Interview with Author Lauren Myracle and Artist Isaac Goodhart
What drew you to the project/characters and what are you most excited about?
LM: “It was all Isaac’s idea! He’s the comic guru out of the pair of us, and thank goodness for his passion, because the depth of his knowledge about all things comics and all things DC is a driving force. We both knew we wanted to work together again if DC would have us, and he threw out the idea of telling the story of a young Mr. Freeze. After a little research of my own, I realized that sure, Victor Fries is a compelling character, but Nora, his girlfriend, is equally compelling. And boom, I was in.”
IG: Mr. Freeze is my favorite rogues gallery villain! Always has been! Batman: The Animated Series introduced me to Victor Fries when I was a little kid and as I grew older, I came to understand and appreciate him as a tragic character. The cool thing about our story is that we get to explore these characters from a different angle and see them when they first meet. We get to show Victor and Nora falling in love and understand what makes their relationship so strong. The thing I was most excited about was the chance to give Nora equal billing. The story is told through alternating perspectives, so we get to know Nora and her goals and motivations as much as we do Victor’s.
Lauren, what was your vision for the story? Isaac, what was your vision for the art?
LM: “As always, my primary goal was to tell a great story–and as it’s a graphic novel, to tell it in a visual way that would let Isaac’s genius shine. After that, it was to dismantle the storyline of Nora as “the sexy lamp.” If you can take out a female character and replace her with a sexy lamp, as comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick argued, then you’re doing that character (and women as a whole) a huge disservice. Well, she put it a bit more colorfully, but I thought it was high time for Nora to have a storyline of her own that didn’t simply put her in the story as a plot device to show Victor’s character growth.”
IG: My vision for the art was to introduce more visual vocabulary than I ever have before! One of the (many) great things about Lauren’s writing is that she balances so many different tones throughout her works. There are scenes in Victor and Nora that are sweet and adorable. There are also scenes that are intensely uncomfortable and tragic. As an artist who wants to complement that, I tried to incorporate different tones visually. The dark scenes literally look darker with heavy, oppressive shadows. The romantic scenes are bright with open lines. We even have several fantasy scenes all drawn in a different style to help convey how our characters feel.
What’s it like working with each other on this project? Isaac what did you like most about Lauren’s script? Lauren, what do you love about Isaac’s artwork in this story?
LM: “I love everythiiiiiiiing about Isaac’s art! Working with him is an absolute and exhilarating joy, no lie. He’s brilliant, and he brings such depth and texture to the story with his illustrations, adding meaning that the script on its own just wouldn’t have. I feel extremely lucky, as if I’m working with the next Will Eisner and any minute now, he’ll be too good for the likes of me. 😉 Heck, he already is!”
IG: I love working with Lauren! She’s exactly the type of writer and collaborator I always hoped to work with when I was a kid wanting to break into comics! The best thing about her script is that she simultaneously wrote exactly the kinds of scenes I like to draw while ALSO challenging me to push myself outside my comfort zone! I never thought I’d be the type artist who experiments with different media or would draw twenty different angles of an intricate bridge. I am now! And I really appreciate every challenge thrown my way.
Because this is our second graphic novel together, we know a lot about each other in terms of what we like and how we tell a story. That made Victor and Nora a true pleasure to work on. It really felt like Lauren was writing to my strengths and was pulling out my best work.
What do you hope readers take away?
LM: “I hope readers take away a deeper understanding that no one exists for the sake of having a walk-on role in anybody’s life, whether in fiction or reality. And a reminder, through the vehicle of a beautiful love story, that although life is fragile, it sure is frickin glorious.”
IG: “I hope readers take away that there are complicated problems in life that don’t always have easy answers. It helps to understand a situation from another person’s point of view.”