THE WAKE by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy has had us captivated since the first issue. With issue #5, we had quite the cliffhanger as issue #6 jumps forward 200 years. With only four more issues after this and a whole new world introduced, we took the opportunity to talk to Scott to find out what's coming up and if there'll be anything afterwards.
COMIC VINE: Can we assume it was always your plan to jump the story forward 200 years after a big cliffhanger moment?
SCOTT SNYDER: Yeah, that was in the outline. Sean and I really discussed for some time actually making the book, in the beginning, set in the future and then flashing back to the past occasionally. But we really fell in love with the story in the past as well. We decided to try something a little more daring and do the book in two halves.
CV: How much thought went into designing the setting for the future time period?
SS: A lot. Sean really worked on it. He started designing it before we began the book. Those designs and the characters, especially Leeward and the dolphin, Dash, were there from before we really designed the characters in the present day section. This is really the part we've been dying to get to. I'm super proud of the first half and this half, it makes me really nervous to be honest. It's so outside my comfort zone. I've never really tried post-apocalyptic adventures, even though I love reading them. As nervous as it makes me, it's also the part I'm really itching to try.
CV: With just four more issues left, will we get to see other areas of this timeline? There was mention of the "Tree People" and areas like "The Sands," etc.
SS: There's a lot of stuff we won't get to see because the book is so short. Sean and I have stories for it. We talked about coming back to it in the future if people really like where it goes. My hope is people will like it enough so we'll be able to return and explore some of those elements. We're going to see a bunch of the world, I'll say that. There's going to be a journey across the ocean to determine whether the signal is real or not.
CV: What about the Governess at Crane City? What's her story?
SS: Yes, you're going to find out about her past, the General's past, General Milo. They're both characters that Sean and I like a lot. Those two characters figure really big and their relationship is important. You'll also see more of Pub, Leeward, and Dash. Dash is everyone's favorite. Everyone's telling me if I kill him, they'll stop reading the book. So I promise, he's safe. I don't have any intention of killing him. There's a really big spoiler alert.
CV: With the cliffhanger in issue 5 and issue 6, do you sit back and laugh in an evil way thinking about how all of us are going to react to them and have to wait?
SS: No. My concern, oddly, I think I get this wrong a lot, is people usually see it coming. I worry they're going to be bored with it or they'll anticipate it in a way since it was hinted at in the other issues. There was a hint that were were going to jump two-hundred years into the future so my assumption was you guys would think these characters are dead in the second half. But, I guess what I forget is you don't realize they're going to die dramatically. They could easily have long happy lives and then die. Or they could still be alive. I'm always playing it, I feel, too close to the chest. I'm never sitting there thinking, "Ha ha. I have you guys." I'm usually thinking, "Oh god, I hope they get this," or "I really hope this feels the way I mean it to feel." It's not meant to be a shocking thing, an emotionally gripping or moving moment in the story. That's what I want the end of 6 to be. There's a chance that Lee might still be alive. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. I'm not trying to pull your heart strings in a way that's manipulative.
CV: Will you get into more of the story behind the Mers? Like what their full story is or why some are larger than others?
SS: Oh yeah. Yup. You're going to learn all about them. You're going to learn all about the sort of weird fuses we did in the first half from the prehistoric times and everything. We're going to try to wrap it all up in there. If I'm 100% honest, I'm a little nervous just because we planned the book at five issues but there's a lot in there. The single biggest challenge for me is there's so many things I want to explore, character wise, geographically, and all that. I have to keep the story going as fast as possibly to ensure it gets to where it's supposed to get
CV: With series like AMERICAN VAMPIRE or SEVERED, it's clear what your inspirations were. What inspired these creatures?
SS: It was actually a video I saw a long time ago (it's on YouTube). It was the discovery of this ancient shark off the coast of Japan. It was still alive, barley alive. It's very creepy looking. It looks like an eel/shark. I remember thinking to myself how odd it was that this thing evolutionary thought long extinct was alive. Not only alive but there's probably a few of them out there. Then I thought to myself, there's probably so many creatures we discover all the time. A lot of them are tiny but we're discovering new species constantly. It started getting me thinking about my favorite horror movies, I'm a huge graphic monster fan.
Along with Frankenstein and the Wolf-Man, I have statues of all those classic monsters. The Creature front the Black Lagoon is my father's favorite and also one of mine. I started thinking, what if I did a sort of modern day Creature from the Black Lagoon. I started playing with it and then I talked to Sean. The idea of doing the Creature from the Black Lagoon was great but we fell in love with the idea, what if they win at the end, what would the world be afterwards, what if there's too many of them? It got bigger and bigger and bigger. That was the original idea.
THE WAKE #6 is now on sale. A collected edition for issues 1-5 was released in December.
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