Condon, Phillips talk THE ENFIELD GANG MASSACRE

This August marks the launch of the primary challenge of The Enfield Gang Massacre, the brand new ebook from That Texas Blood staff, author Christopher Condon and artist Jacob Phillips.

This ebook is one thing of a by-product and a prelude, taking readers 150 years into the previous of That Texas Blood’s setting, the fictional Ambrose County. In advance of the ebook’s FOC (which is quickly approaching, so preorder now), Condon and Phillips took time to talk with The Beat about Ambrose County, the brand new ebook, and whether or not there will probably be extra That Texas Blood.

Check out our dialog under!

INTERVIEW: Condon, Phillips talk THE ENFIELD GANG MASSACRE

ZACK QUAINTANCE: What pursuits each of you about persevering with to discover Ambrose County, simply 150 years previously?

CHRISTOPHER CONDON: I’ve at all times been fascinated about Westerns – there’s a photograph of me once I was a child dressed up as a cowboy with two six-shooters firing into the ceiling. So in that regard, it was in my blood to inform a Western story sooner or later in my life – an actual Old West Western. But to do it based mostly in Ambrose County, spinning off of our collection THAT TEXAS BLOOD has been an absolute deal with as a result of we’ve already invested ourselves, each us as creators and our readers, within the historical past of this place. The furthest we’ve gone again to date has been to the Nineteen Fifties the place we noticed Buster Greer get his comeuppance. The actually attention-grabbing factor for me is that we now get to return to the start and actually discover the origins of this place we’ve gotten to know over twenty points. Was it at all times that method? Why does it have a penchant for violence? These are the kinds of questions readers would possibly ask but it surely’s additionally what we take into consideration as creators too, so it’s enjoyable to really get to journey again in time and mess around in that sandbox to see simply what occurred within the creation of this West Texas County.

JACOB PHILLIPS: I really like the concept of this wealthy world that we’re creating with Ambrose County. We are in a position to construct up mythology and lore with out forcing individuals to learn every little thing we put out to be able to sustain. Each arc of That Texas Blood might be learn in isolation as can this new collection however I feel it rewards the individuals who learn every little thing and expertise the whole universe of this fictional Texas county.

ZQ: How does telling a narrative set in Texas 150 years in the past change both of your approaches to comics storytelling?

CC: We approached this fully otherwise from anything we’ve achieved. We sat down on the very begin and hammered out our storytelling approach – this wouldn’t bounce forwards and backwards between modern-day and the Old West, for one factor, which is a tool we’ve used earlier than. We additionally arrange pointers for ourselves when it comes to panels per web page, what paper we’re printing on, all the extra technical stuff. Jake can converse extra to this, however he was toying with completely different inking methods and coloring methods. It all stems from the mythology of Westerns, actually. Wide angles, widescreen, technicolor – that form of Vistavision/Cinerama look. We wished it to really feel as classically like a Western as we might with out falling into cliché and that’s the place we got here up with doing (primarily) three panels per web page and splash pages solely. We bend the foundations the place we have now to, however that’s our baseline that we follow. It’s been a problem but it surely’s additionally been an especially rewarding train in comedian ebook storytelling.

JP: Yeah, once I instructed the concept of the three panel pages to Chris I simply thought it’d be a very cool “widescreen” method of drawing the comedian, I didn’t take into consideration how powerful it could make it for Chris to suit the entire story into considerably much less panels however he actually pulled it off. Each time I begin a brand new arc of That Texas Blood should resolve how I’m going to strategy the art work, every quantity has completely different inking methods which I attempt to adapt to go well with the story we’re telling. I really like all this type of stuff, I need to make the expertise of studying the ebook as wealthy as attainable and for every side to be a part of the story-telling wherever attainable. For instance for the quantity two of That Texas Blood I made a decision to step away from the digital inking I had been doing for the primary arc and ink historically for all of the scenes set in 1981. It simply made sense to me to have a transparent visible distinction between the fashionable day and the interval items. This helps the reader see precisely the place they’re in a narrative that bounces forwards and backwards, it retains it visually recent and it matches with the concept of this story being instructed within the 80s. And so that is an concept I introduced ahead to Enfield, I performed round with a pair completely different kinds earlier than deciding on the normal inks. I had initially deliberate to make use of a digital pencil type of inking (clearly I’d been taking a look at an excessive amount of Greg Smallwood artwork, if that’s attainable) but it surely simply wasn’t sitting proper with me. I wanted to return to fundamentals and crack out the comb pens, this felt like a narrative that needed to be drawn historically.

ZQ: How typically at this level do you all talk about Ambrose County, and the way a lot of its historical past have you ever hashed out between you?

CC: We don’t talk about all of it that a lot however we undoubtedly have concepts, generally collectively, generally independently. One factor that Jake has achieved is he’ll provide you with an concept for merch, like our faux baseball staff, the Rattlers, after which we’ll run with that and embrace it within the comedian as an extra piece of historical past to mine. Personally, I’ve Ambrose County’s historical past roughly mapped out since earlier than it had a reputation. We’re attending to the perimeters of that right here in ENFIELD, however the historical past of the place and its darkish tendencies goes method, method again. We’ll get into that extra in a later arc of TTB, I feel, except we modify our minds!

JP: Way, method again?! Well, that is the primary I’m listening to of this. Sounds some research heavy to me, Chris.

ZQ: Why do you suppose working in western or western-style settings makes for attention-grabbing tales in 2023?

CC: It’s not controversial to say that Westerns are, to a big extent, American mythology. If you have been to take heed to the mythology as written, you’ve bought heroes and villains, good and unhealthy individuals – it’s all pretty black and white. But once you begin pulling again on the edges, you begin to see one thing else beneath – a gray layer. Things weren’t so clear reduce as all that. The good guys could not have been so good in any case. Texas Rangers, although applauded and given a museum in Waco, Texas, additionally massacred individuals. I feel that’s a giant purpose why it’s well timed practically two centuries later. It’s a part of our heritage however generally that heritage isn’t fairly to take a look at, or to digest. Our collection performs with these concepts whereas nonetheless capitalizing on what makes these outdated tales so wealthy and prime for mythologizing. There’s motion, there’s journey, however the one factor we’re attempting to do is to point out that the individuals in these fights have been actual individuals with actual lives at stake, not simply background gamers.

JP: The enjoyable of style tales for me is telling actual human tales inside no matter style you occur to be working with. And Chris is nice at telling human tales. No matter what we’re engaged on it’s at all times concerning the characters for me, the motion is all enjoyable and video games but it surely’s these human moments that I actually love about making comics.

ZQ: Finally, I notice this six-issue miniseries hasn’t even began releasing but, however what’s the way forward for That Texas Blood? Is there extra in retailer for us after this collection?

CC: Zack, thanks for asking as we frequently get requested if there will probably be one other arc of TTB and I can let you know that, sure, there will probably be. The subsequent arc doesn’t but have a reputation however I’ve bought the concept able to go. This is only a transient stint within the Old West so don’t fear, Joe Bob will return!

JP: And don’t fear, there’s loads of candy candy moustache motion to maintain you entering into The Enfield Gang Massacre.