GCE Exclusive: Interview with Ray Fawkes at NYCC 2014

A fellow Canadian, Ray Fawkes is currently working on a couple DC Comics titles, including the New 52 Constantine series as well as Trinity of Sin: Pandora and has brought a good kind of ‘darkness’ to DC.

We were able to catch up with Ray at the newest convention to take “North America’s Largest” title, New York Comic Con to talk about writing Constantine, the return of Chas, and of course his latest venture with Ben Templesmith, Gotham by Midnight, set for a November 26th release. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the upcoming comic, Ray spills the beans and lets us in on why this new comic is considered “GCPD by the way of H.P. Lovecraft”.

After a year and a half of working on Constantine has your approach to writing the character changed?

Yes; as I’ve been writing the book for a year and a half, I’ve gotten to know John a little bit more as a writer than a reader and I think as the readers have gotten to know my filter on John, it gets easier. He’s becoming more packed with meaning and it’s easier to shorthand his reactions. John doesn’t – even with his own thoughts, he doesn’t have to explain himself as much anymore. The readers, they get it. He doesn’t have to say “I’m lying” or “I’m tricking this guy” for readers to get it – he just nods and winks and they can assume most of what he says are lies.

Have you encountered any difficulties along that road?

No, not really. This book is an absolute pleasure and writing John is a dream come true so no difficulties, really. The difficulties are in presenting John with situations where his typical approach is not enough and he has to take a look at things and wrap his head around them – that makes it interesting and exciting.

This version of Constantine seems much more connected to others than previous versions; was that intentional to give him more of an exploitable weakness?

Well, I think it would be easier to say that someone has already exploited a weakness of John’s and he’s understanding that now. He’s understanding that even Zatanna with her attempts to be a good person, she’s been exploiting him. This story over the past few months has been about John releasing himself from all of these bonds and people are seeing him more his own person than he ever was before.

Will we be seeing the events of Newcastle retold?

Yes. That’s all I have to say about that! [laughs]

With Constantine becoming a larger part of the DC Universe, does that give you greater flexibility to bring in characters in and out from other books?

Absolutely! It just means that we have the freedom to bring in these other characters that are packed full of so much meaning and they’re so significant to readers. It’s so great to put them in front of John who has a different outlook than a lot of the other characters do. To place them in front of this cynic, this anti-hero and to have them bounce off of him – it’s a lot of fun. But of course, it has to fit the tone of his book most of all. If I’m going to put someone like Zatanna or Deadman in the Constantine title, they’ve got to be someone who fits with the current theme of the story.

With Chas returning to the series, are we going to see a new spin on the character or will he be closer to the original?

Just as John is true to who he was through the different iterations and origins in Hellblazer and Swamp Thing, Chas is going to be true to what he was in Hellblazer but this is the New 52 Chas so he is reimagined and he is younger again. He’s relating to John in a different way than he ever has before.

What can you tell us about Gotham by Midnight, your upcoming series with Ben Templesmith?

Gotham by Midnight is, I believe, this incredibly unique spin on Gotham City and the darkness that inhabits it. It’s a book about the threats to the city that, perhaps, go beyond the scope of human comprehension. It’s too much for even someone like Batman to handle and he’s the best that humanity has to offer. We’re talking about evil that goes beyond our dimensional constraints. Batman calls on Jim Corrigan who has this heavenly spirit known as the Spectre within him and Corrigan has assembled a crew of people who are experts in dealing with the hellish influences that leak into the Earth. Some people have said this is GCPD by the way of H.P. Lovecraft and that’s a great way to describe it. This is a book about multidimensional horrors visiting themselves upon a setting that is familiar to readers but in a new way.

With it being set in Gotham, will Batman be a part of this at all?

Oh yes, Batman makes appearances in the book, but he’s not the focal point; the star of this book is Jim Corrigan. Batman sees Jim Corrigan as a friend and resource so you do see him crop up very frequently in the book, but less directly in the action and more in the smaller scenes with Corrigan. I think this will give readers a very cool look into Batman from Jim Corrigan’s eyes because he likes and respects Batman but doesn’t necessarily think of him the way a lot of the readers do so we get to see him in a new light in how he lives and acts.

Can we potentially see Constantine or any of the Justice League Dark involved in the series at some point?

Any magical character could potentially swing through Gotham City and meet with the midnight shift in this book. They don’t in the first few issues but it could happen and likely will happen at some point.

Finally, is there anything that you read or watch that inspires you to write some of these darker stories?

Oh yes, I’m a very big fan of dark fiction. I love LiGotti and I love H.P. Lovecraft and these guys that are kind of like the Shakespeare of horror; Edgar Allen Poe, too. All this stuff influences me when I’m writing these stories.

So you will read, for example, Edgar Allen Poe and are able to picture what he’s trying to paint with his words and can use an idea or inspiration to create?

Absolutely, I pull from his melancholy and some Victorian poets and things like that. It totally fires me up to write these stories about the monsters in Gotham City. LiGotti is a favorite of mine and I know a lot of his stuff is hard to find right now but – in fact, maybe a lot of readers may not be aware but he’s inspiring a lot of different fiction these days like True Detective – a lot of the concepts in that show were inspired by LiGotti and Hannibal has a lot, too. This guy has been affecting fiction these days in ways he probably never could have predicted.

You can keep up with Ray Fawkes on his official site, follow him on Twitter @rayfawkes and see more of his work on his tumblr. Don’t forget to pick up Gotham at Midnight when it’s released and if you haven’t submersed yourself in the world of New 52 Constantine, it’s not a series to be missed!