Currently crowdfunding on Zoop, Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith’s Who Killed Nessie? is a murder mystery with a cryptozoological twist from the direction of a UK collaborative dream team. We caught up with Paul and Rachael to chat about collaboration, world-building, finding your place in the world, and haunted crockery…
ANDY OLIVER: A first obvious question but for readers discovering Who Killed Nessie? through this interview can you sum up the book’s premise in a quick paragraph or two?
PAUL CORNELL: So there’s this annual convention of cryptids, mysterious beasts like the Yeti and the Kraken, and the human staff of the hotel all leave apart from the intern, Lindsay Grockle, who doesn’t know what this is. When someone murders the Loch Ness Monster, the cryptids feel the only being they can trust to solve the crime is Lindsay! It’s a… deep breath… cosy cryptozoological comedy whodunnit graphic novel crowdfunder… alidocious!
AO: How did this creative partnership come to be? I know Paul that you have been a big booster of Rachael’s autobio work in the past so have you both been looking to work on something longer-form together for a while now?
CORNELL: Yes, we’ve done a few little things together, like a charity strip about cricket and a couple of Doctor Who backups, but we were always talking about doing something long form, and the story for this evolved out of talking about Rachael’s love for Japanese monsters.
RACHAEL SMITH: Yes! Paul and I had a zoom call where we bounced ideas off of each other – it was such good fun and we ended up with SUCH an amazing premise. We were both really excited.
AO: Process questions are always popular ones at BF so can you give us some insights into how your collaboration on Who Killed Nessie? has worked? Has the story evolved from its original conception as part of the creative back and forth?
CORNELL: Yeah, it’s not just me scripting and Rachael drawing, there’s proper story collaboration going on. If you look at the cover, you’ll see some cups on the ground. They’re something I only learned about from Rachael after I saw the cover, and they’re a brilliant addition to the mix.
SMITH: Oh, those are tsukumogami! They are one of my favourite Japanese creatures – the tsukumogami are items that are over 100 years old and have gained a spirit and come to life! I love love love that idea, haha!
AO: Beyond the obvious supernatural/fantasy side what other themes you are looking to explore in the book?
CORNELL: Lindsay is getting over a break-up with someone who thought she was way too rational and had no room for wonder. And now here she is amongst the impossible, but it’s actually her rationality that’s being called upon. It’s about finding out who you are when you’re plunged into a moment of crisis. Haven’t we all, at one time or another, been called upon to solve the murder of the Loch Ness Monster? I mean, metaphorically, hopefully.
SMITH: Figuring out your place in the world is a theme I love exploring in my work. I’m so excited to see how Paul writes Lindsay for this.
AO: What kind of audience are you pitching Who Killed Nessie? at? What would you say is your target readership?
CORNELL: I like the idea of all ages being able to read this, so we’re obscuring all the swearwords, the only violence is off-panel and there’s no sex, considering that Lindsay is the only human for fifty miles… well, I mean I suppose… no, let’s not go there. In practice it’s an all ages book, but I think it plays best as being sold to teens and up.
AO: Just from the handful of pages available to us online through the crowdfunding campaign it looks like there’s a lot of world-building going on with the book, especially all of Rachael’s character designs. Would you consider returning to this world in the future or do you see this as a standalone story?
CORNELL: I can see the possibilities in ‘Who Killed Nessie 3: Stop Killing Nessie’. We could very well come back to this world, I think.
SMITH: No monster is safe from us.
AO: If we could sidestep to some of your current projects, and a couple of my own favourites, what has response been like to your Nap Comix series Rachael? Especially from other first-time mums? And similarly Paul, with Con & On from Ahoy Comics now collected, how much fun did you have celebrating the idiosyncrasies of the comics community in that series?
CORNELL: Oh, putting so much real-life anecdote into Con and On was a delight. I think it’s an important story, about how things change across decades in the life of a big comics convention. It’s my Robert Altman movie: a big cast, lots of subplots, seeing all the different layers of life at the con, including security and the people who clean up after.
SMITH: The response to Nap Comix has been wonderful. I get messages from people all the time saying they have either brought back memories or have made them feel less alone in what they are going through right now. Thank you to everyone who is reading them!
AO: Following on from that what can you tell us about any upcoming projects, both inside and outside of comics that we should be looking out for?
CORNELL: I have a new comics series coming out later this year, and some huge things happening in the background that I can’t tell anyone about! I remain co-host of Hammer House of Podcast with Lizbeth Myles, watching all the Hammer horror movies in order.
SMITH: I’m working on the third and final volume of The Queen’s Favorite Witch which should hopefully be out next year!
AO: And, finally, one last push for the crowdfunder. In one sentence what will readers be depriving themselves of if they don’t back Who Killed Nessie? on Zoop?
CORNELL: Very cute art, a heartwarming story about the brutal murder of a lake monster, a little packet of fun to carry around in your pocket.
SMITH: Don’t you wanna know who did it?
You can back Who Killed Nessie? on Zoop here
Interview by Andy Oliver
