Four Things About The X-Files #2 With Joe Harris

While this month's issue of IDW Publishing's The X-Files wasn't quite as loaded as was the first issue, that's pretty easy to explain: #1 was a done-in-one, and this one is the first part of a storyline.

We wanted to at least take a look at the issue and, even without a full plot to dissect and potentially spoil, talk with writer Joe Harris about some of the things that made the book work.

Harris was happy to oblige, so here are four thoughts on The X-Files #2 from Harris, Matthew Dow Smith, and Jordie Bellaire.

You can get a copy of The X-Files #2 at your local comic shop or via ComiXology.

Can we just sit here for a minute and appreciate the genius of Jordie Bellaire? I love the palette in the first few pages.

You really do feel the rust on that freight train carrying migrants toward the US border, right? Between Matt's line work and Jordie's choices, the masses huddled on top of "The Beast" at once become both an abstraction and a collection of individuals. Jordie is a wonderful talent and a great person and I'm so, so lucky to have been able to collaborate with her for so long, across various line artist stints on this book. We both love The X-Files very much and take Mulder and Scully very seriously.

I'm really happy she's my friend too.

Do you read the dialogue back to yourself in the actors' voices? The scene with Rosa -- especially Dana's lines -- were pitch perfect.

At this point, the characters almost talk to me in my sleep. But sure, yeah — I read dialogue back to myself. Out loud, sometimes, but not always. If I were writing a screenplay, I'd be more meticulous about how the dialogue sounds being spoken back at myself. But comics dialogue is about how it reads -- how it looks on the page, where you break for a new balloon and what word you might bold for emphasis. I'd repeat words without apology in a screenplay's dialogue while I'd break out the red pen without pity if something I wrote for print was repetitive at all.

Pacing wise, we got pretty deep in before we really got a sense for the Fox and Dana were doing there. That's something we don't usually get on TV. Was that intentional?

I wanted this issue to be slower and more quiet and to really live with Mulder and Scully while they questioned Rosa, the little girl who'd survived the mysterious carnage they're investigating. I hadn't thought about how it might contrast with a typical viewing experience of The X-Files. I'm always hopeful we can approximate that experience using the tools and vocabulary related to the comics medium while always hopeful we can keep building what we do into its own thing too, so what you're getting might be less by design and more by osmosis, but all contrasts and theorizing are valid so far as I'm concerned.

Why did you want to set the story during Dia de los Muertos?

I wanted to use the imagery and the mythology as it fit squarely into what most would expect of a "Monster of the Week" episode of the The X-Files. By basing this story in Mexican folklore, it also allowed for me to conceive, pitch and then craft the approved story that would touch on the present-day social issues related to immigration, the related prejudices and policies and political fights. I'm always looking to further push The X-Files into the present day and coming up with topical stories is something I both enjoy and see as essential.