Antony Johnston is an award-winning writer of comics, video games and book, including the recently completed, post-apocalytic comic book series Wasteland, his new miniseries The Fuse, and the original Dead Space. He has reteamed with his Wasteland collaborator, Christopher Mitten, to create a new ongoing dark fantasy series at Image Comics, titled Umbral.Umbral follows a young thief named Rascal who breaks into the royal palace to steal a priceless artifact. While there, she witnesses the grisly death of the King and Queen at the hands and mysterious and monstrous shadow creatures called the Umbral. Now Rascal is on the run and only she and the few friends she still has left alive, including the mysterious beggar-wizard Dalone, know that the kingdom is about the experience a full-scale Umbral invasion.Umbral Book One: Out of the Shaodws, a trade paperback edition of the first six-issue arc of the series, arrives in stores tomorrow, May 28, and the first issue of the series is currently available for free through the Image Comics website and ComiXology. Johnston took some time to talk to us about the series.ComicBook.com: Like a lot of good fantasy, the world of Umbral feels fully formed. Very early on we hear of the great Strakan, hinting at the world’s history, and get a map of the kingdom, giving us the sense that the world is much bigger than what we’re seeing at any given moment. How much of this world and its history have you already planned out, versus what you’re coming up with as the story progresses?Antony Johnston: Yeah, it’s pretty well planned out. Everything to do with the grand mythology of the Oculus, Luxan and Tenebros, and the Umbral themselves is all detailed. If I didn’t have all that straight I wouldn’t have been able to even start writing, because the mythology and legends wouldn’t hang together.The overall history of Fendin and the Shadow War is detailed, and I know enough about most of the places Rascal and her companions will be visiting to talk about them. That’s why we were able to include the map in the first issue, because I know what’s in those parts of the Kingdom. Fleshing out the day-to-day details of those regions is an ongoing process, though.ComicBook.com: Rascal is a young female lead at a time when comics diversity is a hot topic in the industry. Was creating a female led series the original motivator for creating Umbral, or was it a decision that was made later in the creative process?Antony Johnston: UMBRAL came about because Chris and I wanted to make something new, and after some discussion, we settled on dark fantasy as a genre we felt we could do well.Almost immediately, I knew I wanted our main character to be a young thief called Rascal — but at first, that character was a boy.What triggered the change was realizing that I’d imagined him as male just because it’s the default option, especially in the fantasy genre. And I don’t like defaults.That’s one reason Prince Arthir is in there right at the start — to emphasize to readers that UMBRAL doesn’t follow default patterns. This story is probably not what you’re expecting.And yes, a certain amount of my motivation is wanting to change people’s minds about what a female protagonist can be, and do. I write lots of books with female lead characters, and I’m going to continue doing it until people stop asking me why.Ironically, making Rascal a young girl opened up so many story opportunities, it’s not even funny. UMBRAL would have been much less interesting with a male protagonist. And now I can’t picture her any other way.ComicBook.com: Do you have a planned ending and/or rough idea of the series length already in mind?Yes, and yes. As with WASTELAND, I already knew the ending before I started writing the first issue. I find that essential for an epic tale like this, otherwise you don’t really know what story you’re telling.As for length, that all depends on harsh commercial reality. If we sell enough to keep going to the end, we should end at around 40 issues or so. I’ve got seven books in mind.
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