Quiet: Level One Graphic Novel Sets a Tiny Skeleton on a Big Adventure
Jonah Lobe's Quiet: Level One Graphic Novel is now on Kickstarter, and we've got all the details on the big adventure
If you happen to be a fan of fantasy and adventure with an adorable twist, allow me to introduce you to a lovely little skeleton named Quiet. Quiet: Level One is an original graphic novel from author and artist Jonah Lobe, and the new adventure is entering its final day on Kickstarter. The campaign has been successfully funded, but if you haven't jumped in quite yet, we're here to let you know why this is a journey worth discovering, and who better to break that down than the person bringing this original story to life? ComicBook had the chance to speak with Lobe all about bringing this graphic novel to life, what inspired our adorable protagonist and his wormy sidekick, and what is in store for fans who jump in to discover the Tree of Worlds and everything contained within.
Quiet Beginnings
Quiet: Level One follows a tiny skeleton named Quiet and his narrator worm companion as they set about to save the Tree of Worlds. To do this they will need to outsmart and ultimately confront the unstoppable invader known as Galahorn, and the first chapter of this epic tale is featured in an over 180-page graphic novel, which you can get a preview of below. Lobe is an award-winning artist who has worked on games like Skyrim and Fallout as well as Marvel Anatomy, and now he's venturing into a brand new world of his creation. The seeds of this story were planted quite a while ago, as Lobe reveals he had sketched versions of Quiet for years, but Quiet would ultimately take his true shape after Lobe's child turned 1.
"It's funny that you mentioned your daughter liking that, because I had sketched iterations of Quiet for years before having a kid. But when I really started Quiet, not this iteration of Quiet, but the one before that where I was really getting a handle on who is this character, what's their story, et cetera, I created these 12 illustrations for Instagram coupled with spoken narration," Lobe said. "So each one was a one-minute chapter, and it was meant to be read like a whimsical storybook. A lot of magic, a lot of whimsy, et cetera. But honestly, the idea for Quiet, and especially the aesthetic of Quiet that your daughter latched onto so much, it was when I had a one-year-old kid. And this little kid with this fat little belly and this big head is just kind of bumbling around my apartment, just learning how to walk, whatever. And it's exactly as you just said, which is that once you become a parent, you begin to see everything else through that lens."
Diablo Inspirations
Have you ever looked at a game like Diablo and wondered, what must the skeletons be feeling right now? Well, Lobe did, and that inspired some elements of Quiet's design and world. "I want to say the first idea, it was kind of pre-Quiet, but I drew a painting, I want to say it was probably something like 2016, 2017, that early. I drew a skeleton, I was on stream, on Twitch, maybe I was doing something for the Adobe Channel, and I drew a skeleton with a big head and a torch. And it was kind of the whole gist of it was that what if skeletons are afraid of the dark? And so he had a little torch and he was just by himself and he just looked worried. He was looking around. And a lot of the concept of Quiet emerged from playing Diablo and things like that, where especially, and I think of level one Barbarian Diablo play style where you walk right out of Tristram, talking about Diablo 2 here, of course, but it's any Diablo really. And you go right into the first dungeon and you just start stomping skeletons," Lobe said.
"I was kind of like watching, I'm playing this game and obviously it's so fun and it's such a power trip. You are a paragon of strength and unstoppability. There are these little skeletons that you're just crunching left, but they're too dumb to even go after you. They kind of just wander around until you take them out," Lobe said. "And I kind of thought suddenly, what if they're peaceful? What if they're having a grand old time just relaxing and being undead and living their best lives, and then this absolute psychopath just comes in and just destroys everybody?"
"And I was wondering, what if there's just one little skeleton left and he comes back to his village to discover everyone has been destroyed at that point? He would have no choice but to pick up their father's sword and try to stop this evil," Lobe said. "And I realized, oh, that's the story of every fantasy we've ever, ever read. That's literally like Thulsa Doom comes in, kills Conan's entire family, and now Conan has to respond. So I was taking that idea of being that powerful barbarian versus the undead and just flipping it on its head. Very simple in that regard."
That central premise can be tied to any number of games, including even Mario. "I saw a great video on Instagram yesterday, which was some little Koopas hanging out together watching a sunset and basically saying, what if we run away? And the other one's like, well, what about the war? And he is like, what about the war? What if just the two of us just left and then they smash cut to Mario just brutalizing their people? And it was just like, oh, oh gosh. Oh," Lobe said.
Tiny Skeleton, Epic Journey
Quiet will be looking to defend the Tree of Worlds, which also ties into the name Level One in two different ways. "Level One both refers to Quiet as a level one character and where it takes place. And so the universe of Quiet: Level One takes place in a place called The Tree of Worlds, which even as I say it, you can probably visualize it. It's not like a big stretch of the imagination. It's similar to Yggdrasil from Norse mythology where it's the world tree, and there are different branches of the world tree where there are different lands, distinct lands," Lobe said. "And so if you take that and you filter that through a video game perspective, because I am after all derived from video game stock, that's where I've hailed from having worked on Skyrim and Fallout and other games. And I kind of took this idea of the World Tree in these tiers."
"And the idea here is that at the top is the source. That's the source of creation, that's the font of everything, and it's kind of the ultimate goal of Galahorn, the barbarian. It's kind of his goal to get to the top, and Quiet's goal is to stop him from getting to the top because if he gets to the top, he can bring an end to everything," Lobe said. "So level one of the Labyrinth is the underground level. We start underground, and this is obviously where Quiet makes their entrance and where the Barbarian makes his entrance as well, but he enters from a completely different reality."
The Labyrinth itself is part of the Tree's defenses, as many will get lost within the winding maze of pathways before they ever make it to the top. It's also somewhat of a comforting place for someone like Quiet. "Level one is a labyrinth, I call it level one of the labyrinth, and it is designed to be a protection for the Tree of Worlds from an outside invader," Lobe said. "It's designed to keep people in if you're among the living because you're not supposed to be down there otherwise. And so in many ways, for Quiet, Level One is a mostly hospitable place. It is designed to keep living entities out. They're not living, and so generally speaking, they are mostly safe. There are trials that they must go through and there are still beasts to defeat, and for Galahorn it's quite different. For Galahorn, the villain, it's quite dangerous, and yet if you're Galahorn, you're like a level 100 barbarian, this is still all child's play."
"The graphic novel will take place mostly, but not entirely, in level one, which will be an underground dungeon labyrinth. And then the goal and the unstated promise of the series is that we go up and go up and go up," Lobe said. "Now I know how many levels there are of that tree. I don't want to necessarily give it all away right away. And now in further installments of the series, Quiet Level Three might also encompass multiple other levels. We'll see how things progress and accelerate, et cetera. But I think it's best to start small."
An Even Smaller Companion
While Quiet is the central hero, he doesn't really speak. Instead, a little worm is the one relaying their thoughts to the reader and to the world. "He's called the Narrator Worm, and so Quiet as a character, is mute, non-speaking, doesn't speak. And so I think often trying to figure out what's going on in Quiet's mind is going to come down to, well, what are their actions? How do they actually act when the time comes? And trying to figure out from their body language, what are they thinking and feeling at any given moment," Lobe said. "From a writing perspective and an artistic perspective, it's a really fun challenge. The narrator Worm is their sidekick, and it's a character that they meet in the story at the end of Act One. I won't exactly explain how, but narrator worms are a species of caterpillar that can only speak from the perspective of whoever they're with. They are individuals with their own thoughts and feelings and in this case, the narrator Worm is a sidekick who believes very deeply in Quiet."
As for the book itself, most of it's already done, so when you are backing the Kickstarter you don't have to worry that it will take 10 years to get to the finish line. You can also get a host of different versions of the book and some amazing additional items, including Quiet figurines and more.
"The book is mostly completed, yes, and I spend a lot of time during this process creating covers, extra graphics, that kind of thing," Lobe said. "It's kind of taken me away from the book itself. I did a huge chunk of it this last year and then had to kind of stop working on the graphic novel itself to work on the Kickstarter. Thankfully, that has resulted in me being able to create a lot of assets that are specifically for people who back the Kickstarter and that go beyond just the graphic novel. So the graphic novel is mostly completed, and the story's all written and everything. And essentially anyone who backs the Kickstarter can look forward to digital versions. They can look forward to softcover versions. But what they really, I think will want to spring for will be the hardcover editions. They're beautiful, they have more pages than the softcover version, and that will be a combination of behind-the-scenes art, concept, sketches, some behind-the-scenes storytelling,"
If you think Quiet: Level One might be something you want to take a look at, you can check out the full Quiet: Level One Kickstarter right here.
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