Joe Brusha is a busy man in comics these days. When his hands aren’t full of comics from managing Zenescope Entertainment as president, his pen and ideas are hitting paper. His latest contribution? Brusha has been putting his creative mind to work with the all-new, upcoming Neverland twist. The writer/company president agreed to take the time from his daily routine to give GEN the scoop on Peter and his boyhood pals … and foes.
Girls Entertainment Network: With notable stories like Wonderland and Grimm Fairy Tales in the Zenescope collection, it was perhaps only a matter of time before Peter Pan was given his turn in the spotlight. Why now, and has Zenescope ever done a Peter Pan comic before?
Joe Brusha: Neverland was actually one of the first stories I thought about doing for the Grimm universe, so it’s kind of been sitting around for the past few years. Pan has appeared briefly and been hinted at in a couple of Grimm issues, but this is really the first time he’ll been in a book.
GEN: Zenescope is known for their dark spins on various fairy tales and folklore; Neverland is clearly no exception with its teaser, “There is a price to pay for immortality.” What can you say about the series and what we can expect to see from it?
Brusha: Like all of our Grimm Fairy Tales series, it’s a dark re-imagining of Peter Pan and everything has been turned around. Peter Pan is the bad guy and Hook has been reinvented as the hero. I think fans of both Peter Pan and our Grimm series will be entertained by this new take on a classic story and its characters.
GEN: Was approaching the material in a darker mindset a challenge in any way, or was it easy to adapt the characters and their world into horror? What makes Peter Pan ideal for this type of storytelling?
Brusha: I found it kind of easy to transform the magical world of Neverland into something that wasn’t quite so nice. The characters and locations have already been developed, so all I had to do was play around with the characters and develop a new storyline around them.
GEN: Is there anything that influenced you specifically when developing the comic?
Brusha: Almost every horror or fantasy movie I’ve ever seen and many of the books that I’ve read. I’m sure I’ve taken some real life experiences and incorporated them subconsciously into the story in one way or another. As a writer, I’m always looking for influences to help with the creative process.
GEN: In Neverland, Hook becomes a sort of hero while Peter Pan is left to more sinister devices. Having crafted the comic’s story, why do you think the original was told the other way around? Is there something appealing about going back and playing with conventions?
Brusha: I was never a big fan of Peter Pan himself. I always found myself rooting for Hook and hoping he would win. He was just your average pirate trying to make a living who had this obsessive crocodile following him all around trying to get another bite. I really enjoy playing with conventions and re-inventing classic characters and stories for an older audience.
GEN: For the comic, did you mainly stick to reshaping familiar characters, or will new ones join the fold?
Brusha: The majority of the characters are from the original story, but there are quite a few new ones as well. The hero, Jonathon Cross, takes some elements from Hook, but he is really and entirely new character. I think there’s a good blend of the familiar and the new.
GEN: Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are known to encounter a variety of creatures, from mermaids to pirates to fairies, which leaves a lot of potential in terms of casting the story in a new light. How much did you focus on turning the non-human beings of Neverland into more frightening specimens? Will the Neverland we remember be recognizable, or did you completely revamp the setting?
Brusha: Re-inventing the original characters was one of my main focuses for the story. I think all of the characters from the original story appear in the series—they’ve just been given the Grimm Fairy Tales make-over. Neverland will definitely be recognizable to fans of the Barrie’s story as well as the Disney version, but they’re in for a surprise when they meet the characters themselves.
GEN: For many, Peter Pan remains a beloved story, so it’s a bit strange in comparison when we often consider “Peter Pan syndrome” as something negative. Is this aversion to childish immaturity something you’ve thought about in making the comic? Or, having worked on the story, can you offer any insights into the imaginative world of Peter Pan?
Brusha: I think there is something very wrong with the way a large part of society seems to not want to grow up, take responsibility for their actions and basically act like adults. In this version of Neverland, that concept has been twisted into something more sinister, but there is definitely a underlying theme about the lengths that people will go in order to avoid getting older or taking responsibility—which in the real world compares to Pan’s quest for immortality.
GEN: Vic Durichio has been selected as the artist on the project. How did he become involved? Is there a reason why his talents are best suited for the job, as opposed to other artists’?
Brusha: Vic has worked on a few books for us in the past, and he recently finished a creator-owned series by Raven Gregory called The Waking. I thought his work was excellent, and when Raven pitched him for the series I just thought he was a good fit for the material.
GEN: Can we hope to see more Neverland comics from Zenescope in the future?
Brusha: Right now it is set up as a single mini-series. But it is part of the greater Grimm Fairy Tales universe, so I’m sure there will be other Neverland stories to tell down the road. If it’s as successful as Wonderland, we’ll probably try to figure out what they are sooner rather than later.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
The art looks pretty decent and Peter Pan was always a little too…cheery for my tastes anyway. After 30 years you’ve finally convinced me to look into a new comic, Stephanie!