INTERVIEW: ‘Misplaced’ comic finds man restless to leave paradise
Image courtesy of artist / Provided by Superfan Promotions with permission.
Chris Callahan’s new comic series The Misplaced follows James, a man who has died during a shipwreck and is now in the afterlife. The problem — besides that he’s dead — is that he cannot find his wife, and life-after-death is a bit of a bummer. So he decides to hatch a plan to leave eternal paradise to go and find his wife.
The first installment of the four-part series was released today, Nov. 27. The publication comes courtesy of Source Point Press. According to press notes, the creator used photo collage, digital painting, 3D models and traditional painting to bring James’ story to life.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Callahan about the new series. He has worked as a motion graphic artist and art director for more than 15 years, and he won the Aspen Comics Talent Hunt. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How did the idea for The Misplaced first come to you?
Honestly, some of the art came to me before the story did on this one. I was playing around with different pieces whenever I had downtime between ‘real’ jobs, and when they started getting attention on social media I figured I should do something with them. They seemed to have a running theme of death and afterlife, so … fast forward a few hundred steps … now The Misplaced is something that will be loitering on store shelves the next few months.
You use several mixed-media methods in the project. Why was it important for you to have different creative looks to the pages?
There’s sort of two reasons. … First, obviously, it’s what I know. As a professional motion graphic designer for TV, I have access to digital tools not commonly used in comic art. Discovering I can play with different medias and tools to create art that others react to has been amazing. But also I felt that the abstract mixed-media style would play really well with this story in particular. It hopefully heightens the reader’s sense of the abstract universe we find James in.
How would you describe the central character of James?
James is a skeptic, a romantic, an unwitting hero. … I think what I love most about James is his dissatisfaction with the afterlife he finds himself in. Most of us assume the ultimate goal of any version of an afterlife is eternal bliss, constant happiness in getting everything you’ve ever wanted. Yes, The Misplaced is partly a romantic tale of loss and James’ struggle to find the one he loves, partly a mystery to solve the riddle of the missing before it’s too late … but it’s also a tale of pure skepticism in the universe as a whole, how and why it functions, and whether the afterlife is really the eternal dream we’re all living for.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
I do, but I don’t necessarily have a picture of what that is. The afterlife I built for The Misplaced is suggestive of mostly Christian beliefs as the main character was a Victorian-era European in life, but I would love to play with this same universe in subsequent stories with different characters that represent other beliefs.
Are there any connections between being a television designer and comic book creator? Are the jobs at all similar?
I think any medium you use to tell a story has connections. Whether I’m designing a logo for a TV show or a panel for a comic page, I’m telling a visual story. I like to think of any design or comic job as a new problem to solve. How can I represent this particular story in a unique and interesting way to grasp the viewer’s attention?
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Misplaced, created by Chris Callahan, is a new four-part series from Source Point Press. Issue #1 was released Nov. 27. Click here for more information.
