Curt Pires Talks His Upcoming BOOM! Studios Series The Fiction

Four childhood friends discover a box of strange books that, when read aloud, can transport them to the beautiful, imaginary worlds described within. But when one of them goes missing, the others vow never to reveal where they’ve been and what they’ve seen. Years later, when one of the remaining kids, now an adult, also mysteriously disappears, it’s up to the last two of the group to dig up their dusty books to find him and finally figure out what happened to their friend all those years ago.

Pires joined ComicBook.com to discuss the series, its influences and what he won’t tell the press and fans ahead of time to keep the mystery of the series alive.

The Fiction #1 arrives in comic shops on June 17th, and you can check out some first-look art peppered throughout the story and at the bottom. The main cover is by David Rubín and the inventive cover is by Tula Lotay. The interior colorist is Michael Garland, whom Pires mentions in the interview.

I wasn’t thinking about any other media when I conceived The Fiction. I had a dream. I rode the waves. Saw where they took me. There was a story, so I decided to tell it.

The copy I’m looking at is an early reader, so no colors — but there’s a lot of black in this book. How important is the colorist going to be go helping craft the final identity of The Fiction?

Michael Garland is key. He’s doing beautiful work. Every element of the comic is important. I believe in building comics that are beautiful down to the cellular level.

Is it just me, or is there huge opportunity for conflict in the fact that they didn’t go back for Tsang, but when it happens again, they jump into action?

Without spoiling too much, I think we’ll see the repercussions of what you’re talking about here. They were only children when the events you’re mentioning happened to them. Mistakes were made. Children aren’t made to deal with things like this. Children aren’t equipped to process all of this. They tried their best though. We will definitely be exploring this thread though.

Everything in my comics is by design. There’s a rhythm to making good comics. It’s all about balance. Like you’re saying, some pages need to be quiet, others need to be dense, the key is figuring out what the story/scene demands.

Do you feel like Rubín’s somewhat more cartoony style gives you a lot of leeway in terms of character emotions? The faces can be very broad without taking the reader out of the scene.

I think David is really strong at, well, just about everything. But like you’re saying he does have knack for expression that’s really beautiful and natural. We see a lot of this in issue one, and there’s one page in issue two that’s really a showcase for this in particular.

There’s a monstrous-looking creature toward the end of the first issue. What can you tell us about it? Because it seems to be operating under its own kind of set of rules.

Embrace the mystery. All questions will be answered in time.

I will tell you it’s name though: The Gold Entity.

Exactly. Max’s childhood, the time he spent inside The Fiction and the events that unfolded as a result impacted Max and everyone around him in a big way. But instead of processing what happened to him, Max has ran from it, and went in a completely different direction. He’s embraced capitalism, consumerism, he likes tangible things, he likes things that are black and white because it’s easier to view the world that way, and it doesn’t make him think of what happened to him all those years ago.

So what’s your elevator pitch, and what’s the one thing you’d want the readers to know that maybe hasn’t come up in our conversation so far?

I think The Fiction is one of the best comics that will be released in the year 2015. I’d invite readers to join David, Michael, Colin and myself on the journey. I have a big story to tell here, and if we receive the support and love of retailers, readers, and the public at large, we will go far beyond four issues.

Embrace the mystery. The Fiction is coming.

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