Isola #1 hits comic shelves today, transporting readers into a fantasy story unlike any other. The story follows Captain Rook, a member of the royal guard presented with a complex task. Queen Olwyn has been turned into a tiger by an evil spell, and Rook has been instructed with transporting her to a mythical land as the fate of the kingdom of Maar hangs in the balance.
The project is a bit of a personal one, as it’s a collaboration between childhood friends Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl. While the duo previously collaborated on Gotham Academy, Isola proved to be something unique for them both.
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ComicBook.com recently got a chance to chat with Fletcher and Kerschl about the first issue of Isola. They discussed what fans can expect for the series, their unique sources of inspiration, and who they would cast in an Isola adaptation.
ComicBook.com: If you had to try to convince a friend to read Isola, what exactly would your pitch be?
Brenden Fletcher: I always find myself asking people if they like Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke, and when they invariably answer in the resoundingly positive, I tell them they’ll love Isola. Haha. Maybe that’s not the most story-accurate way to pitch something to people, but fans of the movie seem thus far pleased with the series so I can’t be that far off!
Karl Kerschl: I’d say, “Please read our book because it’s very important to us and it comes from our hearts and what kind of a friend are you that I have to beg like this.”
How exactly did this project come about for you both?
BF: Karl and I have been friends for over 30 years, and we’ve always wanted to work on our own stories together. We managed to get pretty far into a previous project called “Miki”, which we worked on for nearly a decade, on and off. Ultimately, we had to put that one on the shelf to pursue paying gigs, but in creating Isola, we find ourselves pulling from all those years of work on Miki. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all that unpublished work.
KK: The direct genesis of Isola, however, was my desire to find a story to work on that would bring together fans of my superhero work and readers of my webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher. Brenden pitched me the base concept of Isola as a way to accomplish that and we were off to the races.
BF: …pausing only for a brief and worthwhile detour to DC Comics to create Gotham Academy with our pal Becky Cloonan.
What, for both of you, sets Isola apart from your previous works?
BF: Isola is the project where we’re allowing ourselves to indulge all those storytelling proclivities we suppress when working on other books. We make a lot of challenging choices in Isola that we fear might make the series more difficult to digest than traditional western comics but it’s a chance we’re willing to take to see our vision through.
KK: It’s a very different pace of storytelling than anything we’ve published before. Some readers might find it awkward at first because it doesn’t follow the traditional American structure of setting up the inciting incident right off the bat or ending with an obvious first issue “hook.” We just get you right into the characters’ relationship and let things unfold from there. Hopefully people trust us enough to stick around and see what we have in store for them.
Were there any particular narrative or visual inspirations that you took — either intentionally or otherwise — into making Isola?
BF: The work of Hayao Miyazaki is certainly a tangible touchstone for us. The prevalent tone of Isola should feel familiar to anyone who enjoys those Studio Ghibli films.
KK: The whole thing is very heavily influenced by Japanese storytelling, from the environments to the pace, right down to the use of sound effects. I usually don’t like the way English sound effects look on a comics page (there are some amazing exceptions, of course) and I wanted to do something that was aesthetically closer to the Katakana effects in manga. The sounds in Isola are in a made-up language that suggest the feeling of certain sounds rather than spelling them out for you explicitly. I like the way they’re incorporated into the art rather than feeling pasted on as an afterthought.
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Captain Rook is such an interesting protagonist, and I love how she’s such an ambiguous character while still being able to carry so much of the story. What can you tease in terms of her arc?
BF: Rook’s got a lot to figure out over the course of the story, and it doesn’t all pertain to the mystery of her Queen’s transformation into a tiger. She’s serving in a position she should never have even been considered for. She’s leading her Queen on a journey of faith she might not have herself. And she’s got a boatload of unresolved feelings for the woman she’s protecting.
KK: I really love Rook. I love that she’s not an obvious archetype; she’s a complex character who often doesn’t get a chance to say what she’s really thinking because she’s so worried about speaking out of her station. What drives her faith and belief in the existence of Isola? How did she end up in the Circle Guard? What’s her history with Queen Olwyn? We’ll get into all of that.
What about Isola are you most excited to see readers respond to?
BF: Karl and Michele’s art, hands down. I mean, I’m really excited to take the journey to Isola with our readers and enjoy unfurling our narrative tricks for them. That’s going to be super fun but man, I never get tired of readers’ responses to the look and feel of this series. Karl and Michele are doing the work of their careers on Isola.
KK: I think I’m most excited to see and hear people speculate on the world we’re building. There’s a lot of stuff that we show only briefly but which suggests a lot of history — I hope that it sparks some curiosity and wonder.
Where do you hope the story will be able to go next?
BF: Luckily, at Image, we don’t need to pitch stories and hope the publisher will allow us to execute our vision. We get to do exactly what we please, for better or worse! Haha!
I think there will be expectations of where the story is headed after the first issue but the deeper we get into the first arc, the clearer it should become that Isola is more than your run of the mill fantasy adventure series. It’s maybe more Say Anything than Lord of the Rings. I hope that readers will be as thrilled to take this ride with us as we are to create it for them.
KK: The story has taken so many unexpected turns since we began work on it. Every time we come up with new scene details or supporting characters the story changes to accommodate them and the world expands that much more. I’m as curious to see where it goes as anyone.
Isola has a very cinematic quality to it. If, down the line, the story gets adapted into some other sort of medium, who would you like to see play those roles?
BF: Lupita Nyong’o has always been my Queen Olwyn. Right from the beginning, I think. And I can imagine Gina Rodriguez as a great Captain Rook. I think those two ladies would have some incredible chemistry on film.
KK: I’ve thought a lot about this!! Ha ha. I can tell you that Rook’s appearance was based on a cross between Mia Wasikowska and Claire Danes. Saoirse Ronan would also be great. Asher is Ger Duany. Olwyn is a slightly older Amandla Stenberg.
Isola #1 is available now.
