DF Interview: Amanda Deibert reveals that it sometimes takes a serial killer to stop a serial killer in the ‘Death Mask Volume 2: Ichor Azure’ OGN

By Byron Brewer

In the hills of Los Angeles, a chilling mystery unfolds as an unknown serial killer targets the 20-something children of the Hollywood elite. The pressure rises when two young women are kidnapped and detectives scramble to piece together clues before time runs out. After a fatal mistake, it becomes clear there is only one person who can get inside the head of murderer on a mission and disappear into the world of socialites in plain sight: the notorious serial killer known to most of the world only as "Death Mask." An uneasy, and possibly unholy, alliance must be made before there are more funerals to livestream. Can an unrepentant killer save the day, or will the body count grow higher than the victims' follower count?

From Storm King Comics’ Dark & Twisted imprint comes the Death Mask Volume 2: Ichor Azure graphic novel by New York Times bestselling writer Amanda Deibert, illustrator Cat Staggs and co-creator Sandy King. Scribe Amanda Deibert spoke with me about this much-anticipated sequel to the acclaimed thriller Death Mask.

Byron Brewer: Amanda, for those under a rock (and who could blame them these days?) give readers coming to this universe for the first time with this sequel – Death Mask Volume 2: Ichor Azure – a summary, a feel for what went on in the parent graphic novel please. Especially as it may reference the new OGN.

Amanda Deibert: Without giving too much away—because Volume 1 is such a wild ride—it opens with Detective Sonia Maza hunting a serial killer. But what starts as a standard case quickly spirals into something far more personal and dangerous. Maza uncovers ties to an old case that she helped handle… a young woman’s murder that was swept under the rug for the “greater good” or trying to capture a larger cartel.

Unfortunately for Maza, that mother of the young woman who was murdered wanted justice in the form of a hit list… which Maza finds herself on.

Byron: What was the muse that inspired both your original book and this coming one?

Amanda Deibert: The spark came from a conversation with Sandy King Carpenter, who had just read about the incredible true story of Miriam Rodríguez Martínez—a grieving mother who went undercover to help gather information about her child’s killers. She did it in an upstanding, very brave and wholesome way—I want to be very clear these comics are not about her in any way, she is not represented by any of the characters or actions taken in this book. She was a loving mother who was eventually killed herself for her bravery. I respect what she did. The story stayed with us and inspired a deeper conversation. As a mother, how would I feel in that situation? Sandy and I talked about a much darker vigilante approach. What happens when the system fails? What if justice isn’t patient or noble, but bloody, personal, and relentless? That’s how Death Mask was born: a descent into moral gray zones. We also wanted to look at it from both sides of the legal system… a detective who wants to solve murders and someone who has been failed by the system and takes justice into their own hands.

Byron: Introduce us to Detective Sonia Maza. Who was she, who is she now (after Volume 1), and what challenges has she faced/does she face as this sequel book begins?

Amanda Deibert: Detective Sonia Maza started out very much as a by-the-book cop—dedicated, disciplined and deeply committed to the law. She loved her job, so much so we see her choose it over her marriage. In Volume 1 of Death Mask, her worldview fractures. Her sense of justice is challenged, and at the end of the book we aren’t even sure she will survive….

Now, in Ichor Azure, she’s not just questioning the system—she’s questioning herself. She still very much wants to be a good detective. She has lives to save. She’s survived captivity, torture and betrayal… but what haunts her most is the idea that maybe, just maybe the vigilante she once hunted had a point.

Byron: Tell readers about Alejandra, the killer the world knows as Death Mask. What is her current “relationship,” for lack of a better term, with Detective Maza?

Amanda Deibert: To Alejandra—the woman now known as Death Mask—Detective Maza is complicit in everything Alejandra did to avenge her daughter’s death. In her eyes, Maza failed her dead daughter and that failure to get justice resulted in turning Alejandra into the murderer she is today. And yet… they are entwined emotionally. They understand each other now in a way that’s uncomfortable, even intimate. There’s a twisted respect between them even though neither one would want to admit that. This understanding is why Maza knows how to appeal to the mother buried beneath the killer. And Alejandra, despite everything, listens to her and comes along.

Byron: Without spoilers, can you explain the psychology of teaming up with one serial killer to capture another? How hard was this for Sonia to do, knowing what she endured in the first Death Mask tome?

Amanda Deibert: Teaming up with the woman who tortured and almost killed her? That’s the last thing Maza wants to do… No, actually the second to last thing. The only thing that matters more is stopping this new killer. With young women being slaughtered and the clock ticking, Maza realizes the psychopath they're chasing is counting on the police to follow the rules. Alejandra doesn’t. Maza hates it—but that is what she needs: someone who can go off the grid and disappear into this world and who is willing to do WHATEVER it takes (even if Maza isn’t ready to admit to herself how far she’d like to see Alejandra go).

Byron: Talk about the wondrous works of artist Cat Staggs, and about your collaboration with Cat.

Amanda Deibert: Cat’s artwork is phenomenal. One of my favorite things about Cat’s art is how well she conveys emotion in the face. You know exactly what the characters are thinking and feeling by the art, which is lovely because then I don’t have to over-write the dialogue in the moment. She captures the characters fully and that is especially important in a book like this where there is a pretty large cast of characters in the high society world of the victims and suspects. In a world like Death Mask, where everyone’s hiding something, Cat’s precision makes every look, every silence, every shadow count.

And of course, the collaboration is easy because we have such a shorthand. We collaborate often… on books.. in life… in parenthood. It’s fun to work with your spouse.

Byron: Amanda, do I perhaps smell a trilogy in Detective Maza’s future… or perhaps Alejandra, or both?

Amanda Deibert: I sure hope so… we have plans.

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Amanda Deibert for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions. The Death Mask Volume 2: Ichor Azure OGN from Storm King Comics and its Dark & Twisted imprint is slated to be on sale July 22!

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