DF Interview: Conor McCreery brings ‘The Last Witch’ back for a spell in the sequel ‘Blood & Betrayal’

By Byron Brewer

The one thing Saoirse has always known: witches are evil. But now she is one, and she has to contend with what that means for herself and her brother Brahm. All the while, Nicneven has plans that can mean the end of Ireland as they know it. Saoirse must learn to control her magic – and temper – if they want any chance of defeating her.

Are her own prejudices against witches creating more of a barrier between herself, her powers, and her family?

From BOOM! Studios comes the long-awaited sequel to an awesome epic. The Last Witch: Blood & Betrayal by writer Conor McCreery and artist V.V. Glass gives its predecessor the finale the adventure deserves. As soon as I saw that Conor was back with a second round of this property, I was aboard. Here’s what the journalist, comic book writer and my friend (all Conor) told me about the coming comic.

Byron Brewer: Conor, I recall your first volume of The Last Witch with great fondness, but a lot of wonder water has fallen under the rainbow bridge since then, a few years. Why is now the right time to return to this young adult fantasy series?

Conor McCreery: That’s an excellent bit of imagery, Byron. I’m going to steal that!

The intention had always been to finish the story. In fact, The Last Witch was originally written to be one graphic novel, but because of COVID we had to change plans. That led to splitting the book into two, and then releasing it as oversize single issues.

Book 1 ended up setting sales records for Boom Box, and so although COVID and some other factors caused issues it was always the intention to bring the book back.

Why now? Well, the book is ready and we wanted to give some excellent summer reading to all the kids (and parents) who loved the first book!

Byron: That first question makes an interesting point about how resilient creators must be in this industry. A years-long gap between Books 1 and 2 and, at least I think I am correct, everyone on the former Last Witch creative team has returned for this next volume. Talk a little about that type of dedication to properties in comics.

Conor McCreery: I’m not going to lie. There were times when I thought it wasn’t going to happen, at least with BOOM! However, there were always champions of the book at BOOM! and I knew they wanted to get the book out there as much as I did.

I’m so fortunate that the rest of the creative team – artist V.V. Glass, colorist Natalia Nesterenko and the lettering duo of Jim Campbell and Taylor Esposito – kept the faith.

The wildest thing was that even when we didn’t know if BOOM! was going to put out Book 2, or if we’d have to go somewhere else, V and Natalia drew and colored the whole thing! We all knew that when we found the right home, we’d want the book to hit as quickly as possible – we didn’t want to stretch the gap even farther, and so they just went out and brought the scripts to life.

It’s why readers won’t have to worry about any more gaps. The whole book was done before we signed the new deal with BOOM!

Byron: Can you give us a capsule summary of what Volume 1 was about, especially as it may relate to Volume 2?

Conor McCreery: Volume 1 and 2 are INTIMATELY related – I HIGHLY recommend that readers pick up Volume 1 – also available at your local comic shop, or online – BEFORE they read Book 2.

Having said all that… Book 1 was the beginning of our hero Saoirse’s journey. She’s a twelve-year-old Irish girl who discovers she can use magic.

That sounds fantastic, right?

The only problem is it comes after an adventure in the woods goes badly wrong, and a coven of witches destroys her village, leaving only her, her bratty little brother, and her cigar-smoking grandmother to help Saoirse face down these witches and keep them from opening a door that has to remain closed…

… or it will be the end of the world.

Book 1 followed Saoirse as she started to learn to control her abilities, while also hunting down members of the coven. It’s a bit like Irish, Avatar the Last Airbender. Saoirse, like Ang, has to learn to master four elemental powers.

Of course, Avatar doesn’t have neeeearly as many cannibalistic witches, but, you know, it’s still a good story too.

Byron: Heck, I’d walk a mile for a cannibal! Ha!… Re-introduce readers please to your key protagonists and the world they live in.

Conor McCreery: The Last Witch is set in a version of 1740’s Ireland. I say a ‘version’ because THIS Ireland is steeped in the magic of Irish mythology. There are witches, and faeries, and if you believe one of the characters, creatures like giants and leprechauns all hiding in little corners of Ireland.

Our main character is Saoirse, who is still trying to recover from the loss of her mother, who died as part of the first Irish Famine (not the better known one from the 1800’s).

Saoirse is a spirited girl who is a natural fighter. She can be very loving and kind, but anger is the emotion that comes easiest to her. She wants to save the world, of course, but she also has a burning desire to make the witches pay for what they did to her village, and that anger is going to be a big problem for her.

In contrast to her, you have Brahm, who is a classic little brother in that he ADORES his big sister, but he also annoys the heck out of her. Brahm is full of fun and mischief and is the kind of kid who, when he finds out his sister is a WITCH, is like…. ‘cooooool’.

A big part of what Brahm does to help Saoirse is remind her what she is fighting for, and like any good sibling, he tries to keep her in check when she goes off the rails emotionally.

Then there is Nan. She’s wise with a dry sense of humor, and a fairly no-nonsense demeanor. She’s the Obi-Wan figure in this story. She knows a lot more about the history of this coven, and their Queen, than you might think. She also is proficient in ‘green magic’ – a sort of plant magic – and that allows her to guide Saoirse in her journey to mastering her own powers.

Finally, there is Hugh – he’s a half-faerie boy who knows how awful it would be if the Black Door was opened – because his grandmother died closing it over a hundred years ago. As a faerie, he has some magic of his own, and he has the strange ability to make Saoirse more powerful when they touch.

He’s also an outcast – being half-faerie means people instinctually shun him. He covers that hurt up by being a clown. He’s the type of guy who would do a handstand, take off his shoes and socks, and walk over and put his feet in your face – claiming his ‘toes smell like roses’.

And that is our fellowship!

Byron: Any new characters coming that you can spotlight here?

Conor McCreery: In Book 2 we are going to be introduced to the Bean Feasa – a group of so-called ‘white witches’ that can take the form of animals, and claim that everything Saoirse knows about magic is wrong. While they don’t support the coven, they aren’t exactly eager to help Saoirse and the gang in their fight either.

And while in Book 1, we met three of the coven members – in Book 4 we level up, facing down the most devious sister, before Saoirse has to confront our big bad – the Cailleach – the Queen of the Witches, and through her, an even more terrifying monster – The Eater of the World.

We’re also going to meet another protagonist – the ghost of Saoirse’s mother. In Book 1, Nan taught Saoirse about building a ‘mind garden’, a place she could retreat to when she was feeling overwhelmed. We caught sight of what may have been her mother. Nan said it was impossible, but in Book 2 we find out that she was mistaken.

A very interesting aspect of this young adult tale, perhaps its very core, is how Saoirse always said witches are definitely all evil. Now she is one! Are her beliefs, her prejudices, creating the growing barrier between herself and her powers, herself and her family?

You touched on something really important. Because of how ‘strange’ the villagers thought Nan was, and the fact Saoirse was born with a large, oddly shaped, birthmark on her shoulder, she was considered an outcast. When the story begins, she only really has one, and being an outsider eats at her.

Saoirse wants to prove that she’s special, and so realizing that she can wield magic changed everything for her. It proves to her that she is better than people thought.

But that belief is also a real problem, because in The Last Witch magic is corrupting. So, when Brahm or Nan or Hugh are worried that the magic is ‘changing’ Saoirse, she has a hard time hearing it, because if she doesn’t have the magic, then she’s back being this odd little girl – a nobody.

The book asks the question: “If you always wanted to be special, and then suddenly found out you were, could you let go of the thing that makes you special? Even if it was hurting you?”

Or, to put it another way, the more Saoirse learns to control magic, the more she is able to defeat the members of the coven, and get herself closer to keeping the door closed, the closer she also is to losing herself to that same magic, and becoming a witch herself.

Maybe even the last witch….

Byron: Talk about the continually awesome art of V.V. Glass, about your amazing collaboration on this franchise.

Conor McCreery: V’s art MAKES the series works. I think I wrote a very good story, but V’s art takes everything to a COMPLETELY different level. They are so talented, and smart and instinctive in how they put their pages together. Every time V makes a change it’s for the better, and anytime I have a note, V is so collaborative in working out how to make something better. Most of the time it’s because their pencils made me realize that my script was lacking something – they delivered what I SAID I wanted, and made me realize, ‘nope, I can do better’.

Their work is so expressive and detailed. I learned from Andy Belanger when he did Kill Shakespeare with Anthony Del Col and I that when you’re trying to build a world, you need an artist who leans into that, and V definitely does. Every location in the series is designed so thoroughly, you really feel that you are steeping into old towers, hidden fortresses, being pulled under water, or stalked in a nightmarish forest.

Working with someone like that is such a gift in this world of comics. V and I have talked about other projects as well, and I will do ANY book I can with them – they are just a next-level talent.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out Natalia here as well. At first, we thought V might do the coloring, but then it became apparent that that would be too great a workload. When BOOM! sent Natalia our way, V and I knew we had found the right person. Natalia’s style perfectly compliments V’s work. Her love of bright colors really helps sell the adventure, and is a great contrast to some of the.. slightly dark elements in the book.

The best example to me is the beginning of Issue 2 of Book 1 – where we meet the first member of the coven. Natalia DESTROYED that scene in the best way possible.

I’m really blessed to get to work with both of them.

Byron: Conor, what other coming projects of yours can you tell us about?

Conor McCreery: After a bit of a break, I am back with a few things.

The first one, which is sort of already out, is a relaunch of The Kill Shakespeare series with Gemstone. We’ve collected all five book in two new omnibuses so existing fans can have everything in one place, and as a super-easy way for new fans to jump in. Anthony also has released a new adventure in the Kill Shakespeare universe – Romeo VS Juliet! A Shakespearean ‘Dirty Dozen’ -  it’s explosive, literally and figuratively.

Then, this October, Jibola Fagbamiye and I release a graphic novel called Fela: Music is The Weapon (Harper Collins). It’s a magical-realism take on the life and times of legendary Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.

Fela is basically the Bob Marley of Africa, if Marley had released 55+ records, married 27 women in one day, was arrested 200 times, and started his own country. Fela isn’t as well known, but his ceaseless fight against tyranny puts him on par with legends like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King in his battle for the oppressed. But, because Fela was the Father of Afrobeat, his story has a lot more ‘sex-drugs-and rock and roll’ which makes it VERY fun.

Then next year, my wife and I are excited to release our first graphic novel together. Status is published by Scholastic and is drawn by another husband and wife team: Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb.

It’s an all-ages coming of age tale, loosely based on my wife’s experiences moving from a TINY Northern Ontario town to the big city, and how it really shook her confidence and gave birth to that nasty little voice that so many of us have in our head, that tries to convince us we’re not good enough.

Finally, I’m excited to be doing the horror-comedy Trickster with Twisted Comics in the UK. That comes out next year as well.  It’s a ‘monster-of-the-week’ story that builds into something epic. It follows Rory, a master illusionist who fights monsters from Irish mythology in the present day (and is trying to hide that he is a ‘monster’ himself). While it’s pretty funny, anyone who knows my co-writer Neal Gibson will know it’s going to have some VERY dark moments – it’ll be the book that puts ‘iron the baby’ into the lexicon.

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Conor McCreery for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. The Last Witch: Blood & Betrayal #1 from BOOM! Studios is slated to be on sale June 18!

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