From Portage & Main and Highwater Press, The Reckoner Rises graphic novels continue the YA novel series from writer David A. Robertson, who joins Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin to discuss the world of this saga.
COMIC BOOK YETI: David, welcome to the Yeti Cave today. How’s everything going up in Canada?
DAVID A. ROBERTSON: Quite well, thank you. It was an extremely busy year, and I’m glad to have a summer that’s mostly chill. Just a few trips here and there.
CBY: So, I jumped in with God Flare, the third volume of The Reckoner Rises, and then was very curious about the earlier world-building and character development, so I asked the awesome team at ZG Stories if I could backtrack through the previous two volumes. You clearly have a fully formed world in which your characters operate, based upon the YA fantasy books which preceded the comics. What do you bring from your personal experience to the construction of this high-impact, phenomenal world?
DAR: There are a few things, but they mostly trace back to my childhood. When I was dreaming up The Reckoner, I thought a lot about the kind of stories I read as a child, especially in the comic realm, and wanted to write something that I wish I would have had when I was younger. My buddy Jeff and I, almost twenty years ago, dreamed up a story that had all the qualities of the stories we loved, and avoided the mistakes other stories made. That was the foundation of The Reckoner. Of course, the story has changed drastically since then, but it still, especially early on, relied heavily on the influences of X-Files and Lost. From a more personal standpoint, this is really a series that addresses mental health, and that’s something I’ve lived with in my own life for a very long time. It was cathartic to speak to mental health conditions through Cole Harper.
CBY: Having an analogous space in which to frame issues is certainly a useful way to both work through those issues and frame them in ways that help others relate. As for the creative team behind The Reckoner Rises series, you’ve worked with Scott B. Henderson on all three volumes, with alternating contributions from Donovan Yaciuk and Andrew Thomas. Can you share a bit about how the team came together, and the role everyone played in building the visual identity of this comic?
DAR: Well, I’ve worked with all of these folks for a long time. All of their disciplines are part of the storytelling, even the lettering. So, everybody is important as a part of the team. Donovan is an incredible colorist, and Scott is a dear friend who I’ve been working with for fifteen years now. We have a very symbiotic relationship. We know how we tell stories, and there is a lot of trust there. Scott and I discussed the characters and the world, and came up with a visual feel that would feel at once familiar but entirely new for the series as it entered into the sequential art world. He, as usual, has done incredible work.
CBY: With the creative team covered, can you tell us a bit about Portage & Main, and Highwater Press, where The Reckoner Rises has found a home? What path led you to releasing your work with them, and what would you like the rest of the world to know about their ethos and publication catalogue?
DAR: HighWater Press is a leader in the publication of Indigenous stories. They have done it the right way by ensuring creators have agency over their stories, in their own voices. They are respectful, passionate, and genuinely interested in furthering reconciliation in this country. I think we kind of came up together. You know, 7 Generations, I think, was the first publication for the imprint, and since then, we have grown together. Even as I’ve branched off to different publishers, I keep doing work with them because they’re incredible people, they do incredible work, and I’m proud to be associated with them. Catherine and her team are wonderful.
CBY: That is effusive praise, and I look forward to better acquainting myself with the roster of publications they offer. There are also so many images and moments within the story that evoke familiar imagery - a scene at Omand’s Creek immediately made me think of River’s Edge, for instance. That may be a specious inference on my part, but what sort of influences went into The Reckoner Rises, and how did different media factor into creating the distinct aesthetic and setting selection of each installment in the series?
DAR: There are definitely specific visuals that Scott and I have drawn from personal influences. Often, I’ll get Scott to listen to music or watch a scene in a movie or television show, and tell him that that’s the vibe I’m looking for. There’s a scene at the end of Book 1, Breakdown, where I told him to watch the climactic scene where Jack and Locke fight in Lost, and we totally paid homage to that moment. But, yeah, I have certain aesthetics for each volume, certain vibes that I like to work with. There are scenes, I think in God Flare, that are straight up horror. There’s A Clockwork Orange in there, there’s The Shining, there’s all these iconic visuals that gave so much emotional weight and thematic depth to the stories.
CBY: Apart from media influences, there’s a very well-defined sense of place throughout your narrative. Winnipeg is a central locale - I’m always curious about the positional value of your experience and how it shapes the creative process (beyond the occasional Tim Horton’s reference thrown in). What does the setting share about your story, and your perspective?
DAR: It’s social commentary. You know, there are a lot of issues here in Winnipeg and what is still a colonial country, and placing this story, as much as possible, in the real world, was important for me. It wasn’t that it was just easy to place the story in a city I’m familiar with, it was contributing to a dialogue about cities like Winnipeg, and the treatment or indifference towards Indigenous people. There’s a big theme of “who gives a shit about them” and I think that’s really true. The Indigenous people struggling in this country are struggling, very often, without notice or attention. You ask the average Canadian how many communities have no clean drinking water, and they either don’t know, or can’t believe that we, in a first world country, have communities that live in third world conditions. But that’s our reality. At the same time, I love this city, for all of it’s warts, and placing stories here brings attention to what I believe is an underrated and culturally rich city. So, there’s a lot there, the good and the bad.
CBY: Yes, I'm writing from the land of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people here in Melbourne, to whom my enduring respect is due. Seeing the various ways the decolonization movement in the Pacific has been subverted is also very frustrating. As a white, male American and naturalized Fiji citizen, it's a constant point of redress in dialogue with other Westerners who don't realize the various dangers and imbalances of the existing global paradigm. (Speaking of trying to provide enlightening perspective)
, I appreciate the gradual revelation of the story in progress at the start of volume 1 that steadily builds over the course of the story. What do both your development and organizational processes look like as you put together all the various relationships and conflict points? How much of Cole and Eva’s story have you put in place beyond what you’ve revealed in the three volumes thus far?
DAR: I’m a planner. I’ve learned to write and tell stories that way. So, I think the short answer here, and the simple answer, is just to say that I had the story planned out from the start. I knew what would happen in the last books, before I started writing book 1. Of course, there will be variations because good characters tend to do their own things, but you learn how to guide them back to where they need to be, to get you where you need to go as a storyteller. But Cole and Eva, to me, are this iconic and beautiful couple, that are so real, and that have real problems, and just so happen to always have powers. But those powers can sometimes bring more attention to their very human problems.
CBY: I don’t want to reveal too much, but there’s a rather complex and sinister megacorporation called Mihko Laboratories creating distress within the world of The Reckoner Rises. And Cole, one of your main characters, is dealing with some pre-existing trauma and ongoing personal exploration while facing an enormous threat. What else should our readers know about the scope of the story you have revealed thus far?
DAR: I mean…it’s colonialism. And it’s an awful acknowledgement that a lot of people don’t know or don’t give a shit about what’s happening in our communities, and what we have been through historically. So much of this series is just an allegory for real life things. It’s all happened, just not with superheroes. But for example, you have Brady, who’s being experimented on, among many other “subjects” in Mihko. Well, children in captivity in residential schools were subjected to brutal experimentation and inhuman treatment. That’s reality. There is a lot of truth in fiction. And let’s not fool ourselves, the perpetrators of violence towards Indigenous people are the government, are huge corporations, who care more about the bottom line than they do about the people they harm. In the early 20th century, the government knew what was happening in residential schools, they knew that mortality rates were disgustingly high, they knew what children were going through, and they ignored it. They quieted the truth, rather than address the trauma that children were experiencing. And just because that history is in the past, we are still living through the impacts of colonial systems that do as much harm as the residential school system.
CBY: I'm really glad you're candid about that intent. Intergenerational trauma and instances of hauntological exploration are recurring themes creators have brought to their conversations about their narratives and the worlds they build for characters to inhabit, and often overcome challenges. HighWater Press lists the series with a collection of “big ideas” and provides cultural recognition of the Cree people as subject for further context. What ideas are you trying to amplify in the world with your creative work?
DAR: My work in general? I want to have a significant societal impact. I really do want to help change this city, this province, this country for the better, with whatever capacity I have in what I do as an artist. I want to bring better attention to the fight we have as Indigenous people for rights that we deserve and are entitled to, I want to share what we’re going through and what we have been through to all Canadians, I want to mobilize people to be allies, I want to help us walk on this path to reconciliation together and I think stories are the most important way to bring people together. But more and more, my work is expanding beyond Indigenous issues, into things like Mental Health advocacy and normalization.
CBY: I can't think of a more relevant reason to create art and tell stories. I hope this interview can play a small part in amplifying that societal impact. Now, having published around 240 pages of The Reckoner Rises with the release of God Flare, I’d like to acknowledge the enormity of work you and your collaborators have put into telling this story. With that in mind, what else do you have in the works? What else from your creative portfolio should our audience know about?
DAR: I don’t even know where to start with that. I have a lot that I’ve done and a lot that is coming. You can read Black Water, The Theory of Crows, The Misewa Saga, and a few graphic novels that are vitally important, like 7 Generations, Betty, and Sugar Falls. When We Were Alone is one of the most important works I’ve done, and it’s a picture book. But I have a lot coming, too. A mental health memoir called All The Little Monsters. I have a book about reconciliation, a literary fiction novel that’s really bleak and very beautiful. I have the final book in this series. Two more picture books about the unmarked graves in North America and about losing something and how to deal with that grief. Just a lot.
CBY: That is a lot! It's really great to see the expansive body of work you're building with a unique position and perspective to share. To close, once our readers catch up with The Reckoner Rises, what other comics and creative media (films, music, literature, etc.) should they check out? What’s been inspiring you lately?
DAR: Reservation Dogs is the best television show I’ve ever seen. Will Prince is a relevation in the music world, and Jeremy Dutcher. I love movies like Longlegs, just really original stories. Echo was a great series that had boat loads of representation. Civil War was an incredible movie. Niigaan Sinclair wrote an amazing non-fiction book called Winipek. You know, it’s just a great time to be an Indigenous artist. And when you find a creative project that is wholly original, that’s so refreshing. But music is probably the biggest thing for me. So if it’s Iskwe or if it’s Pearl Jam or Sufjan Stevens or Florence and the Machine (who have a lot of music about anxiety), it’s all good.
CBY: David, if you have any portfolio, publication, or social media links where our readers can learn more about your work, please feel free to share anything you’d like.
DAR: twitter: davealexroberts IG: davidrobertsonwriter website: darobertson.ca facebook: davealexanderrobertson (I think)