Broken Frontier

 Duncan Rouleau will release his first graphic novel this December through Active Images. Keep your flashlights beneath your pillow and cover your head, because The Nightmarist is coming to town…

BROKEN FRONTIER: First off, what is the premise of The Nightmarist? The character doesn’t really look like anyone’s best friend, but more like David Copperfield on a bad hair day. Who or what is he, really?

DUNCAN ROULEAU: That’s funny, my mother had once baby sat David Copperfield. She said he was a little tricky.

The Nightmarist is a paranoid dream tale. A dark fantasy. Its theme is the nature of fear. It’s about our interior lives. How we can find ourselves defined by our fears instead of our dreams.

The plot centers in on a young suicidal woman, Beth Sorensen, a product of a troubled childhood. For most of her life, Beth has been battling night terrors and horrific reoccurring dreams. Lost and withdrawn, her traditional support systems—family, therapy and even friends—are failing her. In fact, they seem to fuel her sense of dread and isolation. When we meet her, Beth is considering trying suicide—again.

One night, a strange figure appears in her dreams calling himself The Nightmarist. He claims that he works for an organization called the Ministry of Dreams and that he has been assigned to defend her. He tells her that she has become THE centerpiece in a metaphysical war waging in a realm best described as the universal subconscious, and that an ancient dark force called the Arbus has laid siege on her psyche, that it is trying to corrupt her will. When Beth asks why, The Nightmarist informs her that she has been identified as a century dreamer—a powerful visionary whose prophecies can be so potent that their effects can change the course of the world: “Your vision can lead a way to light like a Gandhi or bring hell to Earth like a Hitler. If they control your dreams they control future.”

Of course, Beth rejects this notion. There is nothing in her life that is exceptional. She thinks that she has completely lost it. Her doctor, her mother and even her boyfriend agree. But strange things keep happening, surreal visions and paranoid events all seem to lead to the possibility that what the Nightmarist has told her is true…. and that her friends are not really her friends.

BF: How did Beth get involved in stuff way beyond what’s good for her?

DR: We all wonder at one point in our lives whether the world is out to get us. In Beth’s case, it’s true. She has a gift, one that others want to control. It’s hidden somewhere between her heart and her mind. She isn’t aware of it until strange metaphysical forces try to take it away. All the while, she wonders if she isn’t making all of this up to escape from some pretty heavy things going on her own life.

BF: The subscript beneath the title says ‘Fear is Power’. Does that mean that The Nightmarist is evil, or does he have a good side as well?

DR: I think the quote that sums him up best is “You can not escape fear, but you can make it your companion.”

BF: When did you come up with the idea for this book?

DR: I’ve had this idea in one form or another bouncing around in my head for a while. I have always been fascinated by tales that blur lines of reality, perspective and being. I love the notion that there is so much more going on than we could possibly understand and that once in a while the great cogs of the universe open up and give us a glimpse inside its inner workings. I think that happens every day, but this story just tells it in a big way.

BF: You’ve never written a comic project as voluminous as The Nightmarist. Did you do this book to prove your mettle as a writer to the rest of the industry?

DR: No. I would’ve done this whether or not there was an industry. Although, you got it right on the nose, this is a big project. I think the main reason I did this was to see if I could. I have no idea of how the book will be received. Of course, I want people to like it, but the real test for me was over when I finally started it.

BF: How did the book land at Active Images?

DR: Richard and I are friends. I have always loved the work he does, and on so many conversations I find that we completely agree. He’s a great figure in comics and I feel lucky working with him.

BF: Was the decision to release this book in black and white made to keep production costs down—it comes in at 112 pages for $12.95—or is there also a creative side to it, such as the fact that horror and nightmares are more gripping in the stark contrasts evoked by black and white panels?

DR: It’s the latter. Black and white is a powerful storytelling device on its own. The motif, the story and the look all had to be black and white.

           

BF: The Nightmarist sure isn’t your first comic book work. You’ve done your share of mainstream projects, with titles like Action Comics, Wildcats and X-Factor coming to mind. Which mainstream work are you most proud of, in the sense that you were able to accomplish the most as an artist?

DR: My early work at Marvel was experimental. I was trying to push the limits and bring inn qualities that were not usually found in mainstream books at the time. I guess you could say I was part of that “cartoony movement”. That was a great deal of fun, but the reactions were mixed. Each project had its pluses and its minuses.

If I had to center in on any one, I guess it would be the smaller mainstream titles where “expectation levels” where wide open. Alpha Flight or X Men Unlimited being two models.

BF: All things considered, at the end of the day, which work do you prefer, mainstream or independent?

DR: Independent, hands down. That’s where the real original stuff is being done. My M. Rex stuff gave me a taste and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

BF: The project, released through Image and Avalon Studios, which was also was your most notable independent work prior to The Nightmarist. Aside from having Joe Kelly provide the script, were there any other differences in how you tackled these two projects?

DR: Joe Kelly is my editor on Nightmarist, so I guess the big difference is I don’t have to always take his advice on this one. I loved doing M.Rex and felt sad that Avalon ran into some financial problems and that we had to end the book so abruptly. That is one of the reasons I chose to do a graphic novel. This way, it is a complete story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

But the biggest difference is that in this one, I had to have the whole story figured out before going into it. On a serial tale you have a general idea of where you are headed, but you can let audience reaction and what’s working and what’s not help you make certain choices. In this case, it is what it is.

BF: Now that you’ve finished The Nightmarist, what does the future hold for Duncan Rouleau? More nightmares, or some happier dreams?

DR: My company ‘Man of Action’ has a cartoon show coming out next year on Cartoon Network called “Ben 10”. I’ve written a screenplay for The Nightmarist that is presently set up over at Paramount Studios and I have several other shows in development in other studios in Hollywood. But, my next big project is another Graphic Novel entitled “The 7th House”, which will be out next year.