We’ve seen that in some movies, but this time, wow. I think that this is pretty cool! A writer Ryan, my pal and bro, that talk about a writer, in fiction this time, and his mood and frustrations with his “no way to have a good new ideas” is not a super new idea. There is more to “Fearscape” than this, but I won’t say more for spoiling it for new readers. I thought it would be interesting to create a comic where the words and pictures fought each other.

Where did the idea of “Fearscape” come from? Comics is a symbiosis of words and pictures. And those that realise misdirection is not the purpose of “Fearscape,” merely one of its many parts, I treasure even more. Readers and critics draw conclusions about an entire work from a single chapter. This is one of the benefits of sequential fiction. I want readers to have to work to discover the truth of “Fearscape.” The best unreliable narrators, villains the lot of them, are those who we find ourselves agreeing with initially, as they seduce us down a dark path we never thought we’d tread… Now, with that said, there may be occasions where HH and I align in our thinking where the unreliable narrator and reliable author are indistinguishable. HH’s critical discourse towards storytelling convention in his narrative is a means to establish his character, not the moral/meaning/statement/Great Idea of “Fearscape.” Anyone who conflates these two (admittedly interwoven, but ultimately separate) story elements fundamentally doesn’t understand how unreliable narrators work.

This means that his narration doesn’t reflect the ‘meaning’ of “Fearscape” and that HH has no narrative authority on his side. Ryan: “Fearscape” has an unreliable narrator. Is that a tiredness you share? Where did that come from? Your narrator, Henry Henry, repeatedly pokes fun at nine panel grids, cliche-ridden genre novels and the insistence of ending on a cliffhanger. And, even better, I got the chance to sit down with the book’s creative team, Ryan O’Sullivan and Andrea Mutti, to chat about putting the book together, using classical inspiration and fighting one’s greatest fears!įirst of all, Ryan and Andrea, thanks for taking the time to talk with me! “Fearscape” feels like a story tired of the works of its peers.

Fearscape by Ryan O'Sullivan