Justin Gray: In a World of Black and White
In a few short months, Justin Gray has experienced critical acclaim as the co-writer behind 21 Down, The Resistance and the upcoming series, Monolithand The Twilight Experiment. Justin was able to take a few moments to discuss his most recent plunge into the realm of noir fiction with the September debut of Moonstone’s Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.
David Gallaher: First of all, how did you get involved with Moonstone Books?
Justin Gray: A good friend suggested I contact Moonstone because he knew I wanted to work on some noir type stories.
DG: And just who is Mr. Keen?
JG: I asked myself that same question before starting the book. My research turned up a kindly old British man, something of a diluted Sherlock Holmes based on the radio programs I downloaded, while quaint, lacked the punch of modern noir. Art evolves to suit the times and while I held on to the core elements of a man who used his intellect and detective skills to locate missing persons, I realized the presentation of those stories don’t hold up today. The Mr. Keen I envisioned was a smart individual who exists in a relevant and somewhat identifiable world.
DG: What is the high-concept behind the series?
JG: This is where it gets tricky. The Mr. Keen that I’ve written isn’t meant for the die-hard fan of mainstream superhero comics, not that it won’t appeal to them, but Mr. Keen doesn’t pander to the established formula of popular storytelling. I set out to tell a story that, much like radio dramas, allowed the reader to draw his or her own conclusions without spelling things out for them. In fact, I purposely wanted to engage the reader in a way that allowed them to participate in the book, to speculate on some of the ideas and visuals before learning the reason why things were happening. Admittedly, the high concept was to challenge whatever audience might turn up. Sure the plot is important, but having fun with medium is more important to me. The concept is simple, a girl wants revenge for what’s been done to her family and Mr. Keen is the man that can help her realize that vengeance. It’s timeless and in some cases boring so I wanted to rework it. That’s just the pitch, the simple explanation to fill in a solicitation in previews, but the real meat of this book is in the telling and the artistic representation that Lee Ferguson brought to the table.
DG: Why re-invent Mr. Keen from a kind, elderly gentleman to a mean-looking dude?
JG: Because Matlock doesn’t appeal to me. This is a comic and it’s hard enough to sell people on a project that doesn’t stem from the major publishing companies. Yeah the radio fans might hate me, but comic fans most likely don’t have a history with the radio show. I simply didn’t feel there was an audience for a grandpa solves mysteries type of character.
DG: Where and when does the story take place?
JG: The story takes place in modern New York. 
DG: Tell us a little about the supporting cast. Does Mr. Keen have an assistant or a girlfriend?
JG: Ahh, here’s another bit of pop storytelling I wanted to demolish. Mr. Keen doesn’t have a girlfriend and really, who would date someone with his job? The hours suck, the people he mingles with are shady, criminal in some cases and this doesn’t promote a sitcom home life so why bother? When I think of the word assistant I think of someone following me around with a notepad jotting down the shit I don’t think is important enough to remember. Who wants to be an assistant really? I mean, let’s face it, all romantic illusions aside Watson was Sherlock’s bitch. Mr. Keen has associates who make money for working with him. When you do private investigation you need a network of reliable people who can take care of themselves. Mr. Keen knows this. That being the case he’s got hard hitting Mike Clancy, an original character from the radio drama, working for him.
DG: In the past, you've admitted a love for old radio programs, such as The Shadow, do you feel as though comics and radio blend similar storytelling techniques?
JG: There are similarities, but the wonderful thing about radio, much like novels to a lesser degree, is the ability of each reader or listener to actively engage their imagination in constructing the characters and environment. In a radio drama all you hear are voices and sounds, the visual elements are locked inside your head waiting to be explored. In essence the listener of a radio drama is forced to mentally visualize what they are hearing in a way that is genuinely unique to them. The villain may resemble your boss; the femme fatale might be some redhead you saw on the train or that curvy blonde you passed in an airport. By their very nature, neither comics nor film are able to do this. With a visual medium you are controlling what the audience is experiencing, you’re manipulating them to a very strong degree. You see what the character looks like which is usually a representation of an archetype or in fact a stereotype. Maybe not all of us think a beautiful girl has to be tall and slender, maybe the hero isn’t handsome it’s all up to you. What people are watching in a film is your vision and it doesn’t allow for the intimacy that radio used to provide. Radio drama is a lost art and in my opinion a victim of modern culture. The challenge for me was to find a middle ground between that imaginative response and the visual medium of comics.
DG: Why is it that folks are so captivated by Noir?
JG: The ideas, characters and situations that are represented in noir fiction fascinate people for one simple reason; most people will never live that life. The solitary tough guy who can tame the sultry sex bomb while at the same time facing danger and immanent death (while drinking and smoking heavily without repercussions)…it excites people, but allows them to stay at a safe distance.
DG: What are some of the Noir influences you are drawing from?
JG: While I’ve read the classics, seen the great films, I still turn toward less conventional artists in the medium. Barry Gifford and David Lynch, Jim Thompson, Hitchcock and Goddard. The psychological elements of Noir are what appeal to me more than the flashy representation of criminal culture. Mr. Keen is meant to have a surreal texture that blurs the lines between what is real and what is imagined so I can credit a heavy influence from David Lynch in this respect.
DG: Do you feel that writing Mr. Keen has helped you develop more as a writer?
JG: Absolutely, everything I write helps development and understanding of how to present ideas and storytelling in the medium. Most of my published work in comics has been with good friend and collaborator Jimmy Palmiotti. Jimmy has a specific understanding of what makes a story work, how to clearly execute ideas that appeal to a large audience. I tend to be slightly more abstract and I think this is one of the great things about our partnership, the strange balance of ideas. You see this blending of our personalities most strongly in 21 Down, but mainstream comics call for a straightforward approach in delivering a story. We’ve been telling those kinds of stories for two years and continue to do so quite happily. With Mr. Keen I wanted to move away from that philosophy and write a story that only loosely followed the rules. I wrote blind, meaning I didn’t know what was going to happen in an issue until I sat down and started typing. I also made a point of writing an entire issue in one sitting. That can be very liberating. I took full advantage of working without an outline, which you need for books like The Monolith and 21 Down. 
DG: Tell us about the artist behind the series, Lee Ferguson.
JG: Lee Ferguson worked with Brian Vaughn on the Chamber mini-series for Marvel. I had been speaking with him and his good friend Patrick Wedge online when the Moonstone gig came up. I called Lee and asked him if he was interested in doing something different, something that allowed him to take risks. I asked Joe Gentile if he was cool with Lee collaborating on the book with me and he was intrigued and excited by the idea. Lee and I coming together on this book is one of those rare instances when two completely different people are in the same state of mind. I wanted to experiment with storytelling and Lee wanted to experiment with his art. The resulting 90 pages of pencil rendered artwork evolved into something between an art film and a grainy black and white surrealist dreamscape.
DG: How many issues in the series?
JG: Three issues each with thirty pages of story. For those of you like myself with poor math skills that means 8 extra pages per issue for the same price as most comics.
DG: Would you do more Mr. Keen?
JG: I would. He’s a fun character because I set him up without the traditional back-story and bleeding heart motivation that a majority of characters are built on. I wanted to create a guy that embodied a line from True Romance, the one where Drexel says to Clarence, “…you’ve already given up yo shit, I’m still a mystery to you.” Another reason is the fact that Joe let me do whatever I wanted with the story. If I wanted to do a scene with a midget dressed like a cowboy locked in a birdcage that was no problem. So I did.
DG: Sounds like fun!
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons goes on sale in September from Moonstone Books.
For more information about Mr. Keen check out the following links:
Justin Gray: http://www.paperfilms.com
Lee Ferguson: http://www.leeferguson.com
Moonstone Books: http://www.moonstonebooks.com
David Gallaher is a comic writer and an upcoming columnist for Silver Bullet Comic Books. His work can be found at: http://www.davidgallaher.com.
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