"Polyglot & Spleen" #1
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Drawing the Darkness with Marc Moorash and Heather Stanley

Greeting Maniacs, and welcome to another spine-tingling Comicscape spectacular!  For this week, I’ve interviewed Marc Moorash and Heather Stanley – the creators and publishers behind a cool new series called Polyglot & Spleen.  Marc and Heather own Seraphemera Books, which also publishes the The Romanti-Goth A to Z Coloring Book and the truly epic 2007 Goth Swimsuit Calendar.  Far from falling in line with the parade of countless Invader Zim knock-offs, Polyglot & Spleen brings a welcome maturity to Goth comics.  I spoke with Marc and Heather about their comic, their creative process, and their plans for the future.   

Kurt Amacker: Marc and Heather, it’s great to talk to you both. Can you explain a little bit about the first issue of Polyglot & Spleen to the legions of Mania.com readers out there? 

Marc Moorash: In general, Polyglot & Spleen is a fairy tale.  The first issue, told primarily in verse, is basically a boy-seeks-girl story.  Boy sees girl.  Boy follows girl.  Boy loses girl in crowd.  

Girl eventually finds boy.  All this happens in the settings of a Renaissance Solstice festival (complete with hedgerow maze), turn of the century London (with the cameo of the shadow of Jack the Ripper), and a flock of bats (which brings our heroes face to face).  What makes Polyglot & Spleen #1 a fairy tale is that at that moment of our heroes meeting face to face, the fantasy may be a reality – that the girl he seeks appears to him in a dream with the message to meet her at a given place at a given time. 

KA: Tell me a little about Seraphemera Books.  You guys have the comic book, but you’ve also got the The Romanti-Goth A to Z Coloring Book and the Goth Swimsuit Calendar. 

MM: Seraphemera was an idea that I had bouncing around in my head for a long time, but it actually took meeting Heather [Stanley] to get it rolling.  She saw something I’d written and said she was going to draw something for it.  I told her ‘If you open that door, beware of where it goes.’  Now, we’re here two years later with the coloring book, the calendar, the comic, and some chapbooks are about to come out.  Really, a lot of it’s thanks to her and her ability and desire to draw. Polyglot & Spleen came up after we worked on a graphic novel we’d set aside called Violet Eyes.  That’s still sitting in a drawer and maybe one day we’ll get back to it.  But, in the interim, Polyglot & Spleen is really our focus. 

Heather Stanley: We’re storytellers, and comics are such an exciting media for storytelling. They give you opportunities that aren’t present in any other art forms.  

KA: I think that’s one of the greatest assets of the medium – visual storytelling with virtually no restraints.  There’s no special effects budget to worry about and there are usually fewer censorship issues. 

Did you all have the poetry that forms the narrative of Polyglot & Spleen written prior to even considering doing a comic book? 

MM: Oh no, not at all!  Actually, Polyglot & Spleen started out with those two words – in fact, it started with the word “spleen.”  We were playing a word game one day and talking about things like “Abbot and Costello” and “Lennon and McCartney” and talking about the rhythm of two names.  Spleen came up and very quickly afterwards we said “Polyglot!”  “Polyglot and Spleen” had a very nice rhythm to it.  And we thought, “That’s great.  Now what?”  We didn’t know if they were characters or what.  We finally figured out that they were, in fact, characters.  And then, it took us another couple of months to figure out which one was which.  So, it really sat around for a long time.  Once we had the characters, she did the drawings of them.  From there, we figured out what story we wanted to tell.  We asked what it was we wanted to tell. 

HS: We do a lot of brainstorming in the car!  People assume that Polyglot and Spleen are just representations of the two of us. I suppose they are, to a certain extent. However, it would be far more accurate to say that the characters of Polyglot and Spleen are an even mixture of both our personalities as well as everything we admire about people in general – a sense of humor, kindness, and creativity. There are some aspects of Polyglot that are very much me, and things Spleen does that are blatantly Marc-like. 

KA: It’s really hard not to throw some of yourself into your characters.  I think it’s a little tempting to think that, given that they look like the two of you. 

I noticed that the narrative itself seems reminiscent of romantic poetry, like Lord Byron or John Keats.  I take it that was your intention from the start.  There’s no actual dialogue in it.

HS: Issue two will be almost entirely dialogue and visual storytelling. 

MM: There isn’t really any dialogue in the first one other than Polyglot talking to his dragon, but you don’t even see the dragon talking back.  It’s implied.  But, they won’t all be like that with him doing the voiceover, but one of the things that’s important to us is the imaginary world – that sort of magic realism you find in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s books and in other Latin American and European writing.  But, it’s not as common in Western writing.  We wanted to find a Western or Americanized magic realism.  That’s why you get a section that’s medieval, but it really isn’t.  And, then the setting in London is a dream, but you’re not really sure.  In the future, there will be more dialogue, but the imaginative quality will stay around. 

KA: I was always really impressed by Marquez for that.  One Hundred Years of Solitude manages to blend things that are patently realistic with things that are utterly fantastic pretty effortlessly.  You never look at the magical events skeptically, because they’re skillfully interwoven into the same big picture.  I take it that’s what you were going for in Polyglot & Spleen? 

MM: You actually picked the Marquez novel that a lot of our thoughts come from – One Hundred Years of Solitude – where, the characters in the book see a ghost under a tree and it isn’t supernatural to them.  It’s simply natural and part of their everyday world.  That’s something that’s a part of other cultures, not so much in the West.  But, I think we’d like to find a way over time to get more of that into our story.  I think there’s a certain air and ambience of magic realism in the Goth scene. 

KA: I think it’s a conscientious form of escape.  You don’t have to literally believe in magic, but we can kind of make magic through art. 

MM: Art is to create something out of nothing.  I think Polyglot and Spleen live in a world where they’re trying to make their real world have the imaginary things they want, whether they’re “real” or not – they want to know if those things are possible.  That’s something that will come in more as the story develops.  It will be a continuing story about searching for things like that.   

KA: I think there’s a devaluation of the imaginative experience that’s, unfortunately, gaining ground.  The imaginative experience is important, and while it is not a “real” experience in the sense of going to the story to buy milk, it is a vital, important experience unto itself.  People neglect that.   

Let’s get back to the comic itself.  With Polyglot & Spleen, do you start with the text itself and then illustrate it afterwards?  Or, do you work in tandem with Heather? 

MM: We work in tandem.  I didn’t want to write and tell her what to draw.  I wanted her to bring something else to it.  We have a collaborative process where I’d write something, she’d draw it, and then that would modify the text.  There’s a rough script and then she starts drawing, and then we start editing.  Right up until we sent it off to print, we were changing things.  We sit and work face-to-face, and it’s very helpful. 

HS: Dividing our roles strictly into “writer” and “illustrator” is incorrect. We come up with the basic story together. The exact wording is up to Marc, particularly his verse, but most of the actual dialogue in the first issue is mine. I’ve written a number of dialogue intensive scenes that will appear in future issues and I’m sure by the time they make it onto the page neither of us will be able to recall who penned what. We have an equal say in each other’s creations. Our relationship really is a true collaboration. 

KA: I remember reading in the introduction that you were writing the book while listening to Doloroso by Ex-Voto while you were writing.  Do you think that music affects your creative process or is it just background noise? 
 
MM: It’s definitely not background noise.  Doloroso is in there, as well as Stellastar’s Harmonies for the Haunted.  Both of those albums have a strong ambience and rhythmic presence.  I’ll find an album that I really like and the rhythm of my words will be affected by the album I’m listening to.  I enjoy doing that.  It’s not that I’m writing lyrics, but it gives me a feel or a cadence.  If I can match the album to the mood of the comic, I think it helps. 

KA: That’s not to be denied.  Part of the comic I’m working from black metal.  I love goth music, but I also like extreme music.  The comic is not an illustration of the song – there aren’t a bunch of black-clad Vikings wearing spikes and burning churches.  But, it reflects an emotional response to the music – the rhythm and the aesthetic response. 

MM: A lot of times when I’m writing, there are points where the next word of the sentence will come out as something rhythmically correct.  Sometimes Heather has to rein me in because I’ll put a word to which I can make the association and see the sense, but it doesn’t really make much sense to anyone else.  There’s also something interesting when I’m writing and trying to find a rhythm to the words, because it pulls the reader along through the world.  But, I like when I’m writing with one rhythm and a different one comes on the album.  You get interesting new wordplay when the rhythms collide.  In some ways, it creates harmonies where the album is the soprano and I’m working the tenor.  You never know what comes out of those things being braided together. 

HS: His verse has a beautiful rhythm, but sometimes he writes things that just don’t make literal sense. There have been instances when I’ve made him cite definitions for each word in a sentence and made him explain to me how he thinks it works. There are times I feel like a teacher smacking him on the hand with a ruler, but it’s important for the text to be readable!  

KA: I noticed that a little bit in the first issue – it seems like the verse gets away from the narrative in a couple of parts.  Obviously, it doesn’t ruin the book, but I can imagine the ruler coming down at those points. 

How do you see Polyglot & Spleen reflective or associated with the Gothic aesthetic?  Obviously, that’s a big part of your marketing campaign.  You’ve got the swimsuit calendar and the coloring book, so the Goth scene is obviously a target demographic for you. 

MM: The word “whimsical” describes a lot of what we do.  I think whimsy goes back to the imaginative experience.  While there is a very public, media-driven vision of Goth that’s very dark and depressed, there are also the creative and imaginative aspects.  A lot of that is very lighthearted.  To dress up in Victorian clothing embodies a kind of playfulness.  Part of it is that there are so many Goth books and comics that are willing to play up the depressing and dour aspect.  We’re not like that, but we like being part of the Goth scene.  We like dressing up and the music, but we wanted to try to show Goth kids going out into the world and proving the stereotype wrong.  This may show up in a story at some point, but every time some “Goth” kid commits a crime the headline reads “Kid in Black Trench Coat Shoots Five.”  At some point, I want to have a Goth character run out into the street and save a little kid that wandered out into traffic chasing a ball.  The newspaper article would read “Child Saved!”  I’d have the character run into the newspaper office demanding to know, “Why didn’t you put my black trench coat in this headline?”  That’s not a heavy social or political comment, but there’s a whimsy about the Goth scene that’s a part of it as well. 

HS: I believe some of the best aspects of the Goth subculture are its dramatic elegance and it’s ability to be lighthearted and laugh at itself. I also believe that at the bottom of it all, Goth is just a classically Romantic way of looking at the world. My hope is that Polyglot & Spleen embodies all the things we love about Goth, all the reasons we live our lives in it. 
 

KA: I think that a lot of the modern Goth comics seem to deal with dark humor more than anything else.  In a way that’s kind of welcome, but I think it’s been done to death after Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim – muffins of doom, or whatever.  It’s turned into this kind of glib, non sequitur form of storytelling that was funny 10 years ago.  I think people often overlook what made the Goth scene so literate, interesting, and compelling in favor of this cheeky, self-aware, cartoonish approach. I appreciate that you all are trying to bring back an element of that aesthetic back into Goth media that’s been vastly neglected.  It’s been overshadowed by things trying to be cute and funny, rather than compelling. Polyglot & Spleen has a level of maturity that’s missing from so many dark comics. 

MM: I don’t know when over the past 10 or 12 years that’s been lost.  Maybe once anything becomes iconic in the media, you only get things you can advertise.  Things become mainstream. 

KA: It’s funny, because I have a couple of friends that own a t-shirt company called Sigh Co. Graphics.  One of the things they do is print t-shirts tied into books.  They have a Frankenstein t-shirt that is meant to be like merchandise for the novel itself.  It’s really hard to maintain that kind of fan-boy enthusiasm for dead writers in pop culture, but they’re making a point of it.  But, that kind of thing is really the core of the Gothic aesthetic. 

MM: There’s definitely a literary aspect to the scene that’s been lost. 

KA: What are your plans for the second issue of Polyglot & Spleen and the future of the series? 

MM: The second issue is almost done.  It’ll be available in the middle of March.  One of the things that we’re going to do is show the second part of the story from the first issue.  We’re also going to include an interview with [the band] Ex-Voto, but not just text – we’ll actually do it in comic book form, so we can play up the visual aspect of the interview.  We thought, if we’re going to be somewhat Gothic, we might as well include some other stuff besides the story.  Ultimately, we want to do an issue every three months, which is our goal.  If we can stick to that, we’ll just keep going.  We have a story to tell and it’s probably going to take us a while. 

HS: That’s the most important thing to us right now, getting the next few issues out into the world and beginning the story. The first issue is out of our hands, but we can’t rest on that for one moment. 

MM: I’d love to think that we can be literary enough where people who don’t ordinarily pick up a comic book are willing to read it.  It’s difficult for some people to pick up a comic book.  I think sometimes they don’t know where to begin or how to come to it.  I think if we’re going to be literary, we might as well try to bring some non-comic readers to it as well. 

KA: Thanks to both of you – it’s been a pleasure. 

Polyglot & Spleen #1 is available from the Seraphemera website.  You can also pick up The Romanti-Goth A to Z Coloring Book and the Goth Swimsuit Calendar while you’re there. 

The Spinner Rack 
By Al Brown and Kurt Amacker

Al: This week: Supergirl fights someone who wears clothes, psychos in raincoats and, of course, Stephen King doesn't really write comics. 

Kurt: I still can’t believe you’re leaving me, especially over those things I said about Justin Timberlake.  I never realized you were such a fan! 

DARK HORSE COMICS 

Berserk Vol 15 TP (MR) $13.95 

Eden Vol 6 Its An Endless World TP (MR) $12.95 

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol 2 TP $10.95 
Al: Do they come with cinnamon sticks?

Kurt: They damn well better!  The last time I ordered a corpse, the guy brought it with no ketchup, cinnamon sticks, or even any freakin’ napkins.  What the hell gives?  Can’t a guy order a corpse without having to ask for every little obvious thing? 

Mail Vol 2 TP (MR) $10.95 
Al: I hope this is actually a comic book version of my mail. I would love to see what a 0.9% fixed APR looks like with a thong.

Kurt: My student loan account statement practically carries a giant gun as it is. 

Mighty Skullboy Army Vol 1 TP $9.95 

Oh My Goddess Vol 4 TP Rtl $10.95 

Old Boy Vol 4 TP (MR) $12.95

Kurt: Skullboy, Oldboy, Hellboy…what gives? 

Red String Vol 1 TP $9.95 

Secret #1 (of 4) $2.99 
Al: Billed as a "chilling coming-of-age story," this book is written by Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson who, as far as I can tell, hasn't written anything else - with art by Jason Alexander (not Costanza), who was responsible for the darker, edgier sections of the recent Escapists mini. The tagline "I know your secret," as well as the dark, rain-coated figure on the cover, remind me of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but I'm intrigued anyway.

Kurt: My God, that movie sucked. 

Shirow 2007 Calendar (MR) $24.99

Kurt: Why buy this when you can buy the 2007 Goth Swimsuit Calendar for way cheaper? 

DC COMICS 

52 Week #40 $2.50 

Action Comics Annual #10 $3.99 
Al: Features a great old-school cover and a parade of impressive artists, but it sounds suspiciously like this might be one of those "here's a bunch of stuff you already knew" vignettes without an original story to call its own.

Ian MacKaye: It’s in your head!  It’s in your head!  It’s in your head!  Fill-er! 

Action Comics Annual Var CVR #10 $3.99 

All New Atom #8 $2.99 

American Way TP $19.99

Kurt: This was actually pretty good.  The superheroes are all actors working under the Kennedy administration.  Then, things go horribly wrong. 

Astro City The Dark Age Book Two #2 $2.99 

Batman Year One Deluxe SC $14.99 
Al: Ooh, cool. If you don't already have Year One in trade, the price is right on this one and it's got some extras like script pages and sketches and crap.

Kurt: Dude, if it comes with crap, I’m not sure I want to buy it. 

Detective Comics #828 $2.99 
Al: Gotham Bay gets its own Loch Ness monster.

Kurt: Is this one a fake story played up to attract tourists, too? 

DMZ Vol 2 Body Of A Journalist TP (MR) $12.99 

Helmet Of Fate Sargon The Sorcerer #1 $2.99 

Jonah Hex #16 $2.99 
Al: Jonah gets beat up by a chick. 

Justice League Unlimited #30 $2.25 

Justice Society Vol 2 TP $14.99 

Looney Tunes #147 $2.25 

Loveless #15 (MR) $2.99 

Midnighter #4 $2.99 

Midnighter Var Edition #4 $2.99 

Mystery In Space #6 (of 8) $3.99 

Nightmare On Elm Street #5 (MR) $2.99 

Nightwing #129 $2.99 
Al: New villains Bride and Groom are competing to see who can kill the most people before they get married! This is just like my engagement except that my fiancée didn't know about the contest.

Kurt: What’s it like being married and in jail at the same time? 

Omukae Desu Vol 3 $9.99 

Other Side #5 (of 5) (MR) $2.99 

Outsiders #45 $2.99 

Scalped #2 (MR) $2.99 

Shazam: The Monster Society Of Evil #1 (of 4) $5.99 
Al: It's written by Bone creator Jeff Smith, and "The Monster Society of Evil" is pretty much the best name ever.

Supergirl #14 $2.99 
Al: Vs. Batgirl. Editor Eddie Berganza somewhat inexplicably came under fire last week for this open letter imploring chicks to read his book. The sticking point, I gather, is that Supergirl dresses like a slut and maybe chicks would be better off with a role model who doesn't look startlingly like Paris Hilton. Judge for yourself! Or don't. I don't care.

Kurt: For once, I kind of agree with the women that are angry with Eddie Berganza.  Characters drawn like Supergirl are hardly the kind of thing most women want to read.  I’ve ranted this rant before, though, so I’ll stop here. 

Superman Chronicles Vol 2 TP $14.99 

Swan Vol 9 $9.99

Kurt: Michael Gira not included. 

Welcome To Tranquility #3 $2.99

Kurt: A world where people don’t talk in the movie theater?  Sign me up. 

Welcome To Tranquility Var ED #3 $2.99 

IMAGE COMICS 

Darkness Sketch E3 Edition $5.00 

Fell #7 (RES) $1.99

Kurt: I love this title.  Word was that a television series was in development, but it has since been put on hold. 

Pirates Of Coney Island #4 (of 8) (note Price) $2.99 
Al: Gang war! I can see the charms of this series, but it's not quite enough for me. 

Sam Noir Ronin Holiday #1 (of 3) $2.99 

Sam Noir Samurai Detective Special ED (PP #745) $7.99 

MARVEL COMICS 

Bullet Points #4 (of 5) $2.99 

Civil War Black Panther War Crimes $4.99 

Civil War Road To Civil War TP $14.99 
Al: Collecting a few issues of Spider-Man, a couple of Fantastic Fours and the Illuminati one-shot.

Kurt: Next week, pick up Civil War: Blatant Cash-In. 

Dark Tower Gunslinger Born #1 (of 7) $3.99 
Al: Well, here's the big story of the week: Stephen King comes to comics, sortof. For those that haven't been following the labyrinthine route between this comic and Stephen King himself, here's how it went: Stephen King barked out a bunch of plot outlines to his buddy Robin Furth; she turned that into a story; Peter David (Fallen Angel) wrote the script, and the mighty Jae Lee drew it. So yes, that means this is not exactly "written by Stephen King." I don't even care, personally; I'll buy anything Jae Lee draws.

Kurt: I suppose I’ll be reviewing this. 

Dark Tower Gunslinger Born Jae Lee Sketch Var #1 (of 7) $3.99 

Dark Tower Gunslinger Born Quesada Var #1 (of 7) $3.99 

Essential Ms Marvel Vol 1 TP $16.99 

Fantastic Four The End #5 (of 6) $2.99 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #17 $2.99 

Ghost Rider Team-up TP $15.99

Kurt: I know I should bitch up a storm about this being an unnecessary cash-in because of the movie, but I might actually grab it anyway.  Sometimes, Marvel’s just got me. 

Ghost Rider Trail Of Tears #1 (of 6) $2.99

Al: Another weird miniseries by Garth Ennis and computer artist Clayton Crain.

Kurt: The last one was okay, but not great.  I’m really not a huge fan of the computer art, either.  

Ghost Rider Trail Of Tears Poster $6.99 

Incredible Hulk #103 $2.99 
Al: Apparently Hulk's getting hitched to an alien, as this overlong saga continues to tread water.

Kurt: This still isn’t over!? 

Iron Man Execute Program TP $14.99 

Iron Man Hypervelocity #2 (of 6) $2.99 
Al: Despite being written by super-crazy Adam Warren, the first issue of this series didn't do it for me. 

Irredeemable Ant-Man #5 $2.99 

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #24 $2.99 

Ms Marvel #12 $2.99 
Al: It was only a matter of time before Greg Horn started doing the covers. This is a weird book, isn't it? It's never been exactly bad, but it's always felt like it's just killing time before something important happens. 

New Avengers #27 $2.99 

Newuniversal #3 $2.99 
Al: Second issue was way better than the first, and not only because they actually brought Spitfire in. Things are looking up. 

Punisher #44 (MR) $2.99 
Al: I'm loving this arc about a bunch of women who were made widows by the Punisher.

Kurt: If you thought Eddie Berganza got it bad, just wait. 

Spider-Man And Power Pack #4 (of 4) $2.99 

Spider-Man Back In Black Poster $6.99

Kurt: Guest solo by Angus Young. 

Spider-Man Reign #3 (of 4) $3.99 

Squadron Supreme Hyperion Vs Nighthawk #2 (of 4) $2.99 

Ultimate Marvel Flip Magazine #22 $4.99 

Ultimate Spider-Man #105 $2.99 

Ultimate Tales Flip Magazine #22 $4.99

Uncanny X-Men #483 $2.99 

White Tiger #4 (of 6) $2.99

Kurt: This still sounds like the name of an energy drink of a brand of antiperspirant or something. 

X-23 Target X #3 (of 6) $2.99 
Al: Why is everyone so into this? It's not that I hate it or anything; I just find it irrelevant. Kurt, explain yourself.

Kurt: I haven’t read past the first issue, because I save miniseries and arcs until I’ve bought all the issues.  I enjoyed the first X-23 miniseries because it examined the ethical issues surrounding abortion and human cloning from a nuanced perspective. 

X-Men Annual #1 $3.99 
Al: Featuring Northstar and Aurora. Is Northstar still a zombie? I've sorta lost track of him.

Kurt: Just make sure he doesn’t die – again.  The bloggers will jump all over Marvel like hungry wolves if they allow another gay character to perish. 

X-Men Phoenix Warsong #5 (of 5) $2.99 
Al: Awesome! This is over! Now I can start counting the days until someone retcons it!

Kurt: What?  Like Daredevil? 

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@mania.com.