22. The Making of a Comic: 'Hallowed North #1' by Jeremiah Espinoza and J. Paul Schiek
22. The Making of a Comic: 'Hallowed North #1' by Jeremiah Espinoza and J. Paul Schiek
Comic creators advocate for mental health awareness
22. The Making of a Comic: 'Hallowed North #1' by Jeremiah Espinoza and J. Paul Schiek
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back, fine friends to The Making of a Comic, a series you may know and love, or you’re here for the first time, where I get to explore how comics come to life with the creators who make them. Joining me today is writer Jeremiah Espinoza and artist J. Paul Schiek, who we had the pleasure of meeting in last week’s edition, to talk about their comic HALLOWED NORTH #1, which is currently live on Kickstarter as of this writing.
Their dark fantasy comic exploring the horrors of mental illness intrigued me immediately. Having grown up with a family member diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder (formerly called manic depression), I know all too well the damage mental health issues can cause—speaking from an outsider’s perspective watching my family member suffer over the years. To see it conveyed in the comics medium prompted me to back this book in the first hour of launching—something I don’t typically do. Without further ado, here are the creators to tell you all about it.
Inside a Writer's Mind
Brittany Matter: Tell us more about this comic. What mental illness are you exploring in it?
Jeremiah Espinoza: Hallowed North #1 is the first entry in a dark fantasy/horror series taking place entirely within the mind of our protagonist Ben Ramos as he struggles with depression. We follow characters called Vapors, mental constructs of people from Ben’s past, who live in this mindscape, a patchwork quilt of memory and fantasy known as Hallowed North. As Ben’s depression worsens, a monster appears in Hallowed North that seeks to destroy it and everything Ben loves.
BM: What inspired you to tell this story?
JE: I’ve dealt with depression most of my life. In my mid 20s, I entered the worst depressive episode I’d ever experienced. I wanted to find a way to express to my love ones what I was going through. The basic premise of Hallowed North was formed at that time. After I made it through that rough patch and became more vocal about my experiences, the story evolved to take on another purpose. To remind those going through their own struggles that they aren’t alone, and that even in their darkest moments, there IS a way through.
BM: How did you come across J.'s work, also known as Jeremiah, and why did you choose him to help bring your story to life?
JE: I found J. through a mutual Twitter friend. As I looked through his portfolio on his website, every piece convinced me more and more that his style and skill was exactly what Hallowed North needed to really come to life. I’m very grateful he agreed to take on the project because from the very first piece he did, he reaffirmed that.
BM: What has it been like working with J. on this story that's so close to your heart and personal experience?
JE: I’m fortunate to have such a great artist to collaborate with on my first big project. J. Is a pleasure to work with. He possesses a deep understanding of the story and is able to both accurately convey and simultaneously elevate the material with each new panel.
BM: What was your reaction when you first saw Matt Krotzer's letters?
JE: Prior to working on my own comic, lettering wasn’t really something I paid much attention to. Which, as a reader, is ridiculous when you think about it. But when it came time to find a letterer for the project, I was suddenly very aware of just how important it was going to be to the book’s success. Matt’s a very talented guy and when I got the initial set of pages that he did for the Kickstarter, I was blown away. It felt like the comic was becoming a reality. And after working on this story for the last few years, it’s indescribable just how wonderful that actually is.
BM: What has been the most surprising part about using Kickstarter to fund this book?
JE: That we were funded at all! I had my hopes but I have a tendency to temper expectations out of a fear that things won’t pan out. So the night before launch, I went to bed preparing for an uphill battle. We met our original goal in 8 hours in what became a very emotional first day of the campaign. I’m truly humbled by the support Hallowed North has received so far.
BM: How do you think bringing awareness to mental illness through the comics medium is different from any other?
Hallowed North was originally planned as a prose novel. I made the switch to comics because I didn’t think any other medium could capture the beauty or the horror of what the mind is capable of creating the way that this method of visual storytelling could.
Peeling Back the Panels
BM: When Jeremiah asked you to draw HALLOWED NORTH, what was your reaction?
J. Paul Schiek: I remember being thrilled by the idea of a comic centering around mental illness, and in particular, bipolar disorder. My mom is type 2 bipolar and for many years, I was painted with that same brush. I’ve been tentatively diagnosed with it by a couple of different doctors over the years and received some treatment, however, it wasn’t until more recently we discovered that ADHD is a better match for my symptom set, which has some overlap with bipolar disorder.
All that aside, it is a condition I feel is all too often stigmatized, or leads to a lack of validation when someone known to have the condition expresses passionately for one thing or another. “Oh, they’re bipolar, they can’t help it,” that sort of thing. Worse still, those who don’t believe the condition is real. I still encounter that a lot with ADHD, and people not only telling you but expecting you to just snap out of it, like it’s all a choice, is very disheartening.
BM: What inspired you most about Jeremiah's story?
JPS: I was really taken with the idea of bipolar disorder manifesting as an actual, physical monster. I also found it compelling that we are seeing a male protagonist who suffers with a number of alarming symptoms and behaviors including cutting. It’s not that guys don’t cut themselves as a way of dealing with anger, anxiety, depression, etc., but it’s statistically more rare. I can’t speak to the experiences of the opposite sex when it comes to parental and other societal reactions to one’s outward appearance of depression/anxiety, but there exists for a lot of males this attitude of “suck it up, buttercup,” as if an over-expression of testosterone is some miracle cure for “the blues.” In Jeremiah’s story, the Depression Monster is very real, very visceral, and, as in real life, it can and does hurt more than just the nuclear afflicted person.
BM: How did you approach exploring such an internal and personal experience on the page?
JPS: I worked pretty closely to script on this one. Where I made some more creative decisions was more in the color palettes used. When we see Ben in the shower in one of those early pages, I made him red in an overwhelmingly blue environment. A yellow towel hangs by the mirror to contrast the blue and to introduce us to an equally overwhelming sense of yellow when we meet Ben’s family on the next page and encounter Ben’s father and brother exhibiting the toxic behaviors of those who can’t see past their own inconvenience long enough to understand that a loved one is truly suffering. I wanted the brightness to feel forced, almost intrusive in a way. Unpleasantly pleasant, if that makes sense.
BM: Tell us about your cover and how it came to be.
JPS: The cover was pretty straight forward, for the most part. Jeremiah sent me an email saying he wanted a sort of mid shot of the series main character, Ben Ramos, looking at his hands and sort of dissolving into nothing. He mentioned making the bones and muscle tissue visible—at least that’s how I remember that email conversation going—and I kind of riffed on it from there.
We got our variant from an experiment I tried in my free time, just taking a duplicate of the file and seeing what it looked like by inverting all the black ink to white and setting it against a blotchy gray and black background. Jeremiah liked it well enough it became a second variant for us. I like the main cover quite a lot, but if I’m honest, I’m kind of partial to the photo negative variant.
BM: What's one thing that you've learned about your art, or yourself, in making this comic?
JPS: I don’t know if it’s a thing learned so much as a thing confirmed, but I work the fastest and with the most conviction with character-driven, figure-based work. I like a good acting challenge in most anything I work on, this being no exception. I learned to not feel too guilty when the background settings don’t ring in at the same level of detail as the characters. I think it’s a security thing, and I know from previous projects that I have a tendency to try to oversell something I feel less confident about. In this case, I feel confident about the characters and the emotional ideas they’re meant to portray, and the rest sort of just follows on that lead. Every project, I learn to trust that a little more.
BM: What has been the most rewarding part about working on HALLOWED NORTH?
JPS: Getting to advocate for awareness of a mental illness that has had a profound impact on my life and upbringing, both directly and indirectly, has been a huge honor. If this helps others see this often misunderstood condition in a new way, or helps someone currently suffering to feel seen, and perhaps a little better understood, I can think of no greater reward for a job well done than that.
Getting to know the Jeremiahs
BM: For me, reading stories has always been an escape, but this comic takes a deeper look into depression, something that can feel inescapable. With that in mind, what do y'all make time for in your busy lives that offers such an escape?
JE: Most of my free time is spent with my family, whether that’s going to the park, the bookstore, or staying home playing video games together. I also make time for creative writing, reading, and mentally unwinding with one of my favorite sitcoms.
JPS: I practice close up magic and sleight of hand. It’s something I picked up in junior high, and it greased the social tracks enough to get me through high school. It’s one of a number of interests I have had—with ADHD, you tend to have a lot of them—but one that I always gravitate back toward sooner or later. I like working with card tricks in particular. I don’t often perform, but I like the meditative quality of practicing with a deck of cards in my hands.
BM: What movies, TV shows, books, or video games have you both been enjoying recently?
JE: As of this moment, I’m on Thanksgiving break and sucked into my latest Skyrim play through in between Chilling Adventures of Sabrina binges with my girlfriend. I also have a stack of comics by Scott Snyder and Donny Cates that I hoping to get through before the week is over.
JPS: I saw Dune and really enjoyed it. On a more long term basis, my wife and I finally sat down and committed to watching Peaky Blinders, and are about halfway through season two. I also recently read the new Jack Reacher novel from Lee and Andrew Child. I’ve read all of the Reacher books, and though I’m sad Lee Child is passing on the torch to his brother—it’s just not the same, no matter how much it may seem like it—I’m glad there will still be a new Reacher book every year for the foreseeable future. I’ve also been reading a lot of Alan Watts, Daniel Madison, and Juan Tamariz, to fill out my philosophical and deceptive reading interests.
BM: What are y’all working on lately?
JE: Hallowed North. We’re at a bit of a turning point as to where to go next with the book, whether that’s to seek out a publisher or continue crowdfunding the remaining issues. I have a few ideas on the back burner for what comes after, but completing Hallowed North is my priority.
JPS: In addition to Hallowed North, I’ve been working on a piece for Nightmare Theater 2 with Rich Douek, a Victorian story with Chuck Suffel, and making new pages for my own Hush Ronin book, which is tentatively set for release through Band of Bards in late 2022.
BM: What do you both hope people get out of HALLOWED NORTH?
JE: Like some of the greatest stories of all time, Hallowed North pits unlikely heroes against an all-powerful, unrelenting darkness. The difference here is where that darkness is coming from and how much more difficult defeating it becomes. When Hallowed North is complete, my hope is that it brings a better understanding of the demons that people with mental illness face everyday. And with that, more empathy and support for each other.
JPS: I hope that those who need to be seen will feel seen, as a result of our efforts, and that those who have yet to see will find the right kind of eyes in these pages. And I wouldn’t say no to a Ringo Award, if it comes up.
BM: Y’all have my vote! Thanks to you both for joining me today and talking about HALLOWED NORTH #1, a story that I can already tell is truly a heartfelt examination of something many people struggle with and experience daily. I can’t wait to read it in print.
Dear readers, don’t forget to check out HALLOWED NORTH #1 on Kickstarter before it ends and follow the creators at the links below.
HALLOWED NORTH #1
Writer: Jeremiah Espinoza
Artist: J. Paul Schiek
Letterer: Matt Krotzer
Editor: Leland Bjerg
Cover artist: J. Paul Schiek
Variant cover artist: Heather Vaughan
If you or your loved ones are suffering from mental health issues, check out these incredible resources which include the National Alliance on Mental Illness whose HelpLine has extended their hours M-F from 10am-10pm ET at 1-800-950-6264 or text “NAMI” to 741741 which is open 24/7 for support, resources, and education.
Take care out there, dear friends.
