Cars! Guns! Entropy!
In the new series Coffin Bound, existential go-girl Izzy Tyburn finds herself the target of a relentless, possibly inhuman, assassin. Deciding that if the world won’t have her in it, it can have nothing of her at all, she re-treads her life, leaving nothing but burned rubber, ash, and the sun-scorched bones of those who get in her way.
Coffin Bound is a surreal and violent road movie captured in comic form by writer Dan Watters (Sandman Universe: Lucifer, LIMBO), artist Dani (2000AD, Girl with No Name), and colorist Brad Simpson (JESUSFREAK, MCMLXXV). We liked the first three issues a lot – enough to reach out to Dan and try and glean a little behind-the-scenes info on what went into the making of this lean, mean, and cool AF new book.
What was the initial inspiration for the book, the first kernel of an idea?
That’s actually a pretty difficult question to answer, which is not usually the case. There were definitely themes and worries in the pit of my gut that I wanted to exorcise into panels and pages, but it didn’t really come together until I saw a certain commission Dani drew of a girl in a graveyard, who looked so comfortable with death. That’s when the idea of Coffin Bound really started to formulate- with the character of Izzy.
I understand Dani was on board from the get-go, and the whole process has been very collaborative – can you tell me about your workflow and dynamic?
Dani and I couldn’t have made this book individually- it was formulated entirely by the two of us, a combination of our influences and interests at the time. We spend a lot of time chatting things out on Skype- be they ideas for scenes or even individual panels, or earlier on just working out what we wanted the damn thing to be about in the first place. But generally, we’re working to full script and then bouncing back and forth with changes.
What would you say are the thematic and philosophical underpinnings of the book?
Death. To not put too fine a point on it. I was also reading a lot of ontological philosophy when we started out, which tries to reimagine the world from a non-anthropocentric point of view- which is literally impossible, but an interesting thought experiment. I thought it was pretty interesting to take that and backwards engineer it through a story- how much of yourself could you remove from the world and still be said to exist? There are a few characters in Coffin Bound who are going to try that in different ways.
Can you name any other books, films, texts, etc that you were inspired by or that inform your work here?
Well, the above thoughts span out of reading a lot of Timothy Morton and Graham Harman – I guess my go-to film influences for the comic have been Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Very different films from similar eras, but honestly Coffin Bound isn’t too much like either, it only shares their DNA.
Tell us about the setting. It’s a fairly surreal world we’re seeing, but is there an underlying system or logic you’re cleaving to? What kind of tone or mood are you aiming for with this milieu?
There’s definitely a logic. Sure, there are elements that may seem visually surrealist, but the ground underfoot is solid. Every action’s going to have its repercussion, every wound is going to hurt. It’s a fire and brimstone world like that. Just like ours.
How about some soundtrack cuts? What would you recommend listening to while reading this one?
A lot of Acid Bath and Dax Riggs. At least that’s what I listened to when I wrote it. The soundtrack would also contain a fair amount of Songs: Ohia, probably some Nick Cave and Joy Division. And the Dead Weather. If I was picking a theme song for the book it’d be “Dead Flowers” by the Stones. I think Dani has an entirely different soundtrack in mind, however!
Without giving the game away, is this a story you’d be keen on returning to if audiences responded to it?
Coffin Bound is ongoing – this volume is very much a complete story, but we know exactly where it goes next. We’ll be bringing it back next year, however, as we want to craft every volume with the same care that we made this one with- I’m finishing the entire script as Dani works on her book for Hill House at DC.
What other projects have you got on the boil at the moment?
We’re just entering our second year of the Sandman Universe books, so I’m writing a hell of a lot of Lucifer scripts at the moment, as well as co-writing House of Whispers. I’ve also got a story in the DC Secrets of Sinister House anthology coming out for Halloween- it’s an Atom story, which is quite a milestone for me, as it’s my very first superhero work. There’s definitely more to come on that front.
Any final thoughts, recommendations, shout outs?
I very much hope you enjoy Coffin Bound. It’s been a labour of love that the whole team has been sweating blood over for the last year, and we really hope it’s a unique piece of comic work that will bring you some morbid joy. And I’d definitely like to shout out to my studio mates at White Noise Studios- Ram V, Ryan O’Sullivan, and Alex Paknadel. Those three were, as ever, the greatest sounding boards for the project, and I think they’re doing hands down some of the most interesting work in comics. So check out Fearscape, These Savage Shores, and Friendo if you haven’t had the chance yet. Solid gold to a book.
