Ales Kot recently ended his run on SECRET AVENGERS and just released MATERIAL #1. He also has another ambitious title coming next month, WOLF. Joining Kot is Matt Taylor on art with colors by Lee Loughridge.
When it comes to Kot's stories, sometimes you're not too sure what to expect. Kot always has the wheels in motion and each issue becomes a journey. The same can be said for WOLF. With a first issue coming in at over fifty pages, we're about to embark on yet another trip with Kot in the driver's seat. We talked to him about the new series and what it's all about.
COMIC VINE: What’s your quick pitch in describing WOLF?
ALES KOT: WOLF is a crime noir horror fantasy set in present day Los Angeles. Imagine Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, James Ellroy and Shane Black meeting up and concocting a secret ritual that would bring a...well, I nearly told you too much there. "Crime noir horror fantasy set in present day LA" really sets it up, doesn't it? Think The Last Boy Scout meets Neverwhere! True Detective meets Good Omens! But if you go past that, you'll see a comic that explores myths and their place in our world, as well as the sense of place -- Los Angeles, California and hell.
But all of this wouldn't mean a thing without relatable characters, and that's where Antoine Wolfe comes in. And Anita, the girl he has to pair up with. And...apocalypse. WOLF is about a man, a girl, a place, blood and what it means to us, and the things we do to find magic.
CV: Where did the idea come from?
ALES: I already said this really well elsewhere, and I don't think I'll say it better now, so I'll say it again:
America is built on crime. Crime's always been prominent, and the crime genre has been as well, it's just that for a long time we didn't call certain stories by that name. What else is the Native American genocide? What else is slavery? I have to reiterate this point: America is built on crime.
The inspiration for 'Wolf' was partly a desire for an exploration of the under-explored. America's rampant racism. The prison-industrial complex, which is at its core. On a state/city inspiration level, California, Los Angeles, and their own strange ways. I could chart my inspirations and they would lead in many different directions: my years spent in Los Angeles, my semi-regular engagement with things we cannot see (after all, we do see only 3% of the electromagnetic spectrum, and there are ways to amp that number a bit), my reading of Clive Barker's fiction at a tender age of nine or ten, my daily facing of the racial abuse many of our fellow citizens are facing, diving into weird fiction by the likes of Lovecraft and Barron, being lost on the US-Mexican border, encountering ghosts and strange hieroglyphics in a Prague apartment, having visions of things that happened decades ago and only finding out they really happened years later, investigating, paying attention, wanting to have an output for all the weird in me. Hannibal and the first season of True Detective I find particularly inspiring, too -- there's connective tissue there.
But then there's more, such as the strange way some of us still treat women. Why are creators and consumers of big portions of our culture afraid of menstruation? Why are they afraid of really exploring various underrepresented aspects of womanhood, be it in a genre/hyper-fictional context or in some way that would be decidedly less...overblown? What's with the whole "male savior" archetype? These are some of the questions we explore in 'Wolf,' some of the reasons why making the comic felt like the right thing in the first place. What makes the pill go down all nice and sweet is the noir fantasy "Neil Gaiman meets True Detective" angle, the fact that I am aware this comic is entertainment. So if I go to where the inspiration really came from...it could be simply the image of Antoine Wolfe, our main protagonist in #1, a hardboiled ex-army detective who can see too much for his own peace of mind, living in a glorified shack in Echo Park surrounded by boxes of books, empty bottles of booze, prescription pills and some things we can't quite figure out until the end of issue one.
It's a cliche, but the biggest cliches are often cliches because they are true: it all starts with a character. And Antoine is real.
CV: What kind of tone are you going with the series? What sort of balance will there be with the fantasy elements and the “real world”?
ALES: Los Angeles is two worlds: the one we can see...and the rest. How cliched is that, right? But also: true. We perceive just 3% of the electromagnetic spectrum. What's the 97% we can't see? Well, Antoine Wolfe sees some of it. More than we do, for certain.
So he built a private investigator/helper practice on that gift. However, just because it feels like a gift to us doesn't mean it ain't a curse to him. But to get back on track: Los Angeles is WEIRD. It's hot and beautiful and utterly strange. It's our world -- but it isn't. That's what we're channeling here, and since I have a lot of experience with the place -- after all, I live here -- I feel we're nailing it.
Also: something's in the hills, ripping people up! Vampires! Werewolves! It might be Christmas but you wouldn't know if by the weather! Drought! Prophecies of California turning into hell! And a girl just lost her parents...
...the paths will converge.
CV: What more can you tell us about the lead, Antoine Wolfe?
ALES: As I already mentioned, there's his gift, which he pushes away with booze and pills. He's self-destroying, but at the same time, something's keeping him from burning entirely. You'll see what I mean by the end of issue one.
Antoine Wolfe is also a war vet and a voracious reader (this will prove important, because reading IS important!), and he's between worlds -- he knows the community of the weirdos, the werewolves, the vampires, the succubi, all the strange creatures LA is full of...and that includes humans. Thing is, Antoine's also got a death wish, and there's a girl approaching that might shake up the entire plan he's got rolling already. Plus there's a bag of cash, something screaming in a darkened room, and an old, rather unhinged acquaintance. Plus -- Freddy Chtonic!
CV: Aside from Wolfe, will there be many other characters in the supporting cast?
ALES: Freddy Chtonic! Sterling Gibson! Friedkin Blatty! Anita! Plenty more, yes. We'll meet a lot within our first issue, which is 58 pages long. There's a female vampire who will prove rather important. Sterling Gibson, well, that guy's a horrible racist with a whole lot of money and influence who hires Wolfe for a job. Freddy is Wolfe's best friend, or the closest thing he's got to one, and he's also...well, Chtonic. The name is sort of self-explanatory if you're familiar with H.P. Lovecraft, and if you're not -- you're in for a surprise.
I could tell you more about all these characters, but the thing is...I really want to let you discover this world, this universe. I believe we're creating something special, a comic that is deeply beautiful, immersive, and strange. I want you to come in not knowing what will happen. I want you to feel the joy of experiencing a whole new world for the first time.
CV: What made you decide to have the first issue at fifty-eight pages?
ALES: Exactly the before -- my desire to give the readers an experience they won't forget.
CV: You sometimes include a character singing in your books. What comes first, the song in your head or the scene when you write it?
ALES: It changes every single time.
WOLF #1 is on sale July 22. Be sure to check it out.
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