GUS MORENO
SEND THIS TO A FRIEND!
DF Interview: Gus Moreno brings us truly Hell on Earth in ‘When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee’ By Byron Brewer Father Barrera is a disgraced priest, haunted by his part in the tragic death of a child. As penance, he is exiled to the remote South American town of Puerto Cristina to apprentice under the enigmatic Father Stygian, controversial exorcist. Exorcists are normally trained in the Vatican, but Stygian has his own way of handling demons... methods that predate even the Church. And unfortunately for Barrera, Stygian's last apprentice committed suicide not long ago. As Barrera seeks to unlock the mysteries of Stygian's strange practices, he uncovers an island rife with evil and supernatural phenomena. What do these possessions mean, and how are they connected to a mysterious hospital patient, one who's been in a coma for nearly half a century without aging a single day… Novelist Gus Moreno joins forces with artist Jakub Rebelka (Cyberpunk) for a mesmerizing and thrilling descent into Hell itself. Here is what scribe Gus Moreno told me. Byron Brewer: Gus, before we deep dive into your coming limited series When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee, belated congrats on your debut novel This Thing Between Us being awarded a “Best Book of 2021” recognition by NPR. Pretty snazzy. With that said, talk a bit about the differences – or similarities – in assembling a novel vs. a comic book. How did you get started in comics as an author? Gus Moreno: Before he was the editor for When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee, Ramiro Portnoy reached out to me after he read my novel, and asked if I had any interest in writing a comic. I’ve been a fan of comics since I was a kid, but never did I think I’d ever write one, so I immediately jumped at the chance, and here we are. With novels, I’ll outline a little bit, but I’m mostly going of my instinct or intuition – basically I’m asking myself, “Does this feel right?” Writing a novel feels like I’m navigating my way through a dream, whereas comics are like a puzzle. They have more structure, more limitations, and I mean that in a good way. You have a limited amount of pages, a limited amount of panels on each page, a limited amount of words in each panel. Economy becomes the name of the game. And if you remove something in the third issue to add to the second issue, you now have empty pages that need filling, and so this whole way of storytelling really opened my eyes to what I could incorporate into writing novels. I feel like writing a comic has made me an overall better writer. Byron: What was the inspiration for When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee? Is the story something that has been filed away on the Moreno backburner for awhile or something new and wonderful? Or perhaps a mix of the two? Gus Moreno: When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee comes from a few points of inspiration. I’ve been really wanting to try my hand at writing a detective mystery. I’m drawn to the procedural aspect – maybe it has something to do with playing with established genre rules. I know I love it when a story can keep me guessing all the way to the end, and I wanted to write something in that vein. Here were a few inspirations: Training Day, Se7en, Mission Impossible, True Detective, When Evil Lurks, 30 Coins, EVIL, and The Exorcist television show. I think growing up Catholic has given me a curiosity about the lives of priests. They’re supposed to be our lifeline to God, so that burden has always fascinated me. So I thought a police procedural with priests as the “detectives” would be an interesting way of combining these interests. Byron: Describe to readers the canvas you will be setting us down in come January, the island at the edge of the world. What type of world have you and artist Jakub Rebelka build for this limited series? It almost seems a place that could be a character of its own, if you will. Gus Moreno: Puerto Cristina is a port town located on an island at the southern tip of Chile, 700 miles from Antarctica. It’s an island at the mercy of the elements. One minute it’s sunny and warm, the next it’s snowing. Huge mountains tower in the distance, and because of its location the sunrises and sunsets seem to last for hours. It’s like nowhere you’ve ever been, like nothing you’ve ever seen. Byron: Introduce us to Father Barrera and how his past has led to this very tale. Gus Moreno: When we meet Father Barrera, he’s in a jail cell in Mexico City, having confessed to the murder of a child. That’s not technically true, but the amount of guilt he feels over the botched baptism in question makes it feel true. He feels that he needs to be punished in some way, and that’s how the Church gets him to apprentice under an aging exorcist who lives on a small island at the edge of the world, as a suitable punishment. It’s one he gladly accepts before he truly understands what he’s signing up for. Byron: What more can you tell readers about the mysterious Father Stygian? Gus Moreno: He’s the ultimate professional. Even keeled. Determined. For him, it’s all about the job. And the job carries secrets that maybe explain why he’s always playing it cool. Byron: Without spoilers, can you throw us any hints at all about connections between the coming of Barrera to study under controversial exorcist Stygian and a hospital patience who has been in a coma for nearly 50 years and is apparently NOT aging? Gus Moreno: My favorite thing about this comic is that readers can hone in on something like a coma patient who has not aged in at least thirty years, and yet there are still other mysteries that they haven’t even begun to question until hopefully their reveal. I think there’s bits in the first issue to point readers in the right direction as to what the connection could be, but where that goes? No one’s ready. Byron: Talk about the vibrant visions supplied by Jakub Rebelka. What can you relate about your collaboration here? Gus Moreno: At first, my biggest hurdle in writing a comic was trying to describe how I wanted the comic to look. When I write prose, the story plays in my head like a live-action movie. So I was concerned I would end up writing a script so visually bland that the artwork would also be bland. When Ramiro showed me Jakub’s work on Judas, I was absolutely blown away. I thought, if I can just write something that gets “me” out of the way so Jakub could do his thing, we would be good. But when I saw those initial character sketches, writing the later scripts just became so easy for me, because I could see that Jakub was carrying a lot of the story atmosphere – what I would usually have to describe in prose – in just his illustrations, so I knew I could actually go leaner with the script, get it pared to the most necessary bits to allow the artwork to take center stage. And I think the result is something magnificent. Jakub is amazing. Byron: Gus, what other upcoming projects in which you are involved, inside or outside comics, can you tell readers about? Gus Moreno: I’m working on a new horror novel at the moment, which will hopefully come out in late 2025. Dynamic Forces would like to thank Gus Moreno for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #1 from BOOM! Studios is slated to be on sale January 1 – New Year’s Day 2025!
NEW! 1. 02/11/2025 - CULLEN BUNN2. 02/03/2025 - JASON AARON & MAHMUD ASRAR 3. 01/27/2025 - ADAM GLASS & BERNARD CHANG 4. 01/21/2025 - ANABEL COLAZO 5. 01/14/2025 - B. CLAY MOORE Show All |