me a little bit of
about your interest in Moriarty and more generally, the world of Sherlock
Holmes and his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle?
Daniel Corey: I was first hooked into Sherlock Holmes when I was
a kid, by watching the old Basil Rathbone movies on TV. Like everyone, I was
enamored with Holmes’ deductive abilities, and how his methods were a catalyst
to such complex and exciting mysteries.
I think it was my Mom that picked up my first Holmes book, at a
library sale or something. It was an old edition with yellowed pages - probably
published sometime in the 1930s - that collected four of the stories, in large
print, for kids. I devoured it. The first story in that book would be the first
Holmes story I would ever read: “The Red-Headed League.” (I give a little wink
to the League in MORIARTY issue #7).
It was probably that following Christmas that I received a huge
tome that collected all of the stories, with the forward by Christopher Morley.
I read that book, took it on family trips. I grew up in church, reading the
King James Bible, so the language was not a problem. And I could easily see and
enjoy the elements of the fantastic, of adventure and derring-do that Doyle
gave us in those tales.
What was the seed, or catalyst, for deciding on writing
the story about Moriarty?
I decided to do a story about Professor Moriarty because I have
always been fascinated by the idea of him. He was never really present in the
original stories, but his legend follows Holmes around. And, of course, there
was that Final Problem at Reichenbach Falls, but we never really saw it happen.
Watson recounts it, from Holmes’ letter. Moriarty never really appears
“onstage” in the stories.
I love Moriarty because he is this idea of the ultimate center
of all crime, of all wrongdoing. For us, the hoi polloi, it gives us this sense
that we can find the root of all evil, snuff it out, be heroes ourselves.
Other than Watson’s glimpse of Moriarty at Victoria
Station, what was your process to give flesh to Moriarty?
I come from the theater, so I usually start a character by
writing a monologue that defines them. Then I usually try to weave it into the
story. If you read MORIARTY Vol. I: THE DARK CHAMBER, the first five pages has
the Professor speaking to us in first person, laying out his plight, his rules
for living, his troubles. That came from the first monologue that I wrote for
him.
I wanted to put Moriarty in the worst place imaginable: Holmes
is gone, and so Moriarty has lost all meaning. I wanted to examine Moriarty’s
compulsion, his obsession with control, how he seeks to recreate the world in
his own image through being this Napoleon of Crime.
All of this was speculation, based on the sort of characters Doyle
gave us in Holmes and Moriarty. You read these stories, and you make
assumptions about these guys, who they are, who they would be if they were
real. Everybody does that. Suddenly, the characters become real. I just wanted
to take those assumptions and theories about the inner-workings of Moriarty and
lay them out in story form.
A shell of a man |
What did you learn about Moriarty? Were there any
surprising revelations?
It’s unbelievable how much I’ve learned about him. My version of
him, anyway. It’s complicated. He is a real person in the public eye, in
popular culture. But I will say that various interpretations of him can be
valid. But for me, the person I am, I am going to recreate him in a certain
way. And as I wrote these stories, he just kept revealing himself to me.
One major revelation that I had: Moriarty is not a sociopath. To
me, he’s obsessive-compulsive. When I was in the early stages of writing this,
I discussed him with a psychologist that I met at a party. I described
Moriarty’s pathos, and told her that I just couldn’t write him as a sociopath,
as someone that suffers detachment from human experience. To me, he had to have
issues, had to have feelings about things, so that he could suppress those
feelings and face the consequence of that suppression.
She simply said: “He sounds OCD to me.”
So, for me, the key to figuring out Moriarty was figuring out
his obsession with Holmes.
As I read Moriarty, there were a number of times where I
sensed that Moriarty became the dragon he was running from? Is that a fair
reading?
Definitely. The man has a problem. The problem, really, is
himself: all the insecurities and fears he has built up around him have created
the life and situation that he is in. Sure, Holmes is an issue. But it’s fair
to say that Moriarty is projecting the troubles of his inner life on Holmes,
and on the rest of the world.
That’s a basic conceit of drama: Everything that happens to a
lead character is a reflection of who they are as a person.
I noticed you intertwined a lot of factual people and
events into your story. How much research did you do to create that early 20th
century backdrop? What decisions did you make, such as which factual persons
would make an appearance in Moriarty?
I was writing a play once, and my mentor, Ken Eulo, was
challenging me on some choices that I had made. The play was a nice dramedy
about this college professor dealing with his bipolar wife and the memory of a
dead father that had been largely absent in life.
Ken said to me: “Why isn’t this guy Einstein?”
“You mean, really smart?”
“No! I mean Einstein! Why isn’t he actually Albert Einstein?”
Ken didn’t really want me to rewrite the play and make it about
Einstein. The piece came together nicely without that change, but it was a
teaching moment. He was trying to get me to consider that stories can have more
meaning when you bring the audience in by incorporating things that they know.
So, in writing this first Moriarty tale, the very first thing
that popped into my mind was the fact that I wanted to set it against the
backdrop of World War I. The significance of that war is obvious to history, so
if the Professor is tangled up in the creation of that war, it will elevate his
importance and expose him to the audience as the heavy and important guy that he
is.
Bringing in Mata Hari as a femme fatale just felt natural, since
we’re dealing with that era. If you think to yourself “World War I-era femme
fatale,” who else is there? She danced right onto the page all by herself.
You have left room in the ending to revisit Moriarty: are
you planning a sequel? If so, how is it going?
Yes, I have already written MORIARTY Volume III. It’s a matter
of schedule and finance at this point. I hope to do it in this coming year, but
we’ll have to see.
Was there anything you wish you could have included in
your story?
There is a certain marksman that I wanted to fit into THE DARK
CHAMBER, but didn’t have room for. But he may have shown up later. Everyone
will have to keep reading to find out.
How long did it take to write?
THE DARK CHAMBER, my Volume I story, took ages to finish. I
spent about two years just writing the script. I took that long to figure out
the Professor, figure out the world, the rules. THE LAZARUS TREE took closer to
eight months to complete. It was a little quicker, but not easy, but any means.
Can you discuss how involved Image Comics was to the
publishing of Moriarty? Did you assemble your creative team or was it a
collaborative effort with Image Comics?
Image is a creator-centric company. You have to bring them a
package, which is what I did. I wrote the script, Anthony Diecidue drew the
pages. I showed it to Image, and after some time, they decided to publish it.
They liked what we were doing, so we didn’t have any editorial input. That’s
how they work. If they like what you’re doing, they let you do it.
So, Image didn’t assemble the team. Anthony and I did the work,
and Image approved it and published it. Sounds easy, but it wasn’t. It was a
process. It took well over a year from the time Image first saw the project
until the final papers to be signed.
When were the single issues published and how long after
did the novel come out?
MORIARTY Issue #1 was released on May 11th, 2011. We released the four issues of
THE DARK CHAMBER in succession, then released the Volume I graphic novel in
September 2011.
In October 2011, we released MORIARTY Issue #5, which debuted
THE LAZARUS TREE. The collected Volume II came out in February 2012, and we
were proud to debut it at the first-ever Image Expo convention, which
celebrated Image’s 20th anniversary.
Over the course of the run of the series, everything sold out:
the issues were gone from shelves, and collected trades dried up, as well.
Retailers kept asking about the series, so Image decided to put out the
MORIARTY DELUXE EDITION HARDCOVER, which collected Vols. I and II, and included
an extensive gallery of extras, such as pinups by many great artists, early
concept art, a script-to-page gallery. I am very proud of that volume.
Do you have any other projects in the near future that you
can share with my readers?
To be honest, I am very close to two pretty big announcements,
but I can’t talk about them quite yet. When the time comes, we can have another
conversation about those if you like.
Is there
anything I did not cover that you would like to mention?
A few plugs, I
suppose. First, I just opened up the online DangerKatt Store, where I’m selling
copies of MORIARTY, some merchandise, and my first comic, titled DANGERKATT’S
PROPHET. You can purchase that via download. Visit us here: http://bit.ly/18VZSat.
Also, the film
rights to DANGERKATT’S PROPHET were optioned this past summer by James Cotten,
Eric Thompson and Mark Morgan of Outlier, a Hollywood-based production company
responsible for franchises such as TWILIGHT and PERCY JACKSON. Check out the
announcement in THE WRAP: http://bit.ly/14WXtJ3. It’s pretty exciting stuff.
Spyfi &
Superspies wishes to extend a sincere thank you to Daniel Corey for giving his
time for this interview and for sharing his journey to explore a mysterious
literary figure with us.
And now, on to
my review.
Moriarty needs some assistance |
Moriarty, A Review
I felt a little
bit of trepidation as I approached Moriarty: The Dark Chamber because I was not familiar with this notorious villain
that is often referenced in pop culture as the “ultimate” mysterious entity
that embodies the letter M. I
will admit that my exposure to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has been
limited to reading one or two short stories some years ago and more recently,
playing Sherlock Holmes
Verses Jack the Ripper
on the Xbox360 console last year. My memory of those stories were a distant
memory and don’t get me started about the video game…however this well structured intelligent
story didn’t leave me behind, but instead swept me up into a chaotic world of
intrigue, mystery, the occult, and espionage, set against the collected held
breath of the world on the eve of one of the most devastating events of the
early 20th century: World War I.
Corey has
obviously spent a lot of time researching Doyle and early 20th century history, and he expertly
creates a sense of realism and historical significance to the story unfolding.
He enriches Moriarty’s world with the tensions of Edwardian London – the fear
of German spies, secret governmental organizations (MI5 was established in 1909
and make a pivotal appearance), and of course, the threat of war on the
continent. In addition, Corey sought out real life characters to add to the
mystery, such as Tomokichi Fukurai who was
a professor of psychology at Tokyo University experimenting with
parapsychology, and “nensha” is a real term. The sultry dancer, Mata Hari, who
tries unsuccessfully to seduce Moriarty, was a German spy and most probably
secured secrets from her liaisons with high ranking individuals prior to and
during the war. Even the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
(1914) is mentioned. Corey handles this facts beautifully, striking a balance
of fact and fiction into broad, strokes across the backdrop of his story. As a
history enthusiast, I relished these contact points with real historical people
and events, which allowed me to connect more fully with the story.
In addition, it is
readily apparent that Corey sought to present a fleshed out Moriarty that he
then slowly pulled back the layers of this complex individual by allowing
Moriarty’s words to fill the page through voice over. For instance, Corey
starts his story at the fateful location of Reichenbach Falls where in Arthur
Conan Doyle’s The
Adventure of the Final Problem (1893), Moriarty and Holmes fought and appears to have fallen
to their deaths. During that opening scene, via voice over, Corey reveals
Moriarty’s fear of a “dragon” that has been chasing him since his childhood.
And he allows Moriarty to reveal to the reader the three rules he lives – rules
that will resonate throughout the entire story. While the mystery and intrigue
are fascinating, the crux of the story is Moriarty’s psychological journey that
spans 20 years, although we are privy to only a small period of time in 1914.
I believe Moriarty: The Dark Chamber dovetails nicely within the literary
Sherlock canon, as far as my limited knowledge of Doyle’s literature affords in
this comparison. However, Corey’s storytelling voice has a vintage flavor that
reminds me of the Wilkie Collins’ mysteries, such as The Moonstone (1868) and The Lady in White (serialized, 1859-60), or H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895). If Moriarty does not fit
Sherlock canon, it does fit the tonality of the times and profiles a desperate
period of time in which people were grappling with the coming of war and the
changing face of society in light of the modern era.
What didn’t work
as well for me was the artistic drawing style of Anthony Diecidue for Corey’s story. There was great
fluidity in his renderings, which worked well some times, such as the dance
sequence and general visual portrayal of Mata Hari for instance, but was surprisingly
less effective in the fight sequence in Yorkshire. His style skews towards
working with generally less detail, which isn’t my particular taste, but it is
an art style that truly is conducive for the story being told. Again, I believe
my opinion is skewed by my own tastes. So, while I wasn’t a fan of the
renderings, I do feel that Diecidue was spot on with his colour choices when
applied to characters, location and events. In particular, the pink hues of
Mata Hari’s scene contrasts exceptionally well from the rest of the deep dark
blues, greens, and browns that Diecidue employs throughout much of the story
that provides a gritty, mysterious and moody tapestry.
I was also
surprised by the lack of experimentation relating to the page layouts. There is
nothing wrong with sticking with the basic panel set up on a page or the shape
of them – squares and rectangles – but I’ll be honest, I think there were some
missed opportunities to provide a more dynamic visual experience. Diecidue does
do a few flourishes, but Moriarty’s fight in Yorkshire or the climatic sequence
in the third act could have splashed across both sides of the page to emphasize
some dramatic moments in the story. Both of these “weaknesses” are based on my
personal preference of what I like, artistically speaking.
Moriarty: The
Dark Chamber is well
written story and provides a fascinating tale during a period of time that
often glossed over or forgotten. I like that Corey took the readers to 914 and
presented a tale filled with mystery, spies, the occult, and the desperate
times of a world on the brink of war and that of Moriarty - his shroud pulled
back to reveal a solitary man fighting his dragon.
Corey's photograph was supplied by Corey himself; all other photos from Spyfi & Superspies.