Source – https://vehlinggo.com/2024/03/25/midnight-shadows-novel-dark-horse-interview/
In the nearly 10 years they’ve been releasing music, The Midnight have become the biggest synthwave band in the world, especially since principals Tim McEwan and Tyler Lyle have incorporated their live members into their studio albums and have expanded their sold-out concert venues by at least a couple continents. They’ve taken what almost 20 years ago started as a relatively niche MySpace/mp3 blog genre and translated it to epic rock shows and world-building albums that engage a listener’s entire sensory experience.
So even if it’s probably unexpected that a graphic novel called The Midnight: Shadows inspired by the themes of the band’s singles, albums and EPs would come about, it’s not unfathomable. Although perhaps its release on Dark Horse Comics, the legendary publishing house that brought us titles like Hell Boy, American Splendor, and Sin City, is a bit more of a delightful surprise. To really pull it off, McEwan and Lyle engaged the help of Lyle’s graphic-novel writer and screenwriter friend Zack Kaplan (Break Out, Mindset), who in turn brought along artists Stephen Thompson (Star Trek, Batman Beyond) and Jahnoy Lindsay (Superboy). Filling out the lineup are colorist Thiago Rocha and letterer DC Hopkins. The result is pretty damn amazing.
To be sure, this wasn’t some kind of ego trip in which Lyle and McEwan are some kind of self-appointed Avengers who recruit fellow supers Lelia Broussard, Royce Whittaker, and Justin Klunk to save the world. This is The Midnight after all — theirs is an authentic and welcomed humility. Instead, Kaplan, already a fan of the band, used their extensive lyrical, sonic, and visual concepts to craft an entirely new story (not starring Lyle and McEwan) that nevertheless feels like it fits neatly and nicely into their whole world.
“[Shadows] feels like a natural progression of everything we have built so far [with the band],” McEwan told Vehlinggo recently in the latest of our many chats over the years. “I don’t want to sound entitled — that, of course this is what would happen — but for us it made sense. There is such a visual language in our aesthetic and the storytelling of our songs — and how all of the songs and albums tie together the ‘extended universe,’ if you want to call it that.”
The story centers on protagonist Jason (no doubt inspired by their hit song, “Jason”). He has spent his life on the run from his problems, but now we find him and his childhood sweetheart facing parenthood with Jason essentially mourning the loss of his adolescence. However, something fascinating happens: He discovers his favorite old video game, The Midnight, which promotional materials describe as a “a nostalgic 1980s fantasy adventure about a helmeted hero who travels to a cyberpunk world to save the people from eternal darkness.” The game’s broken, so Jason embarks on a mission to fix it and along the way finds himself in a mysterious arcade in one of those abandoned malls that bleeds 1980s vibes. He ends up playing the arcade version of the game there and is transported to a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2085.
It’s always night and time stands still and this midnight Neverland-type locale is the finale bastion of humanity, centered on a futuristic and luminous urban space. Jason encounters the locals and learns they regard him as a hero who had defeated horrifying “shadow monsters” that plagued the land — and they think he’s back to do it again. He finds his wife, but to her he’s the hero and not the guy she’s been in a relationship with all of these years. “As this lost boy tries to embrace his new hero powers, with the help of his true love and her cyberpunk warriors, he must face the responsibility of protecting an entire world from danger and discover which world he truly belongs to,” the blurb says.
See? The Midnight: Shadows, available now for pre-order in a few different packages and bundles and shipping in October, is markedly better and more meaningful than a rehash of existing stories or a cynical marketing campaign. The Midnight are always full of surprises, but perhaps at this point we shouldn’t be so surprised they’d try something a little different and make sure it’s the best thing it can be.
To better understand Shadows — the creative efforts, the takeaways, the magic and the mystery (and some surprises for fans) — I went pretty deep with McEwan, Lyle, Kaplan, and Thompson, variously via email and Zoom. In order to make this manageable for you to read, I’ve compiled the various Q&As into somewhat thematic sections. I’ve also edited and condensed things for clarity. Overall, they’ve given us all a compelling look at translating The Midnight’s music into a printed visual narrative.
‘Mono No Aware’ in Neon Lights
Vehlinggo: A graphic novel is a cool and unexpected expansion of The Midnight universe to pursue. How (and why) did this come about — especially with a storied house like Dark Horse Comics?
Tim McEwan: I think most kids from the ‘80s have been comic book fans. I was never an avid reader — I don’t think we even had a comic book shop in our tiny, little suburb of Copenhagen. But, I distinctly remember being at home with a fever and reading the Venom, Spider-Man, and Dr. Octopus comic books. And I had a friend who told me about the X-Men. This was the late ‘80s and I was just enraptured. I was like, “Oh my God. What a world!” It’s a world that captures the imagination.
The initial conversations [for this book] were about four years ago at the very beginning of the pandemic. From what I remember, Tyler said, “I have this friend, Zack Kaplan, who’s a writer and does graphic novels and writes scripts, and he’s super talented” and I think it was Tyler’s initial idea to explore this. I thought it was really cool. It was something we worked on for a while before we brought a pretty extensive pitch to Dark Horse Comics.
Zack has been the real driving force in terms of bringing together the right team of people, and that very fine balance between laying a ton of Easter eggs and nodding to songs, titles, and lines from lyrics, while also telling a coherent story that feels like it has heart and is rooted in something real.
It’s not just an excuse to peddle a bunch of cliches or an album, though. It’s important to us for it to be fun, and not become a parody. The Easter eggs stick out when it’s fun that they do so, but they also lay in the background as more of a tapestry that just makes the world richer. But it doesn’t take anything away from the [novel] if you don’t know them.
Zack’s ability to pick up themes and tie everything together — that was a fun part. We’d get a text from him asking, “Did you guys have any ideas for what books you would love on the shelf in this guy’s bedroom?” We’d ask ourselves what he would be reading, or what does the bedroom look like? Is it the bedroom from Monsters?
How much involvement did you have in the creation of the story for Shadows, beyond inspiration Zack would have had from your lyrics? In other words, how closely did you work with him on the story and what did that process look like?
Tyler Lyle: Zack and I spoke extensively before, during, and after the creation of the narrative. The same ideas that have been swirling around in the background of our records are the same ideas that we began with — the potential trap of nostalgia, the Jungian concept of the shadow, the hero at middle age, the way time can be used to split a character into subject and object. The kernels of this story are the perennial concerns of The Midnight. The difference is that the format allows for bigger, richer storytelling than a four-minute song and that’s something that’s excited me. Tim and I don’t know how to write graphic novels (yet! I feel like we’d do better next time around), but Zack was a fantastic guide between the ideas and the medium. He’s been a long-time friend and it’s been a pleasure working with him.
How did you come up with the story — your own interpretations of the songs you’ve been a fan of, working with Tyler and Tim, etc? (The band have always had this natural world-building, narrative inclination, which seems like a solid foundation from which to start.) And how long did it take to finish the story?
Zack Kaplan: I’ve actually known Tyler since before The Midnight. It was only a coincidence that he started a band that made music that I absolutely loved and still play weekly. I’d been making comics for years, and one day just chatting with Tyler, this idea about making a graphic novel found a hold on both of us. It didn’t take long for that idea to become real.
The moment Tim and Tyler said they were interested, I started to think about the themes in the lyrics, the aesthetic of their music, and the immersive world they had already created. I had been a fan since The Midnight first started making music. I had a deep respect for their songs and I didn’t want to take it on unless there was a really good idea there. But sure enough, there was. I didn’t really need to study anything: I listen to the music so often, I knew it all already.
I started with what was the essence for me. This is about dreamers. This is about lovers. It was all about escapism. Now on the one hand, escapism is magical — whether you escape into the past, into nostalgia, into the night, you’re getting a chance to feel more alive than you otherwise would. Whether it’s an arcade game or a dance with a stranger or a late-night drive, all these things allow you to feel more than you might otherwise feel in your mundane life. That’s special. It’s a good thing. But the price of escapism is that we neglect our responsibilities, we fail to face our own monsters and we tolerate darkness that we otherwise might not.
I wanted a story that explored escapism, growing up, and of course, a reverence for the ’80s nostalgia for game culture. This story emerged of a young man sucked back into the video game from his childhood, only to find he might be the game’s hero. He’s trapped in this duality about escapism, torn between two worlds and we are left unsure of his path. It felt very much The Midnight, and as soon as I shared the bones of it, they flipped out. We collaborated together to turn it into the graphic novel you will find in October.
“… As soon as I shared the bones of it, they flipped out.”
The seeds of the story came pretty quickly to be honest, and it didn’t take long to transform into a solid outline and then scripts ready to be drawn. Making a comic book, on the other hand, takes time. We brought the idea to Dark Horse Comics, who very much saw our vision on this project. We found amazing collaborators in our artists, Stephen and Jahnoy, colorist Thiago and letterer DC. And since this is a full book, it comes out all at once, and the book market shares these things super early. So, while the story came fast, we’ve been working on this a long time! But it’s been such a beautiful journey, and we are all so proud to share it with the work. You are right: It is our interpretation of the music — not meant to be literal or canon, as much as one glimpse towards one possible fever dream inspired by the music — but it’s a pretty fun dream.
When you approach a new story for a graphic novel — The Midnight: Shadows or your other fare — what is your underlying creative philosophy? What do you always try to do and to avoid? And with Shadows, how did you adhere to or deviate from that?
Kaplan: I really like to write stories that make people think. Most of my other comics explore strong-willed, hopeful characters trying to find their way in a complex, fast-changing world. I write a lot of big, high-concept ideas, but then find more nuanced character dramas with a lot of heart. So, I think there was a lot of cross-over here; probably why I’m attracted to the music. I definitely love to wow readers with an amazing world in the story, and I think this book will do that. Stephen Thompson and Thiago Rocha are on God-level on this book, and the world of The Midnight — from the decaying malls to the post-apocalyptic wasteland shroud in eternal darkness, or the majestic city of lights and the heroic warriors who defend it — it’s all very beautiful to look at. There are some pages that are jaw-dropping.
But I also like sincere character stories, and I think this book has that, too. Our protagonist is a very relatable character, facing adulthood and trying to own his responsibilities without losing his identity. That’s something we all know about. There is an amazing love story here, something that will break readers’ hearts but make them whole again. I want to present a really poignant theme and ask provocative questions, but I don’t have all the answers, so it’s important to me that the book is not preachy, just engaging.
“There is an amazing love story here, something that will break readers’ hearts but make them whole again.“
I mean, that’s the great thing here — in some ways, this story is all The Midnight, the characters, the elements, the landmarks, the themes, the words. It’s all there, and readers will feel like they are discovering the music all over again in a wondrous way. But then, it’s also a completely original story, that you could read without any knowledge of The Midnight. You don’t have to be a fan, although I dare you to try not to be after reading. So, in this way, I don’t think that I tried to do anything differently here than any other story, other than reflect the atmosphere and musical experience in this book as best I could.
How The Visuals Came About
From what I’ve seen of the book, your visuals are stunning. It matches The Midnight’s overall artistic presence really well, while ensuring unique imagery and an entirely new world and context through which to experience the band. When you were first thinking up your work, how did you know how you wanted the book to look? And to what extent did you work with Zack and Tim and Tyler on it? (Was there a specific creative brief/theme/artistic intent at play?)
Stephen Thompson: Thank you! Well, the overall look of the book was one of the easier things to develop, because the band has such a strong and specific aesthetic already. Basing a graphic novel on most musicians’ body of work would be tricky, but The Midnight have an established color palette, lighting scheme, graphic design language, etc. So we already had a very rich world of imagery to draw from. And along with that, we had a whole range of sci-fi films and shows from the ’80s that synthwave harkens back to which we could look to for inspiration.
We had a longish design phase in the beginning. Zack already had very solid ideas about how everything should look, but we still went through a few passes on all the major character, costume, and vehicle concepts. The helmets for the Nighthawks in particular needed a few tries to get right. Then we were ran everything past the band and we were off to the races.
Archetypes and Red Wine
You and Tim have always been great at world-building and crafting narratives in your music — certainly your lyrics have that quality, perhaps owing to your singer-songwriter and country background. Along those lines, what was important for you to see in a graphic novel inspired by The Midnight?
Lyle: I’m a Joseph Campbell nerd. I wanted to see a hero’s journey. Tim and I have been filling our records with archetypes skinned with neon. The archetypes are the characters of the world. We needed a hero, and we needed an adventure. This was our opportunity to take a moment and ask with embarrassing granularity, “What is Jason chasing?”
The project kicked off in earnest during the pandemic. I wrote a scene that helped frame the story with Zack, and that was imagining myself at a cemetery of past selves and all those potential lives that those past selves carried. I needed to mourn my lost youth. There has been this five-year period where my son was born and the hurricane that is new parenthood. Then there was the pandemic and the question, well, do I stay in Atlanta and prioritize being a normal family, or do I move back to LA and attempt to live in the rarified air of professional creative life there. THEN there was my wife’s cancer diagnosis and the year of hell and revelation that that brought. Turns out I was Jason. And The Midnight was a time machine. And the femme fatale from a former life was the heroine who helps bring growth. Nostalgia is at once a trap, but it can also serve as this sort of liminal space for myth to play out. That was the story that I wanted to read and that’s the story that Zack lovingly pruned in places and expanded in places until it became a story we wanted to share.
“Turns out I was Jason. And The Midnight was a time machine.”
How did it feel to see the finished product? And did something like this ever factor into your goals when you were starting the band with Tim — whether it was a musical or graphic novel or some medium that is an offshoot of the core musical expression?
Lyle: Days of Thunder was a collection of fun co-writes. It was all an experiment. It wasn’t until people on Reddit found it and championed it and wanted more — then I needed to properly frame my relationship with it to make it something I could really chew on. That’s where the world came from. Tim is a visual guy. He sees the aesthetic. I need to see the world of the myth. Seeing the graphic novel was wild — to be clear, as of March, the story has been finished for a while, and we’ve seen three of the finished chapters with artwork. This is all the process of an idea becoming real. It gets more real by the year, and as someone invested in these ideas there is nothing more exciting than seeing the story get up and walk. That’s either the myth of the Velveteen Rabbit or Frankenstein. So far I think we’re doing the fans proud.
The Intersection of Music and Visual Storytelling
You’ve been a fan of the band for some time, which adds something really cool to the project. What are some of the songs that resonated the most for you in the context of this project? In general, what do you like about The Midnight?
Kaplan: I feel like the answer to this question always changes. I just go through phases. Sometimes it’s all Endless Summer, other times it’s Heroes. I went through a huge Horror Show moment. Sometimes I love to play instrumentals and just listen to Tim’s amazing song progressions while I write. I think the graphic novel definitely looks more heavily at Nocturnal, Kids, Monsters, and Heroes, but there’s some Endless Summer in there, some Horror Show, and of course, some new music yet to come. Keep a look out! What do I like about The Midnight’s music? I like that you can get lost in it. It’s music made for dreamers, for those who are looking for a deeper, richer moment amongst the monotony.
Tyler, knowing how your work can translate into a markedly visual medium, has it or will it ever have an inspiration on the content of the lyrics for future songs from The Midnight?
Lyle: Lyrics as architecture. Will have to have a think on that!
Stephen, how did you listen to The Midnight’s music when you were creating the visual world of Shadows?
Thompson: Music is generally very important to visual artists. You’re sitting at a desk all day, every day trying to focus. Music is often a vital tool to help blot out the world around you, but also to help pull you into the world you’re creating on the page. I’ve never had a job before which basically came with its own perfect soundtrack, so that was nice.
Highlights and Challenges
Kaplan: It took us some time to find the amazing creative team that we have, but it was clearly worth the wait. First seeing Stephen’s lines or Thiago’s colors or Jahnoy’s characters: chef’s kiss and total satisfaction. During the journey, we developed this idea to have two different artists draw the different worlds and when we got to see that come to life, that was really something special.
Partnering with Dark Horse was really a rush. [It] gave us the confidence to go all in on this. Bringing Raymond Swanland and [Nocturnal cover artist] David Legnon on board to do two amazing covers — that really was impressive, because with cover artists you are seeing the core vision interpreted again, so it really builds out the vision. Oh, and that trailer we did with More Frames animation. I think we lost our minds when we first saw that, as most fans did as well. To be honest, I don’t think we’ve had any major challenges on this. It’s been a real dream project, collaborating with Tyler and Tim to make a graphic novel – I mean, it’s been amazing. The biggest challenge has been dealing with the wait. You think you all are struggling to wait until October? We’ve been keeping this secret for a couple years, working on this! But the wait is almost over.
Tim, putting out a print product is never easy and you and Tyler have a high level of quality control for your art overall. It sure seems like there was a great team putting together The Midnight: Shadows that keeps up with your high standard for quality and integrity.
McEwan: Who knows if we’ll ever have another chance to put out another graphic novel, let alone with Dark Horse. That’s an insane idea to begin with. So we always wanted to make it the best it can be. I always look at anything we do like this: Any one thing could be someone’s point of entry into our world. So this graphic novel could be, for someone who’s completely unfamiliar with us, their first way of learning about our music, that we’re a band, and maybe they should check us out. Maybe it leads them to dive deeper? And so it’s important to me that it feels cohesive and congruent — even if we allow ourselves to experiment and try new things. I don’t ever want to fall into the trap of just repeating what worked before.
A Potential Soundtrack (?!) and Other Things Fans Should Know
What do you want fans to get out of The Midnight: Shadows?
Lyle: T.S. Eliot in Four Quartets says, “In that open field/If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close/On a summer midnight, you can hear the music.”
I hope this is our opportunity to frame to our fans what we think we’re doing with all of this nostalgia business and why. That there’s something transformative about it, but only as you reaffirm your connection to the real, to the ground, to the responsibilities and miracles and degradation of daily life here on earth. Nostalgia can be a trail head — a threshold that you cross that takes you on a journey, not to another time and place, but to yourself, here and now. That’s the music.
Have you and Tim ever discussed creating a soundtrack to the novel? Perhaps new songs with new lyrics inspired by story and visuals?
Lyle: We’ve done a whole lot more than discuss.
What’s next? Shadows The Movie?
Lyle: Back to The Velveteen Rabbit and Frankenstein…
Shadows is available for pre-order now via The Midnight’s website and will ship in October. Here’s the Dark Horse page for more information, too.
Catch The Midnight on tour with Chromeo (there are even select dates with Ruth Radelet as the opener).
The post A Deep Dive into the World of The Midnight’s Graphic Novel: Interviews with the Band and Creative Team appeared first on Vehlinggo.
- Article Removal – Click Here
- All Things Z-GR – Click Here
- Zero-G Racetrack – Access Here
- Source – https://vehlinggo.com/2024/03/25/midnight-shadows-novel-dark-horse-interview/